Concert in Washington

On February 11 1964, The Beatles were scheduled to play a concert at the Washington Coliseum in the Capital of the United States of America. It was the Beatles' first concert in the States (barring the Ed Sullivan performances).
The songs played that evening included the following: the show starts with the Chuck Berry cover: "Roll Over Beethoven" sung by George from the Second Album. This is followed by the Beatles' thrid single "From Me To You" sung by both John and Paul. "I saw Her Standing There" is next followed by "This Boy" and "All My Loving" ( all three from the "Meet The Beatles" Capitol LP). Ringo gets his chance at vocals for a rendition of the original composition "I Wanna Be Your Man" (also from "Meet The Beatles"). The single "Please Please Me" is performed by the band and is followed by the ballad "Till There Was You" sung by Paul. The concert shifts to high gear with "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (the latest single at the time) and ends with two covers: "Twist And Shout" and "Long Tall Sally".
Most of the material (missing the last song) has been released on vinyl bootleg namely the LP "District of Washington" and on CD with the title: "In Case You Don't Know". Videos of the show can be seen on "The Beatles Firsts" and commercially on the Apple projects "The First US Visit" (in portions) as well as the Anthology DVD footage which includes "I Saw Her Standing There", "Please Please Me" and "She Loves You" (which mixes in some colour footage as well). Here is another veiw with a portion of the concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e36eDBhOKcg

A REALLY BIG Shew...Part 2.

The Beatles returned to Studio 50 in New York City of the evening of February 09 1964 for the most important date of their career thus far. This live performance on the "Ed Sullivan Show" has become one of the most historical moments in music history and the history of the 1960s as well, arguably, the history of the world.
On the evening of February 09 1964, The Beatles played five songs (three at the start of the show and two near the end of the show). The vocal mix is a bit weird as it features Paul's voice slightly louder than John's voice thereby being a bit unbalanced sound wise. It has been mentioned that a proper mix was available from the sound board as the levels were marked off with chalk but that the late afternoon cleaner had wiped the chalk marks off the board.
The five songs performed for the evening of February 09 1964 include "All My Loving" which is sung by Paul and appears on the "Meet The Beatles!" LP, followed by "Till There Was You" which is again sung by Paul and again appears on the "Meet The Beatles!" LP. The first half of their appearance on the show is completed with a performance of "She Loves You" which was at that time a single on the Swan label.
The current hit single is performed near the end of the show with the B-side sung first; "I Saw Her Standing There" features Paul on vocal and then they end with "I Want To Hold Your Hand" which is, of course, the A-side sung by John and Paul. The band then puts their guitars down and go shake Ed's hand and wave to the crowd. The world would never be the same.
This performance is currently available as a visual DVD along with most of the other Ed Sullivan performances. The "Anthology" series features "All My Loving" from this performance. There is also the commercial audio release of "All My Loving" and the intro on the Apple 3-LP/ 2-CD "Anthology 1". Various vinyl bootlegs also have the audio such as "The Beatles Conquer America" and "Ed's Really Big Beatles Blasts".

A REALLY BIG Shew !!

The Beatles were taken to Studio 50 in New York City on February 09 1964 for two tasks: first was to tape a performance that would be aired later in the month, and the other being the historic live show in the evening.
This entry takes a look at the taped performance. Three songs were performed and were eventually broadcast on February 23 1964. The performance took place in the afternoon and was the Beatles' first performance on US soil.
The first two songs are from the US issued "Introducing The Beatles" LP on the Vee Jay label, namely "Twist And Shout" and "Please Please Me"; both tunes having mainly John on vocals with assistance from Paul and George on the first and lots of Paul harmonies on the second. The third and final song broadcast on the show features a different stage set and may have been part of a dress rehearsal as the camera angles are similar to the evening's live set (according to John Winn in his excellent book "Way Beyond Compare"). The song is "I Want To Hold Your Hand" sung by John and Paul and the latest American single on Capitol records.
The entire performance is available commercially on the DVD, "Ed Sullivan Presents The Beatles" and the "Anthology" as well as "First US Visit". The audio portion can be found on various vinyl bootlegs including "The Beatles Conquer America" and "Ed's Really Big Beatles Blasts".

Englishmen Recording German Songs in a Paris Studio

On January 29 1964, The Beatles had an obligation to record two of their previous number one hit singles (in the UK) using the same instrumental parts but adding German lyrics for the German market - naturally. Since the Beatles were still performing in Paris (France) at the time, it made sense to book an EMI studio in Paris. The studio in question was EMI Pathe Marconi Studios. The two songs in question for the translation were German versions of "She Love You" as "Sie Liebt Dich" and the recent single at the time: "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand". George Martin produced both sides and the single with the two songs/ German lyrics were issued as a single on Odeon in Germany.
At the same time, it was decided to use the studio time to start and record the future A-side of the next single to be released "Can't Buy Me Love". There are various outtakes available: Takes 2 and 3 can be heard on the the bootleg CD "Unsurpassed Masters, Volume 07" although take 2 in itself can also be heard in the series but on a different CD "Unsurpassed Masters, Volume 02". An edit of takes 1 (the guitar solo) and 2 (with the funky backing vocals) have been commercially released on the Apple 2-LP/2-CD "Anthology 1". You can also hear parts of "Kimm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" as a section in the "Anthology VHS/DVD but these are merely snippets and/or take announcements.
As far as I know, I haven't heard any "Sie Leibt Dich" outtakes.

Live In Paris Evening Show

The evening concert in Paris took place on the same day as the previous post: January 16 1964. The Beatles would play several concerts as the touring years continued. The venue in question for this particular performance is at the Olympia Theatre, Paris, France.
This performance included an audience of the so-called "upper class" (in those days) and so the reception for the band is not as enthusiastic as would appear in the afternoon show in front of students. The show was recorded and edited for radio broadcast three days later. The radio show was entitled "Musicorama" and the radio personnel were from Europe 1.
The tunes that we hear on the bootlegs start with the first version of the single "From Me To You" followed by a rendition of the current (for then) B-side of the latest single "This Boy". After the B-side is performed, the A-side follows in the form of "I Want To Hold Your Hand"; John singing the B-side and shared vocals between John and Paul for the A-side. The previous single is performed in the form of "She Loves You".  The Beatles then play the cover tune from the first LP "Twist And Shout" before reprising "From Me To You" once again.
An upgraded tape of the show includes the Paul vocal for the Little Richard cover "Long Tall Sally" and finally the show ends with an instrumental version of "From Me To You" (odd that this was played three times during a concert). There you have it.
You can find this show on bootleg LP with the title "A Paris". It's quite a nice package with a gatefold cover and a mini booklet inside. There is also a CD version of the show entitled "Live In Paris 1964 And In San Francisco 1966". Both of these boots include the show up to the second reprise of "From Me to You".