"I'll Be Back" Outtakes

On June 01 1964, The Beatles gathered at EMI Studio 2 in order to continue recording the soundtrack album to the first film and the third official EMI LP : "A Hard Day's Night". The last song on the UK LP and the last song on the US LP: "Beatles '65" was the song entitled "I'll Be Back".
"I'll Be Back" was mainly written by John Lennon with the middle eight probably assisted by Paul. John is the main vocal although the song is sung in parts as a duet between John and Paul.
There are two takes of the song available commercially on the Apple 3-LP/2-CD "Anthology 1" album. These are takes 2 and 3. Both of the takes are mono. Take 2 is an attempt to play the song in 3/4 time (like a waltz) but it seems that the tempo sounds and feels awkward and the song is then changed to the regular 4/4 time. There is another attempt as take 3 but John seems to have problems with the phrasing of the lyrics as he sings them.
There are also some some very short snippets of the session (takes 12, 13, 14 and 15) also available commercially from the "Anthology" DVD series. These mainly consist of count-ins and breakdowns.

From Us To You For A Third Time

The Beatles recorded a radio show for the BBC on May 01, 1964 which was for their own show entitled "From Us To You". This show would be broadcast almost three weeks later on May 18 1964. The location of the recording are the BBC Paris Studios in London. The host for this show is Alan Freeman and various guests appear like Lulu, etc.
The theme song is sung by the band as "From Us To You" based on the previous hit "From Me To You" with some of the words changed, of course. The next song performed would be "White Monday To You" as this was a bank holiday in England. The tune is performed to the music of "Happy Birthday to You" (done twice, the second version being with more "gusto" and faster.The next track is from the first UK LP and the flip side of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the states:  "I Saw Her Standing there" sung by Paul. Following this, the Beatles' arrangement of  "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey" is performed and this is a pre-EMI recording of the tune which would eventually appear on the fourth UK LP "Beatles For Sale"; once again sung mainly by Paul.
The next song performed is a cover of the Elvis tune "I Forgot To Remember to Forget" sung by George which has a play of words including an annoying introduction between George Harrison and Alan Freeman. After reading some requests, The Beatles perform the B-side to their latest single in the form of "You Can't Do That" which is sung by John with background vocals from Paul and George and featuring the 12-string Rickenbaker guitar ( a fairly new acquisition by George). The Beatles follow this is a performance of the cover "Sure To Fall (In Love With You)" featuring some nice harmonies and vocal by Paul in the middle part. This song would later feature on the Ringo Starr solo LP: "Stop and Smell The Roses" in the early 80s.
This is followed by an introduction by Paul and the performance of the latest single A-side "Can't Buy Me Love" double tracked by Paul. Another Carl Perkin's cover is then performed by the band: "Matchbox" sung by Ringo (taking over from an earlier version by John). The song would be officially recorded for EMI a month after the taping of this radio show and would appear on the "Long Tall Sally" EP in the UK. The third Carl Perkins cover is "Honey Don't" with having John Lennon on vocals although Ringo take over this rendition when recorded for the fourth LP "Beatles For Sale" later in the fall of 1964.
The show concludes with a repeat of the theme song "From Us To You" with a voice over and fades. The entire show can be found on the boot vinyl LP "The Beatles At the Beeb, Volume Ten" as well as on the  bootleg CD box "The complete BBC Sessions". Commercially, the song "I Forgot To Remember to Forget" can be found on the Apple 3-LP/2-CD "Live At the BBC"

Big Beat '64 (Also known as The Pollwinner's Concert)

On April 26, 1964 The Beatles played a live show at the Empire Pool in Wembley. This show was part of the "Big Beat '64" program on ABC Television in the UK. It is also known as the "New Musical Express Pollwinner's Concert". After the show was taped, the broadcast for the concert was shown on May 10 1964.
The line up of musical material consists of the following: After an introduction by Murray "The K" who was a New York American DJ at the time, the first song performed is "She Loves You" which, of course, was the fourth single in the UK line up. After this, the latest B-side is performed in the form of Lennon's "You Can't Do That". The last song from the first LP is played; the cover version of the Isley Brother's tune "Twist And Shout" with John on lead. Paul gets his turn with the Little Richard cover of "Long Tall Sally" and the last song of the show is the current (at the time) A-side of the new single "Can't Buy Me Love". The Beatles were then presented with trophies by the actor Roger Moore who would later appear as James Bond in the movies.
You can find the show on the vinyl bootleg, "The Beatles At The Beeb Volume Thirteen" as well as the CD bootleg "Mythology, Volume 1". I've also presented the audio only for the show below. Some of the "Can't Buy Me Love" video footage can be seen commercially on the Apple "Anthology" DVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-fxBYpHoVY&list=PLr4Tgy0WHNgn8UdBa9eTifTDk3YIAit_g

"Around The Beatles" recording session.

On April 19 1964, The Beatles entered the IBC recording studios in London to prepare for a televised performance special entitled "Around The Beatles". This show would be broadcast 10 days later on April 29 1964.
For the event, various songs were performed "live" in the studio and the Beatles would mime to these live recordings during the visual event. Nine songs have surfaced from these recordings which were taped on three track machines. Some of the bootlegged material has been mono but the commercial release of some of the material on the "Anthology" series has been re-mixed from the master tapes to stereo back in the mid- 90s.
The songs that are strictly mono (at the moment) and can be found on bootleg include a version of "Twist and Shout", "Roll Over Beethoven", a medley terribly spliced/edited together for the television special including "Love Me Do/Please Please Me/From Me to You/ She Loves You/ I Want To Hold Your Hand" and a cover version of "Shout!" which is only performed for this television appearance.
The "Anthology" tunes are all mixed for stereo and include the following: "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Long Tall Sally" "Shout!" (with a shortened edit and the beginning edit as well) and the outtake which didn't make it onto the television special "Boys" sung by Ringo.
The audio bootlegs of the mono tunes can be found on various bootlegs including the vinyl LP "Not Guilty" as well as the CD "Not For Sale". The commercial stereo tunes can be found on the 3-LP/ 2-CD Apple release "Anthology 1".
The actual television special taping will be included in a separate blog entry.

A Hard Day's Night Outtakes

On April 16 1964, The Beatles entered Studio two at EMI in order to record the title song for thier upcoming first film as the title was settled on "A Hard Day's Night". This tune written mainly by John with Paul singing the middle eight was recorded in nine takes (with the basic tracks being the lead and overdubs added later). This included drums, 12-string electric (George), guitar (John), bass (Paul) and the two vocals. Most of the session consisted of perfecting the middle eight section of the song with some stray bass notes and slightly different lyrics for the early takes.
The guitar solo by George was also extinguished in the early takes and it was decided to overdub the solo instead. This turned out to be the 12-string and piano solo heard on the final mix. Some of the takes for the song simply feature the opening chord played over and over. Takes 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 are complete while the other takes are fragments and are incomplete due to mistakes.
These takes are available on various CD bootlegs including "Unsurpassed Masters, Vol. 2" which features takes 6 and 7 and "Ultra Rare Trax, Volume Two" which features take 4
; "The Ultimate Collection, Volume Three" contains the session with the other takes present. It must also be said that take one from this session is commercially available on the Apple 3-LP/2-CD "Anthology 1" project.

"Saturday Club" for the ninth time.

On March 31 1964 (actually after the afternoon taping of the Beatles miming to songs for their movie at the Scala Theater - see previous entry), The Beatles hopped over to the Playhouse Theater in London to record a radio show for the BCC series "Saturday Club".  The show would be broadcast four days later on April 04 1964 in the late morning. The host for this show was Brian Matthew who conducted the interviews between tunes.

The songs performed for this show include a Carl Perkin's number "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" which is sung by George Harrison and eventually recorded for EMI and released on the fourth LP later in the year. Also at this session The Beatles performed an original song not yet released anywhere and would be later be put out on an EP in the UK: "I Call Your Name" with the vocals mainly by John Lennon. Next is a cover of a cover (actually, a Ray Charles tune with an Elvis arrangement) with the title of "I Got A Woman" and once again sung by John Lennon.

Next up the two side of the latest single are performed ( in order to promo it naturally). The B-side appears first in the form of "You Can't Do That" and then the A-side is next with a performance of "Can't Buy Me Love". John vocals and Paul vocals respectively.

Another Carl Perkin's cover song is performed by the group; this time mainly sung by George once again with the title "Sure To Fall (In Love With You)" and they finish the set with the Little Richard cover of "Long Tall Sally" of which would also appear on the upcoming summer release and title of their future EP.

Probably the best way to listen to the entire show (or most of it anyway) is from the vinyl LP "The Beatles At The Beeb - Volume Ten" and slightly more complete and upgraded on disc seven of the "Complete BBC Sessions" bootleg CD.

The version of "I Got A Woman" from this show is commercially available on the Apple 3-LP/2-CD release "On Air - Live At The BBC Volume 2".

"You Can't Do That" Outtake Footage

On March 31 1964, The Beatles were filmed performing a mock concert in front of fans at the Scala Theatre in London for their first feature length film "A Hard Day's Night" (Phil Collins is in the audience as a young child at this point). The Scala Theatre saw the following songs being mimed that day/evening: "If I Fell", "I Should Have Known Better", "She Love You" and "Tell Me Why". All of these mimed performances can be viewed in the film.
The one song that did not make the cut for the final version of the film was a mimed performance of "You Can't Do That". This song was left off but was used on television for the "Ed Sullivan Show" a couple of months after it was filmed. Ed Sullivan had an interview with the Beatles before the clip is shown (which took place at the Ambassadeurs garden in London on April 17 1964 and finally shown with interview and clip in place on May 24 1964.
You can see the clip commercially on the video documentary "The Making of A Hard Day's Night" as well as on the YouTube link below: (the audio runs a little slow)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EYa5YkJu4Q