HOLY GRAIL OF LOST BEATLES TV SHOWS RELEASED ON DVD!
20 RARE LIVE PERFORMANCES - INCLUDING 11 SONGS LOST FOR 40 YEARS!
NEW DVD COMMEMORATES 40th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEATLES' LEGENDARY AMERICAN DEBUT ON "ED SULLIVAN SHOW" IN FEBRUARY 2004
DVD CONTAINS THE LARGEST CACHE OF PREVIOUSLY-UNRELEASED BEATLES MATERIAL IN NEARLY TEN YEARS - SINCE THEIR "ANTHOLOGY"
A "Holy Grail" of ELEVEN unedited live TV performances by the Beatles - which have not been seen since they were first aired on American TV 40 years ago - has been discovered in TV vaults. The performances were shot during the Beatles' historic breakthrough on American television on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 and 1965.
The eleven songs include live performances of no less than seven #1 hit songs including "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "I Feel Fine," "Ticket To Ride," Yesterday," "Please Please Me" and "Help!" together with other Beatles classics including "I Saw Her Standing There," From Me To You" and "I'm Down."
The eleven performances and nine other ultra-rare live tracks are the centerpiece of a new 2-disc DVD "The Ed Sullivan Shows Featuring The Beatles" (Sofa Home Entertainment - $29.95.)
The DVD release commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' legendary American TV debut on February 9th 1964 - in front of a world record-breaking TV audience of 73 million viewers - FORTY PERCENT of the entire US population at the time (approx. 186 million.) That is the equivalent (in terms of today's US population) of a TV audience of 116 MILLION.
That broadcast - and appearances the following two weeks (February 16th and 23rd) transformed the Beatles' initial success on radio into a stunning breakthrough that helped the Beatles conquer America.
Just five weeks after their third appearance - the Beatles held the TOP FIVE positions on the US singles chart. An unprecedented and unequalled feat.
The breath-taking success generated by those three performances on the "Ed Sullivan Show" engendered a loyalty to the program from the Beatles - and they never performed on any other American TV show. In 1965 - the Beatles returned to the Ed Sullivan Show for one final performance - which incidentally ended up being their last-ever live performance in a TV studio anywhere in the world.
WHY THE QUANTITY OF RECOVERED BEATLES MATERIAL IS SUCH BIG NEWS
The very fact that there are so many unseen live TV performances by the Beatles is surprising news to the vast majority of people - even avid Beatles fans. There are several reasons for this:
- Because the "Ed Sullivan Show" did not go into syndication and endless repeats - even the most rabid Beatles fans from the early 60's may not recall that the group made no less than FOUR separate appearances on the top-rated Sullivan show.
- Three decades of TV shows such as "The Tonight Show" and "Saturday Night Live" have accustomed viewers to the notion of musical acts performing just one or two songs per TV appearance. The Beatles performed four to six songs on practically every appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. They performed a grand total of TWENTY songs for Ed Sullivan. And all the performances were LIVE. (Not lip-synch.)
- Over the past 40 years - a large number of TV specials about the Beatles, the 1960's, rock music, the history of TV etc. etc. have always illustrated the story of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan with the same one or two brief song extracts from the same one TV appearance. Even the Beatles' own "Anthology" TV/video series devoted only 2 minutes out of its expansive 10 hours to the topic of the "Ed Sullivan Show."
All of these factors have reinforced the perception that people had "seen it all." In fact - unless you happened to see all four appearances of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in the early 60's (an era long before home video) most people have only ever seen a fraction of these historic live performances by the Beatles - that directly contributed to their unprecedented - and still unequalled - worldwide success.
So the fact that there were originally a total of TWENTY live performances, (seven of the songs being #1 hits) and thus an ENTIRE HOUR of ultra-rare live Beatles material (including interactions and banter with Ed Sullivan) is a revelation indeed to millions of Beatles fans worldwide. The news that all 20 performances have survived intact and have now been digitally restored for DVD release - including the 11 unedited performances that have not been seen in 40 years - makes this a major 'find' not just in the Beatle world - but also for lovers of contemporary music, television history and 20th century popular culture.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DISCOVERY
One of the factors that has made this discovery even more significant is that so few of the Beatles' other live TV performances have survived.
The Beatles only appeared on studio-based TV shows in the three and a half year period between early 1963 and mid-1966. After that era they confined their TV appearances to self-produced promotional films. (The one exception was their "All You Need Is Love" contribution to an international TV special in June 1967 - which was a live remote broadcast from the EMI recording studios at Abbey Road.)
The vast majority of the Beatles' TV appearances were on British TV shows. In the 1960's, British television networks routinely wiped and recycled video-tapes after the first airing of a show. Consequently very few of the Beatles' UK TV appearances have survived. Compounding that is the fact that most British TV shows of the era featured musicians lip-syncing rather than performing live. So the number of LIVE performances by the Beatles on TV shows is even fewer.
By late 1965 the Beatles had pioneered the "promo film" - the forerunner of music video - and they provided these films to TV programs worldwide (including the Ed Sullivan Show from 1966 onwards.) Thus their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in the summer of 1965 was the last time they would ever perform live in a TV studio. All subsequent TV studio appearances were either lip-synced or shot as promotional films.
So the discovery and release of these TWENTY live TV performances by the Beatles - at the height of their first fame - is a significant addition to the Beatles canon of work.
IMPORTANCE OF SPECIFIC PERFORMANCES
Among the twenty live songs are several performances of special note:
While the Beatles made several TV appearances in 1963-1966 performing songs such as "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" - on the Ed Sullivan Show they also performed several early songs that they rarely played live on TV - including "From Me To You," Please Please Me," "This Boy" and "Till There Was You." It was during the latter song that on-screen captions gave viewers the first name of each Beatle - famously culminating in the wording: "John. Sorry girls - he's married."
The 1965 appearance was notable not just because it ended up being the Beatles' last-ever live TV studio performance - but because they performed several songs that are rarities even in concert footage of the group - including Paul's solo performance of "Yesterday," their rendition of "I'm Down" with John playing electric organ instead of guitar, Ringo's vocal spotlight on "Act Naturally" and the unusual visual of John and Paul sharing a microphone on "Ticket To Ride.
THE TEAM BEHIND THE RELEASE OF THE DVD
The historic material has been curated by the current owner of the Ed Sullivan Show archive - respected director-producer Andrew Solt - whose previous Beatles-related projects include the acclaimed 1988 feature documentary "Imagine: John Lennon" and "Gimme Some Truth" - the Grammy-winning documentary about the making of the "Imagine" album.
Solt arranged to have all the audio and video of the historic tapes digitally-restored and decided to release the master tapes in a manner that has thrilled not only Beatles fans but also lovers of American pop culture.
Rather than edit the material into a compilation tape where the performances are separated from their original context - Solt elected to release a double-disc DVD set presenting all four historic Ed Sullivan Shows which featured the Beatles - IN THEIR ENTIRETY - EXACTLY AS THEY APPEARED 40 YEARS AGO.
Viewers experience all four shows exactly as they were seen by a cumulative total of over 200 million TV viewers in 1964 and 1965. They see all of the Ed Sullivan introductions, the supporting acts and even the now-quaint TV commercials.
The original programs were produced by Robert Pracht (Sullivan producer 1960-1971) and directed by Tim Kiley (Sullivan director 1961-1968.) The DVD Edition of the four shows is executive produced by Andrew Solt. Producer is Greg Vines - Supervising Producer of the Grammy-winning "Gimme Some Truth" documentary. Associate Producer of the project is respected Beatles historian Martin Lewis - producer of the critically-acclaimed, best-selling DVD Edition of the Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night."
The DVD release is by arrangement with the Beatles' company Apple.
OTHER ARTISTS AND TV COMMERCIALS FEATURED ON THE DVDs
By releasing the unedited original four shows on which the Beatles starred, viewers get to see a variety of other performers ranging from musicians and comedians to acrobats and novelty acts. Musical performers include the legendary Cab Calloway, Georgia Brown, Mitzi Gaynor and future Monkee Davy Jones (then the Artful Dodger in the Broadway cast of "Oliver.") Comedians range from Frank Gorshin and Soupy Sales to Allen & Rossi.
There are TV commercials for a broad range of sponsors and advertisers including Lux Soap, All Detergent, Lipton's Tea, Pillsbury, Anacin, Aero Shaving Cream, Griffin Shoe Polish and Chef Boyardee Pizzas!
LISTING OF BEATLES SONGS PERFORMED LIVE ON THE FOUR SHOWS
SHOW #1 - Originally aired Sunday February 9th 1964
Only other airing: Sunday July 12th 1964
- ALL MY LOVING
- TILL THERE WAS YOU
- SHE LOVES YOU
- I SAW HER STANDING THERE
- I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
SHOW #2 - Originally aired Sunday February 16th 1964
Only other airing: Sunday August 23rd 1964
- SHE LOVES YOU
- THIS BOY
- ALL MY LOVING
- I SAW HER STANDING THERE
- FROM ME TO YOU
- I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
SHOW #3 - Originally aired Sunday February 23rd 1964
Only other airing: Sunday September 20th 1964
- TWIST AND SHOUT
- PLEASE PLEASE ME
- I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
SHOW #4 - Originally aired Sunday September 12th 1965 (Show never repeated)
- I FEEL FINE
- I'M DOWN
- ACT NATURALLY
- TICKET TO RIDE
- YESTERDAY
- HELP!
CONTACTS FOR MEDIA
Jane Ayer Public Relations
tel: (310) 581-1330
Jane Ayer - jane@janeayerpr.com
Irene Dean - irene@janeayerpr.com
Liz Anderson - liz@janeayerpr.com
Springtime Publicity
tel: (323) 654-7755
Jane Blunkell - jane@springtime.biz
THE FOLLOWING MATERIALS & PEOPLE ARE AVAILABLE TO ILLUSTRATE THIS MAJOR ENTERTAINMENT NEWS STORY
MEDIA MATERIALS
1) ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
This features extensive material - including clips from several of the 11 lost performances not seen in 40 years - and news footage of the Beatles in New York on that first historic visit in February 1964
2) COPY OF THE DVD
3) ULTRA-RARE PHOTOS - www.thefab40.com/media/photos.html
PROSPECTIVE INTERVIEWEES
1) TALENT EXEC. FOR THE "ED SULLIVAN SHOW" - VINCE CALANDRA
Brooklyn-born Vince Calandra worked for the Ed Sullivan Show for 13 years from 1958 to 1971. He worked his way up from cue card assistant through Production Assistant to Talent Coordinator. He worked closely with the Beatles on all their appearances on the Sullivan show. As assistant to the TV producer of the event - he also worked closely with them on their legendary 1965 concert at Shea Stadium. Vince Calandra has GREAT untold stories to tell about the Beatles and Ed Sullivan.
He has one especially amazing tale: George Harrison missed the rehearsal day for the Beatles' first Sullivan Show appearance because he had the 'flu. Ed Sullivan drafted his only production assistant Vince Calandra (then 29) into being a Beatle-For-A-Day! Calandra stood in for Harrison for the camera rehearsals. There is a great rare photo available of Calandra - playing guitar in the Beatles alongside John, Paul and Ringo! He is even wearing a Beatles wig that Sullivan put on him to try and make him look more like George Harrison!
Subsequently Calandra became an Emmy-nominated talent executive and TV producer for programs such as the Mike Douglas Show, The John Davidson Show, the AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards Tributes to Barbra Streisand, Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro - and the acclaimed AFI "100 Years" series of TV specials.
2) ASSOCIATE PRODUCER OF THE DVD & NOTED BEATLES HISTORIAN - MARTIN LEWIS
Associate Producer of the DVD release is respected Beatles historian Martin Lewis who has written and broadcast extensively about the Beatles. Lewis was the Producer of the critically-acclaimed and commercially-successful DVD Edition of the Beatles' first film "A Hard Day's Night." (He is also Associate Producer of the current hit DVD - The Who film "The Kids Are Alright.") Lewis was a consultant on the Beatles "Anthology" and "Live At The BBC" releases. He hosts the annual official Beatles fan conventions in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
He has worked as a film/TV producer/director/interviewer with Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Sir George Martin and many others in the Beatles universe. He has written, produced and hosted several Beatles-themed TV shows and radio specials. He started his career in 1971 as a protégé of former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor.
www.martinlewis.com/mediabeatles
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