The Beatles recorded "Money (That's What I Want)" in five takes on July 18, 1963. I suppose they intended it to be a smashing final track to With The Beatles, just as Twist & Shout had closed Please Please Me. Money had been featured in their shows since the Hamburg days, and they had converted it into a raunchy rocker song. The regular visitor to BDJ's Cellar immediately notices something odd about Money: it has centered vocals in the stereo (Album) mix ! In fact. It is the only track on Pl...
May 07, 2011•3 min
The first ever Beatles mash-up was broadcast on 29 February 1972, at 3.30 PM. The occasion was the 'Beatles Day" on Radio Veronica. Radio Veronica was a - pirate- radio station, broadcasting from a ship in the North Sea, off the Dutch coast. From April 1960 the station aired its programmes from the ship the 'Borkum Riff', an ex German lightship built in 1911. Though its programming then still was very conventional, the station acquiered a growing audience. From the 1st Januari 1965, three months...
Apr 09, 2011•4 min
"Ask Me Why" was released in the United Kingdom and The US (VJ Records) as the B-side of their single "Please Please Me". It was also included on the UK album, Please Please Me. It was recorded on 26 November 1962, in 6 takes. Take 6 was used for both the mono single and the stereo LP mix. No outtakes have surfaced, so there's not a lot to create a remix from.... Apparently, Ask Me Why was always intended as a B-side, and the production is not of the same standard as Please Please Me. It is a si...
Mar 28, 2011•3 min
"Please Please Me" is the second single released by The Beatles in the United Kingdom, and the first to be issued in the United States. Both its recording history, and its release record, are complex and often confounded. We'll shed some BDJ light on it here..... RECORDING HISTORY: Lennon first conceived "Please Please Me" as a bluesy, slow tempo song. Lennon recalled: "I remember the day I wrote it, I heard Roy Orbison doing "Only the Lonely", or something." When George Martin first heard it (a...
Mar 26, 2011•4 min
Here's a loosely played cover of this great track by the Doors; my Other Favourite Band. Not much in common with the Beatles, just that only 2 band members are still alive... "Love Me Two Times" first appeared on the 1967 album Strange Days. It was released as their second single. Special challenge for this cover was that I did notwant to play keyboard on it. Ray Manzarek played this song on a clavinet. I compensated by adding several guitar tracks. All played on my Strat, giving that unique cle...
Mar 19, 2011•3 min
By the time I Want To Hold Your Hand was recorded (October 1963), EMI had installed 4-track recorders at Abbey Road. The results are immediately audible: guitars are double tracked amd distributed over different tracks. The Single was - of course - released in glorious mono. Since I Want To Hold Your hand was not included on With The Beatles, no stereo version was released in the UK. it features on a Capitol album in the US in stereo, but this sounds like 'fake stereo' to me (highs on the right,...
Mar 07, 2011•7 min
A brand new - true stereo - remix of this classic Beatles song. During the remixing of I Saw Her Standing There, I made a major discovery, which I will describe below. I Saw Her Standing There was recorded at EMI Studios on 11 February 1963, as part of the marathon recording session (10 hours) that produced 10 of the 14 songs on Please Please Me. In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as the B-side on the label's first single by The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your...
Mar 03, 2011•3 min
Badfinger was a rock band formed in Swansea, Wales in the early 1960s.Their history is closely linked with the Beatles; to some, their music imitates the Beatles; for others, it is a welcome extension to the Beatelesque repertoire. Pete Ham sings in a McCartney-esque voice, their guitars sound a lot like Eric Clapton....... The other ties to the Beatles are too many too mention all: - The name Badfinger was suggested by Apple's Neil Aspinall, and was a reference to "Bad Finger Boogie", an early ...
Feb 27, 2011•3 min
"She's a Woman" was released as the B-side to "I Feel Fine" in 1964 (see remix below). McCartney's bass produces a countermelody, which now bursts out of your subwoofers. Lennon's Rickenbacker 325 guitar plays chords on the backbeat, now in full stereo, combined from takes 2 and 4. In the original release a piano (Paul or george Martin ?) also plays chords on the upbeats, but I didn't like that. Harrison also plays a bright guitar solo during the middle eight, taken from Take 6. The Outtro is re...
Feb 25, 2011•4 min
I Feel Fine is - probably - Lennon's first riff-based song. He would go on to write riff-based tunes for the rest of his career; listen to "Day Tripper', or 'Whatever gets you through the night' for example. Lennon made it no secret that his riffs were inspired by songs he had heard; he credited the riff of I Feel Fine to Bobby Parker's 'Watch Your Step', and this also appears to have inspired Day Tripper. Not just that, the spectecular opening 'buzz' of I Feel Fine seems to be derived from the ...
Feb 20, 2011•2 min
n 1969, the Beatles found themselves in a slump; they were growing out of the 'innocent, funny boys' role, and the band was at risk of falling apart. To bring the group back to life, they embarked on the 'Everest' project, which comprised a live performance somewhere in the world in a 'safe' location (such as Mt Everest). They expected to draw such large crowds, that a concert in a normal venue would have run quickly out of control. They explored several options for a suitable location, but coul...
Feb 17, 2011•41 min
Feb 17, 2011•40 min
Remix of Macca's demo with Badfinger's only hit.
Jan 29, 2011•2 min
The core of this podcast consists of Beatles tracks covered by Dutch artists, mostly form the 60's and 70's. Some are exciting, some are just presented here for the completists........ The Beatles became popular in the Netehrlands at a very early stage in thier career; the Dutch have a fine ear for musical talent (and still do). Friday 5 June 1964: Following the previous day's concerts in Copenhagen, Denmark, The Beatles flew to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, arriving at 1pm. They a...
Jan 25, 2011•22 min
Jan 25, 2011•23 min
The gospel of Luke tells of the nativity in its own way, necessitating its own Beatles Christmas podcast version: while Matthew (see preceding Podcast) talks about the wordly aspects (king Herod, the wise men and their rich gifts) and the nativity rooted in Judaism, Luke speaks more about the spiritual impact and the break with Jewish traditions. Therefore, we selected more 'spiritual' tracks for this podcast, and included tracks recorded after the break-up. The incidental music is the soundtrac...
Dec 19, 2010•31 min
Christmas Time Is Here Again ! A special time for Beatles fans: the Beatles did Christmas shows in their early days, and released special 'nonsense' records for their fanclub all through the Fab's career. Enough reasons to release this BDJ Chritsmas special; it is a new - yet ancient - way to celeberate Christmas. Gone are the Ho-Ho-Ho's of Father C, decorated trees, mangers and shepherds. In its stead, we find Christmas Remastered as it sounds best: the Gospel of Matthew, performed by James Ear...
Dec 11, 2010•18 min
Many (if not most) of the Beatles songs were never performed Live by the Fabs themselves. Even when thye still toured they basically reproduced the recorded versions as accurately as possible. What if they had continued performing gigs, and had updated their songs as they went along ? Here, we present a version of She's Leaving Home that could have been performed at the rooftop of Apple Studios, if....... The guitars, bass and drums are courtesy of BDJ's Tearoom orchestra....
Nov 21, 2010•3 min
She's Leaving Home is one the few songs of the later Beatles albums where Lennon contributes to a McCartney song. Standing out by Mike Leander's string quartet arrangement, it maintains its unique posiotion in modern pop/rock. Lewisohn mentions that 2 extra bars of cello (after each Bye-Bye)were edited out of the final release (on Sgt Pepper). This was done at the remix stage, indicating that the complete song (including vocals) was recorded including these cello parts. Recently, the original 4-...
Nov 19, 2010•4 min
Sometimes Lennon's songs are not that different......
Nov 14, 2010•3 min
Lennon lets it rip in this sensational rocking track. Featuring guitars and a cowbell, this was one of the loudest songs of 1968. Outtakes form Take 12 are well known, but some say that Take 9 was even louder. Unfortuatley, that take has not surfaced (yet); so, the BDJ Teamroom Orchestra set to work to recerate take 9 as best as they could. Cranked up the distortion on the guitars (BDJ), thumping bass and drums(BDJ) and screaming vocals (John Lennon), here we go !
Nov 13, 2010•3 min
One of the elusive Beatles tracks that still remains unbootlegged, is the 'slow version' of Please Please Me. The fabs played it to George Martin, who rejected it as being too slow for a number one hit. Perhaps for the last time, the Beatles complied and changed the song around into the Please Please Me that we all know. Here, we present a rare live recording of the original Please Please Me. It is strikingly different, not only in tempo, but also in the raw guitar riffs, that were the hallmark ...
Nov 06, 2010•4 min
For You Blue sounds like a more or less improvised blues session; the Fab did this every mow and then, as we hear in the Let it Be sessions, but these rarely led to a quality recording. And it was a close shave for For You Blue: Phil Spector needed to apply quite some trickery to construct a full song out of the various takes. Still, "For You Blue" was listed with "The Long and Winding Road" as a double-sided hit when the single reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. The product...
Sep 16, 2010•4 min
Maggie Mae is just a snippet of a song on Let It Be. Phil Spector picked the best 38 seconds out of a session that did not last for more than a minute or two. After all, it's a pretty tragic story about a working girl, who was banished to Australia for her efforts. So she 'did not walk Lyme street anymore', a connection with the Beatles since John and Cynthia were married in the registrar's office on Lyme street... What if the Fab had spent a bit mnore time and effort on this 'tradional' ? Lossl...
Sep 15, 2010•3 min
Another World Premiere for BDJ's Cellar; The beatles perform the Holly classic 'Maybe Baby'. This is unearthed form the Let It Be rehearsals. Lossless version of this remaster is found on the Let It Be Remixed release (BRG16). Don't confuse this one with the Maybe Baby that McCartney wrote for the film in 1999.....
Sep 15, 2010•3 min
A rare Live Performance, not released on Let it Be. Not only did Billy Preston join the Beatles for the Roof Concert, but - apparently - so did Talking Heads. They would later use this tune for their own greatest hit.
Sep 11, 2010•5 min
'Her Majesty' is a beautiful McCartney compositon. It didn't make it onto Let It Be, but Macca remembered it a few months later when recording Abbey Road. On Abbey Road, it sounds like a throwaway, barely 30 seconds, kicked off by a slightly out of tune chord (Mustard), and lacking the final chord. Here, we combine the Let it Be and Abbey Road sessions, underpinned by a solid backing track (Slow Down), for a full 2m58s of Her Majesty !
Aug 25, 2010•3 min
'Anna (Go To Him)' is possible the poorest song the Beatles ever covered. It is surprising that it was included on Please Please Me, while the Beatles had stronger cover songs in their repertoire at that moment. There is no recording of any Live performance, they only played it twice on BBC's Pop Go The Beatles (as filler). So why did they select it for PPM ? Since Lennon does the lead vocals, it was probably his choice. What could have been his motives ? The song structure is conventional, the ...
Aug 23, 2010•2 min
A funky re-mix, featuring Michael Jackson and others. Lossless version on 'Beatle Blends'.
Aug 22, 2010•4 min
Something was Sinatra's 'favorite Lennon-McCartney Song'. It appears that it has now become McCartney's Favourite Harrisong. Macca perfoms Something at almost any concert now, in a sober production featuring mainly ukele and some piano parts. So here - in a World Premiere - are the Macca vocals in a lush George Martin production. NB: the BDJ engineers unveiled an urbain myth while mixing this track. In his book "Here There and Everywhere' Geoff Emerick remembers that Harrison wanted to redo his ...
Aug 14, 2010•3 min
