BDJ's Cellar Full of Remixes

Beyoncé's new cover of the Beatles' "Blackbird" on her "Cowboy Carter" album uses the original 1968 backing track by Paul McCartney, including his acoustic guitar and foot tapping. "Blackbird" was written by Paul McCartney for the Beatles' 1968 "White Album", inspired by the call of a blackbird during the Beatles' trip to Rishikesh, India. He later claimed it was a tribute to the civil rights movement. The song has a long history in Black music, with various artists like Aretha Franklin and Sylvester adding their unique interpretations. The Beyonce cover version, retitled "Blackbiird," features additional harmony vocals by four Black women in country music, Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer. Apparently, Beyonce looks to emphasize the song's historic meaning to her audience.Of course, McCartney should have invited Black singers to join him on the White Album original. An oversight, which we now can correct, thanks to the BDJ spectral remuxers. So, enjoy Macca's Blackbird with backing vocals by Tanner, Tiera, Reyna and Brittney.

The Beatles' journey to India in 1968 is a fascinating slice of rock 'n' roll history that continues to intrigue music fans and historians alike. It was a time of spiritual exploration and prolific songwriting for the Fab Four. The band, along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants, and a medley of other celebrities like Mike Love from the Beach Boys, traveled to Rishikesh to attend an advanced Transcendental Meditation training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.This retreat proved to be a creative boon forPaul McCartney, who wrote many songs during this period. It's widely acknowledged that a significant number of tracks from "The White Album" were penned in India, including "Birthday" and "Back in the USSR".The snippet of audio from India survives, where the Beatles and friends serenade Mike Love for his birthday. While it's difficult to pinpoint the exact source of inspiration for McCartney's compositions, it's certainly plausible that the camaraderie and musical exchange during such moments could have sparked ideas that later evolved into the tracks on "The White Album."

McCartney's 1987 single "Once Upon a Long Ago" carries with it a bittersweet tale of what could have been a historic collaboration. The song, which was part of McCartney's compilation album "All the Best!" and later released as a single, was initially composed with the Queen frontman in mind.The story goes that McCartney had envisioned the track as a duet with Mercury. However, due to Mercury's ill health and busy schedule, the collaboration never materialized. McCartney went on to perform the song solo, and it reached No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart. Artificial intelligence has opened up new possibilities, allowing fans to experience a version of "Once Upon a Long Ago" featuring Mercury's distinctive voice. This not only showcases McCartney's songwriting prowess but also pays homage to Mercury's enduring legacy.While it's true that nothing can replace the magic of a real-time collaboration between McCartney and Mercury, AI remixes offer a glimpse into an alternate universe where the two icons perform together."Once Upon a Long Ago" serves as a beautiful, if somewhat melancholic, tribute to the power of music and the enduring spirit of creativity that defines both McCartney and Mercury's contributions to the world of music.

It was 1968 when Peter Brown, a close associate of the Beatles, approached none other than Frank Sinatra to perform a unique rendition of "The Lady is a Tramp" for Maureen Starkey's birthday, Ringo Starr's first wife.Sinatra, with his unparalleled panache, transformed the classic into "Maureen is a Champ," a playful twist on the original lyrics, celebrating Maureen's vivacious spirit. The recording was intended as a private gift, a one-of-a-kind single that encapsulated the essence of an era where music was an intimate affair. Rumor has it that only one copy of this exclusive single survived, a testament to its rarity and the ephemeral nature of such personal tributes.The original features Sinatra's voice and piano accompaniment. We made a remix, crafted with the finesse of a complete orchestra, reverberating Sinatra's style, and echoing the grandeur of the original recording. The remix was a meticulous endeavor, requiring a deep understanding of Sinatra's musical nuances and the orchestral dynamics that could complement them. It shows how modern technology and reverence for musical heritage can coalesce to create something truly transcendent. The story of "Maureen is a Champ" is more than just a footnote in music history; it is a narrative that resonates with the notion that sometimes, the most personal gifts are the ones that echo the loudest through time.

The second single to be released from Walls And Bridges, ‘#9 Dream' continued John's fascination with the number nine. He woke up one morning and wrote down the words along with the melody. He had no idea what it meant, but he thought it sounded beautiful.John produced the song himself. Until now, only demos (on guitar and piano) were known, but recently just over a minute of Take 1 became available. Our engineers produced a full song from this snippet. The production is more sparse and the vocals are less distorted than the official version on Walls and Bridges. Judge for yourself!

The Deluxe set of Lennon's 'Mind Games' album just arrived. It contains 6CD's and 2 Blu-ray discs. Asa result, there are (at least) 6 different mixes of each song on the album. How can a Remixer resist this temptation?The original Mind Games production sounds rather busy and massive, as if Lennon and co. wanted to include every instrument in the studio in the track, This tends to obscure the beauty of the composition. Furthermore, Lennon's vocals are double -tracked, and various effects added to them. So our task was to make a remix which is simple, and has only single-tracked vocals. We prefer our 'Relax-Mix' over the original, but we could be biased........

In an interview in the late 70's, Lennon said that he would have sung Oh Darling better than McCartney did. Unfortunately, Lennon did not supply a recording to substantiate his claim.But now, thanks to state-of-the-art-artificial-intelligence-technology, it is possible to create this unheard outtake of the Abbey Road sessions.Who do you prefer, John or Paul?

For You Blue is a song by the Beatles, written by George Harrison and released on their 1970 album Let It Be. Glyn Johns and Phil Spector were two of the producers who worked on the album, but they had different visions for the sound and style of the songs. Johns preferred a more raw and live approach, while Spector added orchestral overdubs and effects. Glyn Johns mixes were all rejected, and Spector's version was released as a single and on the album. But was the Glyn Johns production of For You Blue really worse than Spector's? To facilitate the comparison, we play the Glyn Johns version in the left channel, and Spector's mix in the right channel. It is evident that Johns liked Harrison's guitar, which is almost absent in Spector's mix. Much of the instrumental mixes are similar, but Spector includes a new version of the vocals. These were recorded after Johns left, so these new vocals were not available to him. But overall, were they right to reject Johns mix?

One of the rare original songs on McCartney's “Give My Regards To Broad Street” soundtrack was “No Values”. However, it was s not composed for the film. The song had been in the works since late 1980, when Wings did some demos that can be found on bootlegs. McCartney recorded another version of the song at AIR Studios on Montserrat in February 1981, during the Tug Of War sessions. The final version for the film was done in December 1982 at AIR in London, with the same musicians as on ‘Not Such A Bad Boy'.McCartney has said that "No Values" came to him in a dream, much like 'Yesterday' did. But here, he dreamt that the Rolling Stones were playing the song: "They were all there, Bill, Charlie, Keith and all the lads; and Mick was up there singing, “No values, seems to me that you've still got no values…” I couldn't quite hear all the lyrics but I heard all the chorus and I woke up and thought I really like that song that they do. Then I thought, Hey, wait a minute – there is no song called “No Values”. They don't do that song. My brain had just created it, or however it happens. I haven't told Mick Jagger – he'd probably claim the copyright!"The 1980 outtakes still have a bit of a Rolling Stone feel, but by 1982 that had gone and it had become a typical 'Wings' track. A good occasion to set Artificial Intelligence to work, and produce a version of "No Values" with the Rolling Stones swagger; is this the way McCartney heard it in his dream?

The production of the last Beatles single, Now and Then, is lush, to say the least. A heavily compressed piano (McCartney) accompanies Lennon's vocals. The string octet kicks in, we hear backing vocals echoing all the way back to Abbey Road, and then somebody messes up a solo on a slide guitar. Of all these add-ons (that Lennon would have hated) the string octet stands out, because it is not that bad. It is choreographed very much in style of Eleanor Rigby, with short bursts of te violins and cellos. Well worth a listen in isolation.

We all know that Now and Then was composed by John Lennon. However, Paul McCartney took and changed it, omitted the middle eight, added a solo, played piano over Lennon's recording, and much more. And he sang almost the whole song in unison with Lennon's voice. You might say it became a McCartney song.......To take the transformation to completion, we deleted Lennon's voice from the mix, so we can fully appreciate McCartney's singing.

365 yesterdays have come and gone in 2023. It was an eventful year, with wars raging in many parts of the world. But it also brought great personal joy.As a farewell to 2023, here is Paul McCartney singing Yesterday.  Just Paul, no guitar, no strings. Remember the good things in life.

The ending of the song I Am The Walrus is one of the most mysterious and intriguing parts of the Beatles' catalogue. It features a mix of nonsense lyrics, random sound effects, and a snippet of a BBC radio broadcast of Shakespeare's King Lear.Some people claim that the version of the song on the new Red and Blue album, a compilation of remastered Beatles hits released in 2023, differs from the original version that appeared on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and album in 1967. They say that the vocals are clearer and more isolated, and that some of the background noises are different or removed.To test this claim, we have isolated the vocals from the ending of the song. Here is what we found: The vocals are indeed more audible and less distorted than the original version. This is probably due to the improved sound quality and remastering process of the new album. The lyrics are still mostly nonsensical, but some of them can be deciphered more easily. For example, a French voice talks about the 'nouvelle republique' and the Vietnam war.  The radio broadcast of King Lear is also the same, but it is slightly more synchronized with the vocals. The broadcast was recorded by John Lennon from a transistor radio that he randomly tuned in while recording the song. The broadcast features the lines “O, untimely death!” and “I know thee well: a serviceable villain”, spoken by the characters of Edgar and Gloucester, respectively. In conclusion, the version of I Am The Walrus on the new Red and Blue album does have some differences from the original version. The mystery remains whether the words that we can now hear are added new, or that they existed in the original but were mixed so low that we can't distinguish them. 

Now and Then is a stunning remix of the long-lost Beatles song, featuring the original vocals of John Lennon and the contributions of his bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. This remix captures the spirit and sound of the Beatles in 1964, when they were at the peak of their popularity and creativity. George provides his melodic guitar riffs, Paul adds a catchy bassline and Ringo hits his drums with passion. This Re-Mix is rare treat for fans of the classic Beatles.

The song “I'm in Love” is attributed to Lennon–McCartney. John Lennon may have written it himself. He gave the song to the Fourmost, another band from Liverpool, who recorded it in 1963 with George Martin as the producer. Lennon claimed that he wrote the song for them in 1971, but he was not sure about it in 1980. Paul McCartney's biographer, Barry Miles, suggested that the song was a joint work by Lennon and McCartney . Billy J. Kramer also made a recording of the song, but the Fourmost's version was released and reached number 17 in the UK charts.The Beatles never recorded the song - until now. Using the latest techniques, it is possible to upgrade Lennon's demo (on piano) to a full song. Wouldn't it have fitted nicely on Beatles for Sale, With The Beatles?

'The End' is the last song in the medley of the Abbey Road album, and it is the only song in the Beatles' catalogue that features a drum solo by Ringo Starr. According to EMI engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked on the album, the solo was originally longer, but it was edited down to fit the song's length. Our BDJ engineers have made a remix of the Beatles song 'The End', which features an extended drum solo by Ringo Starr. This solo is based on the original recording that was cut short for the Abbey Road album, as well as the inspiration that Ringo drew from the drum solo in 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' by Iron Butterfly.'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' is a song by Iron Butterfly that is considered one of the first examples of heavy metal music. It was written by the band's vocalist and organist Doug Ingle, who allegedly slurred the words 'In the Garden of Eden' when he was drunk. The song features a long instrumental section that includes a drum solo by Ron Bushy. We have combined elements of both drum solos and created a remix of 'The End' that showcases Ringo's talent and style.  If, at some time,, the original recording of Ringo's solo emerges, then we will know how accurate this version of the solo is.

Here is a new release of Honey Don't, the classic rockabilly song by Carl Perkins that was covered by The Beatles in 1964. In this remix, we have restored the original vocals by John Lennon, who used to sing the song during live performances before Ringo Starr took over the lead vocals on the studio version. Honey Don't is a song that showcases Lennon's raw and energetic vocal style, as well as his playful interaction with the audience. It is a tribute to one of his musical heroes, Carl Perkins, who also wrote other songs that The Beatles recorded, such as Matchbox and Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby. We hope you rediscover the charm and charisma of John Lennon as a rockabilly singer.

"Let Me Roll It" is a song by Paul McCartney and Wings, released on their 1973 album Band on the Run. The song was also released as the B-side to "Jet" in early 1974, and has remained a staple of McCartney's live concerts since it was first released.The song is unique in the Beatles catalogue, since it combines contributions from McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Bob Dylan!Of course, McCartney is credited as the composer, but he took the title (and the phrase in the lyrics) from "I'd Have You Anytime". And that song was written by George Harrison and Bob Dylan.The connection with Lennon is clear, but details are still debated; some say that Let Me Roll It was McCartney's version of Lennon's :Cold Turkey". Indeed, the dominating guitar riff is very reminiscent of Cold Turkey.Others maintain that Lennon used "Let Me Roll It" for his 1974 song "Beef Jerky."We will probably never know for sure, but what we DO know is what it sounds like if Lennon had covered Let Me Roll It.........

Here is stunning version of the song Good Night with vocals by Frank Sinatra. Good Night is a lullaby that John Lennon wrote for his son Julian, and was the final song on the Beatles' 1968 album The Beatles. The Beatles recorded the song with an orchestra arranged and conducted by George Martin, and Ringo Starr sang the lead vocals. Lennon was probably embarrassed to sing it himself, as he considered it too sentimental1. Sinatra would have made it a classic hit, with his smooth voice and impeccable phrasing. 

Imagine hearing John Lennon sing one of Paul McCartney's songs that he famously dismissed as “granny music”. Well, you don't have to imagine anymore, because the BDJ producers have used artificial intelligence to create a stunning version of the song Teddy Boy with vocals by John Lennon. Teddy Boy is a folk rock song that McCartney wrote during the Beatles' 1968 visit to India, and recorded for his solo album McCartney in 1970. The Beatles also attempted to record the song during the Get Back sessions in 1969, but Lennon showed little interest and often parodied the lyrics. The song was left out of the final release of Let It Be. Now, thanks to the power of AI, you can hear how Lennon would have sung the song!

If you are a fan of the Beatles and their early days in Hamburg, you will be thrilled to hear this amazing AI-produced version of the song Where Have You Been All My Life? with clear vocals by John Lennon. This song, written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, was one of the covers that the Beatles performed live at the Star Club in 1962, but the original recording was of poor quality and Lennon's voice was barely audible. The Beatles - Where Have You Been All My Life? (Live in Hamburg) - YouTubeNow, thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, you can enjoy this song as if you were there in the club, listening to Lennon's passionate singing and the band's energetic playing. The AI has enhanced the sound and removed the background noise, making this a rare and precious gem for any Beatles lover. 

Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if Frank Sinatra sang one of Paul McCartney's earliest songs? Well, wonder no more, because the BDJ producers have used artificial intelligence to create a stunning version of the song Suicide with vocals by the legendary crooner. Suicide is a piano ballad that McCartney wrote when he was 14 years old, hoping to give it to Sinatra, but for years it didn't happen. Then one day in the 70's, Sinatra called McCartney and asked to write a song for him. McCartney sent him the song Suicide, that he had written much earlier. Sinatra never called again.....Obviously, the title and lyrics make it unsuitable for Sinatra. Had McCartney taken the trouble to write new lyrics, then it might have been a hit for Sinatra. The song remained unreleased until 2011, when it was included as a bonus track on the remastered edition of McCartney's debut solo album. Now, thanks to the magic of AI, you can hear how Sinatra would have interpreted the song, with his smooth voice and impeccable phrasing. The result is a beautiful and haunting rendition that pays tribute to both artists and their musical legacy.

The premiere for The Beatles LOVE Show by Cirque du Soleil took place on June 30, 2006 in Las Vegas at The Mirage.The Beatles' record producer, George Martin and his son, Giles Martin, were music directors for the project which resulted in a 78-minute audio collage of Beatles songs. The soundtrack includes audio snippets from 200 Beatles songs, many of which are re-mixed in a “mash-up” style.For 30 minutes prior to the start of the show, the theatre was opened to the public, and pre-show music was played through the speakers. The pre-show audio consisted of new unheard instrumental mixes, and was not released on the LOVE CD or DVD.The pre-show audio was bootlegged, although only in fragments of poor quality. Based on the Anthology, the recent SDE boxes, and some demux magic, we are now able to present the LOVE pre-show in excellent quality. So take your seat, relax, and bring back those memories of Love in Vegas!TRACKLISTAnd I Love HerGirlAnd Your Bird Can SingGot To Get You Into My LifeI'm Only SleepingPenny LaneWith A Little Help From My FriendsIt's All Too MuchEverybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My MonkeySun KingMean Mr Mustard

The Long and Winding Road is a McCartney song that was mixed and produced by Phil Spector. McCartney did not like the mix, as is abundantly clear from the letter that he  wrote to Allen Klein and Phil Spector. McCartney explains how he would like the Long and Winding Road to sound:- Less orchestra, and more Beatles (guitars, piano etc.)- absolutely no harp in the mix- bring back the piano at the endFor the 2022 SuperDeLuxe Box of Let It Be, we would have expected Giles Martin to comply with McCartney's wishes, and produce such a mix. However, Giles didn't do that; the orchestra is a bit lower in volume in the 2022 mix, but still overwhelming, and - worst of all - the harp is still there!.In an interview, Giles explained that it was technically impossible to remove the harp from the mix.Now there's a challenge for the BDJ engineers, and they set to work. So here it is, the mix as Sir Paul wished it to be! Also, they left intact the few piano notes at the very end of the song.  Returning to the beginning of the song may well have been a deliberate move from McCartney, to make the end sounding less definitive. After all, the road goes on and on!

Here is BDJ's remix of the 2022 Revolver SDE. All tracks are only sourced from the 2022 stereo version and the outtakes.Some tracks are similar, but subtly different; there are also some mash-ups, where there just wasn't enough material (outtakes) on the Revolver SDE.GILES MARTIN: Horrible! It doesn't sound like the 1966 original at all!RINGO STARR: Peace and Love!PAUL McCARTNEY: And then I went to this church fete in Woolton, close to where John lived.GEOFF EMERICK: George Martin asked me to cut up the tape in small pieces, and I threw them in the air. I picked up the pieces, glued them back together again and so we made Here There and Everywhere.YOKO ONO: Eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Wit a voice like Freddie Mercury's, what else do you need to make music? Not a lot, just enough to support his vocals.Such is the philosophy of this remix of Bohemian Rhapsody: gone are the 160 layered voices, back is Freddie Mercury's amazing voice in your ears.Queen rehearsed Bohemian Rhapsody for 3 weeks before even starting to record it. It took us a similar time to deconstruct it and lift Freddie from the mix..........

Listen to Let It Be as you've never heard it before! After brave attempts by Glyn Johns (4x), George Martin and Giles Martin, the definitive mix of the Let It Be album has finally arrived.True to their motto of "Less is More", the BDJ engineers have taken the songs apart and put them back together - in a surprising way. Discover nuances and subtleties you never knew were there, and enjoy Let It Be as if brand-new.

The Beatles recorded this blues jam on the last day of the Get Back sessions, 31st of January 1969. In 1964 John Lennon had told an English music paper that his favourite album of the year was the great folk album, Lots More Blues, Rags and Hollers by Koerner, Ray & Glover (1963). This album contains the Black Dog Blues. Obviously, the backing track of Koemer et al. comes in handy to spice up the Lennon vocals.Now slow the Black Dog Blues down a bit, change the lyrics and - presto! - there's Crippled Inside from Lennon's Imagine album (1971). Black Dog Blues is a traditional American country blues dating back to at least 1920. Lennon was clever enough to use a 'traditional' for Crippled Inside, so he could not be sued for plagiarism.

The Beatles are not known as great Blues musicians. Otherwise, they are fine but the blues seems to elude them. Still, they produced a few attempts at playing an instrumental blues, including '12 Bar Original' (Anthology), "Flying" (Magical Mystery Tour), "Cayenne" and "Cry for a Shadow" (Anthology). These are all interesting tracks,  and they demonstrate that the blues is not their thing.In particular, it highlights that they struggled to play an interesting blues solo. Understandable, since they were raised on Rock & Roll and Tin Pan Alley songs. This contrasts with other groups in the British Invasion, such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds etc. which were essentially Blues groups branching out into pop music.The most bluesy track that the Beatles played never appeared on vinyl or CD. It is an improvisation recorded during the sessions for the Let It Be LP, on January 23rd, 1969. And it was Billy Preston on keyboards who lifted this jam session from the quality of a ‘4 guys making noise together' to a pleasant blues instrumental. McCartney plays a decent but uneventful bass guitar to support Billy, Lennon is a  constant timekeeper on rhythm guitar, and poor George struggles to come up with a solo on guitar. Several times during the jam, you can hear Billy Preston briefly pausing, waiting for a blues solo, but it never comes, so Billy plays on.Here, salvaged from the cutting room of the new Get Back film, in stereoish, is this unknown Blues Jam w Billy Preston.

The so-called Medley occupies most the Beatles' final album, Abbey Road. It is collection of Lennon and McCartney songettes, artfully strung together by arrangements of McCartney and George Martin.The whole album Abbey Road stands out for its beautiful and complex vocal harmonies, sometimes extending into 3-part harmony.We were treated to a 'vocal isolation' of Because on the Anthology CD, and teased by a reversed vocal of Sun King. But there is so much more to enjoy in the vocals of the Medley. Therefore, BDJ's engineers set to work to isolate the vocals from the complete Medley, starting with Because. Where possible, they created (world premiere!) stereo versions of the vocals, and emphasized the harmonies and backing vocals.So here you, 18 minutes of harmony singing by our favourite American vocal group!

The 'Moonlight Sonata' by van Beethoven was made famous by John Lennon, when he said that his song 'Because' was inspired by Yoko Ono playing this sonata backwards. While debunking this myth, I found that van Beethoven himself never referred to this composition as the 'Moonlight Sonata"; for him, it was a 'quasi-fantasie'. After van Beethoven's death, a music critic wrote an article in a newspaper in which the critic said that the sonata reminded him of moonlight, shining on a lake. The label has stuck ever since. However, listening to the sonata, I'm not reminded of moonlight on a lake at all; instead, it is as if I hear a bell tolling, and a procession of people slowly passing by. On their way to a funeral? I tried to mash the sonata with a church bell, and found that the big bell at the Waalsdorpervlakte matched the sonata (in Cminor) perfectly. A coincidence? The Waalsdorpervlakte is an open place in the dunes in the Netherlands, where more than 250 prisoners were executed by the Germans in World War II. It is one of the main locations where on 4 May "Remembrance of the Dead", a yearly commemoration of victims of World War II and other victims of war, is held by tolling the bell at 8 PM.

“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is a rock song with dark, eccentric lyrics about a person named Maxwell who commits murders with a hammer, although the lyrics are disguised by the upbeat, catchy, and rather “childlike” sound of the song. Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert. However.....McCartney read the lyrics as a poem, once. Enough for the BDJ engineers to construct this 'Avant-garde' version.

We all know Come Together, it is one of the most popular tracks on Abbey Road. Due in no small part to the tremendous bass line, the riffs on the electronic piano....all McCartney contributions to a Lennon song. We know that Lennon started out with Come Together as a much faster song, inspired by a Chuck Berry Song: You Can't Catch Me. We have no recordings or demos of this Ur version of Come Together, but that didn't stop the BDJ engineers to produce such an Outfake. A very different Come Together resulted.......

It is the time of the year to remember those who escaped from this virus ridden Earth. We present a few of those departed who played a role in the Beatles history. Paul McCartney improvises on the piano on a theme by Samuel Barber, "Adagio for Strings'. Peter Green, guitarist of Fleetwood Mac and composer of 'Albatross' is remembered by Mac Fleetwood. Albatross was the inspiration for the Beatles song 'Sun King'. Simon Posthuma: co-founder of 'The Fool', the small group of artists who designed the clothes for the Beatles (and many others) in the Sgt Pepper era, decorated the Apple Store, George Harrison's house, Lennon's Rolls Royce and McCartney's piano. The name the Fool inspired McCartney to write Fool on the Hill. Spencer Davis: Leader of British band that scored with the Steve Winwood-sung “Gimme Some Lovin'” and “I’m a Man”. He befriended the Beatles and made a cameo appearance in The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” film.” He played Norwegian Wood in memory of his friend Lennon. Terry Doran. Doran first met the Beatles in Liverpool, through Epstein, and sold the band their first car, as well as the van in which they travelled to gigs around the North of England. He went on to work at Apple. He is often cited as the inspiration behind the line "Meeting a man from the motor trade" in the Beatles' 1967 song "She's Leaving Home". Ivry Gitlis. Israeli classical violinist who played with Yoko Ono on The Rolling Stones Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus. Astrid Kirchherr. Photographer known for early Beatles images. Little Richard. Rock n’ roll pioneer whose influence spanned generations. The Beatles covered many of his songs. Chad Stuart. Half of the British Invasion-era duo Chad and Jeremy: scored a hit with the McCartney composition From a Window. Sean Connery. Bond; James Bond. Louis van Dijk. Dutch pianist. In 1970 he recorded 'Louis van Dyke plays Lennon-McCartney' in one day on the church organ of the Reformed Church in Loenen. Listen on Spotify. Tom Mulder: Dutch radio show host (Veronica, TROS, Radio 10 Gold) of long running documentary series about the Beatles, such as Poster and the Beatles Story.

It was forty years ago today (more or less), so a good moment to commemorate Lennon's final single. Woman was chosen by Lennon to be the second single released from the Double Fantasy album. The lyrics are not among Lennon's best, but it is nicely Beatlesque that the last words are "I love you, yeah, yeah"..... The lyrics seem to be inspired by McCartney's song 'Woman', which was made a hit by Peter and Gordon. In particular, each sentence beginning with the word 'Woman' comes straight out of McCartney's lyrics. 'Woman' is a catchy tune, but musically, it is not one his most original compositions. It 'borrows' its chord progression from McCartney's 'Here, There and Everywhere'. And it contains the "truck driver's modulation": shifting up a half-step in key half way through gives the song a badly needed push. The truck driver's modulation has been a pop music cliché since the 1950s......... We are therefore very pleased with the excellent cover version, sung by Dutch singer/songwriter Yorick van Norden, performed 'live' on Dutch radio: https://www.nporadio1.nl/cultuur-media/28188-moord-op-john-lennon-veertig-jaar-geleden-nog-steeds-een-van-de-grootste-misdaden-van-de-mensheid The BDJ engineers set to work to convert his simple rendition into a real cover song. Yorick just made his first number one! NB for more van Norden, order his latest album here: https://www.amazon.com/Jester-Yorick-van-Norden/dp/B08BRCYYSY

“Just Fun” is one of the very first songs written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, in late 1957 or 1958. It remained rather obscure for decades. The Beatles played a rough version during the 'Get Back' sessions in January 1969. It only lasts for 20 or 30 seconds. As part of the John Lennon 80th birthday celebrations on 9 October, Paul McCartney has announced that he would play the unreleased Beatles song to mark the day. And he actually sang a single verse, strumming his guitar, as part of the BBC special ‘John Lennon at 80’, which aired on October 3 and 4 between 9 and 10pm London time. That was a great disappointed for true Beatles fans, who expected a real Beatles version that would have remained hidden in the EMI vaults. But no such recording probably exists. And that is the kind of challenge that the BDJ engineers like: re-create a long lost song from the scraps found at the bottom of the stairs of the Abbey Road studios. Our version has a 'Wings' feel to it, although it is possible that George played slide guitar.

'Her Majesty’ was first performed at the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in January 1969. McCartney brought the song to the band in Twickenham on 9 January. But it lasted until July 2nd before McCartney recorded the takes on Abbey Road that we all know and love. Or do we? Her Majesty is the least popular Beatles track on Spotify. In defence of Her Majesty, the statistics may lead us astray since Her Majesty is only 23 seconds long, not long enough to be consistently registered by the Spotify statistics...... Still, I haven't met many Beatles fans who name Her Majesty as their favourite track. It certainly has an unfinished feel to it: it consists of only one verse, there is no intro, chorus, middle eight.... Did McCartney consider it to be a finished song? On the one hand, he recorded 3 takes of it, suggesting that it was finished. On the other hand, Her Majesty was intended to be included in the Medley on the B-side of Abbey Road, which consist of half-finished songs. Because of its place in the medley, McCartney may have felt there was no need to come up with a second verse and a middle eight; but in the end, he rejected Her Majesty altogether for Abbey Road. It was only because junior technician John Kurlander refused to discard the tape, that Her Majesty was included on Abbey Road at all. This makes it interesting to think about what would have happened if Kurlander had followed McCartney's instructions to discard the tape. It is my assumption that McCartney would have resurrected Her Majesty for his first solo album, McCartney; he did so for several other songs composed in his Beatles era, but not included on any Beatles album. For the McCartney Album, he would have made a proper backing track (woodwind and slurpy cello arrangement) and composed a middle eight. And here we have it, as a world premiere, what Her Majesty might have sounded like on the 'McCartney' album. So what is Her Majesty about? The easy answer would be the British Queen, and that is what McCartney himself has hinted at in interviews. However, the lyrics don't seem to fit Queen Elisabeth at all: no disrespect, but Elisabeth is not a 'pretty nice girl', nor does she stay quiet, or changes every day......So the subject must be someone else, who can't be named. Once you hear the name, it is quite obvious, but I'll leave that for some other occasion. Feel free to comment if you have suggestions!

McCartney sang Yesterday accompanied by his Epiphone Texan guitar on the evening of 14th June. A score for string quartet — George Martin's first major arranging contribution to The Beatles - was over-dubbed three days later. A string quartet, in the pop world of those days, was quite a step to take. It was with ‘Yesterday’ that George Martin started breaking out of the phase of using just four instruments and went into something more experimental. Unfortunately, the recording was still very much focused on MONO. The STEREO mix of Yesterday has the guitar on the extreme left, and the string quartet in the extreme right. This makes for an awkward listening experience. Here, we present a more balanced stereo version of Yesterday, with the string quartet in stereo. Quite some work for the BDJ Spectral Demuxers, since there is no stereo recording of the string quartet available. We thought we would do credit to Tony Gilbert, Sidney Sax (violins), Kenneth Essex (viola) and Francisco Gabarro (cello) by rendering them in glorious stereo. We can now hear the string quartet better; they had to play listening to the recoding of vocals + guitar of 3 days earlier, and at some points they are a bit out of sync. But the beautiful arrangement (score by George Martin) easily makes up for these imperfections. The highlight of the arrangement is the little cello phrase in the middle eighty (1:25-l :27), and the violin's held high A in the final verse. And that must have been frustrating for poor George Martin; George Martin had asked McCartney to comment on Martin's score; and it was McCartney who added the cello in the middle eight and the violin's held note! Frustrating no doubt, since Martin had studied music at university, and was an accomplished arranger. McCartney couldn't read music and had never scored a string quartet before.......

It doesn't happen every day that you get to hear a new Beatles song; but today is that day! We proudly present the premiere (as a complete song) of 'You Won't Get Me That Way', as recorded by the Beatles on 27 January 1969 in Apple Studios, Savile Row. You Won't Get Me That Way is a swinging blues, in classic McCartney rocker style. Soulful vocals by McCartney, in excellent voice that day. Some neat drum playing by Ringo, and bluesy guitars by George and John. With a bit more work, this could have turned into a track on 'Let It Be' (compare with 'For You Blue'!), were it not that the Beatles had run out of time to rehearse new songs; Ringo was scheduled to take off at the beginning of February to appear in The Magic Christian with Peter Sellers, so they had to finish the sessions soon. They had not come to a conclusion about the finale for the sessions yet, but they realized there would have to be some kind of live performance, and that an album should be assembled from what had been recorded. Later of course, this would culminate in the live performance on the rooftop of Apple studios on 30 January. Anyway, on 27 January it was high time to put the finishing touches on the songs that had been rehearsed since January 2nd. We can only conclude that the Beatles were in a good mood that day, perhaps they were happy that the rehearsal sessions were coming to an end? This Monday was the 16th day of the Get Back/Let It Be sessions. The Beatles recorded a total of 32 takes of Get Back in a single day, experimenting with different tempos and styles – including mock Japanese and German versions and alternative lyrics. One new song to be introduced on this day was George Harrison’s Old Brown Shoe, which would become the B-side to The Ballad Of John And Yoko later in 1969. Towards the end of the day, they were in the middle of rehearsing I've got a Feeling, when Billy Preston (on keyboards) played a classic blues intro. All 4 Beatles picked up on it, Paul improvised the vocals and the lyrics, and You Won't Get Me That Way was born. They then played a little of Jimmy McCracklin's song "The Walk" before returning to I've Got a Feeling. A pretty disciplined rehearsal session, for Beatles standards in those days..... Still, the lyrics may betray some of what was on Paul's mind in these final days of January. The lyrics mainly consist of 'no, you won't get me that way, you're gonna have to go it on your own', with some additional lyrics at the very end: "you won't get what I can give you. No why should I give you what I gotta give, the way you treat me like you do.' The easiest explanation would be to label the lyrics as some pretty nonsense, produced on the spot. However, when improvising on the spot - as Paul was doing here - some inner thoughts might pop up that otherwise might have remained suppressed. Is it a coincidence that these lyrics emerge in the middle of rehearsing 'I've Got a Feeling, a feeling deep inside'? Let's find out what these lyrics could relate to! The first thing that comes to the attention, is the negative form of the lyrics; it is mostly 'No you won't'. This is unusual for McCartney, whose lyrics are usually upbeat. One of the few McCartney songs with lyrics in the negative form is 'You Never Give Me Your Money'. This song was written 2 months later, in March 1969. Could these 2 songs be related? 'You Won't Get Me That way' seems to be a reply to a request to give something to somebody. Paul will not do that, because of the way 'you treat me like you do'. In fist instance, we may imagine that this would be about some 'love' relationship of Paul's, but that doesn't agree with his actual situation. He had met with Linda (Eastman), was deeply in love, and would marry her soon afterwards (March 1969). It is highly unlikely that he would be singing about refusing Linda what she would ask of Paul. Therefore, the refusal could relate to business, or money matters. And that fits nicely with the lyrics of You Never Give Me Your Money; McCartney has said that this song was written with Allen Klein in mind, saying "it's basically a song about no faith in the person'. A notoriously brash character and tough negotiator, Klein invented the role of business manager, taking a stance as the outsider siding with the artists, the enemy of the record companies. And this Allen Klein would have very much been on McCartney's mind already in January 1969. Klein had been trying to become the Beatles financial manager since 1964. Epstein and Klein had met face-to-face, in London, Klein offering to help with handling the Beatles’ finances. Brian Epstein was royally offended at the suggestion that someone else should do his job for him, and he had Klein shown to the door. After Epstein's death in 1967, Klein renewed his efforts. He had spoken with Lennon during the recording of on 11 December 1968 of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, where Lennon performed Yer Blues. A December 1968 article in Disc and Music Echo in which Lennon worried that the Beatles were nearly broke (Apple losing around 20000 pound each week) lent an air of urgency to Klein’s appeal for Lennon to meet with him to talk Beatles business, and Klein continued his contact with Lennon from the US. He managed to set up a meeting with John & Yoko on January 26, in the Harlequin suite of the Dorchester Hotel, London, where Klein was staying. Klein served them “a carefully researched and prepared vegetarian meal—exactly the macrobiotic dishes John and Yoko preferred.” Klein had studied the music and lyrics of Lennon and spoke sensibly about the meaning of Lennon’s songs. John & Yoko were very impressed with him, and John decided on the spot to make him his personal adviser. There and then he wrote to Sir Joseph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI: "Dear Sir Joe: From now on Allen Klein handles all my stuff." Lennon wrote a similar letter to Dick James, who ran Northern Songs to publish the Beatles songs. After meeting with John & Yoko, Klein set up a meeting with all four Beatles on 27- or 28 January. Paul McCartney preferred to be represented by Lee and John Eastman, the father and brother respectively of his fiancée, Linda. In fact, the Beatles had appointed Lee Eastman as their financial advisor earlier in January. But now, George and Ringo sided with John & Yoko, and Paul walked out of the meeting. Although we have no direct evidence, it seems likely that Paul was aware of Klein's presence and intentions on January 27th, when they recorded 'You Won't Get Me That Way'. Klein would have had to invite Paul to his meeting sometime during January 27, and they recorded You Won't Get Me' towards the end of the recording session. It was clear that the Beatles could not continue this way; John Eastman came over but could not convince the other 3 Beatles. Eastman felt he could not represent the Beatles if they did not have confidence in him. On 3 February the Beatles met again. Allen Klein was charged with examining their finances and finding a way to stop NEMS from bleeding them of a quarter of their income. As a compromise to Paul, Linda's father and brother were appointed as Apple's General Council, to keep an eye on Allen Klein's activities. However, Klein’s assignment would turn out badly for the Beatles: Dick James, their music publisher, owned a controlling 37.5% of Northern Songs. Lennon and McCartney owned 15% each. After Epstein's death on 27 August 1967, Lennon and McCartney sought to renegotiate their publishing deal with James. In 1968 they invited James for a meeting at Apple Records and it became clear to Dick James that Lennon and McCartney would not renew their contract with Northern Songs. With no new songs being published, Dick James expected that the value of Northern Songs would plummet, and he would lose millions as the major shareholder. In January, Dick James noticed the arrival of Klein through Lennon’s letter. James knew that Klein was a hardball player not averse to questionable business deals; he had a string of lawsuits behind him pending in the States. James feared that Klein would pull some scam that would suddenly leave James out in the cold with nothing. Dick James could no longer offer to sell his shares to Lennon and McCartney, because he expected that they would not pay the full price - threatening to write no more songs when their contract ran out. Therefore, Dick James sold his share of Northern Songs without informing Lennon and McCartney (or Klein), so they had no time to announce their intentions in public. Klein was unsuccessful in buying back NEMS or blocking the sale of Northern Songs, despite his intense efforts. Allen Klein's strategy became to sell Lennon and McCartney’s shares quickly and make some cash before news of the Beatles' breakup leaked - after which the shares would tumble in value. This is why, in the meeting at Apple in October of 1969, where John officially told Paul the Beatles were over, Allen Klein pressured everyone to keep quiet about the situation for at least the next few months. Thus Klein was a factor in Lennon and McCartney losing control of their songs, and they would only regain it decades later; thanks to a revision of copyright laws in the US, the copyright returns to the composer after 56 years, so only now do the first songs return to McCartney and Lennon's estate (Yoko Ono). Klein was successful in other business: sorting out the financial mess of their ill-fated Apple Corps venture. He put an end to the Apple Boutique and got rid of the charlatans and hangers-on. The Beatles’ existing deal with EMI and Capitol gave them 17.5% of the US wholesale price – a considerable amount already. Klein was able to increase to 25%. He argued that, should the label object, The Beatles would cease to record for them. Klein also gained Apple Corps the right to manufacture and sell The Beatles records in the US. EMI would retain the recordings, but Capitol would manufacture the releases on Apple’s behalf. Apple would then profit from the difference between manufacturing and retail costs. The new terms gave The Beatles the right, for the first time, to determine the ways in which their music was manufactured and sold. By 1971 the group’s entire back catalogue was made available on Apple Records. Klein also made sure Let It Be was released as a motion picture rather than a TV film, therefore fulfilling the group's contractual obligations with United Artists. So, the positive contribution of Klein was that The Beatles’ personal incomes were greatly improved, and Apple was guaranteed a regular income until at least 1976. Still, it was downhill from there for Allan Klein and the Beatles. Klein held on to the proceeds from the Concert for Bangladesh, the charity event he organized with Harrison at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1971, delaying the release of the funds to UNICEF for years, and was investigated by the US authorities. After Klein’s contract with Lennon, Harrison and Starr expired in March 1973, they opted not to renew it. The group eventually paid Klein an estimated $4m when all litigation was finally settled in January 1977. Klein was the subject of veiled references in the Harrison song "Beware Of Darkness" – from 1971's All Things Must Pass – and the Lennon composition "Steel And Glass" – on 1974's Walls And Bridges album. In 1979, Klein was sentenced to two months in jail for tax evasion after helping himself to the proceeds from the sale of promotional copies of the Concert For Bangladesh triple album. Klein died 4 July 2009. Of course, McCartney did not know all of this on 27 January 1969, but he must have seen troubles coming his way in the form of Allan Klein. And his sub-conscious pushed the lyrics to his lips: "You won't get what I can give you. No why should I give you what I gotta give, the way you treat me like you do."

A three-minute sample from a tape auctioned in the '90s and purchased by the Beatles, featuring selections from various 1962 TV appearances has hit the Internet in December 2019. The samples consist of songs performed on October 17th, October 29th, and December 29th, 1962 — “Some Other Guy,” “Love Me Do,” A Taste of Honey,” and “Twist and Shout.” As this performance went out live on TV, it wasn't taped at all. As luck would have it, the audio of these Beatles' appearances on Granada TV's People and Places were recorded by Adrian Killen, a 16-year-old fan from Kirkdale, on a reel to reel deck wired to the TV Speaker. It was sold at an auction and purchased by Apple for around £2000 per track. Unfortunately, only brief samples are available, form the tape that was used to advertise the auction of the complete recordings. For instance, the Love Me Do sample lasts only 48 seconds. Here, as a world premiere, we present a complete version of this Love Me Do as played on 17 October 1962. Love Me Do is highly repetitive, consisting of just 3 chords, and the verse is repeated four times! This enables us to re-constitute the complete song from the sample, with only minor fudging of the intro and outro. The Love Me Do performance of 17 October is a revelation: not only was it the first Lennon-McCartney song to be played on television, it also differs from the version of Love Me Do on the single (and Please Please Me LP)! The difference is subtle, but it helps to resolve a mystery around the sacking of Pete Best as drummer. While the Beatles were rehearsing Love Me Do in Hamburg (with Pete Best on drums), Best made a suggestion for the arrangement: "The idea was to make the middle-eight different from the rest of the tune, and I said, 'OK, we put the skip beat in.'" The 'skip beat' was a fluctuation in tempo, an acceleration to lead into the vocal bridge and again later, before the instrumental middle-eight. It sounded good enough for John and Paul to accept. And when the Beatles went into the studio - with Pete Best - to record Love Me Do on June 6th, 1962, they included the skip beat (on Anthology 1). Later, the drumming of Pete Best was criticized, and the skip beat section was highlighted as being particularly poor. However, the critics do not consider that Lennon and McCartney accepted this skip beat in all performances until then. Next, when Ringo recorded the song with the Beatles (September 4th, 1962), they did not play the 'skip beat', but added handclaps during the solo section to liven things up a bit. The version with Andy White on drums (September 11th, 1962) similarly omitted the skip beat, and featured Ringo on tambourine instead. Therefore, it is amazing that Ringo played the skip beat on October 17th, just over a month after recording Love Me Do - without the skip beat. Apparently, Lennon, McCartney and Ringo didn't think it was such a bad idea (of Pete Best!) after all. This suggests that it was probably George Martin who objected to the skip beat, not Lennon or McCartney. In subsequent TV and radio performances (recordings available after January 1963), Ringo never played the skip beat again! I suppose they wanted to remain consistent with the version out on the record. So here we go, a truly unique live performance of Love Me Do!

The Abbey Road box released in 2019 marks the first time that Beatles songs are released in ATMOS format (on the Blue-ray disc). Since the 'One' DVD, all subsequent releases featured Dolby 5.1 mixes, but these were mostly rather underwhelming. But the 5.1 and Atmos mixes of Abbey Road mark a turning point; I can imagine that these mixes will become the preferred way to listen to Abbey Road, relegating the stereo mix to older audiophiles.... What is Atmos? It is a surround system like 5.1, but with sound coming form above as well. True 3-dimensional sound. Home Atmos systems are becoming affordable, but are not yet as widespread as 5.1 systems. To give some feeling for how amazing the Atmos mixes are, we have isolated the (8) Atmos channels and used them to produce remixes of the tracks on Abbey Road. 3 of these tracks are full remixes (Come Together, Something, I Want You), the other tracks are just short highlights of the Atmos channels. To showcase the way it works, we start with Her Majesty. This song starts with a chord, which actually was the closing chord of Mean Mr Mustard. We play 4 ATMOS channels (each twice) so it becomes clear that the instruments playing the chord are distributed over the channels. Listening to a real Atmos system, a different instrument would come at you from each corner of the room. Most of these remixes are just samples of what can de done with the Atmos channels. Don't worry, we have already produced full remixes of the major tracks, which will appear in the Cellar on a later date.

The vocals shine in this remix. Does Paul sing on Come Together? Sure he does, harmonizes with John during the first half of the song. In the latter half, John harmonizes with John. The vocals in the outro can be heard clearly, perhaps it was a good thing they were no so clear in 1969?

This remix just begged to be produced. The vocals from the centre channel, as pure as you can get (no reverb), supported by the (stereo) orchestra from CD3.

We scan through the channels to highlight piano, guitars, and - yes- the Moog synthesizer.

Paul playing his characteristic Piano style. The Oooh aah chorus stands out well.

George's solo guitar is right in your face, and then John joins in with his telltale "Julia riffing".

Great guitar amplifier sound, funky and bluesy shines clearly now. The Hammond Organ -- played by Billy Preston -- is super clear now! His previously buried-in-the-mix solo is fantastic. Lennon's voice rasps supercool when he comes in with "Yeeaaaaaaaah" (without the distortion that spoiled the 2009 remasters version).

We can now fully appreciate George's singing. The Moog Synthesizer comes in with a bang, and the acoustic guitar sounds lifelike.

We scan through the channels and hear some beautiful vocals, and the Moog Synth. Still, the feeling lingers that Giles Martin could have done more with this track, e.g. separate the vocals more?

Listen to Paul's vocals up close. Double tracked. Then some honkytonk piano by George Martin. The rhythm guitar could be John,. the solo guitar probably George? Some nice aaaahh's and oooh's, followed by the countdown 1234567.

Guitars on the brink of distortion, round bass, and heavenly voices. Of course, this track was popular on Love remixes as well. In the ATMOS mix, the Spanish lyrics suddenly become intelligible!