Starting in 1963, the Beatles started recording and releasing a special 6 or 7 minutes christmas single, in the shape of a 7 inch flexidisc (looks like a single, but is thinner and made of plastic), which they had distributed to members of their official fan club. These recorda are very rare today and difficult to get hold of.
1) The Beatles Christmas Record December 6, 1963 (Lyntone LYN 492)
Description: Amongst christmas greetings and other things other things a comical rendition of "Good King Wenceslas" and towards the end the chorus from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Marks).
Recorded Oktober 17, 1963.
2) Another Beatles Christmas Record December 18, 1964 (Lyntone LYN 757)
Description: Includes the classic "Jingle Bells," individual greetings and the ending jingle "Can You Wash Your Father's Shirts?"
Recorded: October 26, 1964.
3) The Beatles Third Christmas Record December 17, 1965 (Lyntone LYN 948)
Description: Contains "Yesterday," "Happy Christmas to Ya List'nas," "Auld Land Syne," the Four Top's "It's the Same Old Song" and "Christmas Comes But Once a Year."
Recorded November 8, 1965.
4) The Beatles Fourth Christmas Record Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas December 16, 1966 (Lyntone LYN 1145)
Description: A Monty Python-like record (or to be more accurate, the Goon Shows) , with amongst other things "Everywhere It's Christmas," "Orowanya," "Please Don't Bring Your Banjo Back" and the dramatic mini-play "Podgy the Bear and Jasper Visit Felpin Mansions."
Recorded: November 25, 1966.
5) Christmas Time Is Here Again! December 15, 1967 (Lyntone LYN 1360)
Description: includes the rocking "Christmas Time is Here Again," (later released in conjunction with the Anthology-project) "Plenty of Jam Jars" (performed by fictional band the "Revellers"), and finally John's poem "When Christmas Time is Over."
Recorded: November 28, 1967.
6) The Beatles 1968 Christmas Record December 20, 1968 (Lyntone LYN 1743/4)
Description: a collage of sounds and Fab greetings, including "Happy Christmas, Happy New Year," Johns poem "Jock & Yono" and "Once Upon a Pool Table." Guest-appearing artist Tiny Tim destroys "Nowhere Man".
Recorded in November, 1968.
7) The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record December 19, 1969 (Lyntone LYN 1970/1)
Description: A visit to John and Yoko in their home, Ringo plugs his movie "The Magic Christian" and Paul sings "This is to Wish You a Merry, Merry Christmas." George is featured only briefly.
Recorded autumn 1969.
LP: From Then To You (Title in the USA: The Beatles Christmas Album)
Released: December 18, 1970 (Apple SBC 100) USA-edition, (Apple LYN 2154) UK-edition.
Description: A compilation of all these above mentioned flexis. As with the flexis, only fan club members were given a copy of this LP. Apart from the free copy, more copies could be ordered from the fan club. This was the first time americans could listen to the 1963-record, since they started with the 1964 flexi. The two editions of the LP has different names and also different album sleeves. The american one is the most popular a la the british A Hard Day's Night LP, but featuring photos from different years. Both the UK and USA versions of this LP are extremely rare, and have been counterfeited several times. In 1997, Ringo said that Apple has plans to release this LP on CD to a broader audience.
6 comments:
http://rapidshare.com/files/320472944/Beatles_-_Christmas_Records_1963_1969__Doctor_Ebbets_.rar
I used to have the From Then to You album many years ago, until someone nicked it. So many thanks for this!
Thanks for posting this! Your blog is great - a real goldmine. Thanks for sharing...
you're welcome and thanks for the comments...
Whatever Ringo may have said, there's still no sign of a CD release. They missed the opportunity to include it in the recent remastered sets, so maybe they're saving it for the next remastering in another 20 years.
1964 They are totally high on pot. George even makes a joke about it.
Post a Comment