Beatles promo clips on TV

Fantasy blu-ray compilation of Beatles promo clips. Reality soon?

This weekend, a TV station in Holland presented a couple of TV shows which may be of interest to you. On Saturday 23 August 2014, the Dutch oldies TV station “192 TV” broadcast 33 Beatles promo clips (that’s “music videos” for any youngsters out there) in a show called “The Beatles: 50 jaar na Blokker – ook op veler verzoek in de herhaling” (“50 years after Blokker – too many requests in the repetition”, translation by Google). The TV station had replaced all of the original audio with the ‘best available’ audio (which means live audio is replaced by studio audio). It was an entertaining 1,5 hours of Beatles clips in chronological order (based on the Dutch singles chart entries – plus three inserts ‘I Need You’, ‘You’re Gonna Lose That Girl’ and ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ which weren’t issued there on a single). The next day they played an hour long special, featuring Beatles solo promo clips.

Here’s the tracklisting (and the sources):

1) LOVE ME DO (1982 promo clip)

2) SHE LOVES YOU (from The Mersey Sound)

3) I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND (from Ed Sullivan Show)

4) FROM ME TO YOU (from Ed Sullivan Show)

5) PLEASE PLEASE ME (from Ed Sullivan Show)

6) CAN’T BUY ME LOVE (from Ready Steady Go)

7) ALL MY LOVING (from Ed Sullivan Show)

8) I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER (from A Hard Day’s Night)

9) AND I LOVE HER (from A Hard Day’s Night)

10) I FEEL FINE (from Ed Sullivan Show)

11) TICKET TO RIDE (from Help!)

12) HELP! (the promo from the start of the Help! film, without darts etc.)

13) I NEED YOU (from Help!)

14) YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE THAT GIRL (from Help!)

15) YESTERDAY (from Ed Sullivan Show)

16) WE CAN WORK IT OUT (from The Music Of Lennon-McCartney)

17) DAY TRIPPER (from The Music Of Lennon-McCartney)

18) YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY (from Help!)

19) PAPERBACK WRITER (colour promo clip from Chiswick)

20) PENNY LANE (promo clip)

21) STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER (promo clip – original version)

22) ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (from Our World – Anthology colour version)

23) HELLO GOODBYE (promo clip – Anthology version)

24) I AM THE WALRUS (from Magical Mystery Tour)

25) MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (from Magical Mystery Tour)

26) THE FOOL ON THE HILL (from Magical Mystery Tour)

27) LADY MADONNA (promo clip – Anthology version)

28) HEY JUDE (promo clip)

29) REVOLUTION (promo clip)

30) GET BACK (from Let It Be)

31) THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO (promo clip-Anthology version)

32) LET IT BE (from Let It Be – Anthology version)

33) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD (from Let It Be)

And here’s “Part Two”: John, Paul, George and Ringo solo:

1) GIVE PEACE A CHANCE (footage of demonstrations)

2) INSTANT KARMA! (Top Of The Pops – Yoko knitting)

3) IT DON’T COME EASY (shot in snow clad Norway – from “Cilla in Scandinavia”)

4) MY SWEET LORD (from the Bangladesh concert film + stills)

5) MOTHER (studio version to stills)

6) POWER TO THE PEOPLE (Promo film, more demonstrations)

7) EAT AT HOME (footage of Paul and Linda from various sources)

8) IMAGINE (Promo film)

9) MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB (Promo film (fading colours) in a barn)

10) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) (Christmas tree + winter photos of John. Harlem Community Choir and War Is Over poster campaign)

11) HI, HI, HI (Original promo film in 4:3, not from McCartney Years)

12) MY LOVE (as above)

13) HELEN WHEELS (as above)

14) MIND GAMES (Original promo film – John walking in New York with hat)

15) BAND ON THE RUN (Starts with “drawings” promo with Beatles imagery, as on McCartney Years, goes over to footage from “Wings Over The World”, as well as footage from the cover shoot)

The TV station broadcasts digitally, and the quality was quite nice. So, is the Beatles section an early clue to what we might expect from the proposed “1” music video compilation or was this something a Beatles fan at the 192 TV station put together?

The nicely synched record sound to the Ed Sullivan clips hints at official Apple work. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if these clips are included on the “1” DVD.

Disappointing if they stick with the “Anthology” creations, though. The Anthology editions of the promo clips usually inject outtake or unrelated footage into the original sixties promos, creating new (and perhaps more entertaining) but historically incorrect music videos. Thankfully, “Strawberry Fields Forever” remains like it was in the sixties (and is probably inserted here by 192 TV, it’s not on “1”). The version shown on Anthology had some orange nineties colourisation added, as well as some home movie footage which was never part of the original promo. “All You Need Is Love” was originally filmed in black and white, the colour was added by the producers of Anthology. The Anthology version of “Hello Goodbye” was a mix of original promos 1, 2 and 3 from the sixties, the “Lady Madonna” clip, originally just footage of the Beatles recording “Hey Bulldog” had inserts from other films (notably “Hey Jude” clips from the “Music! Experiment in Television” film), and “Let It Be” contains a still of the film poster not originally present. I was hoping they would leave the sixties versions of the promo clips intact, but judging from the clips here, they will be the Anthology era edits. “Hey Jude” however, is not in great quality here (good, but not Anthology quality), so perhaps these are not the “1” films after all.

This weekend’s programming was certainly reminiscent of the old Australian Beatles TV specials by the “Rage” TV show on ABC, although they usually mixed the solo stuff in between their Beatles clips. That show was the source of many Beatles video compilations being traded among us Beatles video collectors back in the late eighties/early nineties. In 2005, “Rage” wanted to do a Beatles TV Special again, featuring “over 3 hours of videoclips, interviews and *live* performances”. Sadly, the show never aired, the website of the show citing “unforseen circumstances” as the reason.