Early version of “Something” promo recovered

Footage from the early edit of The Beatles’ “Something” promotional film.

In the wake of the newly found 11 second fragment of The Beatles’ 1966 “Top Of The Pops” appearance, Kaleidoscope reports that another gem from the show has been recovered. Apple sent an early version of the promotional film (which is what music videos were called back in the day) for “Something” to the BBC for use on the Nov. 13, 1969 edition of popular music chart show Top Of The Pops. A researcher found a tape of the film buried deep within an Austrian TV archive. BBC must have licensed some Top Of The Pops to them, so there’s a few songs from the November 13, 1969 episode, including this. The other songs he found on the tape were by Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac and Nancy Sinatra. “When I first saw it I skimmed through it since I thought it was just a black & white copy of the promo we know,” says the researcher who found it. But as a long time collector of Beatles film footage, he soon realised that there was something odd about the black and white video. The footage filmed by McCartney and sent to Apple for use in the film has not yet been included, so instead there’s a bit of McCartney footage from the “Fool On The Hill” sequence from “Magical Mystery Tour”. A little clip of Linda appears to come from the “Let It Be” sessions.

Footage of Linda from “Let It Be” made do for this early edit of the film.

Some outtakes from the other Beatles’ sections of the promo is also there, in lieu of the missing McCartney scenes. Kaleidoscope believes that this version of “Something” has remained unseen since its original BBC transmission.

The early edit of “Something” will be shown at an event on the 20th of April in London. The event is called “Music Believed Wiped”, a music-themed special of the hugely popular “Missing Believed Wiped” programme which the Kaleidoscope group curates in partnership with the British Film Institute. On the programme this evening is newly found clips of not only The Beatles, but also

Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, T.Rex, Slade and Cilla Black, among others.

Kaleidoscope is a voluntary, non profit-making group devoted to the appreciation and research of vintage television in all its forms. They publish research books and memoirs from radio, film and TV personnel. They also restore old format VCR recordings and store over 50,000 items of television, including videotapes, photos and memorabilia. If you have anything at home which you may think could be of interest, even audio tapes of UK broadcasts, you can get in touch with Kaleidoscope at contact@kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk.

Here’s the final edit of the “Something” promo, as published by The Beatles.