Magical Mystery Tour

Recording: 25 April, 1967- 7 November,1967

Released: 27 April, 1967 (US) 8 December, 1967 (UK)
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Label: Parlophone
Studios: EMI Studios, Olympic Studios
John Lennon: Vocals, guitar, acoustic piano, electric piano, mellotron, organ, clavioline, harmonica
Paul McCartney: Vocals, piano, bass, mellotron, recorder
George Harrison: Vocals, guitar, organ, harmonica
Ringo Starr: drums, percussion.

In between the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album release and the making and release of their ninth studio album, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles had been through a lot from their Our World performance to Transcendental Meditation to Apple and to the unexpected passing of their beloved manager, Brian Epstein.

Our World:
On 18 May, 1967 The Beatles signed a contact with the BBC to preform on the worlds first ever live television satellite that would be watched by five continents and an estimate of 400 million people.

"We were big enough to command an audience of that size, and it was for love. It was for love and bloody peace. It was a fabulous time. I even get excited now when I realise that's what it was for: peace and love, people putting flowers in guns."- Ringo Starr

With that power John Lennon had created one of the greatest and iconic songs of the century, "All You Need Is Love" and the show was aired on 25 June, 1967 spreading that message. The following video is The Beatles preforming "All You Need Is Love" on Our World.

Beginning of Transcendental Meditation:

Two years prior to the Magical Mystery Tour era John and George had had their Dental Experience  and Ringo had also experienced with the wonder drug known as LSD. McCartney on the other hand waited out on the drug but by 1967 had dropped acid and publicly announced it in an interview when he was asked the question if they've (The Beatles) had even taken it, speaking the truth he told it. It was already no secret that the group had been using marijuana since Bob Dylan introduced it to them in 1964.

It was 24 August, 1967 that The Beatles went to a seminar hosted by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the London Hilton on Park Lane where the group would find a new way to clear their mind and to a higher state other than drugs by learning the techniques and benefits of Transcendental Meditation.

After seeing the Maharishi in London the following day they decided to attended a ten day seminar in Bangor, Wales; Mick Jagger and girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull also attended.

 "You just sit there and let your mind go; it doesn't matter what you're thinking about, just let it go. And then you introduce the mantra, the vibration, to take over from the thought. You don't will it or use your will power."- John Lennon, 1967

Unfortunately The Beatles stay was cut short on 27 August

Brian Epstein's Death

Brian Epstein had been the bands manager since 1962. He had grown up with The Beatles and became one of them.

"We loved Brian. He was a generous man. We owe so much to him. We have come a long way with Brian along the same road."- Ringo Starr, 1967

 While The Beatles had taken their trip to Wales Brian had took a trip to the Sussex country with Peter Brown and Geoffrey Ellis.The weekend didn't turn out as planned for Brian, he was hoping for a man he had met to show up and the two of them to become better acquainted but he never showed. On Friday 25 August Brian returned from his country retreat, his butler Antonio and Antonio's wife, Maria recalls  Brian going straight to bed, very quiet.

The following day Antonio and Maria both heard nothing from Brian and decided just to let him rest and come back on Sunday afternoon, maybe he'd be better then. When they knocked on the door that Sunday with no response, no one wanted to go into the room alone in case something had happened so they called Peter Brown and Ellis hoping that they'd know something, when they didn't John Galaway, Brian's doctor, was called in. John and Antonio knocked down his bed room door to find Brian laying in bed motionless, as recalled by Joanne Newfield.

"I can't find words to pay tribute to him. It is just that he was loveable, and it is those lovable things we think about now."- John Lennon, 1967

The cause of his death was determined to be from pills and alcohol, It's not certain if it was a suicide attempt, because of how his country vacation turned out or if it's because without The Beatles touring there wasn't much for him to do with The Beatles. The Beatles all think that the idea of suicide is very hard to come to terms with and think that he just accidentally took too many pills. Paul McCartney explains his theory that Brian must of took a sleeping pill or something, fell asleep, woke up again and must of thought that he hadn't took a pill, so he took another and that was the cause of his death. John began to blame himself, saying he was the one who got him onto pills, uppers and downers and thought that that was the cause of his death.

"Maharishi told us not to hold onto Brian- to love him and let him go, because we are all powerful forces and we could stop him going on in the natural progression up to heaven. He said, 'You know you have to grieve for him and love him, and now you send him on his way.' And it really helped."- Ringo Starr

"He dedicated so much of his life to The Beatles. We liked and loved him. He was one of us. There is no such thing as death. It is a comfort to us all to know that he is OK."- George Harrison, 1967

"Brian would be really happy to hear how much we loved him"- Paul McCartney

"Brian has died in body, and his spirit will always be working with us. His power and force were everything and his force will linger on. When we were on the right track he knew it, and when we were on the wrong track her told us so- and he was usually right. But anyways he isn't really dead."- John Lennon, 1967

The album would become a soundtrack for The Beatles new project, Magical Mystery Tour film. One of their first projects, along with Apple, after Brian's passing.

 Tracklisting:

1.  Magical Mystery Tour
2. The Fool On The Hill
3. Flying
4. Blue Jay Way
5. Your Mother Should Know
6. I Am The Walrus
7. Hello Goodbye
8. Strawberry Fields Forever
9. Penny Lane
10. Baby You're a Rich Man
11. All You Need Is Love

Magical Mystery Tour

The idea came from Mystery Tours, a popular tour in England where only the bust driver would know the destination.

The Fool On The Hill

The song came about while Paul was walking with Alistair Taylor and Paul's beloved dog, Martha on Promise Hill. The three came across a man who Alistair describes as 'very respectably dressed' and 'middle aged'.  The three chatted briefly about the weather and what not before Taylor and McCartney turned around for a quick second to look for Martha. When they turned around the man was gone, almost vanished.

"Paul and I both felt the same weird sensation that something special had happened. We sat down rather shakily on the seat and Paul said, 'what the hell do you make of that? That's weird. He was here. wasn't he? We did speak to him?" -Alistair Taylor, A Hard Days Write by Steve Turner

 Flying

A little over two minutes instrumental written by John, Paul,  George, and Ringo. The only Beatles song credited to all four Beatles.

Blue Jay Way

"Blue Jay Way was written at a time when I'd rented a house in Los Angeles on Blue Jay Way, and I'd arrive there from England. I was waiting around for Derek and Joan Taylor who were then living in L.A. I was very tired after the flight and the time change and I started writing, playing a little electric organ that was in the house for sometime. It had gotten foggy and they couldn't find the house for sometime. The mood is also slightly Indian. Derek Taylor is slightly Welsh."- George Harrison, I Me Mine

The song literally being about the Taylor's and about George wanting to go to bed;

There's a fog upon L.A.
And my friends have lost their way
We'll be over soon they said
Now they've lost themselves instead
Please don't be long please don't you be very long
Please don't be long for I may be asleep

 Your Mother Should Know

"I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does. Give her credit."- Paul McCartney

The song was written at McCartney's home on Cavendish Avenue on the harmonium.

I Am The Walrus
It was the first song the group recorded after the passing of Brian. 

"The look of emptiness on their faces when they were playing."- Geoff Emerick,  Music Engineer

 "The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko. Part of it was putting down Hare Krishna. All these people were going on about Hare Krishna, Allen Ginsberg in particular. The reference to 'Element'ry penguin' is the elementary, naive attitude of going around chanting, 'Hare Krishna,' or putting all your faith in any one idol. I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan, in those days."- John Lennon, Playboy
interview 1980

The idea for the song coming from Alice Through The Looking- Glass, a book John loved growing up. In the book there's a story about The Walrus and The Carpenter. In the same Playboy interview Lennon said;

"It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, s--t, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it?"

Hello Goodbye

One of the bands most recognizable songs. The song came about when Alistair Taylor asked Paul how he wrote his songs and how he got the ideas. Paul then started on the harmonium and told Alistair to shout out the exact opposite of what he was saying, Paul would say black, Alistair would say white; yes and no; hello and goodbye; stop and go and so fourth.

"The answer to everything is simple. It's a good song about everything and nothing. If you have black you have to have white. That's the amazing thing about life."- Paul McCartney

 The Beatles created a video for the song dressed in their famous Sgt. Pepper's suits.

"I directed the promo film we made for 'Hello, Goodbye". Directing a film is something everyone always wants to get into. It was something I'd always been interested in, until I actually tried it. Then I realised it was too much like hard work. Someone summed it up when they said: 'There's always someone arriving saying: "Do you want the gold pistols or the silver pistols?"' then you think: 'Um, um....' There was so much of that going on - so many decisions to be made - that I ended up hating it.
I didn't really direct the film - all we needed was a couple of cameras, some good cameramen, a bit of sound and some dancing girls.I thought 'We'll hire a theatre and show up there one afternoon.' and that's what we did: we took our Sgt Pepper suits along and filmed at the Saville Theatre."- Paul McCartney

The following is the video;

Strawberry Fields Forever

Written about a Salvation Army home near where John had grown up with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George on 251 Menlove Ave, Mendips. Mimi didn't like the idea of John playing or going near Strawberry Fields because it was essentially an orphanage and didn't want John to think back about his childhood, of his father leaving and his mother not living with him. The line "Nothing to get hung about" came from John arguing with his aunt saying, "what are they going to do hang me?"

The song was written on a beach in Spain while John was working on a film directed by Richard Lester, How I Won The War. The song was actually ready to be put on The Beatles previous album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but didn't make it. A video was also made for this song where on break John had gotten his 'Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite' poster. the following is the video;

The song later lead to suspects of The Paul is dead rumor, where at the end it sounds like John's saying "I buried Paul" but he's really saying, "Cranberry Sauce"

".... And Strawberry Field, just around the corner from that, an old Victorian house converted for Salvation Army orphans. (Apparently, it used to be a farm that made strawberries.) As a kid I used to go to their garden parties with my friends Ivan, Nigel, and Pete. We'd all go up there and hang out and sell lemonade bottles. We always had fun at Strawberry Field."-John Lennon, 1980

 Penny Lane

The song was written about Penny Lane, a street in Liverpool which was almost directly in between Paul and John's houses growing up. Paul would ride the number 89 bus around town, the song reflects exactly that and the places he saw. The shelter in the middle of the roundabout, the bankers getting ready for a trim refers to the barber shop all four Beatles got their hair cut and the bank right across the street. The fireman rushes in, the fire station is just around the corner,
The song was also ready to be released on Sgt. Pepper's;

"The only reasons that "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" didn't go onto the new album was a feeling that if we issued a single, it shouldn't  go onto the album. That was a crazy idea, and I'm afraid I was partly responsible. It's nonsense  these days, but in those days it was an aspect that we'd try to give the public value for it's money."- George Martin

 The two songs reached number two in the charts, being stopped from getting to number one from Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me" . The only reason Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, which were released as a Double A-side didn't make it to number one was due to charts counting the double a-side as two individual releases, the songs did outsell Engelbert.

"When [singles] first come out, we follow how much the initial sales were. Not for the money reason, just to see how it's doing compared to the last one; just because we made it. We need that satisfaction, not the glory of Number One."- John Lennon, 1968

Baby You're A Rich Man

The song was originally called "One of The Beautiful People". Mick Jagger sang back up and Brian Jones played oboe on the track, in return Lennon and McCartney sang on The Rolling Stones "We Love You"

All You Need Is Love

As said before in their Our World performance, that this is one of the most iconic songs of that era and of the century. The song was written by John as a song that can be easily understood by the world and easy campaign and fit perfectly into the 1960s Summer of Love theme. It's a song that simple promotes "Love is All You Need" and the obvious like;

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.

-Or-

There's nothing you can know that isn't known,
 Nothing you can see that isn't shown

The Cover

The album features a bright orange and blue background with the wide letters of The albums names circling over a pictures of John dressed as a walrus, Paul as a hippo, George as a rabbit, and Ringo as a bird. This later lead to more rumors of the Paul is Dead rumor from John's Glass Onion, which would later be released on The White Album stating "The Walrus was Paul" and in Magical Mystery Tour film a music video for The Beatles "I Am The Walrus" shows John in a Walrus costume and Paul as a Hippo as they are in the cover, some believe that John was in the hippo miming the bass lines, while Paul was in the Walrus.In the video when John says "I Am The Walrus", Nicola, a little five year old who was featured in the film can be heard saying "No you're not". Others say that the line "The Walrus was Paul" was due to the fact that John didn't fit into his outfit, but at this time the two were a near mimic of each others built. 

A version of the album was released with a cartoon comic-strip of the movie.

Charts

US; The LP was released on 27 November, 1967 with Larger initials sales of any album in history. The album sold $8 million in just three weeks topping the charts in January of 1968 and staying there for eight weeks. 

UK; The EP was issued on 8 December, 1967 with 400,000 orders in advance. The album entered the UK Singles chart on 14 December remaining there for twelve weeks.  The EP reached number two and in the Melody Maker chart reached number one for one week.

"Love is the sweet expression of life. It is the supreme content  of life. Love is the force of life, powerful and sublime. The flower of life bloom in love and radiates love all around."- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

The Beatles Decca Audtion

 "I hope he kicks himself to death!" -John Lennon

New Years Eve 1961 The Beatles; featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best, and their road manager and friend Neil Aspinall were driving from Liverpool to London (getting lost in the midlands) in hopes to pass an audition with Decca records on the following day (1 January, 1962).

"Brian put in a lot of time getting us off the ground. He believed in us from the start."- George Harrison

The idea of the audition came across when Beatles manager, Brian Epstein met with Mike Smith, from Decca, who had seen The Beatles preform at The Cavern Club on 13 December, 1961.

"...We were all excited: it was Decca. He'd met this Mike Smith guy and we were to go down there. So we went down and we did all these numbers; terrified and nervous, you can heart it...we virtually recorded our Cavern stage show, with a few omissions- around twenty songs."- John Lennon

The Beatles arrived for their first time in London on New Years Day and headed to Decca studios where they set up their amps and started recording their demo. The group preformed fifteen songs at this audition (three of their originals, which are in bold)  and what is the believed set list is as followed;

(L-R) George Harrison, Pete Best, Paul McCartney, John Lennon

•  Like Dreamers Do
• Money (That's What I Want)
• Till There Was You
• The Sheik of Araby
• To Know Her Is to Love Her
• Take Good Care of My Baby
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Sure To Fall (In Love With You)
• Hello Little Girl
• Three Cool Cats
• Crying, Waiting, Hoping
• Love Of  The Loved
• September in The Rain
• Besame Mucho
• Searchin'

 They each picked numbers that they wanted to preform, George for example was a fan of Joe Brown and sang Brown's rock 'n' roll version of "The Sheik of Araby". Paul choose to sing "September Rain".

The audition lasted a few hours and the group found themselves broke and looking for a place to go. Neil Aspinall remembers it as,

"... We went to Shaftesbury Avenue and around there; amazing things to buy. The bootshop Anello and Davide was on one corner, then Cecil Gee, the clothes store. We went into a club up by St. Giles Circus. We didn't stay long because it was boring. Some of the women had an after-eight shadow. We were starving and went into a restaurant. All that we could afford was the soup so they threw us out and we went into Soho and got something there. London was all very exciting and new."

 While waiting to hear from Decca the band found themselves in Anello and Davide's bootshop which created what later became known as 'Beatles Boots'.

 "We went back and we waited and waited, and then found out that they hadn't accepted it; we really thought that was it then, that was the end."- John Lennon

Brian Epstein

 Decca decided to pick another group, Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. Paul McCartney does now admit that he can see why they didn't get in. Saying that when he listens to the tape now they weren't good but they did play interesting and original things. John Lennon on the other hand says that he wouldn't of turned The Beatles down. Saying that many people weren't playing like they were playing and that the record was OK, it was just a demo and they weren't trying to be all polished. He wanted Decca to recognize their potential and that they should of been accepted.

"As for Deccas response, we didn't hear anything for ages, though Brian kept bugging them to find out; and in the end they turned us down, the funny thing is that it was by someone from one of those 'Dum de dum' bands, Tony Meehan, a drummer who had become big-time as the A&R man for Decca. there's a famous story that Brian Epstein was trying to get him to say whether he liked us, whether we'd got the job or not. He replied, ' I'm a busy many, Mr. Epstein,' and he was just a kid."- George Harrison

Dick Rowe, head of Decca recalls the experience as,

"I told Mike he'd have to decide between them. It was up to him - The Beatles or Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. He said, 'They're both good, but one's a local group, the other comes from Liverpool.' We decided it was better to take the local group. We could work with them more easily and stay closer in touch as they came from Dagenham."

It's even said that Brian didn't take the rejection easy, he kept trying and making trips to talk to Decca, even saying he'd by 3,000 copies if they produced a Beatles record. David Rowe says he never heard that offer and if he did he would of considered the offer and maybe The Beatles would of recorded with Decca. Decca did however sign The Rolling Stones in George Harrison's recommendation.

"'It's too bluesy,' or 'It's too much like rock 'n' roll and that's all over now', they used to keep telling us. Even in Hamburg when we audition for these German companies they would tell us. Even in Hamburg when we auditioned for these stuff, because they all thought rock was dead; but they were wrong." -John Lennon

The Beatles Christmas Shows

6:00 pm on 24 December, 1963 at Astoria Cinema in Finsbury Park, London The Beatles preformed in their first Christmas Show along with several other acts.

Tickets for the show went on sale 21 October, 1963 and by 16 November all 100,000 tickets were sold out. The shows went from 24 December to 11 January with three days off ( 25 December, 29 December, and 5 January) making a total of 30 shows, preforming two shows a day except for 24 December and 31 December were only one show was preformed).

The night went as followed;
First Act

• Barron Knight and Duke D'Mond
• Tommy Quickly and The Foremost
• Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas 

Second Act

• Barron Knight and Duke D'Mond
• Cilla Black
• Rolf Harris
• And The Beatles 

The Beatles ended the show preforming nine songs;

• Roll Over Beethoven 
• All My Loving
• This Boy
• I Want To Be Your Man
• She Loves You
• Till There Was You
• I Want To Hold Your Hand
• Money (That's What I Want"
• Twist and Shout

The Beatles during the show

Throughout the night The Beatles would appear in between acts putting on little skits.

"The Beatles were never much for rehearsing. That never really mattered as far as songs were concerned, but the fact that they were so bad at doing the sketches was an added extra for the show- it was organised chaos but it was very funny chaos." -Tony Barrow

The Beatles spent Christmas with their families in Liverpool on a private viking aircraft provided by Brian Epstein and returned back to London on Boxing Day.

"The big trick was to get them out of the theatre before the national anthem had finished. The audience dutifully stayed, chanting "We want The Beatles,' by which time they were in their car and away'."- Tony Barrow

Right: John Lennon dressing room for The Beatles first Christmas Show











Left: Cast of the show

Another Beatles Christmas Show

The following year, 24 December, 1965 Brian Epstein promoted another Christmas Show except this time at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. It was very much like the previous year in which The Beatles would preform skits in between acts then close the show with several of their songs.

The night went as followed:

First Act:

• The Mike Cotton Sound preforming Georgie Fame's "Yeh Yeh"
• Michael Haslam joining the Mike Cotton Sound singing "Scarlet Ribbons"
• The Yardbirds
• The Beatles dressed as Antarctic Explorers searching for the Abominmal Snowman
• Freddie and The Dreamers singing "Rip it Up", "Bachelor Boy", and "Cut Across Shorty"

Drawing by John on the back of the programme

Second Act:

• Elkie Brooks
• Sounds Incorporated
• Jimmy Savile introduced The Beatles
• The Beatles

The group once again ended the night singing;

• Twist and Shout
• I'm A Loser
• Baby's in Black
• Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Honey Don't
• I Feel Fine
• She's A Woman
• A Hard Days Night
• Rock And Roll Music
• Long Tall Sally

Two weeks later at a press conference in Toronto the group was asked if they were preforming in a third Christmas Show for the following year where John replied;

"Ask Mr. Christmas Epstein"

and George added,

"Mr. Epstein, may have a Mr. Epstein Christmas Show"

"Because it was new to them they didn't make a fuss. But as the run went on I think they relised it wasn't really working. They wanted to be songwriters and pop stars, they didn't want to be actors." -Barron Knights, Pete Langford.

The Beatles in Manila, Philippines

 "They've let me down" -Madame Marcos

On July 3, 1966 The Beatles made their way from Japan to the Philippines stopping once for 70 minutes in Hong Kong to fuel the plane. 5,000 fans waited at the Manila International Airport for The Beatles first (and last) Philippines visit.
During 1966 the country of Philippines were under dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. When the band landed they were met by what the group called "Gorillas", these  men in short T-shirts who took just The Beatles, leaving Mal Evans, Brian Epstein, Tony Barrow, and other Beatles affiliates  behind.

"As soon as we got there it was bad news. There were tough gorillas- little men-who had short- sleeved shirts and acted very menacingly.
The normal proceedings in those days were that, because the mania was everywhere, we didn't pull up at an airport and get off  like normal people. The plane would land and it would go to the far end of the airfield where we would get off, usually with Neil and our 'Diplomatic bags' ( we carried our shaving gear- and whatever- in little bags), get in a car, bypass passport control and go to the gig. Mal Evans with Brian Epstein and the rest would go and do our passport and all that scene.
But when we got to Manila, a fellow was screaming at us, ' Leave those bags there! Get in the car!' we were being bullied for the first time. It wasn't respectful, everywhere else- America, Sweden, Germany, wherever- even though there was a mania, there was always a lot of respect because we were famous showbiz personalities; but in Manila it was a very negative vibe from the moment we got off the plane, so were were a bit frightened. " -George Harrison

 These Gorillas took the group in a Cavalcade escorted by six police motorcyclist to the navy headquarters where a press conference  was held. After the interview the men in then took the band to a private yacht owned by Dan Manolo Elizalde, a friend of the concert promoter Ramon Ramos Jr. They were told that they would stay on this yacht till the following day.

"They drove me to the pier and I got out of the car and said, 'Where are they?' they pointed: 'There they are,' and there was a big boat miles away, in the middle of the harbour. They were what seemed to be rival militia gangs. One gang had taken them and put them on this boat to meet some people who weren't the people putting on the show. It was very strange. I never really understood why they got put on a boat."- Neil Aspinall

The Beatles played Manila at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. When The Beatles landed in the Philippines a paper by Manila Sunday Times was printed stating;

"President Marcos, the First Lady, and the three young Beatles fans in the family, have been invited as guests of honour at the concerts. The Beatles plan to personally follow up the invitation during a courtesy call on Mrs Imelda Marcos at Malacañang Palace tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock."

Nobody knew that they were meeting the President on this trip and were shocked when they read this news.

"I think they'd been  invited and Brian had telexed them or sent a telegram saying 'no'- The Beatles didn't do that sort of stuff for anybody. They wouldn't get involved in politics and they wouldn't go to the palace. But it was ignored as if he hadn't said it" -Neil Aspinall.

The next morning  the band woke up to banging on the hotel door and people shouting "Come on! You're supposed to be at the palace!" and saying "Turn on the television!". The group did so and all over the news was broadcasting reporters all saying the same thing, "And they're still not here yet. The Beatles are supposed to be here." and "Five minutes till The Beatles show up".

"We sat there in amazement. We couldn't believe it, and we just had to watch ourselves not arriving at the presidential palace"- George Harrison.

Mal and Paul spent the morning roaming the streets, Wall Street, taking pictures and when they returned to the  hotel the security guard asking them "How'd you get out?"

"But there was the TV announcer- their equivalent of Richard Dimbleyby- saying, 'and the first lady is waiting with the Blue Ladies...' (it was like America- they had Pink Ladies and Blue Ladies and First Ladies and they were all waiting there) '...And pretty soon the famous pop group will be arriving." and were going, "Shoot! nobody's told them!' and the promoters saying, 'Well, you've got to go now, it's only a limo to get there.' And we said, 'We can't.' We stuck to our guns and sat the rest of the day out in the hotel. We turned the telly off and got on with our day off" -Paul McCartney

The next morning someone had picked up a newspaper with the headlines reading as Paul recalls saying "Beatles Snub President", George recalls it as "Beatles Snub First Family".  The Beatles were due to leave Manila that morning back to London. They all recall it an awful experience,saying everyone was very rude to them throughout the whole experience but even worse after they didn't show up to the palace.

"It was 'Beatles Snub First Family'- that's how they decided to present it. Nobody ever said, 'Well, they were never asked,'It was quite likely it was the promoter or the agent who had done a deal; brown-nosing Mrs. Marcos, probably. She was later quotes as saying, 'Oh, I never like them anyway- their music is horrible."- George Harrison

The group arrived at the airport with Neil, Brian, Tony Barrow, and Alf Bichknell. Nobody helped  them so the load of them were carrying their luggage, amps, instruments, and more up escalators. The escalators happens to have stopped moving on their arrival. There was no checking the bags or anything, just carry them all on with you. At this time the gorillas showed up again, in their white little shirts and started pushing them around again shouting " Get over there!" and all that. These guys were throwing punches, hitting Alf.

"There was chanting, with people hating us all the way- and now at the airport they started spitting at us , spitting on us, and there's the famous story of John s and me hiding behind these nuns, because we thought, 'It's a Catholic country - they won't beat up the nuns."- Ringo Starr

The group finally were seated on the plane,

"When we got on the plane we were all kissing the seats" -Paul McCartney

Just when they were settled in their seats a voice boomed over the plane saying "Will Mr.Epstein and Mr. Evans and Mr. Barrows get off the plane." The three men got off, walking down the isle in tears Mal Evans turned to George and said

"Tell Lil I love her" Lil being his wife.

The three came back after having given these men The Beatles profits from their concert the previous night.

"It was an unfortunate little trip, but the nice thing about it was that in the end (when we found out what Marcos and Imelda had been doing to the people, and the rip-off that they whole thing allegedly was) we were glad to have done what we did. Great! We must have been the only people who'd ever dared to snub Marcos" -Paul McCartney

The Famous Story of John and Ringo Hiding Behind Nuns

"Along the route to the airport there were people waving at us, but I could see a few old men booing us. When they started on us at the airport, I was petrified. I thought I was going to get hit, so I headed for three nuns and two monks, thinking that might stop them. As far as I know I was just pushed around, but I could have kicked and not known it.
'You treat like ordinary passenger! Ordinary passenger!' They were saying. We were saying: 'Ordinary Passenger? He doesn't get kicked, does he?' I saw five in sort of outfits who were doing it, all the kicking and booing and shouting. I was petrified, and pushed a lot.  I was very delicate and moved every time they touched me." -John Lennon

On The Beatles 1966 Beatles Tour Information you can see John's handwriting written all over the page. On June 26 he circled, "Hamburg" and wrote "Torture". On July 4 he circled "Manila" and wrote "Nearly fucking killed by the government.." he then drew a line to the bottom of the page and continued, "... and it's just another Beatles day his book." On the very bottom he wrote "after Manila George said in London World, Press. 'They should drop an H bomb on Manila' we all silently agreed."

"I hated the Philippines. We arrived there with thousands upon thousands of kids, with hundred upon hundreds of policemen - and it was a little dodgy. Everyone had guns and it was really like that hot/Catholic/gun/Spanish Inquisition attitude." -Ringo Starr

Help!

Released Date: August 6, 1965 (UK)

August 13, 1965 (US)

Recording Dates: February 15, 1965- June 17, 1965

After recording Beatles For Sale (check out the history behind Beatles For Sale here) in 1964 The Beatles had returned to Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios to record their fifth album, Help! Help! was recorded on and off through the months of February to June. It featured;
Ringo Starr: Vocals, drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell, bongos, claves, percussion, hand claps, acoustic guitar percussion.
John Lennon: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, electric piano, Hammond organ, tambourine, and snare drum.
Paul McCartney: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric piano, piano, and bass guitar.
George Harrison: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12- string guitar, and güiro.
George Martin: Piano
Tony Gilbert: Violin
Sidney Sax: Violin
Kenneth Essex: Viola
Francisco Gabarro: Cello

The album was recorded for their second motion picture Help! which would appear in colour on July 29, 1965. The original names for the film were Beatles II or Eight Arms To Hold You. The film featured songs from their album like, "Help!", "You're Going To Lose That Girl", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "Ticket To Ride", "I Need You", "The Night Before", "She's A Women", "A Hard Days Night" (instrumental), "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" (instrumental), "Another Girl", "You Can't Do That" (instrumental). Just like The Beatles first film, A Hard Days Night, John took on the role of writing the title song where he wrote "Help!" at his home in Weybridge,

"When Help! came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n' roll song. I didn't realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: he - I - is very fat, very insecure, and he's completely lost himself. And I ams singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was."- John Lennon

 In August of 1964 The Beatles met Bob Dylan who introduced them to marijuana which led to a drug phase for the group during this time,

"A hell of a lot of pot was being smoked while we were making the film. It was great. That helped make it a lot of fun." -Ringo Starr

Marijuana and other drugs like LSD later influenced the group in later albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, which is nicknamed the "acid album".  Although Dylan turned the group onto drugs he also had influenced them in a number of ways with his poetic writing and hard-core folk sound. Lennon admits to his inspiration to write "I'm A Loser" in Beatles For Sale because of Bob Dylan. John also found the Dylan influence in his "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" which was featured on Help!

Help! is what I like to call the "transition album". I call it this because it was released in 1965, so Beatlemania had already hit it's climax, it was still strong but 1964 was the highest of Beatlemania. Also, during this time The Beatles had gotten into marijuana and experimenting with LSD which led to the acid album. Help! was when McCartney found himself as a song writer when he wrote "Yesterday", it showed the group maturing which is shown in the "grown up" album, Rubber Soul. This album has the Beatlemania aspect along with a new maturity level.

"We know all about 'Yesterday'. I have had so much accolade for 'Yesterday'. That's Paul's song and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful. And I never wished I'd written it." -John Lennon

"Yesterday" is one the number one song that has ever been covered. The song is said to have been covered 7 million times in the 20th century. During this time Paul was living in an upstairs, attic room at home of his girlfriend, Jane Asher's parents home. Paul managed to fit a piano in the small room at 57 Wimpole Street, London and placed it next to the bed. One morning Paul woke up with this tune stuck in his head, a jazzy, soft tune and questioned himself if he's heard the song before. 

"My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes, I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past."- Paul McCartney

 He quickly got to the piano and fooled around with it until he got the tune. McCartney then wrote some lyrics, just in case he forgot the tune. Being morning he sang 'Scrambled eggs, oh baby how I love your legs..". John Lennon said that "The song was around for months and months be fore we finally completed it." McCartney had to think of other lyrics for the song instead of having it called "Scrambled Eggs", although Lennon loved the title "Scrambled Eggs" and having a track being produced by George Martin with a title like that. Paul got to thinking and remembered that people like sad songs, something they can relate to and that's why the song is so soft and sad.

Paul recorded "Yesterday" on a high stool with his acoustic guitar and some string instruments. It was the first time that no other Beatles were featured on the track, just Paul.  George Martin remembers it as,

"Paul went down to No. 2 Studio at EMI, sat on a high stool with his acoustic guitar and sang 'Yesterday'. That was the master to begin with. Then I said, 'Well, what we can do with it? The only thing I can think of is adding strings, but I know what you think about that.' And Paul said, ' I don't want Mantovani.' I said, "what about a very small number of string players, a quartet?' He thought that was interesting, and I went and worked on it with him and made suggestions for the score. He had ideas too, and we booked a string quartet and over dubbed the strings - and that was the record" 

Paul calls "Yesterday" his most successful song,

"It was my most successful song. It's amazing that it just came to me in a dream. That's why I don't profess to know anything; I think music is all very mystical. You hear people saying, 'I'm a vehicle; it just passes through me.' Well,, you're dead lucky if something like that passes through you." 

Help! was released in the UK on August 6, 1965 and entered the charts at #1 on August 14, replacing "The Sound Of Music". The album spent 9 weeks as #1 but stayed in the charts for an additional 37 weeks.  There were over 250,000 copies ordered and just in the first week sales topped of over 270,000! The Beatles also released "Ticket To Ride" and "Help!" as singles which as no surprised topped charts and became million-sellers!
The Album features the following tracks;

• Help! (Lennon- McCartney)
• The Night Before (Lennon- McCartney)
• You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Lennon- McCartney)
• I Need You (Harrison)
• Another Girl (Lennon- McCartney)
• You're Going To Lose That Girl (Lennon- McCartney)
• Ticket To Ride (Lennon- McCartney)
• Act Naturally (Morrison- Russell)
• It's Only Love (Lennon- McCartney)
• You Like Me Too Much (Harrison)
• Tell Me What You See (Lennon- McCartney)
• I've Just Seen A Face (Lennon- McCartney)
• Yesterday (Lennon- McCartney)
• Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Williams)

The album was released in the US in Capitol Records version on August 13,1965. There were 1 million copies ordered, which at one time was the largest initial order in history of the music industry! Although it seemed like a lot of copies, more orders were needed because the album immediately sold 3 million copies. Help! entered US charts as #1 for 9 weeks and stayed in charts for another 33.  The Capitol Record album includes the following tracks;

• Help!
• The Night Before
• From Me To You Fantasy (instrumental) 
• You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
• I Need You
• In The Tyro (instrumental)
• Another Girl
• Another Hard Days Night (instrumental)
• Ticket To Ride
• The Bitter End/ You Can't Do That (instrumental)
• You're Going To Lost That Girl
• The Chase (instrumental)

The album cover was shot by Robert Freeman who also had taken the With The Beatles, A Hard Days Night  and Beatles For Sale cover. The covered featured the group wearing skiing outfits from the film and having the cover spell "NUJV" in semaphore. 

"I had the idea of semaphore spelling out the letters HELP. But when we came to do the shot the arrangement of the arms with those letters didn't look good. So we decided to improvise and ended up with the best graphic positioning of the arms."- Robert Freeman

Help! Fun Facts:

• The first session for the new album took place in Studio Two on February 15, 1965 where they started recording "Ticket To Ride", "I Need You", and "Another Girl"
• Help! was were George first got interested in Indian music and sitar
• The album features 10 songs credited to Lennon- McCartney, 2 to Harrison, and 2 covers
• The Cover for the US version has the arms spelling "NVUJ" instead of "NUJV"
• George Martin wanted to have "Yesterday" be credit to just McCartney but Brian Epstein wouldn't allow it because he wasn't going to 'break up' the band.