The Beatles - Christmas Messages (1963 - 1969)

For seven straight years beginning in 1963 - even before they were famous in America - The Beatles recorded annual Christmas messages exclusively for their fan club members as a holiday thank you. They were issued on seven-inch, vinyl records that were very thin, very bendable, and easily damaged. These flexi-discs, as they were called, could not be stacked on record changers.

Over the years the tracks have been bootlegged in countless ways, and until a few years ago the only legal release was sent to fan club members in 1970 on 33 RPM vinyl records after the boys from Liverpool went their separate ways. The LP cover shown here is from that album.

Finally, in 2017, a limited edition box set on colored vinyl was released and is now an expensive collector's item.

Many Beatles fans managed to hear these records over the years, and with the Internet being what it is, there are several websites where anyone can easily listen to all of them. Archive.org is one of them. Even if you don't care to own them you can go there and listen to each year's ridiculous piece of anarchy.

The records were never made with any pretensions of creating high art. They are mere screwball comedy bits. While many people consider them to be highly entertaining it's easy to find just as many fans who believe they are the stupidest records ever made. Because all four Beatles had an unforced sense of humor the scripted moments often felt relaxed and spontaneous. John Lennon even pokes fun at the fake spontaneity on the 1964 record.

The messages from early in the band's career are the best ones because all four Beatles were in the studio together singing, joking around, and carrying on with each other. Not coincidentally, by 1968 - the very same year their internal squabbles began to destroy the group - each member went into the studio and recorded their parts independently from each other with the engineers splicing the fragments together into a cohesive whole. While there is no interaction between the band members at all guest star Tiny Tim sings "Nowhere Man" accompanied by his ukulele on the 1968 flexi-disc and John and Yoko appear together on the 1969 finale.

Listening to all seven messages in a row can be a bit tiring spread out over forty-four minutes, especially because the later ones are not as compelling, but the quartet's humor, camaraderie, and love of being Beatles was easily apparent on the early editions. Listen for yourself and laugh a little this holiday season.

Comments

Post a Comment

WHAT'S HOT TODAY!

Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records

Image
Have you ever heard of a long forgotten vinyl format, the 16 2/3 RPM record? They were half the speed of the 33 1/3 RPM albums that were the traditional standard for recorded music. Most record players in the 1950s and 1960s came with a speed setting to play these long forgotten discs that were considered novelties even during the years they were available. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7" in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs and at that size the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured to be 9, 10, or 12 inches in diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play. Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. More frequen...
Read more

Buried Treasure: Rich Allen And The Ebonistics - Echo's of November (1968)

Image
After music baseball has always been my number two passion in life with the possible exception of a few Octobers when the Philadelphia Phillies made the playoffs. Both the sport and the art form have been a huge part of my life since childhood with the Phillies functioning as my primary obsession only until February 9, 1964. That Sunday evening, an unknown rock quartet from Liverpool, UK appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Music took over my life quickly after that and I never looked back. That same year, after The Beatles blew up all around America and the rest of the world, The Phillies were making what was then an extremely rare run for a National League pennant that seemed inevitable until September when they blew a 6 1/2 game lead with only twelve to play. They lost ten games in a row before winning the last two of the season. Sadly, by that time it was too late. Unfortunately, there are still fans who haven...
Read more

The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight (1977)

Image
In 2006 Hall and Oates released Home For Christmas , their one and only holiday album, an extremely good set of music that immediately became one of my favorite seasonal listens. I wrote then that I was stunned at how many overtly religious songs the famous duo put on the the disc considering the very politically correct climate of the new millennium. One of them was a cover version of a song that alluded me for almost thirty years, "Christmas Must Be Tonight." I liked the new, upbeat track sung by Daryl Hall and it made me go out and search for Robbie Robertson's never-to-be classic. Sung by Rick Danko, it appears on the great American band's last album, Islands (1977). It's a surprise that a group whose members were not known to have any specific or powerfully strong religious beliefs would release a song that tackled the subject of Jesus's birth as blatantly as our most loved Christmas carols. It's not about a reckless reinde...
Read more

Laurie London - He's Got The Whole World (In His Hands) (1958)

Image
Today we're going to discuss an almost totally forgotten hit record along with a little bit of related Billboard chart history. The inspiration for this post came about while sorting through some extremely old 45s that I didn't remember I owned. I've had "He's Got The Whole World (In His Hands)" by Laurie London - a rare, popular, gospel hit - in my record collection since my childhood, even though it wasn't really mine. The single belonged to either my mother or my grandmother who lived with us. I played it once in awhile because I was always allowed free access to their records, and it was eventually absorbed into my collection. Despite the name, teenager Laurie London (born January 19, 1944) was a boy singer who - at age thirteen - became a one-hit wonder in his native UK and in America the following year. Information about London is sparse. Details vary depending on the particular website you're reading, but according to Wik...
Read more