January 11, 1963
Lunchtime it was at the Cavern Club, of course in Liverpool. Then the Beatles made the hazardous afternoon journey south from Liverpool to Old Hill, blizzards made them unable to drive the 11 miles to King's Hearth at the Ritz Ballroom on York Rd. for the 2nd part of a double booking in the Midlands. It was the coldest night in the area for 7 years. The King's Hearth date was re-arranged for mid-February. Birmingham, Warwickshire was postponed.
`Live Peace In Toronto', number 136, 1st week in the ranking (Billboard)
John inaugurates `Bag One', an exhibition of some of his lithographies and drawings at the London Arts Gallery.
The Beatles performing at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.
The Beatles asked Glyn Johns to prepare a version of the Get Back/Let It Be tapes suitable for release as a long-player. This two-hour session was a remix session for the songs Let It Be and For You Blue.
Stereo remixes of both songs were made on this night, along with a vocal overdub onto For You Blue by George Harrison.
It took place at Olympic Sound Studios in Barnes, London, where The Beatles had recorded occasionally since 11 May 1967, when they taped the backing track for Baby You’re A Rich Man.
This was Harrison’s last Beatles session until the Anthology recordings in the 1990s - and it is not known whether any of the other Beatles attended.
Back on January 7, 1964
Playhouse Theatre, London
The Astoria dates comprised the last ten nights of "The Beatles Christimas Show", which had opened on December 24, 1963.
George and Ringo made an unusual radio recording for broadcast in the "Light Programme" magazine series The Public Ear on Sunday, January 12th. It took the form of a letter they had written, recorded onto tape and played in the program's regular "Air Mail" slot. In the letter, the two Beatles referred to a previous edition of the series (December 29th) in which friend Hall had encouraged listeners to appreciate the music that the Beatles themselves preferred, principally American R&B.
The new contribution from George and Ringo echoed Hall's sentiments, and requested a song to be be played (Miracles, "I've been good to you" was chosen).
On January 7th, the Beatles, as a group, made a more conventional BBC radio recording, a music session for Saturday Club. Then went to Finsbury Park for their two evening "Christmas Show" performances.
Back on January 6, 1963
The last night of the tour ended at the Beach Ballroom, Sea Beach, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire
The Beatles had rejected producer Glyn Johns’ first attempt at fashioning an album from the Get Back/Let It Be tapes. Today Glyn Johns' put together a second Get Back LP for their consideration, although it too was rejected.
Johns' worked from 7pm-11.30pm at Olympic Sound Studios in London, without any of The Beatles being present. His new album omitted Teddy Boy, as it wasn’t featured in the Let It Be film, but added George Harrison’s I Me Mine and John Lennon’s Across The Universe.
Across The Universe had its third stereo mix. Johns left out the backing vocals from Apple Scruffs Gayleen Pease and Lizzie Bravo, took out The Beatles’ own backing vocals, faded the song early and crossfaded it into the reprise of Get Back. Some spoken word dialogue was also added to the start of the song, with Lennon asking Ringo Starr: “Are you all right, Richard?”
Although John Lennon was not at this recording session, this was their last time recording as a "group". This session was for the Let It Be album. After completing I Me Mine the previous day, The Beatles turned their attentions to Paul McCartney’s song Let It Be.
They taped a series of overdubs onto take 27, the basic track which had been laid down on 31 January 1969. First to be recorded on this day was a bass guitar part, with McCartney replacing Lennon’s original effort on track four.
Paul, his wife Linda and George triple-tracked some high harmony vocals. These were initially recorded onto track seven; an unnumbered mix bounced this onto track four, and while it was made they recorded the second set of harmonies. A final mix saw the third lot of vocals added once again to track seven, along with the previous sets. This track also contained the guitar solo recorded on 30 April 1969, which was used on the Let It Be single.
The final recording saw Harrison add lead guitar, including a new solo, onto track four, along with maracas by McCartney and extra drums by Starr. This solo can be heard on the Let It Be album.
Two stereo mixes of the song were then made. Glyn Johns, who produced many of the Let It Be recordings, was present at the session. To compile his latest version of the Get Back album, he took away the new Let It Be mixes, along with the multitrack tape of I Me Mine from the previous day.
Paul, George and Ringo got together on this date at EMI Studios to complete the Get Back album. John Lennon was on vacation in Denmark, but had left the group by this time.
They worked on I Me Mine, which Harrison was filmed playing to Starr during the Let It Be film. As it was to be included in the film’s final cut, it was necessary for the song to appear on the accompanying album.
They group worked from 2.30pm until 12.15am the following morning. Sixteen takes of the song’s rhythm track were recorded, with acoustic guitar, bass and drums, plus a guide vocal from Harrison.
The group performed an instrumental jam after take six, and prior to take 12 Harrison led them through a version of Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue Got Married.
Before take 15, Harrison delivered a mock press statement containing a reference to Lennon’s absence.
You all will have read that Dave Dee is no longer with us. But Mickey and Tich and I would just like to carry on the good work that’s always gone down in [studio] number two. The remark was included on Anthology 3, along with the basic version of take 16.
Having taped a satisfactory backing track, The Beatles overdubbed electric piano, electric guitar, lead and backing vocals, an organ and another acoustic guitar track.
January 2, 1963
The opening night of a five-date booking in Scotland and the Beatles' first proper tour, also a return visit to the town played as support to Johnny Gentle on May 25, 1960 - was cancelled owing to the terrible weather conditions which had the whole of Scotland in an icy grip. Snowdrifts made virtually all of the Highlands roads impassable, and the Beatles hadn't a chance of getting through to Keith in time to fulfill the engagement.
The tour had got away to a bad start even before this setback. Thanks to the inclement weather, the Beatles' flight from London to Edinburgh during the morning of January 2, (the group had flown to London from Hamburg on January 1st, and spent the night there) was switched at the last moment to land at Aberdeen.