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Since the advent of the compact disc era, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl has been the forgotten stepchild of the Fab Four's legendary catalogue. That's about to change with the first-ever commercial CD/DD release of the 1977 album on September 9 via Apple/UMe. The newly-retitled, remixed, remastered and expanded Live at the Hollywood Bowl will arrive one week in advance of the September 16 premiere of director Ron Howard's documentary film Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years which chronicles the Fabs between 1962 and 1966.
Capitol Records first captured John, Paul, George and Ringo at the venerable Los Angeles bandshell on August 23, 1964 during the height of Beatlemania. The tapes, however, proved to be of less than optimal quality, though the label utilized less than a minute of "Twist and Shout" for the docu-album The Beatles Story. When The Beatles returned to the Bowl on August 29 and 30 of the following year, Capitol was once again rolling tape, but the finished results once more were deemed inadequate for commercial release.
Finally, in 1977, George Martin was called upon to revisit the tapes. (A reported 1971 attempt by Phil Spector never panned out.) Martin found the August 29, 1965 recording to be the least useable of the three performances, selecting "Ticket to Ride" and "Help!" from that date as well as part of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy." The producer commented, "I enlisted the technical expertise of (famed engineer) Geoff Emerick and we transferred the recordings from three-track to 24-track tapes. The two tapes combined 22 songs and we whittled these down to 13. Some tracks had to be discarded because the music was obliterated by the screams." Martin and Emerick assembled The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl primarily from the August 23, 1964 and August 30, 1965 tapes, and upon its release in May '77, the group's first ever authorized live album became an instant success. It went to No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard chart and No. 1 on the U.K.NME chart.
Though a success, the album was a bit controversial. The choice to use shows from a year apart to create one composite show resulted in some inconsistencies in the dialogue, and a number of performances were omitted such as "Twist and Shout", "You Can't Do That", "Can't Buy Me Love", "If I Fell", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "A Hard Day's Night" from 1964, and "I Feel Fine," "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," "Baby's in Black," "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "I'm Down" from 1965.
Other than a budget Music for Pleasure LP reissue in 1984, and a steady stream of unauthorized CD releases, Hollywood Bowl had all but disappeared over the years. The 1965 "Baby's in Black" (melding John Lennon's August 29 spoken introduction with the August 30 performance) did appear on CD single in 1996, and parts of the 1964 "I Want to Hold Your Hand" were used in The Beatles' LOVE.
The upcoming edition is sequenced after the original LP, with four bonus tracks concluding the set: "You Can't Do That" (August 23), "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (August 23), "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (August 30) and "Baby's in Black" (August 30). The entire album been newly remixed and remastered by the late George Martin's son and LOVE co-producer Giles Martin with engineer Sam Okell at Abbey Road. Giles commented in a statement provided earlier today to Rolling Stone that "Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago. Now there's improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be heard like never before... What we hear now is the raw energy of four lads playing together to a crowd that loved them. This is the closest you can get to being at the Hollywood Bowl at the height of Beatlemania."
Live at the Hollywood Bowl includes a 24-page booklet with new liner notes by David Fricke. It's due on CD and DD on September 9, while a vinyl edition will follow on November 18. You can pre-order at the links below, and don't forget to watch Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years beginning September 17 on Hulu!
The Beatles, Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Capitol/Apple/UMe, 2016)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
- "Twist and Shout" (August 30th, 1965)
- "She's A Woman" (August 30th, 1965)
- "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (August 30th, 1965 / August 29th, 1965 - one edit)
- "Ticket to Ride" (August 29th, 1965)
- "Can't Buy Me Love" (August 30th, 1965)
- "Things We Said Today" (August 23rd, 1964)
- "Roll Over Beethoven" (August 23rd, 1964)
- "Boys" (August 23rd, 1964)
- "A Hard Day's Night" (August 30th, 1965)
- "Help!" (August 29th, 1965)
- "All My Loving" (August 23rd, 1964)
- "She Loves You" (August 23rd, 1964)
- "Long Tall Sally" (August 23rd, 1964)
- "You Can't Do That" (August 23rd, 1964) *
- "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (August 23rd, 1964) *
- "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (August 30th, 1965) *
- "Baby's In Black" (August 30th, 1965) *
(*) previously unreleased
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Finally!!!! And it makes sense with the tie-in to the movie about touring. I can't wait until September for both the film and the CD!
Great news and article, Joe, but the 1977 release was a single album, at least where I bought mine!
I wonder how much of George Martin's studio wizardry 40 years ago making up for perceived problems with the original recordings will be undone on the reissue.
I'm anticipating that today's technology could make these recordings sound new and cleaner and clearer than ever...here's hoping! Mea culpa for the typo.
The 17-song edition will likely comprise a single disc, but I'm still hoping for a later announcement of a deluxe edition comprising all three recorded concerts in their entireties.
In this day and age with all the box sets,super deluxe and deluxe issues of CD's available, you would think they'd go the distance with this Beatles title. On one CD they could put the Original LP release (nostalgia) with the first Hollywood Bowl show from 1964. On CD 2 they could put the 2nd 1964 show and the 1965 concert. Doing this would give the fans everything from the Bowl.
I know the shows had recording issues (dead microphone) among other problems but a disclaimer would be all that is needed to inform people.
This format would cover the near perfect version with the complete historic performances of The Beatles live at The Bowl. Why are the people in charge such small thinkers?
It's only the first 3 songs from The August 29th 1965 show that have the microphone problems. That's why Capitol recorded the group again the next night.
I'd like to make a correction, My comment indicates two shows from 1964 and one from 1965. There was only the one show in 1964, and two in 1965. Sorry for the mistake in dates.
And, by the way, Capitol had no qualms about releasing (by download-only) two Beach Boys concerts(Sacramento 1964 & Chicago 1965) which also had serious microphone issues. As I recall, in the second set from Sacramento 1964 & the first set from Chicago 1965 the vocal microphones are not working (or working erratically) during the first few songs.
It's not about Capitol's qualms. The Beatles don't own their EMI recordings, but they can veto a release (and have done so in the past, for instance the aborted "Sessions" album of outtakes). Capitol issued a box set that documented the making of "Pet Sounds." I strongly suspect they'd have given "Sgt. Pepper" the same treatment decades ago if it were up to the label.
9 9 yes finally it's gomma be 1964-65 again, I'm ready
This is nice release to look forward too,it would have been nice to keep the original cover art,I understand they want to tie it to the movie so I accept that,hopefully when the dvd gets released they could do a box set with additional live recordings, that would be something.
Can wait to have this on CD, finally! I wish they would use the original artwork though. The image is very cheap looking. It makes "Rock and Roll Music" look like great art!
If this is officially recognized as part of The Beatles catalogue, which I am glad it is, they should have put some effort into the cover. With all the resources that Apple has, it is horrible. Movie or no movie.
This most likely will be a single disc as most of their early material consisted of short songs even in a live setting
About time! I hope this isn't the only tie-in CD for the Ron Howard film, but I fear it might be. (Here's hoping there will be additional complete performances in the documentary.) An auto-buy, for sure.
Obligatory quibbles about Beatles releases:
I'm glad they expanded the running order, but it would have been nice if they could have included all the songs like "I Feel Fine" and "I'm Down." Leave off duplicate songs like "Twist and Shout," but one of each title would easily fit on one CD. Tacking the bonus tracks on at the end feels off, not least because "Baby's In Black" was never a concert closer for them. (That would have been a good place to insert "I'm Down.")
Still, it's great news that "Hollywood Bowl" is finally rejoining the catalog. I can finally retire the CD that I burned from a de-noised cassette.
Is "Baby's In Black" previously unreleased? I thought it was a b-side on the "Real Love" single.
You are correct.
Hi Brian! Yes, that's referred to in the article, above, but this is how Apple listed the track in its announcement, for what it's worth. (Perhaps this is a different edit.)
I Feel Fine, If I Fell and I'm Down have been omitted. Any thoughts !
Also omitted: "I Wanna Be Your Man."
There has been some discussion on the Steve Hoffman forums about the omissions. The consensus appears to be that the recordings are flawed, either for technical reasons (such as inaudible backing vocals) or because the performances themselves were not up to scratch.
I don't think the extra tracks are being held back for a future deluxe reissue. The Beatles don't seem to do deluxe CD reissues. Paul has issued several in his solo catalog, so he's familiar with the concept, but there hasn't been any demonstrated interest or intention to do such things with the group's catalog.
Personally, I'm sure I'd be fine with subpar recordings, but ultimately it's Apple's call. If they'd asked me, I'd have compiled a two-CD set with the best quality version of every song they ever recorded live, and issued "Hollywood Bowl" separately instead of as a movie tie-in. But they forgot to ask me. AGAIN.
this is not as exciting as actually having gone to see the Beatles in 1964, and remembering every moment (most 65 year olds can't remember too much!). I was at Forest Hills in 1964 and it was "Somethin' Else"