BDJ's Cellar Full of Remixes

For most fans, a Day in the Life is their favorite track on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Some even consider it the Beatles best song. Considering its impact, the production on the stereo release on Sgt Pepper sounds rather understated; Lennon's voice floats around from left to right for no reason, and even the piano appears to move around the room.... Hence, the BDJ engineers decided to m...

Harrison wrote "Try Some Buy Some" in early 1971, in an attempt to relaunch the singing career of former Ronettes lead singer Ronnie Spector. Ronnie was married to Phil Spector at that time, who produced the record. The track featured star performers: Harrison played guitars, Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth) keyboards, Klaus Voormann (Manfred Mann) bass, John Barham string arrangement, Jim Gordon (Derek...

2016 has been a prolific year for celebrity deaths. A fair number of the celebrities who passed away in 2016 were - somehow - connected to te Beatles. In this track, we remember the 2016's famous losses, in a touching tribute to their talent, inspired by one of The Beatles finest songs, In My Life. The Beatles celebrities in this mix are: - David Bowie (“Fame” with Lennon) - Glen Frey (Eagles, bec...

There are a number of similarities between Harrison's song (form his first solo LP) and McCartney's Hey Jude. They last (almost) as long, and most of the song consists of the outtro (a hallmark of later Beatles tracks). But would they mash well? That's what Paul-René Lee asked me to try. Here it is, judge for yourself!

It has turned into a tradition, the BDJ Christmas remix; in the past 4 years, a Christmas special was posted here, often lasting for 30 mins or more. This year, the Cellar received numerous requests for remixes, as a follow up to the broadcast of remixes in the Fab4Cast 64 and 65. (listen at http://web.avrotros.nl/podpourri/luisteren/fab4cast.aspx) Some requests were for remixes with songs by the...

Went to see the film 'Eight Days A Week". A splendid time was guaranteed for all, and it was exciting to see the Beatles live on stage. I found it disappointing that of the live performances are interrupted by interviews; these add little to the story, but break the spell of watching the Beatles live. I noticed hardly any new material as such; virtually all was available on Anthology, or on bootle...

The Rolling Stones closed out the opening night on October 7th of the all-star Desert Trip festival in Indio, California with a greatest-hits set that featured a few surprises, including the rock legends' first ever attempt covering the Beatles' "Come Together." The Stones faithfully ran through the Beatles song complete with an extended guitar solo courtesy of Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards and a...

"Every Night" was written by Paul McCartney while he was on holiday in Greece, and first released on his McCartney album on April 17, 1970. Every Night is a long-time favourite Macca track of mine. Why? Just so, but the lyrics have a calming effect that resonates with me; I like to be home too. And the chords changes are great too. But overall, the appeal form me is how the lyrics and music are co...

"Temporary Secretary" is featured on the 1980 album McCartney II. It was released as a third single from the album only in a form of 12" single. McCartney claims that he viewed the song as an "experiment", somewhat influenced by Ian Dury. It indeed showcases Macca's 'avant-garde' strand and may be Pauls attempt to outdo the Who's 'Won't get fooled again' in its repetitive synthesizer riff. Macca p...

Because the A Capella Isolation of Because is well known (it appeared on Love), we complete the catalogue with the instrumental isolation. All you have to do, is go to your bathroom, and add a 4 part harmony to it. Stu Sutcliffe provided the cover painting.

A demo of the obscure Charlie Dore song "Fear of Flying" recorded one day in 1979/1980 when Dore visited Harrison's house was rediscovered by Olivia Harrison while searching through George's archives, a section of which was used on the Jools Holland show on BBC Radio 2. Olivia Harrison: "It's a demo, it's not embellished, it's just him, George, on an acoustic guitar. I don't know how he'd feel abo...

"Country Dreamer" is the B-side song to the single "Helen Wheels" released by Paul McCartney and Wings on 26 October 1973 in the UK and 12 November 1973 in the US. It is a pleasant acoustic song, it was not on an LP at the time. It has since been included as bonus track on the CD re-issue of Band On The Run, so that completists can easily find it these days. It was recorded in October 1972, and it...

"Misery" was written for Helen Shapiro on 26 January 1963, and later completed at Paul McCartney's Forthlin Road home. This is the official version of things, but wouldn't it be problematic for Helen Shapiro to sing "I'm the kind of guy who never used to cry"? For this reason or another, Shapiro didn't use it and British singer and entertainer Kenny Lynch recorded it instead, thus becoming the fir...

In the United States, Do You Want To Know a Secret was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching number 2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587. The Beatles' version was never released as a single in the UK, where a cover version by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas hit number one in the NME chart. Lennon said he based the song on Wishing...

"From Me to You" was the first Beatles song to reach number one in Britain. "From Me to You" would be the first of eleven consecutive British number one singles by the Beatles. The recording of From Me to You took place on 5 March 1963 at Abbey Road Studios and on 11 April Parlophone released "From Me to You" in the UK as a single. The stereo version (recorded on two tracks) lacks the harmonica in...

It is time for the BDJ Christmas special. We continue the tradition of setting a gospel to (Beatles) music. In previous festive seasons we released musical version of the gospels of Matthew (http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2010-12-11T08_26_46-08_00), Luke (]http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2010-12-19T07_00_16-08_00), the infancy gospels of Thomas (http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2011-12-09T11_37_24-08...

A nice quick mash-up of two percussion driven tracks. I Can Bet is form Macca's latest, "NEW", and One Night in Bangkok features in the musical Chess, of course.

From McCartney's latest album, "NEW", just out, this remix of I Can Bet. A throwaway album filler to my ears, but makes for a nice sing along.

Friday 10 January 1969: The Beatles were at Twickenham Film Studios. After breaking for lunch, however, George Harrison walked out of the studio. The remaining three Beatles carried on rehearsing without Harrison. Lennon sang Maxwell's Silver Hammer in an exaggerated German accent. Here, we remixed this take with the backing of the Abbey Road version, recorded 6 months later. The song was written...

"Commonwealth" was recorded January 9, 1969, at Twickenham Film Studios, London, England, during the "Get Back/Let It Be" rehearsals. The lyrics are improvised, as well as the instrumentation, with Paul McCartney ad-libbing on lead vocals, and John Lennon ad-libbing a backing vocal ("yes"). It was never officially released on either a solo Beatle album or as a cover version. The session was captur...

Working Class Hero" was released on John Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. He set the song to the same folk-blues acoustic guitar pattern Bob Dylan had used for his 1964 song "Ballad of Hollis Brown". of interest is the rhythm of the song; in typical Lennon fashion, the rhythm is quite complex, alternating between 12/8 and 7/8; just try 'counting' along..... Joh...

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was written by George Harrison, first recorded by the Beatles in 1968 for The White Album. The song features Harrison on his J-200 acoustic guitar (the one Dylan holds on the cover Nashville Skyline?) and - possibly his Fender Telecaster. Lead guitar is by Eric Clapton on his Gibson Les Paul, nick-named 'Lucy'. Harrsion acquired Lucy from Clapton in August 1968, so C...

Beware of Darkness was written by George Harrison and originally released on his 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass. The melody of "Beware of Darkness" is complex and original. The melody of the verses incorporates a pedal point on the key of G major and moves to G sharp minor, an unusal progression, very much the essence of "Harrisongs". The nearly chromatic melody of the verses contrasts with...

#9 Dream" was written by John Lennon and first issued on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. It was released as the second single from that album months later. Lennon liked the string arrangement he wrote for Harry Nilsson's rendition of "Many Rivers to Cross" from the album Pussy Cats so much that he decided to incorporate it into the song. Here, we isolated the instrumental of the song, enhancing...

There are numerous gospels, and only 4 have been included in the Bible. We have already set 2'Bible' gospels to music in The Cellar, and 2 ancient 'other' gospels. This is the most recent gospel, in fact it is only a few days old !