BDJ's Cellar Full of Remixes

By the time I Want To Hold Your Hand was recorded (October 1963), EMI had installed 4-track recorders at Abbey Road. The results are immediately audible: guitars are double tracked amd distributed over different tracks. The Single was - of course - released in glorious mono. Since I Want To Hold Your hand was not included on With The Beatles, no stereo version was released in the UK. it features o...

A brand new - true stereo - remix of this classic Beatles song. During the remixing of I Saw Her Standing There, I made a major discovery, which I will describe below. I Saw Her Standing There was recorded at EMI Studios on 11 February 1963, as part of the marathon recording session (10 hours) that produced 10 of the 14 songs on Please Please Me. In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song...

Badfinger was a rock band formed in Swansea, Wales in the early 1960s. Their history is closely linked with the Beatles; to some, their music imitates the Beatles; for others, it is a welcome extension to the Beatelesque repertoire. Pete Ham sings in a McCartney-esque voice, their guitars sound a lot like Eric Clapton....... The other ties to the Beatles are too many too mention all: - The name Ba...

"She's a Woman" was released as the B-side to "I Feel Fine" in 1964 (see remix below). McCartney's bass produces a countermelody, which now bursts out of your subwoofers. Lennon's Rickenbacker 325 guitar plays chords on the backbeat, now in full stereo, combined from takes 2 and 4. In the original release a piano (Paul or george Martin ?) also plays chords on the upbeats, but I didn't like that. H...

I Feel Fine is - probably - Lennon's first riff-based song. He would go on to write riff-based tunes for the rest of his career; listen to "Day Tripper', or 'Whatever gets you through the night' for example. Lennon made it no secret that his riffs were inspired by songs he had heard; he credited the riff of I Feel Fine to Bobby Parker's 'Watch Your Step', and this also appears to have inspired Day...

n 1969, the Beatles found themselves in a slump; they were growing out of the 'innocent, funny boys' role, and the band was at risk of falling apart. To bring the group back to life, they embarked on the 'Everest' project, which comprised a live performance somewhere in the world in a 'safe' location (such as Mt Everest). They expected to draw such large crowds, that a concert in a normal venue wo...

Remix of Macca's demo with Badfinger's only hit.

The core of this podcast consists of Beatles tracks covered by Dutch artists, mostly form the 60's and 70's. Some are exciting, some are just presented here for the completists........ The Beatles became popular in the Netehrlands at a very early stage in thier career; the Dutch have a fine ear for musical talent (and still do). Friday 5 June 1964: Following the previous day's concerts in Copenhag...

The gospel of Luke tells of the nativity in its own way, necessitating its own Beatles Christmas podcast version: while Matthew (see preceding Podcast) talks about the wordly aspects (king Herod, the wise men and their rich gifts) and the nativity rooted in Judaism, Luke speaks more about the spiritual impact and the break with Jewish traditions. Therefore, we selected more 'spiritual' tracks for...

Christmas Time Is Here Again ! A special time for Beatles fans: the Beatles did Christmas shows in their early days, and released special 'nonsense' records for their fanclub all through the Fab's career. Enough reasons to release this BDJ Chritsmas special; it is a new - yet ancient - way to celeberate Christmas. Gone are the Ho-Ho-Ho's of Father C, decorated trees, mangers and shepherds. In its...

Many (if not most) of the Beatles songs were never performed Live by the Fabs themselves. Even when thye still toured they basically reproduced the recorded versions as accurately as possible. What if they had continued performing gigs, and had updated their songs as they went along ? Here, we present a version of She's Leaving Home that could have been performed at the rooftop of Apple Studios, i...

She's Leaving Home is one the few songs of the later Beatles albums where Lennon contributes to a McCartney song. Standing out by Mike Leander's string quartet arrangement, it maintains its unique posiotion in modern pop/rock. Lewisohn mentions that 2 extra bars of cello (after each Bye-Bye)were edited out of the final release (on Sgt Pepper). This was done at the remix stage, indicating that the...

Sometimes Lennon's songs are not that different......

Lennon lets it rip in this sensational rocking track. Featuring guitars and a cowbell, this was one of the loudest songs of 1968. Outtakes form Take 12 are well known, but some say that Take 9 was even louder. Unfortuatley, that take has not surfaced (yet); so, the BDJ Teamroom Orchestra set to work to recerate take 9 as best as they could. Cranked up the distortion on the guitars (BDJ), thumping...

One of the elusive Beatles tracks that still remains unbootlegged, is the 'slow version' of Please Please Me. The fabs played it to George Martin, who rejected it as being too slow for a number one hit. Perhaps for the last time, the Beatles complied and changed the song around into the Please Please Me that we all know. Here, we present a rare live recording of the original Please Please Me. It i...

For You Blue sounds like a more or less improvised blues session; the Fab did this every mow and then, as we hear in the Let it Be sessions, but these rarely led to a quality recording. And it was a close shave for For You Blue: Phil Spector needed to apply quite some trickery to construct a full song out of the various takes. Still, "For You Blue" was listed with "The Long and Winding Road" as a...

Maggie Mae is just a snippet of a song on Let It Be. Phil Spector picked the best 38 seconds out of a session that did not last for more than a minute or two. After all, it's a pretty tragic story about a working girl, who was banished to Australia for her efforts. So she 'did not walk Lyme street anymore', a connection with the Beatles since John and Cynthia were married in the registrar's office...

Another World Premiere for BDJ's Cellar; The beatles perform the Holly classic 'Maybe Baby'. This is unearthed form the Let It Be rehearsals. Lossless version of this remaster is found on the Let It Be Remixed release (BRG16). Don't confuse this one with the Maybe Baby that McCartney wrote for the film in 1999.....

A rare Live Performance, not released on Let it Be. Not only did Billy Preston join the Beatles for the Roof Concert, but - apparently - so did Talking Heads. They would later use this tune for their own greatest hit.

'Her Majesty' is a beautiful McCartney compositon. It didn't make it onto Let It Be, but Macca remembered it a few months later when recording Abbey Road. On Abbey Road, it sounds like a throwaway, barely 30 seconds, kicked off by a slightly out of tune chord (Mustard), and lacking the final chord. Here, we combine the Let it Be and Abbey Road sessions, underpinned by a solid backing track (Slow D...

'Anna (Go To Him)' is possible the poorest song the Beatles ever covered. It is surprising that it was included on Please Please Me, while the Beatles had stronger cover songs in their repertoire at that moment. There is no recording of any Live performance, they only played it twice on BBC's Pop Go The Beatles (as filler). So why did they select it for PPM ? Since Lennon does the lead vocals, it...

A funky re-mix, featuring Michael Jackson and others. Lossless version on 'Beatle Blends'.

Something was Sinatra's 'favorite Lennon-McCartney Song'. It appears that it has now become McCartney's Favourite Harrisong. Macca perfoms Something at almost any concert now, in a sober production featuring mainly ukele and some piano parts. So here - in a World Premiere - are the Macca vocals in a lush George Martin production. NB: the BDJ engineers unveiled an urbain myth while mixing this trac...