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9.55am
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1 May 2011
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Reading thru ‘Tune In’ and I never realised that there was so much competition in the music business to trump one recording of a song with a different recording of it. It was incessant and something even George Martin got involved in.
Wasn’t there concern from EMI that sales of the Beatles records were slowing down – or may slow down? I’d have to check Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Revolver ‘ book as may be remembering wrongly.
As for cover songs from ‘Revolver ‘ the Beatles knew Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers would be releasing ‘Got To Get You Into My Life ‘ as a single as they toured Europe together in June ’66 and Paul produced the single. Seems strange to be concerned over ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘ and ‘Yellow Submarine ‘ yet be happy over Cliff’s cover of another track from the same album.
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10.01am
31 March 2008
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I agree, it might not have been the true reason, but it is worth considering. A lot of the reporting does stand up, so I’m willing to bet there’s some truth to this one.
What’s interesting about this magazine is that it’s got all the contemporary reports and interviews, so you see the writers trying to make sense of things as they happened. We’ve got the luxury of 40-odd years of perspective, and a certain orthodoxy of opinion that didn’t exist back then. Plus they contain nuggets of info that everybody has long-since forgotten.
The reporters back then had amazing access to all the acts (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Stevie Wonder, Beach Boys , Cream). For example, there’s a report about Scott Walker’s 1966 suicide attempt, and a follow-up interview where he discusses – even jokes about – the incident, his state of mind and weariness at being in the public eye. That sort of honesty doesn’t happen quite so much nowadays, certainly not with teen stars.
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10.33am
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1 May 2011
Online Would EMI have known there would have been no new release for the Christmas market as early as July 1966 and so pushed for a single from the album to help with sales? Or if they had of known would they have preferred to wait and release a single a month or so down the line when the initial rush had receded?
Rodriguez’s ‘Revolver ‘ book does go into the ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘/’Yellow Submarine ‘ single and the perplexity of why it was issued over some of the more commerically viable tracks.
One thought from Rodriguez is that with ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘ it may have been that they “saw the song as an artistic breakthrough (which it was) and sought to capitalize on the attention it was destined to draw before anyone else had the chance to“.
Keith Badman’s ‘The Beatles: Off The Record‘ has quotes from three of the Beatles on the single.
Paul, on the release of the single “The decision was Brian’s alone. It wasnt really scheduled for release, but Brian thought the best two tracks should be made into a single before anyone else cover them.”
Ringo “[Yellow Submarine ] was made, originally, just for the LP. But then, Brian and our recording manager, and people like that, were talking to us and they thought ‘Yellow Submarine ‘ was commercial and they wanted to release it as a single, which was the first time we have released anything of an LP as a single. So, we did it and all it is is a children’s song. It’s not deep, it’s not anything, you know, it’s just a children’s song.”
George We just thought they we may as well put it out instead of sitting back and seeing dozens of cover versions all getting hits. We might as well cop a hit as well as anybody else. It’s believed that there are about 93 versions of ‘Good Day Sunshine ‘ being put out! Apart from that, it’s a good commerical single. I like them both. ‘Yellow Submarine ‘ will appeal to old-age pensioners and that kind of mob, whereas ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘ will probably only appeal to Ray Davies types…
So no question the magazine was correct.
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4.09pm
31 March 2008
Offline Thanks for that. Very interesting. I’ve got both those books but never picked up on the cover versions reason before.
It’s unthinkable that EMI would have put out a single from an album a few weeks or months after the LP. The Epstein/Martin rule was that they could either release a single ahead of the album or on the same day (EPs were exempt from the rule though).
I doubt EMI would have known in the summer that there would be no Christmas product. The group had knocked out Beatles For Sale /I Feel Fine and Rubber Soul /We Can Work It Out quickly towards the end of 64/65, so there may have been the assumption that they’d do it again in 66.
Possibly the label wasn’t aware that Lennon was scheduled for filming in Spain from September to November. McCartney went to France and Kenya straight after Lennon’s return in November, presumably knowing there was no looming deadline (by then the Collection of Oldies album was in production) and they didn’t go back into the studio until December.
My guess is that, were it not for How I Won The War, there might well have been another single, possibly even an album, at the end of 1966. Food for thought.
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17 December 2012
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I’ve also got Badman’s books, and obviously didn’t take in those quotes meaning properly.
One interesting thing to remember about 1966, and what EMI may or may not have been expecting from them in the second half of the year, is that from June 1966 The Beatles were actually out of contract. While they did not really look like going to another label, they were not actually still signed to EMI. They were even out of contract when Revolver was released. So, actually, EMI had no reason to expect anything further from them. This could explain why A Collection of Beatles Oldies was released at that point, a “best of” that also included the one recording yet to have a UK release (bar the German versions).
Their new contract with EMI (which I posted somewhere on here) was signed at the beginning of 1967, but for a few months in 1966 and early 1967, they did not actually have a record contract.
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20 August 2013
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5.50pm
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17 December 2012
Offline Afraid not, @Ahhh Girl, I was thinking about
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8.32am
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15 February 2015
Offline For some reason, I always get to feeling Revolvery round this time of year. I think it’s because I first ‘discovered’ it in the autumn.
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2.51pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline To me it always sounded Summery. That doesn’t make either one of us right or wrong. I just think it’s interesting how we both attach a seasonal feeling to the album.
“Wow, is it Revolver already? Where did Rubber Soul go? Before you know it, I’ll have to start sending out Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band cards!”
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3.32pm
3 August 2014
Offline My Dad bought it for my Mum one Christmas. It got played endlessly that year as a kid so for me it’s a warm Winter sound 🙂 Although the White Album has always been my favourite I really like Revolver . The only songs on it I don’t like are Got To Get You Into My Life and Yellow Submarine .
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Zig, Beatlebug4.00pm
3 August 2014
Offline Who did that ‘Sky blue and sea of green’ vocal. On YS? Surely it must be Paul. He does the same posh Southern English accent in Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey . You know the bit, …’ we haven’t done a bloody thing all day’. But the kettle’s on the boil, and we’re so easily called away.. 🙂
4.08pm
5 November 2011
Offline Sugarplum fairy said
Who did that ‘Sky blue and sea of green’ vocal. On YS? Surely it must be Paul. He does the same posh Southern English accent in Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey . You know the bit, …’ we haven’t done a bloody thing all day’. But the kettle’s on the boil, and we’re so easily called away.. 🙂
I always thought that was John
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4.17pm
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1 May 2011
Online Sugarplum fairy said
Who did that ‘Sky blue and sea of green’ vocal. On YS? Surely it must be Paul. He does the same posh Southern English accent in Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey . You know the bit, …’ we haven’t done a bloody thing all day’. But the kettle’s on the boil, and we’re so easily called away.. 🙂
John.
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5.18pm
3 August 2014
Offline Who did the ‘Hahaha’ then? 🙂
6.40pm
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15 February 2015
Offline @Zig said
To me it always sounded Summery. That doesn’t make either one of us right or wrong. I just think it’s interesting how we both attach a seasonal feeling to the album.
“Wow, is it Revolver already? Where did Rubber Soul go? Before you know it, I’ll have to start sending out Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band cards!”
It sounds summery to me, too– as one Forumpudlian (I disremember who) put it, ‘it’s like the most perfect summer afternoon of your life set to music’ or something like that. But I always get in the mood to listen to it in the autumn because reasons. (The incident described in the post I link to took place in the autumn– football season, I believe.)
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7.22pm
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1 May 2011
Online Sugarplum fairy said
Who did the ‘Hahaha’ then? 🙂
Right at end of the “live of ease” response section?
John. All that is John.
When playing ’20 Greatest Hits’ on cassette as a kid that was the bit of song that i adored. I still love that, especially how John pronounces “In our yelllow”.
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2.46am
8 January 2015
Offline It’s more Springy to me. Listening to the mono version which fairly bursts out of my headphones like a magic beanstalk 😀
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8.48am
22 July 2015
Offline meanmistermustard said
When playing ’20 Greatest Hits’ on cassette as a kid that was the bit of song that i adored. I still love that, especially how John pronounces “In our yelllow”.
I always felt the same about that line, and the rest of the parts where John would chirp in. I guess it’s something that catches a kids mind and sticks with them!
9.49am
22 December 2013
Offline Joe said
What George said in Anthology (page 212):Revolver was accepted well. I don’t see too much difference between Rubber Soul and Revolver . To me, they could be Volume One and Volume Two.
Ringo:
Revolver has that quality of Rubber Soul because it’s the follow-on. We were really starting to find ourselves in the studio. We were finding what we could do, just being the four of us and playing our instruments. The overdubbing got better, even though it was always pretty tricky because of the lack of tracks. The songs got more interesting, so with that the effects got more interesting.
Here’s a few more snippets to add here, Paul’s quote is from their Seattle Press Conference I believe, or from one of them other U.S. 1966 Press Gatherings:
JOHN 1966: “One thing’s for sure– the next LP is going to be very different.”
PAUL 1966: “I don’t think we ever try to establish trends. We try to keep moving forward and do something different… and if in the meantime it starts a trend, that’s ok. But we never try consciously to start them.”
GEORGE 1966: “We all put alot of suggestions in after we’ve recorded a take. That’s why we take so long to record a number. We’ve always cooperated with one another. Paul might come into the studio and say, ‘Do this’ if he has worked out the chords beforehand. But they always need changing.”
JOHN 1972: “We’d had acid on Revolver . Everybody is under this illusion– even George Martin was saying, ‘Pepper was their first acid album.’ But we’d had acid, including Paul, by the time Revolver was finished.”
…:-)
2.13am
21 November 2015
Offline Revolver might just be the greatest Beatles album. In particular, there’s something about the way it concludes with Tomorrow Never Knows .
It’s like the band were saying – ‘here’s the future…’
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