Live at the BBC [Live]

The Beatles | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 5, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1994
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000007MVD
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,996 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #26 in Music > Rock > Oldies & Retro > Rockabilly
  • #37 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles
  • #48 in Music > Classic Rock > Supergroups

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The surviving members of the Fab Four spent much of the 1990s belatedly reuniting to document, promote, and occasionally awkwardly burnish their unparalleled pop music legacy. This double-disc anthology of live-in-the-studio performances originally recorded specifically for the BBC during the most frantic years of early Beatlemania was the first chapter in that effort and the first issuance of previously unreleased Beatles recordings since the late '70s. In many ways, it remains the most artistically revealing. Capturing them at their early '60s live-performance peak, these recordings pay homage to both the band's eclectic musical influences (including Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Larry Williams, the Coasters, and the Shirelles), and to the enthusiastic and generous sense of musical discovery and the pop proselytizing that accompanied them. A number of the Fabs' own '62-'65 singles and album tracks are also featured, but they mostly take a back seat to the generous collection of previously unreleased cover songs included here. The band's brisk, often irreverent sense of humor also comes to fore in the intros, interviews, and between-song banter. An indispensable part of any true Beatlemaniac's collection and a superb introduction to the roots of a musical legend. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

56 songs (plus 13 intros) recorded live by the Beatles in the BBC studios between 1962 and 1965, including 30 songs never released by the band! That means you hear the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time do everything from Lucille to Glad All Over for the first time! Compiled by George Martin.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

130 of 139 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For Goodness Sake--I Got The Hibby Hibby Shake! June 6, 2001

By David Bradley

Format:Audio CD

As much as the Beatles were loved in the USA, we were short-changed. We thought we were getting a lot with an album every ten months, a handful of singles each year, a movie every two years, an occasional tour, and a sloppy Saturday morning cartoon.

But, in the UK, the Beatles were doing stage shows--not just their own act, but pantomime and vaudeville-type things--and tons of live radio, where "From Me To You" was converted to "From Us To You" and made their signature tune. LIVE AT THE BBC collects more than 60 of the best moments from their radio appearances in one fabulous package.

There are a couple odd glitches--the solo on "A Hard Day's Night" is an obvious edit of the studio solo patched over a live performance, for instance--but the vast majority of the music here is superb.

The cover of "Sweet Little Sixteen" is fantastic, really hard stuff the way Lennon always said he preferred the Beatles to sound. Harrison shines on "Nothin' Shakin'" and "Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby." McCartney wails on "Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," and "The Hippy Hippy Shake." The whole band delivers a jolt with my very favorite early Beatles rocker, "Some Other Guy."

Ringo, as always, is the heart of the Beatles sound. On "Thank You Girl" he sounds like he's going to knock the bandstand to pieces. Why he isn't universally acclaimed as one of the 2 or 3 greatest Rock drummers of all time is beyond me.

This is a great record of the Beatles early days, when they were just beginning to step away from a very 1950s sound. Who could have guessed how far they'd go in less than a decade?

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "What about my book?!" July 13, 2006

By take403 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

This CD should settle once and for all that the Beatles were fine performers live. It would be hard to prove that on copies of broadcasts from Shea Stadium and the Hollywood Bowl. With the exception of one obvious edit on "Hard Day's Night" (though to rectify it, they play the ending fadeout riff ad nauseum at the end of the song "Here's proving that they're playing live!" says the BBC emcee), this is the Beatles live (and usually without the fanfare of screaming teenage fans).

From 1962 to 1965, the Beatles performed live on the BBC featuring not only their own songs but other popular songs from other artists (Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles and Buddy Holly, to name a few). There's even a few out of the ordinary songs included, like Ann Margaret's "I Just Don't Understand" (sung by John) and "The Honeymoon Song" (sung by Paul).

This is the Beatles at their most fun (and it sounds like they're indeed having fun!). Featured on this CD are are many songs never before released on LP or CD, like "Please Don't Change a Thing" and "Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on the Trees" (both sung by George), "Double Shot of Rhythm and Blues," "I Got a Woman" (sung by John), "Lucille" (sung by Paul, why did that DJ have to pipe in on the instrumental introduction?), "Johnny B Goode" and "Carol" (both sung by John), "Hippy Hippy Shake" (sung by Paul), "Some Other Guy" (it's hard to believe that though this is featured in both The Compleat Beatles and The Beatles Anthology, this is the only version to surface on CD, bootlegs notwithstanding), "Young Blood" (sung by George), "Ooh, My Soul" and "Clarabella" (both sung by Paul, the latter featuring harmonica by John), "To Know Her Is to Love Her," "So How Come (No One Loves Me)," "Sure to Fall" (lead by Paul with harmonies from John and George), "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" and "Got to Find My Baby" (both sung by John), "That's Alright Mama" (sung by Paul) "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Lonesome Tears In My Eyes" (both sung by John) and the only Lennon/McCartney song never before released (at least aired on the BBC) "I'll Be On My Way." This song was given to Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas after they had written it.

Of course, there's the alternative version of "From Me to You" (retitled "From Us to You") at the beginning and there's also also notable versions of "Baby It's You" (with a jazzy coda, rather than the fadeout on Please Please Me), "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (with no echo reverb on George's vocal) and "Honey Don't" with John on vocals rather than Ringo), "I Saw Her Standing There," "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," "She's a Woman," "Things We Said Today," "Love Me Do" (with Ringo on drums), "I Wanna Be Your Man," "Rock and Roll Music," "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Till There Was You."

There are no recordings from 1962 featured here but I had read no quality recordings existed. Also included are short interviews with the Fab Four. Paul gives a rare serious answer as to what the Beatles miss in the midst of all the fame and fortune, John is the most jovial ("No, I play harp on this song! I play harmonica on 'Love Me Do'!"), Ringo gets a banana thrown at him ("'Ere, Ringo, have a banana"), George is wry as he introduces "Roll Over Beethoven" as a song that goes back to 1822 and at the beginning of Disk 1, each of the Beatles introduces themselves ("I'm Ringo and I play the drums" "I'm Paul and I play a bass" "I'm George and I play the guitar" "I'm John and I, too, play a guitar. Sometimes, I play the fool!"). Mark Lewishon provides some insightful liner notes and we learn that "Ticket to Ride" was one of the last songs the Beatles performed on the BBC. It doesn't include all the songs they performed on the BBC, since there was a CD single featuring 3 other songs from the BBC sessions not included here (also worth getting and probably even harder to find). Nevertheless, if you're a serious fan of the Beatles and this is not in your collection, this would be a worthy purchase.

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up on the Beeb October 29, 2005

By Kelly L. Norman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

It bears noting that at the time this compilation was released, the Beatles were banned from the BBC. Not because of any song content, mind you (as if), but because, if I remember the exact wording, they were "too boring." This all changed soon enough, when a year later Beatlemania was revamped by the Anthology series and "Free As A Bird"/"Real Love" releases.

But in the heyday of the sixties, the love affair between the Beeb and the boys from Liverpool was hot and heavy. And mutually beneficial, no doubt.

For those of us who love the "personal history" stuff of the Beatles story as well as the technical, which-riff-goes-where stuff, this set is a treasure trove. Not only do we get to hear early interviews where Paul, George, Ringo, and even cheeky John still have butterflies in their stomachs, but despite the low-tech feel of the recordings, the energy of the songs recorded here is palpable. In between the songs the lads chat with DJs and share Christmas and other holiday greetings. This gives us a glimpse, in part, into even the pre-"toppermost of the poppermost" days.

My favorite songs on the collection feature George, and listening to them gave me further insight into the frustration he must have felt playing an undeserved "second fiddle" role to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. His covers of "Young Blood", "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", "Nothin' Shakin'" are so fresh and spot on, to say nothing, of course, of "Roll Over Beethoven". Even though a Harrison original doesn't show up here, his musicianship and importance in the group comes through.

"Nothin' Shakin'", by the way, a terrific rockabilly number, is one of several unique recordings on this collection, along with songs such as Carl Perkin's "Glad All Over" (not to be confused with the Dave Clark number of the same name).

A must for any serious Fab Four collection.