LIVE AT THE BBC

This album is cool.....The Beatles live at the BBC. This is a 2 cd box set, featuring previously unreleased live material by the beatles in their pre-prog era(1963-65). This are live radio performances: Some of them were played in front of an audience, and others weren't. This album's got some beatle songs, as well as songs originally from other artists such as Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and others. The band's sound is really cool: guitars by Geoorge and John, bass by Paul and drums by Ringo. This album's also got speeches and interviews with the beatles and the radio show owner. This album is excellent, if you're looking for some Beatels live material ( There are not many live albums by the beatles, apart from this one, and the others are hard to find). WARNING: This album is just 50's/60's rock n' roll, this IS NOT A PROG-ROCK ALBUM. But, as I've already said, if you are a Beatle fan and you want some of their live performances on Cds, then DON'T MISS IT!

This compilation of recordings done by the band for the BBC shows them in their early years (1963- 1965) playing a lot of songs, most of them covers of songs (29 of them never before released on their albums) by other bands and soloists, and with a few original songs, with only one of these original songs not previously released by them ("I'll Be On My Way", a song they gave to Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas to record and a song that The Beatles never tried to record in the studio for one of their albums). It seems that this BBC recording is the only known recording of "I'll Be On My Way " done by The Beatles. It also seems that the long "musical marathons" they had to play in Hamburg in their early years forced them to learn a lot of songs because they had to play at the night clubs in that city for 7-8 hours daily. So, this BBC album is mostly interesting to listen to all these previously unreleased songs.There are also some fragments from interviews which also show their wit and good humour, both things that helped them to achieve the charisma they had among the fans and to reach the very well deserved respect and fame they had, not only for being very good musicians. All the recordings are in Mono, and I think that there are mostly interesting as historic documents for the most dedicated fans and collectors of their music.

"Beatles - Live at the BBC" is a 1994 double compilation album (remastered in 2013 with the addiction of three extra tracks: two speach pieces, one for George and one for Ringo, and one musical piece: "From Us to You"[Closing] ) featuring performances by the Beatles that were originally broadcast on various BBC Light Programme radio shows from 1963 to 1965.

The songs are essentially "live in studio" performances. Most of the tracks are cover versions of famous songs from the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Beatles performed for 52 BBC Radio programmes, since an appearance on the series Teenager's Turn?Here We Go, recorded on 7 March 1962, till a special "The Beatles Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride", recorded on 26 May 1965. Total: 275 performances of 88 different songs, of which 36 songs never appeared on their studio albums.

This compilation replaces the production of the Beatles' bootlegs (even a 13-album bootleg series), very widespread in the seventies and eighties, and "The Complete BBC Sessions" (1993), a nine-CD box set released in Italy, where copyright protection for the broadcasts had expired (this set contained performances from 44 of the Beatles' 52 BBC appearances).

The tracks for "Live at the BBC" were selected by George Martin who used two criteria: the quality of the sound and of the Beatles' performance. In this album there are 30 songs that they have never performed on their official releases. The selection includes "I'll Be on My Way", the only Lennon?McCartney song no available in their studio albums (it was given to Billy J. Kramer, another artist managed by Brian Epstein). It's a unripe mid-tempo ballad with a rambling solo guitar (rating 6,5).

The album (two-CD, 1994) consists of 56 songs and 12 tracks of dialogue (thirty of the songs had never been issued previously). It was the first official release by the Beatles of previously unreleased performances since "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" in 1977.

There are a lot of excellent performance, overall: "Thank You Girl", "Baby It's You" (better than the studio version), "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Roll Over Bethoven" (much better than the studio version), "I'm a Loser". In these recordings you can feel the grit, the energy, the enthusiasm of these four guys, who express themselves as the rock and roll rebels of the Fifties, with the experience consumed playing all night in Hamburg nightclubs.

Historical find. Rating: 8+. Four Stars.

Want a record with early Beatles recording and a decent audio quality with a personal and loose feeling? Then go for Live on the BBC which features mainly known Beatles cuts with subtle differences, rare cover and own material and even 4 interviews with each Beatle. The conversations with the moderator are witty but not too distracting from music and young, fresh feeling. All four Beatles have a chance a sing with obvious majority of songs sung by Paul and John. Recordings have only a bit rougher feeling than in the studio. The repertoire includes songs with classic rock instruments without keyboard instruments so easily played anywhere. Songs from the first 4 albums up to Beatles for Sale are presented in various order. Some songs have different vocals, such as "Honey don't" sung by McCartney and not by Starr. "I feel fine" is attempted twice before the official take starts as it is a studio outtake.

Notable rare tracks include "Lucille" with McCartney on vocals, "Sure to fall(in love with you)" with nice vocal harmonies.

Overall, this is great listening for groups of people that want to have almost a live touch by the Beatles.

THE BEATLES Live at the BBC is an historical document to be sure, replete with the amazing early years of the Beatles. The discs are jam packed with early renditions of well known, beloved tracks and a ton of covers with interviews from the Fab Four interspersed. There are some genuinely humorous moments as we hear their cheeky British wit coming through. It took a while till this recording saw the light of day but it is so impressive to hear them in this raw, no nonsense form, before they became infamous and layered albums with studio trickery and buffonery. There some rare oddities here you will rarely hear anywhere else by Beatles such as on disc 1 From Us To You, Riding On A Bus, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, I'll Be On My Way, Young Blood, Carol, Soldier Of Love and I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You).

On the second disc we have Crinsk Dee Night, Have A Banana!, I Forgot To Remember To Forget, I Got To Find My Baby and Don't Ever Change. There are 69 tracks to wade through and a lot of familiar material too such as Matchbox, A Hard Day's Night, Roll Over Beethoven, All My Loving, Things We Said Today, She's A Woman, I Feel Fine, I'm A Loser, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Ticket To Ride and Kansas City / Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Overall the album comes recommended to any Beatles fanatic and anyone who loves listening to classic 1960s pop.