The Beatles 1 Video Collection is out now. Available on: www.thebeatles.com/
Hey Jude topped the charts in Britain for two weeks and for 9 weeks in America, where it became The Beatles longest-running No.1 in the US singles chart as well as the single with the longest running time.
The Beatles did not record their promotional film until Hey Jude had been on sale in America for a week. They returned to Twickenham Film Studio, using director Michael Lindsay-Hogg who had worked with them on Paperback Writer and Rain. Earlier still, Lindsay-Hogg had directed episodes of Ready Steady Go! And a few months after the film for Hey Jude he made The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV special that featured John and Yoko but wouldn’t be shown until 1996
To help with the filming an audience of around 300 local people, as well as some of the fans that gathered regularly outside Abbey Road Studios were brought in for the song’s finale. Their presence had an unlikely upside for The Beatles in their long-running saga with the Musicians’ Union in that the MU were fooled into believing the band were playing live, when in fact they were miming for the vast majority of the song. Paul, however, sang live throughout the song.
The video was first broadcast on David Frost’s Frost On Sunday show, four days after it was filmed. At that point transmission was in black and white although the promo was originally shot in colour. It was first aired in America a month later on 6 October 1968, on The Smotheres Brothers Comedy Hour.
Queen icons Brian May and Roger Taylor today, Sunday December 15, posted their personal Christmas messages to worldwide fans with the gift of a new specially created animation film for the band’s ‘Thank God It’s Christmas’ track originally released in November 1984.
‘Thank God It’s Christmas’ was a rare song writing collaboration between Roger and Brian. The song spent six weeks in the UK charts over the Christmas/New Year period 1984/1985. It enjoyed a second lease of life Christmas 1995 coupled with the hit single ‘A Winter’s Tale’ from the Made In Heaven album. Here the track receives a fully animated treatment.
The concept for this new animated film came directly from Brian and Roger who explain their thoughts behind it with Roger saying: “Ironically, Christmas tends to be such a stressful time for so many of us. So many emotions, joyful memories of past Christmas’ as delighted children and responsible adults / parents. Its just a great relief when it finally happens.”
Brian adds: “The video goes a little further by including a subtle reminder that we as humans now need to feel a responsibility for the welfare of ALL creatures on Earth — not just for our own benefit, and that of our grandchildren, but out of respect for the rights of the animals themselves.”
Working with Brian and Roger, the film was directed