What did they do on June 1?

** The following events in Beatles history all took place on June 1. **

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Beatles * [J] John * [P] Paul * [G] George * [R] Ringo * [O] Other
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1961
The Beatles perform at the Top Ten Club, Reeperbahn, Hamburg, West
Germany. (1176)

1963
The Beatles tape the 2nd and 3rd "Pop Go the Beatles" radio
programs for the BBC. The 2nd program, featuring guests the
Countrymen, is broadcast on June 11 and has The Beatles performing
"Too Much Monkey Business", "I Got to Find My Baby", "Youngblood",
"Baby It's You", "Till There Was You", and "Love Me Do". The
Beatles, now playing 25-minute sets on package tours, were only
able to play their Lennon-McCartney hits in live performance, so
they used these radio programs to play some of the cover versions
that previously made up a large part of their live performance
repertoire. The 3rd "Pop Go the Beatles" is broadcast on June 18,
with guests Carter-Lewis and the Southerners. On that show The
Beatles perform "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues", "Memphis", "A Taste
of Honey", "Sure to Fall (in Love With You)", "Money", and "From Me
to You". Recorded at BBC Paris Studio, London. A number of
recordings from this day are included on the 1994 Beatles double-CD
"Live at the BBC". From show #2, "Youngblood" (Disc one, Track
eight); "Baby It's You" (Disc one, Track 14); and "I Got to Find My
Baby" (Disc two, Track 29). From show #3, "Sure to Fall (in Love
With You)" (Disc one, Track 10). (1802)

1963
After recording two radio programs during the day, The Beatles
perform for two "houses" with the Roy Orbison tour, at the Granada
Cinema, Tooting, London, in the evening. (1803)

1964
US release of single "Sweet Georgia Brown/Take Out Some Insurance
On Me Baby" (Atco). No chart appearance. (21)

1964
The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios,
London). Recording songs for the non-soundtrack side of their LP
"A Hard Day's Night", as well as completing the songs for the "Long
Tall Sally" EP. They recorded 5 takes of "Matchbox" (for the EP),
8 takes of "I'll Cry Instead" (for the LP), 6 takes of "Slow Down"
(for the EP), and 16 takes of "I'll Be Back" (for the LP).
American Carl Perkins, composer of "Matchbox", was on a promotional
tour in the UK and visited The Beatles' recording session, getting
the chance to see them recording his song. Perkins was one of the
biggest influences on The Beatles. "The Beatles Anthology 1"
includes Takes 2 and 3 of "I'll Be Back" from this recording
session (Disc 2, Tracks 17-18). (2115)

1966
The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios,
London). Recording sound effects overdubs for "Yellow Submarine",
a 12-hour session. John blows bubbles in a bucket of water and
shouts out "Full speed ahead Mister Captain!" (from inside an echo
chamber). Other persons participating in making the barrage of
noises heard on "Yellow Submarine" (as well as those e***ed out of
the final song) are the other Beatles, Brian Jones, Marianne
Faithfull, Pattie Harrison, George Martin, Neil Aspinall, Mal
Evans, John Skinner, and Terry Condon. Then, Mal Evans pounds on a
huge bass drum strapped to his chest, marching about the studio as
the others follow behind (conga-line style) singing "We all live in
a yellow submarine" (Lewisohn). The overdub that takes the most
time and effort, however, is one that will never make it onto the
finished song. This is a spoken passage narrated by Ringo that
opens the song and fades into the acoustic guitar intro (the whole
bit lasting 31 seconds). The other Beatles' voices are mixed in
and out during Ringo's spoken part, and the sound of marching feet
(simulated by sliding a box with pieces of coal in it back and
forth) was also in the background. In the end, The Beatles decided
"It's All Too Much" and they discard this complex intro. (2530)

1967
June 1 is the official UK release date for the 1967 LP "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", although the album was actually
rush-released on May 26. (541)

1967
The Beatles in the recording studio (De Lane Lea Recording Studios,
Kingsway, London). The Beatles experiment in the studio, again
with George Martin absent. They record untitled and unstructured
jams. Mark Lewisohn makes some curious comments about this
session, ".[they record] amateurish instrumental jams in a 10:30
pm--3:30 am session. The single-minded channeling of their great
talent so evident on 'Sgt. Pepper' did seem, for the moment at
least, to have disappeared." For all of his encyclopedic knowledge
about The Beatles, Lewisohn seems to have missed an important
concept--that such unstructured jamming often leads to new musical
ideas and creative techniques. (2684)

1967
Release in Sweden of Beatles LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band" (Parlophone). (3812)

[J] 1969
On the last day of John and Yoko's Montreal bed-in for peace, John
and Yoko, along with a roomful of people, record "Give Peace a
Chance". Included in the chorus are Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary,
Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, Derek Taylor, Petula Clark, and members of
the Canadian Radha Krishna Temple. The recording is cre***ed to
"The Plastic Ono Band". Although the songwriting cre*** is listed
as Lennon-McCartney, Paul had nothing at all to do with the song,
but John has not yet reached the decision to abrogate his
long-standing agreement with Paul about sharing songwriting cre***s
regardless of the degree of contribution from the other. (3073)

[J] 1971
John Lennon records "Do the Oz", cre***ing it to the Elastic Oz
Band. John also records a demo of "God Save Us", onto which Bill
Elliot will record his vocal. (3260)

[J] 1971
John Lennon, having obtained a 9-month US visa, flies to New York
with Yoko in an attempt to find and gain custody of Yoko's daughter
Kyoko. (3262)

[P] 1973
UK release of Wings single "Live and Let Die/I Lie Around" (Apple).
8 weeks on the charts; highest position #9. (601)

[G] 1981
US release of George Harrison LP "Somewhere in England" (Dark
Horse). Songs: "All Those Years Ago", "That Which I Have Lost",
"Save the World", "Writing's on the Wall", "Blood From a Clone",
"Unconsciousness Rules", "Life Itself", "Baltimore Oriole",
"Teardrops", and "Hong Kong Blues". Ringo plays drums on the
album. Highest chart position is #11. (287)

1987
US re-release of Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band" on CD (Capitol). Released in stereo. The US CD version
includes the "Inner Groove" and the 15 kc tone audible only by
dogs--both of these were excluded from the US vinyl LP (but were
included on the UK LP). (406)

1987
UK re-release of Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band" on CD. On this day, one could really say, "It was twenty
years ago today.". Released worldwide on the 20th anniversary of
the album's original release. As was done with the original LPs in
1967, the CDs were shipped on May 26 without changing the official
release date. The CD version included the "Inner Groove" and 15kc
tone audible only to dogs, which appeared on the original UK LP but
which were excluded from US albums. (778)



** The following events all took place sometime in June. **
** Any help in determining the exact dates would be appreciated. **

1961
Release in Germany of Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers single
"My Bonnie/The Saints" (Polydor). The Beatles' name was changed
because it sounded too much like the German slang word "peedles"
(*****). When the single is released in the UK, their name will be
changed back to "Beatles", but in the US it initially remained
"Beat Brothers". According to producer Bert Kaempfert, the single
sold 100,000 copies in Germany. [Note: There is a lot of
disagreement about the release date of "My Bonnie" in Germany. One
thing seems pretty clear, though--since the song was recorded on
June 22-23, 1961, it is somewhat unlikely that the record was
released in June. So June is probably wrong, even though Ray
Coleman, Barry Miles, Castleman & Podrizak, and Bill Harry, all
presumably reliable sources, give June as the month of release.
Alan Wiener gives July as the month of release, while Mark Lewisohn
(in the "Anthology 1" liner notes) says it was in August. However,
Hans Gottfridsson ("The Beatles - From ****rn to Star-Club") says
it was late September or early October before the single was
released. Joseph Brennan ("The Beatles' Hamburg Recordings on
Record") supports the October release date; he thinks Lewisohn has
to be wrong about an August release because the German record
pressing factories closed for a couple of weeks during August, and
they probably would have held the release until they re-opened.
But he doesn't give specific dates for the factory closings,
either. November would have to be too late, because Brian Epstein
was getting requests for the single in late October. Bert
Kaempfert's wife recalls that the single was out before a child of
hers was born on October 4. All things considered, it would seem
like late July through early October are the only reasonable dates.
Gottfridsson's information seems to be the most dependable--he
gives record company documentation that, while not ironclad, is
pretty solid. So that narrows it down to very late September (the
28th or after) or early October (probably not later than the 4th).]
(1115)

[J] 1970
In San Francisco, John and Yoko, accompanied by Jann Wenner (e***or
of "Rolling Stone" magazine) and his wife Jane, attend a special
afternoon screening of "Let It Be". They are the only people in
the theatre. (3241)

[J] 1971
John Lennon begins recording songs for his "Imagine" album.
Recording will be completed sometime in July. (3418)

[J] 1977
John, Yoko, and Sean travel to Japan, where they will remain for 5
months. (3365)



Hasta La Vista