Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Beatle Greetings
2. From Us To You
3. Riding On A Bus
4. I Got A Woman
5. Too Much Monkey Business
6. Keep Your Hands Off My Baby
7. I'll Be On My Way
8. Young Blood
9. Shot Of Rhythm And Blues
10. Sure To Fall (In Love With You)
11. Some Other Guy
12. Thank You Girl
13. Sha La La La
14. Baby It's You
15. That's Alright Mama
16. Carol
17. Soldier Of Love
18. Little Rhyme
19. Clarabella
20. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry Over You
21. Crying Waiting Hoping
22. Dear Wack
23. You've Really Got A Hold On Me
24. To Know Her Is To Love Her
25. Taste Of Honey
26. Long Tall Sally
27. I Saw Her Standing There
28. Honeymoon Song
29. Johnny B Goode
30. Memphis Tennessee
31. Lucille
32. Can't Buy Me Love
33. From Fluff To You
34. Till There Was You
35. Crinsk Dee Night
36. Hard Day's Night
37. Have A Banana
38. I Wanna Be Your Man
39. Just A Rumour
40. Roll Over Beethoven
41. All My Loving
42. Things We Said Today
43. She's A Woman
44. Sweet Little Sixteen
45. 1822
46. Lonesome Tears In My Eyes
47. Nothin' Shakin'
48. Hippy Hippy Shake
49. Glad All Over
50. I Just Don't Understand
51. So How Come (No One Loves Me)
52. I Feel Fine
53. I'm A Loser
54. Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby
55. Rock 'n' Roll Music
56. Ticket To Ride
57. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
58. Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey
59. Set Fire To That Lot
60. Matchbox
61. I Forgot To Remember To Forget
62. Love These Goon Shows
63. I Got To Find My Baby
64. Ooh My Soul
65. Ooh My Arms
66. Don't Ever Change
67. Slow Down
68. Honey Don't
69. Love Me Do

Disc 2:

1. Crinsk Dee Night
2. Hard Day's Night
3. Have A Banana
4. I Wanna Be Your Man
5. Just A Rumour
6. Roll Over Beethoven
7. All My Loving
8. Things We Said Today
9. She's A Woman
10. Sweet Little Sixteen
11. 1822
12. Lonesome Tears In My Eyes
13. Nothin' Shakin'
14. Hippy Hippy Shake
15. Glad All Over
16. I Just Don't Understand
17. So How Come (No One Loves Me)
18. I Feel Fine
19. I'm A Loser
20. Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby
21. Rock 'n' Roll Music
22. Ticket To Ride
23. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
24. Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey
25. Set Fire To That Lot
26. Matchbox
27. I Forgot To Remember To Forget
28. Love These Goon Shows
29. I Got To Find My Baby
30. Ooh My Soul
31. Ooh My Arms
32. Don't Ever Change
33. Slow Down
34. Honey Don't
35. Love Me Do

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3104 in Music
• Released on: 2001-06-04
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Live, Original recording reissued
• Dimensions: .42 pounds
• Running time: 121 minutes

CD Description
Although the guitars are often electric, LIVE AT THE BBC is, essentially, the Beatles Unplugged--yanked out of the recording studio, gathered around a few microphones and encouraged to show off their raw craft, naked voices and rock'n'rollroots. MTV didn't exist in the early '60s, but the BBC did,and between March 1962 and June 1965 (a period that spans their first four albums and takes them from the simplicity of"Love Me Do" to the complexities of "Ticket To Ride") the Beatles performed 52 times on England's national radio network. Although they had honed their craft in British and Germanrock clubs, the Beatles were mostly known as a studio band,and the radio shows served as a sort of behind-the-curtainsglimpse of the studio wizards.
Most of these performances are covers of early rock, pop and country songs, and the scope of them is wider and deeper than the covers the Beatlesput on their albums. There are obvious influences--Chuck Berry, Elvis and Little Richard rockers, and traditional pop ballads--along with lesser-known pop footholds that hint at how/where the Beatles bridged the gap between rock's teen-ageyears and its adulthood. They covered soul singer Arthur Alexander only once on their original records ("Anna"), but twice here, and the combination of R&B drive and complex pop changes that fuels both "Soldier Of Love" and "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues" gives away one of the primary sources of Beatles style. John Lennon's vocal on "I Just Don't Understand", an Ann-Margret pop song, foreshadows the downbeat folk-rock with which the Beatles made their mark in the mid-'60s.
Abaker's dozen of Lennon/McCartney originals are spread through the set, including one, a jangly folk-rocker titled "I'll Be On My Way", that they never recorded. The John-Paul-George harmonies are in full bloom, as is the Beatlesque sense of humor. There's one terribly obvious overdub, but the restof LIVE AT THE BBC sounds like rock'n'roll's greatest living-room sessions.

Customer Reviews

Where you once belonged
How strange that no one's reviewed this yet! This is the Beatles as a pretty good pub band.
After the White Album in late 68, Paul McCartney had the idea of recording an album with no overdubbing, no fancy studio tricks, just the Beatles playing live - something old, something new etc. It didn't work in January 1969 when they tried it, but it did work throughout 1963 and 1964, when they recorded this whole pile of stuff for the BBC, dashing down to London in the van after doing a one night stand in Bolton or Ilfracombe or some such place, a couple of hours kip, then - er - what are we going to do for Saturday Club, lads? What about Nothing Shakin but the Leaves on the Trees? Okay, Paul, why don't you do Clarabella? Okay - here we go, one two three, wham bang - Thanks Brian, and thanks to all at number 44 Mount Street, Clacton for the kind birthday wishes, and the bag of jellybabies. Here Mr Matthew, have a jellybaby. Oops, look at the time - gotta dash, playing in Glasgow tonight!
In 1963 the Beatles were constantly racing around Britain, and in 1964 racing around the world. They made famous hit records. But when they recorded their many appearances on teenage radio shows they mostly played their favourite old country and rhythm & blues numbers, things which they'd done at the Star Club or the Cavern, very straighforward, no frills (no time for frills anyway!). It's delightful, but I must be honest. I could live without about half of this double-cd. The other half has wonderful obscurities like "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues", or "Soldier of Love", or Paul whispering "Clarabella" (another Little Richard impersonation) or Paul warbling "The Honeymoon Song" (which he later made Mary Hopkin sing). All their early influences are here displayed (the usual suspects, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles), and after all, it is the Fabs. And if I was booking groups in 1963, I'd definately have had them back again. Very professional. very workmanlike. Hard to believe that psychedelia was just round the corner.

Beatles BBC: "B - - - - y Brilliant Compilation"
When this collection was released, prior to the Anthology series, it was the first `new' Beatles material released for many years.

Many of the songs have been previously bootlegged, but this collection has many unfamiliar tunes, including some Chuck Berry numbers and contemporary beat tunes like `Some Other Guy' and `Hippy Hippy Shake'.

The banter with BBC presenters is delightful, as is reading the fan mail and various comments and in-jokes.

The set is just short of a revelation. It's full of energy, toughness, fun and sparkle. There are some great covers, as well as slightly different versions of the usual Beatles hits. It's interesting that they seem to have put just as much thought into the covers as their own material: these songs were never 'filler', but songs The Beatles knew and loved.

The packaging and liner notes are marvellous and each disc has about 30 tracks, so the set is great value.

The only drawback of this terrific album is the sound: glorious mono, with varying degrees of low, medium and hi `fi' due to the age of the tapes and BBC recording techniques. It's not even at the standard of the official Beatles mono LPs, but it's always listenable and you soon forget about the sound, anyway.

Good, but not perfect collection
For years bootlegs (LPs back then, the "Live at the Beeb" series) of the BBC-radioshows were in high demand: they covered every show the Fab Four ever performed for the BBC. They would never fit on a 2CD-set. So yes, one will miss a song or two on this collection, but there are some real gems (I'll be on my way, Clarabella, Lucille - to name but three). I think they could have put on more covers that were not released on their official albums, as some performances are clearly inferior.
The BBC itself did not archive these recordings, as far as I know, though there may be acetates. Luckily most of it was recorded by fans and survived that way. Naturally the audio quality of these recordings is far from perfect (compared to their first album, which in itself was almost 'live in the studio'), but most are listenable enough. Some are really bad (Keep your hands off my baby, for one, and a couple of TV performances), but I guess these are included for their uniqueness. I could have done without the chats, especially when they are edited over the music and you can't skip the track.
All in all it's a great set that shows the Beatles'influences and for me, I think some of their covers are so much better than the originals!