The Beatles bootlegs
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/* Material Still Un-Bootlegged */
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[[Image:Kumback-beatles.jpg|right|thumb|175px|The cover of ''Kum Back''; the first ever [[Beatles]] bootleg album to hit the market.]]
'''The Beatles bootlegs''' are [[audio]] and/or [[video]] recordings of musical performances by [[England|English]] [[rock band]] [[The Beatles]] which were not officially released by the band, or under other legal authority.
The Beatles are one of the most [[bootleg recording|bootlegged]] acts in music history. Bootleg records of the group began showing up in the late 1960s. These bootlegs contained unreleased material that was illegally recorded, stolen or leaked from the band's [[record label]] [[EMI]]. In the 1980s, [[compact disc]]s and [[video cassette|videos]] began to replace records as prevalent forms of bootleg material.
One of the first Beatles bootlegs was ''Kum Back'', which was created from an early [[acetate disc|acetate]] put together by engineer [[Glyn Johns]] on [[March 10]], [[1969]]. The acetate included rough mixes and versions of songs that would eventually be released on ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]''. A copy of the acetate had leaked out by September 1969, when radio stations around the country were playing music from the as yet unreleased album. In the fall, the ''Kum Back'' bootleg showed up in record stores. Bootlegs of a second mix made by Johns on [[May 28]] also began to hit the black market.
[[The Beatles bootlegs#The Get Back/Let It Be Sessions|''Let It Be Sessions'']] (aka the ''Get Back Sessions'') material is still the primary source for Beatles bootlegs. Hundreds of hours of recordings exist featuring the band rehearsing new material, as well as classic rock'n'roll [[Cover version|covers]].
Most of the better-quality, heavily bootlegged songs have since been released on ''[[Live at the BBC (The Beatles album)|Live at the BBC]]'' & ''[[The Beatles Anthology]]'' CD series.
==Commonly Bootlegged Material==
The following is a list of some of the most common bootlegged recordings by the Beatles.
===The Quarrymen/Silver Beatles Era===
====The Quarrymen Show (The Day John met Paul), 1957====
On Saturday, 6th July 1957 [[The Quarrymen]] played a show at summer fete of St Peter's Parish Church. Later that day, a young 15 year old [[Paul McCartney]] met [[John Lennon]] for the first time back stage. The two were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, [[Ivan Vaughan]] (who played tea-chest bass with the group). In 1994, Bob Molyneux, a retired policeman, rediscovered a reel-to-reel tape he had made of the show while experimenting with a Grundig portable tape recorder. The tape contained a poor quality recording of the Quarry Men performances of [[Lonnie Donegan|Lonnie Donegan's]] "Puttin' On The Style" and [[Elvis Presley|Elvis Presley's]] "Baby, Let's Play House". The tape was put up for [[auction]] in September that year and was sold by [[Sotheby's]] to [[EMI]] for £78,500, making it the most expensive recording sold at auction.
EMI attempted to clean the recordings up for the bands forthcoming ''[[The Beatles Anthology]]'', but ultimately decided that the recording was still unsuitable to be played on a television program. The full recording has never been formally released. A 30 second clip of "Puttin' On The Style" was released by Sotheby's to promote the auction. This recording has appeared on several bootlegs since then.
====Rehearsals at Paul's House, 1960====
In 1960, the band recorded a tape of music at Paul McCartney's house. The recording featured early versions of many songs that would later be recorded by the band in the studio. A number of songs from this recording were included on the first disc of ''[[The Beatles Anthology]]''. Songs recorded include Well Darling, Johnny Johnny, That's The End, I Don't Need No Cigarette Boy, [[Matchbox]], [[One After 909]], [[Cayenne (song)|Cayenne]], Hello Little Girl, That's When Your Heartaches Begin, Wildcat, I'll Always Be In Love With You, Some Days, Hallelujah I Love Her So, [[You'll Be Mine]], [[The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise]], [[I'll Follow the Sun]], You Must Write Everyday, Movin' And Groovin, [[Ramrod]] and An Important Number.
===The Decca Records Audition Tapes (January 1st, 1962)===
A few songs from this recording were included on the first disc of ''[[The Beatles Anthology]]''. Most bootlegs include all 15 songs from the original demo; "Like Dreamers Do" (Lennon/McCartney), "[[Money (That's What I Want)]]" (Bradford/Gordy), "[[Till There Was You]]" (Wilson), "[[The Sheik of Araby]]" (Snyder/Wheeler/Smith), "[[To Know Her Is To Love Her]]" (Spector), "Take Good Care Of My Baby" (Goffin/King), "[[Memphis, Tennessee (song)|Memphis]]" (Berry), "Sure To Fall (In Love With You)" (Perkins/Cantrell/Claunch), "[[Hello Little Girl]]" (Lennon/McCartney), "[[Three Cool Cats]]" (Leiber/Stoller), "[[Crying, Waiting, Hoping]]" (Holly), "Love Of The Loved" (Lennon/McCartney), "[[September In The Rain]]" (Warren), "[[Besame Mucho]]" (Velasquez/Skylar), and "[[Searchin']]" (Leiber/Stoller).
Due to the questionable copyright status of these tracks (the Beatles had not yet signed to EMI when they were recorded), the Decca tapes were a frequent mainstay of bootleg CDs in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Several Japanese and European discs offered the material in varying configurations. Legal action by Apple, however, soon sent the Decca auditions back to the world of bootlegs. The recordings also were released on numerous vinyl compilation albums beginning in the early 1980s. Most of the bootleg releases omit the three Lennon-McCartney songs. Fourteen of the fifteen tracks appeared on a series of coloured vinyl singles (issued with picture sleeves depicting The Beatles at various points in their career) on the Deccagone label, released in 1978 through ''Strawberry Fields Forever'', Joe Pope's fanzine. The following year, all 15 Decca audition tracks appeared on the Circuit Records bootleg album ''The Decca Tapes''.
The songs have finally reached commercial availability as the entire tape (minus the Lennon/McCartney Compositions) can be downloaded on iTunes. The album is incorrectly labeled to say that it is featuring Tony Sheridan. This leaves "Love of the Loved" the only non-commercially available song from the tape.
===The Star Club Tapes===
In December 1962 The Beatles did a two-week stint at the Star Club in Hamburg. At that time Adrian Barber made a tape for Ted "Kingsize" Taylor, which re-surfaced in the seventies and became the source for several semi-legal compilations.
The tape is rough, but captures a raucous show. Some of the songs, such as "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Ask Me Why", would later appear on Beatles records. There are many of the typical covers, but also some not available elsewhere, such as Arthur Alexander's "Where Have You Been?", Tommy Roe's "Sheila", Frank Ifield's "I Remember You", Marlene Dietrich's "Falling In Love Again" and Fats Waller's "Your Feet's Too Big". [[Image:TheBeatles-albums-liveatthestarclub1962.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962]], 1977.]]
The Star Club tapes are historically intriguing for capturing The Beatles performing many of their newer songs with a rawness similar to their pre-fame, Hamburg days. Musically and as characters they allow themselves to be altogether less cuddly than their mop-top personae would soon dictate.
As with the (Decca Records) audition tapes, the Star Club tapes became the basis for several semi-legitimate releases, debuting on the album "Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962" (on Lingasong records) in 1977. (The UK and USA versions of this album had slightly different track listings; a later release, "The Beatles' Historic Sessions", included all 30 tracks contained between the two Lingasong versions.) The initial releases contained liner notes implying that the recordings had been made in the spring of 1962, on a night when Ringo Starr happened to be sitting in for Pete Best on drums; actually, the recordings date from late December 1962. The December recording date means the rights to the tapes belong to EMI, which signed The Beatles in June 1962. In a letter reproduced in a bootleg CD booklet, John Lennon wrote, "the sleeve note, apart from being inaccurate, seems to have been written with a court case in mind." This continued into the CD era, with a surprising twist: one of the numerous reissues of the Star Club tapes was by none other than (Sony), which decided to test the grey-area status of the tapes (most other quasi-legal CD issues were by smaller European and Japanese labels). The release was quickly withdrawn after Apple threatened legal action. Some critics of Sony point to its release of the Star Club tapes as evidence that its anti-bootlegging/pro-intellectual-property stance only applies to its own intellectual property. Ironically, the Sony CD issue of the Star Club tapes by was the inspiration for "Apple House", a small South Australian company which pioneered the "Unauthorized" CD market in the early 1990s. Incredibly, only one record company ever sued "Apple House", Sony (together with Michael Jackson), but they lost the case, having to pay a large settlement, plus having to pay the "Apple House" lawyer's fees. However, international copyright law was subsequently changed to stop these types of "loophole" releases, effective June 30th 1995.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Image-Beatles Great Dane.jpg|left|thumb|175px|The cover of ''The Complete BBC Sessions'': the nine-CD set of The Beatles' [[BBC]] appearances by Great Dane Records.]] -->
===The BBC Sessions===
The Beatles regularly recorded live in studio for the BBC. In addition to performing their own material, they often did [[Cover version|covers]] of other artists like [[Buddy Holly]], [[Chuck Berry]], and [[Ray Charles]]. These sessions often were passed off as studio outtakes on many 1970s-era bootlegs. The popularity of Beatles BBC discs reached its apex with a celebrated nine-CD set by ''Great Dane Records'', which aimed to supplant the varying configurations of BBC discs available on bootleg, while presenting the material in chronological order and in the best quality available at the time. The popularity of this release directly led to the official, Beatles-sanctioned ''[[Live at the BBC (The Beatles album)|Live at the BBC]]'' 2-CD set. While the official disc did collect many of the otherwise-unreleased cover versions performed by The Beatles on the BBC, it did nothing to stem the tide of BBC bootlegs; in fact, collectors and archivists continue to discover new and improved sources for the BBC session material, much of which makes its way into internet bootleg. The current, "most-complete" version is an eleven-disc set available for free on the internet.
===Live Concerts (1962 - 1966)===
The Beatles performances at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] and [[Shea Stadium]] shows, as well as many other concerts, frequently appear on bootlegs. Portions of two Hollywood Bowl shows were compiled into an officially released album, ''The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl'', released in 1977. Another song from those concerts ("Baby's in Black") was released in 1996 as one of the CD "B-sides" of the newly-recorded "Real Love" single. In recent years, audience live tapes of Beatles shows surfaced according to journalist Peter Palmiere. The most recent are two Memphis, Tennessee shows from the 1966 USA tour. The quality is fair, at best, but any undiscovered concerts documented on audio and/or video is considered a Holy Grail discovery. Also uncovered is a possible recording from the Toronto 1966 show.
===Studio Outtakes (1962 - 1970)===
[[Image:SessionsCover.jpg|right|thumb|175px|The cover of the unreleased ''[[Sessions (album)|Sessions]]'' album: an [[EMI]] compilation album of session outtakes that was prevented from release by the surviving members of the band in 1985.]]
A surprising number of Beatles session tapes are available on bootlegs. These range from complete or semi-complete session tapes—for example, the morning sessions for the ''[[Please Please Me]]'' album—to more fragmentary samplings and/or alternate mixes and performances derived from [[Acetate disc|acetates]].
====History====
The first studio outtake to appear on bootleg was [[the White Album]] outtake "[[What's The New Mary Jane]]", in 1972. This fell into the hands of bootlegers via an [[acetates|acetate]] that [[John Lennon]] had traded to a friend. Later, in 1977, rough mixes of "[[I Am The Walrus]]" and "[[The Fool On The Hill]]" appeared due to a [[Radio Luxembourg (English)|Radio Luxembourg]] broadcast. <ref>[http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/beatles/history.html A History of Beatles Bootlegs]</ref>
But it wasn't until 1977 when [[The Beatles]] [[EMI]] contract had expired that the company re-opened the vaults for unreleased material for a future "outtakes" album. The first batch of songs to leak came from an in-house compilation cassette that contained "Leave My Kitten Alone", "[[One After 909]]" (the 1963 recording), "If You've Got Troubles", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again!)", "That Means A Lot", "[[Come and Get It (song)|Come and Get It]]", "Rip It Up / Shake Rattle And Roll", "Not Fade Away" (from the "[[Get Back]]" sessions), "[[Dig a Pony]]" (the full-length version without the edits).<ref>[http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/beatles/history.html A History of Beatles Bootlegs]</ref>
In 1981, in-house engineer John Barrett was given the task of cataloguing the complete collection of recordings from the bands seven-year career with EMI. The fruits of these labours gave way to two projects: an audio/video tour of [[Abbey Road Studios]] called ''The Beatles Live At Abbey Road'' (which opened on [[18 July]] [[1983]]) and a planned outtakes album which was to be called ''[[Sessions (album)|Sessions]]'', which was cancelled by the surviving members of band. With both the audience recordings of the studio tour and the leaked promos of ''Sessions'' a wealth of previously unheard material was now available for the black market. The most common bootlegs to obtain these outtakes included the ''Ultra-Rare Trax'' from Swingin' Pig Records and Yellow Dog's ''Unsurpassed Masters'' series.<ref>[http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/beatles/history.html A History of Beatles Bootlegs]</ref>
In the following years much more was leaked until EMI finally in 1995 released the six-CD [[The Beatles Anthology|Anthology]] series, which featured many of the mentioned in superior quality.
===Home Demos===
Rough performances of early versions of songs that were either later recorded by the band or by other artists. Most of these tapes were sent to the band's then-publishing company [[Dick James]] Music and [[Northern Songs]] and have since found their way via auctions and private sales into the hands of bootleggers. Some of the most commonly found demos include:
* "[[Bad To Me]]": 1963 Lennon demo written for Billy J Kramer.
* "[[I'm In Love]]": 1963 Lennon demo, written for The Fourmost, early demo.
* "Don't Bother Me": 1963 Harrison demo.
* "One And One Is Two": 1964 McCartney demo.
* "[[If I Fell]]": 1964 Lennon demo.
* "[[We Can Work It Out]]": 1965 McCartney demo, partially taped over by Lennon.
* "[[Michelle]]": 1965 McCartney demo.
* "He Said, He Said": 1966 Lennon demo, early version of [[She Said She Said]].
* "It's Not Too Bad": 1966 Lennon demo, early version of [[Strawberry Fields Forever]].
* "[[Good Morning Good Morning]]": 1967 Lennon demo.
* "[[Across the Universe]]": 1967 Lennon demo.
* "[[You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)]]": 1967 Lennon demo.
* "[[Step Inside Love]]": 1968 McCartney demo, written for [[Cilla Black]].
* "She Can Talk To Me": 1968 Lennon demo, early version of [[Hey Bulldog]].
* "Everybody Had A Hard Year": 1968 Lennon demo, early version of [[I've Got a Feeling]].
* "[[Oh My Love]]": 1968 Lennon demo.
* "[[Goodbye]]": 1969 McCartney demo, written for Mary Hopkin.
* "[[Don't Let Me Down (The Beatles song)|Don't Let Me Down]]": 1969 Lennon demo
* "[[Cold Turkey]]": 1969 Lennon demo.
====The White Album Demos ''aka'' The Kinfauns Demos====
The Beatles recorded demos of almost the entire ''White Album'' with acoustic guitars in May 1968 at George Harrison's [[Esher]] house, [[Kinfauns]]. <br />
The demos also included a number of songs that did not make it to the final album, included:
* "Child of Nature": later released by Lennon, with different lyrics, as "[[Jealous Guy]]".
* "[[Circles]]": later released by [[George Harrison]] on his "[[Gone Troppo]]" album.
* "[[Sour Milk Sea]]": a song later recorded by [[Jackie Lomax]] as one of the earliest [[Apple Records discography|Apple Record singles]] (written by Harrison).
* "[[Junk]]": later released by McCartney on his ''[[McCartney (album)|McCartney]]'' album and a demo recording was also included on "The Beatles Anthology".
===The Christmas Recordings===
Each year, the Beatles recorded a [[flexi disc]] [[EP]] of comedy and music that was sent to members of their [[fan club]]. After the group's break up in 1970 these recordings were compiled as an LP released via their fan club called [[From Then To You]] ([[The Beatles' Christmas Album]] in the US). Since this album has had no official general-public release on LP or [[Compact Disc]], portions frequently appear on bootlegs. One song, "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" was released to the general public in an edited version in 1995 on the "[[Free As A Bird]]" single.
===The Get Back/Let It Be Sessions===
[[Image:Let It Be-Bootleg Vol 1.jpg|Let It Be Sessions|right|thumb|175px]]
{{main|Let It Be (album)#The "Get Back"/"Let It Be" sessions|l1=The "Get Back"/"Let It Be" sessions}}
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====Twickenham Studio Rehearsals====
In January of 1969, the group got together with director [[Michael Lindsay-Hogg]] to film the rehearsals for the bands first live concert in 3 years. They recorded the sessions both as audio and video - planning a TV documentary, then later, an album. Fighting within the group led to most of the plan being scrapped. However the footage from this rehearsals was released the following year instead as a feature film: ''[[Let It Be (film)|Let It Be]]''. The Beatles also rehearsed unrecorded songs such as "[[Watching Rainbows]]", and several songs that would become Beatles solo material, including "[[All Things Must Pass (song)|All Things Must Pass]]" and "Hear Me Lord'" (later released by Harrison), "Gimme Some Truth" (later released by Lennon), "Teddy Boy", "[[Hot as Sun]]" and "The Palace of the King of the Birds" (also known as "The Castle of the King of the Birds") (later released by McCartney).
From the 1970s, the recordings from the film crew's [[Nagra]] tape recorders (which were used to record the audio that would later be synch to film) would be bootlegged many times. Usually, bootleggers would compile the most interesting moments in to a single album release. In the early 1990s, a bootleg company known as [[Yellow Dog (bootlegger)|Yellow Dog Records]] created the ''[[Day by Day (The Beatles bootleg)|Day By Day]]'', a 38 part CD series composing the Nagra tape recordings in their entirety. Also, the releases were a big jump in audio quality from the murky releases that had come before them.
[[Image:Let It Be-Bootleg Vol 2.jpg|Let It Be Sessions Volume II|left|thumb|175px]]
In January 2003, following an investigation by The [[International Federation of the Phonographic Industry]] and London detectives, police raids in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]] recovered nearly 500 of the original Nagra tapes. Five people were arrested.
After the raid, an online bootleg trader known as Purple Chick continued the Day by Day series and also release their own ''A/B Road'' collection.
====The Rooftop Concert====
Although their original plans for a live concert fell through, The Beatles did perform on January 30, 1969 on top of the [[Apple Records|Apple]] Building at 3 Savile Row, London. The full performance (which was recorded and filmed for the Let It Be album/film) included the following songs:
"Get Back #1", "Get Back #2", "Don't Let Me Down #1", "I've Got a Feeling #1", "One After 909", "Dig a Pony", "God Save the Queen" (which has surfaced on the German bootleg ''On the Rooftop''), "I've Got a Feeling #2", "Don't Let Me Down #2", and "Get Back #3". Portions of this concert were seen in the ''[[Let It Be (film)|Let It Be]]'' film. Three tracks of this session, namely "Dig a Pony", "I've Got a Feeling" and "One After 909", were used by Phil Spector to compile the Beatles' final album to be released, ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]'' and the complete concert was issued on a number of bootleg releases.
====The Black Album====
One of the myriad Get Back/Let it Be Sessions bootlegs was [[The Black Album (The Beatles bootleg) |The Black Album]]. It's recording quality was acceptable at the time, but most of the material has subsequently been released in better quality on CD. Still, it remains a memorable part of The Beatles bootleg history.
==A Toot and a Snore in '74 (After the break up)==
[[Image:A Toot and a Snore in '74.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[A Toot and a Snore in '74]]: the only known recording of [[John Lennon]] and [[Paul McCartney]] together after [[The Beatles]] broke up.]]
There are hundreds of bootlegs based on the solo careers of members of the band. However, a noteworthy inclusion is the only known recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney together after the break up of the group in 1970. A loose jam involving the two (which also included: [[Stevie Wonder]], [[Harry Nilsson]], [[Jesse Ed Davis]] and [[Bobby Keys]]) was recorded at Record Plant studios in [[Los Angeles]] on [[March 28]], [[1974]]. The recording did not surface until 18 years later when a portion of it was released on bootleg as ''[[A Toot and a Snore in '74]]''.
==Material Still Un-Bootlegged==
Although most of the outtakes and unreleased tracks from The Beatles' ten year recording career have leaked from the vaults of [[Abbey Road Studios]], there are still a few holy grails out there that fans are waiting to hear:
*''[[Baby, Let's Play House]]:'' This Elvis Presley cover is one of two songs recorded during a show at the Woolton fête in July 1957 (on the day John first met Paul) by the pre-Beatles band, The Quarrymen. The second song, ''Puttin' On The Style'', had a very poor quality 30 second excerpt released during the tape's auction in 1994. After extensive audio restoration, excerpts from both songs were included the BBC radio documentary ''The day John met Paul'' broadcast on 26th June 2007; hence, this song is unlikely to remain un-bootlegged for much longer. Come And Go With Me, Cumberland Gap, Railroad Bill and Maggie Mae were also rumoured to be taped as well.
*''Quarrymen Demos'': Although lots of demos of the Quarrymen were recorded in 1960, some have yet to surface including When I'm 64, Winston's Walk, Ask Me Why and a spoken Lennon nonsense with radio.
*''Young Blood'' Decca audition, January 1st 1962: As mentioned on the Live At The BBC booklet, Young Blood was recorded at Decca but unheard of.
*''Live at the Cavern, mid-1962'': Auctioned to Paul McCartney on August 29,1985, this tape contains 18 songs, mostly covers, including a few of which no Beatles version circulates. Those covers, and the versions on which they were modeled, are: "Hey! Baby" (Bruce Channel), "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody" (James Ray), "Sharing You" (Bobby Vee), and "What's Your Name" (possibly Don & Juan's doo-wop hit of the same title). As McCartney owns it and nothing was used on Anthology 1, however, we can probably assume the sound quality's not too good.
*''[[Love Me Do]] September 4 1962, single session: Since How Do You Do It was released on Anthology 1, there were lots of rehearsals recorded of Please Please Me and Love Me Do but they were lost.
*''[[Sheila]]'' October 26, 1962, BBC: Occasionally at their BBC sessions, the Beatles taped numbers that weren't used in the actual broadcast. This cover of Tommy Roe's chart-topping Buddy Holly soundalike "Sheila" is one of them, and though a poor-fidelity live version that the group taped a couple of months later in Hamburg was issued as part of the Star-Club tapes, this would presumably be both better sounding and a better performance. It's likely, however, that the tape was erased or has vanished forever
*''[[Tip of My Tongue]]:'' Several takes of this song were recorded by the Beatles on 26 November 1962 at EMI Studios. Unsatisfied with the results, they gave the song to [[Tommy Quickly]] to record instead.
*''[[Three Cool Cats]]'': January 16, 1963, BBC: Another instance of a Beatles song taped at a BBC session, but not broadcast. There is a version of "Three Cool Cats" from their January 1, 1962 Decca audition that's easily available. But it's a shame this BBC version doesn't survive, as presumably it would be a considerably improved rendition, the group having improved so much in general in the ensuing year.
*''[[Hold Me Tight]]'' studio outtake, February 11, 1963: It's known the Beatles attempted an early version of "Hold Me Tight," later redone for With the Beatles, at their Please Please Me sessions. It's likely the tapes (along with about half the session tapes for Please Please Me) no longer exist, but stranger things have miraculously turned up.
*''[[Do You Want to Know a Secret]]'' demo tape, early 1963: Billy J. Kramer remembers hearing a demo tape of this song before he covered it for his debut single on March 21, 1963. As he revealed in the liner notes to the CD The Best of Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas: The Definitive Collection, "I had this tape given to me, and it was John Lennon singing it with an acoustic guitar. On the tape he said, 'I'm sorry for the sound quality, but it's the quietest room I could find in the whole building.' Then he flushed the toilet."
*''[[I Call Your Name]]'' demo tape, May/June 1963: Billy J Kramer also remembers 2 demos he had that Lennon recorded for him. Bad To Me, that is heard of and I Call Your Name. Billy J Kramer recorded I Call Your Name after the Beatles recorded it for their 1964 Long Tall Sally EP.
*''[[Three Cool Cats]]'' July 2, 1963, BBC: Yet another version of this Coasters cover, taped at a BBC session in July 1963, but—like the one they taped for the BBC in January—not broadcast.
*''[[Don't Pass Me By]]'' August 1963: Ringo Starr recorded Don't Pass Me By as a private effort in 1963 but the tape was unheard of until the 1968 version which ended up on the White Album.
*''[[World Without Love]]'' demo tape, circa early 1964: Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon has said he has a tape of Paul McCartney's demo of "World Without Love" without the bridge, before it was covered by Peter & Gordon for a #1 hit.
*''Beatles-Carl Perkins session'' June 1, 1964: The late rockabilly great Carl Perkins claimed on several occasions that he and the Beatles recorded in the studio together on June 1, 1964. The songs they did varied according to the account, but they might have included "Blue Suede Shoes," "Honey Don't," "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," "Your True Love," "Sawdust Dance Floor," and others. No tape has surfaced, however, and it seems possible that if such a session took place, it might not have even been taped. For while Perkins remembered staying in the studio until almost three in the morning, no Beatles recording session officially ran past midnight until October 13, 1965.
*''You're My World'' studio outtake, June 3, 1964: A strange song for the group to be covering, "You're My World" was not a Beatles original, but a song that had just gotten to #1 in the UK for Cilla Black. As it turns out, however, it's reported that the version lasts just 33 seconds.
*''It's For You'' demo, mid-1964: Cilla Black has remembered getting a demo of this Lennon-McCartney song that she covered on a 1964 single (and of which the Beatles never released their own version), featuring just Paul and guitar.
*''[[No Reply]]'' demo, mid-1964: Before the Beatles recorded this for Beatles for Sale, there had been thoughts of "giving" it away to another Brian Epstein-managed act, Tommy Quickly, though Quickly never did release his own version. Colin Manley, who played guitar on Tommy Quickly's unreleased cover of "No Reply," told Kristofer Engelhardt in Beatles Undercover that "I don't think the Anthology 1 version is the demo we heard; it's too complete. I wish it would have been the one we heard. I'd back my life that the demo we used had no middle eight; it didn't have any clue as to the rhythm we should use. It contained the sound of a toilet flushing at the end which we thought was hilarious because it was typical of John's humor. I think we were told it was recorded in a hotel room. We immediately noticed when the Beatles put it on their album Beatles for Sale that it had a middle eight."
*''[[In My Life]]'' private tape, 1965: In his 1980 Playboy interview with David Sheff, John Lennon said he probably had an original (presumably home) tape of "In My Life." John's memory wasn't always faultless, but in the same answer, he also remembered having tapes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "We Can Work It Out," both of which did turn up. Like "Strawberry Fields Forever," "In My Life" is known to have mutated considerably in the course of its composition—in an early draft, it referred to numerous Liverpool landmarks by name—which could make pre-studio tapes of the song fascinating.
*''[[What Goes On]]'' private tape, late 1965: In the April 1966 issue of The Beatles Monthly Book, Neil Aspinall reported that "when Paul wanted to show Ringo how 'What Goes On' sounded he made up a multi-track tape. Onto this went Paul singing, Paul playing lead guitar, Paul playing bass and Paul playing drums. Then Ringo listened to the finished tape and added his own ideas before the recording session."
*''[[Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)]]'' Take 3, October 21 1965: An MP3 format of Norwegian Wood appeared on the internet but was faked with someone who sounded like Lennon with just an acoustic guitar. Take 3 is unheard of while Takes 1, 2 and 4 have been released on bootlegs.
*''Hold On, I'm Comin''' demo tape, March 1966: While She Said, She Said was recorded as demo form at this time (the working title was He Said, He Said), Lennon wrote an unreleased song which appeared on the same tape.
*''Paul McCartney home tapes'' circa 1966: In the biography Many Years from Now, Paul remembered using a studio in Montagu Square in London to "demo things. I'd just written 'Eleanor Rigby' and so I went down there in the basement on my days off on my own. Just took a guitar down and used it as a demo studio." A very brief snippet of Paul on acoustic guitar singing "Eleanor Rigby" has shown up that might be from this period, but no other such tapes have circulated.
*''[[Love You To]]'' (take 1): In contrast to the [[India]]n-flavoured released version, Take 1 of ''Love You To'' featured George Harrison on acoustic guitar and vocals, with Paul McCartney providing occasional backing vocals. At this stage, the song was tentatively titled ''Granny Smith''.
* ''[[Carnival of Light]]:'' A 15-minute experimental track recorded during the ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' sessions. The recording has not surfaced on released or bootleg recordings. ''Carnival of Light'' has proved one of the most sought-after unreleased Beatles tracks, and fans were dismayed that The Beatles (especially Paul McCartney), having advanced it for inclusion on ''[[Anthology 2]]'', decided to withdraw it as a poor use of 15 minutes worth of disc space, at the request of Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
*''Anything'': Recorded during ''Sgt Pepper'' on 22 February 1967 (during the overdub session for [[A Day in the Life]]). Another experimental recording consisting of 22 minutes and 10 seconds of drum beat, augmented by tambourine and congas. It's unclear whether this was a bed track for one song or an excerpt of another. In any case the track wasn't overdubbed further or even mixed down.
* ''[[Helter Skelter (song)|Helter Skelter]]'' (take 3): This earlier more bluesy version of the song lasted an epic 27 minutes and 11 seconds. Rumors persisted that the recording no longer existed, but George Harrison mentioned in an interview that he had recently listened to the session tape about the time of the [[The Beatles Anthology]] project. Although an edited version of take 2 (4 minutes 37 seconds of its 12 minutes 35 seconds) was released in as part of [[The Beatles Anthology 3]] CD set 1996, take 3 has been long sought after since its first mention in [[Mark Lewisohn]]'s ''The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions''. (It was actually first mentioned in "The Beatles A to Z" in 1980.)
*''[[Good Night]]'' mid-1968: Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick's memoir, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (co-written with Howard Massey), mentions that John made a demo of "Good Night" for Ringo that was played back a couple of times in the studio. "It's a shame that this particular tape has been lost to the world, and that nobody will ever hear the gorgeous way John sang his tender little song," wrote Emerick. "In comparison, I really don't think Ringo did the song justice."
*''Etcetera'': During the White Album sessions on August 20th 1968. Paul quickly recorded this song for Marianne Faithfull (she declined to record it) <ref>[The Beatles: a diary by Barry Miles Omnibus Press p272.]</ref> and no one has heard of it since.<ref>[http://www.richieunterberger.com/rumored.html rumored<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
*''[[The Long and Winding Road]]'' studio outtake, circa late 1968: It's also known that Paul, playing piano, did a demo of "The Long and Winding Road" at some time during the White Album sessions, in advance of it being rehearsed and recorded at the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in January 1969. Honorable mention: George quits the band, January 10, 1969: The tape was rolling at the precise moment when George Harrison quit the Beatles (for just a few days, as it turned out) during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions—but the discussion/reaction immediately following that moment is missing from the circulating unreleased tapes.
*''Games People Play'' April 20th 1969: After an Oh! Darling session, the Beatles recorded an unreleased song which apparently was taped and clocking over just 2 minutes.
*''Sun King session'', August 24th 1969: As mentioned in the Anthology 3 booklet, The Beatles recorded Come And Get It and 3 rough covers including Ain't She Sweet which was released on Anthology 3 along with Come And Get It. Who Slapped John? and Be-Bop-A-Lula have yet to surface.
*''Peggy Sue Got Married'', 3rd January 1970: McCartney, Harrison and Starr recorded the song I Me Mine which would be their last recording session together. After recording I Me Mine, the Beatles recorded a last number which was taped but not heard of.
*''[[Now and Then (song)|Now and Then]]/I Don't Want to Lose You/Miss You'': A song from the reunion sessions in the mid 1990's. Originally a Lennon demo recorded in 1979, the surviving members started work on the song on [[March 20]] and 21st, 1995. The band recorded overdubs for the track; however there was a hum on the original demo [[Compact Cassette|cassette]] that was too difficult at the time to remove. If released, the song would have been a contender for the band's third reunion single and it would have been included on [[The Beatles Anthology 3]] album. Although the song has appeared in its original demo form on bootleg, the recordings from the 1995 session still remain unreleased. Throughout 2005 and 2006, press reports speculated that McCartney and Starr would release a complete version of the song in the future. On [[April 29]], [[2007]], it was reported in the [[Daily Express]] that the song may be released to coincide with the [[Beatles]] catalogue being released for the first time via digital download. As of the time of writing, the only available recording of this song is Lennon's original demo (complete with the "electronic buzz" embedded in the recording). The overdubs added in 1995 by the other surviving members has yet to surface.
*''[[All for Love (Beatles song)|All For Love]]'': Another song from the reunion sessions recorded March 20-21 1995. The song was written by both Harrison and McCartney, making it the second ever collaboration, after the 1958 composition "[[In Spite Of All The Danger]]" (which was later released on [[Anthology 1]].For reasons unknown, the song was shelved.
* ''[[Grow Old With Me]]'': The third unfinished reunion track. Lennon's original demo (recorded in 1980) was first issued in 1984 on his posthumously released [[Milk and Honey (album)|Milk and Honey]] album. Like all the Anthology sessions, tracking took place at Mill Studios in Sussex, England. Recording started from [[February 11]] to early March, 1994 and resumed again on March 20th and 21st 1995. McCartney later said in an interview, "John's original demo required too much work." So, all work on the track was aborted. Although the [[The Beatles' line-ups|"Threetles"]] version of the song has yet to be heard, a version of the demo recording with a newly recorded string section by [[George Martin]] was eventually released on the [[John Lennon Anthology]] box set in 1998.
==Fake Bootlegs==
A number of songs have been fraudulently passed off by bootleggers as unreleased Beatles songs. These [[outfakes]] include:
* ''"I Love You Too"'': Song by [[The Fourmost]] containing a singer that sounds very similar to Paul McCartney
* ''"We Are The Moles"'': Song by [[Simon Dupree and the Big Sound]], and once thought to feature Ringo Starr on lead vocals
* ''"Bye, Bye, Bye,"'': Beatles spoof by radio DJ [[Kenny Everett]]
* ''"Have You Heard The Word"'': Lennon soundalike track featuring [[Maurice Gibb]]
* ''"It's Gonna Be Alright"'': A hit by Netherland rock group Smyle
* ''"Cheese And Onions"'': A parody song, performed on [[Saturday Night Live]] by [[Neil Innes]] (and available on [[The Rutles]] album and film), with such an accurate impression of John Lennon by Innes that this was mistaken as a true Beatles outtake by some fans
* ''"L.S. Bumblebee"'': 1967 record by [[Peter Cook]] and [[Dudley Moore]] which spoofed [[psychedelic music]] with Moore singing a Lennon-like lead vocal
* ''"Ram You Hard"'': reggae single by a group called John Lennon & the Bleechers
* ''"Shades Of Orange"'' and ''"Loving Sacred Loving"'': Both sides of a single by the obscure British psychedelic band [[The End (1960s band)|The End]]. Both tracks have also incorrectly been credited to the Rolling Stones (they were produced by Bill Wyman).
* ''"People Say"'' and ''"I'm Walking"'': A single by a duo named 'John and Paul'
* ''"I Wonder"'': An uptempo song by the American band '[[The Gants]]'. The lead singer is a Lennon sound alike and the lyrics and instrumentation bear more than a passing resemblance to Lennon compositions, going so far as to even include a very Lennon-esque instrumental break
* ''"N. Bourbaki's (or Borbaki's) Multicoloured Jam"'':The B-side of an obscure single by an [[Arkansas]]-based garage band called Campbell's Lavender Circus.
* ''"That Thing You Do"'': The theme from the movie of the same title, as performed by [[The Oneders]]
* ''"I'm Sad The Goat Just Died Today"'': A single by the legendary Wisconsin band The Frogs.
* a [[National Lampoon]] parody of [[John Lennon]] ranting called "Magical Misery Tour", from the album National "Lampoon Radio Dinner" featuring vocals by [[Tony Hendra]] (later the "manager" of [[Spinal Tap]])
* ''"[[Carnival of Light]]"'': Although the recording has not surfaced on released or bootleg recordings, a minute-long MP3 track containing backwards, speeded-up guitars and feedback, has turned up on file sharing systems, purporting to be the outtake. Which is actually a misnamed track by the Lord of Boothferry recorded mid-2000.
* ''"[[Peace of Mind/The Candle Burns]]"'': Supposedly a demo recorded around 1967 and found by bootlegers in a trash can at Abbey Road Studios. Many audiophiles claim the outtake was either from [[Pink Floyd]] or [[The Pretty Things]]
* ''"Oh, I Need You" (also labeled as "Oh, I Want You")'': A low-quality recording sounding much like a Lennon song written during early sessions for the album ''[[Abbey Road (album)|Abbey Road]]'' and purported to have been recorded sometime in February 1969. It is actually believed to have been a song by the band Mortimer who were signed to Apple Records in 1968 after George Harrison heard them play a floor show in the Apple offices. This is most likely why it was mistaken to have been an unreleased Beatles song.
==Remasters==
Apple Corps and EMI have come under considerable criticism for neglecting the Beatles catalogue. While some artists' works, such as [[The Beach Boys]] and [[The Rolling Stones]], have received several remasters during the CD era, The Beatles' recordings have been issued only once in the latter 1980's (the thirteen UK studio albums were released on compact disc in 1987; two volumes of ''Past Masters'', collecting non-LP sides, followed in 1988). Since then, remastering technology has moved on and many fans consider the sound quality of the official releases to be lacking, although this may stem from the demands of the surviving Beatles.
Given this, several bootleggers have undertaken remasterings of the entire Beatles catalogue. Since they do not have access to the original studio master tapes, they have typically gone back to pristine audiophile [[vinyl]] releases played back on high-quality turntable and amplification equipment and digitised using high resolution equipment.
The ''Millennium Remasters'' series[http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/everylittlething.html][http://www.bootlegzone.com/files.php?section=1&pub=188] has released 24-bit remasters of all the Beatles' UK and US albums in both Mono and Stereo (except ''Abbey Road'' and ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]'' which are solely in Stereo). Similarly, ''Dr. Ebbetts'' has undertaken an extensive remastering of both the UK and U.S. Beatles releases, often releasing several versions of each based on different sources. Other remasters have been offered by ''Mirror Spock'', ''Sir Esquire'' and ''Silverking''[http://www.bootlegzone.com/files.php?section=1&pub=160]
By far, the most comprehensive remasters are the ''Purple Chick'' releases. Varying from as little as 2 CDs to up to 12 CDs, it is as a Beatle fan can get to having not just the album, both in mono and stereo mixes, but also dozens of outtakes.
==Bootleggers and Bootleg Labels==
In the early days of bootleg recordings, many of the albums would be pressed with no label details. Later in the early 1970s, known labels such as [[Tmoq|Trademark Of Quality]] would release the Glyn Johns' rough mix of the unrealised Get Back album and the BBC radio performances. In 1980s era, labels such as [[Yellow Dog]] and "Purple Chick" (who deal exclusively with Beatles related material) released studio outtakes and rehearsals from the "Let It Be" movie.
Other known bootlegers include:
* Leon Throf
* Tobe Milo
* Melvin Records
* Vigotone
* Secret Trax
* Swingin' Pig
* Pear
==See also==
* [[The Beatles Outtakes]]
* [[Live at the BBC (The Beatles album)|Live at the BBC]]
* [[The Beatles Anthology]]
* [[Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962]]
==Bibliography==
* {{cite book | author=Belmo| title=The Beatles Not For Sale: The Beatles' Musical Legacy as Archived on Unauthorized Recordings | publisher=Collector's Guide Publishing | year=1997 | id=ISBN 0-969-80809-7 }}
* {{cite book | author=Madinger, Chip and Easter, Mark| title=Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium | publisher=44.1 Productions | year=2000 | id=ISBN 0615117244 }}
* {{cite book | author=Unterberger, Richie| title=The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film | publisher=Backbeat Books | year=2006 | id=ISBN 0879308923 }}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.beatlesource.com/bs/mains/audio/kumback/kumback.html Kum Back] - The story of the first Glynn Johns acetate.
*[http://www.dougsulpy.com/dougsulpy.com/Doug%20Sulpy.html Doug Sulpy website] - Site run by the most prolific author of books and magazines about Beatles bootlegs, now including a forum.
*[http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/beatles/history.html An incomplete history of Beatles Bootlegs]
*[http://www.bootlegzone.com BootlegZone.Com] - an ever growing site listing 3500+ Beatles bootlegs
{{The Beatles}}
[[Category:The Beatles bootlegs|Bootlegs]]
[[Category:Discographies|Beatles]]
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[[pt:Beatles Bootlegs]]