The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
Live album by The Beatles
Released 4 May 1977 (1977-05-04)
Recorded 23 August 1964 & 29–30 August 1965, Hollywood Bowl
Genre Rock and roll
Length 33:15
Label Capitol, Parlophone
Producer Voyle Gilmore (original recordings)
George Martin (mixing and sequencing)
The Beatles chronology
Rock 'n' Roll Music
(1976)		 The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
(1977)		 Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962
(1977)

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl is a live album by the Beatles released on 5 May 1977 featuring songs compiled from two performances at the Hollywood Bowl in August 1964 and August 1965.[1] The album was released by Capitol Records in the United States and Canada and by Parlophone in the United Kingdom. A remixed, remastered and expanded version of the album, retitled Live at the Hollywood Bowl, was released on 9 September 2016 to coincide with the release of the documentary film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week directed by Ron Howard.[2][3]

Background

Initially, Capitol Records considered recording the Beatles' February 1964 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, but it could not obtain the necessary approval from the American Federation of Musicians to record the performance. Six months later, KRLA DJ Bob Eubanks booked the band's performance of 23 August at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles,[4] where Capitol recorded their performance with the aim of releasing a live album in America. The sound quality of the tapes proved to be inadequate for commercial release, however, although Capitol utilised a 48-second excerpt of "Twist and Shout" from the concert on the 1964 documentary album The Beatles' Story.

High-quality black-and-white film of the 1964 show was also made and preserved.

When the Beatles returned to the Hollywood Bowl a year later during their 1965 American tour, Capitol recorded two performances by the group at the same venue. The sound quality of the 1965 recordings was equally disappointing, however.[5]

The Beatles were among the few major recording artists of the 1960s not to have issued a live album. Consequently, among Beatles fans, pent-up demand for a concert album continued to build. In fact, John Lennon set off a minor frenzy when, in a 1971 Rolling Stone interview, he incorrectly identified an obscure Italian compilation album, The Beatles in Italy, as a live recording ("There's one in Italy apparently, that somebody recorded there").[6] Despite the obvious demand for a live album, the tapes from the three Hollywood Bowl performances continued to sit untouched in a Capitol vault. In 1971, following his salvaging of the Get Back tapes, which was released as the group's Let It Be album, the Hollywood Bowl tapes were given to American record producer Phil Spector to see if he could fashion an album out of the material. Either Spector did not complete the job or his production was unsatisfactory, and the tapes continued to sit unreleased for another six years.

A complete tape of the August 1964 performance found its way out of the Capitol vault in the early 1970s and formed the basis for a popular bootleg LP Back in 64 at the Hollywood Bowl. The audio, while below professional release standards, was more than adequate for desperate hardcore fans and served for years as the standard recording of the summer 1964 tour.

Finally, with a rival record label's impending release of the Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 album consisting of a 15-year-old, poor-quality mono concert recording of the group performing in the Star-Club in Hamburg, Capitol Records' president, Bhaskar Menon, decided to revisit the Hollywood Bowl recordings. Beatles' producer George Martin was handed the tapes and asked to compile a listenable "official" live album.

When Martin was asked by Menon to hear the tapes, he was impressed with the performances but disappointed in the sound quality. In working on the three-track Hollywood Bowl concert tapes, Martin discovered quite a challenge.[5] The first difficulty was finding a working three-track machine with which to play back the master tapes. Once he found one, he discovered that the machine overheated when it was running, melting the magnetic tape. Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick came up with the solution of blowing air from a vacuum cleaner to keep the tape deck cool whilst the recordings were transferred to 16-track tape for filtering, equalisation, editing, and mixing. Martin found the 29 August 1965 recording virtually useless, and, except for a few dubs taken from the performance of 29 August to augment other performances, the album compiled by Martin consisted entirely of songs recorded on 23 August 1964 and 30 August 1965.

A number of songs performed at the two concerts were not included on the album. Songs from the 1964 show not included on the album are: "Twist and Shout", "You Can't Do That", "Can't Buy Me Love", "If I Fell", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "A Hard Day's Night". Songs from the 1965 show not included on the album are: "I Feel Fine", "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", "Baby's in Black", "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "I'm Down".[7] "Baby's in Black", from the 1965 Hollywood Bowl concert, however, was issued as the B-side of the 1996 "Real Love" single, and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from the 1964 concert was mixed into the studio version of the song for the 2006 Love album.[8] "Baby's in Black" was often included on bootlegs of the album and remained officially unavailable on an album until the release of Live at the Hollywood Bowl in 2016.

Although the original album sleeve says that the recordings were all made on 23 August 1964 or 30 August 1965, "Ticket to Ride" and "Help" were recorded on 29 August 1965, and "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" is a composite using parts from both nights in 1965.[9]

Release

The album was originally released as a vinyl LP. Even though the recordings on The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl were between 12 and 13 years old, the album reached number one on the New Musical Express chart in the UK and number two on the Billboard chart in the US. In New Zealand, it was to be pressed and released locally with the catalogue number PCS 6130 (the 6000 series was designated for EMI (NZ) only releases), but this did not occur. Instead, New Zealand pressed the record and used the Australian catalogue number PCSO 7577.

The album was officially released in several countries on cassette but was not officially released on compact disc until 9 September 2016, when it was re-released worldwide as Live at the Hollywood Bowl. Shortly before the re-release date, a number of tracks were available for purchase and streaming early, and the album was available for pre-order on the iTunes Store. The re-released album was simultaneously released as a digital download and made available on streaming services.[10] It is also scheduled for release on vinyl later this year on 18 November.

A music video for the performance of "Boys" was released to promote the remixed album.

Before the official digital release of the album, bootleggers circulated transfers of the LP as well as complete recordings of the three concerts on CD and the Internet.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[11]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[12]
Rolling Stonefavourable [13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
The Village VoiceA[15]

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was voted the 26th best record of 1977 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice.[16] Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, ranked it 12th on his own year-end list,[17] and in a review for the newspaper, he wrote:

A tribute not only to the Beatles (which figured) but to George Martin and Capitol (which didn't necessarily figure at all). The sound rings clearly and powerfully through the shrieking: the segues are brisk and the punch-ins imperceptible; and the songs capture our heroes at their highest. Furthermore, though the musicianship is raw, the arrangements are tighter (faster, actually) than on record.[15]

In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Rob Sheffield called the record "a loving tribute to the screaming girl fans who drown out the band in these 1964–65 shows; those girls were heroes on the rock & roll frontier, and they deserve to be the lead instrument on a Beatles album of their own."[14] AllMusic critic Richard S. Ginell was impressed the Beatles' performances under the chaotic circumstances, although he lamented the sound quality and separation from the crowd noise, citing it as a possible reason for the record remaining out of print.[11]

Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Live album by The Beatles
Released 9 September 2016 (2016-09-09)
Recorded 23 August 1964 & 29–30 August 1965, Hollywood Bowl
Genre Rock and roll
Length 43:27
Label Universal, Apple
Producer Voyle Gilmore (original recordings)
Giles Martin (2016 remix)
The Beatles chronology
1+
(2015)		 Live at the Hollywood Bowl
(2016)

Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a remixed and remastered version of the album, released on 9 September 2016 to coincide with the release of The Beatles: Eight Days a Week. It includes four additional songs not found on the original release. According to the producer, Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' original producer, George Martin, "Capitol Studios called saying they'd discovered some Hollywood Bowl three track tapes in their archive. We transferred them and noticed an improvement over the tapes we've kept in the London archive. Alongside this I'd been working for some time with a team headed by technical engineer James Clarke on demix technology, the ability to remove and separate sounds from a single track."[18] It was released on 9 September 2016, the same date as the release of the band's remastered core catalogue and The Beatles: Rock Band seven years earlier.

One of the bonus tracks on the album is "Baby's in Black" from the "Real Love" single CD, which was previously unavailable on an album or as a digital download.

Track listing

All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted. 

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
1. "Twist and Shout"  Phil Medley, Bert Russell30 August 1965 1:33
2. "She's a Woman"   30 August 1965 2:53
3. "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy"  Larry Williams29/30 August 1965 3:39
4. "Ticket to Ride"   29 August 1965 2:51
5. "Can't Buy Me Love"   30 August 1965 2:14
6. "Things We Said Today"   23 August 1964 2:18
7. "Roll Over Beethoven"  Chuck Berry23 August 1964 2:28
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
8. "Boys"  Luther Dixon, Wes Farrell23 August 1964 2:08
9. "A Hard Day's Night"   30 August 1965 3:13
10. "Help!"   29 August 1965 2:46
11. "All My Loving"   23 August 1964 2:15
12. "She Loves You"   23 August 1964 2:31
13. "Long Tall Sally"  Enotris Johnson, Richard Penniman, Robert Blackwell23 August 1964 2:53
Total length:
 33:15

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1977) Position
Australian Kent Music Report[19] 12
Austrian Albums Chart[20] 3
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[21] 8
Japanese Oricon LP Chart[22] 1
New Zealand Albums Chart[23] 18
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[24] 4
Swedish Albums Chart[25] 17
UK Albums Chart[26] 1
US Billboard 200[27] 2
West German Media Control Albums Chart[28] 10
Chart (2016) Position
UK Albums Chart[26] 3
US Billboard 200[27] 7

Year-end charts

Chart (1977) Position
Australian Albums Chart[19] 86
Japanese Albums Chart[29] 15
Canadian Albums Chart[30] 54

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[31] Platinum 100,000^
France (SNEP)[32] Gold 268,800[33]
Japan (Oricon Charts) 186,000[22]
United Kingdom (BPI)[34] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[35] Platinum 1,000,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Chart succession

Preceded by
Shokubutsushi by Iruka
Challenge Concert by Pink Lady		 Japanese Oricon LP Chart number-one album
6–13 June 1977
27 June 1977 		Succeeded by
Challenge Concert by Pink Lady
Kentarō First by Kentarō Shimizu
Preceded by
Arrival by ABBA		 UK Albums Chart number one album
18 June 1977 		Succeeded by
The Muppet Show by The Muppets

See also

References

  1. ↑ Friede; Titone; Weiner. The Beatles A to Z. Methuen Publishing. ISBN 0-413-48380-0.
  2. ↑ Bonner, Michael (20 July 2016). "The Beatles to release remixed and remastered recordings from their Hollywood Bowl concerts". Uncut. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Grow, Kory (20 July 2016). "Beatles Announce New 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' Album". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Rock, Pop & Jazz". Hollywoodbowl.com. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 Badman, Keith (2003). The Beatles: Off the Record 2, The Dream is Over. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-9199-6.
  6. ↑ Wenner, Jann (2000). Lennon Remembers. Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-600-1.
  7. ↑ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 28 - The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu. Track 2.
  8. ↑ Willman, Chris (29 November 2006). "Labor of LOVE". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 6 December 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "Now Available For Pre-Order: 'The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl' Album - To Be Released Worldwide on September 9th.". Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  11. 1 2 Ginell, Richard S. "The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  12. ↑ "The Beatles The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  13. ↑ Swenson, John. "The rock heard 'round the world" Rolling Stone 30 June 1977: 94, 97
  14. 1 2 "The Beatles: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  15. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (6 June 1977). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  16. ↑ "Pazz & Jop 1977: Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. 23 January 1978. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  17. ↑ Christgau, Robert (23 January 1978). "Pazz & Jop 1977: Dean's List". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  18. ↑ Bonner, Michael (20 July 2016). "The Beatles to release remixed and remastered recordings from their Hollywood Bowl concerts". Uncut. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  19. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  20. ↑ "austriancharts.at The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  21. ↑ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 27, No. 12" (PHP). RPM. 18 June 1977. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  22. 1 2 Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  23. ↑ "charts.org.nz The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP). Hung Medien. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  24. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP). Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  25. ↑ "swedishcharts.com The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (ASP) (in Swedish). Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  26. 1 2 "The Beatles > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  27. 1 2 "The Beatles - Chart history". Billboard. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  28. ↑ "Album Search: The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl Live!" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  29. ↑ "1977年アルバム年間ヒットチャート" [Japanese Year-End Albums Chart 1977] (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  30. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1977". RPM. 31 December 1977. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  31. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – The Beatles – Live at the Hollywood Bowl". Music Canada. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  32. ↑ "French album certifications – The Beatles – The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl" (in French). InfoDisc. Select THE BEATLES and click OK
  33. ↑ "Les Albums Or". infodisc.fr. SNEP. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  34. ↑ "British album certifications – The Beatles – The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 15 September 2013. Enter The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  35. ↑ "American album certifications – Beatles, The – The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 15 September 2013. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

External links

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