Post by erik on Oct 23, 2021 13:01:05 GMT -5
The Fab Four get into the 1981-82 "pop medley" craze with the compilation single in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
BEATLES MOVIE MEDLEY (The Beatles; Capitol; 1982)—The single greatest sea change in popular music since the advent of rock and roll in 1956 happened on one TV show, the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan, though known like many of those of his generation for being rather snobby when it came to this new-fangled thing called rock and roll, was also one of the few to allow Elvis, following his breakout success with “Heartbreak Hotel” in 1956, to be on his show even once; and Ed did it four times (though the last of these, most viewers only saw Elvis from the waist up). Eight years after this, “Sully” unleashed four lovable mop-top guys named John, Paul, George, and Ringo on an unsuspecting U.S.A., unleashing the British Invasion, and making the Beatles the next Big Thing. One hallmark of the Beatles’ success was the fact that they had managed to conquer the world of movies almost from the start. They were fighting something of an uphill battle here, as many films involving rock stars, notably many of Elvis’ films, were of very low quality; but they had American émigré Richard Lester as their director for two of their biggest movies, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, and 1965’s Help!, both of which boasted not only great music from the Fab Four, but were also genuinely great films to boot. Twelve years after the 1970 breakup of the Beatles, their former record label Capitol, taking advantage of the “medley” craze that was unleashed in the wake of “Stars On 45” (which, ironically, got a #1 hit with a largely Beatles-centric medley), spliced together several of the Beatles’ movie hits into the “Beatles Movie Medley”. The songs used for this hit single were: “Magical Mystery Tour” (the title track of their late 1967 made-for-BBC film); “All You Need Is Love” (from the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack); “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (from Help!); “I Should Have Known Better”; “A Hard Day’s Night” (both of these from A Hard Day’s Night); “Ticket To Ride” (from Help!); and the “rooftop” version of “Get Back” (from 1970’s Let It Be). The medley managed to get to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending April 29, 1982, and hit #10 in England. Of course, this really wasn’t going to lead to any reunion by the Fab Four, as John Lennon was no longer alive, and there were differences from the group’s last two years of existence that, even as late as 2021, had not quite yet been resolved. But their music still managed to stay on.
BEATLES MOVIE MEDLEY (The Beatles; Capitol; 1982)—The single greatest sea change in popular music since the advent of rock and roll in 1956 happened on one TV show, the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan, though known like many of those of his generation for being rather snobby when it came to this new-fangled thing called rock and roll, was also one of the few to allow Elvis, following his breakout success with “Heartbreak Hotel” in 1956, to be on his show even once; and Ed did it four times (though the last of these, most viewers only saw Elvis from the waist up). Eight years after this, “Sully” unleashed four lovable mop-top guys named John, Paul, George, and Ringo on an unsuspecting U.S.A., unleashing the British Invasion, and making the Beatles the next Big Thing. One hallmark of the Beatles’ success was the fact that they had managed to conquer the world of movies almost from the start. They were fighting something of an uphill battle here, as many films involving rock stars, notably many of Elvis’ films, were of very low quality; but they had American émigré Richard Lester as their director for two of their biggest movies, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, and 1965’s Help!, both of which boasted not only great music from the Fab Four, but were also genuinely great films to boot. Twelve years after the 1970 breakup of the Beatles, their former record label Capitol, taking advantage of the “medley” craze that was unleashed in the wake of “Stars On 45” (which, ironically, got a #1 hit with a largely Beatles-centric medley), spliced together several of the Beatles’ movie hits into the “Beatles Movie Medley”. The songs used for this hit single were: “Magical Mystery Tour” (the title track of their late 1967 made-for-BBC film); “All You Need Is Love” (from the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack); “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (from Help!); “I Should Have Known Better”; “A Hard Day’s Night” (both of these from A Hard Day’s Night); “Ticket To Ride” (from Help!); and the “rooftop” version of “Get Back” (from 1970’s Let It Be). The medley managed to get to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending April 29, 1982, and hit #10 in England. Of course, this really wasn’t going to lead to any reunion by the Fab Four, as John Lennon was no longer alive, and there were differences from the group’s last two years of existence that, even as late as 2021, had not quite yet been resolved. But their music still managed to stay on.