That Beatles M.A.: where art thou, Melody Ziff?

By Colby Cosh - Friday, January 28, 2011 at 8:41 AM - 106 Comments

I’m vexed when it comes to the subject of Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy’s world-first “graduate degree in the Beatles”, which has made the Canadian singer and future Sheridan College instructor an ephemeral worldwide celebrity. The sneerers are out in force on the net, which was predictable, if weirdly anachronistic in the year 2011. Apparently the souls of those who got huffy about “more popular than Jesus” and the Boer War pensioners who couldn’t tell if the Beatles were male or female have somehow transmigrated into the bodies of present-day philistines. Put simply, the Beatles are one of the pivotal cultural phenomena of the 20th century, and if they are beneath the notice of the liberal arts, then anything is. Any argument against graduate-level study of the Beatles—whose compositions Deryck Cooke, one of the greatest of musicologists, thought worthy of his attention—would extend readily to cover any popular idiom, throwing its penumbra naturally over operetta and ballet and zarzuela and the blues. Before you could say “Bach’s your uncle”, there would be nothing left of musicology at all beyond the deconstruction of fugues.

Moreover, the actual stuff of Zahalan-Kennedy’s thesis, unmentioned in most reports, sounds fascinating. Who knew that the Beatles hit big here in Canada as early as 1962? That’s a story worth re-telling after half a century. Maybe even in Maclean’s magazine!

But on the other hand…there is a heavy thumbprint of marketing on this piece of news, and it’s tough to watch Ms. Zahalan-Kennedy defending the seriousness of an enterprise that has the silliness baked right in. It’s tough, in part, because one senses that she will have to do it for the rest of her life. But there’s also the issue that her degree from Liverpool Hope University is hardly groundbreaking in any real respect; surely it’s just a bog-standard cultural-studies/history credential from an otherwise undistinguished (albeit conveniently situated) institution? The academy doesn’t really give out degrees “in” the Beatles, any more than it gives them out “in” Christopher Marlowe or Greek koiné or leptons, or for that matter the Dave Clark Five. It’s the process and the standards, not the particular subject matter, that are supposed to be the point.

As an assignment editor could probably figure out if he sat down and thought about it for a moment, there are probably dozens if not hundreds of people who have already received advanced degrees on the basis of Beatle-related thesis content. As Hunter Davies noted in his authorized biography-cum-handbook The Beatles:

In the early 1980s, I was asked to be an outside examiner for a student at London University who was doing a Ph.D. on the Beatles. I thought it was a leg-pull at first. I’d heard that some minor American universities had introduced such studies, but not any British ones, certainly not one as distinguished and rigorous as London University. I can still remember her name, Melody Ziff. She was, in fact, American, but London University had accepted her to study for a Ph.D. Her thesis, as I remember, was called “The Beatles’ lyrics as poetry”.

Today, there are universities, colleges, and schools all over the globe, eminent and otherwise, offering courses that include a study of the Beatles…

The philistines will question the “cash value” of close study of the Beatles, and while that is beside the point, it still seems remarkable given the unquestionably enormous number of people, from the time of the Monkees to that of Oasis, who have made millionaires of themselves by raiding the Beatles’ bag of tricks. There have to be at least as many of those as there are rich economists or physicists.

Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, January 7, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

All’s well that ends well
Shania Twain tied the knot on New Year’s Day in Rincon, Puerto Rico, with Frédéric Thiébaud, the ex-husband of her ex-best friend, who apparently was too friendly with her ex-husband, Mutt Lange. Twain was escorted down the aisle by her nine-year-old son, Eja. “I’m in love!” she wrote in her blog last month.

Drummers, they get no respect
It’s no surprise the birthplaces of the Beatles have a special place in their countrymen’s hearts. Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, where John Lennon was born, has been preserved and converted into apartments. Walton Hospital, Paul McCartney’s birthplace, has likewise been maintained and converted into luxury apartments. People still live in George Harrison’s birthplace, 12 Arnold Grove. Then there’s Ringo Starr, whose childhood home faces the wrecking ball. British Housing Minister Grant Shapps has urged Liverpool council to reconsider plans to raze the rundown row house at 9 Madryn Street, where the former Richard Starkey was born, as part of a redevelopment plan. Ringo has said the house should be “done up” rather than knocked down. The campaign is on behalf of fans, who contribute millions to the local economy, says the group Save Madrin Street. It’s not for Ringo, “who has enough homes of his own.”

Continue…

The canonization of John Lennon

By Brian D. Johnson - Monday, November 22, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 4 Comments

The New York years are the focus of a revealing new documentary, LENNONNYC | Ben Ross

Monday, Dec. 8, 1980. The last day in the life of John Lennon starts with a haircut, then a photo shoot for the cover of Rolling Stone. Annie Leibovitz, his upstairs neighbour at the Dakota, has him pose naked, curled around a clothed Yoko Ono. Outside, his born-again Christian killer, Mark David Chapman, waits on the sidewalk, the morning after spending his last night of freedom with a prostitute.

2:30 p.m. John and Yoko’s five-year-old son, Sean, appears with his nanny. “Oh, isn’t he a cute sweet boy,” says Chapman. The boy politely shakes his hand when it’s offered, the same hand that will soon cut down his father with a .38-calibre snub-nosed revolver—bought for $169 from a Japanese American whose surname happened to be Ono.

5 p.m. After a marathon radio interview, John and Yoko finally leave the Dakota and are stopped by Chapman, who asks Lennon to autograph a copy of his new album, Double Fantasy, handing him a black Bic pen. Lennon scrawls, “John Lennon 1980,” and as Yoko waits in the car, he lingers for a moment and asks, “Is that all you want?”

Continue…

TV Shows That Used Beatles Recordings?

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, September 27, 2010 at 11:59 AM - 0 Comments

Apart from reminding us of the rule that one casual sexual encounter will inevitably lead to pregnancy (the rule that every action has the worst possible consequences is dubbed “Can’t Get Away With Nuthin’” by TVTropes.org, and that’s about right), last night’s Mad Men also reminded us that if you’re going to make the Beatles a plot point in your episode, you had better find a way to write around the actual Beatles music. Though Don got Sally tickets to the Beatles’ famous 1965 New York concert, the only bit of Beatles music heard in the episode was an instrumental cover of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” over the closing credits. (Song choices on TV are often like the song choices in old cartoons: if we know the title of the song being played, we realize it’s a reference to the theme of the scene or the episode.) Though Mad Men has been able to spring for most songs from the various time periods in which it takes place, up to and including the Rolling Stones, a real Beatles recording seemed to be off-limits this week.

The Beatles records, of course, are the most difficult records to license for TV use and always have been. WKRP in Cincinnati had a music licensing deal that allowed them to get recordings for something like half-price, but even with that deal, the Beatles were so expensive that they only used three in the whole series (“I’m Down,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Come Together”). I’m not saying Mad Men will never use a Beatles recording, but if they do, they’ll have to be very careful to use one in the episode where they absolutely must use it — otherwise, they either have to work around it, or use a cover version of the song (and the songs are expensive enough to license).

My question, then, is this: what are some other scripted TV shows that actually have used real Beatles recordings? I can think of two: WKRP, above, and “All You Need Is Love” in the The Prisoner. Any others?

Update: Thanks to regular commenter Anthony Strand for finding another clip from British TV in the ’60s — when it was perhaps a little less difficult to get the Beatles, since the group existed and the producers could contact them directly — an episode of Doctor Who where we learn that in the future, the Beatles are considered classics.

Is the Prime Minister turning into a giddy celebrity hound?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 12:58 PM - 26 Comments

Meghan McCain fights back, Georgia May Jagger models, and Jean Sarkozy gets a boost

By Ken MacQueen - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 2 Comments

The thorn in Stelmach’s side
It was a rough week for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. A new poll suggests he and his Progressive Conservatives are in free fall. His televised speech, intended to reassure Albertans about his handling of the recession, was widely panned and his attempt to set an austerity example with a 15-per-cent cut in his premier’s allowance fell on deaf ears. The nurses’ and teachers’ unions have rejected his call for voluntary wage freezes. And on Saturday, the Wildrose Alliance chose former journalist Danielle Smith as its new leader—continuing the Alliance’s evolution from cranky protest party to credible conservative alternative.

To ghostbust, you must first believe
Peter Aykroyd, an 87-year-old former federal civil servant who lives in a spirit-infested family homestead north of Kingston, Ont., has penned one of the season’s odder memoirs. A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Seances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters tells the multi-generational story of his spiritualist family. The foreword is supplied by his famous son, Dan, Saturday Night Live comedian and co-writer of the hit movie Ghostbusters. Dan writes how his family, from his great-grandfather onwards, were serious and scientific investigators of the paranormal. “Part of Ghostbusters’ appeal derives from the cold, rational, acceptance-of the-fantastic-as-routine tone that Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, director Ivan Reitman, and I were able to sustain in the movie,” he writes. With good reason: the Aykroyds are believers. Dan’s grandfather was a Bell Telephone engineer who considered the possibility of contacting the spirit realm via a crystal radio set. And one of Dan’s daughters, he writes, claims “glops of light and other shapes attend her when pictures are taken in and around the old family farmhouse.”

They did it for their families
An extramarital affair with a legislative assembly clerk has damaged the personal life and reputation of Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland. Now his political future rests with Ted Hughes, a no-nonsense former judge and one-time B.C. conflict-of-interest commissioner. Hughes conducted a hearing in Yellowknife to determine if Roland breached the public trust by keeping secret his relationship with clerk Patricia Russell. Both were married and have since left their spouses to live together. During the hearing Russell denied allegations she shared confidential caucus discussions with her lover. Roland told Hughes they kept the affair secret out of consideration for their families. Hughes may table his report by the end of October.

Beatles vs. Stones, next generation
The children of two of rock’s biggest names have taken a different approach to fame. James McCartney, son of Paul, has always avoided attention. He recently debuted his band Light to just 30 people in a tiny Oxford pub. McCartney, 32, and his band went to extraordinary attempts to conceal the name and parentage of their lead singer. “James has a way with melody,” wrote an approving gossip columnist for the tabloid Sun, “and a set of pipes which are more than a match for his dad’s.” Meantime, Mick Jagger’s toothy daughter Georgia May Jagger is sprawled topless atop a Union Jack in a new advertising campaign for Hudson Jeans. While crossed arms or strategic camera angles keep the photos just on this side of decency, they have still caused a stir, because, to paraphrase an old Beatles tune, she is just 17.

This little piggy went to Paris
Newsmakers spoke in haste last week when it suggested Paris Hilton was unlikely to acquire a British-bred micro-pig because the extremely intelligent animals aren’t available in the U.S. Hilton has now ordered a bred-in-the-U.S. Royal Dandie Extreme miniature pot-bellied pig from an Oregon breeder. “So excited for my new piglette [sic] to come home to me,” she Tweeted on Friday. The always predictable folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are less than enthused, saying she treats her pets as “disposable.” In fact, the pet-loving Hilton has quite a menagerie; it’s boyfriends that end up in the discard pile.

From hell, straight to Whistler
Skateboarding San Diego chef Dave Levey survived the fire-and-brimstone of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to win the top prize on his Hell’s Kitchen reality show on Fox TV. Levey wins a job for a year working under executive chef James Walt at Araxi Restaurant in Whistler. He starts Jan. 4, barely a month before the start of the Winter Olympics. Of course, he’s survived greater challenges. Not only did he endure the usual hazing by Ramsay, he spent most of the competition in pain after breaking his wrist. Such grit, combined with the 32-year-old’s skater-boy vibe, should make for a perfect Whistler fit. Levey says the tightly edited reality show was mostly real. “What people saw,” he says, “is very similar to who I am.”

Curves and all
Meghan McCain, daughter of former U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, would like to get something off her chest. “Don’t call me a Slut,” she thundered in her column on the Daily Beast website. The furor erupted after McCain used Twitter to post a picture of herself spilling out of a low-cut tank top. Reaction to a revealing photo of a Republican-values gal generated almost as much Web traffic as a certain Colorado family’s errant balloon. First an abashed McCain Tweeted an apology: “I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 those that are offended.” Then she got mad. “Honest, I don’t feel that I have anything to feel ashamed of,” she wrote in her column. “I’ve always embraced my curves and will continue to do so.”

Kids say the darnedest things
Lisa Scott of Paulina, La., promised her son Tyren she’d take him to see U.S. President Barack Obama, so last Thursday they went to the President’s town hall meeting in New Orleans. Tyren raised his hand during a question period and Obama gave him the floor. “I have to say, why do people hate you?” he stammered. “They supposed to love you…. God is love.” The President gave a diplomatic reply about how such anger is politically motivated, and people are worried about their futures. The answer was fine, but the question later gave some commentators pause. Just when and why had the hate and rage so troubling to a young boy become a daily part of American discourse? “It was a pretty good question, I must say,” Tyren’s mother later reflected.

Free from Evin
Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari was released on bail Saturday after almost four months in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Maziar, who holds dual Iranian- Canadian citizenship, was arrested June 21 after reporting on the demonstrations following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election. “Hopefully this is a sign that other journalists who continue to languish in jail in Iran will also be released in the near future,” said Annie Game, executive director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expres sion. Bahari’s wife, Paola Gourley, is confined to a London hospital where she is due to give birth to their first child on Oct. 26. It’s unclear if Bahari, who still faces charges, can leave Tehran to attend the birth.

Fortunately, only the marriage is dead
Just three years ago they were rockers in love. The musical marriage in 2006 of Avril Lavigne and Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley ended last week with Lavigne filing for divorce. Neither said what caused their “irreconcilable differences.” Lavigne was seen this summer in St. Tropez with oil heir Brandon Davis. Whibley was recently in Las Vegas with model Hanna Beth Merjos. It may simply be they married too young. As Lavigne said on her website, “Deryck and I have been together for 6 years. We have been friends since I was 17, started dating when I was 19, and married when I was 21. I am grateful for our time together, and I am grateful and blessed for our remaining friendship.” And Whibley is grateful to be alive. Internet rumours last weekend had him dead—not a good start to single life. Luckily that was just a hoax.

Spacing out
There’s a bit of a ham in any politician but the Elvis-loving former Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi is uncommonly blessed. He once famously crooned the King’s tunes while on an official tour of Presley’s Graceland mansion. But now Koizumi, 67, is really reaching for the stars. His newest gig is as a voice actor for an extraterrestrial hero who fights aliens from outer space in the movie Mega Monster Ball: Ultra Galaxy. Sure, it was great to be premier of a major world power, but being Ultraman King has its advantages.

Sarko’s son also rises
Jean Sarkozy, all of 23 and repeating his second year at the Sorbonne, has been given a boost into the family business by his father Nicolas. The French president has appointed his son chairman of La Défense, the public agency administering France’s biggest business district, in west Paris. There are predictable cries of nepotism and even some of Sarkozy’s cabinet squirm at claims he is running a presidential monarchy. Sarkozy has denounced the “hysterical manhunt” against his son. Jean maintains a dignified silence, relying on what critics concede are two of his greatest assets: his golden good looks and his very nice hair.

Thinking about the old Ignatieff

By Mark Steyn - Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 2:40 PM - 95 Comments

In Ottawa on Monday, I kept getting asked—including by three stray passersby on Wellington Street—what Beatles song Michael Ignatieff should sing. Oh, come on, you don’t really need a professional for this, do you? Help! Yesterday (All my troubles seemed so far away). The Fool On The Hill. Hello, Goodbye. Get Back (to Harvard and a little light BBC hosting) . . .

I wasn’t really in the mood to pile on Iggy, poor chap. I was in town to testify to the House of Commons Select Committee on Justice and Human Rights about the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission’s assault on individual liberty and freedom of expression. And, mainly because I’ve been yakking about this subject for a couple of years now and have pretty much exhausted my stock of free-speech quotations from Milton to Salman Rushdie, just for variety’s sake I decided to cite Michael Ignatieff to the committee. I was talking about the assertion by Chief Censor Jennifer Lynch that, Canada’s constitution notwithstanding, there is “no hierarchy of rights,” only a “matrix” in which “freedom of expression” has to be “balanced” by modish group rights and collective rights. And I responded with a blast of Professor Ignatieff: Continue…

He gets by with a little help from his friends

By Kenneth Whyte - Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 52 Comments

Q: I read somewhere that when you were a young musician you had a problem with your hands shaking. When you walked out on stage last Saturday at the National Arts Centre with Yo-Yo Ma and a big audience, were you a little bit unsteady?

A: Well, can I tell you the whole story? It’s true I had that problem when I was young. I took piano for 10 years. I got my Grade 9 Royal Conservatory. I had a bit of talent but never enough to think about it professionally. My big problem was that, while I didn’t appear nervous, my hands shook, which obviously was fatal for any kind of pianist. I never did that well on my exams for that reason. Indirectly, this led to where I am now because at a very early age, almost from the first time I ever gave a public speech at school, I spoke without notes so nobody would notice I was nervous.

Q: You just kept your hands at your side or in your pockets or something?

A: Yeah. Or just put them on the podium. They didn’t shake so bad that you’d notice it unless I was holding papers or something. So that was one fear. I haven’t performed music in front of a crowd since I was probably 11 years old, so I was worried, “Jeez, will this come back? Will I get this shaking?” But no. I mean, I was nervous, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t have any hand shakes. I was just a bit stiff. Now, the band had told me—when we were rehearsing, they said, “Look, if at any point you get uneasy about the piano part, or your hands, just sing. Nobody’s going to care, just sing.” So that was the backup plan. But no, in the end my hands were okay. Continue…

He looks so human. Encore, encore!

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 5 Comments

Enjoyable though it was, Stephen Harper’s performance of a Beatles song at a ritzy Ottawa gala may wind up being a moment we come to regret. It raised the stakes to the point that all future political photo ops will require, at minimum, a pair of hip-hugging satin trousers and a “surprise” appearance during Tango Night on So You Think You Can Dance. Be warned: even as you read these words, Jack Layton is grooming his chest hair and thinking, “Right foot back, left foot pass—and then I rip open my sequined blouse.”

The “humanization” of Stephen Harper has been almost a decade in the making, and frankly it’s a relief to finally see some progress. There have been so many failures along the way—when he hired that lady to pick out his ties, when he sent his kids off to school with a firm handshake, when he publicly devoured the flesh of the weak (I’m paraphrasing). No matter how many times he pretended to write a book about hockey, he just couldn’t connect with the common man. Continue…

Girl You Know It's True

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 73 Comments

Our Rachel Mendleson consults the experts on Stephen Harper’s Starr-turn. Former Rheostatic Dave Bidini proves suspicious.

Harper was good, that much is sure. But was he too good? Though the experts agree it was Harper on vocals and keys, Dave Bidini, a founding member of The Rheostatics, wondered whether the performance was in fact pre-recorded. Bidini, says he knows “how difficult it is to sing, to have proper mic technique with a four-piece band, let alone a 17-piece orchestra.” But when Harper plays, says Bidini, “You can hear every word. Every note is in key. The fidelity of the performance seems remarkably, bizarrely good. It just raises my suspicion about whether it was live.”

Mr. Bidini offers similar analysis to FFWD weekly in Edmonton. But before you ask why Mr. Bidini hates Canada so much, keep in mind that he has not only written, but indeed published, three books about hockey.

Canada's unlikeliest rock star

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM - 22 Comments

Though Stephen Harper has on several occasions made reference to his weakness for karaoke, during almost four years in office, he’d never approached a microphone in public to do much more than speak. And while he often cited his piano playing skills as evidence of a love of the arts, few had actually seen him tickle the ivories. All that changed on Saturday when the prime minister strutted out on stage during a gala at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

As he took his place at the piano and readied himself to play with world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, no one, it seems, knew quite what to expect. After all, immovably hairsprayed tresses aren’t generally the mark of a classic rock front man. But by the time he’d finished the first verse of the Beatles’s “With a Little Help from My Friends,” it became apparent that Harper’s got talent. “He had decent tone, a clean voice,” says Zack Werner, the mercurial Canadian Idol judge known for his brutal honesty. “More than anything, it was like watching a little boy with a really pure love of the song. His love for the piece of music was actually rather infectious.” Continue…

The Re-framing of Stephen Harper

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 7:09 PM - 48 Comments

Just because you haven’t heard enough of Stephen Harper’s Ringo impression last weekend, the Ottawa Citizen today had dueling columns about what the upshot of the performance really is.

On the left is former Paul Martin speechwriter and Blackberry roundtable member Scott Reid. After conceding the immediate PR value of it all, he argues that this was a one-off that signifies “exactly nothing”.  As Reid sees it, unlike Chretien waterskiing, or Peter Mackay going to boot camp, Harper’s sing-along was not intended – and did not succeed – in changing his brand or “frame”.  He has no desire to suck up to the black-tie crowd, because he remains resolutely committed to his Tim Horton’s constituency, which disdains the latte crowd who clapped along with him the other night.

In sum, says Reid: “His appearance was an enjoyable play against type and a great bit of theatre. But it was a brief departure from his political strategy — not an expansion of it.”

On the right is Don Martin, who begs to differ. Unlike the sweater-vest gambit, which was seen by the public as transparently fake attempt at positioning himself as a man of the people, “the new act has sold well enough to generate a faint Harper-mania.” And the money graph:

While this all might be crass political optics to wow the middle-class women voters of suburban Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, the general public increasingly likes what they see in happy Harper and increasingly loathes what they see in the dark-furrowed brow that is Michael Ignatieff.

I find myself in Don Martin’s corner….

Continue…

The critics are sort of raving (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 5, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 16 Comments

Dan Gardner dissents.

So apparently the cold and ruthless android who is the prime minister of Canada is actually human: We know this because he very successfully pulled off a carefully engineered PR stunt Saturday night at the NAC.

Or at least, pundits seem to think the latter fact proves the former. Me, I’m not so sure

The critics are sort of raving (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 5, 2009 at 9:05 AM - 2 Comments

The Telegraph’s Damian Thompson takes note.

Hat tip, our new jazz blogger Sebastian Scotney, who asks me: “How many British MPs would you have to boil to get one ounce of musical talent?” Hmm. An ounce is about right in this case, but my guess is that it won’t lose Stephen Harper any votes. Nice to see a Conservative with musical ambitions…

The critics are sort of raving

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 5, 2009 at 1:33 AM - 52 Comments

The Citizen’s Richard Todd reviews the NAC gala.

Intermission had to wait just a bit longer when a rock group called Herring Bone came on stage. They were joined by Ma, who seems to be up for just about anything, and—are you ready for this?—the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who played the piano and sang, both unobtrusively. They all put together a spirited rendition of the Beatles’ song, A Little Help from my Friends.

Lennon, McCartney, Harper.

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 8, 2009 at 12:44 AM - 35 Comments

Elsewhere in the spring issue of Hello!, an entirely fascinating interview with the Prime Minister. No really.

Speaking exclusively about “why music matters to him,” the Prime Minister discusses his love of the piano and reveals that his staff tries to make sure there’s one in his room when he travels now. And then he explains how he used one of the Beatles’ old pianos to record a few songs at Abbey Road last month. No really. Continue…

John, Peter and Paul

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, May 26, 2008 at 11:04 AM - 0 Comments

Until I read the AV Club’s post on novelty singles by comedians, I didn’t realize that Peter Sellers had done a TV version of his “Laurence Olivier” take on the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” (Scroll down to # 12 in the article.) This and his other Beatles cover, “She Loves You” in the voice of Dr. Strangelove — “She Luffs You, Ja, Ja, Ja” — stand with “Auntie Rotter” (Sellers as a children’s show host who instructs her audience in how to brutally murder their parents) and a few others among Sellers’ most famous comedy records, but here he is doing it on British TV, and with the actual Beatles present.

Not only that, but there are outtakes from him taping the TV performance: