Category: Beatles

We Shall Never Be Beatless

There is no record of Walt Disney saying anything about the Beatles. A Hard Day’s Night was released on August 12, 1964 and Disney’s Mary Poppins arrived on August 27.

I was eight when the Beatles arrived in America, and fourteen when Paul made the breakup official. Six short years, but in those years I went from being a little kid in the third grade to being an adolescent in the ninth grade.

“All of you youngsters out there,” as Ed Sullivan would say, may not even be aware of the Beatles, let alone appreciate their significance. But having lived through it and grown up with it, the effect and influence of THE BEATLES cannot be overstated.

“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.” – Kurt Vonnegut, 1997

A Capitol Idea

More about Stu Phillips. In the Sixties he was behind the Hollyridge Strings series of albums.

I approached Karl Engemann at Capitol [Records] with a far-out idea of recording an album of Beatles songs in an orchestral setting geared toward easy listening. A sort of “Beatles for the older set.”

Phillips wasn’t the only one with that idea in 1964. Beatles producer George Martin produced instrumental versions of Beatles songs, starting with the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack.

George Martin then released his Off the Beatle Track album. I checked Martin’s memoir, All You Need is Ears, and there’s no mention of the Hollyridge Strings records.

Music from the first Hollyridge album by Phillips is featured on the Capitol album The Beatles Story.