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NOTES FOR THE BEATLES CHRISTMAS RARITIES:

See the previous page for details about the official Christmas recordings.
All recordings are sourced from The Ultimate Beatles Christmas Collection (Vigotone) except where noted.


17 December 1963 - Playhouse Theatre, London
Saturday Club "Crimble Medley"

20 December 1963 - Astoria Cinema, London
From an interview for ITV News during rehearsals for The Beatles Christmas Show
Christmas Greetings ("Garry Crimble To You" and "Doo-dah, The Red Nosed Reindeer")

9 February 1964 - Studio 50 New York City
From a brief newsreel interview outside The Ed Sullivan Theater
White Christmas

26 October 1964 - EMI Studios London (reel E54380)
This appears as though it might be the entire reel. See the EMI tape list below.
Sourced from The Seven Years Of Christmas (Yellow Dog)
Christmas Message [aka "Hello Dolly"] (take 1)
Speech (take 1)
Speech (take 2)
Christmas Message (takes 3 and 4) and Marching - According to Barrett's notes (see below), "Marching" should follow take 2 but I have chosen to sequence it as it is on the Yellow Dog release.
(take 5) EDITED - This features a longer "marching" intro and features an edit used for the 1983 presentation The Beatles At Abbey Road then reinserted in the wrong place. It also includes an announcement "take 1" which is odd because the final edit is documented as "take 5".

21-24(?) December 1964 - Hammersmith Odeon, London
Backstage Christmas show interview

19 October 1965 - Marquee Studio, London (see this reel - here)
Sourced from The Lost Beatles Message (No Label). Note that the intro word "Welcome" comes from a song titled "We're Not Going To Take It" by The Who (probably Keith Moon's voice) from the Tommy album.
Outtakes 1
Sourced from a short internet auction sample of a 26 minute tape.
Outtakes 2

6 December 1966 - EMI Studios (reel E62554)
This off-line recording comes from a John Barrett playback session in 1983. See further details below.
Sourced from The Seven Years Of Christmas (Yellow Dog)
Christmas Messages For Radio London and Radio Caroline (excerpts of takes 1 and 2)
Sourced from the "Free As A Bird" single which mixes the 1966 excerpts with the 1967 song "Christmas Time Is Here Again".
Sessions/Anthology mix (oopsed)
Oopsing removes most of the background music

28 November 1967 - EMI Studios (reel E66908)
This off-line recording comes from the 1976 EMI "boardroom tape". It first surfaced on the vinyl bootleg
File Under: Beatles. All CD sources were copied from the vinyl. In 2002, a tape source surfaced complete
on As It Happenend Baby! (Darth Disc) and slightly incomplete on The Seven Years Of Christmas (Yellow Dog).
Regrettably, I only have the Yellow Dog release so the last minute or so of the recording presented here has
been edited from The Ultimate Beatles Christmas Collection (Vigotone). In addition, four seconds of unique intro
has been added from the Sessions LP mix found on Another Sessions...Plus (Vigotone). Those four seconds
are sourced from the studio multitrack tape. The Sessions mix was released in 1995 on the Free As A Bird
single but it edited out the four second intro.
Christmas Time Is Here Again (complete)

November 1968 - Kenwood
Excerpts from John's home recordings used for the 1968 Christmas record
Jock and Yono
Onceuponapooltable

Circa November - early December 1968 - E.M.I. or Trident Studios?
This is simply a re-edit of Paul's musical portion of the 1968 Christmas record. John Winn speculates that this was recorded
during the late 1968 Mary Hopkin session at E.M.I. or Trident Studios and, indeed, it sounds like a studio recording.
Paul's Happy Christmas 1968 re-edited

Circa November - early December 1969 - Tittenhurst
This is simply one of John and Yoko's recordings from the 1969 Christmas record with Ringo's "Merry Christmas/Magic Christian" segment removed to reunite the John and Yoko portion.

John and Yoko's Happy Christmas sketch re-edited

15 December 1969 - Apple Studio, London
Interviewer is Kenny Everett
Ringo's British Wireless For The Blind Fund Christmas message

November 1970 - Tuttenhurst Park, Ascot
Sourced from Compositions (Vigotone)
John and Yoko's Christmas Message 1
John and Yoko's Christmas Message 2

1971 St. Regis Hotel, New York City
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - home demo

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THE COMPLETE E.M.I. CHRISTMAS TAPE ARCHIVE
(From John Barrett's notes)

17 October 1963
E50887 2T
Various Messages - Speech
Another Message
These are the raw tape segments. The mix tape is not documented.
26 October 1964 [Lewisohn's date]
E54380 A
Christmas Message (TK1)
Speech (TK1-TK2)
Marching
Message (TK3-TK4) b
(TK5) EDITED B
COPIED AND SENT TO 'LINTON RECORDS'
These are the raw tape segments. It's not clear which reel was used
for the final mix. Since the available copies of takes 3 and 4 are so
short, it seems as though they might have been edited to create take 5. However, Lewisohn states, "Editing: Another Beatles Christmas Record (from takes 1-5)". In the available recordings, as listed above, the matching follows take 4.
8 November 1965
E57721 4T
Christmas Message (TK1-TK3) (TO BE EDITED)
These are the raw tape segments.
9 November 1965
E57728 A
Christmas Message (RM1) B
This is the mix as released on the flexi-disc.
6 December 1966
E62554 A
RADIO CAROLINE + LONDON CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (REJECT) (TK1-2+TK1-2) B
(ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (M) TAKEN BY TONY BARROW ON 2 DEC 1966)
Lewisohn writes, "These were logged on the tape box and recording sheets as two takes each but several dozen short messages were
actually recorded."
24 November 1967
E66904 4T
Christmas Party Noises (TK1)
Knocking Noises (TK1)
Electronic Noises (TK1)
Celeste (Children's Hour) (TK1-TK3)
Lewisohn states that some of the recordings from 24 and 28 November were John, alone, making recordings for the National Theatre production of his play The John Lennon Play: In His Own Write, Scene Three, Act One. So it isn't clear exactly what was used for the Christmas record. Barrett does not document a mix tape which Lewisohn states was done on 29 November.
24 November 1967
E66903 4T
Sound Effects Etc.
28 November 1967
E66907 A
Speech Tracks
Sound Effects Etc.
John Lennon Play (EDITS + SPEECH TRACKS)
28 November 1967
E66908 4T
Christmas Time Is Here Again (TK1) B
Speech Tracks (TK1-TK2) B
(TK6-TK7) (TK6) B
Speech Tracks (TK10) B
28 November 1967
E66909 A
Speech Tracks + S.I. OF EFFECTS (TK1-TK10)
5 September 1968
E69888 A
Beatles Xmas Message (1964)
(1965) 9 Sep 1968
(MONO TAPE COPY)
It's not clear what the purpose of this reel is. Barrett does not list a tape log for the 1968 or 1969 Christmas records.
23 April 1976
E11552 Z
Xmas Record (MONO)
It's not clear what the purpose of this reel is or which Christmas record it is.

Rare cover slick proof sheets.