Friday, September 4, 2009

The Beatles Vintage Videos


The Beatles made a number of great promo clips in their career that, for some reason, have never been properly collected or marketed in any way. Many of them aired once on British and American television - and were never seen again for years until stations like MTV and VH-1 appeared. (And even then, they only appear sporadically.)

MTV currently has a nice collection they're calling Beatles Vintage Videos. Right now, it's missing a few great ones ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Hello Goodbye" in the Sgt. Pepper uniforms, and "Paperback Writer" come to mind) - but it does contain the David Frost version of "Revolution" (my absolute favorite) - and the rarely seen "Day in the Life" clip.

VH-1 Classic is currently airing a one-hour special containing most of these clips - with absolutely unnecessary (and lengthy) introductions of each by Mark Goodman (yes, the MTV guy from the '80s - still interrupting great moments by giving them his unsolicited seal of approval), and frequent pop-ups reminding us that Beatles Rock Band is coming on 9-9-9.

The web version is much better.