Complete footage of the Beatles’ long-lost first-ever appearance on Top of the Pops in 1964 has been found.
Recorded March 19, 1964 at the BBC’s Television Theatre in London, the Beatles pantomimed through “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “You Can’t Do That” the day
before those songs were released as a single. After airing, the recording of the historic performance was placed in the BBC archives and subsequently erased, as the BBC commonly (and now notoriously) wiped and reused tapes at the time.
While grainy, distorted clips of the Beatles’ Top of the Pops visit existed, a complete and clean copy of the footage was believed lost for good… until Thursday, when British conservation non-profit Film Is Fabulous! announced that they had obtained a 35mm film of the Beatles’ entire performance, banter and all, NME reports.
“Original 35mm film of ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘You Can’t Do That’ will now be restored and returned to the BBC archives,” Film Is Fabulous wrote on social media.
The footage, given to them by the family of a deceased former industry professional, features the Beatles “performing” four takes of “Can’t Buy Me Love” as well as two attempts at “You Can’t Do That.”
“Passages of the recording show the studio, the technicians, and the make-up ladies. There were four takes of the first song, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, with two being aborted because of technical errors. During breaks, the Beatles openly joked, and could be seen dancing to amuse themselves,” Film Is Fabulous wrote.
“The other song, ‘You Can’t Do That’, had two takes. During the second of these recordings John Lennon pulled a funny face when the camera came in for a ‘close-up’. It’s an amusing piece of Beatle history.”
It’s unclear when the public will be able to see the Top of the Pops’ footage, but “discussions will also be held with other parts of [the BBC] to ensure the content is made available to a wide audience,” the group added.
The discovery of the Top of the Pops footage comes less than a week before the world celebrates “Global Beatles Day” on June 25; Apple Corps will share a colorized version of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” broadcast from the BBC’s One World online for the first time to mark the occasion.
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