57 years since The Beatles filmed two groundbreaking music videos 57 years since The Beatles filmed two groundbreaking music videos

57 years since The Beatles filmed two groundbreaking music videos

It was 57 years dago…May 19 and 20, 1966, that the four most famous people on the planet strolled into a public park in West London to create two ground-breaking mini films which were to change the course of music history.

The Beatles performed ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’ in the iconic 18th century gardens of Chiswick House for promotional films that were the precursors of today’s ubiquitous music videos.

Two of the Paperback Writer promos are in color, the other two in black and white. Two Rain promos are in color and one in black and white. The color promos are for the US market, where color television broadcasting is being done, but the UK is still restricted to black and white only, and so the black and white films are for UK broadcast. Filming on May 19 is done in the studio (Studio One, EMI Studios, London); on the May 20 they do location filming in the gardens of Chiswick House, Chiswick, London. The director for all of the promo films is Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The two color studio promos videotaped on May 19 are broadcast in the US on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on June 5. The three black and white studio promos are broadcast on “Ready, Steady, Go!” (June 3) and “Goodbye Lucky Stars,” the final broadcast of “Thank Your Lucky Stars” (June 25).

1966–After spending the day filming promo video clips for Paperback Writerand Rain, The Beatles (Paul McCartney for sure, the others may or may not have attended) oversee the recording of the French horn solo for Paul’s song For No One (played by Alan Civil), in Studio Three at EMI Studios, London.