THE BEATLES AT SHEA STADIUM 08-15-65

The Beatles' record-breaking first concert performance at New York's Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965 was attended by 55,600 fans, and marked the beginning of the group's second full US concert tour.

The filmed documentary special on the concert, "The Beatles At Shea Stadium", making it's US debut on ABC-TV, aired in colour at 7.30pm on 10 January 1967. The film, introduced by the Boston Pop's distinguished conductor, Arthur Fiedler, began with the concert's closing song, I'm Down, and featured excerpts of some of the other acts, before the Beatles were introduced by Ed Sullivan:

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, honored by their country, decorated by their Queen, loved here in America, here are The Beatles!"

The Beatles ran onto the field and took to the stage at 9.16pm, to a barrage of deafening screams. Despite new 100-watt guitar amplifiers especially designed for the group by Vox, they were insufficiently loud and The Beatles needed to use the in-house PA system at the massive ballpark.

Their set, which was mostly retained throughout that US tour, comprised 12 songs; the group's truncated version of Twist and Shout, followed by She's A Woman, I Feel Fine, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Ticket To Ride, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Can't Buy Me Love, Baby's In Black, Act Naturally, A Hard Day's Night, Help! and I'm Down.

Note: The songs, She's A Woman and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, were both mysteriously omitted from the final cut of the televised film. Happily, the Beatles'  performances of these two songs has been added to this 50th Anniversary Special Edition DVD. The audio of these songs can now be heard in proper context within their concert set, however the original video elements of these two song performances remains elusively "unavailable", and are replaced here with the use of some additional footage. The total film running time is 57 minutes, 32 seconds.

Following their record breaking concert at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965, it was decided that extra recordings would be needed if the footage was to be released to the public.

The concert performance suffered for The Beatles' problems hearing themselves against the screams of 55,600 fans, and the mobile recording facilities had left the sound quality of the recordings below standard.

A secret booking was made for The Beatles to re-record some of the instrument parts on this day. The session took place at CTS (Cine Tele Sound) Studios at 49-53 Kensington Gardens Square in London.

Initially Paul McCartney overdubbed new bass parts onto Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Can't Buy Me Love, Baby's In Black and I'm Down. The latter song - the finale to the concert - also featured a new organ track from John Lennon.

The Beatles then made entirely new recordings for I Feel Fine and Help!, as the quality of the concert recordings couldn't be salvaged. The songs were taped quickly, as they required the necessary live feel, although care was taken to match the on-screen images to the music.

The group also recorded overdubs for Ticket To Ride. For Act Naturally, however, the EMI studio recording was used.

Although George Martin wished to have a new version of Twist and Shout, there was no time to record one. Instead, the recording of The Beatles' 30 August 1965 version from their third and final Hollywood Bowl concert was used, to enhance the sound.

No additional work was done on She's A Woman and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, which were omitted from the final production. 

Special Features: The concert footage, accompanied by it's original, raw soundboard recorded audio, is a special feature included on this 50th Anniversary DVD. (00:28:33)

In addition, whilst playing the televised documentary film, you can select two alternate audio channels, using your DVD/Blu-ray player's remote control to hear different audio content:

Audio Channel 1: The Beatles At Shea Stadium (default) (00:57:24)

Audio Channel 2: Larry Kane Interviews The Beatles (00:57:15)

Audio Channel 3: The Beatles Abroad with Brian Matthew (00:57:31)

A little Beatles' Shea history:

The William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, to give it its full name, was the home of the New York Mets baseball team. The stage was located on second base, far from the audience, which was confined to the stadium's spectator areas.

The concert at Shea Stadium set a world record for attendance figures, and also for gross revenue. The Beatles pocketed $160,000 of the $304,000 box office takings. The event was promoted by Sid Bernstein, and 2,000 security personnel were enlisted to handle crowd control.

The Beatles had hoped to land on the field by helicopter, but the idea was blocked by the New York City authorities. They traveled by limousine from the Warwick Hotel to a heliport, from where they were flown in a New York Airways Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter, over New York City, to the roof of the World's Fair building in Queens. From there they boarded a Wells Fargo armored van, where they were each given a Wells Fargo agent badge, and were driven to the stadium.

The journey, which involved a sightseeing opportunity over the skyscrapers of Manhattan, was filmed by Ed Sullivan's company Sullivan Productions, in association with NEMS Enterprises and Subafilms - owned by Brian Epstein and The Beatles. The concert was also filmed by 12 camera operators.

Other acts on the bill were, in order of appearance, The Discotheque Dancers, Brenda Holloway, the King Curtis Band, Cannibal & The Headhunters, Sounds Incorporated and the Young Rascals. The Beatles were introduced by Ed Sullivan.

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