I didn't realize that this very notable anniversary (the last live performance by The Beatles, fifty years ago today, on the London rooftop of the Apple building) had arrived, until seeing today's Washington Post piece about it, below. (In fact, I thought the event had taken place in 1970.)
The rooftop concert lasted forty-plus minutes. The piece in the Post includes a video of the group performing "Don't Let Me Down."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/30/beatles-played-london-rooftop-it-wound-up-being-their-last-show/
Here, too, is a longer version of the concert (twenty-plus minutes), which includes images of Londoners listening from the street, and watching from other buildings.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x59304b
The Beatles by the way, were accompanied, during the rooftop performance, by the
keyboardist Billy Preston. Preston played with The Beatles near the end of the group's career. He is heard on various "Let it Be" recordings--such as "I've Got a Feeling," "Get Back," "Dig a Pony," and "Let it Be." He also played on two "Abbey Road" recordings: "Something," and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."
Preston also played on the recording of "Don't Let Me Down," which was the B-side of the 45 version of "Get Back." The 45, at the time of the rooftop concert, had not yet been released. Wikipedia notes: "In April 1969, [the] single 'Get Back' was credited to 'The Beatles with
Billy Preston', the only time such a joint credit had been given on an
official Beatles-sanctioned release (as distinct from an unsanctioned
reissue of some Hamburg-era recordings on which they were the backing
group for Tony Sheridan)."
On February 9th, by the way, it will be fifty-five years since The Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan's Sunday night program. At the time, in 1964, I was eight. Watching The Beatles' television appearance, that night, was not simply an exciting experience; it was utterly thrilling.
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Andrew Fielding, while host of a radio talk show in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996
A Book About Network Television in the late 1940s and early 1950s, by Andrew Lee Fielding. Originally published in 2007 by BearManor Media. Revised Edition published in 2019. See also: www.andrewleefielding.com, or www.earlytelevision.net
A Blog About Early Television...Later Television...The Big Band period...and other matters of history, family, and popular culture...
REVISED EDITION NOW AVAILABLE
"The Lucky Strike Papers"--subtitled "Journeys Through My Mother's Television Past"--profiles such early network television shows as "Your Hit Parade" (also known as "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade"), "Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge," and "The Freddy Martin Show." Author Andrew Fielding's late mother, Sue Bennett, sang on these programs, and others, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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Andrew Fielding, while host of a radio talk show in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996
About Me
- Andrew Lee Fielding
- Andrew Fielding has written for The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Providence Journal, The Philadelphia Daily News, Horizon Magazine, and other publications. He has also worked as a radio talk show host--in Philadelphia, in suburban Philadelphia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in northern New Jersey. He was also, for three years, the host of a weekly talk show on a nostalgia-oriented Internet radio station. His book about early television, "The Lucky Strike Papers," was published in December, 2007 by BearManor Media. A revised edition of the book was brought out in January of 2019.