“Real Love” promotional video premiered on ITV

From The Beatles Monthly N°237, January 1996:

The screening of the video for ‘Real Love’ on ITV on 23rd November caused some confusion among the general publish as to exactly what was being issued by The Beatles and when. One TV insider suggested that the unusual timing for the premiere of ‘Real Love’ – so soon after ‘Free As A Bird’, and three months prior to its commercial release – was to counter the possibility of bootleggers getting hold of the recording. Although the water-tight security evidently paid off for ‘Free As A Bird’, and the single remained under wraps until its official launch, it’s understood that measures to secure ‘Real Love’ weren’t as successful, and a copy was leaked from either EMI or Apple as early as October.

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