Hello, Goodbye / I Am The Walrus (UK version)

BEATLES – NEW SINGLE ‘Hello, Goodbye’

A NEW Beatles single titled “Hello, Goodbye” will be released on November 24. The A-side was specially written by Lennon and McCartney as their next single and the B-side is “I Am The Walrus,” from their Magical Mystery Tour TV film.

Paul takes lead vocal on “Hello, Goodbye” and John on “I Am The Walrus,” though George and Ringo are both heavily featured on both tracks.

The group only finished work on the single last weekend. Both are Lennon and McCartney compositions.

The Beatles are to make a film clip of “Hello, Goodbye” to be seen on TV programmes to coincide with the release.

The Beatles are still at work on the final editing and recording for the Magical Mystery Tour which is expected to be seen on British TV at Christmas.

From Melody Maker – November 11, 1967

NEW BEATLES TITLES…

NEW Beatles’ single will be released on November 24th. Paul takes lead on the “A” side “Hello, Goodbye” — a number which John and Paul wrote specifically for single release and not for “The Magical Mystery Tour”. However, the flipside “I Am The Walrus”, on which John takes the lead, will be prominently featured in the show when it is screened in December. The single was completed last weekend at EMI studios.

From Record Mirror – November 11, 1967

EXCLUSIVE! BEATLES SINGLE TITLES

“Hello, Goodbye” and “I Am The Walrus” – these are the titles of the new Beatles single out on Friday, November 24, their follow-up to the world-wide smash, “All You Need Is Love”.

“Hello, Goodbye” was specially written by John and Paul as the topside of the new release and only completed last weekend. Paul is lead singer, but the backing also features the voices of Paul, John George.

Flip comes from their TV spectacular, “Magical Mystery Tour,” John is lead singer here, but again the voices of John, Paul and George are heard in the backing.

This song – one of five plus an instrumental in “Magical Mystery Tour” – is one of the big production numbers in the film and is heard during a sequence shot at West Malling, near Maidstone, Kent.

The recording was completed some weeks ago, but – according to Beatles spokesman Tony Barrow – “the boys wanted to write a completely new song to be the topside of the new single release, so they came up with ‘Hello, Goodbye’.”

Beatles are filming a TV clip of “Hello, Goodbye” for insertion in various TV programmes. None had been fixed at presstime.

Final sequences for the “Magical Mystery Tour” TV spectacular were shot at Ringo’s home at Weybridge, Surrey, last Friday.

December will see the release of the other songs from “Magical Mystery Tour,” but no further details were available at presstime.

New Year priorities for the Beatles are a new LP and their third film, following “A Hard Days’s Night” and “Help!” And the next film may well be an all-Beatles production. Added Tony Barrow: “Though ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ is a TV film, this is the first time they have produced, scripted, cast and starred in a film. This may well prove to be a prototype of their next film assignment.”

The animated cartoon film, “Yellow Submarine,” which features 12 songs by the Beatles – including four new ones – should be ready for release in March or April.

From Disc And Music Echo – November 11, 1967

Beatles new disc surprise, TV promotion; pop-art cartoon movie nears completion

A NEW Beatles single has been scheduled for release later this month — and the group will be seen promoting it on television. A special release of the soundtrack titles from the “Magical Mystery Tour” spectacular is planned for December. More details of the Beatles’ animated cartoon film “Yellow Submarine” have been revealed. The group is planning to record another novelty disc for exclusive distribution to its Fan Club members this Christmas.

Top side of the new Parlophone single is “Hello, Goodbye” with Paul as lead vocalist, supported by John and George. The number was specially recorded last weekend for singles release and is not taken from “Magical Mystery Tour.” The coupling “I Am The Walrus” — featuring John, vocally backed by Paul and George — does come from the TV show. Both tracks are Lennon-McCartney compositions. The disc is issued on November 24.

A further six titles from the soundtrack of the “Tour” spectacular will be released in December. A spokesman for the Beatles explained: “There is too much for an EP, and not enough for an LP. This means the material will probably be put out as a special presentation package.”

The Beatles will film a TV promotional clip on “Hello, Goodbye” for slotting into television programmes throughout the world. It is likely to be screened first in BBC-1’s “Top Of The Pops.” The clip is being made by Subafilms, the company formed by the late Brian Epstein. The group did not undertake any TV promotion on its last single “All You Need Is Love” apart from its initial performance in the “Our World” hook-up. Concentrated work on the TV show has so far prevented the Beatles from recording its annual Fan Club disc, but it intends to devote a session specifically to this disc within the next fortnight. As in previous years the record will be sent free to all members of the Club.

The Beatles’ recording manager George Martin has been named as musical director for the “Yellow Submarine” cartoon based on the group. The film, produced by King Features and Subafilms, is said to incorporate the most advanced techniques in animation ever used. The drawings, influenced by pop and psychedelic art, are styled to set off the “mod world of the Beatles.” The picture is a musical comedy about a Chase and a rescue, written by Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal. In addition to the title number, which inspired the whole project, the cartoon features three new Lennon-McCartney numbers — the remaining eight songs are taken from the “Sgt. Pepper” LP. The Beatles have now completed recording the soundtrack for the film, which will be released by United Artists in March or April.

From New Musical Express – November 11, 1967

SIMPLE BEATLES SENSATIONAL!

“Hello, Goodbye”/”I Am The Walrus” (Parlophone).

UNBELIEVABLE how the Beatles always succeed in creating a minor sensation out of something incredibly simple! And this new one is as simple in construction as All You Need Is Love ” — with a repetitive lyric repeated over and over by Paul, while John and George chip in with vivid tonal harmonies.

It’s set to an urgent strumming beat, accentuated by maraccas, clanking piano, occasional twangs and some solid Ringo drumming. After a false ending, it launches into a lengthy fade-out with a Polynesian flavour and the boys chanting “Aloha “!

Supremely commercial, and the complete answer to those who feel the Beatles are going too way out.

FLIP : John growls the nonsense (and sometimes suggestive) lyric, backed by a more complex scoring incorporating violins and cellos. Comes from “Magical Mystery Tour.” You need to hear it a few times before you can absorb it.

From New Musical Express – November 18, 1967

NEW BEATLES SINGLE * STILL THE BEATLES OLD SOUL AND FEELING

A GREY Monday morning, EMI House. Looking out at the square through the window. Here goes and on goes “Hello, Goodbye” by the Beatles. So what’s it going to be? Another hit?

Well, of course. “You say goodbye, I say hello; you say stop and I say go,” sings Paul through a straight heavy thumping beat and the echoing voices of George and John backing him up. Superficially it’s a very “ordinary” Beatles record without cascading sitars, and the involved, weaving hallucinogenic sounds that we’ve grown to love so much.

However, all the Beatles soul and feeling is shining through and with the strong repetitive lyric punctuated occasionally by a searing guitar note or a chugging piano riff, you’ve got a nice, ‘singalong’ new Beatles single, which eventually fades and ska-beat’s back into a stronger, louder, and generally more positive ending.

The flip, “I Am A Walrus”, features John “I am the egg man” Lennon waiting in an English country garden for the sun. The song comes from the Magical Mystery Tour film and the scene is set with whining, sad blue strings giving John a soft coasting background.

Again not such a complex sound as a lot of previous Beatles stuff but it builds nicely to a chattering spinning cacophony and electricity and hissing gongs behind a barely audible “conversation.”

It’s gentle Beatles this time with their new Christmas number one, keeping the realms of pop with the boundaries of insanity, being as withy and as subtle as ever. No doubt the more times you hear “Hello, Goodbye” and “I Am The Walrus” the more the subtleties come to light.

From Melody Maker – November 18, 1967

THE BEATLES

Hello, Goodbye; I Am The Walrus (Parlophone R 5655). First impressions – typical McCartney vocals, on this deliberately repetitive medium pace item. It sounds like a send-up, the lyrics (what are there) mean nothing but the insidious compelling brainstorming will take this to number one. Flip is far better, from “Magical Mystery Tour”. John takes lead on the fantastic wailing production – interesting acidy sounds throughout and catchy strange lyrics — a very long side with the usual Beatles psychological tricks being played throughout. Safe as milk. TOP FIFTY TIP

From Record Mirror – November 25, 1967

BEATLES SAY HELLO – Single tops 300,000

THE Beatles say hello again — and it will soon be goodbye to number one for Long John Baldry. Re-stating their claim as the leaders of world pop, the Beatles’ new single “Hello, Goodbye” skyrocketed to number three from nowhere this week. The record had advance orders of more than 250,000 and by Saturday evening — the day after release orders and sales topped 300,000.

A film clip of the group performing “Hello, Goodbye” was dropped from Top of the Pops last week because some parts of it contravened the BBC’s agreement on miming with the Musicians’ Union.

Commented Nems press officer Tony Barrow: “It was a surprise to the Beatles that it was dropped because they had made themselves available to the BBC a couple of days earlier for extra filming to replace the bits of the clip which contravened the miming regulations. But executives at the BBC ruled that it could not be shown.”

A BBC spokesman said they had no plans to show it on this week’s or any other week’s edition of the show.

Barrow also confirmed that one of the Beatles’ companies was negotiating to open a New York discotheque club. The suggested name was Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, but this was “feasible but undecided.” There were no plans for a similar club in Britain.

Ringo Starr flies to Rome within the next few days to film his cameo role as the Mexican gardener in the film Candy.

From Melody Maker – December 2, 1967

Hello! who’s at No. 1? AND BROTHER MIKE SAYS THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

It’s McCartney-time in the Top Twenty this week. Up to number one goes Beatle Paul, with “Hello, Goodbye”, while in at 17 shoots brother Mike with the Scaffold’s “Thank U Very Much”. Mike, who changed his name from McCartney to McGear at the start of Beatlemania, because he didn’t want to cash in on his brother’s name, has been a member of the three-man Liverpool humour group The Scaffold since 1963. This is their fourth single, but their first hit.

Said Mike today at his father’s Cheshire home: “I wrote the song 18 months ago for the Edinburgh Festival, but we didn’t record it until last summer. It’s really more of a ‘popular’ record than a ‘pop’ record. I’d like it to go higher, but if it stays where it is, I shall be very happy.”

Said Paul from the next bedroom: “It’s great news for both of us. I’m changing my name to Paul McGear so that I’ll get confused with my famous brother Mike.”

Meanwhile total world sales of “Hello, Goodbye” are well over the million mark. There’s some confusion over the Beatles’ new EP package from their Magical Mystery Tour, television film, which so far doesn’t appear anywhere in the Top Thirty. “When the record was released last Friday advance orders were over 250,000,” said a spokesman for Nems today, “which normally would put the record somewhere in the Top Ten. I can only imagine that dealers don’t know how to classify it, and have not been including it on their returns.”

The full Top Ten according to the New Musical Express is (last week’s positions in brackets): 1 (3), Hello, Goodbye : The Beatles; 2 (1), Let The Heartaches Begin : Long John Baldry; 3 (2), Everybody Knows : The Dave Clark Five; 4 (8), Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart: Gene Pitney; 5 (6), If the Whole World Stopped Loving: Vai Doonican; 6 (11), All My Love: Cliff Richard; 7 (14), World: Bee Gees; 8 (10), Careless Hands: Des O’Connor; 8 (12), Im Coming Home: Tom Jones; 10 (7), The Last Waltz: Engelbert Humperdinck.

From Evening Standard – December 4, 1967

Double Release!

The Beatles are never afraid to do something different and timing of their two new releases are most unusual as they came out one week after the other. Their new single “Hello, Goodbye” and “I Am The Walrus” was released on November 24, and the “Magical Mystery Tour” package E.P. inserted inside the specially drawn cartoon book cover at the unusually low price of 19/6 on December 1.

From The Beatles Monthly Book, December 1967