TV alert: "A Hard Day's Night" July 31

For those with Turner Classic Movies, the Beatles "A Hard Day's Night" will air July 31. Check your local listings at this link on their site.

New Beatles, McCartney HMC titles.

These are reportedly on the way.

Free screening of Beatles film "Yellow Submarine" at Comic Con

For those of you at Comic Con in San Diego, we've gotten word that  there will be a free screening of The Beatles' film "Yellow Submarine" Thursday night, July 21. Those attending ComicCon can pick up tickets at the Alex Ross or Mattel booths. Tickets are free and limited to first come basis. Anyone attending will get a free gift courtesy of Mattel.

Lost Beatles demo for Cilla Black song to be auctioned in August

Liverpool Beatles Auction

A two-minute demo disc for the John Lennon-Paul McCartney song “It's For You” with a vocal by Paul McCartney that was never recorded by the Beatles will be auctioned Aug. 27 at the 25th Liverpool Beatles Memorabilia Auction in Liverpool, it was announced by the Beatles Shop July 20.

According to the auction, the demo, which was recorded by Paul McCartney on a seven inch disc with the label "Dick James Music Limited," was delivered to Cilla Black in 1964 at the Palladium where she was performing, but then disappeared and had not been seen for 52 years. It was believed the record had been lost or destroyed. The recording was found by a member of Cilla Black's family in a brown envelope that had the words “It’s For You” on it with her name underneath. It was originally believed to be a copy of her hit record. The disc was among a group of records taken to The Beatles Shop on Liverpool's Mathew Street to shop manager Stephen Bailey.

“We played each of the various demo discs that we had been asked to value,” Bailey said. “The ‘It’s For You’ Cilla copy was not there but was a recording by Paul McCartney. I was shaking with excitement and speechless. I realized that this was the long lost Beatles demo disc from 1964 and I was probably one of the few people to have seen and heard it in over 50 years. What I had in my hand was probably the only copy in existence and this is going into The Beatles Auction in Liverpool.” 

A 20 second excerpt of the demo is at the Liverpool Beatles Auction website. The shop's assistant manager Anne-Marie Trace said the seller had no idea what they had. “The sleeve it was housed in listed it as a Cilla demo and the label just lists the song title without an artist,” she wrote on her blog.

In Cilla Black's book “What’s It All About,” she wrote, “John and Paul wrote my next single ‘It’s For You’ and Paul introduced me to the song by sending a demo disc that he had made of it round to The Palladium. Although Paul had sung it as a waltz, George Martin took a big hand in my recording of it and asked Johnny Spence to arrange it.” 

Black recorded the song on June 29, 1964 at a session produced by Sir George Martin. The song was released by Parlophone on July 31. It rose to No. 7 on the UK singles charts but only No. 79 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Black died after a fall at her Spanish home on Aug. 1, 2015 at age 72. 

More pictures of Paul McCartney in Cincinnati, part 2

 Here the second of two posts with more pictures taken by Olivia Anne Morris Fuchs from Paul McCartney's show in Cincinnati on July 10. Read our story here. (And subscribe to our blog!)

Mysterious Beatles Hollywood Bowl album listing on Amazon

Listings now on Amazon in U.S., but nothing's been announced.

• CD version in U.S.
• Vinyl version in U.S.

Journalist's 'Beatles Archive' book expands for print edition

“The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive,” which collects the veteran British journalist's stories on the Beatles that spans their career, is now available in paperback in both the U.S. and in the UK, Connolly told us today.

The original ebook featured 336 pages with stories dating from 1962 through 2011. The new version, Connolly said, is “an updated version with about 10 more pieces, including an account of John and Yoko when they first went to New York to live, a couple on George Martin (one an obit), one on how the Beatles changed the self image that we Brits had at the time and another on Freda Kelly. A few more, too.”

We've been always thought books like these with reports from the day are valuable insights into Beatles history. This one is definitely that. Connolly was on the scene for the events of Beatles history he writes about in his book. That makes it well worth getting, whether in print or ebook form.