THE BIRTH OF THE LIVE ALBUM!

The Beatles - Live at The Hollywood Bowl

On this day in music history: May 4, 1977 - “The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl” by The Beatles is released. Produced by Voyle Gilmore and George Martin, it is recorded at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, CA on August 23, 1964 and August 28 - 29, 1965. The idea of recording a live album featuring The Beatles comes from their American record label Capitol. They had originally planned to record their concert at Carnegie Hall in February of 1964 during their first US visit, but were unable to acquire permission from the Musician’s Union to record the performance. Six months later, they capture the band’s historic first performance at the Hollywood Bowl. But after hearing the results, both The Beatles and their producer George Martin veto their release, feeling the sound quality is not up to par. They try again a year later when the band plays the venue again. The recordings are equally disappointing overall and those tapes are also shelved. The project is revived in the mid-70’s by then Capitol/EMI Chairman Bhaskar Menon, after the tapes are discovered lying dormant in Capitol’s vault. Menon calls George Martin to ask if he can create a releasable album from the tapes. The concerts originally recorded completely live to 3-track tape, proves to be a major challenge to work with. The first issue will be trying to find a machine to play them back on. Enlisting the help of former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, they locate a working three-track tape machine (which constantly overheats, requiring cool air to be blown into it with a vacuum cleaner), and transfer the recordings to a more modern multi-track tape format. Through careful processing, remixing and editing, they craft a seamless complete performance from the two concerts. Very well received upon its release, it races up the charts around world. Over the years, bootleg copies of the original album, as well as unreleased outtakes from all three performances circulate among fans for years. Going out of print in 1988, nearly thirty years goes by before it sees the light of day again. As an accompaniment to Ron Howard’s Grammy winning documentary “The Beatles: Eight Days A Week”, a remixed (by Giles Martin) and expanded edition of the Hollywood Bowl album titled “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” is released on September 9, 2016. “The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl” peaks at number two on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

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