Now And Then: The Beatles Explosion Told Through Rare Footage And Interviews

See the early days of the Beatles in this documentary, with rare interviews, newsreels, press conferences and television appearances.
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[@snuugumz]

* sigh *….miss you, John. You were a huge influence on me, but not in the musical sense. Every time I got sent to the principal’s office for being a wise-ass, or caught a detention rap for ‘unladylike behaviour’, I’m 100% positive I had just read or watched an interview of yours. Either that, or I’d reread IN HIS OWN WRITE and A SPANIARD IN THE WORKS. I mean, all the bed-ins for peace and such were great, but your refusal to take any shit from anybody has always served me well. Love ya madly. Lisa.😎💋✌🏼

[@drivinsouth651]

That's what Rock-n-Roll is all about! Sticking it to "The Man", lol!

[@rickremco6275]

"We could be big-headed and think that we would last 10yrs, but it could be only 3months." Here we are, 60yrs later.

[@bobparker8294]

I retired from teachig in 2019 and even in my last year in the profession I saw lots of kids wearin Beatles t-shrts. Even first- and second-graders. Talk about timeless! I doubt that anyone will be wearing Justin Bieber t-shirts 60 years from now.

[@daves6851]

The Beatles are nostalgically popular, but not musically relavent like people such as Hendrix who still is at the top of lists of greatest guitarists. Beatles have not topped a current music relavency list since the handful of years around their break-up, as pop stars do.

[@judyakajude3370]

​@@daves6851😂😂😂 your opinion is hysterical!! 😅

[@jckhammer]

​@@daves6851hahah . Tell us your not a musician and musically stunned without telling us. Haha close the door tight when you leave the room

[@drivinsouth651]

You sound like The Beatles are still together; at least they lasted more than 10 years, 1958-1970!

[@ray_ray_7112]

It's funny when John and Paul mentioned that they could have been named The Shoes. Ten years after this interview, in 1974, a band did call themselves The Shoes. I still have their LP record.

[@nuwavedave]

Yeah, "Shoes" (no "The") were great. Their DIY album, "Black Vinyl Shoes" helped launch the '70s Power Pop movement. According to the band, when they christened themselves "Shoes", they were unaware of the 1964 Beatles interview.

[@ray_ray_7112]

@@nuwavedave LOL @ no "The" I tend to do that because of "The" Beatles. The album I have is called Present Tense. That is weird that they didn't know about the Beatles interview when they decided on the Shoes.

[@Grisostomo06]

@@nuwavedave That's a reminder that bands left "The" out of their names in the late 60s and 70s. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Grand Funk Railroad etc. I mean The Motley Crue would have been a better sounding name. Of course their playing was about as good as their spelling.

[@ray_ray_7112]

@@Grisostomo06 Ah, yes. I see the double meaning of the word Crue if you insert the word "The".

[@AbigailJrney-1]

"I hope I have enough money to go into a business of my own, before we flopped". Aaaah I just love George!❤❤❤❤ The Beatles forever!!😍😍😍

[@dunki-dunki-dawg]

Apparently George and Ringo were penniless when They finally split up. This is what Lennon said in an broadcast. They earned very little money for themselves because they signed terrible back street contracts where a few got the biggest bite of the apple from album sales and all that memorabilia ect. Most of McCartney's wealth came form Wings and Ram ect.

[@AbigailJrney-1]

@@dunki-dunki-dawg Well I guess George did ok for himself afterwards. I saw a video clip from the mid 90's in which he was driving a $350,000 super sports car!🙂

[@archangelmusic13]

hook em horns!

[@rosiebottom3870]

The fan with the Paul portrait was adorable - so sincere.

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

You can tell in the early days they were having a blast. Doing appearances on comedy shows and girls screaming and fainting. And all that from doing what they really loved.. playing music. They would have been fine playing dive bars for beer money but they got too good and just exploded. And now 60 years later they are still as popular as ever.

[@bretttownsend6495]

I love that guy. Saying. I got every beatle record at home Every beatle record I’d love to see that guy today

[@ringoharrison5261]

He was involved in a motel shooting that left 15 people dead. The newspapers said, “He truly was a man that no one should ever say they love, or loved (past tense)” yikes dude

[@CaptainDarrick]

​@@ringoharrison5261 Is that true ?

[@debbieramsey-hanks3757]

Exceptional. on so many levels. Thank you. Great. band. True ..musicians

[@grantsmythe8625]

After the Beatles had been out for a couple of years or so, I was visiting my aged grandfather and, as he always did, he asked me what music I was listening to. I told him about the Beatles, and he asked me, "Are they really that good or is it that everybody's gone crazy over them and that's just snowballing?" I look back now and think that he asked me a very good question.

[@auntymarushkafah]

Both.

[@annangel4828]

Oh no. They were very good. Particularly as the music evolved. (IMHO)

[@bethmiller9774]

No doubt, their personalities had something to do with it.

[@dabreu]

@@auntymarushkafah First it was for their personalities and visual. I fell for them only looking at a picture of them. But then I listened to them and...wow, they were also very good. Detail: they kept on getting better all the time. That is why they are so strong even today.

[@509cougs]

Did you tell Granddad, "they're very clean. "

[@lionheartroar3104]

So much footage I've never seen! Thank you poster!

[@JohnDoe-tx8lq]

"The very word 'beat' has to do with the name of thier group" 04:14 😆 Brilliant!! 🤣

[@keithadams1538]

That was watch of the week. It brought back a lot of memories

[@amsedelm]

I could watch this over and over again.

[@DirkRevised]

🔥❤‍🔥 ♥ 4 Fabs Forever ! ♥ ❤‍🔥 🔥 Over half a century I have been wishing this kind of footage reached me. Thank you for sharing.🙏

[@vt5533]

Thanks for this! A wonderful trip through the early Beatles journey, which is often not shown. So fun.

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

Their music was always great but there was more to it. Those 4 together were just magic. Their image, looks and personalities really set them apart from any other. Fans were upset they broke up but I for one find it amazing they kept it together for 10 years. So few bands can do that. As well so few bands can change like they did and it all be great.

[@waynet3982]

As a 13 yr old boy. I fell head over heels for gorge. Which really freaked me out. At the time I can't tell anybody about this feelling . I new what this ment Today i still feel the same But now I am not alone. So i feel fine .!!!!!!!!

[@509cougs]

boy, girl , it mattered not. We all feel in love with George.

[@MarkSeibold]

I was wondering in what year this experience about George had affected you as a 13 year old. We first saw them that night on The Ed Sullivan Show in early February 1964. My brother and I went to the bank the next day to draw out, what was it?...$2.99 to buy the First new long Play album, Meet The Beatles. I soon made up cardboard mock guitars with kite string, so we could pretend to be lip-syncing to the music. It wasn't until about 35 years later, but a friend of mine that lived across the street and did this with us, had told me that I was the reason he was playing Jazz and Blues guitar, still today here in Portland Oregon. I told this story on NPR's Talk of the Nation on the 40th anniversary of the Sergeant Pepper's album release, as they interviewed the famous female alternative pop rock star, Aimee Mann. All these discussion shows, Bridge of thousands of these discussion programs are permanently archived at NPR to review. [Just merely search the few words I mentioned above to find it, does Aimee Mann was a young 8 year old when she discovered the Sergeant Pepper's album.] [I was the second to call in and speak to her.]

[@karaamundson3964]

I think he's a superhottie, too. I'm not surprised at your reaction! 🌈 You go, man!

[@USCG.Brennan]

Great video.....thanks for posting! I remember their beginnings very well. The first time I saw one of their albums in a record shop I snickered to myself. The Album cover was "Meet the Beatles" and I thought.....?ya right", they'll fizzle out like alot of other new bands coming along....and look at that hair!! ;-) Surprise, Surprise!!!

[@RogerPeet]

I saw The Beatles, live, on my birthday, in Portland OR 22 Aug 1965 I turned 9 Beatlemania was in full affect. While they played, girls were screaming and crying, at the same time. I said to myself, 'That is really them' and 'The is the best place to be, on the Planet' I've been lucky. I've seen John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, live, in concert Not many people can say that

[@Oliviux78]

That’s so cool that you got to experience that. I wasn’t alive yet when the Beatles were together, but I did get to see Nirvana in concert 😃 Awkward question but is it true that the girls would pee them selves while waiting for the Beatles to arrive?

[@drivinsouth651]

@@Oliviux78 Not just squirting pee, but full raging orgasms so intense they would pass out; good times!!!

[@meeeka]

@@Oliviux78 yep. They appeared here in Sydney in 1964(?) my neighbor saw them down the street here and she told me her older sister did.

[@Oliviux78]

@@meeeka Wow! They were a phenomenon!! You are so lucky to have been able to experience the iconic days of when the Beatles were together, and especially when they first arrived as a new sound that no one had heard.

[@debratatum6330]

That was awesome thank you ❤️‍🔥✌️😎

[@dabreu]

Thank you very much for this. I am enjoying it so much.

[@evaboldt653]

American journalists completely wasted these golden opportunities to interact with 4 extraordinary talents who created musical poetry with wit and style.

[@soarornor]

Well said. I watched the post John Jesus comment era painfully. The media could not evolve with them. They’d ask the same stupid questions in this monotonous tone of voice. Awful. A complete nightmare. They all looked so sick of it. All the joy of the early years was wiped away by this absurd media presence. They were actually still asking them about their hair and when the bubble was going to burst! Brian Epstein really should have caught this and figured out better and more effective ways to do publicity. Subjecting them to this over and over must have been so brutal. I’ve never seen these interviews before. I found it really interesting that they had longer versions of many of the more common clips that show up in Beatles docs.

[@drivinsouth651]

Our journalists trying to make fools out of The Beatles were outwitted and made fools of by The Beatles. The Beatles were awesomely brilliant and our journalists were naive, inept, incompetent, idiots! But it makes for a hilarious video to laugh at today. How embarrassing to have some mop-top Beatle put a square creep in his place just by answering questions honestly, lol! Absolutely fabulous, baby!

[@karaamundson3964]

Stuffy lumps is why

[@soarornor]

@@drivinsouth651 But after awhile I think the entire experience of interacting with the media really fried them. Same with Dylan. The media remains filled with the same kind of horrible people.

[@karaamundson3964]

💯 . Journalists seemed to think that they were talking with mental midgets & totally condescended vs. tried to actually interact

[@dunki-dunki-dawg]

They are the only group in all time where their popularity has never taken a downturn. Social Media allowed them to continue their flourishment which is such a strange thing. They will still be talked about in 100 yrs from now neverminded from their eruption into our lives during the early 60s...lol.

[@erpthompsonqueen9130]

Thank you. Watching from Alaska.

[@elizabethingram9784]

That was pretty amazing.

[@karaamundson3964]

Love how reporter asks vague question and George dives in like a hawk

[@worldgonemad1977]

Nothing compares to being a teenage girl in the 60’s when the mere sight of the Beatles was enough to make your heart stop. Boyfriends didn’t have a hope in hell 😂

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

I always wondered what it must of felt like having your girlfriend scream and faint and pee herself over other guys. I guess you would either had to have liked the Beatles as much or not be the jealous type to survive it.

[@nuwavedave]

Dunno about "boyfriends not having a hope". One evening long, long ago, I was showing a girl my Beatles 45s, gum cards, magazines . . . . She became so excited by it all - that it led to us making love. 💋

[@cards0486]

I always say we’re all going to get old sometime. I’m 72 right now. But I lived the Beatles years. Girls who just see film and listen to old songs don’t know the meaning of “I LOVE the Beatles.” They don’t understand what really loving them is.I was 12 on Feb. 9,1964. I was 19 in 1970. When all your teenage years were the years they were releasing all that amazing music, you knew the thrill of holding an album in your hands. Then you opened it, and played it. There were brand new songs that the world is hearing for the first time. Those of us that lived that were so very blessed!

[@dabreu]

@@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306 Some of the guys used to have similar feelings. So, they could understand. People tend to think only girls would scream. or run after them. Untrue. In the video showing them in London, when the word Beatlemania was created, we can see boys running after them too.

[@dejhary8132]

Happy New Year Perspective!

[@509cougs]

Nice job. It's nice to see so much rare footage. Please send the Shakespearean gig to Peter Jackson for translation.

[@lynnturman8157]

This would be a great video to show to any young person wanting to know what all the fuss was about.

[@Oliviux78]

It’s horrible that the kids in this generation don’t know much about the Beatles. Maybe some have heard of a couple of songs but they don’t know how life changing the Beatles were. 😢

[@Yousseph]

@1:10:57 happiest face I've ever seen, just got a hug from the Macca haha

[@PaulDowsettUK]

17:23 I love her accent. Like a cross between Cyndi Lauper and Harley Quinn

[@johnsullivan6843]

Yes, correct. I wonder what became of her artwork, and what became and her? 🤔😂

[@jefffoster7105]

It's a shame John's optimism about the future was a niave one and so far off today than its ever been. Peace. GOAT

[@karaamundson3964]

Adore the last clip of John w Yoko...he looks so happy & clear

[@lamiasekkal1891]

Fantastic band

[@cuda426hemi]

26:18 "we'd like to go back but we'd never stay there" - Ringo. Rongo. As a fellow Angeleno, we've enjoyed you out here for decades now Richie, especially your birthday love & peace ins. Glad you were wrong. ☮

[@frankmilitary4121]

The overdubbed screaming cracks me up. You see 4 girls shaking, and they make it sound like 4000 screaming fans.

[@myoungk]

1:15:51 On drumming: "By the time he learns it, they'll have a machine do it."

[@thanuyorka2199]

How quickly it started it finished within just a few years, even though they were young it seems they considered their music juvenile. George mentioned when we’re 40 and John in an interview when I am 30, so I guess in the 60s 30 and 40 were considered advanced age. That could’ve also been one of the reasons they broke up.

[@jefffoster7105]

When I hear tales of John or Paul not respecting George or Ringo in any order u want it really annoys me. Never seen a band so close before or since. As close as brothers no question. They wouldn't have handled the sheer pressure of being the Beatles without being real mates. GOAT

[@davesuiter]

Wing-tip, High-Heel, Open-Toe and Elevated ---Introducing, "THE SHOES" !!!

[@andevil777]

Still hard to imagine the mania, cuz there is no other way to put it that gripped the states before they even played a note on American soil. FAB!

[@aicram62]

That's because the music was already here. But Black people were playing it so it was ignored. I know there was racism in England so I want to know how come the Beatles weren't racist? What was it? Their parenting? Their love of the music? Was it Liverpool was a ghetto? what was it?

[@Joestudly]

Ok, America land of the free. a curfew because of the Beatles, wow.

[@Mikevdog]

A nice little band that could play anyrhing and nake it sound good.

[@keithhyttinen8275]

Keep in mind, with the large amount of money coming in, they were paying 90% of it to the British Tax Service.

[@meeeka]

That was a special tax put in by Labor.

[@JK..INFX.D....]

The Beatles were in a band called The Beatles.

[@soarornor]

The media back then was just insufferable. The same stupid questions. Same monotone voices. Just a nightmare. In particular the post John/Jesus era. I’m not surprised that they had had more than enough after San Francisco. Every drop of joy had been squeezed out of them as far as trying to appease the public mania. Brian should not have put them through that. The media and the mania drove Dylan crazy as well. What is with the media?

[@sharonkendell-j4r]

witty, fun, stylish and sexy and incredibly talented

[@jimmybonar2566]

@30:32 Pete Best says he left The Beatles because he 'wanted to start a group of me own!!!'

[@andrewmurray5542]

Interesting seeing that because that's not what Best said later on; he was saying he was sacked because they wanted Ringo instead of him.

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

@@andrewmurray5542 Yep. He said that to save face but he was devastated. Granted it's hard to feel too sorry for him being he is a part of music history now and as well received a handsome royalty check. It's clear he was simply not a fit for that band like Ringo was.

[@ray_ray_7112]

@@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306 Yes, Pete sure was devastated. You can see the pain in his face. The movie Birth of The Beatles showed pretty much how he felt. In the scene when he was told that he was being dropped from the group tells it all. I realized many years later that Best was involved in the production of the film. I'm pretty sure that was one of the reasons why Paul rejected the movie. There were definitely other inaccuracies in it as well. The movie is still available for free on KZbin.

[@shawnkennedy855]

Lousy drummer too.@@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306

[@markbarker6739]

Wasn't good enough I've heard a demo with him playing and it's not a patch on Ringo

[@thesunnysheepguy]

At 1 hr 16 min appx John said something very interesting. Said future drummers might be replaced. How did he know? 😮

[@yensid4294]

They really shook things up. It all seems so quaint & kind of ridiculous now 😊

[@CaptainDarrick]

' ridiculous ' ? You think songs like Yesterday, Let it be , Hey Jude, Something.....are ridiculous?

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

@@CaptainDarrick I think she means all the Beatlemania stuff with girls going nuts and fainting and the hysteria, not the music.

[@CaptainDarrick]

@@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306 Fan worship continued onto the 70s till today ( look at a Taylor Swift concert for eg ) ...Is it quaint and ridiculous today then ?

[@jckhammer]

​@@CaptainDarrickexactly. The OP is either niave , stuck up , or out of touch with the musical world

[@axxellein]

TRES Cool

The world went mad and they blamed these guys.

[@SteveEdzPainter]

The interviews were quite interesting and well worth the watch. But the fan footage was top class cringe. Most of the interviewers were none too bright. The Shakespeare skit was delicious. The Klan interview was straight out of Monty Python. Right time, right place, and right packaging for those adorable ickle Pudlians.

[@gemini802]

Ths Shakespeare was more like ridiculous

[@ray_ray_7112]

I wonder if any of the interviewers back then got interviewed regarding the questions they asked about the Beatles' haircuts. Moe Howard of the 3 Stooges had a bowl-cut hairdo many years before The Beatles. So, why did they make a big deal of it? Moe was an act and the Beatles were an act who happened to make great music as well.

[@nuwavedave]

Why? Because Moe didn't start an international fashion trend. When The Beatles came out in America, teenage boys were wearing Ivy League haircuts like the Kingston Trio and Crew Cuts like the U.S. Marines. After the Ed Sullivan Show (February 9, 1964) it all began to change.

[@aicram62]

No, because the style in the 50's was upswept hair for men and ladies. Look at the Everly Brothers It was up in a wave to their Superman S curl in the front. Elvis came down and the French came down

[@ray_ray_7112]

@@aicram62 Yes, I know it was mostly upswept hair. I am just saying that the bowl cut was around way before the Beatles. It just wasn't mainstream. Just look at the hairdos of the Eloi men in the movie The Time Machine 1960 which was way before the Beatles got their hair done. The only difference was that they were all blondes.

[@markbahouth2713]

@@nuwavedave yes so many men and boys had Crew Cuts . the name Crew Cut must of been because it was what most Navy personnel hair style was . my father who was mostly bald would jokingly say " when i was younger i used to have a Crew Cut but the Crew bailed out on me". the Beatles arrival in the USA started the trend of men wearing there hair longer and longer till they looked like women . this freaked out parents . fathers were horrified there sons looked like women. we'll long hair on men was back , it only wasn't fashionable in America during the not so hip 50s. the Beatles signify the end of 50s and the start of the 60s . this includes there music based on the early blues and rock of American black musical stars like Chuck Berry , Little Richard ,Muddy Waters , Howling Wolf and other notable music Stars.

[@ray_ray_7112]

@@markbahouth2713 I see. As I am re-watching this video that automatically popped up again, I am also curious why the interviewer also questioned the Beatles' style of dress, as if it was abnormal. Brian Epstein insisted that they wore that style of clothing to fit in with America. I think it would have been more appropriate to ask them that question if the band was wearing their leather outfits like they wore in Hamburg several years earlier.

[@aicram62]

I want to know more about this acting thing where the audience shouts out. Do they still do this in England? Is this Panto? I always thought it was pantomime all this time.

[@ADd-qv9bt]

Next video on WW1 has AGE VERIFICATION. Why?

[@acecarson3792]

Hatd to believe John was married.

[@acecarson3792]

BRIAN FELL FOR JOHM, TRUE FACT

[@lizardog]

I love it when someone states the very obvious.

[@antoninobongiovanni5822]

If you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all

[@jefffoster7105]

They must have told Pete Best to say he left rather than he got hoofed. Poor fella. Ended ok though when he got a few million off the anthology. Seems about right.

[@susankay497]

One square inch of a sheet slept on by a Beetle..."what are you going to do with them?" the capitalist was asked. "Sell 'em" he replies.

[@officecomputer8887]

cringe

[@daijones101]

The fans were right

[@acecarson3792]

😂😂😂😂❤❤

[@aicram62]

If I were George I would have left.

[@JamesDonald-bl3zp]

It seems to me that the Beatles could have show some thankfulness by walking over Tom that giant fence and greeted their fans at least just to show the loved their fans that slept there all night just to see them, ,I know security could of kept things in control enough for that, I hold that highly against the fab four that they never even considered doing that,,,I always called it big headiness,,, I mean Evis did that a lot of times just out of respect to his fans, I mean without the fans where in the hell would they be,,, it would of probably tripled their sale after each time they showed fans a bit of friendliness at times like that,,,,I'll alway hold that as living proof Evis Presley was was a better man all the way around,,the real KING ! Dont get wrong tho I've always been a Beatles music lover, who ain't ?

[@brianharris7243]

All that screaming's left me 'deef' as well as daft!

[@Joylibelle]

The screaming must have been technically exaggerated for the sake of this docu. It sounds fake.

[@user-gk2fz8mx9o]

Eric??? lol lol omg.........

[@jackteare8292]

I was trying to watch but it was torturous white noise

[@LeeSykes-o5g]

... if I ever hear a U.S voice, it would be too soon.

[@gemini802]

Lol.😅

[@frankhornby6873]

“They thought we were Germans...and we spoke good English”...uz Scousers av always spoke gud inglish....an wee kan spel gud inglish an all...an wee don’t mynd avin a laff at ar selfs ....so der lah...🤪

[@We_Seek_Truth]

This is just a mishmash of Beatles clips, no real plan going on, no narration, nothing but clips. If you are a diehard fan, then you'll like this. But if you need something cohesive, this isn't a great "perspective."

[@markbarker6739]

Pete best lying through his teeth he didn't leave he was sacked because he wasn't good enough

[@bobtaylor170]

Well, for Heaven's sake, do you begrudge the man his dignity?

[@markbarker6739]

@@bobtaylor170 but he straight out lied about it trying to make himself sound big everyone knows he got sacked just makes himself look silly

[@bobtaylor170]

@@markbarker6739 please consider context. It was 1964. The Beatles were the biggest story in show business. Here's how closely guarded everything about The Beatles was for several years: every Beatles fan has seen many of the photos their German friend, Astrud, took of them in Hamburg in the early 60s. Do you know when and where those photos were first seen in the United States? In a September, 1968 edition of LIFE magazine. I remember the Best segment from 1964, and have seen it several times since. He doesn't seem to me at all braggardly, just rueful. And, of course, we now know that that apparent ruefulness was a disguise for humiliation. Have a heart.

[@mattpage2464]

mi5 mi6

[@markb3186]

this is very SHALLOW it was the music not a bunch of teeny girls only i stopped watching this too void of any substance whatsoever NONSENSE nothing about the music and its evolution -nothing =A SHALLOW WORTHLESS ATTEMPT AT A DOCUMENTARY

[@bingeltube]

Video too long; did not watch!

[@officecomputer8887]

really bad music too

[@officecomputer8887]

the beatles are terrible and easily the most overrated group of all time

[@CaptainDarrick]

Are you insane ?

[@officecomputer8887]

no @@CaptainDarrick

[@CaptainDarrick]

​@@officecomputer8887 I think you'll find you are

[@officecomputer8887]

is everyone who has an opinion differing from yours insane? @@CaptainDarrick

[@CaptainDarrick]

@@officecomputer8887 Anyone who says the Beatles were overrated is