The Beatles filming “Revolution,” September 4, 1968 (Photo © Apple Corps Ltd.; used with permission)
In the fall of 2015, we had been planning this new feature for a while, parking URLs of clips that we think you’d enjoy, and trying to decide which one to lead with.
Then we saw this amazing new/old video for The Beatles‘ song “Revolution” that was published on YouTube on October 20, 2015 and our collective jaws dropped. This is how we debut our Classic Videos section!
It was featured in the 1 collection released November 6, 2015, from Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/Universal in a variety of formats and configurations.
“Revolution” was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg – who helmed episodes of the influential British pop music TV show Ready Steady Go! and promo films for such other Beatles songs as “Paperback Writer,” “Rain” and “Hey Jude,” and is recognized today as a video music pioneer. The clip was filmed on September 4, 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios in London.
The song is one of the most famous B-sides in music history. “Revolution” was the flip side of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” single, released on August 26, 1968.
The slower arrangement of “Revolution”was included on the 1968 double album, The Beatles (aka The White Album). Five versions are on the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition of the album, which arrived on November 9, 2018.
Related: The White Album Facts and Trivia
Producer George Martin wrote of the sound on the song’s recording: “Plugging directly into the Abbey Road desk and pushing the needles into the red achieve the fuzz guitar sound. We got into distortion on that, which we had a lot of complaints from the technical people about. But that was the idea: it was John’s song and the idea was to push it right to the limit. Well, we went to the limit and beyond.”
Director Lindsay-Hogg became better known to audiences upon viewing Peter Jackson’s 2021 docu-series, Get Back, culled from hours of footage filmed by the former for the Let It Be film.
Related: Our interview with Lindsay-Hogg on filming the Beatles and the Stones
As for Classic Videos… these clips come from a variety of categories: music (of course) new and old, pop culture, movie trailers and more that at times will make you laugh and other times make you sit up and take notice, and always entertain.
Watch this Beatles classic
The Beatles’ catalog and merch are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
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14 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationWho played keyboards on he Revoution tape?
I’m guessing is that this is from the studio track, doing a self-karaoke deal. All sounds identical to the record, except the vocals.
Had to look it up….thought it was Billy Preston, but it was actually Nicky Hopkins on electric piano.
That´s right, live voices over a basic track taken from the recording.
Nicky Hopkins.
I think Billy Preston and it’s pretty clear the instrumental track is pre-recorded.
Preston played during the Let It Be sessions how many times has that been thoroughly discussed . The popular choice DaddySlis Nicky Hopkins who was the flavor of all. Great player a pro’s Pro.
Nicky Hopkins
Maybe Nicky Hopkins?
LOOKED LIVE but couldn’t BE live since there was no keyboard player in this video and it sounded exactly like the recording.
I miss them every single day of my life…
It’s amazing that a song of less than 3-1/2 minutes sounds like a 10 minute rock opera. There will never ever be a band as good as they were in the years 1963-1970. Wow!
yeh, voice overs… yeh nicki… but hell… fucking beatles….
The Greatest Rock and Roll Band, The Beatles.
this is from the david frost show and i remember seeing a movie in 1978 called around the world with the beatles and when this video was shown it was live right off the stage. at the end the audience is clapping