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   CLUB SANDWICH 80

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constant and their role is as linear as a law of physics. They are not something that was or will be; they just are. They're like the sun coming up or gravity, a force that lust is.
            The wonderful thing about this is that the Beatles - collectively or singularly - are defying all the known rules and so who knows where they'll peak, if indeed they ever do peak.
            Look at the rules. As Paul's noted before, when he started out in this business, it certainly was the rule that no way whatsoever would any pop singer be filling the Maracana Stadium 20 years later.
            Fine, well try this rule for size - in 1963 they'd have carted you off to the sanatorium if you'd have argued that in 33 years time a band could get together after not being together for 25 years, make two singles ('Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love') whose very recording alone make the world obsessed and you end up bigger than you were when you were bigger than anyone. Rock and roll isn't like that. But it is, because this year the Beatles have just proved that it is.
            So they're moving the goalposts. The benchmark is re-marking itself and - as I am proud to admit that I predicted five years ago - the man who sang that he was half the man he used to be is now twice the man he used to be. Where now? Thrice the man he used to be?
            This is literally mindblowing. The permutations and consequences of Paul building on what was to become bigger as is are coming so quickly that I really cannot write them down fast enough.
            Suffice to say that you must not look at 1996, The Year Of The Anthology, as an isolated year but as another brick in the wall as important as 1963 or 1967. What is stimulating is where is this wall going? It's already gone from Mop Top to Maracana, from Oh I need your love, babe, to Oratorio.
            And there's more yet - the orchestral composition for EMI's 100th birthday, the Beatles Photofllm, the art exhibition; all of this will up the ante, compound the legend that is living and break so many rules that this whole Beatles thing will become beyond analysis.
            How does it happen? How, 25 years on, do the Beatles get to be Bigger Than the Beatles? What is this magic?
            I saw it, once, this magic. I was at a photoshoot with Linda for Linda's Kitchen. Paul turned up with a guitar and hid himself away in a bedroom upstairs. An hour and a half later he came downstairs, grinning.
            "How's it going?," he said.
            "Good," I said.
            "So ask me what I've being doing," he said.
            "What've you been doing?," I said.
            "I've written a song."
            "Sure, you have," I said, sarcastically, "Like you do, in an hour"
            He took me upstairs and played it to me. I won't tell you the title in case it doesn't make it to the next album but,-having heard it, one word stuck in my mind that is still lodged there now.
            Somebody I sort of know heard the new album the other day. When asked to describe it, he used this word (that's in my mind) in the sentence.
            If you ever hear this song, you'll know this word and you'll now then why 1996 will be bettered yet.


Club Sandwich 80

TOP-SELLING SINGLES

"What I've got I'll give to you…”
- Can’t Buy Me Love

            The records came so hard and fast in the early years that even the record-keepers (producer EMI) got confused as to which Beatles song sold best in the United States.
            The biggest advance orders for a song were for "Cant Buy Me Love” which sold 2 100.000 copies
            “I Want to Hold Your Hand” shares top billing because of the speed of its sales Within three days of its release, 250 000 copies had been sold: after two weeks, one million copies were sold: and at 20 days “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was selling 10 000 copies an hour in New York City alone.
            But the hands-down winner is "Hey, Jude." (Apple) with more than 8 million copies sold in the United Kingdom and the United States.

TODAY

The long and winding road that leads to your door..."
- The Long and Winding Road

            With the Beatles Anthology, a vast compendium of first takes, out-takes, studio sessions, and unheard versions of beloved Beatles songs, the Beatles have done what every baband since the Sixties has been trying to do beat the Beatles.
            In 1996, the Beatles eclipsed their own Sixties glories in terms of worldwide sales and audience. The Beatles Anthology television documentary was seen in 94 countries. Of great interest to the Beatles is the number of young people flocking to their recordings: 41% of buyers of Beatles Anthology Volume 1 were teenagers.

TOMORROW

"You'll be older too..."
- When I'm Sixty-Four

            • Volume 3 of the Beatles Anthology is expected to bring the year's total of sales for the Beatles to 33 million alburns.
            • In June 1,996, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II opened the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Founded by Paul McCartney, the school is housed in McCartney's old grammar school. A long-time dream of the Beatles legend, the project received backing from George Harrison, Ringo Starr. Yoko Ono and 2,000 other supporters. The aim is to help reinvigorate Liverpool by bringing in students from around the world to study dance, music and art with native Liverpudlians.

TOP-SELLING DOUBLE CD ALBUM

            Beatles Anthology Volume 1 and Volome 2 sold 13 million double-CD albums in the first six months of release. Volume 1, released in November 1995, smashed the world record set by Michael Jackson's HIStory (391 000) by selling an incredible 855 473 copies for the first week of United States sales. Volume 2 came in at number 3, with 441 788 copies. Volume 2, which covered the time period from February 1965, to February 1968 - "the years of dash and daring" - was the Beatles' 17th number one album in the United States, more than any other band.

            "Let's pretend that John's gone on holiday, he's rung up and said we've nearly finished the album, but there's this song that I kind of liked but I haven't finished yet. Will you finish it up for me? I trust you."

            - Paul McCartney, recalling the Beatles' decision to record "Free As a Bird" based on the John Lennon tape that Yoko Ono agreed to release. "It was pretty emotional," recalls McCartney. "I warned Ringo to have his hanky ready when he listened to it."

INTERVIEW: PAUL MCCARTNEY

            Paul McCartney drew the largest-ever stadium crowd to Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, where 184.000 Brazilians turned out for his show. He talked to The Guinness Book of World Records about what it's like to be on top of the world.
            GBWR: Did the Beatles expect to set so many records?
            PM: We certainly didn't realize we were going to get into the record book, though we wanted to like everyone else. It's an honor for a kid who sat in the pub and hoped to be the tiddlywinks champion of the world to get to our level of success.
            GBWR: What's in the future for the Beatles?
            PM: Most of the sales are to young people, which is funny because we all assumed it would be a lot of older people like ourselves on a nostalgia trip. I've got young kids myself. My son, for instance, will listen to one of our records and say, "Hey, it's funny!" Without being too immodest. I think that the writing was very good and it still holds up.

Club Sandwich 80

            Reproduced from the 40th anniversary US edition of The Guinness Book of World Records 1997 with kind permission. ©1996 Guinness Publishing Ltd.