After more than four decades, an unheard recording of The Beatles has resurfaced, oddly enough, right here in the Sunshine State.
Recorded in 1962 at the Star Club in Germany, the album features the band playing with Ringo Starr for the first time because drummer Pete Best, who preceded Starr, was unable to perform that night.
Jeffrey Collins, a British music producer and promoter who owns the rights to the recording, has had the music in his possession since 1964 when a DJ that Collins booked for the Star Club passed the recording on to him.
“It starts off with only 20 or 30 people in attendance,” Collins said. “The guys are fooling around. you can hear on the first track Paul McCartney tuning his guitar.”
Collins, who is the CEO of Echo-Vista Entertainment, said that the performance is a “very intimate show,” and one can even hear the members of the band chatting between tracks.
Collins said the 40-year delay in releasing the tracks was due to the poor quality of the recording, finally fixed by modern digital remastering. The album does not yet have a release date due to copyright issues that are being worked out with Apple Corps Ltd., a company that represents The Beatles music worldwide.
Nevertheless, Collins hopes to release the album in the “very near future.” Even with the legal issues, he said that Echo-Fuego Entertainment, a joint venture between Echo-Vista and Miami-based Fuego Entertainment, owns all publishing rights to this recording. The tentative title for the album is Jamming with the Beatles, 1962, but it is still in the works.
Collins said what makes the album so precious is that “you can actually feel the energy. There was something happening when they played.” He pointed out that this marked the beginning of the “British invasion,” which started numerous changes and innovations, musical and otherwise.
Jamming will definitely be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a younger generation who never quite experienced The Beatles live and at their prime. The Beatles certainly paved the way for every musician to expand their horizons, break molds and meanwhile maintain a certain social responsibility. By internalizing their lyrics, their energy and their essence, fans can see how their music can truly change the world.
Just when the world assumed they had heard, and memorized, all The Beatles had to offer, this release should bring back the feeling of hearing a Beatles track for the very first time.
For more information about Echo-Vista or Fuego Entertainment, visit www.myspace.com/echovista or www.fuegoentertainment.net.
Carla Kerstens may be contacted at c.kerstens@umiami.edu.