Big Beatles & Sixties Sort Out Podcast

Good Morning! After a slight technical hiccup, we're back with the 3rd episode of our look at 1964's US #1 hits. What a year this has been! Let's find out how it ends. Girl Groups, a TV dad, a Bobby and a Beatles! [episode re-upload might still be working through the system at the mo]

We're a few episodes away from the inevitable appearance of the DC5 in this season of BSSO.

Which, of course, turned up again in our last week's episode of Big Sixties Sort Out, sandwiched between Oh Pretty Woman and Baby Love!

Whoops! I put out the wrong file as todays episode (series 5 ep 22), with only Paul's unedited audio. Some say it made the show 50% better, but I've now deleted the wrong ep and replaced with the full edited version. It may take a little while to come through the feeds. Sorry! G

TECHNICAL ERROR! New upload soon

Hope you're enjoying our return to the pod-waves with 1964 in the USA! One more episode and that year of British Invasion insanity is done. Keep listening and please keep telling your friends about it!

Another thought: this would be the best time for Apple Corps. to also purchase the absolute waste of space that is the shelter in the middle of the roundabout at the top of Penny Lane and turn it into a 'satellite' Beatles mini-display and information centre in the suburban part of their story.

I appreciate that of course most photographs of British shopping centres, particularly with closed doors and blocked windows, all look like the sets of horror films. (Currently St John's Market makes the location for 1986's marvellous "Chopping Mall" look palatial by comparison!)

Here's me and Paul Abbott (@pablovich.bsky.social) for a chat about the loungetastic mid-nineties compilation series The Sound Gallery and a few of its overlooked exhibits... timworthington.org/2025/12/08/t...

Your initial St John's / Beatles Story To Be check in (21st October 2026). Obviously nothing to see yet, but these are the two entrances to the first floor St John's Market (the shutters hid escalators and stairs) and the other is within the shopping centre itself (first floor).

Brain explosion emoji

Good day! It's the second of only 3 episodes looking at the US number 1's of 1964. Today it's July to November and we've got harmonies and falsetto for days, plus the stomping sound of Motown, ol' drunky Martin and few more besides! Have YOU had your crooner mush? plinkhq.com/i/1531129636...

Is one of the reasons I like this more than FAAB because it doesn’t have slide guitar - which is more of a solo George sound? Hmm. Maybe! This is an interesting mixing experiment and highlights how bafflingly slack Ringo’s drums were tuned. Only so much you can do with that.

We are back! And talking about backhanded compliments hidden in pop songs! Well, maybe not that hidden... #60s #podcast #marywells #ronankeating #lyrics

Hello! We are back from our Summer break with a bumper 1964 bonanza episode! Our longest yet. Longer than the longest lasagna. Enjoy! plinkhq.com/i/1531129636...

Hello! We are back from our Summer break with a bumper 1964 bonanza episode! Our longest yet. Longer than the longest lasagna. Enjoy! plinkhq.com/i/1531129636...

I will be the bring-down king today. We're commemorating what should have been John Lennon's 86th birthday today whilst the news tells us the US is going to live stream a firing-squad execution soon. The problem of guns runs so deep in America that's it's almost impossible to imagine any change.

Great new post, looking at that most earnest (and somehow boring?) of interviews and containing a brilliant bit of Beatles-World-Coincidence story as well!

Billboard, 21st Mar 1964

This coming Monday! 1964 arrives and the British are coming! Will Garry's spreadsheets be up to the task? Will Paul manage any song-name puns? Will any listener survive the first Mega-Episode of this madcap British Invasion year? I suppose we'll all find out together on October 12th.

Liverpool's a funny place. You can pop out on lunch to go to the art shop and know you're in a place where almost certainly at least Stuart Sutcliffe bought his art materials, but also it's the same building where the group heard Norman Chapman drumming, leading to his short stint in the group.

Well well well. What’s got four thumbs and just recorded its next episode? And boy it’s a long one. (Not the thumbs)

This said, my setup can be a bit funny and I think they seem to have got a bit bolder as the record has gone along (Rubber Soul of course!) and If I Needed Someone is great!

This slavish adherence to Dolby Atmos as the primary surround format is driving me mad. Apply some of those 5.1 rules! Stick a whole guitar in the back left, split a harmony vocal around the room. Get the drums behind me, cowards!

I, Paul, haven’t listened to the Rubber Soul boxset yet. Thought I better dress for the occasion.

Ahem…

TWELFTH! TWELFTH! Whoops.

I (P) have a very soft spot for this album. It's amazing how you can feel the whole 'McCartney' of it absolutely bursting at the seams of it in the closing section, Celebration. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_5...

It’s our Paul’s birthday AND Helen Shapiro’s (I wonder if she went out for a big Greek meal tonight?)

Mendips has been put back together, as it were, after the current round of filming for the Beatles Biopics. Looking lovely with the Blue Suburban Sky.

Thinking of the wonderful Linda McCartney, who would have celebrated her birthday today. ‘Every love song I write is for Linda’ - Paul McCartney

Special 'Jacaranda' edition of Rubber Soul! store.jacarandarecords.com/products/the... One day, on the pod, I must relate some of my adventures in the Jac back in the late '90s. (P)

Always fun to hear our ol' pal Morgan recontextulise artists, songs and sounds in these videos. Another great one here. Lulu with the Experience?!? (All instruments played by Morgan, *NO* genAI at all.)

Beatles now soliciting 3 Savile Row stories and photos. I’ll be sharing! 🍏 live.umusic.com/thebeatles-3...

Whoops! Only just seen this! Once again I had a great time talking Marvel with Tim! Enjoy!

Fabulous news!

So the door to Savile Row, currently on display in the British Music Experience in Liverpool is leaving them soon and returning home to London!

More Beatles News Film is Fabulous! continues to enjoy the support of the BBC Pensioners’ Association. An article about The Beatles has appeared in their latest newsletter. This has already led to two collections being offered to our team: bbcpa.org.uk/long-lost-fo...

PLEASE BE UPSTANDING… to give Big Sort head honcho @garryabbott.bsky.social a huge round of birthday applause and then an increasingly dangerous amount of the bumps on this special day! Harold Bathday, Garry! Beatles please!

Couldn't resist looking up the temperature in Tenerife in the April/May of 1963. Highs of about 24°C. All the photos show them with long-sleeve shirts on, which is sensible in a pre-good-sunscreen era, but also weird. Anyway, in all the photos from then Astrid looks f'ing cool. What an icon.

Hello there, I'm Ben. I write things, produce audio and chuckle at old pop culture ephemera with my friend John. You can find links to all of the above here: linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks @thehouseofsplain.bsky.social @alfsplaining.bsky.social @pantosplaining.bsky.social @noiseboxradio.com