Another couple of rarities from Beatles producer George Martin. He collaborated with Maddalena Fagandini on these two songs, Time Beat and Waltz in Orbit, the A & B sides of a single released on the Parlophone label. They were released under the pseudonym “Ray Cathode.” Fagandini, who was a part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, worked alongside Delia Derbyshire on Doctor Who sound effects. This would have been recorded mere weeks before Martin met the Beatles in 1962. (Audio for Time Beat is here)
 
Bonus clip: The Beatles appear on Doctor Who in 1965. Imagine jumping into a time machine and getting to see the Beatles! Sadly this scene only appears on British Region 2 DVDs:
 

 
I was about to write that Theme One is a “seldom heard” classic by Beatles producer George Martin, but seeing how for years, every single morning when Radio 1 began its broadcasting day this was the ceremonial first song, that really wouldn’t be the case for our UK readers. In fact, people of a certain age in England heard this all the time as Wonderful Radio 1’s signature fanfare.

Radio 1 was launched at 7:00 am on September 30th, 1967 after the prosecution of the offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline. as a way to service the youth listeners. The Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott, came on said a few words, then introduced Martin’s Theme One. After this Tony Blackburn, who’d been a DJ at Radio Caroline himself, played The Move’s Flowers in the Rain followed by the Bee Gees’ Massachusetts.
 

 
But back to the music: What a brilliant and glorious way to start the day hearing this song must’ve been at the time. It’s like waking up with the warn sun on your face, even in rainy Britain. Really an inspiring and amazing track. Theme One also closed Radio 1 and 2 at the end of the broadcast day at 2 am. This is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. I wish it had been developed into a full symphony. (I love the George Martin side of Yellow Submarine. It’s incredible!)

The composition was later used for the Sounds of the Seventies radio show, but this version was done by the Van Der Graaf Generator! Renowned heavy metal drummer Cozy Powell recorded a disco version as well. I can’t help wondering if PiL’s calming Radio 4, which closed Metal Box, was a sort of homage to Theme One. (Lydon was a huge Van Der Graaf Generator fan, don’t forget)

Here’s Van Der Graaf Generator performing their progrock version of Theme One live in concert.
 

The Beatles remasters have finally hit the street and all across the world, music fans are gorging themselves on the most fabled and revered repertoire in pop music history. This may well prove to be the last hurrah of the CD age and certainly the marketing gurus at Capital have been working overtime to make sure we’ve all very aware of the Beatles as we approach this holiday season. It’s highly likely that the Fab Four will prove to be the best selling artists of this decade, an incredible feat for a group that disbanded nearly 40 years ago. So the question—the only question, for the Beatles are hardly an unknown quantity—is simply are these new versions worth it? Are they that much different? Should people who’ve already bought these albums umpteen times buy them again? I’ll try to answer that question here for those of you who still might be on the fence.

As loyal Dangerous Minds readers have probably already figured out, I am both a “rock snob” and a bit of an audiophile. So it should come as no surprise when I tell you that the 09/09/09 street date of the remastered Beatles albums—in both stereo and mono—has me counting the hours until I can get my hands on them.

What you might not know if you are of a certain age (or have forgotten if you are of another!) is that the Beatles albums sounded WAY better in mono than in stereo. Both the group and George Martin preferred mono and the stereo mixes back then were often afterthoughts with severely panned stereo mixes that had most of the instruments on one side and the vocals on the other! The stereo mixes always seemed very peculiar to me.

The 1987 CDs were the pits. Just awful, flat aural experiences. And nothing’s been done to rectify that situation until now. It always been ridiculous that the Beatles and the Stones had the worst sounding CDs. A lot of people don’t rate the Stones ABKCO reissues highly, but I thought they were (mostly) done pretty well and it was nice to be able to hear that material with fresh ears. Most of us who grew up with the Beatles, Stones and Led Zeppelin probably probably don’t listen to them all that much now, because it’s so easy to conjure their music up in our “mind’s ear,” but the Love mash-up album from the Circe du Soleil show helped me get back into the Beatles again and I’m really looking forward to hearing the remasters. If I can manage to score some promo copies of these sets, I’ll offer up reviews of stereo vs. mono daily on the site.

Meanwhile, here’s a song that sadly didn’t make it to any Beatles CD ever, their uniquely comic turn—it’s very Goon Show, isn’t it?—on Rossini’s Barber of Seville Overture taken from the credits of Help!: