It's officially winter! Yay! (Being excited for winter sounds a trifle odd, but you notice I have never acknowledged summer on this blog, and for a good reason [I'm not a fan of summer, wretched time of year]... or maybe you didn't, I can't account for your lack of attention to such a trivial detail.)
As a lover of the night, I always look forward to the winter solstice... you blink, and the sun's disappeared!
Unfortunately, it means the days get longer from here on out, but we'll enjoy it while we can!
To help you get in the wintry spirit, I've called upon my favorite music man... hit it, Paulie!
Isn't he adorable?
(You know, I've seen this video multiple times, and I never noticed he was in Leicester Square! Go figure.)
Let's keep this festivity up with another Beatles Christmas message! (I can hear the squeals of delight from here.)
Ricky the K's turning the dial to 1963 for this one, the very first fan club flexi-disc.
You'll notice, as compared with later messages, this one was very formal, very "establishment", if you will. (Either that, or they got better at reading from a script, I can't be sure.) Around the time EMI gave them master keys to Abbey Road (I think that was around '65 or so), they were allowed to do whatever they pleased, however they pleased, including the Christmas messages (although, they didn't have a key to the refrigerator in the canteen... apparently, they didn't trust them with the milk for their tea, but the entire recording studio was free game). If you go back and listen to the '64 recording, it's not as stuffy as this first crack at the whip, but, come '65, it started to turn into quite a silly affair.
From 1963, here they are...
