With The Beatles and Please Please Me top the Charts

UK Official Album Charts: 28 December 1963

1. WITH THE BEATLES - BEATLES (1)
2. PLEASE PLEASE ME - BEATLES (2)
3. WEST SIDE STORY - ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (4)
4. BORN FREE - FRANK IFIELD (8)
5. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT - GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS (3)
6. FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS - FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS (14)
7. ON TOUR WITH THE GEORGE MITCHELL MINSTRELS - GEORGE MITCHELL MINSTRELS (12)
8. MEET THE SEARCHERS - SEARCHERS (7)
9. THE SHADOWS' GREATEST HITS - SHADOWS (13)
10.KENNY BALL'S GOLDEN HITS - KENNY BALL (9)

Coming Soon: The Beatles U.S. Albums box

Great news for all Beatles fans: mark 20 January 2014 in your agenda! Because on that day Apple will release the Beatles The U.S. Albums (13 CD Box) To mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles US invasion, The Beatles release a set of all the original US albums in a collectors box. All albums will feature a faithful reproduction of the artwork and packaging of the original vinyl albums. Both the mono and stereo recordings of each album will be featured on the discs. This beautiful collection will be accompanied by a 64 page booklet.

The Beatles record a Saturday Club Christmas Special

On 17 December 1963 the Beatles went to the Playhouse Theatre in London to record their contribution for the annual Saturday Club Christmas edition. Saturday Club was a very popular radio show on the BBC Light Programme. The Beatles rehearsed and recorded from 3pm till 6.30pm and recorded All My Loving, This Boy, I Want to Hold your Hand, Till There Was You, Roll over Beethoven and She Loves You On a lighter note they also recorded a special Christmas song which actually consisted of a medley of Love Me Do, Please Please Me, From Me To You, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer". They also sang their version of "All I want for Christmas is a Beatle" but they replaced the word "Beatle" by "Bottle.

Paul McCartney's New is out now - on vinyl

Paul McCartney's new record (called not so surprisingly 'NEW') has today been released on vinyl. The record is a 180 gram gatefold vinyl one and comes with a digital download card. NEW was recently voted 4th best album of the year 2013 by Rolling Stone magazine and was produced by Mark Ronson, Paul Epworth, Giles Martin and Ethan Johns.

1963 NME Awards

At the end of 1963, New Musical Express (NME) published its yearly awards

1963

World Male Singer: Cliff Richard
World Vocal Group: Beatles
World Musical Personality: Elvis Presley
World Female Singer: Brenda Lee
British Vocal Personality: Joe Brown
British Vocal Group: Beatles
British Large Band Or Orchestra: Joe Loss
British Small Group: Shadows
British Traditional Jazz Band: Kenny Ball
Best British Disc Of The Year: Beatles 'She Loves You'
British Female Singer: Kathy Kirby
Artist For Poll Concert: Billy J Kramer and Dakotas
British Male Singer: Cliff Richard
Disc Jockey: David Jacobs
New Disc or TV Singer: Gerry Marsden
Solo Instrumentalist: Jet Harris