BBC to air Beatles lost interview for the first time in 44 years

The BBC Corp. will air a long lost Beatles interview featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney talking about the day they met and their songwriting partnership.

Photo: BBC to air Beatles lost interview for the first time in 44 years

The precious film sat forgotten for 44 years in a garage in south London until film fan Richard Jeffs realized a piece of pop history was contained inside.

Experts were surprised to find the audio portion still usable for radio broadcast.

The nine-minute interview was recorded at the Scottish Television studios in April 1964 during the early days of Beatlemania. It will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday and repeated later this week.

On the tape, Lennon tells how he was playing with a skiffle band outside Liverpool when McCartney introduced himself.

The Beatles are the world's best-selling musical group of all time, selling over a billion records worldwide.

The Beatles' influence on rock music and popular culture was - and remains - immense. Their commercial success started an almost immediate wave of changes - including a shift from U.S. global dominance of rock and roll to UK acts, from soloists to groups, from professional songwriters to self-penned songs, and to changes in fashion.

Prior to the Beatles' influence, record albums were of secondary consideration to singles ("45s") in mass marketing. Albums contained largely "filler" material (unexceptional songs) along with one or two hits. The Beatles rarely incorporated singles as part of their albums, thus defining the album as more important.

The Beatles were the first entertainment act to stage a large stadium concert. At Shea Stadium, New York City on Sunday, August 15, 1965 the group opened their 1965 North American tour to a record audience of 55,600. The event sold out in 17 minutes. It was the first concert to be held at a major outdoor stadium and set records for attendance and revenue generation, demonstrating that outdoor concerts on a large scale could be successful and profitable. The Beatles returned to Shea for a very successful encore in August 1966.