Sellers and Beatles

Two huge British acts from the 1960's on Video Saturday today, Peter Sellers interprets The Beatles song "A Hard Days Night" whilst parodying Laurence Oliviers interpretation of Shakespeare's "Richard III", a recording of which topped the hit parade at the end of 1965, followed by The Beatles singing "We Can Work It Out", a quite sublime song that gave an early indication that The Beatles were far more than a rock 'n roll band.

Sellers made some superb comedy performances, his version of "Unchained Melody" is worth buying the CD compilation of his recordings on its own, there are some comedy gems in all of his material from his early days in The Goons, which I just caught the tail end of as a child, to his most famous role as Inspector Clouseau in Blake Edwards "The Pink Panther" films. I'd also recommend his biography "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" by Roger Lewis which reveals among other things that when he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 54 in 1980 he left most of his estate to his fourth wife Lynne Frederick giving his three children just £800 each, in one of those concidences of life his son Michael, 52, also died of a heart attack in 2006 on exactly the same date as his father.

Its all been said already about The Beatles suffice to say that I love this song which was recorded and engineered by George Martin during the "Rubber Soul" album sessions, an album which illustrated to the world that this band wasn't just three guitars and a drum kit, their song writing during that 1965/66 era was sublime, much under-rated and over whelmed by the 67-70 stuff.

The video clip is taken from a 1965 Granada TV Beatles documentary.