Hi I'm Woody Lifton, and it seems like a have been a huge Beatles fan my whole life! But in reality, it actually started just on my 9th birthday in April 1964!
On that day in history...my grandmother gave me my first Beatles album - which I discovered (after years of researching) was the first "bootleg" Beatles L.P. issued in America! This rare and unusual gift started me on a search for as many of these unauthorized albums I could find.
Through the years, I was able to track down over 150 of these 'Beatleg' albums. They contained live concerts, BBC radio recordings, alternate studio takes/mixes as well as press conferences and interviews. All of these recordings were mostly unheard and were never played on the radio. I wanted to remedy that!
In 1984, I was invited to co-host and program Jim Kerr's "Saturday Morning Beatles Hour" on WPIX FM in NY, and I hosted my own radio show in college! Additionally, I created and hosted a 10-hour program on the history of the Beatles and was able to incorporate many of my rare, collectible, unheard songs and interviews into that collection.
But for many years, all I was able to do was listen to my Beatleg
albums and share them with my friends via various compilation
cassettes that I would put together. I even sent some to Scott
Muni who had a terrific syndicated Beatles radio show called "Ticket
To Ride."
Then after I moved to Florida in 1984, I heard Joe Johnson's "BeatleBrunch" and became a big fan of his show. It became "appointment radio" for me.
But one day I started thinking: the information on Joe Johnson's "Beatle Brunch" and on "Ticket to Ride" was great, but they played was the same album tracks over and over...the same tracks that I'd heard for over 20 years. I thought to myself that these shows would be much more interesting if they included some of the live performances, BBC radio shows, and alternate studio takes/mixes that I had in my possession.
And then the light bulb went on! Why not make my own show, the way I would want to hear it?
And so the idea for Pop Go The Beatles! was born.
My program was going to be different from every Beatles show that was on the air! How? By NEVER playing an album cut. That's how! Any songs played on Pop Go The Beatles! would be live performances, whether in concert (that was tough to do because the recordings from their concerts were mostly screaming) or from the hundreds of BBC radio recordings and alternate studio takes/mixes (this is where the show would really shine - I had amassed hundreds of these unofficial recordings and most people had never heard them).
I also decided to mix in the rare interviews and press conferences that I had accumulated. And my focus became the creation of Beatles music (the alternate and sometimes embryonic versions). I decided to analyze and dissect each album and song...to devote a tremendous amount of research to each track played on the show. Thank goodness I had already started that research by reading almost every book on the subject I could find!
My Beatles library included:
And there were many other volumes. This was just the beginning of my research!
At this time I was doing a non-Beatles radio show as well and via that show became friendly with another New York Beatlemaniac, Joyce Kaufman. Joyce was a nationally known radio talk show host, and she was totally gung-ho about my Beatles idea! In fact, she agreed to host the show; I would write, direct, produce and co-host it. With Joyce on board, I would have someone with "a name in the industry" and with contacts to help us get it syndicated. (Which, of course was the real goal!)
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Joyce and I were both on 640 WJNA in Ft. Lauderdale. I signed up for 20 two-hour slots, and now all I had to do was write 20 shows. Sounds easy, doesn't it? I wish.
It was grueling!! I had to research, write, and tape a two-hour show every week! It was really fortunate that I had spent two years transferring music, interviews, and press conferences from numerous different media formats (albums, 45's, cassettes, videos and DVDs) into my computer. That helped me organize all the music and information into categories. It enabled me to find a rare song or album quickly by checking the proper category ("Before America" or "Conquering America," for example). My research was easily accessible, and that was a life-saver.
When I had created and produced the 20 two-hour shows, I had acquired the knowledge, experience, and expertise needed to get the radio show syndicated. I thought this was going to be the easy part! You see, the reviews had been great, and the people in the radio station were floored by what they were hearing on my program. I had a very good friend in MTV who loved the show...and was willing to personally take my show to the top people at the Infinity Broadcasting Network.
But...the folks at Infinity informed me that although they did love the program, they could not allow it go out over the airwaves with Unauthorized or Beatleg music in it. The very thing that made my show special - the thing that made it so interesting - was now keeping it from being aired!
"So, what's the next step?" I asked myself. "This cannot be the end of the line for what some people were calling 'the best Beatles radio series ever!'"
And it wasn't.
My MTV friend suggested that I try Satellite Radio...and well, to make a very long story short, I quickly discovered that would need permission from Apple Corps to run the program on satellite. That was not going to happen.
So "the best Beatles Radio Series EVER" sat in my computer for three years.
Then, in 2006 I met a lady, if I may so say a great lady (all right, she is sitting two feet away from me as I write this and is now my wife!) who was an extremely talented web designer. "You have a very unique product," she told me. "In fact, I could build a website around your shows, and we could sell the program over the internet."
I was blown away. Wow, what a great idea!
So, Ilene and I began work immediately, and bit by bit, the word started to get out. I was asked to do an interview to go along with that would appear in Ear Candy Magazine. The interviewer called my show: "a massive project" and "the best Beatles Radio series I have ever heard!"
Next Pop Go The Beatles! was reviewed in Beatlology Magazine where the interviewer called it "a very impressive set." He went on to say, "I am most impressed with the superb quality of the alternate takes. It is unprecedented. WOW!"
Then, another favorable review appeared in Tom Aguiar's Octopus' Garden. And the review was picked up by Dave Haber's whatgoeson.com (now www.BeatlesNews.com) and Steve Marinucci's AbbeyRd Beatles Page. And after years of hard work and perseverance, I started selling Pop Go The Beatles! like crazy.
With all this publicity I was no longer "flying under the radar," and yes, you guessed it...the bloodhounds from EMI/Capitol caught wind of what I was doing. They sent me a "Cease and Desist" order in March of 2008.
Well, you can't keep a good Beatles fan down, can you? After laying low for a while, my wife and I started building the Biggest, Best, and Most Unusual Beatles Website Anywhere. It is:
In March of 2008, I began contacting MySpace and Facebook friends
to ask if I could include them on my new site. I agreed to give
Beatles authors and experts free publicity without asking for
anything in return.
I started with Paul Saltzman and Bruce Spizer, who had appeared on my radio show. Then I contacted world renowned Beatles artists, Shannon and Ron Campbell, from whom I had purchased pieces on eBay. I also contacted Jude Kessler and even May Pang.
And so, my website Best Beatles History.com grew by leaps and bounds. It became a "must read" for every Beatles fan.
You remember the old '80's pop song, "One Thing Leads to Another"? Well, it did.
I was asked by my next door neighbor to be the promoter for a Beatles Tribute Cruise. I agreed, and because of my contacts via BestBeatleshistory.com, I was able to book Paul Saltzman for the event. Next I lined up "BritBeat - America's Premier Tribute to the Beatles" for the week-long Caribbean Cruise Lines event. I've talked with Shannon about attending, and she graciously talked to May Pang for me! May suggested that I invite Nancy Lee Andrews, who thought it sounded like great fun. The line-up was starting to shape up quite nicely! (Please check my website for the final list of celebrities.)
So there you have it...I never did beat my "Beatles addiction,"
but I have turned into a highly functioning addict who is putting
together this fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime Beatles Tribute Cruise!
We sail from Ft Lauderdale on 3/28/10 on Royal Caribbean's Independence
of the Seas for 6 fun-filled nights with some of the
best Beatles artists, photographers, and authors along to share
their Beatles stories with you.
Of course, my wife and I will be on board as well to host the trivia contests, dances, karaoke contests, parties, and fun! I hope we'll see you there for Beatle adventures on the high seas. It's gonna be one for the record books!
For more information go to the Cruise website www.BeatlesTributeCruise.com and join us!
