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TL;DR:

  • A Beatles mashup became a huge hit.
  • The tune combines several Fab Four songs with no apparent rhyme or reason to the editing.
  • The medley was the one song credited to The Beatles to be a hit in the United States during the 1980s.
The Beatles in suits
The Beatles | Bettmann / Contributor

There’s a Beatles mashup containing snippets of seven of their songs in a few minutes. The tune isn’t very good. Despite this, it became an international hit for the Fab Four.

A hit Beatles mashup paid tribute to several songs from the Fab Four’s movie soundtracks

On YouTube, numerous artists create mashups — bits and pieces of other songs edited together to create a new work of art. Before YouTube existed, a Beatles mashup became an international hit. “The Beatles’ Movie Medley” combined elements from seven Beatles tracks to create a new song.

The songs in question are “Magical Mystery Tour,” “All You Need Is Love,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Ticket to Ride,” and “Get Back.” As the title suggests, each of these songs appeared on a Beatles movie soundtrack. Notably, the songs in question are not played in chronological order in the medley.

The mashup doesn’t work even though it features so many classic Fab Four songs

“The Beatles’ Movie Medley” is an interesting idea. Despite this, the song doesn’t really work. The different pieces of the song never meld together to create something new. “The Beatles’ Movie Medley” is essentially seven snippets of Fab Four songs played in rapid succession. The medley isn’t musically cohesive and it doesn’t really build up to anything.

Listening to “The Beatles’ Movie Medley,” it’s not even clear why these particular songs were chosen. They all appeared on Beatles soundtracks, but they don’t have an overarching theme or style. The song was a big hit in the 1980s. It was probably popular because fans missed hearing the Fab Four on the radio, not because it’s an artful medley. It’s telling that “The Beatles’ Movie Medley” isn’t part of the classic rock canon the way some of the individual songs in it are.

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How ‘The Beatles’ Movie Medley’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom

Significantly, “The Beatles’ Movie Medley” became the only song credited to the Fab Four to chart in the United States during the 1980s. The song reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The tune’s success was part of a trend of 1960s artists having hits in the 1980s. During this trend, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, The Monkees, The Rolling Stones, and Aretha Franklin all had hits.

According to The Official Charts Company, “The Beatles’ Movie Medley” peaked at No. 10 in the United Kingdom. It remained on the chart for nine weeks. It was The Beatles’ only 1980s hit in the U.K., save for a rerelease of “Love Me Do” which peaked at No. 4.

“The Beatles’ Movie Medley” is forgotten today. On the other hand, it remains an interesting artifact.

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