The Beatles had recorded a BBC radio bank holiday special, From Us To You, on 18 December 1963, which was broadcast on Boxing Day. The show’s success ensured a follow-up, recorded on this day in Studio One at the BBC’s Piccadilly Studios in London.
The programme’s host was Alan Freeman. The other guests on the show were Acker Bilk, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Vince Hill, although their contributions were recorded at different times.
The session began at 6.30pm and ended at 9pm. The Beatles recorded eight songs: ‘You Can’t Do That’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Please Mister Postman’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘This Boy’, and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’.
There was also a new version of the theme tune, a reworded adaptation of ‘From Me To You’ lasting just 55 seconds. An edited version of this appeared on the 1994 collection Live At The BBC, along with full versions of ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘All My Loving’, and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, and the speech tracks ‘From Fluff To You’ and ‘Just A Rumour’. The speech track ‘Oh, Can’t We? Yes We Can’ was included on 2013’s On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2.
The two-hour show was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme from 10am on Easter Monday, 30 March 1964.