Product Description

This two hour and 35 minute DVD program has been Digitally Mastered in 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. In addition to the concert and great Beatles interviews we have also included an interactive Beatles Trivia Game that combines questions with illustrated answers, and will certainly test the limits of your Beatles knowledge. THE BEATLES IN WASHINGTON, D.C. was the first show performed by the most celebrated group in music history during their first visit to the United States in 1964. It captures the magic and excitement surrounding THE BEATLES and features the Fab Four singing live at the height of Beatlemania.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27891 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dolby, DVD, Live, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 130 minutes

Amazon.com
As if there were any doubt, this February 11, 1964 show (just days after their triumphant debut on Ed Sullivan’s TV show) proves that the Beatles were one rockin' little combo, whatever the situation. The sound was awful, the din of the audience almost constant. Also, the concert set-up was in-the-round--but only Ringo Starr's rickety little drum riser could rotate, so during several songs the other three Fabs were obliged to turn their backs on their own amps to face the rest of the audience! No matter; they roar through their eight-tune set with palpable, irresistible energy--just check out "I Saw Her Standing There." Sure, the black-and-white footage is grainy, and the audio's lousy. But this document of the group at their early peak is a must-have for true believers. Considerable file footage and audio clips from the period help fill out both the concert program and an accompanying trivia quiz. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Unbelievable...
I've been collecting and dodging bad Beatles video for decades. I thought I'd seen it all.

Until this...

This is, without question, the WORST excuse for a grey market Beatles rip-off I have EVER seen. There've been numerous knock-offs of this show for as long as there has been home video. Boot VHS, quasi-legit VHS, the "official" comps on "Anthology" and "First Vist"...I've seen them all.

But I have never, EVER seen anything this wretched.

The video "quality" of this is unbelievable. It's like a copy of a copy of a copy of a bad dub from someone's 25-year-old boot copy. I'll grant it that some nitwit has tweaked the audio to some degree, but visually this is virtually unwatchable.

Not to mention that the edits are ridiculous, it's not in order, two songs are missing...and I'm STILL being kind to it.

"Anthology" has most of this, in incredibly better quality (sadly, incomplete). If you own "Beatles First Visit" DVD or VHS, you've got a bit more. Heck, the Goodtimes DVD of "The Beatles Unauthorized" that you can find here is 250 times better than this.

I cannot believe how bad this is. I thought I'd seen it the worst, but as of today, the worst has hit a new low.

This concert is wonderful and historic - so get "Beatles Unauthorized" if you want most of it, and if you've got "Anthology" and/or "First Visit" you've got the best of it. But do not, under ANY circumstances, buy this DVD.

Warning!
This is one of the worst quality dvd's I've ever seen. The fact that The Beatles are on it is the only reason I made it through the thing 1 time. I realize that the grainy film can not be avoided and that's not what bothered me. It's the cheesey incidental music and "video" quality of the DVD. I'm sure you could find an original vhs that would look better than this.

Incompleat Beatles
While nice to finally own this document of the historic Washington D.C. Beatles concert on DVD I was disappointed. Why? Because it is not the complete concert for one thing. I have an old VHS copy of this event which contains the entire show. Missing from this DVD are both "Long Tall Sally" and "This Boy". And for me, "This Boy" is the highlight of the entire show. John Paul and George share a single microphone while harmonizing flawlessly under difficult conditions. (horrible noise, no monitors etc.) And when John belts out his solo vocal in the middle of the song the emotion and feeling is staggering. But for some reason this number was cut from this DVD. The DVD also chops up the show and sticks little interview bits between the numbers, often from years later with no connection to this show. So we also miss the frequent turning of Ringo's drum kit after every couple of songs. The interviews destroy the continuity of the show. The disc would have been better had the show gone on uninterrupted. Still, this is better than nothing, and it's all we've got for now. The trivia game section was fun and fairly well put together. (I never knew what John Lennon really wrote on that reporter's pad in "A Hard Day's Night" before...shocking!). The End.