A mixtape that the Beatle legend made in a period when he was quite connected with the experimental, and of which he only made four copies, which he gave to John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. It is available on YouTube.
It was in December 1965. They had just released the fundamental Rubber Soul, and as a kind of Christmas gift, Paul McCartney sent John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, his fellow Beatles, the result of a few nights of experimentation with two Brenell tape recorders that the left-hander kept at home. In fact, in the attic of the family home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher, where he lived.
For a little bit more setting, this is how author Richie Unterberger characterized the Christmas album in his book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film: “Unforgettable. For years, it had been reported that Paul McCartney recorded an album at home around Christmas 1965 specifically for the other Beatles. Supposedly, it included singing, acting, and sketches, and only three copies were pressed, one each for John, George, and Ringo.”
Years of speculation and rumors, it wasn’t until 1995, while during an interview with Mark Lewisohn, that Paul McCartney talked about the album in slight detail, revealing: “Yes, it’s true. I had two Brenell tape recorders set up at home, on which I made experimental recordings and tape loops, like the ones in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows.’ And once I put together something crazy, something left-field, just for the other Beatles, a fun thing which they could play late in the evening. It was just something for the mates, basically.”
McCartney continued: “It was called Unforgettable and it started with Nat ‘King’ Cole singing ‘Unforgettable,’ then I came in over the top as the announcer. ‘Yes, unforgettable, that’s what you are! And today in Unforgettable…’ It was like a magazine program: full of weird interviews, experimental music, tape loops, some tracks I knew the others hadn’t heard, it was just a compilation of odd things. I took the tape to Dick James’s studio and they cut me three acetate discs. Unfortunately, the quality of these discs was such that they wore out as you played them for a couple of weeks, but then they must have worn out. There’s probably a tape somewhere, though.”
In his book, the early promotion of the album, Unterberger added: “If it ever turns up, it might be the earliest evidence of the Beatles using home recording equipment for specifically experimental/avant-garde purposes—something that John and Paul did in the last half of the 1960s, though John’s ventures in this field are more widely known than Paul’s.”
Keep going for the ‘1965 Lost Christmas Album’ of Paul McCartney below: