Of course using a Muzak version must cost gobs less than the original. Using the instrumental was sly, yes – but overall practical. How cool would it have been to hear George Harrison’s voice at the end????
28 Responses to “Do you promise not to tellll ……?”
1) The Beatles covers were ubiquitous in 1965. There were still variety shows on network tv. A lot of people only heard the Beatles through Muzak and covers.
2) I think the faux-plasticized Beatles suits this episode perfectly. The original would have been too light and sunny.
3) If at the end Don, feeling secure or insecure, is relapsing into his drinking and cheating, the elevator Beatles was perfect. Poor Faye, poor Megan, poor Pete, poor everybody.
I never realized that was George singing lead! I needed a little muzak after last nights episode anyway…my head is still spinning!
We’ve been waiting for Beatlemania to hit and nothing made me happier than the exchange between Don and Sally and then Sally and Betty, regarding Don taking Sally to Shea stadium. Genuine joy at the Draper house! Priceless.
Let me whisper in your ear, say the words you long to hear…
Well poor Allison didnt get to hear those words, maybe Megan does. Love and Marriage? Again that theme…
In ‘Nixon v Kennedy’ 1.12 When things go tough, it was Rachel that Don/Dick turned desperately to and wanted to pack it all in a run away. Unlike his confession to Faye, Rachel never got to know the truth. But another rebuff of Faye (dinner Sat, again?) and I got the same sense that he wants to run away.
The Dick Whitman flashbacks were, predominately, him as a child – and just like a child he will run away. Now Sally has also indicated her need to run away too? Parallels? Has Megan motherly ways touched him, or is she just one smoking hot woman?
Oh no no no, that was not a “muzak” version of “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” it was, if I’m not mistaken, the fabulous cover by Santo & Johnny (of “Sleepwalk” fame). They did several other Beatles covers, including “All My Loving” and a wonderful rendition of “And I Love Her.” I love some of their covers more than the originals.
At the beginning of the episode, Don gets on the phone with Sally and asks her, Can you keep a secret?, right before telling her about the Beatles tickets.
LOVED the instrumental version of the Beatles at the end. We ALL know the lyrics, we didn’t need to hear them out loud. I was singing along in my head and smiled at the perfection of them after that whopper of an episode.
The only big secret left unexposed was Peggy and Pete’s but that scene on the couch with Trudy leads me to believe that one may pop too. No Peggy–it is August, maybe she was on vacation.
I think having the instrumental version made it more –I don’t know–suspenseful and a little creepy or surreal.
It’s like watching Toy Story (1 or 3, I havent’ seen 2). In the first movie there are those “freaky” toys next door at Syd’s house that are pieced together from broken parts of toys. The parts and pieces are strangely familiar–and yet they are scary because they are pieced together in a way that is weird and unfamiliar. In Toy Story 3 there is that “Big Baby” that has an eye that droops and makes the crying sounds–yet the baby is freaky in it’s role.
In MM, we hear a very familiar, “teeny-bopper” song that in it’s original form seems quite innocent.
Yet, this is not the way we are used to hearing it, and it seems a little weird. It is familiar, and yet we don’t know it at all.
Will Pete tell Trudy about Peggy,perhaps not. He still has to work with Peggy every day and share their secret. Listen to the words of Do You Want To Know A Secret, is it about Pete and Peggy ? They are the future of SCDP, not Roger, Lane or even Don. Pete must hate going to work these days, seeing Peggy, dealing with Don, and being blamed for the loss of North American by Roger.
I remember spending a hard-earned five bucks buying what I thought was a brand-new Beatles album when I was 11 or 12 (1964/5) and finding out, once I got it home, that it was Beatles tunes played by the Hollyridge Strings — similar to what we heard in outro music last night. Still, I liked it and I played it over and over.
Agree, too, that we didn’t need the words — we all know them. What a deft touch, for MW to use this particular version of the song as a device, knowing that we’ll all be humming the words in our heads… like a secret.
So happy to see Sally so genuinely happy, and that Don was the one to do it! I was also a lot nervous when those tickets weren’t showing up, but at the last minute, everything was “all right”…
#12, I remember the Hollyridge Strings — I had this album (scroll to 2nd album cover): http://tinyurl.com/2dudob4
Wikipedia (I know) says, “During the week of July 4, 1964, the group’s cover version of The Beatles’s song “All My Loving” spent a single week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at position #93.”
The Hollyridge Strings were actually really helpful to me, in that my parents didn’t object to their renditions of the Beatles’ songs. They didn’t want me listening to rock and roll, but eventually relented. I remember begging them to let me go to the Beatles concert at D.C. Stadium in 1964, and their emphatic NO. I was Sally’s age then, and I was crushed.
I knew it was sung by my favorite, George (the thought of him still makes me sigh!) “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” was the song I used as an opening for a tribute I made about George here on YouTube:
I figure using the muzak version (other than being cheaper) probably also representing another theme of the the episode; it’s just pretending to be the real thing, like Dick pretending to be Don, and Betty still pretending that Don had nothing suspicious about him. So although I would have LOVED to hear the original, (or hear or see any real music and/or images of The Beatles) I get why they used it. Also, the whole ‘secret’ business, genius.
The only thing that bugged me is that I do not think that that was a picture of The Beatles on the Shea Stadium Ticket; it looked a bit blurry to me, but I wonder it that photo was of lookalikes? I paused the screen on the image, and it just didn’t look right.
Here’s a picture of real Shea Stadium tickets, we’ll have to see it AMC puts the picture of the Ticket props up in their Mad Men Scrapbook section to see if it’s a real picture of the Beatles or a fake.
My Favorite, favorite moment in this episode was definitely Sally screaming her head off, I was very happy for her, and just praying that Harry wouldn’t forget the tickets! (Cheers to Megan!)
Clicked on the tickets link and the ones pictured are from Shea Stadium in August 23rd of 1966 not the August 15th 1965. I am pretty sure the MM folks would not screw up the tickets knowing all the obsessive fans out there with framed Beatles tix!
Loved the idea of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” being done by a “cover” band when so much was uncovered this week.
Santo and Johnny, absolutely – and defines how deeply and how quickly the Beatles became part of the culture. and this followed them through every stage right through the counter-culture. They were Safe. My mom thought the Stones were Satanic before they proclaimed it.
@BobK, I thought of the same thing about Pete especially when he was on the couch bitching to Trudie about being the “honest” person, cleaning up other’s messes, when he obviously had an affair and, unwittingly, impregnated another woman, and raped a nanny, but he sees himself as the honest one. Vedddddddyyyyy interestinck!
@Therese & Berkeley Mom-
I am one of those obsessive Beatles fans, though not lucky enough to have a pair of the tickets. A pair of actual 1965 Shea Stadium unused tickets (what we see on the show) would cost tens of thousands of dollars. I am certain MM is all about accuracy, but likely had the tickets recreated. The picture is very, very similar to the one on the original tickets, although RIngo (far right) looks less in shadow on the MM tickets than the real ones, and Paul (far left) looks lighter.
When I bought my tickets in 2005 for Paul’s show, I acted like Sally for an entire day, and that was only for one of them, 40 years on. I can’t even imagine what it was like, and think the actress did an excellent job of capturing the moment.
@ 24 JoanBetty-Do you think Sally cares? She’s going to see the Beatles with her dad! As far as Sally’s friends are concerned, he just earned the title of coolest dad.
1) The Beatles covers were ubiquitous in 1965. There were still variety shows on network tv. A lot of people only heard the Beatles through Muzak and covers.
2) I think the faux-plasticized Beatles suits this episode perfectly. The original would have been too light and sunny.
3) If at the end Don, feeling secure or insecure, is relapsing into his drinking and cheating, the elevator Beatles was perfect. Poor Faye, poor Megan, poor Pete, poor everybody.
I never realized that was George singing lead! I needed a little muzak after last nights episode anyway…my head is still spinning!
We’ve been waiting for Beatlemania to hit and nothing made me happier than the exchange between Don and Sally and then Sally and Betty, regarding Don taking Sally to Shea stadium. Genuine joy at the Draper house! Priceless.
Let me whisper in your ear, say the words you long to hear…
Well poor Allison didnt get to hear those words, maybe Megan does. Love and Marriage? Again that theme…
In ‘Nixon v Kennedy’ 1.12 When things go tough, it was Rachel that Don/Dick turned desperately to and wanted to pack it all in a run away. Unlike his confession to Faye, Rachel never got to know the truth. But another rebuff of Faye (dinner Sat, again?) and I got the same sense that he wants to run away.
The Dick Whitman flashbacks were, predominately, him as a child – and just like a child he will run away. Now Sally has also indicated her need to run away too? Parallels? Has Megan motherly ways touched him, or is she just one smoking hot woman?
Oh no no no, that was not a “muzak” version of “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” it was, if I’m not mistaken, the fabulous cover by Santo & Johnny (of “Sleepwalk” fame). They did several other Beatles covers, including “All My Loving” and a wonderful rendition of “And I Love Her.” I love some of their covers more than the originals.
At the beginning of the episode, Don gets on the phone with Sally and asks her, Can you keep a secret?, right before telling her about the Beatles tickets.
LOVED the instrumental version of the Beatles at the end. We ALL know the lyrics, we didn’t need to hear them out loud. I was singing along in my head and smiled at the perfection of them after that whopper of an episode.
The only big secret left unexposed was Peggy and Pete’s but that scene on the couch with Trudy leads me to believe that one may pop too. No Peggy–it is August, maybe she was on vacation.
I think having the instrumental version made it more –I don’t know–suspenseful and a little creepy or surreal.
It’s like watching Toy Story (1 or 3, I havent’ seen 2). In the first movie there are those “freaky” toys next door at Syd’s house that are pieced together from broken parts of toys. The parts and pieces are strangely familiar–and yet they are scary because they are pieced together in a way that is weird and unfamiliar. In Toy Story 3 there is that “Big Baby” that has an eye that droops and makes the crying sounds–yet the baby is freaky in it’s role.
In MM, we hear a very familiar, “teeny-bopper” song that in it’s original form seems quite innocent.
Yet, this is not the way we are used to hearing it, and it seems a little weird. It is familiar, and yet we don’t know it at all.
Will Pete tell Trudy about Peggy,perhaps not. He still has to work with Peggy every day and share their secret. Listen to the words of Do You Want To Know A Secret, is it about Pete and Peggy ? They are the future of SCDP, not Roger, Lane or even Don. Pete must hate going to work these days, seeing Peggy, dealing with Don, and being blamed for the loss of North American by Roger.
I remember spending a hard-earned five bucks buying what I thought was a brand-new Beatles album when I was 11 or 12 (1964/5) and finding out, once I got it home, that it was Beatles tunes played by the Hollyridge Strings — similar to what we heard in outro music last night. Still, I liked it and I played it over and over.
Agree, too, that we didn’t need the words — we all know them. What a deft touch, for MW to use this particular version of the song as a device, knowing that we’ll all be humming the words in our heads… like a secret.
I liked the version of the song, and thought it was the perfect way to end the episode.
So happy to see Sally so genuinely happy, and that Don was the one to do it! I was also a lot nervous when those tickets weren’t showing up, but at the last minute, everything was “all right”…
@ #9 Good Sally: wasn’t it the HollyWOOD Strings? I remember lots of those floating around. All those movie themes and other soundtracks…
#12, I remember the Hollyridge Strings — I had this album (scroll to 2nd album cover):
http://tinyurl.com/2dudob4
Wikipedia (I know) says, “During the week of July 4, 1964, the group’s cover version of The Beatles’s song “All My Loving” spent a single week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at position #93.”
The did lots of Beatles covers, as well as Beach Boys, Elvis, etc.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollyridge_Strings
The Hollyridge Strings were actually really helpful to me, in that my parents didn’t object to their renditions of the Beatles’ songs. They didn’t want me listening to rock and roll, but eventually relented. I remember begging them to let me go to the Beatles concert at D.C. Stadium in 1964, and their emphatic NO. I was Sally’s age then, and I was crushed.
I knew it was sung by my favorite, George (the thought of him still makes me sigh!) “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” was the song I used as an opening for a tribute I made about George here on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bISJY12b-PU&feature=player_embedded
I figure using the muzak version (other than being cheaper) probably also representing another theme of the the episode; it’s just pretending to be the real thing, like Dick pretending to be Don, and Betty still pretending that Don had nothing suspicious about him. So although I would have LOVED to hear the original, (or hear or see any real music and/or images of The Beatles) I get why they used it. Also, the whole ‘secret’ business, genius.
The only thing that bugged me is that I do not think that that was a picture of The Beatles on the Shea Stadium Ticket; it looked a bit blurry to me, but I wonder it that photo was of lookalikes? I paused the screen on the image, and it just didn’t look right.
Here’s a picture of real Shea Stadium tickets, we’ll have to see it AMC puts the picture of the Ticket props up in their Mad Men Scrapbook section to see if it’s a real picture of the Beatles or a fake.
http://obit-mag.com/media/image/horizontal2%2810%29.jpg
My Favorite, favorite moment in this episode was definitely Sally screaming her head off, I was very happy for her, and just praying that Harry wouldn’t forget the tickets! (Cheers to Megan!)
Clicked on the tickets link and the ones pictured are from Shea Stadium in August 23rd of 1966 not the August 15th 1965. I am pretty sure the MM folks would not screw up the tickets knowing all the obsessive fans out there with framed Beatles tix!
Loved the idea of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” being done by a “cover” band when so much was uncovered this week.
Thanks #15, here’s a ticket from 1965 Shea, it’s the same picture:
http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/1965.beatles.new.york.shea.stadium.ticket.jpg
Santo and Johnny, absolutely – and defines how deeply and how quickly the Beatles became part of the culture. and this followed them through every stage right through the counter-culture. They were Safe. My mom thought the Stones were Satanic before they proclaimed it.
@BobK, I thought of the same thing about Pete especially when he was on the couch bitching to Trudie about being the “honest” person, cleaning up other’s messes, when he obviously had an affair and, unwittingly, impregnated another woman, and raped a nanny, but he sees himself as the honest one. Vedddddddyyyyy interestinck!
@#18
He didn’t rape the nanny. So far as we know it was consensual.
@Therese & Berkeley Mom-
I am one of those obsessive Beatles fans, though not lucky enough to have a pair of the tickets. A pair of actual 1965 Shea Stadium unused tickets (what we see on the show) would cost tens of thousands of dollars. I am certain MM is all about accuracy, but likely had the tickets recreated. The picture is very, very similar to the one on the original tickets, although RIngo (far right) looks less in shadow on the MM tickets than the real ones, and Paul (far left) looks lighter.
When I bought my tickets in 2005 for Paul’s show, I acted like Sally for an entire day, and that was only for one of them, 40 years on. I can’t even imagine what it was like, and think the actress did an excellent job of capturing the moment.
Sally’s reaction to the Beatles news may have been the “favorite” scene she alluded to in her Q&A interview?
The Warwick Hotel was the favorite New York hotel of the Beatles. That’s where Lane’s father was staying on the sixth floor.
Do you want to know a secret? (doo dah doo) It’s stuck in my head now! I liked the little muzak version at the end.
It was almost physically painful for me to hear Don tell Sally that he might wear earplugs. (I know, he phrased it as a question, but still.)
Yeah, we’re gonna go look at the Mona Lisa, mind if I shut my eyes?
@24 The earplugs may have been for the screaming rather than the music. From reports we’ve read here, you couldn’t actually hear the music.
#25 Berk — Thanks, excellent point.
@ 24 JoanBetty-Do you think Sally cares? She’s going to see the Beatles with her dad! As far as Sally’s friends are concerned, he just earned the title of coolest dad.
@27 — Oh, I’m sure Sally doesn’t care at all. But I do!