Paul M cCartney/Carlos Mendes RFI

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Something's been baffling me for a while.

Further to the Beatles thread below, there's this track called Penina, that PM apparently gave to someone called Carlos Mendes in the late '60s; I've found references to it all over the Web verifying this. Anyway, I listened to it recently, and bugger me - it's clearly a hoax...Paul McCartney singing in a Spanish accent. I can't for the life of me see how nobody else has spotted this - even the uberfans on Beatles message boards claim that it's genuine.

Can anyone shed any light? ...or for that matter, is anyone interested, hehehehe?

Jez (Jez), Monday, 3 November 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

was the song you heard on a beatles bootleg or was it a Carlos Mendes record?

King Kobra (King Kobra), Monday, 3 November 2003 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

It is the actual Carlos Mendes single, but is clearly McCarntney singing...I'm sure it's not my imagination.

Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 07:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, well, well... Never thought that Carlos Mendes would ever be mentioned in ILM... I guess some enlightenment is in order:

Paul McCartney came to Portugal on vacation, and occasionally he went to a Hotel in the Algarve county called PENINA to exchange some money. As he was promptly recognized by the hotel staff and invited to play with the hotel band, he accepted with one condition: he would only play drums. The track "Penina" was born from this collaboration, and later recorded by the Beatles at Twickenham during the "Let It Be" rehearsal. This song was also recorded by one of the members of the Penina Hotel band, by the name of Jotta Herre:

http://www.terravista.pt/MeiaPraia/4606/images/PENINA.jpg

and by Carlos Mendes, a popular singer in Portugal that sang in a band very similar in style (as many others at that time) to the Beatles, called the Sheiks, but would follow a successful solo career. I don't know if there was any participation of Macca on the Carlos Mendes version.

If anyone bothers to translate this from Portuguese, here are the adventures of Macca in Portugal.

http://www.terravista.pt/MeiaPraia/4606/Textos/Paul.htm

JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Some extra info: in 1992, a compilation called "Unheard Melodies - The Songs The Beatles Gave Away" was released, including the three existing versions of the song: Jota Herre's, Carlos Mendes's and the Beatles' own demo of it:

http://members.tripod.com/~erekbeatles/co25198.jpg

for tracklisting and details, go to:
http://members.tripod.com/~erekbeatles/unheard_melodies.htm

JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 10:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks JP! That's fascinating...I'll listen to it again; itis bluddy uncanny though.

Looking at that site, it implies that The Beatles wrote LS Bumble Bee...this is getting even weirder.

Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)


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