From the press release:
In the 1960s, during the Beatles´Magical Mystery Tour creative years, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote “All Together Now,” an upbeat song that ends with a timeless message: let´s all come together to see what wonderful things we can achieve. We too believe in this simple ideal. Life´s most memorable moments come in the company of our dearest family members and friends — whether it be parties, sports events or Christmases. When we are together, great things can happen. And often Budweiser is there.
Story Behind the Ad-Friday 3rd of July 2009
As the story goes, it took the Beatles less than six hours to record and mix the original version of “All Together Now,” all on the same day in May, 1967 at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Fast-forward to this winter when it took our director Chris Palmer five days to shoot the “Lyrics” commercial in near-freezing temperatures in Chicago. But we think the extra days of frozen fingers and lots of hot chocolate were time well spent. In all,the film and crew spent 50 hours over during a five-day span on a train circling downtown Chicago.
This was a remarkably complex shoot as the Chicago metro-rail train had to both follow the usual mass-transit system time table, and go at precise speeds that mimicked the pace of the song. As the train trundles along, scenes appear outside the window that match perfectly the song lyrics. Each ‘lyric’ — 30 in all — coincided precisely with the train´s schedule. It was a logistical challenge to say the least. Did we mention it was cold too? Chicago-style cold! Actors were outside for up to 10 hrs a day in the freezing temperatures, often in costumes that provided little warmth. As such there was almost an entire crew of people dedicated to keeping the actors warm with blankets, thermoses and portable heaters. We couldn’t have done it without the people of Chicago. They invited actors into their homes and offered them some shelter from the bitter weather during shoot down time. In the end the whole shoot turned out to be an “All Together” experience.
Then there was the band, The Hours, who were able to find time in between touring to re-record a version of the Beatles classic specifically for this ad. The band did the recording in their hotel room using, at one point, a fire extinguisher as an instrument. Needing a little extra percussion, they donged the fire extinguisher off a metal heater to produce a unique sound.
