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Mad Men has scored a creative win by becoming the first TV show to feature a Beatles track after Apple Corps signed off on them using Tomorrow Never Knows.
Creator Matthew Weiner had gone on the record to say that he felt the lack of a Fab Four song on their soundtrack had hampered the show’s 60s credentials.
Tomorrow Never Knows, from the Beatles 1966 album Revolver features in Sunday night’s episode Lady Lazarus, with Don giving it a spin after being told he needed to listen to it to understand the emerging youth culture.
The creative choice cost AMC $250,000 and forced Mad Men’s notoriously private writer Matthew Weiner to share his ideas with Apple.
The show’s creator Matthew Weiner told how he had previously tried to have Beatles songs appear on the show, but had been rebuffed by Apple Corps before they finally relented.
He said: “I had to do a couple things that I don’t like doing, which is share my story line and share my pages.
“It was always my feeling that the show lacked a certain authenticity because we never could have an actual master recording of the Beatles performing.
“Not just someone singing their song or a version of their song, but them, doing a song in the show.
“It always felt to me like a flaw. Because they are The Band, probably, of the 20th century.”
Mr Weiner said he was told it was the first time a Beatles song had been licensed to a television show.
In the episode the show’s main character Don Draper is told to listen to Revolver to help him better understand youth culture. He plays Tomorrow Never Knows, but then turns it off apparently unimpressed.
Mr Weiner said he chose the song because he thought it was ‘revolutionary.’