Paul McCartney's Christmas Disc 1965

Christmas has come early for fans of Paul McCartney and the Beatles. The long-lost recording he made for the holidays in 1965 has resurfaced online.

“Unforgettable” was so rare that only three acetate discs were produced, with one given to each member of the Beatles.

“Unfortunately, the quality of these discs was such that they wore out as you played them for a couple of weeks,” McCartney told Mark Lewisohn in 1995, per the book, “The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film.” “There’s probably a tape somewhere, though.”

Indeed, there was.

While bootlegs have been quietly traded over the years, that tape ? or what remained of it ? has now been posted online.

McCartney essentially acted as DJ as he made a playlist for his bandmates to enjoy over the holidays.

“It was like a magazine program,” he was quoted as saying. “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.”

The compilations included songs from Nat King Cole, the Beach Boys, Elvis and more.

“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,’” McCartney said. “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.”

During the Christmas of 1965, Paul McCartney went to music publisher Dick James' studio to transfer a tape onto disc as a present for his fellow Beatles. With Paul playing DJ and the occasional guest spot, he'd call the album "Unforgettable" Only four copies were ever pressed, with many - including McCartney - believing they were lost in the mists of time. This is all that survive of that original tape..