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New Beach Boys & Beatles documentaries streaming Thanksgiving weekend

Move over holiday classics; two new music documentaries will keep you feeling cozy and nostalgic in front of the TV this holiday weekend. The much-anticipated three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson debuts today (11/25) on Disney+, with the second and third parts coming Friday (11/26) and Saturday (11/27), respectively. As Peter Jackson said to USA Today, he aimed to put a more positive spin on the Let It Be sessions, which were documented as a “miserable time” for the band in the original Let It Be film. When Jackson went through the footage of those sessions, he saw something much more positive.

“It’s really happy. It’s not what you think,” Jackson says he said to Paul McCartney. “Every negative spin you could ever imagine has been put on this by different (biographers) over the years, and to be truthful, by The Beatles themselves. That’s not what I saw, I saw something completely different.”

Meanwhile, The Beatles’ old friend, rival, influence, and fellow pop innovator Brian Wilson is subject of the just-released documentary Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, which is available to watch on YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, and Amazon Prime Video for $6.99.

“As a fan, I knew there was still an element to [Brian’s] life that hadn’t been captured yet,” director Brent Wilson (no relation) said to InsideHook. “And that’s really kind of this third act in his life. I just found it fascinating. Because I’d seen him several times in concert, and here was a guy in his seventies who was doing something that he was scared to do at 25. So who is that person? How do you get to that place?” The film features Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine driving around with Brian, listening to music, and interviewing him, as well as interviews with Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins, Linda Perry, Nick Jonas, Don Was, and more. There’s also a new Brian Wilson/Jim James song featured in the film.

If you haven’t already seen it, we also recommend Hulu’s McCartney, 3,2,1, which came out earlier this year and features in-depth interviews with Paul McCartney about The Beatles, Wings, and his solo career, conducted by Rick Rubin (and in which Paul talks about the influence of The Beach Boys).

You can also pick up Beatles and Beach Boys vinyl, books and collectibles in our shop, including the newly-released Let It Be box set and The Beach Boys’ new Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971.

For more, read: Beatles vs Beach Boys: a brief history of the greatest rivalry in pop innovation.