Don Draper may still dominate Mad Men but the real star of tonight’s episode is a Beatles song. And it came at a hefty price.
Tomorrow Never Knows from the band's 1966 album Revolver is played by Draper on his stereo system in his New York apartment in tonight's show and Mad Men producers are said to have paid $250,000) for permission to use it.
According to Forbes.com, it is a record price for a single master recording for a TV show and it’s also considered the first time a Beatles recording has been used on a 'regular' TV show since several Beatles songs were used on comedy series WKRP in Cincinnati back in the eighties. In order to get the song, Sony/ATV Publishing had to get Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono to sign off on it.
Last year, Sony paid over a million dollars for Baby You're a Rich Man to be included in The Social Network. But several years ago, the Beatles rejected a request to include Hey Jude in The Royal Tennenbaums. The remaining members of the band have so far only given permission to lesser known songs to be used in TV shows and films.
Mad Men is on Sky Atlantic tonight at 9pm.
