Fab Four Blog

In the UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono paid went on a short visit to Wales before setting off on a motoring holiday in Scotland, 

First, they drove to Tywyn, a seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay, on the west coast of Wales. With them were Lennon's six-year-old son Julian and Ono's five-year-old daughter Kyoko Cox.

The visit was just days before the investiture ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle in north Wales for Charles, Prince of Wales, which took place on 1 July 1969.

The tourists sent a postcard, bearing the image of the 20-year-old prince, to Ringo Starr and his family, c/o Peter Brown at the Apple offices at 3 Savile Row, London. It contained the simple message: "Hello".

The postcard, bearing the postmark of Tywyn and dated 23 June 1969, was included in Starr's 2004 book Postcards From The Boys.

Today in the US people were listening to Get Back by The Beatles. In UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

The Beatles' single, Get Back, is #1 in the US charts for the fifth straight week. This will be its final week in the #1 position.

Nothing much happened today.

Today people in US were listening to Get Back by The Beatles. In UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

Today people in US were listening to Get Back by The Beatles. In UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

The raunchy musical review "Oh! Calcutta!" (written by Kenneth Tynan) opens in New York. The script includes a comic “masturbation” scene called “Four In Hand,” based on a suggestion by John Lennon (the idea came from John’s recollections of the “circle jerks” he participated in with his teenaged mates in Liverpool).

The Ballad of John and Yoko reaches No. 1 on the charts.

Today, John and Yoko Ono pre-recorded an appearance on The David Frost Show.

The recording took place at InterTel studios at Stonebridge House in Wembley, London. The David Frost Show was syndicated in the United States, allowing the Lennons to broadcast their peace message to a wider audience than they would get in the UK.

John and Yoko Ono began by throwing acorns into the audience; Lennon proclaimed it "acorns for peace week". He also held aloft a copy of Unfinished Music No 2: Life With The Lions, and wished the Queen a happy birthday.

Then Yoko Ono gave Frost a "box of smile". When the host opened the box, he found a small mirror inside, designed to reflect back his own smile.

John discussed the Two Virgins with Lennon proudly claiming that it was selling for £10 on the black market after being widely banned. Frost joked that, where it had gone on sale, the price tag had been placed in a strategic place on the controversial cover.

Extracts of Cambridge 1969 and No Bed For Beatle John were played from a copy of Life With The Lions. Frost asked the couple why they record and release such unfinished works, which led Ono into a discussion on the nature of art and creation.

Following a commercial break, Frost asked about Bagism, and Lennon and Ono explained their desire to live in a world free of prejudice and discrimination. Lennon talked about their press conference in Vienna.

Another slow day....no news.

Nothing much happening this day in June.

People in US were listening to Get Back by The Beatles. In UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

The Beatles' single, Get Back, is #1 in the US charts for the third straight week.

The Beatles' single, Get Back, is #1 in the US charts for the third straight week.

The Beatles' single, Get Back, is #1 in the US charts for the third straight week.

The Beatles' single, Get Back, is #1 in the US charts for the third straight week.

The Lennons return from Canada to London: via bus to Ottawa, train to Toronto, a flight to Frankfurt (with more immigration hassles with the German authorities), and finally a plane across the Channel.

People in the US were listening to Get Back by The Beatles. In UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

US release of The Beatles’ single, The Ballad of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe (Apple). 9 weeks on Billboard chart; highest position #8.

In UK The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

With their Montreal Bed-In completed, John Lennon and Yoko Ono leave the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and fly to Ottawa to attend a university conference on peace. Later that evening they take a flight back to London.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono clashed with satirical cartoonist Al Capp in Montreal hours before the recording of Give Peace A Chance at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada.

John and Al Capp had an argument that later appeared in the documentary film Imagine. Capp introduced himself with the words "I'm a dreadful Neanderthal fascist. How do you do?", and later sarcastically congratulated Lennon and Ono on their Two Virgins album cover.

Then John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded Give Peace A Chance in room 1742 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

The recording session, which had been arranged at the last minute, was attended by dozens of journalists and celebrities, including Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Murray the K, Derek Taylor, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg and members of the Radha Krishna Temple. Many of them were mentioned in the lyrics, either directly or allusively.

The song was recorded by Montreal studio owner André Perry with four microphones and a four-track tape recorder. Lennon played acoustic guitar and was joined by Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers, also on acoustic guitar. A wardrobe door provided percussive sounds.

EMI requested that Perry come to the hotel for the recording. He hired a four-track Ampex machine from RCA Victor, and arrived at around 5pm.

Four microphones were used: one for Lennon and his guitar, another for Tommy Smothers, and two for the rest of the room.

Give Peace A Chance was briefly rehearsed, then the recording was quickly done. It took place at around 10pm, and afterwards Perry remained behind to record the song's eventual b-side, Yoko Ono's Remember Love.

-The Beatles' single, Get Back, is #1 in the US charts for the 2nd week.

The Ballad Of John And Yoko, The Beatles' second UK single of 1969, was released on this day. The b-side was George Harrison's Old Brown Shoe.

The Ballad Of John And Yoko was recorded by John Lennon and Paul McCartney at Abbey Road's studio three on April 14, 1969, without the other two Beatles present. It was released six weeks after it was recorded, while Get Back was still at number one in the UK charts. The Ballad Of John And Yoko was released as Apple R 5786, and was The Beatles' first single in Britain and Europe to be released in stereo.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Montreal Bed-In For Peace continues. Unable to enter America in person, John Lennon bombards the nation with phone interviews. The Bed-In coincides with an anti-war demonstration in what has become known as “Peoples’ Park” in Berkeley, California. Unable to travel to the event, Lennon phones through his support to radio station KPFA in Berkeley, advocating a policy of passive resistance (which was Ghandi’s method of protest).

Today's session involved the creation of a stereo mix for the song Let It Be, and the compilation of the master tape for Glyn Johns' unreleased Get Back album.

Johns had worked for a number of days on the album, without much involvement from The Beatles, and this day saw the completion of his work.

In UK Get Back by Beatles With Billy Preston was in the top 5 hits.

Beatles star John Lennon and his newlywed wife, Yoko Ono, spent a famous week in bed at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel to promote peace, love and pyjama power.

The couple welcomed scores of friends, fans, fellow musicians, reporters, photographers and others into suite 1742 during their seven-day retreat, which took place two months after their honeymoon bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton.

The highlight of their bed-in was the composition and recording of Lennon’s antiwar anthem Give Peace a Chance. A piece of paper bearing the hand-written lyrics to the song, given by Lennon to star-struck Montreal teenager Gail Renard after the recording session, was sold for $800,000 at a Christie’s auction in 2008. In 2009, another Lennon placard that had adorned the hotel room — this one with the hand-written message “L’Amour et la Paix” (Love and Peace) — sold for $140,000 at a Christie’s sale in London.