Beatles News
Paul McCartney rose to worldwide stardom as a member of The Beatles alongside John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Nicknamed the “cute Beatle,” McCartney’s talent as a songwriter and musician led to his partnership with Lennon and the formation of The Beatles, one of the most iconic groups in history. McCartney and Lennon cowrote many of the bands’ hit songs, including “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Let It Be.”
He’d be sitting there and I’d be sitting there, and one of us would suggest an opening line. And then the other one would go, ‘OK’ and would make a suggestion for the second line,” McCartney explained. “It was just easier with me and John, just because you could iron out any wrinkles there and then.”In 2023, McCartney and Starr completed Lennon’s unfinished demo of “Now and Then.” With the use of new technology, the two were able to use guitar tracks by Harrison and salvaged Lennon’s voice with audio restoration technology. Lennon died in December 1980 after being shot by an envious fan named Mark David Chapman and Harrison died in November 2001 due to cancer.
Source: US Celebrity News
Paul McCartney has rarely been one to hate on The Beatles’ music; if he does have some shade to throw here and there, it’s usually quite warranted. However, a resurfaced interview clip of the Fab Four star from 1980 has a few fans confused.
The clip in question was from an episode of Countdown in 1980, where McCartney was interviewed in London, England. The interviewer asked McCartney which song he believed was his best work out of all the tracks he’s ever done, both inside and outside of The Beatles. McCartney’s response was playful, in his usual fashion.
“I don’t know,” said McCartney in the clip. “I don’t think in those terms, I think it’s people who analyze the music scene [that] think in terms of ‘What was his best one?’ But I don’t know, if I just had to answer it for some quiz or something I might say ‘Sgt. Pepper’ or I might say ‘Yesterday’.”
The next quip from McCartney seemed to be a dig at one of The Beatles’ less-popular songs from Revolver.
“Or I might just as easily say something daft like ‘She Said She Said’, which is just a track I like,” McCartney said.
Why Did Paul McCartney Shade “She Said She Said”?
Even though McCartney did say that he liked “She Said She Said”, the fact that he said his answer was “daft” is a little puzzling. Is “She Said She Said” considered a not-so-stellar Beatles track?
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles landed another #1 single with “All You Need Is Love,” a non-album track that represented Britain in the TV program Our World, the first live global, multi-satellite TV show.
When they signed on for Our World, The Beatles were asked to contribute a song with a positive and universal message.
They performed the track on the show with a prerecorded backing track, and were joined by The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, The Who’s Keith Moon and others, who sat on the floor and sang along to the chorus.
“All You Need Is Love” also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K., Canada, Australia, Austria, New Zealand and Sweden.
Source: kslx.com
People might guess Ringo Starr when asked to name the last Beatle to have a No. 1 record. They would be wrong.
One doesn't need a bachelor's degree in Beatlemania to know that Richard Starkey got there (twice in fact) before John Winston Lennon.
Lennon's 1974 recording of "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" came four years after the Fab Four's dissolution. Elton John, then with a global following to match Lennon's, sang backup vocal and both appeared on stage at Madison Square Center that fall -- Lennon paying off a bet that the song would not top out in "Billboard."
The title of Lennon's pole-sitter traces to a comment by Frank Sinatra in a Playboy interview. That while he might disavow belief in God. Sinatra only asked for something to get through the night, though his day might not end until 5 a.m. Options, he said, included "prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel's." An unfiltered pack of Camel cigarettes was slipped inside his coffin upon the singer's 1998 passing.
Ex-Beatle George Harrison penned "Something," the group's first single off the "Abbey Road" (1969) album and which Sinatra, one of its many copiers, called the greatest love singer ever written. Harrison had three solo No. 1 singles before his 2001 death of lung cancer, though his association with "My Sweet Lord" (1970) was clouded when a court ruled it too closely copied The Ronettes' "He's So Fine."
Harrison was considered the quiet Beatle, the most introspective, but one confident enough to write "Here Comes the Sun," which begins Side 2 of "Abbey Road." Soul artist Richie Havens does the tune justice.
Source: Bob Wisener/hotsr.com
The Beatles, particularly their main songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney, knew how to weave in some enigmatic and loaded lyrics into their music. This list of the five deepest lyrics from The Beatles’ songs is far from exhaustive. However, we think these tidbits from their biggest songs are some of the most underrated examples of stellar songwriting.
1. “The End”
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”
“The End” is an iconic Beatles song with some of the deepest lyrics of their entire discography, namely because the band was basically writing their own epitaphs. The above lyric was McCartney’s contribution. It’s a Shakespearean, philosophical, and existential line that manages to be so simple at the same time.
2. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see”
This lovely little poetic number from Magical Mystery Tour has a number of memorable lyrics, but we think the above line is sorely underrated. Lennon explored his childhood, mind state, depression, and loneliness in this song beautifully. This particular line notes that with all of his miseries, he can’t keep his eyes or heart closed to the reality of his feelings. They must be felt and understood instead of buried.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
It was the afternoon of Aug. 26, 1964, an early stop along a tour that would forever change music in America.
It descended upon the main entrance of the Brown Palace, the mass of manic, adolescent humanity flooding into the grand atrium. The papers reported about 5,000 girls converging to meet the four lads from Liverpool, who had arrived earlier to a crowd of thousands more at Stapleton Airport.
The Beatles, donning cowboy hats, leave the plane at Denver’s Stapleton Airport on Aug. 26, 1964, ahead of their show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. They were bound for Red Rocks Amphitheatre, bound for the next scene of pandemonium that played out at five previous venues in the western U.S. and Vancouver. It was the Beatles’ first North American tour, and North America seemed ill-prepared.
The Rocky Mountain News editorial implored: “Attention, teenagers of Denver. You have the opportunity of attracting worldwide attention today! Don’t be rowdies. Don’t throw things. ... Don’t kick and elbow. Gird on the self-discipline that is the mark of a true American citizen.”
So much for that.
“7 Hospitalized in Beatles Stampede,” read the headline from the Brown Palace.
Source: gazette.com
Nearly 60 years after The Beatles performed their final concert at Candlestick Park, Beatlemania is back in the Bay. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, and presented exclusively in California at the de Young museum, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm will present more than 250 personal photos by Paul McCartney, video clips, and archival materials, that offer a behind-the-scenes look into the meteoric rise of the world’s most celebrated band.
“In Eyes of the Storm, recently unearthed photographs by Paul McCartney provide a rare time capsule of The Beatles' world at the moment of their extraordinary rise to fame,” remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Well known as one of the world’s most famous musical stars, it is a revelation to discover McCartney’s proficiency as a photographer, documenting everything from the band’s quieter moments and friendships to the ‘Beatlemania’ of the time. We’re honored to present this exhibition here in San Francisco, where The Beatles left an indelible mark on our city's musical and cultural history.”
Source: famsf.org
Las Vegas may have taken the idea of the British Invasion a bit too literally.
Ahead of The Beatles’ concerts here on Aug. 20, 1964, during what was just the second stop on the band’s first North American tour, the Review-Journal warned of “swarms of frenzied teenage girls armed with ballpoint pens and sharp fingernails” as well as “thousands of adolescent females ready to tear down brick walls with their bare hands to get a look at the furry foursome.”
Officers surround the stage. They'd gone through riot training two days before the concerts.
Two days before the shows, sheriff’s deputies went through riot training where they were split into two groups: “one the good guys,” we wrote, “and the other the Beatlemaniacs.” We described this instruction as “an hourlong slugfest” during which “the good guys brandished their clubs and waded right in.”
Juvenile authorities refused to waive the local curfew and vowed to send all their officers to the 9 p.m. show to enforce it. Anyone younger than 18 caught after 10 p.m. without a parent or guardian risked being booked.
Source: Christopher Lawrence/reviewjournal.com
The hits that The Beatles recorded more than half a century ago still have plenty of life left in them. It’s incredible to see audiences continue to stream, and especially buy, tunes that have been available for decades, but which never seem to fade from public consciousness, no matter how much time passes.
This week, The Beatles nearly returned to the top 10 on one of the songs charts in their home country. They miss out on doing so by just a few spaces, but the fact that they came so close—and with a song that millions have already purchased—is another show of popularity from the biggest band in history.
“From Us To You - 2 March 1964” shoots up the Official Vinyl Singles chart in the U.K. this frame. The single release—which is actually more like an EP, considering the fact that it contains more than half a dozen tracks—bolts from No. 22 to No. 12 on the list of the bestselling songs on vinyl in the country.
The collection is centered around a song—“From Me to You”—which was released in 1963 as a single. The new EP also includes a number of other cuts, rounding it out and making it a must-own for fans. Released earlier this month, the title debuted at No. 6, and has been living inside the top 10 on the Official Vinyl Singles chart for three frames now.
The same project also climbs on the similar Official Physical Singles tally. On that list, it bolts from No. 29 to No. 18. In doing so, it approaches its previously-set No. 12 peak.
The Beatles actually manage to fill a pair of spaces on the latter ranking this week. In addition to “From Us To You - 2 March 1964,” the latest single from the band is still present. “Now and Then,” which was released in late 2023, gains quite a bit of ground this frame, lifting from No. 62 to No. 32.
Source: forbes.com
Where were you on the night of Wednesday, Aug 19, 1964? I had just turned 9, and quite likely was at home watching my favorite shows: “The Ozzie and Harriet Show,” “The Patty Duke Show,” then my favorite show of the week, “Shindig.”
However, some 40 miles away at the Cow Palace in Daly City, 17,130 mostly young people were gathered to witness history. That night, The Beatles opened their first tour of the United States.
Sixty years ago this coming Thursday, the Fab Four headlined a show that also had The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon on the bill.
When the Beatles finally took the stage at about 9:20 p.m., the assembled crowd, overwhelmingly young and primarily female, went nuts, out of their minds nuts. Nuts like a crowd had never been nuts before.
The band played a very short set by today’s standards, but it was stopped twice by the police as they need to restore order in the hall after the stage was pelted by jelly beans, a rumored favorite treat of George Harrison. The delays extended the band’s on stage time to 38 minutes.
They played 12 songs:”Twist and Shout,” “You Can’t Do That,” “All My Loving,” ”She Loves You,” “Things We Said Today,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “If I Fell,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Boys,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and“Long Tall Sally.” Short and oh, so sweet.
Source: TIM CURLEY/sonomanews.com
