Beatles News
George Martin got to know The Beatles well over the years. While he usually liked them, they once let him down.
The Beatles’ longtime producer George Martin worked with them on each album they put out in the 1960s. He was a key part of their success and got to know them well throughout their collaboration. Their antics, particularly in the early 1960s, grew familiar to him. Still, they sometimes pushed Martin too far. He shared what they did to let him down for the very first time.
In the early 1960s, The Beatles traveled to Paris for a concert. While they were there, Martin booked them studio time to record German language versions of “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” A record company executive believed there was no chance the songs would sell in Germany if they were in English.
“I was disinclined to believe this, but that’s what he said and I told The Beatles,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology. “They laughed: ‘That’s absolute rubbish.’ So I said, ‘Well, if we want to sell records in Germany, that’s what we’ve got to do.’ So they agreed to record in German. I mean, really it was rubbish, but the company sent over one Otto Demmlar to help coach them in German.”
Demmlar and Martin waited for The Beatles in the studio on the day they were meant to record, but they never arrived.
“It was the first time in my experience with them that they had let me down, so I rang the George V Hotel where they were staying, and Neil Aspinall answered,” Martin said. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, they’re not coming, they asked me to tell you.’ I said, ‘You mean to tell me they’re telling you to tell me? They’re not telling me themselves?’ — ‘That’s right.’ — ‘I’m coming right over,’ I said.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
A limited-edition vinyl EP featuring John Lennon’s 1973 hit “Mind Games” and three other tracks will be released as part of the 2024 Record Store Day celebration on Saturday, April 20.
The EP will offer fans a preview of the upcoming 50th anniversary “Ultimate Edition” reissue of the Mind Games album.
Mind Games and its title track were issued in the U.S. on October 29, 1973. “Mind Games” was the only single released from the record. It peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Writing of “Mind Games”
Lennon began writing “Mind Games” in 1969, initially titling the song “Make Love, Not War.” Another song that Lennon was working on around that time called “I Promise” also featured some lyrics and melody that would be heard in “Mind Games.”
Lennon completed “Mind Games” after reading the 1972 book Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space, written by Robert Masters and Jean Houston. The book offered exercises to help people train their minds to focus on positivity by looking inward.
Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney has revealed the moving inspiration behind his song, “My Valentine”.
The Beatles star has been divulging some of the stories and influences behind his best-known songs while in the Fab Four, as well as his work as a solo artist and with his post-Beatles band, Wings.
He wrote “My Valentine” for his wife Nancy Shevell, whom he met in 2007. The song was included on his 2012 album, Kisses on the Bottom, which comprised several cover versions of tracks by songwriters Billy Hill, Frank Loesser and Irving Berlin.
In the latest episode of his podcast, McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, the 81-year-old explained that he went on a holiday with Shevell before they were “an item”, but he already knew he was in love with her.
“I had fallen in love with my lady Nancy, but we weren’t an item yet, and in my case I was looking over my shoulder for paparazzi,” he explained.
Source: Roisin O'Connor/independent.co.uk
George Harrison was excited about a song he brought to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They barely paid attention to it, though.
In The Beatles, one of George Harrison’s biggest problems was the way John Lennon and Paul McCartney treated his songwriting. They had been the primary songwriters for the first half of the 1960s. When Harrison started contributing more songs, they seemed to view it as more of an intrusion than an opportunity for growth. According to Harrison, they hardly paid any attention to what would become one of his best-known songs. George Harrison said John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn’t take 1 song seriously
While Harrison was at his parents’ home, he began using books to write a song.
“I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book — as it would be relative to that moment, at that time,” Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology. “I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw ‘gently weeps’, then laid the book down again and started the song.”
The resulting song was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It would go on to become one of his best-known songs, but Lennon and McCartney hardly paid it any mind at the time.
“We tried to record it, but Paul and John were so used to just cranking out their tunes that it was very difficult at times to get serious and record one of mine,” Harrison said. “It wasn’t happening. They weren’t taking it seriously and I don’t think they were even all playing on it, and so I went home that night thinking, ‘Well, that’s a shame,’ because I knew the song was pretty good.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Fans of The Beatles are in for a treat thanks to Paul McCartney, who says never-before-seen lyrics written by the iconic group are on the way.
On Monday, the former Beatles star, 79, announced the dozens of songs that will be featured in his upcoming "self-portrait" book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.
The book — which was first announced in February — will "recount his life and art through the prism of 154 songs from all stages of his career," highlighting 154 songs by The Beatles, Wings, and his lengthy solo career. Notable songs included are "Blackbird," "Live and Let Die," "Hey Jude," "Band On The Run," and "Yesterday."
According to McCartney's official site, the book will reveal previously unreleased lyrics from an unrecorded song by The Beatles, "Tell Me Who He Is." Fans will also get a glimpse at decades-old handwritten lyrics and photographs from McCartney's personal archive.
Source: Vanessa Etienne/ca.movies.yahoo.com
Legendary music producer Sir George Martin, often referred to as the “fifth Beatle,” passed away at age 90.
With a career that spanned more than six decades, Martin produced all but one of The Beatles’ albums, including 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which became the first rock album to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Martin won six Grammys throughout his career and had 23 #1 singles in the U.S. In addition to The Beatles, he produced works by such artists as Elton John, Jeff Beck, Kenny Rogers, Cheap Trick and others.
Among his many honors, Martin was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a knighthood in 1996.
Martin’s son, Giles Martin, has continued to work with The Beatles, and recently produced their final song, “Now and Then,” which uses vocals Lennon recorded on a demo in the late ’70s, along with guitar the late George Harrison recorded in the mid-’90s, and new recordings from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
The tune debuted at #1 in the U.K. and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Source: kshe95.com
Paul McCartney is one of the most successful songwriters in history. He’s penned almost too many major smash singles to count, and those who have listened to them may begin to notice some similarities between them. In a new interview, the former Beatle admitted that some of his tunes may follow a blueprint he likes to use—or at least one he leaned on early in his career.
“There was a certain formula,” McCartney admitted, up front, when talking about the composition of some of his earliest hits. The rocker clarified what he meant by adding, “the pronoun I, you, me, him, her, my, she…”
McCartney has been known to use—or some might say overuse—pronouns in a certain way in his work. But while some may call that formulaic, he explained that there was a reason behind this decision...and it wasn’t because it was what he and his collaborators were used to, or even that they were simply lazy.
“Because we wanted to contact the fans, there were songs to contact the people with,” McCartney shared when talking about whether or not he felt that his songs were formulaic at the time they were written. He’s referring to many of his Beatles-era cuts, especially some of the earliest examples of their globe-dominating smashes.
Source: Hugh McIntyre/forbes.com
The Beatles‘ “I Will” is a relatively simple song, but it is nonetheless impactful. Paul McCartney has penned many stellar love songs across his career, but this has to be one of his most touching. Check out the meaning behind this song, below.
McCartney has made it clear across his career that he is partial to a silly love song. He enjoys the sappy, sincere sides of music. “I Will” is one of many examples of this affinity.
“There’s a theory that the most interesting love songs are ones about love gone wrong,” McCartney wrote in his book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. “I don’t subscribe to it. This is a song about the joy of love…Love might be the mightiest, strongest force on the planet.”
Who knows how long I’ve loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime
If you want me to, I will
McCartney was in a relationship with Jane Asher at the time he wrote this track. While in India together, McCartney made use of a melody he had in his back pocket, writing new lyrics that painted a picture of enduring love. Folk icon Donovan helped him pen the first rough draft of the verses, but ultimately McCartney found them too simple.
Despite being connected to Asher, McCartney delivered the caveat: “Just because I was involved with Jane at the time doesn’t mean this song is addressed to, or about, Jane. It’s a declaration of love, yes, but not always to someone specific.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
There’s no doubt Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison had huge success as The Beatles, but their careers certainly didn’t end once the band broke up in 1970.
All four members went on to have successful solo careers, and now Rolling Stone is taking a deep dive into their solo material with its just-released list of the 100 best Beatles solo songs.
The list is compiled by music journalist Rob Sheffield, who knows a thing or two about The Beatles, having written the 2017 book Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World. In a post on social media he said compiling the list was a “true labor of love.”
Topping the list is McCartney’s 1970 classic “Maybe I’m Amazed,” which he wrote for wife Linda McCartney. Sheffield writes that McCartney “wrote his most soulful, passionate, unforgettable love song for Linda, in the aftermath of The Beatles break-up,” adding the tune “captures the moment when their romance was just beginning.”
Source: ABC News/everettpost.com
Unseen colour footage of The Beatles from 1964 shows the backstage footage of the band’s performances.
The reel of 8mm film, which has no sound, shows the legendary musicians performing on Ready Steady Go! and the Around The Beatles television special.
None of the 18 minutes of footage has been previously released or published, auction house Omega Auctions said.
The film belonged to Teddy Fader, who worked as a lighting supervisor for ITV production company Associated-Rediffusion.
A letter transferring copyright from Mr Fader will be provided to the winning bidder.
It will be auctioned on 26 March.
Source: Holly Patrick/independent.co.uk
