Beatles News
If you sit for a moment and think about it, it would seem like nearly every song from The Beatles that you’ve ever heard likely hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts. But that just isn’t the case, of course. No group could be that popular, that lucky—though, of anyone, The Beatles came the closest.
While The Beatles do boast the most No. 1 hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100 with 20 (heck, the band even released a popular album in 2000 just called 1 that featured all of said songs and more), there were many excellent tunes from the former Mop Tops that didn’t hit the ultimate spot on the Hot 100.
[RELATED: 5 Songwriting Tips From Paul McCartney’s ‘The Lyrics’]
1. “Eleanor Rigby”
Released on the Fab Four’s 1966 album, Revolver, this song is a masterpiece. It talks of loneliness while being built with rich vocal harmonies from Paul McCartney and a cornucopia of instruments. It also peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Source: Jacob Uitti/americansongwriter.com
Ken Scott joined Abbey Road Studios during the making of The Beatles’ third album, A Hard Day’s Night, the first on which all songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He witnessed the band’s transition from live act playing its repertoire to tape, to pioneering the kind of musical, studio and production techniques that would change recording forever, with albums such as Rubber Soul, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Beatles (aka The White Album).
When the group disbanded in 1970, Ken briefly worked with George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, before heading off to assist such legends as David Bowie, Elton John, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck.
He recently embarked on a project to film The History Of The Beatles Recording Techniques. Working alongside Fab Dupont, producer and co-owner of plugin designer and provider of recording technique tutorials Puremix, it would be a mammoth task.
Source: Neville Marten/musicradar.com
Paul McCartney said the holiday season was always joyful as a child. He shared how his family celebrated the season.
Though Paul McCartney can afford to celebrate Christmas lavishly these days, he looks back fondly on his childhood celebrations of the holiday. McCartney shared how he celebrated Christmas as a child. He also spoke about why these are among his favorite memories.
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McCartney grew up in a Liverpool home with his mother, father, and younger brother. He said that his favorite Christmas memories come from this era of his life.
“I think waking up as a really little kid on Christmas morning, and just seeing the white pillowcase that we used to get,” he said in an interview on his official website, adding, “It was like a stocking but Mum and Dad used to put it in a white pillowcase, and it would be a present, a couple of nuts and a tangerine.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison's father had clear expectations for his son's career. Here's the Christmas present that hinted at his hopes.
Long before fame, George Harrison received a Christmas present that made him fear his future. Though he wanted to pursue music, his father made it clear that he should look for a more stable job. Harrison found this upsetting because he didn’t think he would be able to follow through on his dad’s dreams for him.
After Harrison left school, he struggled to find a job. His friends returned to school as he tried, unsuccessfully, to get his music career off the ground. “I used to borrow money from my dad,” Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology. “I didn’t want a job — I wanted to be in a band. But it got a bit embarrassing when my father kept saying, ‘Don’t you think you’d better get a job?'”
Harrison’s father made it clear what type of job he wanted his son to have through a Christmas present. Harrison did not appreciate the gift.
“My dad never had a trade, but he had the idea that all his three sons would have different trades,” he said. “My eldest brother was a mechanic, my second brother did panel beating and welding. So Dad thought, ‘George can be an electrician, and then we can have our own garage.’ For Christmas, Dad bought me a little kit that opened up and inside were screwdrivers and tools, and I thought, ‘Oh God, he really does want me to be an electrician.’ That was depressing, because I had no chance of being one.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
The duo’s megahit single shot to number one 40 years ago this week on December 10, 1983. It then stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks. Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney teamed up to create this single for McCartney’s 1983 album Tug of War. The single being co-created by McCartney and the legendary Beatles producer George Martin certainly played a part in the success of "Say Say Say," but I’m betting having Jackson co-write and sing on the song while his Thriller album was vaporizing the world played the biggest part of Say’s explosion.
And we all loved the song’s video when it dropped.
This wasn’t the first time these two titans worked together. Thriller’s lead single was the McCartney assisted "The Girl Is Mine."
Sadly, the good times wouldn’t last between the two men. Jackson would soon buy the Beatles song catalog, which didn’t go over very well with McCartney, since…he was a Beatle and wrote many of their hit songs. But, for a few years in the early 80’s, these dudes made real magic together.
Source: Greg Simms Jr./wyso.org
Paul McCartney had a busy year, and he’s wrapping up his 2023 by answering 23 questions from fans.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer responded to questions posted to his Official Fan Group on Facebook, sharing insights into the new Beatles tune “Now and Then,” Christmas, his Got Back tour and more.
When it comes to “Now and Then,” McCartney says he was “very emotional” the first time he heard John Lennon’s clear voice on the track, adding that his favorite part of the video was “John goofing around.”
He reveals that “Hey Jude” was his favorite song to play live — “Just to see all those thousands of people singing in harmony with each other,” he says — and teases a possible release of covers he performs during soundcheck.
“It’s a thought!,” he replies. “We have the ‘jams’ — we always start the soundcheck with a made-up piece, and there’s a lot of them. So, we might go through those and do something someday.”
McCartney also shares that he’d love to collaborate with Bob Dylan one day, noting, “But I don’t know if we’ll ever get around to it.”
Source: mikeeves@wxhc.com
After reuniting The Beatles with the help of artificial intelligence earlier this year, Paul McCartney is once again succeeding on the Billboard charts. The rocker sees one of his most controversial collections find its way back to a handful of tallies this week, and this time, he’s going solo.
The album McCartney II reappears on a pair of Billboard charts this week. The set isn’t new to either list, as it’s been out for decades and has already spent a fair amount of time on a number of tallies published by the chart company. Fans are clearly still interested in the collection, as they’ve purchased and streamed it back onto the weekly rankings.
The title reappears on the Billboard 200 at No. 177. The tally ranks the most-consumed albums, regardless of style, using a methodology that combines streams and sales. According to Luminate, McCartney II moved another 9,765 equivalent units in the past tracking period.
Source: Hugh McIntyre/forbes.com
The last songs from George Harrison—two albums’ worth of new works with basic tracks and vocals largely complete—are nearly all missing.
The songs, first reported in 1999 by the late Billboard editor-in-chief Timothy White, and in 2001 by Harrison, were intended to be finished by Harrison friend and sometime producer Jeff Lynne.
They are part of a cache of either 37 or 35 new, never-released Harrison songs, depending on which interview you read. In a 1999 Billboard interview with White, Harrison referred to “about 37” new songs, and in a 2001 on-line chat with fans, Harrison said there were 35 new, unreleased works.
After Harrison’s posthumous 2002 album, Brainwashed, on which 12 new songs were released, that leaves either 25 or 23 whose fate remains unknown. They are reportedly lost in the famously messy, jumbled Harrison archive. [Editor’s note: A few unofficial leaks are available on YouTube.]
Source: Rip Rense/bestclassicbands.com
At the intersection of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, there is a golf course.
A terrible one.
Allerton Manor golf course may one day be a destination for golf in the English port city of Liverpool, but today it is not. The grass is brown. The fairways are flat. The greens are often submerged in water. Not even the regulars can escape Allerton’s striking underwhelmingness.
“My favorite part about playing here?” one golfer said, deadpan, on the day I visited. “Probably when it’s over.”
And yet Allerton Manor is here, same as always, a mix of earth tones and pale green in a quiet suburb of a small city. An afternoon round might cross paths with a few dozen golfers … and just as many Allerton residents out for a stroll. Golf is a public good here in England, and not only for those playing it, which is perhaps why this golf course is unlikely ever to go anywhere. Allerton Manor, like Liverpool around it, remains enchanted with its traditions.
The walking path to the left of the front nine will do little to disabuse you of that notion. This tiny stretch of stone and dirt connects one side of Allerton to the other, slicing through the golf course and providing the ideal shortcut for those in the know. In the summer months, vines form a canopy over the pathway, casting long shadows in the sun and providing brief glimpses into the golf landscape surrounding it.
Source: James Colgan/golf.com
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” a song by John Lennon released in 1971 that has become a Christmas classic, is more relevant today than ever.
As we approach 2024, a year that will certainly test our resolve as a nation and test our democracy, the opening verse of the song is a question all of us as Americans should ask:
So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun
The song’s message – calling for an end to fear and war, for hope and peace – is still applicable today, especially considering the ongoing conflicts in our nation and wars around the world. And the message of asking what each one of us can do rings as loudly today as ever. Hope is empty unless it is accompanied by helpful action.
The lyrics remind us that we should strive for a better world, where people of all races and backgrounds can live together in harmony. The song encourages us to look beyond our differences and work towards a common goal of peace and love.
As I listen again to “Happy Xmas,” I am reminded of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, delivered 10 years before Lennon’s song debuted. It has a similar message but with a call to action for us as a people:
Source: Fucrom
