The Beatles' single, Get Back, reaches #1 in the US charts.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono (with Yoko's daughter, Kyoko) fly to Freeport, Bermuda, with the intention of holding another Bed-In for Peace, but leave when John realizes how far from the US they are. Plus, the heat and humidity are too high for comfortably staying in bed for seven days.
May 23, 1969: The Beatles singer songwriter John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono at London Heathrow Airport, before flying to the Bahamas to stage a seven day 'Bed In For Peace' protest.
Today, Ringo Starr, his wife Maureen and Peter Sellers, director Joe McGrath, producer Denis O'Dell, and Apple's press officer Derek Taylor set sail for New York on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury liner. They docked in New York.
With principal photography on the film recently completed, the holiday laid on by Commonwealth United by way of thanks to the cast and crew for finishing on time and on budget.
The party then flew to the Bahamas, where they spent two weeks in the sun.
And...Get Back by The Beatles with Billy Preston was the #1 song on May 22, 1969.
In that special week of May people in US were listening to Get Back by The Beatles. In UK Get Back by Beatles With Billy Preston was in the top 5 hits.
Life as a Beatle for John Lennon was never as fab or gear in the days of Beatlemania as most people believed. Nor is life as a Beatle today all that pleasant for Lennon.
In fact, he said in interviews to the British pop press, a Beatle split-up is a possibility. “It just depends how much we all want to record together. I don’t know if I want to record together again. I go off and on it.”
John, talking to the New Musical Express, explained the problem: “In the old days, when we needed an album, Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it. Nowadays, there’s three of us writing prolifically and trying to fit it all into one album. Or we have to think of a double album every time, which takes six months.
In UK Get Back by Beatles With Billy Preston was in the top 5 hits.
In UK Get Back by Beatles With Billy Preston was in the top 5 hits.
1. Get Back - The Beatles with Billy Preston
2. Atlantis - Donovan
3. Oh Happy Day - The Edwin Hawkins Singers featuring Dorothy Combs Morrison
4. The River is Wide - The Grass Roots
5. These Eyes - The Guess Who
6. Good Morning Starshine - Oliver
7. Love (Can Make You Happy) - Mercy
8. Grazing in the Grass - The Friends of Distinction
9. The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
10. Hair - The Cowsills
11. In the Ghetto - Elvis Presley
12. More Today Than Yesterday - Spiral Scarecase
13. Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival
14. Goodbye - Mary Hopkin
15. Sweet Cherry Wine - Tommy James & The Shondells
16. Pinball Wizard - The Who
17. Gitarzan - Ray Stevens
18. Heather Honey - Tommy Roe
19. Time is Tight - Booker T & The MG's
20. Nothing but a Heartache - The Flirtations
Ringo Starr boards the “Queen Elizabeth II” to sail to the US for the filming of “The Magic Christian.” He travels with his wife, Maureen and their two children, Peter Sellers, and George and Pattie Harrison. John Lennon and Yoko Ono are scheduled to join Ringo and the others on the trip, but had to cancel at the last moment, because John does not get his visa.
John Lennon is refused a visa by the US Embassy in London; they cite his 1968 drug conviction as the reason. John's plans for a Bed-In in New York will have to be scrapped. Instead, Lennon and Ono were left on the dock at Southampton. The experience echoed their failed attempt to marry on a ferry to France in March 1969, which found its way into the opening lines of The Ballad Of John And Yoko.
The trip was laid on by Commonwealth United, the company which funded the film The Magic Christian, which Starr had a lead role in. With principal photography recently completed, the holiday was by way of thanks to the cast and crew for finishing on time and on budget.
The luxury cruise ship arrived in New York on 22 May 1969, and from there the party flew to the Bahamas for a two-week holiday.
Starr gave an interview to the Associated Press agency before the ship set sail. In it he discussed a previous job as a waiter on board a steam ship that sailed between Liverpool and north Wales while he was a teenager.
John Lennon goes to the US Embassy in London, to try to get an American visa.