Beatles News

Very few musicians get the chance to record a James Bond theme. Paul McCartney actually turned down the opportunity once. But when he accepted on the second ask, he went all-in on a massive recording.

McCartney found a comfort zone in working with one of his closest collaborators from his Beatle days. The resulting song, “Live And Let Die”, ranks extremely high in most listings of Bond themes. Macca and Martin.

Paul McCartney was first approached to do a theme song for Diamonds Are Forever, the James Bond film released in 1971. As that was a busy year for him with the formation of his new band Wings, he politely declined.

But things lined up nicely for him to tackle the job on Live And Let Die, the next Bond film. For one, it was scheduled to arrive in theaters in 1973 around the same time that McCartney was releasing Red Rose Speedway, his second album with Wings. It would offer him and his fledgling band an excellent promotional tool.

On top of that, it gave McCartney the chance to work again with George Martin, who produced the vast majority of The Beatles’ musical output. When John Barry, who normally handled the score for Bond films, was unable to take the job on Live details

The ECHO has taken a look at Peter Asher's life as a new documentary on his career arrived in UK cinemas

Peter Asher has lived one of the great showbiz stories. The child star turned pop star turned record producer was at the centre of pop culture through the latter half of the 20th century.

His remarkable life story has been told in a new documentary titled Peter Asher: Everywhere Man. Filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine brought the movie to Liverpool for a special screening at FACT Picturehouse on Sunday (November 1). The San Francisco couple insisted on a screening in Liverpool as Peter's contribution to the Beatles story means he is a vital part of the city's history.

Dan told the ECHO: "It's amazing to do this. There's such a connection because so much of Peter's earlier life and the propulsion behind his career comes out of the Beatles, Paul and Apple Corps." You can read the full feature interview with the directors here.

Peter was a close confidant to all the Fab Four as Paul McCartney lived in his family house after he first moved to London at the start of Beatlemania. Sir Paul was in a high profile relationship with Peter's sister, Jane Asher, and it was during this time when he br details

George Harrison never had any interest in reuniting the Beatles after the band’s breakup in 1970. While several members collaborated during their solo years — David Bowie even claimed he, John Lennon and Paul McCartney once discussed forming a group — the Fab Four never returned to the studio or stage together.

But Harrison hadn’t completely soured on his former bandmates. As he revealed in a 1974 press conference, he was open to forming a new band with one Beatle in particular.

The Beatles’ breakup came at an unfortunate time for Harrison. After years of being overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, he was flourishing as both a writer and guitarist. Songs like “Something,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Old Brown Shoe” proved he could match his bandmates as a songwriter, while his increasingly distinctive guitar work established him as one of rock’s most original stylists.

The release of All Things Must Pass, his ambitious 1970 solo debut, vindicated years of frustration. Powered by the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life,” it became the most commercially successful solo album by any forme details

Phil McDonald, the record producer and recording engineer who worked on some of The Beatles' final records, has died at the age of 80.

His death was announced by Abbey Road Studios in a statement on its website. The studio paid tribute to a man who shared a Grammy for his work on the album Abbey Road. It read: "We’re saddened to announce the passing of the wonderful Phil McDonald.

“Phil was a highly skilled, deeply trusted, and much-loved engineer who started working here in 1964 at the age of 18. A man who went on to become one of the few credited on the back cover of Abbey Road, he started out in our tape library and worked in the cutting rooms before making the transition to tape op, and soon, balance engineer.”

The statement continued: “His first session with The Beatles is documented as 17 June 1965 for ‘Yesterday.’ The following years working on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album, he would’ve been trained up by the likes of Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott before taking a central role in the recording of Abbey Road.

“Phil’s philosophy was always to get as close as possible to recording the true details

We’re rewriting history again today as we revisit a year when one band completely took over and overshadowed many classic songs that deserved better. Today we put those songs where they belong at #1. Including The Drifters Under the Boardwalk, a song that was recorded just a day after an iconic band’s lead singer passed away. Their singer was gone, but they still had a session planned, so an outsider walked in and sang a perfect vocal that gave them their most famous hit. Plus the Innocent Classic by the Zombies, She’s Not There, that got banned nationwide 37 years after it peaked on the charts for offensive lyrics, but everyone’s still trying to figure out what was offensive about it, including the band who’s here to comment. Plus the creepy song Last Kiss that was inspired by a fatal car crash, but it got even creepier after the song became a hit, and life imitated art when the band got into a fan carwreck that would destroy their group. Plus, I tracked down the mysterious girl behind the classic Beach Boys car song Fun Fun Fun, who got in trouble for driving her dad’s T-Bird. And lastly the biggest band in the world The Beatles took over the charts for one fateful week they made up 7 of th details

Thirty years after Sir Paul McCartney helped open the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in a former Liverpool school, the institution has reached a milestone that blends history with a new beginning. At its 2026 graduation ceremony, LIPA conferred its first LIPA degrees and celebrated more than 400 graduating students from 28 countries. The event, held on 21 July at the Liverpool Experience Campus, also honoured leading figures from film, theatre, music and arts management, with McCartney present as the institute’s Founding Patron. Read more details about it, as per LIPA's website, here:

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TOI World Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM

Both men agreed that John wrote just one line of “I Saw Her Standing There”, changing Paul’s “she’d never been a beauty queen” to “you know what I mean”, but contentious disputes over some of The Beatles’ biggest hits have been highlighted in several post-split interviews. These include “Help!” (John claimed full authorship, Paul countered it was “70-30”), “Ticket To Ride” (John said Paul only contributed “the way Ringo played the drums,” Paul said “give him 60 per cent of it”), “In My Life” (John said Paul composed the middle-eight, Paul said he did the entire melody), “Eleanor Rigby” (John claimed 70 per cent of the lyrics, Paul said it was more like “half a line.”)

Paul takes over (1967)
Brian Epstein’s unexpected death saw Paul attempt to wrest control of the group’s managerial affairs, starting by conceiving and directing the Magical Mystery Tour film. At the time, John remained passive and happy to play along, but later, when it had been savaged by critics, he expressed mixed feelings, describing the project as “chaotic and unfocussed.” I details

“The Third Eye: Early Photographs,” a new book featuring hundreds of personal photographs taken by George Harrison during his years with the Beatles, has arrived just in time for holiday gifting season.

Released Oct. 6 by Random House, the 352-page hardcover offers a rare look at Beatlemania from inside the band, featuring more than 250 photographs and 8mm film stills captured by Harrison between 1963 and 1970. Many of the images have never been published before, making it a can’t-go-wrong gift for even the most avid Fab Four collectors in your life this holiday season.

Rather than revisiting the band’s history through the familiar lens of press photographers, “The Third Eye” documents John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Harrison through the eyes of one of their own. Armed with his Pentax camera, Harrison photographed his bandmates during their whirlwind rise to international fame — including their first trip to the U.S and motorcades through Australia to shopping excursions in Paris and travels through India and Tahiti.

The result is a refreshingly candid collection of photos of one of the most extensively photographed bands in history, with intimate po details

Mal Evans worked alongside the biggest pop group in the world, but his greatest thrill came when he accompanied the Beatles to meet his musical hero, Elvis Presley.

As the Beatles’ road manager, Evans had a front-row seat as the Liverpool quartet became global superstars. He began working with them as a roadie and bodyguard in August 1963, eventually becoming a trusted insider who accompanied the band on tour and in the studio. He even helped Paul McCartney develop the idea of an alter ego for the group while the two were on holiday in 1966 — a concept that would help give rise to the Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Evans had planned to write a book about his adventures with the group and received permission from all four Beatles to do so. Sadly, he never completed it. He died in 1976, aged 40, after police shot him during a confrontation at his home. Distraught over his impending divorce, Evans had waved an airgun at officers. His death is widely understood as a possible case of suicide by cop.

Beatle Paul McCartney with Beatles road manager Mal Evans, shown on his arrival in India February 20, 1968, to join the other Beatles at Maharishi Mahesh Yog details

Though the songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney will go down in history as one of the greatest musical collaborations, there’s a grey area for some songs.

Songs that are registered as a Lennon-McCartney credit aren’t all that they seem, with some songs written more heavily by one songwriter than the other. Though most of The Beatles‘ songs would feature the credit, songs like Strawberry Fields Forever and Yesterday were written primarily by Lennon and McCartney separately. But there are other songs in the band’s discography that were given the joint songwriting tag despite there being little to no overlap in the writing process. Speaking of this overlap with Playboy Magazine shortly before his death, Lennon shared another song that had been swept up in the collaborative tag.

Playboy Magazine asked: “When you talk about working together on a single lyric like We Can Work It Out, it suggests that you and Paul worked a lot more closely than you’ve admitted in the past. Haven’t you said that you wrote most of your songs separately, despite putting both of your names on them?”

Lennon replied: “Yeah, I was lying. It was when I felt rese details

George Harrison’s songs were typically spiritual, folk-leaning, and harmony-driven. But that’s not the whole story of the former Beatle’s solo career. His sound is as varied as his other Beatles bandmates’. He tried on experimental synth sounds and funky anthems. Harrison left no bounds on the work he delivered during his life, and these three songs below show that perfectly.
“It’s What You Value”

“It’s What You Value” is a little funkier than Harrison’s typical fare. It’s a bright, upbeat anthem that adds something unexpected to the mix. It’s not worlds away from his top hits, but it’s different enough to shock some surface-level fans.

“But I’ve found it’s all up to what you value / Down to where you are / It all swings on the pain you’ve gone through / Getting where you are,” Harrison sings over a surprisingly commercial instrumental. This song feels a little too straight for Harrison’s conventions, yet he proved he could lean that way and get away with it.
“Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea”

This classic jazz cover was released on Harrison’s posthumo details

Over the past few decades, the folks in charge of The Beatles’ marketing, with input from the band members themselves, have made it a point to play up the togetherness of the Fab Four. But there’s no denying the rancor occasionally enveloped the group. This was especially true around the time their breakup was announced.

For one example, Paul McCartney penned a letter with a cease-and-desist vibe in April 1970. That missive was directed at The Beatles’ manager.  Spring 1970 featured a series of incidents where Paul McCartney clashed with his Beatle brethren. He famously screamed Ringo Starr out of his house in a dispute about the release date of the McCartney album. And on April 10, 1970, he gave his “self-interview” that essentially declared the breakup of The Beatles.

In actuality, the break had occurred more than six months earlier. That’s when John Lennon announced he was leaving at a band meeting. But Macca made it official. His stunt angered his bandmates. They’d wanted to hold off on the news until a slew of Fab Four-related releases, including the Let It Be album, hit the stores.

That Let It Be album was also the source of anger and frustration details

At this point, Paul McCartney squarely falls into the category of “living legend.” At 84, he's still going strong, releasing new music, and entertaining audiences the world over.

Even if it weren't for his hugely successful solo career, he would, of course, have earned his place in the history books as part of the Beatles alone. That band has arguably influenced more musicians across the last six decades than any other, with seminal albums such as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band permanently changing the face of popular music.
The unexpected Beatles track Paul McCartney loves

In an interview in 2020, the man himself picked out some of his favorite Beatles tracks, and among some expected choices, one selection caught many by surprise. “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” is a lesser-known Fab Four song that was originally released as the B-side to “Let It Be.” It's a decidedly oddball song that veers from primal, mantra-like rock to tongue-in-cheek vaudeville style with strong comic overtones. McCartney described it as “…a zany, zany little B-side that nobody knows, but we had so much fun making it."

The A-side, “Let It Be,” was a m details

Paul McCartney wrote his iconic Bond song, “Live and Let Die,” without having seen the script.

In his book The Lyrics, McCartney spoke about writing the iconic rock song on instinct, with very little knowledge about the plot.

“Writing a Bond song is a bit of an accolade, and I always had a sneaking ambition to do it,” he shared. “Ron told me the film was called Live and Let Die. The screenplay wasn’t finished at that point, so I got the Ian Fleming book, and it’s a real page-turner.”

The music icon was originally approached to make music for the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever. While McCartney had no idea what the Roger Moore film was about, he had an idea for the Bond theme.

“I didn’t want the song to be, ‘You’ve got a gun. Now go kill people. Live and let die.’ That’s just not me,” he shared. “I wanted it to be, ‘Let it go. Don’t worry about it. When you’ve got problems, just live and let die.’ Once I had that thought in my head, the song almost wrote itself,” the Beatle explained.

McCartney and Wings recorded “Live and Let Die! at the end of the sessions fo details

It’s no secret that The Beatles weren’t seeing eye to eye by the end of their tenure. That tension was especially a shame in the collaborative partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Though they still shared ideas even as they fell out, it wasn’t like their early years, when the Lennon-McCartney credit more accurately reflected the writing process.

One example of how their working relationship changed came when Lennon was working out “Come Together.” This classic hit features all four Beatles, but it wasn’t without pushback. Lennon reportedly dismissed McCartney from his typical duties on this track.

“Come Together” is one of the most beloved songs on Abbey Road. By the time this album came out, the band was all but done. Despite breaking at the seams, this album proved a stellar body of work. It wasn’t thrown together, even though the band wasn’t in the best headspace while working on it.

“Here come old flat-top, he come grooving up slowly / He got ju-ju eyeball, he one holy roller / He got hair down to his knee / Got to be a joker, he just do what he please,” the off-kilter lyrics to “Come Together” read. Fo details