Beatles News

Is it "Magical Mystery Tour" or "Yellow Submarine" or "Beatles for Sale," or a different album entirely? Which Beatles album would you pick as the worst of their original 13 records?

We all have favorite bands, don't we? We have bands that we defend on principle, even if there's a weaker album or a less-than-amazing song, right? Not long ago, I saw an acquaintance post something on Facebook along the lines of (and this is a paraphrase): "The Beatles would have had a perfect string of albums if only they hadn't released 'Magical Mystery Tour.'

" I guess my acquaintance thought The Beatles' 1967 follow-up to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was rather hit-and-miss, an uneven record bogged down with more than its fair share of clunkers. I wasn't sure how I wanted to respond at the time. Others were less forgiving (or were even more damning), and in the end the original post was taken down.

So let's move that discussion here, shall we?

The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" music wasn't intended to be "an album." It was released in the UK as a six-song two-EP (extended-play) record set as a soundtrack for their third film (which bears the same name). In the U.S., singles that hadn't appeared yet details

Fifty years ago, The Beatles released Revolver, an album which saw them move into a more experimental musical world. The band's manager Brian Epstein wanted an album cover that would help fans make the journey with their musical heroes. So the band called on an old friend to help - graphic designer and musician Klaus Voormann.

The artist, who has now produced a graphic novel about his time with the band, said he is still surprised he was chosen to create the cover for Revolver. "I was sitting in the bath in my tiny flat in Hampstead when I got the call from Paul," he said. "He said 'Klaus, the new album... got any ideas for the cover?' "I just couldn't believe they were asking me to do it.

"They invited me down to Abbey Road to listen to the tracks - I was just blown away, floored by what I was hearing. "I thought I was dreaming - Tomorrow Never Knows with its backward looped tapes and bird cries. It was something totally new."

Revolver combined the swirling psychedelia of Tomorrow Never Knows with the dark complexities of Eleanor Rigby, and signalled the shift away from the bright and shiny pop of the Fab Four years. The album cover needed to reflect that change.

Three weeks after he got the cal details

The Beatles' Hollywood Bowl live recordings will get a new life this fall with the newly remixed and remastered Live at the Hollywood Bowl album. Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin, oversaw the project at Abbey Road with engineer Sam Okell.

One of the standouts from the original release, which came out in 1977, is "Boys," a Shirelles hit that featured Ringo Starr on vocals. The band performed it on August 23rd, 1964, and the new version captures both they hysteria of the audience as well as the drummer's gritty vocals, his bandmates "bop-shoo-wop" backup vocals and a cutting George Harrison guitar solo. The new mix was taken directly from the original 3-track tapes of the concert.

In 1977, George Martin told Rolling Stone about presenting his mixes of the songs to the Beatles. "John Lennon heard it last week and was delighted with it," he said. "It was a labor of love, like restoring an antique motor-car." At the time he had had to restore the tapes, which had been in storage for over a decade.

"Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago," Giles said in a statement. "Now there's improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be details

Representatives acting on behalf of Ringo Starr have denied claims that he has checked into rehab. The Beatles legend had reportedly admitted himself into a residential rehabilitation clinic to ‘dry out’ before committing himself to a series of autumn tour dates with his All-Starr Band.

Sources claim recovering alcoholic Ringo, 76, had been residing at the facility for a number of weeks as a precautionary measure, telling RadarOnline: ‘As a long-recovering alcoholic, he’s constantly worried about falling off the wagon. That’s his biggest fear. The temptations to drink and do drugs again are all around him, especially when he’s on the road. He wanted to make sure that didn’t happen!’

A spokesperson has since dismissed those claims, insisting the British musician has been enjoying a summer break in coastal California with his wife, the model and actress Barbara Bach. 'The story today about Ringo in rehab is totally untrue,' read an official statement, released on Wednesday. 'Ringo is healthy and happy and has been on holiday with his family in Malibu and sends everyone Peace & Love.'

Ringo has previously spoken candidly abut his battle with alcoholism and details

Despite his stardom with the Beatles, or maybe because of it, George Harrison had an ongoing search for meaning – the meaning of life and of death, and he yearned for a long time for an encounter with someone with the answers.

“I get confused when I look around at the world,” said Harrison during his last public performance before he died in 2001, “and I see everybody is running around and, as Bob Dylan said, ‘He not busy being born is busy dying’, and yet nobody is trying to figure out what’s the cause of death and what happens when you die. That to me is the only thing really that’s of any importance. The rest is all secondary.”

Harrison thought that perhaps no one wanted to talk about what happens after death because no one understood it, but he believed in a ‘knock and the door will be opened’ philosophy. If you want to know anything in this life, he said, you just have to knock on the door.

He acknowledged, however, that getting to the truth was no easy task, and that there is a lot of noise one must get past to find answers. “We’re being barraged by bullshit,” said Harrison. “The answer is how to get peace of details

If you ever wondered who took the clean cut members of the Beatles and turned them into psychedelic, soul searching songwriters, look no further than Bob Dylan. On this date in 1964 (so the story goes), Dylan introduced John, Paul, George, and Ringo to the glories of smoking marijuana.

Dylan, who had just played a show with Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and co. at Forest Hills Stadium, arrived to meet the Beatles at the Delmonico Hotel in New York, and he almost immediately whipped out a joint to smoke with the mop-topped foursome. Manager Brian Epstein announced the band's lack of "experience". While the band relayed stories to Dylan of trying marijuana once in 1960, they said it hadn't worked. Dylan clearly had the goods, as the Beatles would go on to get ridiculous high on that fateful evening in New York.

Dylan had apparently misheard the lyrics to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" as "I get high" instead of "I can't hide", and showed up to meet the Beatles ready to smoke. When John Lennon told him the correct lyrics, Dylan responded incredulously and basically shoved joints in the Beatles' face all night long. Lennon would relive the experience on a later date, remarking, “I don’t remember much what we details

Imagine. John Lennon's killer has been denied parole for a ninth time. Mark David Chapman met with a three-member parole panel during the week and was later informed he will be kept behind bars at least another two years, when he will be next eligible for parole, a state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision official told the Daily News. The official did not know the reasoning behind the decision. But in the past, the Parole Board — even while citing Chapman's clean prison record since 1994 — has routinely said that releasing him would "undermine respect for the law."

A lawyer and spokesman for Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, did not return calls for comment Saturday. Chapman, 61, shot Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, as the famed ex-Beatle and Ono returned to their Dakota building home across from Central Park after a late night recording session. Sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, Chapman currently resides at upstate Wende Correctional Facility.

The News recently reported that since his last parole hearing in 2014, five people sent letters to the Parole Board seeking his release. There were also two letters during that time in opposition to granting Chapman parole.

By: Kenneth Lovett details

It was 50 years ago today on Aug. 29, 1966, that the Beatles played what turned out to be their final ticketed show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. And Nancy Guida, who attended both that show, Paul McCartney's 2014 concert that closed the stadium and shows by others including the Rolling Stones, said there was nothing like a Beatles show.

“To this day, there is nothing like hearing, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles,' she says. “I mean you can't even put in words what it felt like. The energy, I have never felt that at any other concert.” And she said despite the insanity and the screaming at the concerts, she could actually hear the all of the Fab Four sing. Well, almost all of them.

“This is something I would love to tell Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. I could hear them. Even at the Cow Palace, I could hear them. The only time I couldn't hear the Beatles was when Ringo sang. I was screaming my head off and I could still hear them. I knew exactly what they were singing.”

One of the major problems at the 2014 McCartney concert was the traffic gridlock that kept some fans from getting in. But Guida said that problem didn't occur in 1966. “I don't remember at al details

It hung on the walls of the original Cavern for years. But for the past three decades and more, this framed painting of Ringo Starr has lain forgotten at the bottom of a drawer at the home of Hal Morris. Now the former club cleaner has rediscovered the picture, which was drawn by artist Pete Williams in the club itself. And he’s in talks with The Beatles Story to put it on display for Fab Four fans to see. Hal, from Ainsdale, explains: “I understand Ringo sat for Pete Williams in the Cavern, and John Lennon was sitting next to him.

“The picture was framed and screwed to the wall in the club and never left there. “I was a contract cleaner and used to clean in the Cavern and I remember the day it was due to finally close, I went along to collect all my equipment and the builders were just taking things down. “And this builder said to me, do you want this picture? I expect it would have just been put in a skip if I hadn’t taken it.” When Hal, who says he knew the Beatles ‘in the day’, took the back off the frame, he discovered there was a rough sketch of John Lennon on the reverse side of the picture, along with the artist’s signature.

He says he tried to details

A demo of a song The Beatles wrote for Cilla Black has sold for £18,000 at an auction. There was interest from buyers across the globe in the seven-inch Dick James demo disc, which feature a two-minute rendition of It’s For You.

The song was written and recorded on the tape by Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon - but it was written for Cilla Black, who had a top 10 hit with the track in 1964. Long-lost Beatles demo sent to Cilla Black could sell for £20,000 at auction today The lucky buyer was willing to shell out thousands of pounds for a recording that had not been released - which Beatles experts say is extremely rare.

The demo, clocking in at just under two minutes, was sold at the Beatles Memorabilia Auction today at the Unity Theatre. Around 300 rare items are up for sale throughout the day at the 25th annual event, organised by the Beatles Shop on Mathew Street. The Beatles Shop confirmed it had sold for £18,000, after predicting it would fetch between £15-20,000. But the identity of the demo’s new owner is still a mystery at this stage.

The recording was originally posted by the Beatles to Cilla Black when she was performing at the London Palladium in 1964. But details