Beatles News

People might guess Ringo Starr when asked to name the last Beatle to have a No. 1 record. They would be wrong.

One doesn't need a bachelor's degree in Beatlemania to know that Richard Starkey got there (twice in fact) before John Winston Lennon.

Lennon's 1974 recording of "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" came four years after the Fab Four's dissolution. Elton John, then with a global following to match Lennon's, sang backup vocal and both appeared on stage at Madison Square Center that fall -- Lennon paying off a bet that the song would not top out in "Billboard."

The title of Lennon's pole-sitter traces to a comment by Frank Sinatra in a Playboy interview. That while he might disavow belief in God. Sinatra only asked for something to get through the night, though his day might not end until 5 a.m. Options, he said, included "prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel's." An unfiltered pack of Camel cigarettes was slipped inside his coffin upon the singer's 1998 passing.

Ex-Beatle George Harrison penned "Something," the group's first single off the "Abbey Road" (1969) album and which Sinatra, one of its many copiers, called the greatest love singer ever written. Harrison had three solo details

The Beatles, particularly their main songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney, knew how to weave in some enigmatic and loaded lyrics into their music. This list of the five deepest lyrics from The Beatles’ songs is far from exhaustive. However, we think these tidbits from their biggest songs are some of the most underrated examples of stellar songwriting.

1. “The End”

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”

“The End” is an iconic Beatles song with some of the deepest lyrics of their entire discography, namely because the band was basically writing their own epitaphs. The above lyric was McCartney’s contribution. It’s a Shakespearean, philosophical, and existential line that manages to be so simple at the same time.
2. “Strawberry Fields Forever”

“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see”

This lovely little poetic number from Magical Mystery Tour has a number of memorable lyrics, but we think the above line is sorely underrated. Lennon explored his childhood, mind state, depression, and loneliness in this song beautifully. This particular line notes tha details

It was the afternoon of Aug. 26, 1964, an early stop along a tour that would forever change music in America.

It descended upon the main entrance of the Brown Palace, the mass of manic, adolescent humanity flooding into the grand atrium. The papers reported about 5,000 girls converging to meet the four lads from Liverpool, who had arrived earlier to a crowd of thousands more at Stapleton Airport.

The Beatles, donning cowboy hats, leave the plane at Denver’s Stapleton Airport on Aug. 26, 1964, ahead of their show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.  They were bound for Red Rocks Amphitheatre, bound for the next scene of pandemonium that played out at five previous venues in the western U.S. and Vancouver.  It was the Beatles’ first North American tour, and North America seemed ill-prepared.

The Rocky Mountain News editorial implored: “Attention, teenagers of Denver. You have the opportunity of attracting worldwide attention today! Don’t be rowdies. Don’t throw things. ... Don’t kick and elbow. Gird on the self-discipline that is the mark of a true American citizen.”

So much for that.

“7 Hospitalized in Beatles Stampede,” read the head details

Nearly 60 years after The Beatles performed their final concert at Candlestick Park, Beatlemania is back in the Bay. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, and presented exclusively in California at the de Young museum, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm will present more than 250 personal photos by Paul McCartney, video clips, and archival materials, that offer a behind-the-scenes look into the meteoric rise of the world’s most celebrated band.

“In Eyes of the Storm, recently unearthed photographs by Paul McCartney provide a rare time capsule of The Beatles' world at the moment of their extraordinary rise to fame,” remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Well known as one of the world’s most famous musical stars, it is a revelation to discover McCartney’s proficiency as a photographer, documenting everything from the band’s quieter moments and friendships to the ‘Beatlemania’ of the time. We’re honored to present this exhibition here in San Francisco, where The Beatles left an indelible mark on our city's musical and cultural history.”

Source: famsf.org

Las Vegas may have taken the idea of the British Invasion a bit too literally.

Ahead of The Beatles’ concerts here on Aug. 20, 1964, during what was just the second stop on the band’s first North American tour, the Review-Journal warned of “swarms of frenzied teenage girls armed with ballpoint pens and sharp fingernails” as well as “thousands of adolescent females ready to tear down brick walls with their bare hands to get a look at the furry foursome.”

Officers surround the stage. They'd gone through riot training two days before the concerts.

Two days before the shows, sheriff’s deputies went through riot training where they were split into two groups: “one the good guys,” we wrote, “and the other the Beatlemaniacs.” We described this instruction as “an hourlong slugfest” during which “the good guys brandished their clubs and waded right in.”

Juvenile authorities refused to waive the local curfew and vowed to send all their officers to the 9 p.m. show to enforce it. Anyone younger than 18 caught after 10 p.m. without a parent or guardian risked being booked.

Source: Christopher Lawrence/reviewjo details

The hits that The Beatles recorded more than half a century ago still have plenty of life left in them. It’s incredible to see audiences continue to stream, and especially buy, tunes that have been available for decades, but which never seem to fade from public consciousness, no matter how much time passes.

This week, The Beatles nearly returned to the top 10 on one of the songs charts in their home country. They miss out on doing so by just a few spaces, but the fact that they came so close—and with a song that millions have already purchased—is another show of popularity from the biggest band in history.

“From Us To You - 2 March 1964” shoots up the Official Vinyl Singles chart in the U.K. this frame. The single release—which is actually more like an EP, considering the fact that it contains more than half a dozen tracks—bolts from No. 22 to No. 12 on the list of the bestselling songs on vinyl in the country.

The collection is centered around a song—“From Me to You”—which was released in 1963 as a single. The new EP also includes a number of other cuts, rounding it out and making it a must-own for fans. Released earlier this month, the t details

Where were you on the night of Wednesday, Aug 19, 1964? I had just turned 9, and quite likely was at home watching my favorite shows: “The Ozzie and Harriet Show,” “The Patty Duke Show,” then my favorite show of the week, “Shindig.”

However, some 40 miles away at the Cow Palace in Daly City, 17,130 mostly young people were gathered to witness history. That night, The Beatles opened their first tour of the United States.

Sixty years ago this coming Thursday, the Fab Four headlined a show that also had The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon on the bill.

When the Beatles finally took the stage at about 9:20 p.m., the assembled crowd, overwhelmingly young and primarily female, went nuts, out of their minds nuts. Nuts like a crowd had never been nuts before.

The band played a very short set by today’s standards, but it was stopped twice by the police as they need to restore order in the hall after the stage was pelted by jelly beans, a rumored favorite treat of George Harrison. The delays extended the band’s on stage time to 38 minutes.

They played 12 songs:”Twist and Shout,” “You Can&rsq details

A new documentary exploring the time John Lennon and Yoko Ono became daytime talk show hosts is set to hit theaters this fall.

Deadline reports that Daytime Revolution, directed by Erik Nelson, will debut in theaters across the country on Oct. 9, which would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday. It focuses on the week in February 1972 when Lennon and Ono produced and co-hosted the popular daytime talk show The Mike Douglas Show.

According to the description, the film “takes us back in time, as we observe John and Yoko interacting with a transfixed studio audience in revealing Q and A sessions where John Lennon was astonishingly candid about his life after the Beatles.”

Guests during their hosting gig were picked by the pair and included activist Jerry Rubin, Black Panther Bobby Seale and Ralph Nader. There were also musical performances, with Lennon performing a duet with guest Chuck Berry and also performing his classic tune “Imagine.”

Source: wdrv.com

George Harrison didn’t get a plethora of cuts while with the Beatles. Paul McCartney and John Lennon pretty much had a monopoly on the songwriting. However, the cuts he did get proved to be timeless classics. There was one Harrison-penned song in particular that nearly didn’t receive a wide release. Find out which titular Beatles song fans almost missed out on, below.

Meaning Behind “You’re in My Heart' by Rod Stewart and the Famous Girl Who Inspired It
The Beatles Hit George Harrison Almost Didn’t Release: “That’s Too Easy”

“Something” was one of Harrison’s shining moments in the Beatles. It has fascinated guitar players for decades and remains a Beatles staple. Nevertheless, Harrison didn’t believe in the song when it first came to him.

“I just put it on ice for six months because I thought, ‘That’s too easy’,” Harrison once said.

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

This ballad is a little black and white. It has little surprises in its simp details

London-born Angeleno and prominent Beatles expert Martin Lewis will speak on his favorite subject on Friday, 8/23—60 years to the day after the Fabs’ landmark performance at the Hollywood Bowl.

He describes “The Greatest Beatles Story NEVER Told!”—which will take place at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz—as a TED Talk-style event that will recount The Beatles’ conquest of North America, including the band’s breakthrough hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and their pivotal appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which drew a massive audience of 73 million.

Part of the discussion will focus on Brian Epstein, their late manager, “who was both Jewish and gay in England at a time when it was no picnic to be either,” Lewis noted in an email. “I was only one of those two minorities—and that was hard enough.”

“They went viral before there was viral,” Lewis said in an interview with the Jewish Journal. “And this was all thanks to Epstein. No Brian, no Beatles. They said so themselves in different ways while they were together. Without him, they wouldn’t have gotten out of Liverpool. Paul even details

Paul McCartney is set to play Costa Rica for the first time in more than a decade.

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just added a Costa Rica date to his Got Back tour. He will be playing Estadio Nacional in San Jose on Nov. 5.

A ticket presale kicks off Aug. 19 at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public Aug. 24 at 10 a.m.

The last time McCartney performed in San Jose was in May 2014 during his Out There tour, with the show also happening at Estadio Nacional.

The 2024 leg of McCartney’s Got Back tour will kick off Oct. 10 in Uruguay, with confirmed dates in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Europe and the U.K. It wraps with a two-night stand at London’s O2 Arena, Dec. 18 and 19. A complete list of dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.

Source: Real Rock News

The Beatles were more than a rock band. They were a cultural phenomenon. As their music evolved, each individual Beatle began contributing material, and musical differences became inevitable. During the sessions for the White Album, drummer Ringo Starr left the band for two weeks. Shortly thereafter, during the “Get Back” rehearsals, guitarist George Harrison quit the group for five days before he was lured back into the fold. The following year, the band argued about who should handle their business affairs. Paul McCartney urged his bandmates to hire entertainment lawyers Lee and John Eastman, but was outvoted in favor of Allen Klein, who had also represented Sam Cooke and The Rolling Stones.

After recording Abbey Road, John Lennon informed the rest of the group he was leaving The Beatles, but it was unclear if it was permanent. He had already released two albums with Yoko Ono. On April 9, 1970, McCartney put out a press release to announce his first solo album. He stated he was no longer working with the group, and the media jumped on the story with headlines of “Paul Breaks Up The Beatles.” Lawsuits followed, but McCartney had already turned his attention to his solo career. Let’s take a details

New documentaries about Elton John and The Beatles are part of the New York Film Festival’s Spotlight section, which showcases the most notable fall releases.

Elton John: Never Too Late, co-directed by R.J. Cutler and Elton’s husband, David Furnish, follows Elton during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, with the description noting it “offers keen insight into a life and career marked by soaring highs and crushing lows, and contemplates a legacy defined equally by advocacy and artistry.” Elton, Furnish and Cutler are expected to attend the premiere.

Also premiering at the festival is TWST / Things We Said Today, from Romanian director Andrei Ujica, about The Beatles’ 1965 trip to New York to headline Shea Stadium, and Pavements, a “rule-flouting sorta-documentary” about Stephen Malkmus and the band Pavement.

Elton’s doc is getting its U.S. premiere at the festival; it’s already set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15. Meanwhile, TWST / Things We Said Today and Pavements are getting their North American premieres, with both set to debut at the Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.

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When it comes to The Beatles, it was often Paul McCartney and John Lennon who got the most shine. After that duo, George Harrison was considered the next best artist and songwriter. And then there was Ringo Starr, the comic relief, the peace sign-waving, smiling drummer, who often felt like he was put over on the side on a riser and left to his own devices.

But once the former mop tops split up, music fans got to see more of Ringo as a bandleader, songwriter, recording artist, and performer, and much of what he put out into the world was appreciated on a new level. Here below, we wanted to explore three such songs. A trio of tracks from Starr that have since stood the test of time.

When they were with The Beatles, Ringo and George Harrison were known to write songs together, including the hit “Octopus’s Garden.” But here the two collaborated on this single from Starr’s self-titled 1973 LP Ringo. The Gold-selling track, which the two began writing in France in 1971, is about the value of a photograph and how it can sometimes be the last remaining element from an otherwise cherished relationship. Love is beautiful but is also fleeting. And Ringo sings of this fact on the track, offering,

From uneven songwriting credits to incessant in-fighting, the tense interpersonal dynamics of the Fab Four manifested in plenty of ways, including the future George Harrison hit the Beatles ironically rejected. The song was one of countless Harrison suggestions the band ultimately turned down, opting instead to prioritize the creative songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

However, the charts spoke for themselves. The song would later become a No. 1 U.S. hit for the “Quiet Beatle.” This accolade bested his bandmate, John Lennon, by one chart-topping hit.

Five months before the Beatles would make their Ed Sullivan Show debut, sparking a wave of Beatlemania across the States, a still unknown George Harrison visited his sister in rural Illinois. (A roadside memorial marks the early 1960s occasion, one of several unique tributes built in Harrison’s honor.) While there, Harrison perused a local record shop. He picked up Presenting James Ray, which featured “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You” as the first track.

Harrison immediately took to the song and offered it to his bandmates as a potential cover. As the story goes, his bandmates rejected the idea because details