Beatles News

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

Alan Parsons reflected on the time working as an engineer for The Beatles, revealing what this experience was really like.

Before making a name as an artist with The Alan Parsons Project, young Alan started his career as an engineer. During the 1960s and the 1970s, he had the chance to work with none other than The Beatles and Pink Floyd, two of the most influential rock bands of all time. The experience was, without a doubt, more than valuable for his career as Alan goes down in rock music history as one of the most important figures.

Of course, if you've worked with The Beatles, it's impossible to avoid questions about the experience. Speaking to Rick Beato in a recent interview, Alan Parsons opened up on the experience, confirming what most of us might have expected.

"It was The Beatles — of course it was historic," Alan said with a laugh when Rick asked about the matter (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). "But no, I was enjoying every minute. And I said, 'Thank you. This is the this is the greatest experience I've ever had.'"

Source: Ultimate Guitar

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The Beatles still stand as one of the most successful musical acts of all time in their home country of the U.K. Despite the fact that the band has only released a handful of tunes in the past half-century since they first split, they remain forces to be reckoned with on the weekly rankings, as fans in England continue to stream and buy everything the group released.

This week, The Beatles are present once again on a number of charts in the U.K. The Fab Four even manage to collect a pair of top 40 wins on the same ranking—at the same time.

On the Official Physical Singles chart–the U.K.’s list of the bestselling individual tunes released on a physical format–The Beatles claim a pair of spots. That’s an impressive showing for a group that many know as one from another era.

The Beatles’ highest-ranking hit on the Official Physical Singles chart this week is “From Us To You - 2 March 1964.” That project–which is actually an EP that features several songs, including the title track “From Us To You”—appears at No. 18 this frame. Last week, it was down at No. 29.

Further down on the same ranking comes another tune from the same bel details

Every Beatles fan — and there are a lot of them, from casual to hardcore — has an opinion on when the Fab Four of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were at their best, from their mainstream pop success to their psychedelic era. Narrowed down from more than 200 recorded songs, we agreed on these top timeless tunes.

Read on for the complete list of our favorites, from best to, well, 50th best.
1. "A Hard Day's Night" (1964, A Hard Day's Night)
The Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' album cover.

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More than 50 years after this single hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, it's still nearly impossible to get any two people to agree on what chord that famous opening clang! actually is. But with one majestic, mysterious Rickenbacker distress call, the Beatles as we first met them on The Ed Sullivan Show four months earlier were gone. They'd grown up. The lads had become unwitting passengers on a speeding locomotive they'd never be able to disembark from, and the song's title hints at that weariness. It's right there in the opening scene of the 1964 film that bears the same name, as John, Paul, George, and Ringo are chased by a mob of scream details

They were the biggest band in the world, but they certainly weren’t above criticism. In fact, you could argue that The Beatles invited more scrutiny than their rock band peers. Because of their track record, much was expected them with each new song and album.

John Lennon was always a bit sensitive to that criticism, especially when he believed it was unwarranted or unfair. Occasionally, he came out swinging in interviews to defend himself and the group. That certainly was the case when it came to the “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” a song he penned that the band released in 1969 on their final studio album Abbey Road.

The Beatles did a ton to advance the art of lyric writing in pop and rock music. They were influenced by the early albums of Bob Dylan, an artist who proved the pop form could withstand adult themes and complex, personal writing. Because of their popularity, the Fab Four’s efforts to push their lyrical boundaries in turn influenced just about every other band and artist that competed with them in the ’60s.

John Lennon was responsible for much of this advancement. Songs like “In My Life,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Strawberry F details

When you think of John Lennon from The Beatles, you’re likely to picture him with his circular, wire-rimmed glasses.

But at times, he wore contact lenses, or at least he tried to. They kept pinging out of his eyes.

Why and what Lennon did to help his contacts stick is part history and part vision science.

As I propose in my paper, it also involved smoking a lot of pot.

Lennon didn’t like wearing glasses

Before 1967, Lennon was rarely seen in public wearing glasses. His reluctance to wear them started in childhood when he was found to be shortsighted at about the age of seven.

Nigel Walley was Lennon’s childhood friend and manager of The Quarrymen, the forerunner to The Beatles. Walley told the BBC,"He was as blind as a bat – he had glasses but he would never wear them. He was very vain about that."

In 1980, Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine,"I spent the whole of my childhood with […] me glasses off because glasses were sissy."

Even during extensive touring during Beatlemania (1963–66), Lennon never wore glasses during live performances, unlike his hero Buddy Holly.

Then Lennon tried contacts … ping! Roy Orbison&r details

The music world clamored for a Beatles reunion almost immediately following the group’s official breakup in 1970. When John Lennon died in 1980, that didn’t really slow the reunion fervor all that much, as folks hoped the three living members might once again play together on a live stage.

The Beatles Anthology project in 1995, which included studio recordings done by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in conjunction with old John Lennon demos, was as close as we’d ever come to witnessing a full-scale Beatles reunion. But eight years before, two of the three remaining members came together on a stage for a good cause, as Harrison and Starr performed together at the Prince’s Trust benefit concert in 1987. It almost didn’t happen, though, simply because of how wary the two men were of raising everyone’s expectations that a more substantial reunion might be in the offing.

In June 1986, a “birthday party” concert for the charity was held at Wembley Stadium, and it featured an all-star assortment of artists, including Paul McCartney. The event was such a success that another benefit concert was scheduled for the following year. In the wake of Live Aid just details

When you’re as prolific of recording artists as the Beatles, some sessions are bound to be less enjoyable than others, like the Beatles songs Ringo Starr said was the “worst track we ever had to record.” The divisive song was a Paul McCartney song he originally wrote for their eponymous ‘White Album.’ However, time constraints pushed it back to Abbey Road.

As difficult as the recording sessions were for Ringo, he could at least take solace in the fact that he wasn’t the only Beatle who felt that way.  Ringo Starr Called This Song “The Worst Track”

“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is the third track off the Beatles’ iconic 1969 record Abbey Road. The jangly, jaunty tune about a hammer-wielding murderer named Maxwell Edison has become one of the most easily recognizable tracks in the Beatles’ discography. Still, that doesn’t mean it was anything close to a hit with a band.

Paul McCartney’s song proved to be rather vexing for the rest of the Fab Four. This included drummer Ringo Starr, who told Rolling Stone in 2008 that the time they spent cutting the song was “the worst session ever. It was the worst track we eve details

When The Beatles started out they were famously recast by manager Brian Epstein as four boys next door, their suits and mop top haircuts quickly varnishing over their raw rock ‘n’ roll roots. As time moved on, however, those roots showed through – sometimes in unexpected ways.

Take ‘Sun King’. A classic moment from the band’s final album ‘Abbey Road’, it was initially called ‘Here Comes The Sun King’ – before having its title shortened, to avoid confusion with George Harrison’s classic ‘Here Comes The Sun’.

Very much a group effort, the root for ‘Sun King’ owes a debt to Fleetwood Mac, then in their blues rock phase. Perhaps the biggest band in the country at the time, The Beatles lifted aspects of the guitar sound on No. 1 single ‘Albatross’ and turned it into their own.

George Harrison commented in 1987: “At the time, ‘Albatross’ (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, ‘Let’s be Fleetwood Mac doing ‘Albatross’, just to get going.’ It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin.&rdqu details

Of all the songs that the BBC banned during the heyday of The Beatles, this particular ban is the most understandable. At the very least, it’s understandable in the context of the 1960s and what was considered taboo at the time.

This particular song that the BBC banned was “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” from The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” is one of the Fab Four’s most recognizable songs of their career. It was also one of their most thinly veiled references to the psychedelic drug LSD. The title of the song spells out “LSD”. The lyrics also make poetic connections to the substance, too.  The BBC Ban of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” by The Beatles Was Understandable at the Time

“Picture yourself in a boat on a river / With tangerine trees and marmalade skies / Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly / A girl with kaleidoscope eyes” are just a few of many obvious references in the song.

Mentioning a psychedelic drug in a song wouldn’t make most people blush nowadays. Still, the BBC was pretty strict about banning such songs in the 1960 details