About Beatles Radio.com

The Beatles legend Ringo Starr has a defiant remark when he was asked about approaching a major milestone.

The drummer will mark his 85th birthday next month. However, Ringo appears to take exception whenever someone mentions his age, reports the Daily Mail.  “It’s another birthday. No one does anything these days without mentioning your age,” the former Fab Four member said. 

In recent months fans have commented on Ringo’s “unbelievable” energy during recent live shows. It came as the Yellow Submarine creator impressed them with his onstage antics, reports the Express. Commenting on his performances on social media, one fan wrote: "Ringo Starr at 84-years-old. Unbelievable."

Another expressed their joy that both Ringo and fellow former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney are still performing over 65 years after forming the band. They wrote: “Ringo Starr at 84 is unbelievable. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info 

“I love that he and Paul McCartney are still out ther details

The Beatles' legendary status is undisputed, but there are ongoing debates about their best live performance. Even though they stopped touring in 1966 due to the strain of performing for audiences, Ringo Starr, the band's drummer, and their fans can't seem to agree on the group's top concert.‌

After a brief reunion for an impromptu gig on the roof of Abbey Road studios, The Beatles never returned to a stadium or concert hall following their last tour in 1966. During their controversial US tour, marked by John Lennon's statement that they were "bigger than Jesus," many believe The Beatles gave their most outstanding live performance.

This show is not only considered possibly The Beatles' greatest live spectacle, but it also stands out as one of the first major arena stadium concerts. 

One fan posted online: "I was just thinking about how 'The Beatles at Shea Stadium' was the first ever major concert in an arena stadium. Has anyone seen the film?" On August 11, 1966, The Beatles performed a short setlist of 11 songs at New York's Shea Stadium.

However, these 11 songs have made a significant mark in music history, with many fans declaring them the peak of The Beatles' live performances. Re details

By the time the Beatles called it a day in late 1969, they’d recorded and released more than 200 songs — most of them originals — and left dozens more in the vault. While the bulk of those unissued tracks ranged from rough demos to jams, several were completed recordings that, for one reason or another, they rejected.

Among them was a song that was the first ever written expressly for drummer Ringo Starr: “If You’ve Got Trouble.” Composed by John Lennon for inclusion on 1965’s Help!, the song was a riff-driven rocker built around the I-IV-V chords common to blues and rock. In many respects it bears similarity to a few other Beatles tracks from this period, including “She’s a Woman,” “I’m Down” and “I Feel Fine,” another Lennon-composed riff rocker, albeit one with a great deal more sophistication than “If You’ve Got Trouble.”

From the start of the Beatles’ recording career, Starr was given a vocal spot on each of their albums (except for 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night) in order to please his rabid fan base. It may be hard to fathom today, but for at least the first year of Beatlemania, Starr w details

As the news of Brian Wilson’s passing reverberates around the music world, it’s heartening to know that his contributions are celebrated by artists young and old. Paul McCartney, one of Wilson’s biggest admirers, has called The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” the “greatest song ever written.”

The quote comes from Charles Granata’s 2003 book Wouldn’t it Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, and McCartney reiterated his affection for the song in a 2007 interview with BBC Radio 1, where he discussed why “God Only Knows” means so much to him. “It’s one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it,” McCartney said. “It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian.” (For what it’s worth, we agree with his assessment.)

McCartney’s respect for Wilson extends beyond just “God Only Knows.” Over the years, he’s often reflected on how Wilson’s musical innovations shaped his own work with The Beatles. “Brian Wilson sort of proved himself to be a really amazing composer,” McCartn details

 Yesterday, the Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson died aged 82, as celebrity tributes poured in. Both surviving Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr, were influenced by the Californian’s music and knew him personally. Now the 82-year-old and almost 85-year-old have paid tribute on social media with pictures of him.

Macca wrote: “Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special. The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time. I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while. How we will continue without Brian Wilson, ‘God Only Knows’. Thank you, Brian. - Paul”

Meanwhile, Ringo added: “God bless Brian Wilson. Peace and love to all his family. Ringo.”

Source: express.co.uk

Growing up as the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr wasn't the easiest for drummer Zak Starkey.

The ex-Oasis drummer, 59 - who was recently sacked from The Who - said he struggled to get the approval from his father when performing in front of him.

Zak admitted the rock 'n' roll legend, 84, would often brutally slate his drumming skills and say 'the most cutting f****** s***'.

Speaking to The Sun about their relationship, Zak reflected: 'My dad never opened the doors for me. 'He’d watch me and say the most cutting f****** s***. But he is the greatest rock ’n’ roll drummer in the world. He’s better now than he was then.'

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.  Growing up as the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr, 84, wasn't the easiest for drummer Zak Starkey, 59 (pictured together in 2016)

The ex-Oasis drummer - who was recently sacked from The Who - said he struggled to get the approval from his father when performing in front of him. Zak also insisted there is 'no grudge' with his former The Who bandmates after he was sacked last month.

In early June 1969, the Beatles scored what would be their last No. 1 song (which also happened to be one of their most controversial) before their split later that year. Interestingly, only two of the Fab Four are on the track, signaling the fractures that would dismantle the band as a whole months later.

Paul McCartney recalled John Lennon being in an “impatient” mood when the latter Beatle brought the song to his bandmate. “I was happy to help,” McCartney would later say. Based on the song’s chart performance, everyone else was happy to hear it. 

By the time (some of) the Beatles got into the studio at Abbey Road to start recording “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” they were already on the verge of splitting up for good. As the title would suggest, John Lennon was well into his relationship with Yoko Ono, having recently married her two months prior to the recording session in March 1969. Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were also branching out individually. In fact, the bandmates’ separation was the impetus for only Lennon and McCartney recording the track in the first place.

“By the time we came to record Abbey Road and Let It B details

John Lennon is considered by many to be a poet. But the Beatle revealed his more prosaic side in a letter penned in 1962 to his future wife Cynthia Powell, in which he declared: “I wish I was on the way to your flat with the Sunday papers and chocies and a throbber.”

The intimate missive, which includes a complaint about his bandmate Paul McCartney’s snoring, is now being sold at auction by Christie’s with a £30,000 to £40,000 estimate.

Written over five nights after concerts during their Hamburg residency in April 1962, Lennon, then aged 21, wrote: “I love love love you and I’m missing you like mad … I wish I was on the way to your flat with the Sunday papers and chocies and a throbber.

“I wonder why all the newspapers wrote about Stu … I haven’t seen Astrid since the day we arrived I’ve thought of going to see her but I would be so awkward.

“Paul’s leaping about on my head (he’s in a bunk on top of me and he’s snoring) … Shurrup Mcarntey [sic]!”

Source: theguardian.com/Jamie Grierson

details

She's Leaving Home was one of the most spellbinding moments on the Beatles’ 1967 magnum opus Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A heartstring-tugging document of coming of age angst, its sweeping orchestral arrangement supported a lyric that was inspired by a very real story.

The Paul McCartney-penned narrative gently expanded on a young girl’s decision to leave her stuffy, conservative parents’ home and - at Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock (as the day begins) - sneaks out to join the man (from the motor trade) that she was going to start her new life with.

Marrying sentiment with rebellion, She's Leaving Home balances a sympathetic, and nostalgic, longing for the past with the increasing rejection of conservatism then rife within 1960s youth culture.

This was characterised by its parent-perspective chorus lyric - sung in typically spine-tingling fashion by John Lennon.

We're not the first to say it, and we won't be the last, but it's wonderful stuff all round.  But the unlikely, fateful layers behind its origin deepen its magic…

Firstly, there's that newspaper story that McCartney based his lyric on. Within the February 27th 1967 edition of the details

On This Day, June 11, 2002…

Beatles legend Paul McCartney married his second wife, Heather Mills, a former model and activist, whose leg was amputated in 1993 after she was run over by a police motorcycle in London.

The couple wed at Castle Leslie in the village of Glaslough in County Monaghan, Ireland, with the celebration attended by several celebrities, including McCartney’s Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr.

The wedding took place four years after the death of McCartney’s first wife, Linda McCartney, from cancer.

McCartney and Mills welcomed their first and only child together, daughter Beatrice, in 2003, and three years later announced they had separated, with their acrimonious divorce finalized in 2008.

McCartney went on to marry a third time, to New Yorker Nancy Shevell, in 2011. They are still married to this day.

Source: everettpost.com/ABC News

History is rarely kind to the third voice in a group that changed the world. But George Harrison didn’t just leave The Beatles in 1970 — he arrived.

And arrive he did with All Things Must Pass, a sprawling, audacious triple album that served as both a catharsis and a declaration. Central to that project was My Sweet Lord, a track that remains — five decades on — a towering moment in solo Beatles history. A spiritual lament disguised as a pop song. A cross-cultural anthem that dared to blend gospel exultation with Eastern devotion. A transcendent piece of music that, as it happened, may not have been entirely original.

Harrison wrote My Sweet Lord in Copenhagen in December 1969 during a creative burst on tour with Delaney & Bonnie. Surrounded by fellow believers in music’s power — Billy Preston, Eric Clapton — Harrison began piecing together a track that was less “boy meets girl” and more “soul meets divinity.” Its DNA was gospel, its mantra was Krishna. The chords were Preston’s, the “hallelujahs” came from Delaney Bramlett. Harrison brought the sincerity. “I don’t feel guilty or bad about it,” he would late details

Brimming with an overflow of material, The Beatles uncorked The White Album in 1968. Technically titled The Beatles, it was the first and only double album that they’d release in their career.

The White Album offers just about every type of music imaginable over the course of its four sides. It also offers some fantastic factoids and trivial information about its making, including these five juicy tidbits. 

The Beatles started writing many of the songs for The White Album while on retreat in India in 1968, learning meditation at the foot of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. As such, several songs were thinly veiled depictions of actual events from the camp and the people involved in them. “Dear Prudence” referenced Prudence Farrow (sister of actress Mia) and her refusal to come out of her tent. “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” was a jibe at a gung-ho hunter within the entourage. And “Sexy Sadie” was originally titled “Maharishi”. The song reflected how John Lennon ultimately felt let down by the “Giggling Guru”. 

Many, including certain Beatles themselves, have pointed to the White Album sessions as the beginning of the end for t details

During the pandemic, Ian Leslie wrote a Substack essay called “64 Reasons to Celebrate Paul McCartney,” arguing that despite his accomplishments, the ex-Beatle was underrated. But he didn’t delve much into McCartney’s relationship with John Lennon, writing, “I’m trying to keep this essay-length and that subject, inexhaustibly fascinating, is a book in itself.”

Inspired by this, Leslie went and wrote that book: “John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs.” Despite a seemingly endless parade of Beatles books, Leslie offers a fresh take, telling the story of the band through the duo’s relationship and the story of their relationship through the songs they were singing.

 In a video interview from London, Leslie said most previous tomes recount the facts of the story without doing the music justice – “which is what this is all about and you can’t understand them without understanding the music” – or failed to explore the pair’s relationship “with depth or emotional intelligence.”

He was initially hesitant to pitch a book, since he wasn’t a music writer. Still, as a journalist, he’d written details

The Beatles are often hailed as geniuses of pop, but John Lennon shrugged off grandiose claims about his talent.

Loading your audio article

Loading audio...

The Beatles were legends in their own lifetime.

Countless books were written about the band in the decade they were together. Many more have been written in the 55 years since the breakup.

Were The Beatles in Disney's classic movie The Jungle Book?

How The Beatles became the ultimate Motown band

Arguably the best is Hunter Davies's The Beatles: The Authorised Biography.

The only authorised account of the band written while they were a going concern, Davies published the book in 1968 having spent 18 months with the group, speaking extensively with the band themselves as well as thei friends, family and associates.

While the book is the origin of many of the now-canonical stories about The Beatles, it's written with a rare mix of respect and distance that, together with its contemporaneous nature, sets it apart from most other biographies.

So many Beatles bios focus on the musical genius of the Fab Four, painting the group – and especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney &n details

For the most part, the Beatles had a keen sense of which member should take on lead vocals. Most of their catalog feels right and just–every member playing to their strengths. However, there are a few songs that could’ve done well with a switcharoo. Below, find three Beatles songs that arguably beg for a different frontman.

“When I’m Sixty Four”

While “When I’m Sixty Four” screams “Paul McCartney”, it would have an entirely different tone if Ringo Starr were to have been the lead vocalist. From McCartney’s point-of-view, this Beatles song is a syrupy-sweet mark of devotion. Like many of his best tracks, “When I’m Sixty Four” sees McCartney wear his heart on his sleeve when he sings, Will you still need me, will you still feed me / When I’m sixty-four? If this song had been given to Starr, it would’ve been a light-hearted tune, akin to “Yellow Submarine”. It would’ve been given a shot of humor–one that would’ve likely helped this song in its heyday. Many, like John Lennon, felt this tune was a little too schmaltzy for the Beatles. Starr’s irreverent take would’ve helped to cut details

Everyone knows John, Paul, George, and Ringo — the Beatles who rocked the world. But behind every great band is a squad of secret weapons, the unsung legends who kept the magic alive. Meet the “Fifth Beatles”: the managers, musicians, and mates who played crucial roles in the Fab Four’s rise to superstardom. From early bandmates to behind-the-scenes masterminds, their stories are just as fascinating as the music itself.

Stuart Sutcliffe
The Beatles’ original bassist and close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe was as much a visual architect of the band’s early image as he was a musician. His moptop hairstyle set the style for the band, even if his playing was less than polished. Sadly, he left the band early and passed away young.

Pete Best
Drummer before Ringo, Pete Best toured and played with the Beatles during their crucial Hamburg and Liverpool days. Despite being replaced just before their big break, Best’s role in the band’s development is undeniable, earning him a solid claim to the title.

Chas Newby
A temporary bassist who filled in briefly after the band returned from Germany, Newby played a handful of shows before returning to univers details

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MSUCG) announced the opening of the exhibition Yoko Ono called “Unfinished”, scheduled for Thursday, June 19th at 20 p.m., in the exhibition spaces of the Petrović Palace and the Perjanički dom in Kruševac, Podgorica. The exhibition curators are Maša Vlaović, Gunar B. Kvaran and Connor Monahan.

Yoko Ono is one of the key figures of avant-garde and conceptual art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her work knows no boundaries; it moves fluidly between experiment, performance, poetry, music and film, while her tireless social and political activism, especially in the field of women's rights and peace initiatives, forms the core of her work.

Her art breaks down traditional boundaries between artistic disciplines and rejects the passive role of the audience, inviting each individual to become an active participant, co-creator, and agent of change.
A wide spectrum of creativity

From her early “instructional works” from the 1950s, through performances and films that call for collective action, to contemporary installations, Yoko Ono builds an authentic artistic language in which the personal and the universal, the poetic and details

The Beatles' fans were left stunned by the revelation that John Lennon and Paul McCartney almost reunited for an album post Fab Four's split.  The legendary songwriting duo had entertained the notion of collaborating on a fresh record in the 1970s.

Wings, spearheaded by McCartney following his departure from the Beatles, was busy crafting a new album at the same time Lennon mulled over an impromptu studio reunion with his former writing partner partner.  Had he attended the studio with McCartney it would have been an occasion which would have marked their first joint effort since The Beatles disbanded.

However, the stars never aligned, and Lennon and McCartney never shared the recording studio again. Fans have only recently discovered how close the pair came to working together once more.

If Lennon had joined McCartney at the recording sessions, his involvement would have likely been some of the tracks of 'Venus and Mars', Wings' milestone album now celebrating 50 years since its release.  A fan shared on the r/PaulMcCartney subreddit: "On this day in 1975, Wings released 'Venus and Mars'. As the follow-up to 'Band on the Run', the album continued Wings' run of commercial success.

details

Kiss have firmly left their stamp on the world of glam rock, but they carved out their sound thanks to the music legends that came before them. In fact, Gene Simmons insists that rock and roll wouldn’t be the same today without The Beatles.

Speaking on The School Of Greatness, the Kiss bassist named The Beatles as some of the greatest musicians and songwriters in musical history. “The Beatles are above and beyond anything that anybody’s seen in music over, oh, 200 years?” he says. “Easily. Not since the Renaissance.”

As proof of the band’s genius, he points to how unlikely it was for a group of lads from Liverpool to succeed in the industry. “You have to understand, they only existed for seven years and they came from a place that was a pool filled with liver – Liverpool – where nothing ever happened,” he explains. “High unemployment rate, no experience, no resume, no nothing!”

Despite the circumstances, The Beatles were able to toy with music in a way few had before them. “‘I wanna hold your hand’, ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,’” he sings as evidence. “That last chord, that minor n details

The sheer magnitude of the Beatles’ fame makes it easy to forget that when they first reached the peak of their stardom in the mid-1960s, they were just a group of ragtag, young 20-somethings who happened to land a big break. When the future Fab Four first met, they were even younger teens. For most of us, the idea of forging an entire career (and, more generally, a life) with the people we hung out with in high school. Yet, that’s how the Beatles, one of the biggest rock bands of all time, got their start.

Indeed, before they were topping the charts and touring the world, the band’s primary songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, were busy trying to see what kind of trouble they could get into at their childhood homes.

And like the resourceful lads they were, they certainly found it. Paul McCartney Describes “Teenage Fool Antics” With John Lennon

The Beatles saw and did more exciting and wilder things during their short tenure as a band than most people will experience in their whole lifetimes. But before they got their big break in the early 1960s, they weren’t that different from any other aspiring young male musician. They taught each other chords, made up sil details

How George Harrison (subconsciously) borrowed a love song from The Chiffons to make something spiritual.

While he always had his fans, it's fair to say that as a singer and songwriter, George Harrison was somewhat overshadowed in The Beatles by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.  Despite writing some of the best songs of the decade, poor George only squeezed 22 songs into the Beatles back catalogue, compared to over 160 by the Lennon-McCartney partnership.

How George Harrison saved Monty Python's Life of Brian film from being axed. How The Beatles' George Harrison coined "grotty" and deconstructed influencer culture in 1964.  He made up for that in the immediate aftermath of the split, releasing the TRIPLE album All Things Must Pass in late 1970.

That album was trailed by the single 'My Sweet Lord', which has remained one of the biggest post-Beatles song by any of the band, 55 years after the break-up. But do you know what track George "subconsciously" borrowed from for the song, or where it got in the charts? Read on for everything you need to know about 'My Sweet Lord'. Who wrote and played on 'My Sweet Lord'?

He started writing the song in December 1969 in wonderful, wonderful Copenhage details

Many uncertainties marked The Beatles‘ career. Though, there was one thing that was rarely, if ever, uncertain, and that was where they were going to record. For a devout music fan, it is common knowledge that The Beatles’ home base was EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London. The Beatles did, in fact, record some of their music elsewhere. However, the majority of it was recorded and produced at the iconic studio. Well, on this day, June 6, 1962, The Beatles found their home as they recorded at Abbey Road for the very first time.

Abbey Road is a renowned studio and has been used by musicians such as Sturgill Simpson, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and many more. However, its acclaim and majesty would not be known if it weren’t for The Beatles. The studio is synonymous with the Fab Four’s illustrious career. And consequently, it is both a monument and a sacred space. However, that would not be the case if it weren’t for Brian Epstein’s tenacity and George Martin’s willingness to give The Beatles a shot at success.
The Day The Beatles Found Their Home

In 1962, The Beatles were on the cusp of success. That being said, their manager, Brian Epstein, had pitched the band to every maj details

Micky Dolenz and Paul McCartney came together in the ’60s.

The Monkees drummer, 80, is looking back at the first time he met the Beatle, 82, decades ago.

“The first Beatle I met was Paul [McCartney], the night before at dinner at his house,” Dolenz told People in an interview published Wednesday. “I’d gone over to England to do a press junket, just myself. As it turned out, a publicist got involved and made it a ‘Monkee Meets Beatle’ thing at Paul’s house for dinner. Just me, him and Martha the sheepdog.”

From what transpired next, it seems like the fellow musicians quickly formed a friendship.

“He invited me to Abbey Road [studios] the next day,” recalled Dolenz. “I don’t even know if he told me the name at the time, but they were working on ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ I just about peed in my pants, but I’m trying to be cool. I got all dressed up thinking … I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I guess I thought it was gonna be some sort of Beatlemania fun-fest freakout psycho-jello happening thing,” the singer confessed. “So I got dressed up in paisley bell bottoms and t details

The Beatles Song That Reunited John, Paul, George, and Ringo

Then, John Lennon brought in a song that changed the game. Happiness Is a Warm Gun forced the members to work together and rekindle the magic that made them great in the first place. The complexity of the song made it difficult to get through, but the Fab Four came out of it with their enthusiasm renewed. It was one of Paul McCartney's favorite songs, and every fan has a soft spot for it.

When they got back from India, the Beatles set to work on their eponymous double album, commonly known as the White Album, but despite their productivity, their relationship only got progressively worse as the sessions went on. On his return from India, John Lennon officially left his first wife, Cynthia, and got into a relationship with Yoko Ono. As fans know, the couple became inseparable, with Lennon bringing her over to the recording sessions with him, which no other member of the band did with their partners. Ono's presence in the studio was uncomfortable for all the other Beatles, and they frequently got into arguments about it.
The Beatles_ Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years - 2016

Paul McCartney believes this one John Lennon song he details

Ringo Starr has insisted he got by with help from his friends when it comes to drumming. The Beatle says he didn’t become a top drummer through practice, but simply by constant performing with pals. The Fab Four beat man described prepping moves at his home alone as “boring" and never took lessons.‌

Ringo, 84, admitted that his work behind the kit improved because he just went out and played shows. And at that started as a teenager working in a school equipment factory playing with pals to workers during lunch breaks. Asked whether he spent hours in his bedroom or having lessons to become so good behind the kit, Ringo confessed: “I didn't. I hate practicing.

‌“I hated sitting there. I tried it when I first got the kit upstairs in the back room like in all those movies that were made. And it was the most boring thing ever.  "I did all my learning with other musicians, other bands. I was lucky because there were a lot of us around and we weren't all great players. We were all learning.

 “So I learned everything with everyone else at that time in Liverpool."   Ringo got lucky by having pals who loved to do jam sessions during lunchtimes at their lo details