"Abbey Road" album sales surged 200%, returning to four major Billboard charts. Vinyl purchases largely fueled the resurgence, highlighting ongoing interest in physical formats. The album nears 500 weeks on Billboard 200, proving The Beatles’ enduring appeal.

More than 55 years after its release, The Beatles‘ iconic “Abbey Road” is proving that great music never goes out of style. The legendary 1969 album just experienced a remarkable surge in popularity, with sales jumping nearly 200% in a single week and landing back on four different Billboard charts.

According to Luminate data, “Abbey Road” sold just over 4,800 copies in the most recent tracking period—a dramatic increase from fewer than 1,700 copies the week before. The surge sent the album soaring back onto multiple rankings, reminding music lovers everywhere why The Beatles remain one of the most influential bands in history.

The album’s comeback was largely fueled by vinyl purchases, with “Abbey Road” reentering at No. 7 on the Vinyl Albums chart and No. 18 on the Top Album Sales chart. The resurgence shows that physical music formats, especially vinyl records, continue details

When it comes to Sir Paul McCartney, who packed in just shy of 45,000 fans of all ages to his Alamodome concert on Saturday, the numbers and Father Time don’t lie.

It’s been nearly 70 years since he befriended John Lennon.
Big screens give fans throughout the 'dome a close-up look at what was happening onstage.

Big screens give fans throughout the 'dome a close-up look at what was happening onstage.
Marvin Pfeiffer/San Antonio Express-News

It’s been 60 years since the Beatles released the albums “Help!” and “Rubber Soul.” The following year, the Fab Four stop touring.

Article continues below this ad

It’s been nearly 50 years since his “Wings Over America” tour launched in Texas and marked the first time McCartney had performed in the U.S. since 1966 with the Beatles.

It’s been more than 30 years since he became the first act to play the Alamodome in May 1993.

And it’s been almost 20 years since Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone that he was in awe of Paul McCartney.

No need to stop counting: The 83-year-old McCartney is still awesome.

Article continues below this ad
People rec details

The humility that Ringo Starr has always promoted in his public persona belies the fact that this guy is a hitmaker. For a while in the early to mid-70s, Starr proved more reliable than his Beatle bandmates when it came to denting the charts.

His biggest hits are contained within a relatively short period of time. Here are the five songs released by Ringo that did the best on the US pop charts.
5. “Oh My My” – No. 5 in 1974

Ringo Starr grabbed the world’s collective ear and held it tight on his 1973 album Ringo. The LP was notable for having the other three Beatles all contributing to it. Even beyond that, a slew of top session men eagerly helped. It’s a testament to the goodwill Ringo had fostered among musicians. On “Oh My My”, that included Billy Preston and Klaus Voorman, both members of the Fab 4 extended family, as well as Jim Keltner doubling up the drums with Starr. Vini Poncia, who’d go on to collaborate with Starr often throughout the years, co-wrote the boisterous track.
4. “It Don’t Come Easy” – No. 4 in 1971

Instead of jumping right into the pop music wars in the wake of The Beatles’ breakup, Ringo Starr details

The Beatles legend Ringo Starr is looking back on his incredible career in a new episode of "On The Red Carpet: ICONS."

"Every generation listens to our music," he said.  The 85-year-old drummer and singer has been a superstar since the 1960s, when he and bandmates John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison became one of the most successful and influential bands of all time.

This year, 55 years after The Beatles broke up, they won their latest Grammy for the song, "Now and Then." "We have sold records and streams now, a billion streams a week or whatever, forever!" Ringo told On The Red Carpet. "It still carries on."

All of his success is even more amazing when you consider Ringo had to overcome childhood illnesses that nearly killed him. "Three times they told me, I'll be dead in the morning," Ringo explained. "So, I think the universe had some sort of plan for me."

Recently, that plan has included an ongoing tour with his popular supergroup, "Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band," and this year, a number one country album, "Look Up."  "I love the atmosphere of 'Look Up,'" Ringo said. "We're not looking down all the time. Let's look up. It's much better for you. details

Sam Mendes’s quartet of Beatles biopics are the cinematic equivalent of a distant asteroid headed steadily towards Earth. They’re a few years from impact—a 2028 release date is pencilled in—but when they hit, they’ll be big. Legendary playwright Jez Butterworth and Adolescence creator Jack Thorne are among the writers. Mendes, who is directing all four films, each told from the point of view of one of the Fab Four, has full rights to their life stories and the all-important song catalog. And he has a crack team of young stars playing the leads: Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

What about everyone else in the Beatles Cinematic Universe—the friends, lovers and collaborators? The band’s story has loomed over pop culture from the 1960s to the present; read any Beatles biography, and you’ll see they have Kevin Bacon-like powers of ubiquity.

Some of the supporting roles have been confirmed, or almost confirmed. As per reporting from Variety, Saoirse Ronan is playing Linda McCartney, Macca’s first wife; How to Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce will be Starr’s fir details

There’s eating crow, and then there’s the Swedish music critic who once claimed The Beatles were a band of “no musical importance whatsoever” in 1963. A pop reviewer for Karlstad newspaper, Nya Wemlands Tidning, attended an early Fab Four concert in a secondary school hall in 1963. This show predated the band’s historic television debut in the States by several months. The young quartet was still cutting their teeth around Europe, hardly at the level of fame they would come to enjoy in the next several years. And as they learned the day after their Karlstad show, part of cutting one’s teeth in the entertainment industry is getting a lousy review.

And the Nya Wemlands Tidning review was lousy. According to Mark Lewisohn’s Complete Beatles Chronicle, the reviewer “thought the Beatles terrible, their music corny, and their playing out of rhythm, adding that the group should have been grateful the fans’ screams helped drown out their awful performance, and then he concluded by stating that The Beatles were of no musical importance whatsoever and that their local support group, The Phantoms, decidedly outshone them.”

Of course, Beatlemanic Swedes would have details

Ahead of the highly-anticipated release of their forthcoming Anthology 4, The Beatles have shared a new version of their song “I’ve Just Seen A Face.

Released in 1965 and written by Paul McCartney, the track originally appeared on the group’s album Help—although in North America, it was first released on their record Rubber Soul. The ode to love at first sight has since been covered by the likes of Brandi Carlile, The Dillards, George Martin, Holly Cole and McCartney’s band Wings. In fact, it was among the first Beatles songs Wings played live, and appears on their 1976 live album Wings Over America.

This version of “I’ve Just Seen A Face” is just some of the new material set to appear on Anthology 4 upon its release on November 21st. Curated and remastered by Giles Martin, Anthology 4 will feature 13 unreleased demos, rare sessions from 1963-1969, and new mixes from their original producer Jeff Lynne. Earlier this year, they shared a new mix of “Free As A Bird,” alongside a restored music video. On October 14th, a 25th-anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology was also released by Apple Corps Ltd. and Chronicle Books—it contains more than 1,30 details

More than five decades after The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney is finally sharing how it really felt to walk away from the band that changed music and his life forever.

The Beatles — made up of McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — broke up in 1970 due to a combination of factors, including growing creative differences, the death of their manager Brian Epstein and a major dispute over their new manager, Allen Klein. McCartney publicly announced his departure in April 1970, and Lennon had privately told the others he was leaving in September 1969. The band was officially and legally separated by December 1974.

The famous English rock band began with McCartney and Lennon in 1956, then Harrison joined in 1957 and Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best later on. In 1960, they adopted their name, The Beatles. A year later, Sutcliffe left the group, and by 1962, the band signed a recording contract and replaced Best with Starr. In their decade of taking over the music industry, they released 12 studio albums and multiple tours. By 1964, they were international stars who reached unprecedented levels of success.

On Nov. 4, McCartney will release his new memoir, Wings: The Story of a Band, details

Even if Paul McCartney had permanently hung up his instruments after the dissolution of the Beatles, he’d still be regarded as one of the best songwriters in rock history. Watch him in the invaluable eight-hour documentary Get Back, and you’ll see a meticulous 26-year-old leader who’s constantly writing, revising, rearranging, and pushing his bandmates (no slouches themselves) to elevate a song from merely perfect to immortal. So what else is there to do after reinventing pop music forever before even turning 30?

Apparently, you run away to a desolate Scottish sheep farm and plot a second chapter for the ages. As McCartney writes below in the foreword to his upcoming book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, a funny narrative was forming around himself and his new wife, Linda: They’d traded Swinging ’60s London for sleepy ’70s Scotland, yet the rest of the world thought Paul was simply dead. In reality, he was working on his new life. His next decade would bring on an ambitious new band, endless trips around the world, and ten albums that would grow to be, among later generations, as beloved as his previous band’s records. It would also involve headline-grabbing controversies details

Though they typically kept it light, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had a rivalry in their heyday that echoes in their respective fandoms to this day. There wasn’t any major fueding, and they ultimately respected each other. However, there were a few occasions when their beef was taken seriously. There was one night when Paul McCartney purposefully attempted to upstage The Stones at their own party.

The Stones were gearing up to release Beggars Banquet in the late ’60s when they hosted a party at a club owned by their friend, Tony Sanchez. The album played in its entirety for the a-list invitees. It was proving to be a rousing success until McCartney walked in.

McCartney reportedly went up to Sanchez, who was in charge of the music, and nonchalantly handed over one of the greatest songs ever written, “Hey Jude.” 

“As Paul walked in, everybody was leaping around to Beggars Banquet, which was far and away the best album of The Stones’ career,” Sanchez once said. “Paul discreetly handed me a record and said, ‘See what you think of it, Tony. It’s our new one.’”

“I stuck the record on the sound system and the slow t details

Fans will have to wait until April 2028 to see The Beatles’ biopics hit the big screen, starring Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn, and Barry Keoghan as Paul, John, George, and Ringo (there are four films set to premiere in total). In the meantime, revisit the journey of one of the world’s most iconic rock bands through the newly reissued 25th Anniversary Edition of The Beatles Anthology.

Dropped on Oct. 14, 2025 (it was first debuted more than two decades ago), this 368-page coffee table book, according to the product description, “tells the complete story of The Beatles, from growing up in Liverpool to their rise to global phenomenon and ultimate breakup. Created originally with the complete support of Paul, George, Ringo, and Yoko Ono Lennon, with the words of John painstakingly compiled from sources worldwide, this 25th anniversary reissue offers the only story of The Beatles by The Beatles.”

The anthology features smooth, full-color pages, thousands of photographs, and interesting tidbits about the original boy band. It’s the ideal gift for yourself or any Beatles fan — and is a must-have addition to your music collection. This premium release lets you experienc details

It was a pivotal moment in the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, but needed a frantic email to Sir Paul McCartney to make it happen.

Oscar Hartland, 16, who played Neil the Baby, left the cast "bawling their eyes out" as he performed Blackbird by The Beatles.

It took place during the wedding ceremony of his on-screen dad Smithy, played by James Corden, with Hartland admitting he practiced for hours for the "make or break" moment.

But it almost didn't happen, with Corden requesting permission from McCartney after realising the show's budget did not cover permission to use it.

Corden thought it was "a beautiful song" and had lined it up for Hartland to sing, he said in new book When Gavin Met Stacey And Everything In Between.

"In terms of getting permission to use the song, the BBC have a licensing agreement which is great for UK transmissions of music," he said.

"But I think The Beatles sit outside of that, which we didn't know, and it's so expensive if you want to use one of their songs."

With the sitcom's budget not covering the cost of paying for the track, Corden wrote to McCartney asking permission to use it.

He said: "I wrote just telling him that I felt t details

Sam Mendes’s quartet of Beatles biopics are the cinematic equivalent of a distant asteroid headed steadily towards Earth. They’re a few years from impact – a 2028 release date is pencilled in – but when they hit, they’ll be big. Legendary playwright Jez Butterworth and Adolescence creator Jack Thorne are among the writers. Mendes, who is directing all four films, each told from the point of view of one of the Fab Four, has full rights to their life stories and the all-important song catalogue. And he has a crack team of young stars playing the leads: Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

What about everyone else in the Beatles Cinematic Universe – the friends, lovers and collaborators? The band’s story has loomed over pop culture from the 1960s to the present; read any Beatles biopic, and you’ll see they have Kevin Bacon-like powers of ubiquity.

Some of the supporting roles have been confirmed, or almost confirmed. As per reporting from Variety, Saoirse Ronan is playing Linda McCartney, Macca’s first wife; How to Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce will be Starr’ details

Ringo Starr left the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Rishikesh ashram earlier than his bandmates in 1968 – as might be expected from a ring-wearing dandy who many would assume was the least spiritual of all the Beatles. He had found meals at the ashram difficult, not because he was a Liverpudlian naïf abroad, but because a childhood of serious ill health had left his insides in a delicate state. Plus, his wife Maureen hated the insects. After less than a fortnight, they were out.

Starr was the band’s everyman, a seasoned pro sent aloft into stratospheric fame where his ready grin and quick wit made him an easy favourite Fab. And yet – in one of the revelations of Tom Doyle’s thoroughly researched book – it turns out that his habitual “peace and love” refrain isn’t just some rote catchphrase. It runs deeper. In recent years, since undergoing rehab in 1988, Starr has become a paragon of clean living, regularly snacking on seeds and, allegedly, smelling of kale. Crucially, he has said that he still treasures the personal mantra for meditation that the Maharishi gave him all those years ago.

Doyle’s portrait doesn’t exactly dismantle the public perceptio details

How did The Beatles do it? How did they get from the simplicity of “Love Me Do”, their first hit single, to majestic, complex, moving songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Blackbird”, “Within You Without You”, and so many more? Well, they didn’t get there overnight. These four songs represent huge developmental leaps that eventually led to the masterpieces from the second half of their recording career.

On the surface, you might not consider “She Loves You” to be all that complex. But it subtly shows that the Fab Four understood that they couldn’t stand pat if they wanted to stay on top of the heap. Granted, it was another basic love song in content. But Paul McCartney came up with the idea to change the approach ever so slightly. Instead of singing the song from the first-person perspective (as in, “I love you”), the group did it in the third person. That means the narrator technically is just offering advice, which was a somewhat novel twist at the time. In addition, The Beatles snuck in some chord changes that were far from the norm for the typical early 60s pop song.
“I Need You”

Again, here’s an exa details

Paul McCartney's driver's license from the late 1960s is to go on sale - and is expected to fetch up to £1,200.

The old-style UK Driving Licence features the Beatle's signature as well as two fines for road offences committed in Coventry and Bath.

The license will be auctioned at Ewbank’s Music Memorabilia sale next month, and is expected to fetch between £800 and £1,200.

McCartney's license, in red cloth-covered board and in a red ‘Cartier International Services’ pouch, lists the musician’s name as Mr. James Paul McCartney. His address is listed as '7 Cavendish Avenue St. Johns Wood NW8' and is valid from '24 Sept 1968 until 23 Sept 1971'.

The license has Paul's signature in blue felt pen at the bottom.

Source: Talker News/nbcrightnow.com

In 1973, George Harrison soured the mood at a pre-Christmas get-together at Ringo Starr’s place by fessing up to an affair with the drummer’s wife Maureen. The man Eric Morecambe called Bongo responded with a shrug: “Better you than someone we don’t know.”

 This charming biography casts Starr as The Beatles’ anchor emotionally as well as rhythmically, showing how he overlooked bandmates’ foibles to maintain the Fabs’ team spirit beyond their 1970 split. Richy Starkey took up drumming while recovering from a teenage bout of tuberculosis, a no-nonsense persona underselling his unique playing style. MOJO writer Tom Doyle tracks how he became America’s favourite Beatle and then a solo hitmaker before bad film roles, a messy divorce and a worse alcohol problem took their toll. Sober since the 1980s, Starr’s drum-roll-with-the-punches resilience persists; as he told Doyle in a typically gnomic interview: “I make more right moves than left moves.” Resolutely fab.

Source: Jim Wirth/mojo4music.com

Before The Beatles became the biggest band in the world and the most successful rock band of all time, they were just like every other group of friends with musical dreams. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison all met through a series of introductions taking place on buses and at garden parties. And by the time 1958 came along, they were all members of the same band, The Quarrymen.

3 Classic Rock Songs With Unnecessary Guitar Solos

As The Quarrymen, Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney did the typical—performed at churches, clubs, schools, as well as other informal non-traditional venues. They played a mix of skiffle, rock and roll, and rockabilly music, and they covered American artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Larry Williams.

However, at some point in 1958, they recorded their first-ever original song. An original song written by George Harrison and Paul McCartney about friendship and love in the face of everything that can go wrong. For a couple of teenagers, it is quite the introspective and sentimentally deep songs, but then again, and despite their normalness, these were The Beatles.
The Beatles’ Quick Trip to a One-Room Recording Studio

details

Creating timeless artistic masterpieces is no easy feat. However, what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece in part is the work and the labor that goes into it. The work and the labor that drives the artist in question to the brink of madness. As history tells us, Glory is often gifted to those who grind through the process, and it was gifted to John Lennon after he toiled with “Across The Universe”.

John Lennon is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He might not be your personal favorite, but you can’t deny him that. While Lennon certainly had an innate compassion and connection with the human condition and a knack for words, he didn’t garner this unofficial title of pure ability. According to this story, and others, Lennon acquired this title in the same way many others have acquired greatness—Through hard work.  John Lennon’s “Across The Universe” Started Far Before ‘Let It Be’

The writing process started far before the release of The Beatles’ final album, Let It Be. Specifically, Lennon started writing the single while he was still with his first wife, Cynthia Lennon. In the book, All We Are Saying, John Lennon was quoted as st details

The band is widely seen as one of the biggest influences on modern popular and rock music, and culture.

Fans named the greatest classic rock band in a 2025 Ranker poll. They revolutionized music, influenced culture, and sold over 600 million records worldwide. Their music continues to inspire, with hits often covered and sampled by diverse artists.

The Beatles revolutionized popular music and influenced 1960s counterculture, selling over 600 million records worldwide, but now the original boy band can add one more accolade to their long list of superlatives. According to a recent poll, The Beatles are also the greatest classic rock band of all time, besting the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and Queen.

According to an October 2025 Ranker poll, fans think The Beatles are the greatest classic rock band of all time. Ranker, which ranks all things pop culture, starts out with a list curated by experts. Once the list is published, fans get to work, voting the list’s picks up or down. The Beatles top the site’s list of greatest classic rock bands of all time with over 20,000 votes.
Impact and Legacy

The Beatles began as the band The Quarrymen, then The Silv details

When a famous musician passes away, the whole world mourns. While we, as listeners, certainly feel the loss, it’s nothing compared to how their bandmates feel. Bands, if they are lucky, spend decades together in a larger-than-life circumstance. It builds a relationship that is unlike anything else in life. Moreover, they express their grief in a way no one else does: through song. Below, find four touching tribute songs written by artists for their late bandmates.

“All Those Years Ago” – George Harrison and John Lennon

Like much of the world, George Harrison felt very reflective after the murder of John Lennon. At least, that’s what his songwriting suggests. Despite their issues towards the end of the Beatles‘ tenure, Harrison looked back fondly on his late bandmate, penning the song “All Those Years Ago” as a tribute to him.

Living with good and bad / I always looked up to you / Now we’re left cold and sad / By someone, the devil’s best friend / Someone who offended all, the lyrics read. Though this song was initially written for Ringo Starr, Harrison managed to rework it into the perfect eulogy for Lennon.

Kurt Cobain’s death is details

Bob Dylan and the Beatles had a memorable 1964 hotel meeting.  Dylan’s misunderstanding of a Beatles' song lyrics prompted a 'surreal' evening.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney later shared fond memories of the experience.

It goes without saying that Bob Dylan is one of the most influential musicians in history, as anyone with a passing familiarity of rock history knows. But the folk-rock icon’s impact on his peers goes beyond chord structure and lyrical composition, as one particularly entertaining anecdote from the annals of rock history involving the Beatles proves.

In August of 1964, the Beatles were staying at the Delmonico Hotel near Manhattan’s Central Park, according to the Beatles Bible, digging into a room service dinner, when Dylan showed up for a visit.

After being introduced to the band by a mutual friend, the writer Al Aronowitz, Dylan was offered some champagne…but apparently, he preferred “cheap wine” instead. Since there wasn’t any budget booze on hand, Dylan suggested they “smoke grass” instead. When the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, admitted that the band didn’t have much experience with marijuana, details

The Beatles’ debut album was an attempt to capture the band’s live appeal, according to John Lennon.

Please Please Me would be released in March 1963 and was a chance for the band to showcase their skills as a touring unit. Lennon would share the thought process behind recording Please Please Me as a way to “capture The Beatles live” in interviews given shortly after the album was released. Lennon suggested Please Please Me is the closest the Fab Four could get to capturing the essence of their live performance, though even that was missing the atmosphere of the Hamburg and Liverpool audiences. Producer George Martin had initially suggested the band record a live album as their debut release at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, though these plans would fall through. Instead, the band recorded studio album Please Please Me as an opportunity to highlight their live appeal.

Lennon said: “That record tried to capture us live, and was the nearest thing to what we might have sounded like to the audiences in Hamburg and Liverpool. You don’t get that live atmosphere of the crowd stomping on the beat with you, but it’s the nearest you can get to knowing what we sounded like before we details

It's been nine years since the tragic demise of music producer George Martin, best known for his groundbreaking work with The Beatles. Those included Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Martin worked so closely with the famed British band that he was frequently nicknamed the "fifth Beatle." He died of undisclosed causes on March 8, 2016. Martin was 90 years old, and this is his story.

George Martin was born on January 3, 1926, in Highbury, United Kingdom.

From Please Please Me, the Beatles' initial collected work (released in 1963) to their Abbey Road album (released in 1969), Martin worked diligently with the so-called 'Fab Four' to perfect the unique sound and elements of each of their compositions.

Following the band's dissolution, Martin produced for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on their solo albums, specifically McCartney's James Bond movie track release Live and Let Die (1973).

Martin also worked closely with additional music icons such as Kenny Rogers, Celine Dion, Elton John, and more.

On March 8, 2016, Martin passed away quietly in his sleep.

Source: Herbie J Pilato/newsbreak.com

George Harrison was a stoic and quiet individual. He had no shortage of talent both in The Beatles and as a solo artist, and the latter of which was (in my opinion) where he truly shone. He wasn’t the big smack-talker, either. But George Harrison did have a few choice words for some of his musician contemporaries, and even disliked a few famous bands and musicians. Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?

Oasis

I’ll be honest, I was surprised to see this band mentioned in my research for this list of musicians that George Harrison famously disliked. Oasis? Really? A lot of people had some choice words for the Britpop band back in the day, but I wouldn’t have thought George Harrison, formerly of The Beatles, would be paying attention to them, specifically.

Well, it appears that this one is true, and George Harrison was not a big fan of Oasis in the 1990s. In fact, in 1996, Harrison pretty directly said that their music “lacks depth” and that “singer Liam [Gallagher] is a pain, the rest of the band don’t need him.” Ouch. No wonder Gallagher threatened to punch him.

Sex Pistols

The Beatles, in a roundabout way, were pretty punk rock for th details