Beatles News

During its 11-season run, Happy Days featured a large list of guest stars, but one of the biggest star sightings took place behind the scenes. Fifty-two years ago, John Lennon showed up on the Happy Days set—totally unplanned. The Beatles legend’s son, Julian, was a huge fan of the ABC sitcom, so the two snuck over during a tour of the Paramount lot.

In an interview on the Still Here Hollywood podcast posted on Oct. 5, Happy Days star Anson Williams shared details on the singer’s visit to Happy Days. “It was the first year of Happy Days, 1974,” Williams told host Steve Kmetko. “And it was a very cold morning. We’re on the set, you know, bored out of our mind, like kitchen scenes or something at the time. It was before we went live audience, so it was like a movie. And it’s just it was a guest star and the four of us and Jerry, our director.”

Williams added that he went over to get a cup of coffee and saw Lennon standing to the side.

“And there’s this guy with kind of cool glasses and a young kid,” he recalled “Walk back, go to go up to Donny [Most]. ‘Hey, Donny. This guy looks just like John Lennon with a kid.&r details

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr share a musical connection like none other. The two surviving Beatles have worked together for more than six decades across albums, breakups, animated appearances and various musical projects since the Beatles broke up.

Plus, you can usually count on Starr, 86, to show up and drum every so often with McCartney. But until this year, the two legendary British knights have never recorded a duet together.

'Home to Us' was inspired by Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney's working-class youths in Liverpool.

That changed this year with “Home to Us,” a McCartney/Starr duet on McCartney’s new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which dropped in May. The album leans heavily on looking back to McCartney’s early days, and the nostalgic song’s lyrics were inspired by their experiences growing up as working-class musicians in Liverpool.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 2, the 86-year-old McCartney explained the circuitous route that led to the new single, which never actually involved the two of them in the studio at the same time.

Ringo Starr laid down drumming tracks for producer Andrew Watt in hopes they'd be used in Paul McCartney's album.

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It took George Harrison a few years into the Beatles’ recording career before he started to show a comfort level as a songwriter. Once he reached that point, his unique perspective on the world brought something indispensable to the group’s music.

It’s hard to imagine any of these four songs coming from any other member of the group besides George. His candor and point of view truly set these lyrics apart.
“Don’t Bother Me”

Partly because they got off to a much earlier start as writers, John Lennon and Paul McCartney did most of the composing on early Beatles records. In fact, from 1962 through 1964, Harrison managed just a single writing credit for the group. That came with “Don’t Bother Me”, released in 1963 on the group’s sophomore LP, With The Beatles. Harrison, under the weather one night in a hotel room, forced himself to write a song just to prove he could do it. “Don’t Bother Me” immediately established his fondness for somewhat unorthodox chord patterns. And its standoffish message represented a stark contrast from the typical Lennon/McCartney affability.
“You Like Me Too Much”

After “Don&rs details

Sixty-four years ago today, the Beatles released the record that started everything—and it hardly looked like the beginning of a global phenomenon. "Love Me Do," released in the U.K. on Oct. 5, 1962, was the band's first single, but it peaked at just No. 17, according to Official Charts.  That modest debut looks almost impossible in hindsight. The Beatles' official history of the song confirms that it eventually got a very different reception in America: "Love Me Do" reached No. 1 in the U.S. in 1964.

For the band, simply hearing their own record in public felt enormous. "First hearing 'Love Me Do' on the radio sent me shivery all over," George Harrison recalled, according to The Beatles Story. "It was the best buzz of all time."

Paul McCartney remembered its chart appearance as a dividing line. "If you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with 'Love Me Do'," he said. "That was the one. It gave us somewhere to go."

The breakthrough was particularly meaningful because the Beatles were still proving that audiences would accept their original material. "Love Me Do" was an early Lennon-McCartney composition, and the band had previously leaned heavily on cover details

Phil Collins has let go of his decades-old grudge against Paul McCartney.

During an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Friday, the famed musician detailed an encounter (one he’s told before) he had with the Beatle back in 2002 during the Queen’s Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. During rehearsals the day before the show, Collins recalled, “I had a first edition Hunter Davis book [on The Beatles], which was a very, quite rare, first edition. I’d been given it by Jill, Lily’s mum.” He added, “And I took it to the rehearsal so Paul could sign it.”

While sitting on the side of the stage, Collins said that he asked McCartney to sign the book and he obliged. However, Collins added, that’s when McCartney remarked to his then-wife Heather Mills, “He’s a big Beatles fan, is our little Phil?'”

Collins said, “I thought, ‘You arsehole’. I couldn’t help it. That’s just what I thought. I probably made more of it than he meant, I did make more of it. But when I was writing the book, and I wanted to write how I felt about certain things.”

When promoting his memoir in 2016, Collins revealed his sto details

Paul McCartney will release a Special Edition of The Boys of Dungeon Lane in October 2026, expanding the album with four additional recordings. The new edition includes a “flip mix” of “Home To Us,” his duet with Ringo Starr, plus three previously unreleased songs: “City Fox,” “One Night Stand” and “Chelsea Boots.” The original album arrived in May and was McCartney’s first new solo album in more than five years.

The revised version of “Home To Us” swaps McCartney and Starr’s original parts in the song, giving the track a new vocal arrangement while retaining the pairing of the two former Beatles. The three additional songs were created during the same album sessions. The Special Edition will also be issued physically with cover artwork adapted from a silkscreened collage by Kate Gibb, using more than 100 images from McCartney’s personal collection. Formats include a limited-edition 2LP orange-and-blue marble vinyl with a zoetrope etching, with physical editions available for pre-order.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane became McCartney’s 24th UK No. 1 album across his solo career, Wings and The Beatles, and debuted in the Top details

The best Beatles album debate has raged for decades: "Sgt. Pepper," "Abbey Road" or "Revolver"? But is it time to consider "Rubber Soul"?

The often-underrated 1965 landmark, beloved by the faithful for its introspective and experimental songs and distorted Robert Freeman cover art, is getting the lavish reissue treatment on Oct. 2. Recording quickly in just a month to hit record stores in time for Christmas, the Beatles didn't consciously set out to make a masterpiece.

"They're writing internal songs about themselves. It's an album about breakup and rejection, a lot of it − the rejection of their fans. They didn't enjoy really playing live anymore," says Giles Martin (son of Beatles producer George Martin), who remixed the special edition with engineer Sam Okell. "It is the emergence of the Beatles out of the pupa into sort of psychedelic butterflies."

As the band soaked up Bob Dylan and Motown, "they took the world that was around them and stuck it back onto a 12-inch vinyl," he says.  The slyly titled "Rubber Soul" – a punny play on the record's R&B inspirations and rubber-sole shoes − became a statement about where the Beatles were musically.

Up until details

The Beatles had a couple of distinct eras. A better amateur music historian than I could probably split them up further than “Beatlemania,” “psychedelic,” and “folk rock,” but those three categories make the most sense to me. And the band’s smallest but still notable era has to be the latter. Let’s take a look at what I consider the best and worst songs from the Fab Four’s folky era, shall we?

It’s worth noting that I would also consider both Help!, Beatles For Sale, and Revolver to be “of the folk rock era” for the Fab Four, but I already covered them in the other lists in this series.
Best Song on ‘Rubber Soul’ — “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”

This was an easy pick. That absolutely beautiful sitar à la George Harrison, that swaying, propelling melody… There’s something about “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” that still entrances listeners after all these years.
Worst Song on ‘Rubber Soul’ — “Run For Your Life”

I was at a crossroads between “Think For Yourself” and “Run For Your Life” as the wors details

Original working lyrics for Paul McCartney's "Hey Jude" song are being offered for $599,415.

The 1968 manuscript shows important notes written by the Beatles songwriter that shaped the iconic finished version.

New Orleans-based gallery M.S. Rau said the lyrics were transcribed by Mal Evans, the band's road manager and studio assistant, before McCartney annotated the sheet by hand.

On the paper, he marked cues for tambourine, as well as for bandmates Ringo Starr and John Lennon.

Most significantly, in the final verse, he revised the closing line to "Remember to let her under your skin, then you'll begin to make it better", the version immortalized in the recording.

The Beatles recorded rehearsals and attempted backing tracks at EMI Studios in July 1968, before moving to Trident Studios, where eight-track equipment allowed them to construct the master recording between July 31 and August 2.

Released later that month, "Hey Jude" remained at number one in the United States for nine weeks.

The lot includes an RIAA Gold Record award for "Hey Jude" and a notarized letter from Craig Inciardi, a founding curator of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, documenting their origin and auth details

Paul McCartney is opening up about his late pal. Following a Los Angeles screening of the Wings documentary, Man on the Run, McCartney sat down for a conversation with director Morgan Neville and moderator Judd Apatow for a wide-ranging conversation.

After the Beatles split, McCartney formed a duo with his then-wife, Linda, and released an album titled Ram. Shortly thereafter, McCartney started his band, Wings. In both post-Beatles projects, McCartney’s one-time bandmate, John Lennon, was publicly critical.

“I think maybe he expected more from me,” McCartney theorized of Lennon, according to Variety.” He expected something different from me, and I wasn’t doing that. I was just doing ‘madcap.’”

McCartney noted that he “wasn’t privy” to Lennon’s inner thoughts at the time. However, he admitted that he was pleased when Lennon lightened up on the subject before his death. Paul McCartney Opens Up About John Lennon.

Despite the public spat, McCartney said that none of it affected how he felt about Lennon.

“I loved John and love him to this day and always will,” he said. “And it wouldn’t matter, details

It was like stepping into a time machine and going back 62 years.

One of the Beatles was singing rock songs, playing two instruments, making jokes and having a grand old time.

The Ringo Starr concert here in Washington got me thinking about the impact that he, John, Paul and George had on the music business, the country and the culture — and how Americans are still fascinated by the Fab Four, and even their grandchildren are listening to their ancient albums.

Ringo is 86 and touring again, bringing more energy to his shows than most of his Boomer-heavy audience.

Paul McCartney, who I’ve seen several times in recent years, is 84, still belting out the hits and, hip guy that he is, sharing short videos on social media.

It’s not about money — the two surviving Beatles became multimillionaires back in the day. They are still releasing new albums; McCartney’s "Dungeon Lane," about growing up in Liverpool, and with him playing most of the instruments, nearly matches some of his best work.  Ringo, who played drums and piano at the concert, has been saluted by today’s top drummers as having inspired generations of those behind the kit with his unique, details

The Beatles helped revolutionize music in several incalculable ways, from re-energizing the British music scene to popularizing the concept album, but one of the smaller — but still significant — ways the Fab Four changed the creative landscape was rewriting the rules of what could be a radio hit.

“Hey Jude,” the 1968 standalone single penned by Paul McCartney, clocked in at 7 minutes and 12 seconds, around twice the length of an average pop single the band would be competing alongside for the coveted #1 spot on the charts.

To make matters worse, the second half of the song simply repeats a variation of “Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah/ Hey, Jude” for at least 3 and a half minutes. While this creative decision has since made the anthem a crowd favorite at sports events (most recently, England’s 2026 World Cup stint, as an ode to Jude Bellingham), as well as McCartney’s concerts, there were concerns that this would be cut by radio stations, comprising on McCartney’s “fade-out to end all fade-outs,” as described in a 2018 retrospective on the song by The Guardian.

George Martin, the Beatles’ longtime producer, warned that the details

Paul McCartney is among hundreds of public figures backing a new international campaign calling on the United Nations to abolish trophy hunting. Launched on July 1, 2026, the initiative brings together celebrities, conservationists, former heads of state, Indigenous leaders and religious figures around a declaration calling for an end to trophy hunting. The launch was timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, whose death in 2015 became a major international flashpoint in the debate over trophy hunting. The Wildlife & Conservation Foundation, through its Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, is coordinating the initiative. Its organisers say more than 500 founding signatories have backed the Declaration on the Abolition of Trophy Hunting, which was developed with the late primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall.