Beatles News

The Beatles weren't exactly a cult band as 1965 ended.  Their albums and singles dominated the pop charts. They played in front of more than 55,000 fans at Shea Stadium. They even conquered the big screen. Twice.

But Dec. 3, 1965, proved to be a seminal moment for the Fab Four – the release of Rubber Soul, the album where "the Beatles became the Beatles."

Widely considered one of the most influential albums ever made, it's hard to believe Rubber Soul was something of a rush job. The Beatles went into the studio in October 1965 to crank out an album in time for the holiday season. Despite the tight deadline, however, The Beatles decided to make their most audacious record yet.

"By the time of Rubber Soul, they were ready for new musical directions," said George Martin, The Beatles' long-time producer. "In the early days, they were very influenced by American rhythm and blues … and then, as time went on, other influences became apparent: classical influences and modern music."

Said drummer Ringo Starr: "We were all open to anything. You could walk in with an elephant, as long as it was going to make a musical note."  While filming the movie Help! in April of 1965, g details

Then he describes that, as the meditator “reduces the thoughts below mental-thinking level,” he will eventually arrive “at a very subtle level which is beyond all relative experience” (there, at the quiet bottom of the ocean he’s sketched).

“This,” he writes, “we will call Transcendental Consciousness.

“As most of us haven’t experienced this state before,” he writes, “the first few times, you don’t even know that you have reached this state, because it isn’t a relative experience, and there’s nothing to compare it to, but from the very beginning—you will start to feel very relaxed, and start to get more energy—happiness and intelligence because the ‘pure state of consciousness’ is the reservoir of energy, happiness, and intelligence—and it is the place where we have got it all from in the past, but then it was unconsciously, and the meditation is a way of tapping this great natural source of energy, and consciously arriving at this level.”

Around the time George passed away, in 2001, I was making my first inroads into meditation, discovering all the wonders therein, and I found in details

There aren't that many accounts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney not agreeing on who wrote which parts of their songs. In fact, to a certain degree, it didn't matter — that's why the "Lennon-McCartney" songwriting name was established, since oftentimes it was hard to tell where one man's contribution ended and the other's began.

But for however synchronized Lennon and McCartney were, the reality is that two separate brains were at work when it came to their songwriting, and it did ultimately matter to each of them how those contributions were remembered.  "In My Life" from the Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul is a clear example of this.  One thing Lennon and McCartney did not disagree on was that "In My Life" originated with Lennon.

"'In My Life' started out as a bus journey from my house on 250 [sic] Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place I could remember," Lennon recalled to David Sheff in 1980. "And it was ridiculous. This is before even 'Penny Lane' was written and I had Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Tram Sheds – Tram Sheds are the depot just outside of Penny Lane – and it was the most boring sort of 'What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip' song and it wasn't workin details

During a 1963 visit to St. Louis, George Harrison found a record he couldn't stop thinking about. He even imagined the Beatles recording it. But despite his enthusiasm, the song never made its way into the band's repertoire. Harrison would eventually get another chance with it — 24 years later.  It all stemmed from an early 1960s vacation.

“In 1963, the year before the Beatles first came to America, I took a trip to St. Louis to visit my sister, who was living there at the time,” Harrison wrote in The Beatles Anthology. “The whole Beatlemania thing had really begun in the U.K., and we’d had three or four hit singles.

“So while visiting my sister, I went around to all the music shops looking for new singles and especially albums that were really hard to find in Liverpool. And that’s where I finally found the James Ray album, If You’re Gonna Make a Fool of Somebody.”

In particular, the song that grabbed his attention most was “Got My Mind Set on You,” and Harrison thought it had the makings of a Beatles recording — despite one significant drawback.  All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deal details

The Beatles owed a debt to R&B music, one of the genres that exerted the biggest influence on their music as they formulated their sound. It’s only fitting then that the group’s members repaid the debt with some of the songs they wrote, both with the band and after its breakup, that were covered by R&B artists.

We compiled a list of four of these cover versions. The Fab Four deserve credit for writing these outstanding tracks. And the artists also should be lauded for the way they reinvented the songs.
“Got To Get You Into My Life” by Earth, Wind & Fire

The Beatles never released “Got To Get You Into My Life” as a single, although the horn-drenched number certainly sounded like one. Paul McCartney wrote it as a clandestine ode to marijuana. The music was indebted to the Motown sound of the era. Earth, Wind & Fire recorded it on the soundtrack of the much-maligned Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band film that was released in 1978. They bravely reimagined the arrangement, turning the hook into a kind of jazzy scat. Al McKay brings some heft with a sizzling guitar solo, while Maurice White tears through the vocals of the verses. Released at the height details

“The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event” stars Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson were spotted filming the iconic opening of the “A Hard Day’s Night” movie for the forthcoming film, per images via TMZ.

Directed by Richard Lester, the 1964 film followed the crew over two days as the band struggled to keep themselves and Paul McCartney’s mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live TV performance. One of the most notable moments — and the scene apparently being filmed — was a sequence of shots showing the three bandmembers running away from swarms of adoring fans.

Last month, the cast (plus Paul Mescal) were seen recreating the “Abbey Road” album cover for the multi-part biopic. Mescal stars as Paul McCartney, Quinn plays George Harrison, Barry Keoghan portrays Ringo Starr and Harris Dickinson plays John Lennon.

Each of the four films will focus on a different member of the band. “Each man has his own story, but together they are legendary,” reads the official logline.

In addition to the main bandmembners, other cast members include Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, James Norton as Brian Ep details

Ringo Starr has shared a devastating update about a reunion of The Beatles, saying he believes the band would have made more music if John Lennon and George Harrison were still alive.

In an interview with Page Six, Starr opened up about the loss of his former bandmates and reminisced on the glory days of The Beatles.
The Beatles. To this day, the Beatles remain one of the biggest bands the world has ever seen. 

“I do think we possibly would have got together sometime from, you know, John leaving us to now, if we were all still around, you know,” he said. “And George, you know, I miss George.”

The band announced their split on April 10, 1970. Ten years later in 1980, Lennon was shot by a crazed fan in New York City. Harrison died of cancer in 2001. Starr and Paul McCartney remain in close contact as the last two surviving members of the band, speaking a couple of times a month.

“If he’s in England, we go to visit England, mainly to visit family, (if) we know, we’ll have dinner or we’ll go around and hang,” Starr said.

While a reunion of the remaining members isn’t on the cards, Starr shared he and McCartne details

George Harrison is the best Beatle. There, I said it. Perhaps the most underrated, too. He penned some of the Fab Four’s most iconic tracks, from “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes the Sun” to “Within You Without You” and “I Me Mine.”

One of his songs, “Something,” from the Beatles’ eleventh studio album, Abbey Road, marked a noticeable shift for Harrison. He became a talented solo artist in his own right post-Beatles breakup, but “Something” was proof positive that he belonged in the same conversation as songwriting powerhouse duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was also Harrison’s first A-side single.
George Harrison First Offered ‘Something’ to Joe Cocker

However, before recording “Something” for Abbey Road, Harrison first offered the beloved tune to Joe Cocker, who recorded a demo in March 1969. Harrison found it difficult to get more than two of his compositions onto any given Beatles record, and McCartney, Lennon, and producer George Martin were initially unimpressed by the tune.

But Harrison was able to get “Something” onto Abbey Road, and on May 2, 1969 details

The "I'm Looking Through You" we know from 1965's Rubber Soul is not the "I'm Looking Through You" the Beatles first put together at EMI Studios in London.

The version we know is bouncy and deceptively joyful-sounding for a song about feeling your partner slipping away. But at first, Paul McCartney's lament for his failing relationship with actress Jane Asher was slower, bluesier and didn't have a middle eight section at all.

This first version was recorded on Oct. 24, 1965. Another one was made on Nov. 6, but again the Beatles were not satisfied with the results and so did it once more on Nov. 10 with overdubs on Nov. 11. This was the version that made the final Rubber Soul cut. (The original version was eventually released into the world on the 1996 Anthology 2 compilation.)
Why Did Paul McCartney Write 'I'm Looking Through You'?

The thing to remember about McCartney's five-year relationship with Asher is that she was already a public figure and had her own very established career by the time they began dating — she started out as a child actress in the early '50s and only gained momentum from there. In other words: Asher had been famous for longer than McCartney.

Though they had muc details

It’s another day at the office for Time Lord Giles Martin. He takes in his stride the one true crossing outside Abbey Road Studios and then its stairs, laid by Alexander the Great in 320BC. He leans against the oak door hewn from the Ark of the Covenant and lowers his eye to the laser scanner. The airlock sighs and sucks him inside.

This, give or take some overexcited fictional details, is the daily grind for the son of the Beatles’ record producer George Martin: the man who helped design the world as we hear it with its vastly expanded pop vocabulary, its studio-as-instrument concept and album-as-art-form culture.  The Beatles’ greatest album of all (we think) is up for a remix. Art by Aresna Villanueva

Giles Martin’s digital remixes of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, the White Album, Let It Be and Revolver are history now, too. This year, the mission he has chosen to accept leads him down these storied corridors to The Greatest Beatles Album Ever.

“I’m probably the wrong person for this job,” he demurs as we settle in to dissect my possibly spurious claim. “I don’t really think about the whole thing when I’m w details

On this day (September 16) in 1963, the Beatles released “She Loves You” as a single in the United States. They released it in the United Kingdom in late August, and it became a massive hit, launching them to national stardom. That wasn’t the case in the United States, though. It received positive press but very little airplay. As a result, it failed to chart upon its initial release. It only became a hit after the band found popularity with American listeners.

“She Loves You” was the Beatles’ second consecutive No. 1 in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it became the best-selling single of the 1960s in their homeland. The “yeah, yeah, yeah” hook made the third-person love song endlessly catchy and helped them dominate the English pop market. Many cite “She Loves You” as the song that ushered in Beatlemania. In America, though, few people were interested in what the Fab Four had to say.

According to the Beatles Bible, the song’s lack of success in the United States may have been partially due to the label that released it. Capitol Records, their label’s American counterpart, refused to release the single. Vee Jay Records, which had released &ldq details

When John Lennon was murdered outside his home in New York City in 1980, the shock and grief was felt worldwide. Sometimes, when a public figure is so large and universal, it's hard to remember that he was also a person with loved ones who mourned him even more that fans did around the world. Paul McCartney was one of them. When Lennon died, The Beatles had been broken up for ten years, and he and McCartney's bitter feud was fresh in people's minds. So, a lot of people speculated that there was no love lost between them.

But people didn't know everything that went on behind the scenes. In reality, the former bandmates had reconciled in the mid-'70s, and Lennon's tragic death was a huge blow for McCartney. No matter what happened between them, they had been best friends since they were teenagers, had created the greatest band in the world together, and their bond was one that transcended any argument or feud. And this song is proof of that. Paul McCartney's Love Song to John Lennon.

John Lennon died on December 8, 1980, and immediately after he heard the tragic news, Paul McCartney locked himself in his studio. By the time he came out, reporters were surrounding him, eager to get his reaction. They immediate details

While My Guitar Gently Weeps is one of the Beatles' most enduring classics, but it had a rocky start. Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr weren't all that keen on George Harrison's opus. It took a special guest to help get things off the ground.

Not only was it one of the best songs Harrison ever wrote, it was one of the greatest Beatles songs full stop, and a standout inclusion on the White Album.

During the record's studio sessions, though, Harrison's bandmates didn't care too much for the tune. It made tracking the song difficult. At one point, they abandoned the song altogether, only to later start over again.

In the February 2001 issue of Total Guitar, which featured a long-lost interview with Harrison conducted in the 1990s, the Beatle looked back on the frustrating experience.

"We'd be in a recording situation, churning through all this Lennon/McCartney, Lennon McCartney, Lennon/McCartney! Then I'd say, 'Can we do one of these?'" he said.

"When we actually started recording While My Guitar Gently Weeps it was just me playing the acoustic guitar and singing it and nobody was interested. Well, Ringo probably was, but John and Paul weren't.

"When I went home that night details

There’s a best and worst song on virtually every album out there. But picking the best and worst from a band like The Beatles is no easy task. If you don’t agree with my rankings of songs from the Fab Four’s “Beatlemania” era, you’re probably not alone. This list is extremely subjective to taste, forewarning!
Best Song on ‘Please Please Me’ (1963) — “I Saw Her Standing There”

This song is still so gorgeous after all these years. It’s pretty shocking that Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote this rock and roll banger at such a young age. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was just on the cusp of taking this spot, but I had to go with the former for nostalgia’s sake.
Worst Song on ‘Please Please Me’ (1963) — “There’s A Place”

This was an easy entry, considering how many people really don’t like this particular track. Lennon’s harmonica is just too shrill for me, personally.
Best Song on ‘With The Beatles’ (1963) — “All My Loving”

An obvious choice! “All My Loving” is an example of one of McCartney’s best early-career details

The Beatles released the 1963 hit song “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which not only became one of the band’s defining songs but was also ranked among Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Based on the ranking released by the publication, the list celebrates songs widely regarded for their lasting impact and influence on music.

With this, The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ranked at No. 15, which the publication described as “an irresistibly erotic come-on framed as a chaste, bashful request.”

Continuing the song’s legacy, Rolling Stone later released a separate list highlighting the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs, with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” landing at No. 2.

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the duo created what would become one of the band’s most iconic songs at Jane Asher’s house, where McCartney’s then-girlfriend lived.

“We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball,” the late John Lennon told Playboy magazine in 1980, as cited by Performing Songwriter, adding, “Like in ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ I remember when we got the ch details