Beatles News

When the surviving Beatles — Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — reunited in the studio in the mid ’90s, the band members felt they weren’t alone, as “strange goings-on” hinted at John Lennon’s supernatural presence.

The trio’s team-up, coming 25 years after the Fab Four disbanded, and a decade and a half after the death of John Lennon, represented the time they’d worked on new music together as they set about bringing the unreleased John Lennon song “Free as a Bird” to life.

It was one of two new songs, alongside “Real Love” — also born from John Lennon’s mind — to feature on 1995’s Anthology box set. As news of a fourth addition in the Anthology series broke last week, McCartney’s reflections on the unusual incidents that surrounded the recording of “Free as a Bird” have come to light.

“There were a lot of strange goings-on in the studio — noises that shouldn’t have been there and equipment doing all manner of weird things,” McCartney once told OnHike.com (via The Mirror). “There was just an overall feeling that John was around.”

The Beatles have been busy. So has New Orleans-based Beatles expert Bruce Spizer.

Just as the Beatles announced that the 1995 “Anthology” documentary will be rereleased and expanded on screen, on vinyl and in print this fall, Spizer has released the ninth and final book in his meticulously researched Beatles Album Series about the band’s recorded output.

The utilitarian title of Spizer’s “Beatles For Sale To Help!” conveys the span of albums covered in the new book.

As with his 16 previous Beatles books, Spizer published the latest through his own 498 Productions with a hardback cover and heavy, glossy stock. The 264 pages are chock-full of full-color photographs of album and singles covers, relevant news magazines — Spizer likes to discuss Beatles releases within the context of what was going on in the world at large — vintage advertisements and promotional items from his personal collection of memorabilia.

Such is Spizer’s expertise that Universal Music Group, Capitol Records and the Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. consult with him on Beatles-related projects. He wrote the questions for the Beatles-themed special edition of Trivial Pursuit.< details

Sir Paul McCartney is close to finishing his first solo album in more than five years.

The Beatles legend is not only nearing completion on his follow-up to 2020's McCartney III, but the 83-year-old musician is said to be plotting a return to his homeland for a UK tour in 2026.

A source told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: “Paul has been working on the album all year and initially hoped it would be out by the end of this year but as with most things plans change.

“It’s not quite finished but the majority of the album is done and Paul is really proud of it.

“As for live shows he’s told his team he wants to tour the UK again, so live gigs next year are also happening.”

Until then, Macca has a US tour kicking off next month, which will commence on September 29 in Palm Desert, California, and is currently due to end on November 25 in Chicago.

In February this year, Macca put on a series of intimate concerts at New York’s iconic Bowery Ballroom.

Meanwhile, McCartney has co-authored a book about his time in Wings, set for release in November.

The icon formed the rock band in 1971, after the Beatles split, and McCartney has sh details

Each of The Beatles has enjoyed a successful solo career. I wouldn’t say that the band’s beloved late guitarist, George Harrison, is anywhere close to underrated. However, when compared to the likes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, I don’t think he gets as much love as he deserves for the big things he did as a solo artist post-Beatles. Let’s look at just a few moments that prove George Harrison was capable of outshining his past with the Fab Four.
He Formed One of the Best Supergroups

The Travelling Wilburys were a killer supergroup. There’s no denying that. Formed in 1988 and lasting just a few short years, this group was made up of some of the greatest artists in rock and folk. Members included George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison. And songs like “Handle With Care” and “She’s My Baby” would have never hit the airwaves if Harrison and Lynne hadn’t come up with the idea together while working on the former’s 1987 record, Cloud Nine.

All Things Must Pass was technically George Harrison’s third album as a solo artist. However, it was his first after The Beatles broke up in 1970, and also the first of details

The “rose-tinted glasses” worn by The Beatles in several of their music videos were picked up by Paul McCartney from an optician.

Iconic glasses featured in music videos for The Beatles were, according to McCartney, picked up out of a necessity to make the drab recording studio that much better. Ordering “half a dozen” different colours, the Let It Be songwriter brought them to the sessions as a way of livening things up. George Martin, The Beatles’ long-serving producer, added that fluorescent poles were also added into the studio to kindle the band’s creativity. McCartney shared: “If you remember, we all came in with rose-coloured or funny-coloured specs, and where I was living.

“There was a little optician round the corner, and I sort of popped in and said, ‘Do you do different coloured lenses and everything?’ and they said, ‘Yeah, I do anything.’ So I ordered up like, half a dozen different colours, you know, rose, green, blue, and took them to the sessions.

Producer Martin confirmed he remembers the glasses, but also remembers the Fab Four’s strong dislike for the drab studio. White walls and the lack of atmosphere proved details

Brian Epstein, the Fab Four's manager, guided them from Liverpool's Cavern Club to global fame. When he died 58 years ago this week, the band was left suddenly adrift. Three years earlier, Epstein had told the BBC how he knew they would be "the biggest attraction in the world".

When The Beatles were told that their manager, Brian Epstein, had been found dead in his London home on 27 August 1967, they were sent into a tailspin. "It was shattering, sad, and a little frightening," Paul McCartney told Barry Miles in his 1997 biography Many Years from Now. "We loved him."

Epstein had been instrumental in the Fab Four's rise from playing local Liverpool clubs to being the biggest band in the world. He had shaped their early image, helped them get a recording contract, managed all their business affairs, and championed them relentlessly. And he had always believed in them. When the BBC's Panorama profiled him in 1964, the pop impresario said that when he signed the band in 1961, he already knew they would be "one of the biggest, if not the biggest attraction, theatrical attraction, in the world".

By the time of the Panorama interview, Epstein was managing a whole roster of artists, including Gerry and the Pacem details

Ever since The Beatles broke up, everyone and their mother has seemingly been blaming their demise on Yoko Ono. The conspiracies that she broke the band apart and that John chose her over the band are incredibly far-fetched and, frankly, unfair. Thanks to these loose and unfounded claims, Paul McCartney has often stated that Yoko was not the sole reason for The Beatles’ disbandment. However, McCartney has definitively declared that he was not a fan of her joining in on The Beatles recording sessions.

If anyone has watched The Beatles: Get Back, they know that Yoko was present for nearly the entire recording process of the band’s final album. Consequently, fans and critics were always curious as to what her presence made The Beatles feel like. Well, eight years before the release of the film, McCartney divulged exactly why he wasn’t a fan of it. Paul McCartney Reveals His Reason on the Matter

In a 2013 interview on The Howard Stern Show, McCartney went fairly in-depth on the matter in a candid fashion. Being McCartney, he was, of course, polite, cordial, and kind, but he put the rumours to rest with his answer. So, if you’re still crafting your rumors about Yoko and The Beatles, then details

The night Elvis Presley played with The Beatles is fondly remembered as the most epic jam in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. That is, if it actually happened.

What is certain is that Elvis politely hosted the Fab Four at his Bel Air home on Aug. 27, 1965, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were in Los Angeles to perform two shows at the Hollywood Bowl. Elvis, looking every inch a rock god, greeted the quartet with his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu and his “Memphis Mafia” inner circle at his side.

“The Beatles were in awe, and I can say that because they told me that the next day,” Jerry Schilling, Elvis’ longtime friend, tells USA TODAY, while discussing the new Elvis collection “Sunset Boulevard,” which spans Presley’s LA studio sessions from 1970 to 1975. “But it got kind of quiet” after they were ushered into the den.

Elvis sat on the couch, holding his Fender bass guitar, as the four shaggy-haired Beatles stood and sat uneasily. Then Elvis announced, “If you guys are going to look at me all night, I’m going to bed,” Schilling, 83, recalls. “Everyone burst out laughing and that details

Everyone has their favorite Beatles album, including the iconic musicians themselves, but one album in particular seemed to drive a wedge between two of the bandmates.

‌While many fans would name Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as their favorite, featuring hugely popular hits, the 1967 record divided Paul McCartney and George Harrison. While McCartney touted the album as his favorite, Harrison said it felt like taking a step "backwards" from their revolutionary craftsmanship.

While their eighth album was Paul's "baby," Harrison had grown tired of that particular sound. Comparing it to Rubber Soul and Revolver, Harrison said Sgt Pepper was "not as enjoyable" as the other two and said it "felt like going backwards."

He said, "Everybody else thought that Sgt Pepper was a revolutionary record – but for me it was not as enjoyable as Rubber Soul or Revolver, purely because I had gone through so many trips of my own and I was growing out of that kind of thing."
Revolver was created after Harrison's time in India with Ravi Shankar, where he honed his own voice as a musician. The track Love You To in particular was inspired by that time in Harrison's life and how it shaped his personal music details

Comedy legend Eric Idle has opened up on his strong friendship with the late George Harrison. The Monty Python star struck up a close bond with The Beatles icon when they met at a party in Los Angeles in the 1970s.

‌However, Eric lived in Merseyside as a child and he told the ECHO in an exclusive interview how he's convinced he met the iconic musician when they were both children. He said: "I hung out with someone called George on the Red Noses in New Brighton when I was about five and I often wondered if it was him because we got on so well when we met.

‌"It was like I already knew him and we were talking all night. He was wonderful and he had such a great effect on my life." The 82-year-old will pay tribute to his friendship with the All Things Must Pass writer in his new show, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, LIVE!, which is coming to the Liverpool Empire on September 14.

‌The one man musical is described as "an evening of comedy, music, philosophy and one fart joke", and Eric told the ECHO how one song is dedicated to George. He said: "There's a couple of singalongs. there's some touching songs. I've written a song for George because I miss him so much. That's really quite emoti details

While the title of the greatest band of all time is completely subjective, we can all probably agree that The Beatles receive it the most often. They broke up in 1970, and 54 years later, The Beatles continue to stay relevant and attract the attention of fans across the globe. The Beatles’ resounding success comes, of course, from a plethora of different factors. However, at the root of it is ultimately their timeless music.

To some Beatles fans, the Fab Four didn’t create a bad song. Now, you might agree or strongly disagree with that statement, and if you are part of the latter, you might cite these three songs as “bad” Beatles songs. Despite these “bad” Beatles songs, they are still, in fact, one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
“Revolution 9”

One could make the argument that The Beatles’ “Revolution 9” isn’t even a song. Rather, it’s just a bunch of arbitrary noises meshed together, seemingly created as an experimental way to throw off listeners and bolster The Beatles’ psychedelic mystique. However, that is what makes it a “bad” song, as it isn’t traditional in any sense of the word.

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George Harrison’s exotic soundtrack to Joe Massot’s swinging sixties cinematic head trip film Wonderwall was the first solo Beatle project – that is, of course, if you don’t count Paul McCartney’s 1966 soundtrack to The Family Way, which was actually credited to The George Martin Orchestra.

1968’s Wonderwall Music is all over the musical map—delightfully so—with songs ranging from classical Indian ragas to jaunty nostalgic-sounding numbers to proto-metal guitar freakouts. It’s a minor classic, and I wish more people knew about it. I’ve long been an enthusiastic evangelist for this album, sticking tracks on mixed CDs and tapes for quite some time. Even avowed Beatlemaniacs tend to have missed out on Wonderwall Music. It’s a real overlooked gem.

Harrison’s principle collaborator for the Wonderwall soundtrack was orchestral arranger John Barham who transcribed Harrison’s “western” melodies into a musical annotation that the Indian musicians in Bombay could work with. Barham was a student and collaborator of Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, who had introduced him to the quiet Beatle.

Barham, who would soon go on to compose details

Music can be a spellbinding thing. With closed eyes and the right song on, the listener can be transported to a very specific place and time – to one’s first kiss, a time of euphoria or tragedy. Answering a fan-submitted question on his website, Paul McCartney has listed his three favorite albums, citing their ability to recall particular moments in his life as his reasons for choosing them.

“My partner and I have recently been discussing the albums and songs that have soundtracked our lives,” McCartney fan, Alex, writes. “Are there any albums that take you back to certain periods in your life? And does performing your own music evoke similar memories?”

The Beatle, who has recently reunited with his iconic Hofner bass after it went missing for half a century, was forthcoming with his answer, listing his three favorite records, but falling short of sharing the times, places, and emotions they bring flooding back.

“My favourite albums by other people,” he says, “tend to be: Music from Big Pink by the Band, Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, and Harvest by Neil Young. They are the three classics that I love to listen to, and they all remind me of certain time details

John Lennon and Paul McCartney are the most successful songwriting pair in the history of music, regarding both numerical success and intangible success. The last thing we need to do is remind you about how much they’ve accomplished, and frankly, if we wanted to do it in full detail, this article would be well over a thousand words. Though what is not as widely known is how McCartney and Lennon’s juxtaposing personalities led to the most iconic musical partnership of all time.

On the surface, one can pick up on the differences between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. McCartney, in a general sense, is far more jubilant, politely compliant, and willing to take part in the game of being the most famous musician in the world. Lennon was seemingly not that, as he was rebellious, dark, and guarded, and spoke his mind no matter the situation. However, it’s these differences, and others, that quite possibly made them such a successful pair

In The Beatles canon, it is fairly common knowledge that Paul McCartney was the more talented musician, and John Lennon the more talented poet. Attesting to that fact is George Martin in the book, The Beatles: The Authorized Biography. “All the time [Paul’ details

John Lennon often talked about the fact that he wanted the verses to the songs that he wrote to have the same musical potency as the choruses. Although he never stated this intent, Lennon also had a knack for dropping lines into the middle of his songs that could stop you in your tracks with their profundity. In his classic song “Strawberry Fields Forever”, a couplet in the second verse summed up much of what the song was meant to convey. And it also provided a stunning glimpse into just how Lennon saw himself within the wider world.

As The Beatles prepared to make new music in 1967, John Lennon and Paul McCartney originally gave themselves a brief to write about their childhoods. Although they soon abandoned the idea, it stuck around long enough to influence the songs that would serve as the band’s first single of the year, a double A-side.

McCartney wrote “Penny Lane”. The song takes a specific look at the people and places he remembered encountering as a kid. Lennon based “Strawberry Fields Forever” around a local park area within the grounds of a Salvation Army home. But the location simply served as a touchstone for happier memories, a la Rosebud in Citizen Kane.