Beatles News

In July 1971, John Lennon was putting the finishing touches on a masterpiece that, according to Grunge, would become the most-covered song of the decade and an enduring anthem that would transcend borders, time, and generations.

OnJuly 4, Lennon traveled to the Record Plant in New York City to record the iconic string arrangements for "Imagine." Later that summer, he was famously filmed at his English estate, Tittenhurst Park, singing different versions of the song on his magnificent white piano.

Co-written with his wife, Yoko Ono, and drafted on a sheet of Hilton Hotel stationery, the track made its official debut later that year in October. Music fans immediately embraced the song for its soft, hypnotic melody and hopeful vision for a world without borders, religions, or material possessions.

Seen as an idealistic, universal anthem of peace, the track was a natural evolution of Lennon's earlier peace activism. Despite slight controversy caused by the opening line, "Imagine there's no heaven," the song became a cultural symbol of unity and one of Lennon's defining works. It also became the most successful single of his solo career.

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George Harrison is sitting in a vast soundstage at Twickenham Film Studios, explaining to Ringo Starr and film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg how a BBC2 sci-fi series called Out Of The Unknown, that he watched the previous evening, has inspired a new song. Harrison is sporting the same black fur coat he wears on the iconic rooftop concert and perched on his knee is John Lennon’s 1965 Epiphone Casino.

It’s mid-morning on Tuesday 7 January, 1969 and the next Beatle to arrive is Paul McCartney. “Good morning,” says the bearded bassman chirpily as he strides across the floor. “Do you wanna hear a song I wrote last night?” Harrison asks him. “It’s just a very short one, called I Me Mine”.

What follows is a beautifully plaintive and sparse rendition with Harrison’s voice sounding particularly pure. “Lovely” exclaims Lyndsey Hogg. McCartney, with hands in pockets, stands beside Harrison and stares down at his fingers on the fretboard, but says nothing. Then John Lennon arrives. Harrison, now standing, runs through the song again but speeds it up. “Run along son, see you later,” jokes Lennon. “We’re a rock and roll band you kn details

The Beatles broke new ground with practically every move that they made in the early 60s. They rewrote the rule book for what a rock group could and should do. As such, other bands had to try to raise their game just to keep up.

The 1964 album A Hard Day’s Night represented an impressive flex by the band. It was the first album where all the songs were written by the band, specifically John Lennon and Paul McCartney. 

The Beatles entered 1964 having just enjoyed one of the finest years any British band had ever encountered. They turned it up a notch by visiting America for the first time in February 1964 while their song “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was charming US audiences. The world pretty much belonged to them from that point.

For their next trick, they decided to make their first motion picture. It was a field about which they knew very little. But they wisely aligned themselves with the right people to help guide them through the making of the film. And their natural charisma helped immensely once they found themselves on camera.

The film needed a new batch of songs from the group. Deadlines were tighter than usual, since the band was not only tasked with acting in the details

Dolly Parton has never been one to shy away from a challenge, and when the country icon set out to make her first rock album, she knew exactly which song had to feature the two surviving Beatles.

Parton's 2023 album, Rockstar, features a rendition of "Let It Be" with Paul McCartney on piano and vocals and Ringo Starr on drums, joined by Peter Frampton on guitar and Mick Fleetwood on percussion. The pairing marked one of the rare instances of the two Beatles teaming up outside their own solo projects, following their 2020 collaboration on Starr's "Here's to the Nights" and Starr's surprise appearance at the close of McCartney's 2019 tour.

Parton's admiration for the Beatles stretches back decades. In 1979, she recorded a bluegrass-flavored version of "Help!" on her album Great Balls of Fire, an early sign of the crossover appeal she would later fully embrace with Rockstar.

Getting McCartney and Starr on board for "Let It Be" required a simple, personal touch. Parton explained that she reached out to both musicians through a love note sent via their managers, letting them know what she was working on.

"I've always loved that song. I recorded the song without them, and then I thought, 'Wow. Wouldn't details

With a songwriting catalogue that features some of the most important music ever created, there's no doubt that John Lennon changed the world. His partnership with Paul McCartney throughout their tenure with The Beatles spawned some special, revolutionary, and oftentimes musically complex songs.

With tracks like "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Day in the Life," there's no shortage of musical experimentation across the band's catalog. In a new interview however, the legendary singer's son Sean Lennon spoke about the song that he finds "shockingly complex," and the story behind its composition. That song is "Because."

The story goes that Yoko Ono was playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano, and Lennon took notice and asked for her to write the chords down backwards. These chords became the basis for the chords in the song.

It's so interesting learning this and then listening to the two iconic songs next to each other. It's so obvious, I don't know how I didn't notice the similarities sooner. The song is a particularly interesting one in in The Beatles' discography as well, as it comes just before "The Long One," the nine song medley that completes "Abbey Road." As one of the last songs the band eve details

The Beatles were always open about the artists who shaped them. But within that broad field of influence, there was a select few they spoke about in near-devotional terms – figures without whom they almost certainly would not have become the band that changed the world.

Like almost every forward-thinking musician of their generation, The Beatles were profoundly shaped by the American rock ‘n’ roll explosion of the late 1950s. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent all fed into what the Fab Four would become. But for John Lennon in particular, one American figure loomed larger than most: Little Richard.

Arguably the most pioneering performer of that era, Little Richard brought a wildness and physicality to rock ‘n’ roll that nobody else had quite managed – and it was a quality The Beatles would absorb and carry into their own music.

In The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography, Lennon recalls the moment he first heard ‘Long Tall Sally’ in 1956 – and how it immediately complicated his absolute devotion to Elvis.

“Elvis was bigger than religion in my life,” he said. “Then this boy at school details

A book signed by Sir Paul McCartney has sold for nearly £1,000 after being donated to a charity shop.

The copy of Paul McCartney In His Own Words, a collection of interviews with the Beatles star, was given to an Oxfam shop in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.

The book, donated as part of a wider collection of 1970s memorabilia, sat in the shop for several months before its inscription was discovered by manager Joan Randle.

It was subsequently sold at auction with Bonhams, raising £950 for the charity.

PA Media The inside front cover of a book. The pages are cream and on the inside there is a signed note from Sir Paul McCartney. On the other side there is a black and white image of Sir Paul McCartney and the headline text Paul McCartney In His Own WordsPA Media
The copy of Paul McCartney In His Own Words was given to an Oxfam shop in Aberystwyth

Randle said: "The book had actually been sitting on a shelf for a few months alongside lots of other 1970s memorabilia. "I'd been planning to use some of the items in a fun window display, so it wasn't something we'd paid particular attention to at first."

She added that one afternoon she found herself "with a bit of spare tim details

Some of the best songs come from a difficult place. Here are a few Beatles songs that are already a bit sad but become absolutely devastating once you know the thought that went behind them.
“Julia”

“Julia” is a song inspired by Lennon’s mother, who died in a car accident when Lennon was just 17. In a 2020 interview, McCartney shared that this was his favorite Lennon song. It doesn’t really even sound that sad, even though there are elements of grief in it.
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“Half of what I say is meaningless / But I say it just to reach you, Julia, Julia / Julia, ocean child, calls me.”

“Julia was my mother,” Lennon told David Sheff. “But [the song] was sort of a combination of Yoko and my mother blended into one…”
“Blackbird”

If you’ve ever heard “Blackbird”, you’ve likely felt captivated by that guitar riff that plays at the beginning of the song or noticed the catchy melody that McCartney sings over top of it. While “Blackbird” basically sounds like a song about a raven, the idea behind the tune actually goes a lot deeper than that, as McCar details

With a songwriting catalogue that features some of the most important music ever created, there’s no doubt that John Lennon changed the world. His partnership with Paul McCartney throughout their tenure with The Beatles spawned some special, revolutionary, and oftentimes musically complex songs.

With tracks like “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Day in the Life,” there’s no shortage of musical experimentation across the band’s catalog. In a new interview however, the legendary singer’s son Sean Lennon spoke about the song that he finds “shockingly complex,” and the story behind its composition. That song is “Because.”

The story goes that Yoko Ono was playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano, and Lennon took notice and asked for her to write the chords down backwards. These chords became the basis for the chords in the song.

It’s so interesting learning this and then listening to the two iconic songs next to each other. It’s so obvious, I don’t know how I didn’t notice the similarities sooner. The song is a particularly interesting one in in The Beatles’ discography as well, as it c details

Mick Jagger has spoken to NME about the “very easy” experience of working with Paul McCartney on The Rolling Stones‘ new album ‘Foreign Tongues’.

The Beatles legend teamed up with the Stones for their latest full-length effort – released next Friday (July 10) – taking on bass duties for the song ‘Covered In You’.

The Wings star and solo icon also spoke to NME about his excitement to get involved in the record, explaining that he was “chuffed” to be asked to contribute.

“You could be a bit blasé and go, ‘Yeah, OK, so what?’ But for me, it wasn’t – it went the other way,” he said, going on to recall how he felt in the studio.

“It was like, ‘Wow, there’s Mick [Jagger]! Ooh, there’s Keith [Richards]! Woah, there’s Ronnie [Wood]!’ It was exciting. It was really good. A great thing is all I had to do was play bass and not make mistakes, so it was good.”

McCartney continued: “I went home that day, and I’m saying to everyone, ‘I just played with The Stones!’ I was glad I wasn’t blasé about it. It’s really details

In 1966, The Beatles released “Yellow Submarine”. On their Revolver record, “Yellow Submarine” is written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Out in 1966, the song became one of The Beatles’ many No. 1 hits.

An uptempo, light-hearted tune, “Yellow Submarine” begins with, “In the town where I was born / Lived a man who sailed to sea / And he told us of his life / In the land of submarines / So we sailed up to the sun / ’Til we found the sea of green / And we lived beneath the waves / In our yellow submarine.”

The success of “Yellow Submarine” is surprising, since it was never written to be a mainstream hit. Instead, McCartney says it was originally supposed to be for their younger fans.

“‘Yellow Submarine’ is very simple but very different,” McCartney says. “It’s a fun song, a children’s song. Originally, we intended it to be Sparky, a children’s record. But now it’s the idea of a yellow submarine where all the kids went to have fun. I was just going to sleep one night and thinking if we had a children’s song, it would be nice to be on a yellow submarine where all your friends details

When most people think of The Beatles, they likely think of songs like “I Want To Hold Your Hand” or “Here Comes The Sun”. While these are great songs, The Beatles experimented with lots of different sounds in their day. Here are a few Beatles songs that might surprise you.
“Helter Skelter”

“Helter Skelter”, which appears on the White Album, is a lot more rock ‘n roll than most Beatles’ songs. When Paul McCartney wrote this one, he was referring to a helter-skelter carnival slide, and not so much Charles Manson.

He told Barry Miles: “I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom – the rise and fall of the Roman Empire – and this was the fall, the demise, the going down. You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it’s since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker.”
“Within You Without You”

This is actually one of many Beatles songs that have a lot of Indian musical influence. George Harrison wrote his first song in this style w details

By the mid-1960s, the Beatles had left behind their matching suits and clean-cut image in favor of something far more bohemian. Rubber Soul was famously dubbed the band’s “pot album” by John Lennon, while increasingly mind-altering substances helped shape the psychedelic sounds of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It was a period of constant experimentation, both musically and chemically. As Paul McCartney later told Howard Stern, “Things happened in the studio that you couldn’t always predict.”

Stern asked McCartney about one of the best-known stories from the making of Sgt. Pepper: the claim that Lennon was tripping on LSD while recording the album’s fourth track, “Getting Better.” “It was crazy, because he had a little pillbox,” McCartney recalled. “He’d have his little uppers and his little downers, and he thought he was taking a little upper, and we could get on with the session.

“[Then] he comes over to me and whispers, ‘I took the wrong pill.’

“‘What did you take?’

“‘Acid.’”

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Ringo Starr’s new album, Long Long Road, which has roots in country and Americana, is out today.

It's the second straight album he’s done with producer T Bone Burnett. At a recent listening party in Los Angeles, Ringo said Burnett made making the album easy, noting, "There's a lot of great players in Nashville, and he knows most of them."

Ringo said Burnett would send him "tracks with some meat on" them, and he would send back his drum and singing parts. Then Burnett would "complete the deal," which Ringo describes as “a great way of working."

And it was just as easy for Burnett, who said he’s been listening to Ringo play drums for so long that “his feel is in my DNA at this point. It's in my cells, you know.”

“I've always thought of him as a Texas musician because he played so Texas," he added. "He's the swinginest drummer in the history of the United Kingdom. I can tell you that.”

Ringo said the title of the album represents "the road I’ve taken," adding, “You know all of those stop marks on your walk of life, it’s so far out."

He said that the title track "is me going through my things about my life." And while h 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, deals and details