Beatles News

Although Beatle Mania may be a thing of the past for Paul McCartney, he clearly still enjoys a spot of beach mania.

Sir Paul, 82, enjoyed a day in the surf with his wife, Nancy Shevell, 65, in the Caribbean.

Wearing a cream hat, sunglasses and a fruit-patterned swimsuit, Ms Shevell could hardly contain her smiles as she was carried by her husband in the sea off St Barts.

Macca, protecting himself from the sun in a dark, long-sleeved top, was in good spirits, too, as he took a break from a busy start of the year.

Although he's in his eighties, the former Beatle is still performing, selling out two shows in minutes in New York last month.

The audience at one of the gigs at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan, which only has a capacity of 575, included stars such as Tom Hanks, 68, Anne Hathaway, 42, Cara Delevingne, 32, and Woody Harrelson, 63.

Sir Paul McCartney, 82, enjoyed a day in the surf with his wife, Nancy Shevell, 65, in the Caribbean

Wearing a cream hat, sunglasses and a fruit-patterned swimsuit, Ms Shevell could hardly contain her smiles as she was carried by her husband in the sea off St Barts.   The concert was a follow-up to a surprise 90-minute show the details

One of the favourite songs of The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney was written by fellow Fab Four member George Harrison.

McCartney, 82, confirmed Here Comes the Sun from Abbey Road was one of his all-time favourite recordings from Harrison. The Wings frontman also confirmed Brainwashed, Harrison’s posthumous release, which dropped in 2002, was among his favourite albums. In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) to promote his 2020 album, McCartney II, McCartney confirmed Here Comes the Sun was one of his favourite songs from Harrison. He wrote: “It is a brilliant song and the kind of song that’s really good in times like these.”

The “times like these” McCartney refers to in his comment is the lockdown the United Kingdom, and other countries across the world, experienced due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A previous compilation release from McCartney saw the legendary songwriter name a Brainwashed track as another favourite from Harrison’s discography.

The album Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury Groove compiled some of McCartney’s favourite songs. Compiled by McCartney himself, the album featured classics like God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, Cheek to Cheek by Fred A details

The Beatles’ best of the best:

1. “Twist and Shout” (1963): This represented the Beatles before they had become so musically condescending. John Lennon’s vocals were simply magnificent. I once read “the way (Lennon’s, Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s) harmonies came together at the song’s climax … was perhaps the most iconic moment of their career”. It’s hard to argue that. (Also, remember this song from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?”)
2. “Yesterday” (1965): In 1997, this masterpiece was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. There are more than 2,200 cover versions out there.
3. “Day Tripper” (1965): Lennon described “Day Tripper” as a “drug song” in 1970,[and in a 2004 interview McCartney said it was “about (LSD)”.
4. “Revolution” (1968): The song opens with arguably the best guitar riff of the modern pop era via Lennon, followed by the famed scream from McCartney.
5. “The Long And Winding Road” (1970): The quintessential soft rock ballad?
6. “In My Life” (1965): Rolling Stone magazine ranked this No. details

John Lennon described what Bowie did in his glam rock days as “just rock ’n’ roll with lipstick on”. I was in the lipstick camp. But if Ziggy was from Mars (magical realism with a dash of science fiction) and the Beatles were from Liverpool (trippy social realism) then of the Fab Four, my heart-throb was Ringo. Screeeeam! His wit, deadpan expression and how unbothered he always seemed at the height of the Beatles’ fame made him all the more alluring. When I discovered he joined the band after a summer job drumming at Butlin’s, I loved him even more.

As it happens, George Harrison might be my favourite songwriter out of these four blazing talents – “Something” is a truly uncanny love song. It’s hard to convey a mood that is onside with ambivalence and certainty at the same time. And when I cook spaghetti to “My Sweet Lord”, I appreciate its yearning to see and know something unknowable. Harrison was a Hare Krishna devotee. An older friend once told me that in the Sixties, after chowing down lots of psychedelic drugs, there was a split between those who delivered themselves to spirituality and those who dragged themselves to psychoanaly details

The Beatles had their first number one in America when I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the Cashbox chart in 1964 and they were then sent into a studio to record a German version

The Beatles skyrocketed to international fame in 1964, but that didn't mean they were always happy to get in the studio and record.

During a 19-date residency in Paris, the band's manager Brian Epstein broke the news to them that I Want to Hold Your Hand had rocketed to number one on the US' Cashbox charts — their very first American chart-topper.

By February 1, the track clinched the top spot on America's main chart, the Billboard Hot 100, holding the title for an impressive seven weeks. Convinced of their global potential, Epstein marked that moment as the beginning of their push into international markets.

Given their early stardom in Hamburg, Odeon Records in Berlin persuaded Epstein and producer George Martin that recording German versions of their hits like She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand could enhance sales in West Germany.
The Beatles then found themselves in Paris' Pathé Marconi studio. However,......

Source: themirror.com/Dan Haygarth

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Paul McCartney and John Lennon met on Saturday, July 6, 1957 — 12 years after the war, 10 years before they released Sgt Pepper — amid the pageantry of a suburban English garden party in Woolton, Liverpool: brass band, fancy-dress parades, cake stalls and hoopla games. Paul, 15 years old, was over from Allerton, a mile or two across the golf course. He didn’t hang out in Woolton much — it was a posh neighbourhood, a little prissy — but a friend from school, Ivan, lived there, and had suggested they go to the fête. There would be girls, plus Ivan had this local friend, John Lennon, whom Paul might like to meet, or at least see play with his group, the Quarry Men.

At about 4pm, he and Ivan arrived at St Peter’s Church. The noise of Lennon’s group was billowing through humid air from the field next to the church. Paul had seen John around, on the bus, in the chip shop, and he was already fascinated by him. Paul was an intellectually hungry boy who was unconvinced by school and unimpressed by the prospect of an office job. Here was this older lad, nearly 17, a leather-jacketed, sideburned, vulpine rocker who seemed to have already made an irreversible break from workaday life. details

Peet’s Coffee has announced it will no longer charge extra for plant-based milks.

The decision comes just days after Sir Paul McCartney, a longtime advocate for animal welfare, penned an open letter to the East Bay company urging it to eliminate the $1 surcharge for vegan milk.

“We were proud to introduce the first fully plant-based menu item at scale for coffee shops in 2021,” Gordon Bitter, a senior vice president at Peet’s, said in a statement. “Now, we’re excited to take the next step by offering non-dairy options at the same price as all milk-based drinks.”

Starting June 4, beverages with non-dairy options — including oat, almond and pea protein milk — will be offered without an upcharge.

“I am really happy to hear this!” McCartney said in a statement Saturday, March 15.

Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, also celebrated the decision.

“With a little help from our friend Sir Paul McCartney, PETA notched a swift win for animals, the planet, and kind consumers, who shouldn’t be punished for making the ethical and healthy choice to ditch dairy,” she said in a statement.

Source: sfchronicle details

Today in history:

On March 22, 1963, The Beatles’ debut album, “Please Please Me,” was released in the United Kingdom on the Parlophone record label.

After taking the UK by storm in 1963, The Beatles became famous around the world in 1964. They were on a 19-date concert residency in Paris on January 25, 1964 of that year when manager Brian Epstein told them they had achieved their first number one in America when 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' topped the US's Cashbox charts.

The song was number one on the USA's main chart - the Billboard Hot 100 - by February 1 and stayed there for seven weeks. Brian had decided they needed to target international markets from that point on.

As The Beatles had been big hits in Hamburg in their early days, Berlin-based Odeon Records told Brian and producer George Martin that singing in German would allow the band to sell more records in West Germany. So The Beatles were sent into the Pathé Marconi studio in Paris on January 29.

Translations of 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' were given to them. However, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison were not too keen on the idea and wanted to stay in their hotel.

Mr Martin recalled: "I fixed the session for late-morning. Norman Smith, myself, and the translator, a chap named Nicolas, all got to the studio on time, but there was n details

Elvis Presley's relationship with The Beatles was a complex one. The iconic band, known as The Fab Four, were greatly inspired by the King of Rock and Roll during their formative years in the 1950s.

However, when they finally met six decades ago this August, Elvis viewed them as competition, given their thriving music careers compared to his own. By 1970, he was expressing to President Nixon that The Beatles were "un-American" due to their ties with the hippie drug culture. Despite this, Elvis ended up performing several of their hits live during his residency years, including Yesterday and Hey Jude.

The Daily Express had an exclusive chat with David Stanley, Elvis' step-brother, on the very Las Vegas stage where the star performed every show.

During our discussion, the trusted member of the Memphis Mafia and bodyguard revealed that Elvis "loved George Harrison out of all The Beatles."

David disclosed: "He thought George was the most prolific writer. He really liked his writing."

He then proceeded to name Elvis' top four Beatles songs, all written by the Quiet Beatle. George has written quite a few songs for his band, and four of them was written by his supermodel ex-wife Pattie Boyd.

Yoko Ono knows her social status changed after she and her late husband John Lennon met.

In archival footage from the trailer for One to One: John & Yoko, the Japanese multimedia artist and musician, now 92, reflects on how the public’s perception of her changed after she married the Beatles singer.   “I was considered a bitch in this society,” a young Ono says about 40 seconds into the nearly two-minute teaser.

She adds, “Since I met John, I was upgraded into a witch.”  His words could also be heard over clips of their time together.

“I fell in love with an independent, creative genius,” the British rock star confessed. “I started waking up.”

The former couple met in London in 1966, when he happened to stop Lennon by Ono's solo exhibit. Soon after, an affair began, which prompted Lennon to leave his first wife, Cynthia Lennon, whom he shared a 5-year-old son, Julian, with.

They married in 1969 and Lennon and Ono became one of the most polarizing and high-profile couples, even beyond his death in 1980.

Ono’s presence in his life seemingly motivated Lennon to explore new ways of creating music and bring details

Paul McCartney and PETA have joined forces to urge Peet’s Coffee to eliminate its plant milk surcharge.

The Beatles star penned an open letter to Eric Lauterbach, president and CEO of Peet’s Coffee, urging him to eliminate the company’s 80 cent-$1 surcharge for vegan milk.

“It recently came to my attention that Peet’s has an extra charge for plant-based milks as opposed to cow’s milk. I must say this surprised me as I understand that your company is committed to reducing methane emissions and water waste, yet cow’s milk significantly contributes to them,” McCartney wrote in the letter, dated March 3. “I would like to politely request that you consider dropping the upcharge on plant milks, just as Starbucks and Dunkin’ have recently done.”

PETA’s campaign against the coffee chain, headquartered in Emeryville and founded in Berkeley, is set to expand on Monday, March 17, when a Peet’s billboard featuring the punny slogan “For Pete’s sake” is set to go up directly outside of one of the coffee shop’s East Bay locations.  Members of the nonprofit organization, formally known as the People for the Ethical details

You can’t sustain a career like Paul McCartney‘s without versatility. If he had only one trick in his bag, that would have worn thin quickly. With The Beatles, with Wings, or on his own, he has mastered both screaming rock and roll and tender balladry.

Beyond that, there are the occasions when McCartney delves into more antiquated forms of music, some very distinct to his native Great Britain. The 2005 track “English Tea” revels in some details those in his home country could appreciate best.
Modern “English”

When it comes to his post-millennial output, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, released in 2005, just might be the best album McCartney has delivered. And that’s no faint praise, because the quality of his output has remained remarkably consistent in that time, maybe even more so than in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

The album paired him with Nigel Godrich, who came into the experience as one of the hotter producers of that era. Godrich dared to push McCartney, forcing him to rewrite songs even when the former Beatle believed they were already up to snuff.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia

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John Lennon is being honored in a specially minted British coin collection to mark the year the Beatles great and peace advocate would have turned 85, the Royal Mint said Friday.

The coin, which will go on sale on Monday, features a portrait of Lennon that is based on a famous image taken by music industry photographer Bob Gruen in 1974.

It depicts a side profile of Lennon, taken on the roof of his penthouse in New York. Lennon was shot dead by Mark David Chapman in the city on Dec. 8, 1980 at the age of 40.

Lennon’s name appears to the left of the portrait, while the word “Imagine” features on the right side of the design in a reference to his single and album, released in 1971, the year after the Fab Four — Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — effectively went their own way, having left their indelible mark at the heart of the 1960s.

“Arguably one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time, Lennon’s achievements as an artist, activist and advocate for peace continue to live on and will now be forever remembered on a coin,” said Rebecca Morgan, director of commemorative coin at the Royal Mint.

Source: apnews.co details

The Beatles' 1967-1970 compilation reenters the U.K. charts, celebrating its one-hundredth week on ... [+] the Official Albums chart and joining an elite group of their albums.

The Beatles’ catalog is filled with some of the bestselling albums and most popular songs of all time. While a number of the group’s traditional studio full-lengths rank among the most beloved ever, in the decades since the Fab Four broke up, millions of people have focused on buying and streaming compilations from the group. This is an easy way to continually consume the singles that made the outfit globally famous, and these days, when The Beatles land on albums charts around the world, it's usually with one gathering of singles or another.

This frame, in The Beatles’ home country, two compilations appear on the main albums chart as one returns and joins another popular release. The comeback project reaches a special milestone and joins a number of other classics from the band as it hits a special milestone.

The Beatles’ 1967-1970 Returns

1967-1970, a compilation usually just referred to as the Blue Album, bounces back onto a pair of U.K. charts this week. It reenters the Official Albums St details