Beatles News

John Lennon wrote and recorded the single “Instant Karma” in one day, at one point telling reporters he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.”

The song, produced by Phil Spector, featured his Beatles bandmate George Harrison on acoustic guitar and piano, with Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono and Billy Preston contributing background vocals.

The inspiration for the tune came to Lennon during a visit he and Yoko took to Denmark, where they met up with Yoko’s former husband Tony Cox. Cox’s then wife Melinde Kendell used the term in conversation.

“Instant Karma,” Lennon’s third solo single, wound up being a hit for the rocker, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Source: kslx.com

Shortly after The Beatles split, John Lennon was publicly critical of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. He dismissed their solo efforts and work in The Beatles. By the mid-1970s, Lennon’s attitude towards his former bandmates had softened considerably. Still, he wasn’t afraid to share his honest opinion when asked about a former Beatle’s music. He said one of Harrison’s concerts hadn’t impressed him.

In 1975, Lennon reflected on a recent Harrison concert he attended. It hadn’t impressed him.

“It wasn’t the greatest thing in history,” he told Rolling Stone. “The guy went through some kind of mill. It was probably his turn to get smacked.”

Harrison embarked on a 45-show tour of North America with Ravi Shankar in 1974. The critical reception was mixed, with many lambasting the shows. Lennon believed this was a part of the typical cycle of approval for the Beatles.

“When we were all toget details

The hangover from The Beatles‘ breakup was still stubbornly lingering in 1973. Legal proceedings entangling the principals were very much still in play. Fans of the Fab Four certainly couldn’t take for granted any sign of unity from the four band members.

All of which is to say the timing of the release of two greatest hits compilations, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, couldn’t have been any better. The collections rose to the top of the charts and sparked a massive wave of nostalgia for the dearly missed group.

Oddly enough, the whole affair might not have happened were it not for someone trying to beat the group to the punch. A company based in New Jersey released a pair of four-disc collections in 1972 titled The Beatles Alpha/Omega. At the time, copyright laws weren’t nearly as strict as they are now, so the creators of these collections decided to roll the dice.

The song selection for these sets was quite haphazard, as it not only included some random Beatles tracks that were far from hits, but it also peppered in some solo Fab Four material as well. Sound quality wasn’t ideal, as the recordings were just pulled from existing LPs, rather than the group’s mast details

The Beatles are larger than life today, and it’s wild to think that the Fab Four from Liverpool ever had difficult beginnings. However, they were no different than any other ragtag group of musicians trying to make it big. They started out in the 1960s with the British Invasion movement on the up-and-up, and they managed to shine in a sea of other, similar rock bands. And one could say that it all started with The Beatles’ famed 1963 track, “Please Please Me”.

We probably have George Martin to thank for that. According to drummer Ringo Starr, nobody was willing to give them a chance at the beginning.

“I personally love George [Martin] because he gave us a shot at putting down on a piece of vinyl,” said Starr. “No one else would really have wanted to put us on the label.”

“Please Please Me” and the whole of the album of the same name saw The Beatles starting to figure out what their sound was. And the whole thing was quite rushed, unfortunately. That being said, even though they recorded more than a dozen tracks in a day (including “Please Please Me”), the result was a record that took Europe by storm. And eventually, it took North Am details

Paul McCartney nearly wrote a follow-up to John Lennon’s How Do You Sleep? at the height of the so-called song wars.

The former members of The Beatles spent time in the studio recording songs aimed at one another, with the back and forth coming to a head when Lennon released How Do You Sleep?, a song which featured on his 1971 album, Imagine. Lennon wrote it as an attack on his former bandmate after believing McCartney’s track Too Many People, which features on Ram, was aimed at him. George Harrison appears on How Do You Sleep?, playing slide guitar, and McCartney very nearly wrote a response to Lennon’s venomous song.

According to McCartney, who spoke on Ramming: The Making of Ram, a follow-up song was planned. McCartney also confirmed the title of his album, Ram, was related to “ramming on” after the break-up of The Beatles. He said: “I just hit upon the word ram. It’s strong, it’s a male, animal. And then there’s the idea of ramming. Pushing forward strongly. Very short, very succinct kind of title you wouldn’t forget. I was in the middle of this horrendous Beatles breakup and it was like being in quicksand.

“The lightbulb went off one details

The Beatles may have new songs with John Lennon coming thanks to new technology.

During an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison, revealed that a couple of songs by the Beatles, originally released in the 1990s, will be remixed using artificial intelligence to enhance John Lennon’s vocals.

Following Lennon’s tragic passing in 1980, the other members of the Beatles received demos of the songs from his wife Yoko Ono. Lennon had recorded the vocals and piano for the demos at his home before he died.

The surviving members added their vocals and instrumentation and released “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love” as new songs by the band.

They also worked on “Now And Then,” but decided to shelve the piece after finding Lennon’s vocals and the piano for the song could not be separated.

Later, AI made it possible for Lennon’s vocals to be isolated from the piano. Paul McCartney contributed bass and piano to the track and Ringo Starr added drums, while guitar by George Harrison was provided through a recording from the 1990s, before his death in 2001. “Now And Then” was released in 2023 as the Be details

Film director Kevin Macdonald and Co-Director/Editor Sam Rice-Edwards intriguingly slice together footage never seen before from the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived in Greenwich Village. The film ‘One-To-One: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’ documents a tumultuous part of US history. Kevin Macdonald remarked: “People of the 70s, musicians were engaged in a way we should get back to.”
Historical footage documents history as it happened

“In the film there are interesting parallels between 1972 and where we are now,” notes Sam Rice-Edwards. “I didn’t know that much about Yoko when we started. For me it deepened my understanding. Getting into her head with the missing daughter, searching for her into the 90s.”

Hearing the stories told by Yoko Ono herself back in the 70s, provides insights rarely told. Did you know John Lennon went to the first feminist convention in Boston as the only man? The film shows the women voting on whether to throw him out.

Sean Ono Lennon oversaw the remastering of the audio. Much of the footage is from Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert. Yoko Ono, herself, did not participate in the making of this film details

Ringo Starr is set to appear on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he’ll discuss his recently released country album, Look Up.

The album is already a success for Ringo, landing on several Billboard charts, including the all-genre Top Album Sales chart, where it’s at #7.

The album is also #1 on the Current Rock Album sales, Americana/Folk Album sales and Current Country Album sales charts, at #4 on the Current Digital Album sales chart and #6 on the Overall Digital Album sales chart.

It’s even landed on the rock charts, at #23 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart and at #30 on the Rock & Alternative Albums chart.

Meanwhile, on the all-genre Billboard 200, Look Up debuted at #147 and is now Ringo’s 20th album to land on that chart.

“Thanks everyone who supported me with Look Up, produced by T Bone Burnett, who did a great job, and all the musicians on it I want to thank,” Ringo shared on social media. “It’s just been a great experience for me to make this record and have the experience of it actually doing great, it fills my heart. Peace and love. Thank everybody. Thank you.”

Look Up, co-written and produced b details

Fans of The Beatles are praising George Harrison as one of the “greatest guitarists” of all time – for one reason in particular.

A thread of praise for the late guitarist has been shared on Reddit, where fans of the Fab Four focused on how great a player Harrison was. A post to The Beatles’ subreddit asked: “Where would you rank George Harrison in the ‘greatest guitarist’ conversation?” Users were emphatic in how great a guitarist Harrison was, with members of the group saying his best trait was how he “served the song.”

One user wrote: “He served the song. Plain and simple. Not a show off. What did the song need? He provided it. And he was stellar with what he provided. I don’t think George himself would give a shit about where he “ranked” among other players. We shouldn’t either. He was perfect for The Beatles.”

Another reply suggested this was true for all four members. They wrote: “I think that can be said for every Beatle too. A great musician doesn’t need to shred like a god, being a great musician is understanding what the song needs and providing it, it’s being able to make the musici details

It is considered one of the band's finest tracks.  Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s songwriting drove The Beatles to monumental heights, reinventing popular music in the process. The two wrote the vast majority of the band’s songs with their work given the joint credit of Lennon-McCartney.

Having made a pact before they were famous, every song that John and Sir Paul wrote during this time was credited to the two of them - even if one had written it independently. They were at their best when they worked together, as the contrasting approaches and styles that Sir Paul and John boasted complimented one another, coming together to compile an unrivalled collection of songs.

About their partnership, Music and Musicians magazine's Wilfred Mellors wrote in 1972: "Opposite poles generate electricity: between John and Paul the sparks flew. John's fiery iconoclasm was tempered by Paul's lyrical grace, while Paul's wide-eyed charm was toughened by John's resilience."

Few Beatles releases illustrate this in such a stark manner than the February 1967 double A-side single 'Penny Lane'/'Strawberry Fields Forever'. The former was written by Sir Paul and the latter was written by John, both reflectin details

Paul McCartney urged the British government not to make a change to copyright laws that he says could let artificial intelligence companies rip off artists.  The government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train artificial intelligence models unless the creators explicitly opt-out.

McCartney told CBS News partner BBC that would make it harder for artists to retain control of their work and undermine Britain's creative industries.

"You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don't own it, and they don't have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off," the 82-year-old former Beatle said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday. An extract was released Saturday by the BBC.

"The truth is, the money's going somewhere. When it gets on the streaming platforms, somebody is getting it, and it should be the person who created it. It shouldn't be some tech giant somewhere," he said.

Britain's center-left Labour Party government says it wants to make the U.K. a world leader in AI. In December, it announced a consultation into how copyright law can "enable creators and right holders to exercise control ove details

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has been enjoying plenty of media attention for his new country-flavored album, Look Up. As he’s explained in multiple recent interviews, Starr has been a fan of country music since he was a child, and his love of the genre is apparent from the material he sang with the Fab Four.

In a new article in the U.K. magazine Mojo, Paul McCartney talked about Starr’s affinity for country music and why he thinks the genre is well-suited for his Beatles bandmate.

“He always loved country from the first minute I met him,” McCartney shared. “He liked the old country singers like George Jones and people like that, and he was a big fan of that.”

Sir Paul added, “I think, you know, maybe, it suits his personality. He’s a very sincere, straightforward guy, and I think that’s the sort of theme behind a lot of country music.”

Starr’s amiable nature inspired Beatles fans to launch a “Ringo for President” campaign back in 1964. Mojo jokingly asked McCartney if he would support a Starr candidacy, and Paul seemed amenable to the idea … well, sort of.

“Ringo for President? Yeah, absolutel details

Legendary guitarist George Harrison said he “couldn’t join a band” with Paul McCartney after The Beatles’ split.

Harrison would work with Fab Four bandmates John Lennon and Ringo Starr on various projects after The Beatles’ break-up, but he and McCartney would only work together once before revisiting unreleased material from the band. McCartney and his wife, Linda, provided backing vocals on All Those Years Ago, the fourth track of Harrison’s 1981 album, Somewhere in England. He and McCartney, joined by drummer Starr, would lay down new instrumentals for Free as a Bird and Real Love.

But Harrison maintained for years he could not join a band with McCartney again, and while it was “nothing personal”, the Something and All Things Must Pass songwriter said he was more inclined to work with Lennon. A press conference appearance from Harrison confirmed he “couldn’t join a band” with his former bandmate again.

He said: “Paul is a fine bass player, but he’s a bit overpowering at times. To tell the truth, I’d join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn’t join a band with Paul McCartney. It’s nothing personal; details

Instruments used in the recording of The Beatles' classic album 'Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band' have gone on display in Liverpool. French horns were used on the 1967 album, which was number one in the UK charts for 23 straight weeks, and two of them have now been exhibited at Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street.

Sian Kenrick, whose late father Tony Randall played the horn, got in touch with the museum in December. After officials confirmed they would like to put the instrument on display, Mr Randall’s family got in touch with the relatives of John Burden, another of the four French horn players on the album.

Museum owner Roag Best said: "He was the guy Paul McCartney stood next to and, because Paul couldn’t transcribe music, he would hum the tune and say ‘can you write that down?’ He would have to write the music for the other French horn players."

Before he died, Mr Burden remembered the session saying: "They didn’t really know what they wanted. I wrote out phrases for them based on what Paul McCartney was humming to us and George Martin. All four Beatles were there but only Paul took an active interest in our overdub."

Families of both musicians details

Ringo Starr spent the first decade or so of his time as a musical superstar as one-fourth of the biggest band in the world. The music he released with The Beatles continues to make history, selling and streaming its way onto the charts to this day.

As millions of people around the world keep listening to The Beatles, Starr is focused on his solo career. He took a sonic risk with his latest release, which has paid off beautifully, as he earns a very special win—one that has eluded him throughout his decades-long post-band life.

Starr’s latest project Look Up debuts at No. 1 on a pair of charts in the U.K. this week. The set marks his first to rise to the summit on any of the main albums tallies in the nation under his own moniker.

Look Up launches in first place on both the Official Americana Albums and Official Country Artists Albums charts. Unsurprisingly, Starr hasn’t worked much in country or Americana before, so the title marks his first time reaching either of those rosters in any capacity.

Starr has released dozens of projects outside of The Beatles, though he hasn’t been nearly as successful as the other three former members of the rock group. Many of his full-lengt details