The Beatles broke out regionally in 1963 and nationally in 1964, which makes 1962 the last year they weren't widely known. And given that we'll probably never forget them, that makes it a special year indeed. What was going on then?
During the mid-to-late 1950s, the titans of rock 'n' roll dominated the earth; by 1962, many of them had seemingly gone extinct.
Buddy Holly went down, young. Little Richard found Jesus. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin and was crucified in the press. Chuck Berry spent three years in jail. Elvis, fresh out of the army, was making films often derided as beneath him. So when the Beatles broke out — regionally in 1963, and nationally the following year — they arrived in a barren, joyless world, right?
Source: grammy.com
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Paul McCartney said one of the songs from The Beatles’ Revolver is about marijuana. Paul said marijuana expanded his mind.
The song was a hit in the United States but not the United Kingdom.
Paul McCartney revealed one of the songs from The Beatles’ Revolver is about cannabis. Subsequently, the song did not become a hit until years after the Fab Four disbanded. Paul compared writing a song about marijuana to writing a song about chocolate. In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed his relationship with marijuana. “I’d been a rather straight working-class lad, but when we started to get into pot, it seemed to me to be quite uplifting,” he said. “It didn’t seem to have too many side effects like alcohol or some of the other stuff, like pills, which I pretty much kept off.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsGeorge Harrison is most famous for his time with The Beatles. He wrote some of his most classic songs like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something.” So, you’d think his time in The Beatles would’ve been the first thing he showed his son Dhani. Paul McCartney’s kids were practically born on tour and got to see their father’s music, both in The Beatles and beyond, from an early age.
When Dhani was a kid, he used to tell his friends that his dad “pushed buttons” for a living. He had no idea that those buttons were making hit albums.
“I hung out with my parents. I was always trying to be with the big kids, and the big kids at my house were like (ELO frontman) Jeff Lynne,” Dhani told Daily Mail. “You’d come home and it was like, ‘Bob Dylan’s here.’ It’s hard to get a bit of perspective on, like, ‘How did your school test go today?'”
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsOne in three members of Gen Z is unfamiliar with The Beatles, Queen, and Elvis, according to a new study conducted by Roberts Radio. Roberts surveyed 2,000 UK residents from different generations to see how familiar they were with various artists, and the results are surprising to say the least.
The study found that Gen Zers are less familiar with older artists than one might expect. In addition to one-third of Gen Z not knowing who The Beatles are, the report says that two-thirds are unfamiliar with Aretha Franklin. U2 and The Supremes were also found to be unfamiliar to more than half of the generation, while Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Prince all hovered around the 50% mark. Queen was just slightly higher at 66.81%, perhaps due in part to the band’s popular biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.
Source: James Sissler/liveforlivemusic.com
detailsGeorge Harrison needed to do a few things before he asked Jeff Lynne to help him produce Cloud Nine. First, George needed to overlook that he’d once called Lynne a Beatles copycat. Secondly, George needed to get to know Lynne to see if they’d be good songwriting partners.
When those things were out of the way, George knew Lynne started work. The former Beatle enjoyed their collaboration because it made him feel like he was in a band again.
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsPaul McCartney‘s “My Love” doesn’t sound much like George Harrison’s songs. Despite this, “My Love” and one of George’s songs battled for chart supremacy. Notably, Paul called “My Love” “a bunch of roses” for someone he loved.
During a 2002 interview with Hot Press, Paul contrasted his song “Maybe I’m Amazed” with “My Love.” “Well, y’know, it’s not all roses,” he opined. “As you say, that one [‘Maybe I’m Amazed’] was written early days with [Linda McCartney] and just being so in love and so chuffed at this idea of starting a family.
“If it’s going well, that’s a great, great moment in your life,” he added. “And it was for us. But, yeah, there is a bit of that sort of, ‘Here’s a little disclaimer here,’ I’m not going the whole way here whereas ‘My Love’ is. That’s roses: here’s a bunch of roses for you.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney said a song from The Beatles’ Abbey Road is about things going wrong unexpectedly.
His wife, Heather Mills, called the song “a chilling poem.” Abbey Road became a massive international hit.
Heather Mills didn’t know one of The Beatles‘ songs before she met her future husband, Paul McCartney. She had a strong reaction to the lyrics of a song from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. On the other hand, Paul felt the song was “daft.”In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of a song from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. “‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life,” he recalled.
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsPaul McCartney said making songs for The Beatles and Wings was like writing comedy. He cited the use of a “wacky” instrument on The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” as an example of this. Subsequently, Paul revealed what he thought of The Beatles’ and Wings’ willingness to experiment.During a 2002 interview with Hot Press, Paul discussed working with The Beatles’ producer, George Martin. “Well, y’know, me and John would arrive at 10:30 in the morning,” he said. “We’d show George, Ringo and George Martin what the song was.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsJulian Lennon has revealed the beloved Beatles track “Hey Jude” was written about him.
The 59-year-old didn’t have a good relationship with his dad John Lennon after he divorced Julian’s mom Cynthia and married Yoko Ono.
He did reconcile with his father before his tragic murder in 1980, though. Speaking to Elton John for the latest episode of his “Rocket Hour” radio show, Julian discussed his new album Jude, titled after his childhood nickname, Smooth Radio reported.
He also said of the classic Beatles hit, “‘Hey Jude’ was in fact, ‘Hey, Jules’ in its initial stages.
Source: Becca Longmire/etcanada.com
detailsThe Beatles John Lennon proclaimed that their rival's song was the greatest track he had ever heard.
The Fab Four - although they cut their popularity short - successfully released hit songs that still earn attention nowadays. Among their tracks that became timeless include "Let It Be," "Hey Jude," "Don't Let Me Down," "Get Back," "Yesterday," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," to name a few.
Despite having that list of songs, Lennon fell in love with a rival's song again, and he ended up listening to it repeatedly.
In 1965, the late musician listened to one of The Beach Boys' songs during one of his interviews. As soon as he heard "The Little Girl I Once Knew," he told the interviewer to turn the volume up since it was the greatest hit he had ever heard.
Source: Angeline Sicily/musictimes.com
detailsAnyone who had an all-consuming crush on a celebrity as a teen has likely daydreamed about what it would be like to meet and fall in love with that celebrity—and it's okay to admit it! Plenty of us have memories of hanging a poster (or 20) on our bedroom walls, imagining the day we'd go to a concert and our favorite singer would pick us out of the crowd. Though that's usually not how reality goes, for a very few lucky fans, that's exactly how their love stories began. It may sound like a plot straight out of a movie (or a really juicy fan fiction), but it's happened before. More than one teen idol has ended up married to a fan. Read on to hear about 15 such heartthrobs and how they met their future spouses.
Source: Courtney Shapiro/bestlifeonline.com
detailsGeorge Harrison and Eric Clapton had an interesting friendship. In the early 1960s, they became close. However, their relationship entered choppy waters when Clapton fell in love with Geoge’s wife, Pattie Boyd. George and Boyd’s marriage began to disintegrate. The two friends then engaged in a guitar battle for Boyd’s love.
In 1964, George met actor and model Pattie Boyd on the set of The Beatles’ first feature film, A Hard Day’s Night. That first day they met, George asked Boyd to marry him. She was with someone, but their relationship had fizzled out. So, Boyd broke up with her boyfriend and started seeing George.
They married in 1966. George wrote one of his best love songs, “Something,” about her. However, their marriage started to crack in 1970, when George found out that Clapton loved Boyd.
Clapton met Boyd in London and played her “Layla,” a song he wrote for her.
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsI’ve had the honor of knowing May Pang for a long time. She’s a great lady, a survivor in rock and roll and life.
Her story about her time with John Lennon has been told in bits and pieces over the years in interviews and books she’s published. But finally there’s a documentary and it’s mind blowing, lovely, funny, touching, and poignant. Every Beatles and Lennon fan will want to see it, own it, live in it.
Three directors — Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman, Stuart Samuels — are responsible for “The Lost Weekend: A Love Story.” The film quickly covers May’s early life, then cuts to her working for Apple Records, Allen Klein, and finally John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This is before they lived in the Dakota.
Source: Roger Friedman/showbiz411.com
detailsGeorge Harrison recalled playing The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” in Hamburg. He became friends with Eric Clapton around this time.
“Twist and Shout” became a huge hit in the United States.
The Beatles‘ “Twist and Shout” became one of the Fab Four’s most famous covers. George Harrison revealed why he became sick of the song. Notably, the cover performed differently on different charts.George then became much more critical of The Beatles’ time in Hamburg. “Even when we sold records and started doing a lot of tours, it was a bit of a drag because we’d go on the road and we’d play the same tunes to different people and then we’d drop a few and add news ones all the time, but basically it was the same old tunes,” he said.
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsThe Beatles had a few professional rivals throughout their years in the music industry, with The Rolling Stones being one of the biggest. But the Fab Four were also fans of the music produced by the artists they were "against". John Lennon in particular was a staunch supporter of the music that he enjoyed.
In 1965 Lennon listened to a track from The Beach Boys while being interviewed, and he adored it.
Lennon was given the chance to listen to The Beach Boys' track, The Little Girl I Once Knew, while discussing music. And the iconic Imagine singer leapt into action. He exclaimed: "This is the greatest!. Turn it up, turn it right up! It’s got to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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