Beatles News

By the time The Beatles’ 11th album, Abbey Road, was released in September 1969, the band had been writing songs for almost a decade. Each of the members had worked hard on their own tracks as well as collaborative efforts. One of the stronger songwriters in the band was George Harrison, who penned such hits as While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes The Sun. The Quiet Beatle disagreed with Paul McCartney over one track on Abbey Road, however.

The song in question, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, was one of Paul’s compositions for the record.

The track included a collection of subtle guitar notes, as well as some extra background noises involving metal shards.

Paul’s wife at the time, Linda McCartney, said the track was his experimentation with the "avant-garde".

He himself said the song 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".

Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk

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With Brian Epstein dead, Lennon self-medicating with LSD, Yoko Ono's presence a distraction and Starr temporarily leaving the band, it was an album where the Beatles' washed their dirty laundry in the most public manner possible.

These are the 50 things about The Beatles' White Album you need to know.
1. Referring to The Beatles’ ninth LP as The White Album is like referring to 1991’s Metallica as The Black Album – technically incorrect, but universally understood. It wasn’t meant to be called The Beatles, either, but the band opted for simplicity after their working title, A Doll’s House, was gazumped by Family’s Music In A Doll’s House.

2. Sleeve designer Richard Hamilton suggested tainting the virginal cover with a coffee mug ring, but was told this was “too flippant”. He earned his fee with a stamped serial number, unique to each copy and creating, he felt, “the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies”.

Source: Henry Yates/loudersound.com

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After meeting John Lennon, Yoko Ono became a part of The Beatles’ history. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean she was a fan of The Beatles’ music. Here’s what a reporter said about her relationship to The Beatles’ work — and what she said about it.Jann S. Wenner interviewed John for a famous book called Lennon Remembers. In his 1971 introduction to the book, Wenner discussed what it was like meeting with John and Yoko. “I did this interview with John Lennon in early December 1970, at the offices of his business manager, removed by high stories from the day-time traffic in the middle of the music business on Broadway in New York City,” he said. “We were with Yoko, more or less isolated, in the massive walnut-paneled conference room.”

Source: cheatsheet.com

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Sir Tom Jones, 80, rose to fame in 1963 shortly after becoming the frontman for Welsh singing group, The Senators. Since then, the music legend has gone on to achieve worldwide fame, performing with some of the biggest names in the business.

Since finding fame, the Treforest born star has spent over 305 weeks in the UK Top 40, recording songs alongside the likes of Jools Holland and Cerys Matthews.

Now, the music icon has spoken of the time he was approached by The Beatles star, Sir Paul McCartney, 78, who had offered to pen an original track for him.

Shortly after the Liverpool legend had made the suggestion, Sir Tom instantly jumped at the opportunity to record a track written by a member of the world's biggest band.

Despite his initial joy - all was not as it seemed as he faced a hurdle put in place by his then management team.

Source: Daniel Bird/express.co.uk

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John Lennon famously wrote a song called “Working Class Hero.” However, the author of a famous book about The Beatles said John wasn’t actually a member of the working class when he was growing up. Here’s a look at John’s early years and the song.

Hunter Davies was the author of The Beatles: The Authorised Autobiography. For The Guardian, he discussed the book Lennon Remembers, which consists of a long interview with John. While praising the book’s entertainment value, he cast doubt on its accuracy. “So can John be trusted in this interview?” he asked. “It’s hardly a balanced account, even about himself. But it’s true to what he felt, that day.”

In Lennon Remembers, John discusses his song “Working Class Hero” at length — and Davies dismisses the notion John was ever part of the working class. “In his head and his memories, John was a working-class hero, but of course he wasn’t,” Davies wrote. “He was brought up in semi-detached suburbia by Mimi, his aunt, a snob who looked down on snotty-nosed councilhouse kids like Paul and George. In his mind, he’d been a teddy boy tearaway, street fighter a details

 The reason for The Beatles' breakup is perhaps discussed even more than what brought the iconic band together. And at the top of the list sits John Lennon's second wife, artist Yoko Ono. Her name has become synonymous with the downfall of the "world's greatest band," as Rolling Stone described them.

However, as with most things in life, The Beatles' disbandment was a gradual process. "I don't think you could have broken up four very strong people like them even if you tried," Ono told Playboy (via Rolling Stone). "So there must have been something that happened within them – not an outside force at all." By the time Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr recorded "The Beatles" — commonly known as "The White Album" — in 1968, the tension among them, per the outlet, was palpable.

Lennon attributed the band's demise to the sudden death of The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967. "After Brian died, we collapsed," Lennon told Rolling Stone in a 1971 interview. "Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us, when we went round in circles? We broke up then. That was the disintegration." But his relationship with Ono did contribute in the eyes of his bandmate details

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr hasn’t stopped making music. Since the Fab Four’s break-up in 1970, he’s faithfully continued creating and promoting his work.

And in 2008, Starr released Liverpool 8, his 15th studio album. It was while Starr was pitching the album on Live with Regis and Kelly that the Photograph singer up and left the show’s set just before he was about to appear.

From Starr’s first album, the standards collection Sentimental Journey, to his latest, the five song EP Zoom In, the musician over the years has generated tunes and made the rounds to promote his new work.

His album Liverpool 8 refers to the postal district of the area of Liverpool where Starr was born. It was released in 2008.

The songs on the album, as its name implies, are a nostalgic look at his native English city, Starr told the Times Herald-Record.

“I was a sailor first and I worked in the factory and then I played with Rory (Storm) and I ended up in Hamburg and I ended up at Shea Stadium,” Starr said. “And Liverpool, I left you but I never let you down. So that was real easy to take those moments and put them in the song.”

Source: cheatshee details

It was 40 years ago today that The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr married his second wife, James Bond girl Barbara Bach. Celebrating their Ruby wedding anniversary, the 80-year-old music legend shared a photo from the big day in 1981 with the happy couple by their wedding cake. But also of note in the special snap are Paul McCartney and George Harrison with their wives Linda and Olivia.

Sir Ringo captioned the wedding photo: “It was 40 years ago today The love of my life said yes yes yes. And I said it right back peace and love.”

Of course, the wedding took place just over 4 months after John Lennon’s murder, so sadly The Beatles couldn’t be fully reunited.

Nevertheless, the John Lennon estate commented on the picture with three love heart emojis on his behalf.

While George’s widow Olivia Harrison commented: “What a day that was.”

Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk

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Dan Greenberger is a television writer and producer who has made part of the "origin story" of The Beatles the basis of his debut novel "The Boys Next Door" (Appian Way Press). It's historical fiction, with the first-person narrative told through the letters and diary entries of a young American foreign exchange student named Alan Levy.

Greenberger admits to being a diehard Beatles fan and demonstrates his knowledge of their history by creating a character who pretty seamlessly interacts with the band and their milieu in 1960 Hamburg, Germany. John, Paul, George, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe were in this famously seedy and rowdy part of the German city to play marathon sets of rock 'n' roll music in bars, primarily the Kaiserkeller. (The only recordings known to have survived from this era in Hamburg are from The Star Club in 1962.)

The story takes place over the course of less than three months. Alan Levy finds himself renting a cheap room right next door to the room where all five Beatles are staying. For the first third of the book, the boys next door are peripheral characters in Levy's life, a noisy and vulgar gang that ruins Alan's sleep.

Source: Mark Simmet/iowapublicradio.org

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Last week, April 23 marked St George’s Day and Sir Paul McCartney paid tribute to two late Georges associated with The Beatles. Firstly, his fellow bandmate George Harrison who died in November 2001, aged 58. And also Sir George Martin, The Beatles record producer, who died in March 2016 at the age of 90.

On his Instagram account, Sir Paul McCartney posted a picture of himself with the two Georges enjoying a cup of tea in The Beatles’ heyday.

The photograph was taken by Macca’s late first wife Linda McCartney, who died in April 1998 aged 56.

Sir Paul captioned the snap: “Two great Georges on St George’s Day. Have a happy one - Paul.”

The surviving Beatle also paid tribute to George Harrison on February 25, for what would have been his 78th birthday.

Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk

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Last week, April 23 marked St George’s Day and Sir Paul McCartney paid tribute to two late Georges associated with The Beatles. Firstly, his fellow bandmate George Harrison who died in November 2001, aged 58. And also Sir George Martin, The Beatles record producer, who died in March 2016 at the age of 90.

On his Instagram account, Sir Paul McCartney posted a picture of himself with the two Georges enjoying a cup of tea in The Beatles’ heyday.

The photograph was taken by Macca’s late first wife Linda McCartney, who died in April 1998 aged 56.

Sir Paul captioned the snap: “Two great Georges on St George’s Day. Have a happy one - Paul.”

The surviving Beatle also paid tribute to George Harrison on February 25, for what would have been his 78th birthday.

Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk

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Jimi Hendrix got to know all the top British rockers after breaking into the London scene at the close of 1966. At any given show, you might Paul McCartney, John Lennon, or Mick Jagger filing backstage to speak with Hendrix.

That continued into the era of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Just a few days after the release of the landmark Pepper, Hendrix paid tribute to the Fab Four by covering the title track at a Saville performance. McCartney, in the audience that night, considered it one of the great compliments of his life.

But as Hendrix’s career took off and the Beatles’ run moved toward its close, Hendrix became less wowed by the Fab Four’s output. Speaking about The White Album (1968), Hendrix saw the collection of tracks as an example of the band moving toward the past rather than the future. The Beatles, Hendrix thought, had become the establishment.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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Only one book about The Beatles was published during their time together. However, John Lennon had some criticisms for the book. Here’s how the author behind The Beatles: The Authorised Biography reacted to his words.

John famously gave an interview to Rolling Stone’s Jann S. Wenner which Wenner later published as a book called Lennon Remembers. John told Wenner that Hunter Davies’ The Beatles: The Authorised Biography was not truthful at all. He said it didn’t mention The Beatles’ orgies because the members of the band didn’t want to hurt their wives’ feelings. In addition, he said he would have preferred a book that was “real.”

For The Guardian, Davies wrote about John’s response to The Beatles: The Authorised Biography. “John had a go at my book on the Beatles, the only authorised biography,” he said. “When it came out, in 1968, it was seen as brutally honest. Hard to believe now, but at the time biographies of popular heroes revealed no warts. The word ‘f*ck’ was used and taking LSD admitted. Daring, huh?”

Source: cheatsheet.com

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In December 1970 the albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band were released to huge critical acclaim. The Beatles had shocked fans with the announcement they were splitting up on April 10 that year, but the reality was the band had gone their separate ways the previous year. John entered an intensely creative period that resulted in his first Plastic Ono Band release, swiftly followed by Imagine in September 1971. Although he was determined to estabish his new solo identity (with Yoko) Beatles bandmate Ringo played drums on the first album (with Klaus Voorman on bass guitar), while George Harrison would later play bass guitar on Imagine.

As he joined the worldwide Twitter listening party today at 6pm, Ringo immediately told everyone: "It's so incredible, the emotion on this record, just mind blowing. The sparseness of the band, the force of John Lennon. That's why he's one of the greats. This record proves it more than most...

Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk

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Paul McCartney showed his support for his fashion designer daughter Stella as he proudly modelled one of her designs on Saturday.

The Beatles superstar, 78, donned one of Stella's blue jumpers which is part of a collaboration line with the environmental charity Greenpeace.

Paul gave his best pout as he took a selfie to show off the piece of clothing which was emblazoned with a natural world scene and rainbow.

Clearly thrilled her father was supporting her new line she shared the picture on her Instagram, writing that she was 'so incredibly proud' to see him wearing it.    

She wrote in the caption: 'So incredibly proud to see Dad @PaulMcCartney wearing our Stella x #Greenpeace limited-edition collab.

Source: Amelia Wynne/dailymail.co.uk

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