Beatles News

Of all the awards The Beatles got together and on their own as solo artists, Paul McCartney has racked up the most honors. The still-thriving Paul has the most Grammys and Billboard No. 1 hits of any member of the Fab Four.

In 1979, he even got several entries in the Guinness Book of World Records. One proclaimed him the most successful songwriter in history for the number of hit singles he’d written. Some 40 years later, he’s still penning tunes and selling out concerts.

However, commercial success isn’t everything to an artist on Paul’s level. The respect of his peers and music critics has always mattered to him as well. You saw that when several bad reviews dinged his confidence in the early days of Wings.

During a series of interviews he gave in the ’90s, Paul said what he considered one of the highest compliments he ever got. It came from Jimi Hendrix just a few days after the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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Legendary bass guitarist of The Beatles, Paul McCartney has shared a new question and answer session on his official website.

Interviewer asked:

“We’ve heard that you can do headstands. Are there any skills that you’re proud of that fans might not be aware of? And, is the headstand thing true?”

Paul responded:

“Oh yeah, I’ll show you! Come on, I’ve already done it today at the gym… [Paul does the headstand] YEAH! Come on! I’ve often thought about videoing it and singing a song upside down!”

Interviewer said:

“Thank you so much for showing us your headstand, some of us are keen yogis and haven’t mastered it yet.”

Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com

When The Beatles started out, the contributions of John Lennon and Paul McCartney could hardly be separated. They wrote lyrics and melodies together, harmonized on vocals, and took turns playing piano and guitar. A Lennon-McCartney song was exactly that.

Naturally, they developed their own styles over the years, and they grew apart as songwriters. Even though they had that Lennon-McCartney tag, you knew “Penny Lane” was a Paul tune and “Yer Blues” was 100% John.

However, their partnership didn’t end when “Good Day Sunshine” stood next to “I’m Only Sleeping” on Revolver. According to the Beatles Bible, 1967’s “Baby You’re a Rich Man” represented a late, equal collaboration between the two.

But that wasn’t that last time Paul and John made magic together. One more classic collaboration appeared on the final Beatles album. You can also hear the band deliver a spirited performance of it on the roof of Apple studios in Let It Be.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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During a recent interview with Billboard, pop star Taylor Swift has shared the details of what she really thinks about The Beatles legend Paul McCartney.

In 2018, Paul McCartney has released his single track “Who Cares”, and he admitted that the song was inspired by Taylor Swift.

Today, Taylor talked about the Paul McCartney’s “Who Cares” titled song, and said:

“I really like it when you go and see a show and you want to hear the songs that you loved. You want all that old, iconic, classic stuff.

I like it when a performer knows that and will give that to their fans, rather than being like, ‘No, I’m only playing this new project.’ I think that you got to be respectful of what people want, and I just think that’s really cool.

Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com

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The Beatles icon Sir Paul McCartney has reacted to the UK government taking away £16 million in funding away from his Liverpool’s Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) in a new statement.

“I helped to bring LIPA into life during very difficult times for Liverpool. It is now a highly respected institution all over the world.

Our funding was recently affected by what to me, and the heads of every university in Liverpool, was a flawed process.

LIPA is my passion and part of my legacy. It would not be fair to allow injustice to affect its future. I sincerely hope the Government will correct this error and help us to continue our work successfully into the future.”

An Office for Students spokesperson admitted the process but didn’t want to comment any further, saying:

Source: Brett Buchanan/alternativenation.net

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When John Lennon went solo, it was nothing the music world could take lightly. That became clear about 10 seconds into “Instant Karma,” a No. 3 single he released while The Beatles were still technically a band.

John’s sound was rawer, more stripped-down, and more pungent than just about everything the Fab Four released. Yet he still gave fans the chance to sing along. “Well, we all shine on,” went the chorus. “Like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.” People loved it.

If you were John’s manager (imagine that), you’d have tried to persuade him to keep the same approach for his first solo album. After all, Paul McCartney had a No. 1 hit by playing it safe with McCartney. That album arrived just as The Beatles announced they were disbanding.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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Garth Brooks is obsessed with bigness. Specifically, big numbers. As competitive as anyone in the music biz, the country megastar wants to be No. 1 in as many categories as he can. By some measures, he even tops the Beatles.

Not bad for someone who, in the prime of his career, took the better part of 10 years off from recording and touring to raise his three daughters.

Now, on his first all-stadium tour, the 57-year-old Oklahoman is poised to set another record — for total attendance at a Twin Cities stadium concert engagement — May 3-4 at U.S. Bank Stadium. In all, 140,000 fans are expected to see these sold-out shows, thank in part to Brooks' decision to sell seats behind the stage.

Remember, this is the man who in 1991 generated a staggering 160,000 ticket requests for a single concert at the Minnesota State Fair, and drew more than 200,000 for his 11-show run at Target Center in 2014, and 160,000-plus for his nine shows there in 1998.

Source: Jon Bream/startribune.com

Here is a look at some of his Garth-gantuan numbers<<<

Paul McCartney and John Lennon almost quit music before The Beatles made it big, as they considered going into another line of work. Lennon’s sister Julia Baird told DailyMailTV that her family wanted to see Lennon move on with another job.

“John and Paul were lucky, because if it had gone on much longer without getting a break I don’t know what would have happened.

Mimi (John’s aunt) famously said to John: ‘The guitar is all very well John but you will never make a living out of it.’

That was the worry for all the families. I was worried about him dropping out of art college. Something inside us insisted that they had to stick with it. They wanted to make it and they were absolutely determined.”

Source: Brett Buchanan/alternativenation.net

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When you read about The Beatles, there’s always an element of “it depends who you ask.” During the making of The White Album, the band’s recording engineer remembered a battle between John Lennon and Paul McCartney nearly becoming a fistfight.

For Paul, the memory mostly involved getting the tune (“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da“) to sound just right. In this case, it’s not hard to imagine both stories being true. Stories about the band members’ personal lives also have multiple versions from the parties involved.

Take the period from mid-1973 until early ’75 that John described as his “lost weekend.” During that stretch, John partied hard, had an affair with a young assistant, and left Yoko Ono to spend long stretches in Los Angeles with his new girlfriend.

To most people, that sounds like a haunted man on a ruinous binge with zero upside. However, for John, Yoko, and others present, there was much more to the story.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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Paul McCartney will treat fans to an expanded version of his chart-topping 2018 studio album, Egypt Station. Dubbed the "Explorer's Edition," it'll arrive in stores on May 17.

The deluxe release will feature the original Egypt Station album and a bonus disc offering extra studio recordings, including an extended version of "Who Cares" and the surprise single "Get Enough," as well as live performances from the special shows McCartney played last year in London, New York City and his hometown of Liverpool, U.K.

Egypt Station: Explorer's Edition will be available as a two-CD set, a three-LP vinyl package and digitally.

All of the bonus tracks also are available in McCartney's previously announced limited-edition Egypt Station: Traveller's Edition luxury box set, which is completely sold out.

Egypt Station: Explorer's Edition, which can be pre-ordered now, will arrive in advance of the 2019 North American leg of Sir Paul's Freshen Up world tour, which kicks off May 23 in New Orleans.

Source: ABC News Radio

Here's the full track list of CD version of the deluxe details

Headlining the event on April 26 is Edgar Winter, a long-time member of Ringo Star’s All-Star Band. The 1970s rock star’s hits include ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Free Ride.’

The last year or so have been very, very Fab Four-centric for Daniel Hartwell.

“I not only met a Beatle, but then I got to meet him and give him the book I wrote about a Beatle!” says the Delray Beach music promoter, of getting a once-in-a-lifetime audience with Ringo Starr backstage at a recent concert and presenting him with “Saint John Lennon,” the mystical novel Hartwell released in 2018.

And now, he’s inviting worldwide fans of the groundbreaking band from Liverpool right here to Delray for a weekend-long celebration of everything Beatles.

“It’s four fab days of fun, sun, love and music,” Hartwell says of the first annual Beatles on The Beach festival. Special guests include legendary musician Edgar Winter and Beatles tribute artists from Japan, Argentina, Norway and more, performing at several downtown venues including Old School Square.

Source: Leslie Gray Streeter/palmbeachpost.com

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Every music fan in the world can reel off the names of The Beatles. Yet instead of John, Paul, George and Ringo, the Fab Four might well have comprised John, Paul, George… and Hutch.

Johnny Hutchinson, who has died at the age of 79, was the drummer with the Liverpudlian group The Big Three who rivalled The Beatles for popularity before the Mersey sound became a national and international phenomenon in the early Sixties. Known to friends and fans as Hutch, or Johnny Hutch, he filled in on drums behind Lennon, McCartney and Harrison in both 1960 and 1962. Later he claimed he was offered the opportunity to become Pete Best’s successor in the soon-to-be-world-conquering mop-tops before Ringo Starr was given the job.

Hutchinson was born in Valletta, Malta, to an army family but was raised in Toxteth, Liverpool, where he trained as an upholsterer on leaving school. After dabbling with the clarinet, he learned to play the drums and in 1959 was recruited by rock ‘n’ rollers Cass and the Casanovas. With bandmates Adrian Barber (later a producer for Atlantic Records) and Johnny Gustafson (a future member of Roxy Music) he formed The Big Three in 1961 with the intention of playing rhythm and blues. details

The May 9 event in Liverpool, England, features nearly 300 items, including Ringo Starr's wristwatch, a drawing by George Harrison, four of Paul McCartney's signed bass guitars and a rare 'Yesterday and Today' album owned by John Lennon.

Martin Nolan has been thinking a lot about the Wi-Fi in northwestern England lately, with good reason: On May 9, Julien’s Auctions will present “Music Icons: The Beatles in Liverpool,” the first time a sale of the Fab Four’s memorabilia will take place in the town best known for birthing one of the world’s greatest bands.

“There’s a backup plan of the backup plan,” says Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions, of the technology required for a sale that largely will take place online. “We’ve had experts in Liverpool getting ready for some time, because a significant portion of the auction will be sold either on the phone or via online bidding in real time. And the interest is truly global: We’ve had inquiries from Japan, Australia, China, North America and everywhere in between, because The Beatles are just as relevant as they were 50 years ago.”

Source: Laurie Brookins/hollywoodreporter. details

By early 1970, The Beatles were on their last legs as a band. The previous September, during a particularly hostile meeting, John Lennon had told the other members of the group that he was leaving.

That didn’t strike anyone present as a big surprise. After all, a disgruntled George Harrison had quit the group for a while during the Let It Be sessions earlier in ’69. Meanwhile, everyone in the band (Ringo included) had solo projects going.

But when John released the “Instant Karma” single in February ’70, you could picture what his solo career would be like. It sold a million copies, outperforming all other Beatles solo efforts to that point. In the coming decade, he’d release nine top 10 singles and three No. 1 albums.

“Instant Karma,” which peaked at No. 3 (while “Let It Be” sat one place ahead), hinted of the success John would have. Here were his biggest hits after leaving The Beatles.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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 He was the first to guide an X-rated film to the top of the Oscar heap, introduced the Beatles to Hollywood with “Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” and convinced a reluctant Ian Fleming that, yes, James Bond might fare pretty well as a cinematic character.

A third-generation movie man, David V. Picker was a studio chief at United Artists, Columbia and Paramount in a prestigious run of box-office successes including “Last Tango in Paris” and “Ordinary People.”

Despite the accolades and the Oscars, Picker was quick to remind admirers that his career would likely have turned out the same even if he’d rejected the movies he helped bring to the movie houses of America and greenlighted those he’d kicked to the curb.

“My career would have probably turned out the same,” he wrote in “Musts, Maybes and Nevers: A Book About the Movies,” his 2013 memoir.

Source: Steve Marble/latimes.com

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