Beatles News

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Paul McCartney’s son James posted a photo of himsef and his sister Stella McCartney with Dhani Harrison, the son of late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, after watching him perform in London.

“Great gig last night in London watching @DhaniHarrison!” James, 47, wrote in the caption to the photo posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“Please support his music here https://dhaniharrison.com/musici 🎶❤️,” he added.  In the snap, which appeared to have been taken

Dhani is the only son of late Beatles member George and his second wife Olivia Harrison. The musician died at age 58 of lung cancer on Nov. 29, 2001.

The McCartneys have remained supportive friends of Dhani’s over the years. In August 2016, Dhani performed at Stella’s collection showcase in Los Angeles and he has also been seen cheering her on in the front row at her fashion shows.

Dhani told Daily Mail in 2012, “Of all of them, I think I’m most similar to Stella and Mary [McCartney],” speaking of all the Beatles children. “I really relate to the way they’ve dealt with their circumstances — they’re like big sisters to me."

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Raymond Schillinger of You Can’t Unhear This looked back at the history of “Here Comes the Sun”, a seminal song by The Beatles that was both perfect and unusual in so many different ways.

Here Comes The Sun has become one of the most popular and treasured Beatles songs, a gateway into their music for many new fans. This 3-minute gem of unforgettable songwriting is also packed with intriguing anomalies, production quirks and even a mystery.

The song was written entirely by George Harrison in 1969, rather than John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Harrison, who wasn’t yet known for his incredible song writing skills, took the reins that summer, both musically and lyrically, by adding new and innovative instruments like the Moog synthesizer, running his guitar through a rotating Leslie speaker made for keyboards, and adding vari-speed pitch control to the final song.

With just days to go before the album was set to be mixed, George felt that his song needed one final ingredient: the fabulous and otherworldly sounds created by a new electronic instrument called the Moog.…With all of the pieces finally in place on the packed 8-track tape, the beautifully layered recording of Here Come details

John Lennon and Yoko Ono visited "one of the best palm readers in Greece," where they received a grim warning – that the Beatle would be killed on an island.

The claim was made by their close friend Elliot Mintz. The former Los Angeles radio and TV announcer, who met the couple in the early ‘70s, has written a new memoir, "We All Shine On: John, Yoko, & Me," with the blessing of their son, Sean Lennon.

"The palm reader was very emphatic about the fact that John would be killed on an island," Mintz told Fox News Digital. "When I think of islands, I think of the obvious places surrounded by water, and I was raised in New York. I just never thought of it as an island."

"But Yoko had relationships with psychics, tarot readers, astrologers, and others in what I called the ‘paranormal world,’" he shared. "She consulted with these people for years on an almost daily basis… There were very few decisions Yoko made without first getting clearance or guidance from these people."

Despite the reader’s concerning message, the couple didn’t seem fazed. In his book, Mintz noted how Lennon felt he didn’t need bodyguards because "I’m just a rock ‘n&r details

The legendary recording console used on The Beatles' Abbey Road is going up for sale on gear marketplace Reverb.

Custom-built for Abbey Road Studios (then known as EMI Studios) in 1968, the EMI TG 12345 MK1 was installed in Abbey Road's Studio 2 control room and used by George Martin and Geoff Emerick to record The Beatles' final album the following year, before being utilized on solo projects from all four members of the band, including John Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Paul McCartney's McCartney.

The console was so beloved by the Fab Four that Harrison is said to have asked EMI if he could buy his own, a request that was denied out of fear that the console would be replicated and sold to competitors.

A team of engineers and technicians assembled by MJQ Ltd, who will be selling the console through their Reverb store, has spent four years restoring the desk under the watchful eye of former EMI engineer and Beatles collaborator Brian Gibson. The console now contains 70% of its original parts, with the remainder made up of painstakingly recreated replacements that have been custom-built to mirror the sound of the original unit, using the same materials and processes as the original components. details

The Beatles changed the face of music within a decade of time. But even generations later, their influence and legacy continues to grow, and one way to prove that is through their streaming numbers.

At the time of this writing, the Beatles are ranked the 103rd most listened to artist in the world on Spotify and have over 36 million monthly listeners. Compared to contemporary artists — Taylor Swift for example, who was the single most listened to artist on Spotify in 2023 – these may not seem like very impressive numbers. But when one considers that the Beatles predated the streaming era by several decades and broke up over 50 ago, it's impossible to dismiss this feat.

But what if we break it down even further? Which Beatles songs have been streamed the most? Below, we're counting down the 20 most-streamed Fab Four songs. The below data concerns Spotify numbers specifically, the most popular music streaming service globally, and is of course, subject fo fluctuations. But at of the time of this writing (Oct. 18, 2024), here's where things stand.

20. "All You Need Is Love"
From: 1967 Single
Number of Streams: 207,147,492

Even people who know very little about the Beatles and th details

So many celebrities have appeared on "The Simpsons," that 36 seasons later, the cameos have become a crutch for the show. Worse, the guests have gone from voicing characters (take Dustin Hoffman's uncredited appearance in "Lisa's Substitute") to just appearing as themselves.

The cracks were already showing in the show's golden age. Season 7's "Lisa The Vegetarian" features Paul and Linda McCartney showing up at the end to reassure Lisa she's made the correct choice of vegetarianism. The McCartneys are depicted as friends of fellow vegetarian Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (Hank Azaria), who tend to his secret garden on the roof of the Kwik-E-Mart. After Lisa and the meat-loving Homer reconcile at the end, McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" closes the episode out.

Paul McCartney was the last surviving Beatle to cameo on "The Simpsons" (Ringo Starr beat him to the punch in season 2's "Brush with Greatness", followed by the late George Harrison in season 5's "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"), and he's far from the most loathsome Englishman to appear on the show (that'd be former Prime Minister Tony Blair). But this cameo came with a demand that had series-long ramifications: Mr. and Mrs. McCartney wanted Lisa to remain a vegetaria details

Ringo Starr is giving his two cents on the "Swiftie effect."

The former drummer for The Beatles recently weighed in on the craze surrounding music superstar Taylor Swift, and he made a bold comparison to the days of Beatlemania.  While sitting down for an interview with American Songwriter, Starr was asked if he believes the "Bejeweled" singer can hold a candle to the amount of cultural influence that The Beatles had.

Of course, he replied, "I do."

"Taylor is 'the now' one," Starr, 84, told the outlet, while quipping that he and the rest of his Beatles bandmates are the "still now" ones.

Starr also mentioned other famous artists, like Madonna, who have certainly had their moments of taking over popular culture, but he seemed to imply that Swift is the dominant influential force for this generation.

During the interview, Starr went on to further sing Swift's praises, stating, "I think Taylor Swift is great anyway."

"She’s pulling them in, you know," he continued, before telling a personal anecdote about his experience meeting the "Anti-Hero" singer.

"When we talk about her, I always have to mention that the first time I met her, she was 14. She was at the Grammys details

Tracked at Abbey Road Studios in February 1968 during a promotional video shoot for Lady Madonna, which was the A-side of the upcoming single, Hey Bulldog tends to fly under the radar of most casual fans, but it actually represents a critical point in the history of The Beatles: it was one of the last sessions tracked as a band before internal tensions drove the team apart.

“Hey Bulldog turned out so well there was some campaigning from John Lennon for it to serve as the A-side of the single instead of Lady Madonna,” said producer Geoff Emerick in Mark Lewisohn’s 1998 book, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.

Source: Brian Fox/guitarworld.com

For nearly 10 years, John Lennon and Yoko Ono spoke almost every evening, sometimes for hours at a time, with their close friend Elliot Mintz.

Mintz, a Los Angeles radio and TV host, had grown close to the couple after first interviewing Yoko for her 1971 album, Fly, which led to a series of late-night conversations with Yoko — or John — and eventually, both. Over time, Mintz became one of their closest confidantes. So trusted that it was he whom Ono asked to go through John’s belongings after he was murdered on Dec. 8, 1980.

Nearly 44 years after the rock legend’s death, Mintz, 79, has written a book about their intimate friendship, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me.

It was a decision Mintz, who remains very close to Ono, 91, and her son, Sean Lennon, 49, made carefully. “We all know where it’s going to end,” he says. ”I was drawing from a lifetime of experience, most of it happy and joyous but I also knew we would be treading on some very sensitive waters.”

In the exclusive excerpt below, Mintz recalls a visit to their apartment in the fabled Dakota building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side after the murder of Mintz’s close frie details

Paul McCartney gave John Lennon a “step by step” plan to help his fellow Beatles star get back together with his wife, Yoko Ono. The revelation is part of a memoir by Elliot Mintz, a radio host, that describes his close personal relationship with the couple.

In We All Shine On, Mintz describes how in 1974, while Lennon was producing an album for singer Harry Nilsson entitled the Pussy Cats, McCartney turned up at the recording studio.

Lennon was in the midst of his famous “lost weekend”, in which he had separated from Ono and spent 18 months partying in Los Angeles with other stars, including Nilsson.  During this time, Lennon also began his infamous affair with 23-year-old May Pang, who flew to Los Angeles as his personal assistant.

After Lennon expressed his desire to reunite with his wife, Mintz says McCartney reportedly offered to speak to Lennon for Ono and visited his fellow Beatles star at the recording studio. The two had not performed together since the Beatles had split.

“They were all just looking at us, thinking that something big was going to happen. To me, it was just playing with Paul”, Mintz recalls Lennon saying details

A couple weeks ago, I wore a t-shirt that said “Love is all you need.” “Beatles?” confirmed a guy I know, to which I nodded. Later that day, I was talking to this guy about Test Spins, wondering which album I should review next. His suggestion was The Beatles. My initial reaction? “That’s so basic.” He then pointed out that I was in fact wearing a Beatles shirt (a fair point). This interaction got me thinking — why was my first instinct to call The Beatles basic? I definitely like their music — although I do consider myself more of a Stones fan — and there’s a reason they are so popular. To investigate further, I decided to listen to Magical Mystery Tour, the album from which “All You Need Is Love” hails.

The record starts out with a fun title track, a cheesy yet endearing invitation to listen in: “Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour / Step right this way” Paul McCartney beckons. It feels very ’60s — appropriately, I might add, since the album was released in 1967 — and very welcoming. This was necessary since Magical Mystery Tour also served as the soundtrack for The Beatles’ fil details

After John Lennon released Rock ‘N’ Roll in 1975, he took a five-year break from recording. His son Sean was born in October of that year, and Lennon chose to stay home to enjoy the role of father in a way he was unable to experience with his first son Julian, who was born at the height of Beatlemania. When it came time to make new music, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were without a record deal. Almost every major label expressed interest in the former Beatle. The British independent label Stiff Records sent Lennon a telegram saying, “Heard you are recording. We’re prepared to offer five thousand dollars to sign with us.” Lennon found the offer funny but was interested in more than money when it came to signing a record deal.

As offers came in, they were directed to Lennon. Yoko Ono would respond, only to find they only wanted to speak with Lennon. Those offers were declined. Record executive David Geffen sent a telegram directly to Ono asking to talk about the record. She showed it to Lennon, and he informed her to get in touch with him. Geffen flew to New York City the next day, where an agreement was reached. The record would be credited to both Lennon and Ono. Let’s take a look at details

Paul McCartney dusted off a classic Beatles tune for his fourth and final Got Back show in São Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday.

According to setlist.fm, McCartney added the 1963 track “All My Loving” to the set about four songs in, marking the first time he’s played the tune on this tour and the first time he’s played it in concert since 2019.

Although “All My Loving” wasn’t officially released as a single in either the U.S. or the U.K., it got enough radio play to become a hit for The Beatles. It was actually the first song they performed during their debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.

As for the rest of McCartney’s São Paulo concert, he played a total of 37 songs, including Beatles tracks like “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Love Me Do,” “Blackbird,” “Get Back,” “Hey Jude” and the most recent track, “Here and Now,” as well as Wings tunes “Live and Let Die,” “Let Em In” and “Jet.”

It also included McCartney solo songs like “Maybe I’m Amazed”; “My details

George Har­ri­son loved the ukulele, and real­ly, what’s not to love? For its dain­ty size, the uke can make a pow­er­ful­ly cheer­ful sound, and it’s an instru­ment both begin­ners and expert play­ers can learn and eas­i­ly car­ry around. As Harrison’s old friend Joe Brown remarked, “You can pick up a ukulele and any­body can learn to play a cou­ple of tunes in a day or even a few hours. And if you want to get good at it, there’s no end to what you can do.” Brown, once a star in his own right, met Har­ri­son and the Bea­t­les in 1962 and remem­bers being impressed with the fel­low uke-lover Harrison’s range of musi­cal tastes: “He loved music, not just rock and roll…. He’d go crack­ers, he’d phone me up and say ‘I’ve got this great record!’ and it would be Hoagy Carmichael and all this Hawai­ian stuff he used to like. George was not a musi­cal snob.”

“Crack­ers” may be the per­fect word for Harrison’s uke-phil­ia; he used it him­self in the adorable note above from 1999. “Every­one I details

The estate of former Beatles star John Lennon has appointed a UK music licensing company to collect royalties on all sound recordings where the late singer or his widowed wife Yoko Ono are listed as a performer.

Music licensing company Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) will collect neighbouring rights royalties for the estate when music from the pair is played in public venues including shops, bars, or aired on commercial radio or TV.

Lennon died in 1980 in New York after he was shot by Mark David Chapman.  The John Lennon estate said in a statement: “PPL has shown they are the leaders in advocating for neighbouring rights globally.

“We have the utmost respect for the team and look forward to working with them.”

PPL analysed radio and TV airplay data from the 21st century to compile a list of most played Lennon recordings – which saw Woman take the top spot.

The 1980 track makes up 24% of Lennon’s total airplay, while his earlier 1971 song titled Imagine took the second spot with a total of 23% of his total airplay.

Source: Ellie Iorizzo/standard.co.uk

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