Beatles News

I invited Scott Freiman to dinner for a few reasons, but mostly because he gets paid to talk about rock ‘n’ roll. Scott, the CEO of a tech startup called Qwire (an intentional misspelling of choir), taught a class at Yale University on the music of the Beatles and lectures widelyon the topic. During a dinner with some 15 tech founders and investors, I asked Scott about the story behind Decca Records turning down the Beatles (an epic miss!) and subsequently overpaying to sign another young rock group.

Scott explained that an executive at Decca, who had stayed in touch with Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison, asked George what other hot young acts the label should be considering. George mentioned a young blues group, admonishing: “You blew it with the Beatles, don’t miss these guys.” That group was, of course, the Rolling Stones. The Stones went on to record more than a dozen records with Decca, including Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, which are details

Few figures in rock history have a more impressive résumé than Glyn Johns. Throughout the 1960s the producer/engineer worked on albums by the Rolling Stones (Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed), the Beatles (Let It Be, Abbey Road), the Who (Who's Next, Quadrophenia, The Who By Numbers), the Band (Stage Fright), Neil Young (Harvest), Eagles (Desperado, On the Border), the Clash (Combat Rock) and too many others to mention. His new book Sound Man hits shelves on November 13th and is full of amazing anecdotes from his 50-year career.

Related Bob Dylan, outside his Byrdcliffe home in Woodstock, NY, 1968.
Watch a Doc About the Making of the 'Basement Tapes'

 

Perhaps the most surprising story comes from his brief encounter with Bob Dylan at a New York airport. Johns was traveling with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, who had just completed his groundbreaking interview with Dylan. "[Dylan] asked me about the Beatles album I had just finished and was very complimentary about my work with the Stones over the years," Johns writes. "In turn, I babbled about how how much we had all been influenced by his work."

Dylan then dropped a bomb. "He said he had this details

I shared the same planet with the Beatles for one year, three months and two days. That was how old I was when John Lennon died, not that I learned that until nearly a decade later. By the time I first encountered the group, courtesy of the movie "Yellow Submarine," it had long since been reduced to a thriving industry and a beloved — but irrevocably gone — part of the past.

We still perform Sophocles' plays and trek to the Egyptian pyramids after thousands of years, so I have no reason to doubt that the Beatles' music will have similar staying power. Just this summer, my wife and I visited Liverpool and took the Magical Mystery Tour bus ride, which guides tourists by the childhood homes of all four Beatles and points out historic points of interest — this street where two of the band members walked to school, for example, or this trail where one of them rode his bike.

The Beatles were not infallible musically (even the most diehard fan can probably name a least favorite song or album) and were a details

John Lewis have released their Christmas advert for 2014 - the tale of Monty The Penguin, with a little help from The Beatles.

The two minute advert Monty's Christmas shows a young boy and his pet penguin, but as the £1m film continues the bird becomes wistful and yearning for a penguin girlfriend.

Come Christmas morning - and thanks to John Lewis of course - his wish is granted.

The action plays out over a soundtrack of The Beatles' Real Love, originally written by John Lennon and now covered by Tom Odell.

The chain, which has a flagship store in Liverpool One, is famous for it's Christmas adverts.

Last year, Lily Allen sang over The Bare and the Hare, a Christmas cartoon, which was credited with boosting sales by as much as 6.9%.

Chrissie Hynde's reverent, heartfelt cover of the Beatles' "Let It Be," which will appear on the upcoming, star-studded Paul McCartney tribute comp The Art of McCartney, is now streaming online. The recording finds the Pretenders frontwoman stretching her delicate voice across lush textures of piano, gospel backup vocals and, at its apex, a full rock band, complete with a bluesy guitar solo; at its most delicate, Hynde sings over a Beatlesesque acoustic guitar part. A behind-the-scenes video revealed that the singer specifically chose "Let It Be,"

which The Wall Street Journal premiered, as her contribution to the comp.