Beatles News

It’s impossible to underestimate the influence of Richard Lester’s Beatles collaboration A Hard Day’s Night, released 60 years ago on 6 July 1964. Its imagery of the Fab Four rapidly entered the lexicon of popular culture, its antic approach to pop music on screen going on to influence everything from fashion, attitudes and culture to music videos and MTV. With an initial background in advertising, Lester’s third feature proved he was an astute and vibrant filmmaker, all but defining the fun, energetic surrealism of 1960s British culture in one fell swoop.

Scripted by Alun Owen, A Hard Day’s Night follows a day in the life of the lads at the height of Beatlemania. John, Paul, George and Ringo, playing themselves, are joined by Paul’s conniving but very clean grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell) as they make their way to a live television concert in London. Unable to be restrained from misadventures by their manager Norm (Norman Rossington) and their roadie Shake (John Junkin), the Fab Four find themselves in the upper echelons of the capital: a world filled with ad agencies, high-end casinos and wine soirées with the music press. With Ringo going AWOL only hours before the show, howe details

From a self-portrait sketch to a never-before-released ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ drawing, Ocean Blue Galleries, 109 Duval St., offers 50 to 60 limited-edition prints of John Lennon’s artwork July 5 and 6. CONTRIBUTED

Sure, you’ve heard “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” but have you SEEN it?

The song, of course, is one of 73 that John Lennon wrote for The Beatles, but it’s also a drawing, also by Lennon, showing a bespectacled figure in an A-line dress floating above a field.

That drawing, along with dozens of others by John Lennon, are now on display and available for sale at Ocean Blue Galleries, 109 Duval St., Key West. Celebrations of the never-before-released, limited edition prints by John Lennon will take place at the gallery Friday and Saturday, July 5 and 6, from 2 to 7 p.m.

“I’m always shocked by how many people, including some diehard Beatles fans, don’t know about the art component to John Lennon’s career,” said Daniel Crosy, the Los Angeles-based art representative who has been working with Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, for the past 15 years, releasing Lennon’s drawings and handwritten lyric sheets to details

Elton John headlined England’s Glastonbury Festival in 2023, and he just revealed the surprising gift he received from Paul McCartney following the performance.

At one point during the Glastonbury set Elton was heard complaining about his pants falling down, which apparently prompted the gift from McCartney.

During a Glastonbury-focused online Q&A, Elton was asked why his pants were dropping during the show and he replied, “Because they were too big!”

He then revealed that McCartney, who was on hand to witness the set, later sent him gold suspenders “to keep my trousers up the next week,” noting the gift “made me laugh so much!”

Elton’s Glastonbury set was his first time playing the iconic festival. It was also his final U.K. performance. He retired from the road in July 2023 after a show in Stockholm, Sweden.

Source: Classic Rock News

The Beatles can almost always be found on at least one chart in the U.K. The band remains the most successful of all time pretty much everywhere in the world, but especially in the country where they got their start.

The rockers regularly fill at least one spot on the U.K. albums chart, though they don’t have just one title that sticks around. Instead, the band trades one studio effort for another almost every frame, as streaming activity and the tastes of fans mean that there’s some pretty consistent switch-ups when it comes to the Fab Four.

This week, The Beatles’ 1962-1966 compilation is back on the U.K. albums chart. The project, which includes their biggest hits from the years mentioned in its title, reappears at No. 83.

1962-1966 has now spent 64 weeks on the ranking of the most-consumed albums in the U.K. The compilation peaked at No. 3 decades ago, and recently, it’s managed to return more frequently than in many years.

The Beatles’ 1962-1966 is the band’s third title to hit the U.K. albums chart in just the past month. The group almost always appears on the list with a gathering of hit singles, as those are the releases that sell well and rack up the m details

Paul McCartney’s second band, Wings, gave him the freedom to write about more personal topics than he was able to while with the Beatles. Naturally his wife and bandmate, Linda, played a significant role in the personal side of his songwriting. Though he penned many songs for her, there is one song in particular that stands out in Macca’s mind. Check out which song that is, below.

Meaning Behind “You’re in My Heart' by Rod Stewart and the Famous Girl Who Inspired It

[RELATED: The Beatles Song That Paul McCartney Was Scared to Record]
Paul McCartney’s Favorite Wings Song

A love so warm and beautiful
stands when time itself is falling,
A love so warm and beautiful
never fades away

We have to agree with McCartney’s laud of the song “Warm and Beautiful.” The simple ballad captures the feeling of all-encompassing love. Though he might lay it on a little thick, the sentiment reads as heartfelt and not schmaltzy.

McCartney once named “Warm and Beautiful” one of his all-time favorite Wings songs. Partly because of how gushing it was of Linda and partly because it’s nostalgic to him.

“A love so warm details

As the old adage goes, life imitates art, and in the case of George Harrison’s memorial tree, life imitates art in laughably ironic ways. Just over a decade after Harrison died from cancer at 58 in Los Angeles, California, the city honored the former Beatle and avid gardener with a botanical memorial in Griffith Park.

The L.A. City Council planted a pine tree sapling shortly after Harrison’s passing in the scenic park that overlooks the sprawling metropolis. By 2013, the tree had grown to over 10 feet tall. One year later, the tree had met its tragically humorous demise.
An Insect Invasion Killed George Harrison’s Memorial Tree

The pine tree overlooking Los Angeles was a touching tribute to the musician who spent his final years in southern California. Beneath the tree, the city installed a small plaque that read, “In memory of a great humanitarian who touched the world as an artist, a musician, and a gardener.” The plaque also included one of George Harrison’s favorite quotes from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: “For a forest to be green, each tree must be green” (via BBC).

Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com

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The Beatles‘ “In My Life” stands as one of the most thought provoking rock ballads of all time. As such, it’s beloved by fans the world over–including a fair few musicians. Check out three of our favorite covers of this Beatles classic, below.

Madison Cunningham makes quick work of whatever song she decides to cover. She sounds particularly enchanting on her cover of “In My Life.” Recorded in an intimate setting, nothing distracts from Cunningham’s vocals. While the original version of this song has something upbeat about it, Cunningham’s version highlights the poignant qualities of the lyrics.

There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain...

Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com

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In the broad scope of the Beatles‘ career, “Love Me Do” isn’t their most sophisticated. We can’t imagine that a band that was later able to play songs like “A Day in the Life” would falter at the thought of playing this simple, pop-leaning tune. Nevertheless, a young Paul McCartney found the task a little daunting. Find out why, below.

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do

We can imagine it would be hard to muster up confidence as a musician before you’ve earned your break. The life of a burgeoning star is riddled with rejection and momentary failures. When the Beatles were trying to earn their spot in the world of rock, “Love Me Do” became their big break–their confidence builder.

The snappy, mid-tempo song acted as the band’s debut single, setting them on their way to world-wide renown. However, the nerves that come along with a watershed moment such as that almost made McCartney buckle under the pressure.

Someone to love
Somebody new
Someone to love
Someone like you

According to McCartney, George Martin made him sing details

The closest the Beatles ever got to reuniting in the studio during John Lennon's lifetime was on Ringo, Ringo Starr's third solo album. It was released in the U.K. on Nov. 23, 1973, and soared to the top of the charts and became the drummer's only platinum solo LP.

Starr, Lennon and George Harrison gathered in Los Angeles on March 12, 1973, along with longtime Beatle buddies Billy Preston (a sideman on 1970's Let It Be) and Klaus Voormann (who drew the cover art for 1966's Revolver), to record the Lennon-composed album track "I'm the Greatest."

"We were like big girls again," Starr told Bill Minkin in 1977. "We were all looking at each other smiling. We hadn’t played together in four years. We were just smiling while we were playing. It was nice."

Source: Nick DeRiso/ultimateclassicrock.com

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This coming July 7, Ringo Starr will celebrate his 84th birthday — and as is his custom, the Beatles legend will do so with a series of global celebrations with fans all over the world.

It’s his annual Peace & Love birthday event, and will find Ringo gathering with friends and loved ones.

Per a news release, Ringo and his wife Barbara Starkey will be joined on his birthday by family and friends, including Joe and Marjorie Walsh, Fred Armisen, Ed Begley Jr, Gregg Bissonette, Ben Dickey, Steve Dudas, Ben Harper, Greg Leisz, Asa & Roy Orbison Jr, Matt Sorum, Stephen Stills, Nick Valensi, Diane Warren, Don Was, Willie Watson, Gabe Witcher and more.

They will gather together in Los Angeles for Ringo’s annual Peace & Love Birthday event, and at Noon give the traditional “Peace and Love” exclamation. NASA continues to support spreading the message to and from the universe, including messages of Peace & Love on their socials from across the solar system.

 And here’s a list of all the countries expected to take part in the “Peace and Love” celebration at noon local time:

Source: rockcellarmagazine.com

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It is perfectly fine that John Lennon’s 1973 album, Mind Games, will be released July 12, 2024, in six (count ’em—six) different mixes—including a “super deluxe box” priced at a mind-blowing $1,350 that is limited to 1,000 copies, but…

Why re-re-re-release a 50-year-old second-tier Lennon album (except for the title track, and “Intuition” and “Meat City,” in this writer’s opinion), when an album or two of entirely new Lennon songs could be issued instead?

What? New Lennon songs? Yes.

Artificial intelligence “demixing” technology now enables all of Lennon’s home tapes from the ’70s to be upgraded to studio quality, or close to it, as was demonstrated by “the last Beatles song,” as Paul McCartney dubbed the Lennon composition “Now and Then,” released in November 2023. The terrible quality home cassette of “Now and Then” (abandoned as the proposed third reunion Beatles track in 1995) was AI-stripped of electronic buzz, echoey piano and background TV noise, leaving Lennon’s vocal pristine and beautiful.

This is not to suggest that all the home tapes simply be AI-i details

We tend to think of George Harrison in terms of his spiritual questing. But Harrison wasn’t immune to the pressures of the “material world,” as he dubbed it. Those concerns came rising to the fore on his scathing 1973 song “Sue Me, Sue You Blues.”

What is the song about? And what events that were transpiring in his life inspired Harrison to write it? Here is the story about what caused George Harrison to sing the “Sue Me, Sue You Blues.”
Material Concerns

George Harrison went for the brass ring on his 1970 triple-album All Things Must Pass, and he achieved massive success on both critical and commercial levels. But by the time he was ready to follow it up in 1973, some of those good vibes had curdled in the wake of personal problems. To start, his marriage to first wife Olivia had deteriorated. (The pair would separate in 1974.)

It was also hard for Harrison to derive much joy from the musical triumph he had shared, in part because an excess of litigation tied to his profession swamped him. This was the time period when he was joined by John Lennon and Ringo Starr in opposition to Paul McCartney over how The Beatles’ affairs would be settled.

S details

For a song to last and survive the test of time, it must be relatable and relevant over generations. As technology evolves at an ever-increasing rate, things we are accustomed to change and become obsolete. Typewriters, newspapers, payphones, and fold-up maps fall into this category. To avoid becoming irrelevant, songs can be about the four basic elements: earth, water, fire, and air. Many songwriters have utilized these in metaphors or similes.

Writing about the sun will, hopefully, be timeless. “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Here Comes the Sun” are just a few of the many popular songs that compare the hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium with the happiness and contentment of a relationship. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Good Day Sunshine” by The Beatles.

The summer of 1966 was one of the hottest on record up to that time. U.S. States east of the Rocky Mountains were hit the hardest. The Beatles toured America in August. They had some famous visitors during their New York City appearance at Shea Stadium. Paul McCartney talked with author Paul Du Noyer in his 2015 book Conversations with McCartney: “Back details

The Beatles’ 1965 “double A-side” release of “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” might be a catchy testament to the band’s early years of jangly rock and roll, but it also served as a vinyl memento of one of the band’s most stressful songs they ever had to write.

Although “Day Tripper” is now undeniably in the list of the Fab Four’s most iconic, anthemic tracks, it didn’t come as easy as other ‘Rubber Soul’ tracks like “Nowhere Man” or “I’m Looking Through You.” As John Lennon later said in Anthology, the band wrote the song “under complete pressure.”  The Band Wrote “Day Tripper” To Fulfill Label Requirements

The Beatles might’ve been a cohesive, artistic force of a band in the mid-1960s. But they were also a business—a highly profitable one at that—and the management team of that business expected the artists to meet deadlines and make sales quotes whenever necessary. Such was the case for the Fab Four ahead of the 1965 Christmas season.

One year after the band released the split featuring “We Can Work It Out” and “Da details

The Beatles usually appear on the Billboard 200 in America. The chart ranks the most-consumed albums in the country, and as one of the bestselling groups of all time with countless hits to their credit, the band can often find space for at least one of their top titles. Sometimes, the ranking is quiet enough, and the Fab Four’s catalog is popular enough, that they’re able to claim more than a single spot.

The British rockers own two spaces on this week’s Billboard 200. The Beatles double down as one of their most celebrated projects breaks back onto the competitive tally and a favorite continues.

Abbey Road is back on the Billboard 200 this frame. The rock classic settles in at No. 198 on the 200-rung tally, barely managing to re-enter the roster again after not being present on the list last time around.

In the past tracking week, Luminate reports that Abbey Road moved a little under 8,200 equivalent units in the U.S. That sum includes almost 2,000 pure purchases, which is a fairly huge number for a full-length that was released so long ago.

As Abbey Road returns to the Billboard 200, The Beatles’ 1 appears even higher on the list once again. That compilation of the band& details