Yoko Ono has long been blamed for “breaking up the Beatles.” The now-92-year-old artist has endured decades of sexist, racist abuse from still-bitter Beatles fans. Now, a recovered phone call featured in the new documentary One to One: John & Yoko—which will premiere on HBO and HBO Max at 8 p.m. tonight—reveals Ono felt abandoned by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr at the height of this horrific harassment.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald, this documentary is an intimate look at the life of John Lennon and Yoko Ono during an 18-month period where they lived together in New York City in the early 1970s. In addition to restored footage of Lennon and Ono’s “One to One” concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1972—Lennon’s only full-length concert after the Beatles and before his murder in 1980—the documentary also features never-before-heard phone calls from Ono and Lennon, who recorded all their calls at the time.

In a phone call between Ono and musician David Peel—a New York friend of the couple, who occasionally performed with Lennon at political rallies—Ono details the horrific verbal and physical abuse she faced from Beatles fans.

“I’m supposedly the person who broke up The Beatles, you know?,” Ono says in the phone call, recorded in the early 1970s. “When I was pregnant, many people wrote to me saying, ‘I wish you and your baby would die.'”

Ono continued, “I got a rubber doll has lots of needles in it, in the eyes, and the nose, and everything. When I was walking on the street with John, people came to me, saying things like I’m an ugly Jap. They pulled my hair, and hit my head. I was just about to faint.”

Ono goes on to say that during this period, she had three miscarriages. Then she expresses frustration that amidst this treatment from Beatles fans, none of the Beatles (save for Lennon) stood up for her.

Source: Anna Menta/decider.com

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One of the key characteristics that defined The Beatles early in their career was that they were a single unit. It wasn’t John, Paul, George, and Ringo; it was just The Beatles. This was, of course, due to their tight-knit friendship, but as the years rolled by, external forces seemed to interfere with their friendship and professional partnership, ultimately ending the band. However, despite these forces, The Beatles stayed true to a pact they had made before their breakup.

For a moment, put aside the last three or so years of The Beatles’ career. Put aside Yoko Ono, creative control, the death of Brian Epstein, financial disputes, and just recall how close friends they were. As a matter of fact, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones called them the “four-headed” monster because of their tight-knit bond. As a result of that tight-knit bond, The Beatles made an admirable promise to each other that both solidified the end of the iconic rock band, but also kept their historic legacy intact. The promise was that if one band member quit, then The Beatles would not go on without them.

Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com

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It has been nearly 60 years since The Beatles’ The White Album was released, and it is widely considered to be one of their finest works to date. Containing huge hits such as the George Harrison-penned “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” the Paul McCartney solo “Blackbird”, and the Beach Boys and Chuck Berry’s controversial parody “Back In The U.S.S.R.”, the album is packed with quality songwriting and compositions. One of their most underrated songs from the album is “Don’t Pass Me By,” a song that not even the dynamic songwriting duo McCartney-Lennon can take credit for.

Around 1963-1964, Ringo Starr wrote “Don’t Pass Me By”, which is his first and one of his few solo compositions he had written for the band. However, it was released as part of The White Album, meaning that the band took between four to five years to record and release the song. The reasons why this is the case vary, but it soon came into fruition after the Fab Four’s iconic trip to India.
Ringo-Starr-Hard-Rock-Live Image via Robert Bell/INSTARimages

Even drummers with little songwriting experience, like Starr, have their stroke of songwriting genius. For Starr, it happened only a few years into The Beatles’ prime, as Starr stated that he wrote the song while sitting “round at home.” “I only play three chords on the guitar and three on the piano,” he remembered. “I was fiddling with the piano – I just bang away – and then if a melody comes and some words, I just have to keep going. That’s how it happened.

Source: Teguan Harris/collider.com

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The only thing that could outshine the news of The Beatles breaking up was the swirling, speculative rumors of whether they would ever get back together—something that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison had to answer to often in the years that followed the Fab Four’s split. The public’s curiosity was understandable. They were the biggest rock band in the world in the latter half of the 1960s (bigger than Jesus, so they say). Their dissolution was the end of a movement, not just an era.

As one might expect from four distinct personalities, each of The Beatles had a different explanation for why the band was no more. During a 1981 Good Morning America interview, Harrison put it in familial terms. “The simplest way of saying it is like when you grow up in a family and everybody grows up, and they all leave home, and the brothers and sisters all go and get married and lead their own lives, you know. It’s like really asking them all to go back and live with their mom and dad again.”

He continued, “For us, as individuals, we all had our own lives to lead. We had a lot of experiences, other than being four people stuck in the same hotel room together, that we had to live out.”

Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com

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Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band have announced the first of their 2026 tour dates.

The group concluded its 2025 concerts in September with a series of performances at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The new tour starts in late May and runs through mid-June. "I am happy to be touring again in the spring," Starr said in a press release announcing the shows. "See you all in June. Peace and love."

The All Starr Band currently includes Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson.

Starr's latest album, Look Up, was released in January, marking his return to country music after a several-decade hiatus. He famously recorded Buck Owens' "Act Naturally" with the Beatles, and the 1970 solo LP, Beaucoups of Blues, was recorded in Nashville.

He and Look Up producer T Bone Burnett are now in the studio working on a follow-up album. Where Is Ringo Starr's All Starr Band Playing in 2026?

Starr and His All Starr Band will hit the road on May 28 for a date in Temecula, California. Over the next few weeks, they will perform dates in San Diego, Tucson, Denver and Phoenix.

The run is scheduled to conclude with a concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 14.

You can see the 2026 tour dates for Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band below.

For more information about the shows and tickets, visit Starr's website.

Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band Tour 2026
May 28 Pechanga Resort Casino, Temecula, CA
May 29 Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, San Diego, CA
May 31 Findlay Toyota Center, Prescott, AZ
June 1 Eccles Theater, Salt Lake City, UT
June 3 Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, Tucson, AZ
June 5 Thunder Valley Casino, Lincoln, CA
June 6 Vina Robles Ampitheatre, Paso Robles, CA
June 8 Kiva Auditorium, Albuquerque, NM
June 9 Bellco Theatre, Denver, CO
June 11 San Jose Civic, San Jose, CA
June 12 Gammage Auditorium, Phoenix, AZ
June 14 The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

Source: Ultimate Classic

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If you are a devout Beatles fan, then you know the history behind their iconic No. 1 hit song, “Come Together”. If you don’t, then long story short is that Chuck Berry’s song “You Can’t Catch Me” heavily influenced John Lennon during the writing process. As a matter of fact, the opening lines in both songs are nearly identical. Consequently, after the song’s release, Berry’s publishing company, Big Seven Music, accused Lennon of plagiarism.

Instead of settling the case in court, Lennon agreed to record three songs for Big Seven Music. Though it seems this concern was a concern from the start, as Paul McCartney voiced his perspective on the matter when John Lennon first showed him the song back in the late 1960s. Paul McCartney Loved the Song, but He Knew John Lennon Needed To Change It Up.

In an interview with Dana Carvey and David Spade on Fly On The Wall, Paul McCartney recalled the moment John Lennon showed him “Come Together”. Paul McCartney seemingly dug the song, but he knew that if they didn’t alter some things, Berry’s parties would meet the band with legal action.

“We’re in Abbey Road Studio number two, and John comes in, and he goes, ‘Listen to this one I got… Here come old flat top,’ and I go, ‘John, stop, that’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ by Chuck Berry,’” McCartney said. “And he goes, ‘Yeah, I know. But it’s good though, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘No, you gotta do something with it.’”

McCartney continued, “So, that was a case where we had to get it out of that Chuck Berry tempo. You couldn’t change that opening line. It’s just such a good opening line, and John had to pay Chuck Berry for using that later.”

Despite changing the tempo of the song, it seems that it still wasn’t enough to avoid a legal dispute. Nevertheless, this was seemingly no sweat off John Lennon and The Beatles’ backs, as the song was an enormous success.

Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com

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