On This Day, Jan. 27, 1970…

John Lennon wrote and recorded the single “Instant Karma” in one day, at one point telling reporters he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.”

The song, produced by Phil Spector, featured his Beatles bandmate George Harrison on acoustic guitar and piano, with Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono and Billy Preston contributing background vocals.

The inspiration for the tune came to Lennon during a visit he and Yoko took to Denmark, where they met up with Yoko’s former husband Tony Cox. Cox’s then wife Melinda Kendell used the term in conversation.

“Instant Karma,” Lennon’s third solo single, wound up being a hit for the rocker, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Source: lakesmedianetwork.com

The Beatles were hitmakers of the highest order, but they weren’t without their weird moments either. Mixed in with their pop-friendly offerings were off-kilter masterpieces. Revisit three Beatles songs below that feel as if they came from another planet.

“A Day in the Life” is innovative, even by today’s standards. The disjointed track mashes up two different ideas from Paul McCartney and John Lennon into one masterpiece.

This song feels impossibly complex. For mere mortals, it’s hard to come up with any idea of how these two came up with this Frankenstein track. Even more uneasiness is added to the song by an orchestra conducted by McCartney.

“That was too puzzling for them, and orchestras don’t like that kind of thing,” McCartney said of his less-than-traditional conducting methods. “They like it written down, and they like to know exactly what they’re supposed to do…so that’s why it sounds like a chaotic sort of swirl. That was an idea based on the avant-garde stuff I was into at the time.”

“I Am the Walrus” is an oddball song to say the least. There’s nothing that really grounds this Beatles hit in reality. And that’s by design.

By the time this song was released, the Beatles were being analyzed worldwide for their songwriting techniques. Lennon wanted to throw people off their scent with this song, purposefully making it confusing as all get out. Because it’s so strange, it feels like it must come from some far-off galaxy where the line I am the eggman, they are the eggmen / I am the walrus, goo-goo g’joob makes sense.

“Strawberry Fields Forever” epitomizes the Beatles’ psychedelic era. Few songs better highlight the rock movement’s otherworldly style and intrigue. Listening to this song can feel like a kaleidoscopic trip from another planet.

Let me take you down / ‘Cause I’m going to strawberry fields / Nothing is real / And nothing to get hung about / Strawberry fields forever, the iconic chorus reads. It’s impossible not to feel a little disoriented while listening to this Beatles fan favorite.

Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com

George Harrison wrote an unreleased song, “Hey Ringo,” discovered by his widow in 2017. Olivia Harrison gifted the lyrics to Ringo Starr; he was surprised at their existence.  The song expresses mutual admiration between Harrison and Starr as bandmates.

The Beatles took the ’60s by storm, leaving an incomparable and lasting legacy in their wake.

As the remaining members continue to share their love for music, for peace—and, well, for love—with the world, we are reminded of the importance and power of sound. George Harrison was a masterful guitarist, lyricist, and friend.

Born on February 25, 1943, the Liverpool native joined forces with John Lennon and Paul McCartney when they were all still teenagers. By the time Harrison was 20, Ringo Starr was their drummer and Beatlemania was in full swing.

Harrison tragically passed away from lung cancer in November 2001, aged 58. He was survived by his second wife, Olivia Harrison, now 77, and their son, Dhani Harrison, now 47.

In 2017, Olivia revealed that she found a previously unheard song of Harrison’s, entitled “Hey Ringo.”

“There was a folder in George’s piano bench and inside I found a typed lyric for ‘Hey, Ringo.’ I think it dates from around 1970,” she said, according to NME. She then gifted the lyrics to Starr himself at a party celebrating Harrison.

“He’d never seen this song before,” she noted. “He said ‘What is this?’ He was so surprised.”

In a post shared to Instagram by Far Out Magazine, the handwritten lyrics are shared beside a copy of the typed ones.

“Wow! A beautiful sentiment,” wrote one commenter.  Another added: “That’s so cute, I can imagine their duet.”

The lyrics to “Hey Ringo” by George Harrison:

Hey Ringo now I want you to know

That without you my guitar plays far too slow

And Ringo let me say this to you

I’ve heard no drummer who can play it quite like you /

Wait a minute Mr G.

Stop flattering me

My drums sound bare

When your guitar’s not there /

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey

Let me hear you playing /

Hey Ringo there’s one thing that I’ve not said

I’ll play my guitar with you till I drop dead /

Well, G. it’s really nice the things you say

But when you drop, please fall the other way

Sam Mendes's upcoming project, The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event is truly a beast the likes of which cinema has never seen before. In April 2028, four new biopics – each one focussing on a different Beatle – will release on the same day, giving fans the opportunity to binge them all in the cinema at once.

Mendes is directing all four movies, while three different writers are confirmed to be attached to the project – Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan, and Jack Thorne.

Butterworth is a celebrated Olivier-award-winning playwright and screenwriter who worked with Mendes previously on Spectre. Straughan is fresh from a trio of wins (BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Oscar) for his screenplay for Conclave, and Thorne (Adolescence) is a prolific writer who has collaborated with Mendes in the theatre, when the latter directed his play The Motive and the Cue.

With a wealth of talent behind the scenes (including rewrites at the request of real-life Beatles), it's no surprise that fans are already itching to find out more about the project, despite the movies not coming out for another two years.

It has been confirmed already that all four Beatles will appear in all four films, and that much of the cast will be featuring across the entire quartet.

The list of confirmed actors so far is as follows. Scroll down for more information about the stars.

Harris Dickinson as John Lennon
Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney
Joseph Quinn as George Harrison
Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr
Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney
James Norton as Brian Epstein
Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey
Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono
Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd
Harry Lloyd as George Martin
David Morrissey as Jim McCartney
Leanne Best as Mimi Smith
Bobby Schofield as Neil Aspinall
Daniel Hoffmann-Gill as Mal Evans
Arthur Darvill as Derek Taylor
Adam Pally as Allen Klein

Harris Dickinson plays John Lennon

Source: Alex Hewitt/radiotimes.com

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The Beatles were already reaching breaking point when they were working on The White Album; countless fights, arguments, and walkouts almost became a typical day in the studio with the Fab Four, with some songs heading to the trash can rather than the album. One of the songs was a song that George Harrison wrote, which was “Not Guilty,” even after over 100 takes.
"Not Guilty" Was Inspired by the Beatles' Trip to India. George Harrison brought this iconic song to a Beatles rehearsal and it was rejected.

The trip was partially to do with Harrison associating the band with Indian instrumentation and the teachings of the Maharishi. However, The Beatles quickly denounced the Maharishi after rumors began to spread about alleged inappropriate advances to female students. While Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were not as interested in the Maharishi, Lennon would write “Sexy Sadie” to hit out at the Maharishi after the rumors spread. Why Was "Not Guilty" Rejected?

The Beatles are considered the greatest band for many reasons, with one of them being due to having extremely high standards in their music. Even after 102 takes, the band, including Harrison, was not 100% happy with “Not Guilty,” but that was not why it was rejected. The recording executives chose to leave it off the album, to Harrison’s dismay, due to its lyrical content, as it revealed his growing tensions and frustrations with McCartney and Lennon. Not wanting to expose the band’s ongoing tension and strife, it was ultimately decided that “Not Guilty” would be excluded. However, to Lennon’s delight, “Sexy Sadie” made its way onto the tracklist.

Despite using 102 takes, only 20 of these takes were completed. A great amount of the takes were time spent perfecting and learning the song. However, with 102 takes of learning and recording “Not Guilty,” a song that expressed Harrison’s frustrations with McCartney and Lennon, the other members became less interested in recording the song. Sadly, 102 takes would end up being meaningless.
Surrounded by press, The Beatles wave at fans as they arrive in New York City in 1964.

Source: Teguan Harris/collider.com

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Among their many other recommending characteristics, The Beatles could bring about a joyous feeling in their listeners as well as anyone. It’s difficult to listen to them for too long without a smile creeping up on your face.

Certain songs in their catalog elicit wider grins than others, of course. This quartet of tracks stands out from the pack for the happiness quotient each of the songs delivers. “I Saw Her Standing There”

It’s difficult to pick just one song from The Beatles first year of recording for this list. There are so many tracks from that time period that deliver the goods in the joy department. We’re going with “I Saw Her Standing There” for several reasons. The music rushes along at a heightened speed without stopping for too long to contemplate. Meanwhile, the story is aspirational and satisfying. Although it’s unspoken, the narrator seems to be punching above his weight class as he prepares to woo the girl of his dreams across the dance floor. Yet there they are at song’s end, living happily ever after. And let’s not count out the power of the “whoo” shouts that punctuate each verse.
“I Feel Fine”

Conflicting recollections of the participants involved make it impossible to know if the feedback the band created at the beginning of “I Feel Fine” was a happy accident or a calculated plan. In any case, it’s a thrilling start to a song that just keeps raising the ebullience stakes from there. There’s a little bit of Motown in his track, both in terms of the chugging rhythm and the interweaving backing vocals. Unlike “I Saw Her Standing There”, the narrator here already has the love of his favorite girl in his pocket when the song begins. And the knowledge of how she feels about him is so powerfully joy-inducing that he has no choice but to share it with “all the world.” That phrase is a good estimation for the Fab Four’s listening audience circa 1964.
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”

Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com

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