Paul McCartney had so many hit songs with The Beatles that it becomes hard to count. However, his best-selling single in the U.K. debuted years after the band had disbanded, and it outsold anything he did with The Beatles. 

The Beatles shocked the world when they split in 1970. Following the breakup, Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, wanted to get back to basics. McCartney bought a farm in High Park in Scotland in 1966, and the two spent plenty of time there with their family after The Beatles ended. The area High Park was located in was known as Mull of Kintyre, and McCartney decided to write a song about it in 1977.“Mull of Kintyre, the whole area of Kintyre and Argyllshire, is very special because of the memories it holds for me and the family,” says McCartney, speaking to Big Issue 40 years after the song’s release. “It’s really nice to think that the love we have for the area was captured in a song and brought to the attention of many people around the world.”

Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com

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Ringo Starr acted in several films over the course of his career. Ringo Starr was the first narrator of the children’s series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. In 1990, Ringo Starr returned to the Thomas the Tank Engine universe in Shining Time Station.

After The Beatles broke up, the former members embarked on their solo careers. For all of them, this meant working with new musicians and producing solo albums. For Ringo Starr, this also meant pursuing a number of acting roles. Though he decided to move away from movies in the 1980s, he took a role in television as the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Starr later appeared in a spinoff series.

Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com

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Many songs by The Beatles were banned by the BBC for various reasons, such as possible allusions to drugs and sexual references. One song by Paul McCartney in his solo career received a BBC ban. However, the ban was primarily due to a misunderstood lyric. 

While The Beatles kept their music relatively tame, the BBC commonly cracked down on any piece they deemed inappropriate. This ranged from explicit sexual references to light allusions to drugs. The Beatles were often associated with drugs due to some of their more psychedelic tracks. However, the BBC often made assumptions about the band’s lyrics without fully understanding them.

Several Beatles songs that received BBC bans include “A Day in the Life,” “I Am the Walrus,” “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” A few of these tracks were not alluding to drugs, even though many believed there were. Many believed “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” referenced LSD, but John Lennon claimed it was based on a drawing by his son. 

Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com

George Harrison‘s wife, Olivia, said her husband enjoyed making a good moment better. The former Beatle’s friends would’ve agreed.

In 1974, George met his wife during a terrible time. He was grieving the loss of his first marriage to Pattie Boyd.

“Well, I wasn’t ready to join Alcoholics Anonymous or anything – I don’t think I was that far gone – but I could put back a bottle of brandy occasionally, plus all the other naughty things that fly around,” George told Rolling Stone in 1979.

“I just went on a binge, went on the road . . . all that sort of thing, until it got to the point where I had no voice and almost no body at times. Then I met Olivia and it all worked out fine. There’s a song on the new album, ‘Dark Sweet Lady’: ‘You came and helped me through/ When I’d let go/ You came from out the blue/ Never have known what I’d done without you.’ That sums it up.”

Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com

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George Harrison knew there was a problem with The Beatles‘ record label, Apple Records. Later, George was smart about artistic recruiting when he created his own record label, Dark Horse Records, and his film production company, HandMade Films. After their manager, Brian Epstein, died in 1967, The Beatles founded Apple Corps, an umbrella company for all their creative endeavors. Some sub-divisions included Apple Retail, Apple Publishing, and Apple Electronics.When The Beatles returned from India in 1968, they founded Apple Records. They set out to be unlike any record company and wanted to give struggling artists a chance to create freely. According to George, The Beatles got control of themselves by creating Apple Records.

Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com

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John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote several of The Beatles’ biggest hits. A few songs were written in unique places that wouldn’t usually possess the best songwriting atmosphere. However, McCartney and Lennon often wrote songs whenever inspiration struck, and the two wrote one of their earliest hits while riding a tour bus. 

The Beatles formed in 1960, but it took the band two years to get their first big hit with “Love Me Do.” Their second single, “Please Please Me,” reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The Beatles were on the rise following that song and later went on tour as the supporting act for singer Helen Shapiro. In Anthology, John Lennon said he and Paul McCartney wrote their third single, “From Me to You” on the tour bus. 

Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com

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