Beatles News
In many ways, The Beatles remain the Platonic Ideal of a rock band. Not only did the Liverpool, England-born group write incredible songs and garner giant audiences, but they also broke the mold by breaking the molds. In other words, they were great, in part, because of their distinct personalities.
Each of the four former Mop Tops had specific qualities. And together, they were a complete group. But even despite the unbelievable synergy between the members, there were important musical figures who helped shape The Beatles from the outside. That’s just what we wanted to dive into here.
While the four members of The Beatles were in the recording studio, laying down their tracks, it was producer George Martin in the booth, working the boards and knobs. Where would the band be without his ear for levels and mixes? Where would they be without his influence? Just one example of Martin’s genius is his work on the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Much has been written about Yoko Ono and her effect on John Lennon and The Beatles. For decades, she was considered the villain who broke up the band. But more recently, those ideas have been debunked thanks, in part, to footage from the recent documentary, Get Back. For whatever you thought of her, Ono was an artist. She experimented fearlessly and her impact remains on the creative culture today. Who knows, maybe The Beatles’ final album, Let It Be, would never have happened without her influence. Maybe the band’s final album would have halted without her support outside the studio.
Billy Preston
The band was struggling. Members were leaving at inopportune times during the recording session for their final album. Old wounds were opening along with new ones. The Beatles had become a tired, old married couple of four. There was no hope. Until the Houston, Texas-born keys player Billy Preston walked through the door. John Lennon said it himself, Preston saved the recording session for the band’s final record, Let It Be. With his nimble playing, blues background, and immense skill, Preston, who has also played with the likes of Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and Ray Charles, helped to save one of the greatest rock records ever.
Source: Jacob Uitti/americansongwriter.com
Cynthia Powell was the third child of Charles Powell, who worked for the electrical and engineering company GEC, and his wife, Lillian. She was born in the opening days of the Second World War, in Blackpool, to where her expecting mother had been evacuated from the family home in Liverpool along with other pregnant women. As a child, Cynthia was described as "shy, gentle, and studious", and her upbringing was much stricter than her future husband's.
The family later moved back to the Wirral, settling in the seaside town of Hoylake. Cynthia showed artistic flair, and after attending Liverpool's Junior Art School, and at the age of 11 won an art prize in a Liverpool Echo competition. She went on to study at the Liverpool College of Art in 1957 where she met John Lennon.
Cynthia married Lennon in 1962, just before the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do, after discovering she was pregnant with Julian. The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, was best man.
The marriage lasted just six years and ended after Cynthia reportedly returned home from a trip to Greece to find Lennon and Yoko Ono, in matching towelling robes, gazing at each other.
Cynthia started divorce proceedings after hearing that Ono was pregnant with Sean. Eventually John grudgingly agreed to pay Cynthia £100,000, plus maintenance of £2,400 a year, with another £100,000 placed in a trust fund for Julian.
Cynthia wrote a memoir of John in 2005 in which she said: “Having tried to live an ordinary life for so many years since John and I parted, I have come to realise that I will always be known as John’s first wife."
Source: Amy Fenton/lancs.live
aul McCartney announced a second surprise show at the Bowery Ballroom slated for Wednesday night, but tickets were quickly snapped up. The East Village venue was completely sold out by 11 a.m.
McCartney, 82, shocked New Yorkers on Tuesday afternoon when he announced plans to play the theater that night, making tickets only available in person at the box office. That show almost immediately sold out as well.
By Wednesday morning, people were more prepared, with lines outside the venue all morning in anticipation of a possible announcement, according to the music blog Brooklyn Vegan. The concert was set to begin at 6:30 p.m. McCartney is expected to be in town all week, as he is scheduled to be part of a 50th anniversary celebration on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
Tuesday night’s show in the tiny Bowery Ballroom, with hardly more than 550 people in attendance, included a full 22-song setlist from McCartney, along with plenty of chatter. “So, here we are,” McCartney said at the beginning with a grin. “Some little gig. New York. Why not?”
McCartney is famously no stranger to a surprise performance. In addition to the famous Beatles rooftop concert, he appeared on top of Ed Sullivan Theatre marquee in 2009 and set up a performance at Grand Central Terminal in 2018.
When he announced the Tuesday concert, New Yorkers within a reasonable distance of the Bowery Ballroom flocked to snag tickets.
“I thought: I can do this,” Amy Jaffe, who lives about 30 blocks north, told The Associated Press. “I put on jeans, grabbed a coat, called a Lyft.” Jaffe, 69, was one of the lucky few in attendance Tuesday. McCartney played a full show, ranging from Beatles classics like “Hey Jude” to solo efforts such as “Maybe I’m Amazed.”
Source: MSN
A brand-new companion album is on the way, created to sit alongside Man on the Run, the upcoming documentary exploring Paul McCartney and Wings’ remarkable rise through the 1970s. Directed by Academy Award–winner Morgan Neville, the film traces an era of bold creativity, reinvention, and the unstoppable spirit that defined the band’s journey.
To mark the announcement, fans can enjoy two previously unheard gems: 'Arrow Through Me (Rough Mix)' and 'Live and Let Die (Rockshow)', available exclusively on Amazon Music.
The documentary Man on the Run begins streaming worldwide on Prime Video from 27 February. We made what seemed like an impossible dream come true. - Paul
Ahead of the release of Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, the intimate new feature documentary by Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning director Morgan Neville, exploring Paul McCartney’s creative rebirth after The Beatles’ breakup, Capitol Records, MPL Communications and UMG have announced details of a companion album titled, Man on the Run - Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack.
The album includes all-time classics, hits and essential tracks from across Paul McCartney and Wings’ revered catalogue. A snapshot of Paul’s creativity in the 1970s in 12 songs. ‘Arrow Through Me (Rough Mix)’, a previously unreleased rough mix from the 1979 album sessions for Back to the Egg, and ‘Live And Let Die (Rockshow)’, from the 1980 concert film Rockshow, can both be heard exclusively via Amazon Music here, ahead of release. The album will feature a third previously unreleased track in ‘Gotta Sing Gotta Dance’, originally featured in the 1973 The James Paul McCartney TV Special.
Both the soundtrack album and documentary will be released on February 27th, with Man on the Run - Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack arriving in a variety of formats, including a limited edition New York Taxi Cab Yellow Vinyl LP by Jack White's Third Man Pressing plant, a limited edition Tangerine Peel Orange Vinyl LP Amazon Exclusive, and Black Vinyl LP, through to a 1CD edition and digital release. Each vinyl edition will also come with a Man on the Run poster.
The artwork had creative direction by Paul McCartney and Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of Hipgnosis - the iconic design studio that worked with Paul for eight Wings albums, including Band on the Run, Venus and Mars, Wings Over America, Wings Greatest, and the 2025 anthology, WINGS. The artwork was designed by Peter Curzon of Storm Studios.
Fans can shop the Amazon exclusive soundtrack vinyl here today and find more merch on Paul McCartney’s official store on Amazon.com and in the Amazon Music app.
Man on the Run - Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack, Track listing:
1 Wings - Silly Love Songs (Demo)
2 Paul McCartney - That Would Be Something (2011 Remaster)
3 Paul and Linda McCartney - Long Haired Lady (2012 Remaster)
4 Paul and Linda McCartney - Too Many People (2012 Remaster)
5 Paul McCartney and Wings - Big Barn Bed (2018 Remaster)
6 Paul McCartney - Gotta Sing Gotta Dance
7 Wings - Live and Let Die (Rockshow)
8 Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run (2010 Remaster)
9 Wings - Arrow Through Me (Rough Mix)
10 Wings - Mull of Kintyre (2016 Remaster)
11 Paul McCartney - Coming Up (2011 Remaster)
12 Paul McCartney and Wings - Let Me Roll It (2010 Remaster)
Source: paulmccartney.com
10 "Savoy Truffle"
From 'The Beatles' (1968)
Without a doubt, The Beatles (sometimes called “The White Album”) is one of the most important rock albums of all time. It’s one of the wildest and most varied of all time, in a manner that still feels unparalleled within the realms of non-experimental music, since most of the tracks here are legitimate songs. There are a few points where things do get kind of experimental (see “Revolution 9”), but usually, it’s just out there because there are a whole variety of sub-genres covered from song to song.
9 "Run for Your Life"
From 'Rubber Soul' (1965)
To the credit of “Run for Your Life,” it is a successfully creepy song, but whether it was supposed to be truly horrifying is a bit harder to discern. It’s about a very intense man directing a series of statements toward his partner/girlfriend, saying he’d rather see her dead than with another man and stuff, and that if she did that, she should indeed “run for” her “life.”
Maybe it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or darkly funny, but the execution is off. It’s just a sour song that really tanks the album it belongs to, Rubber Soul. There is one other sort of weak song on that album, so more on that in a bit, but “Run for Your Life” stands out for being the closing track; one that, because of its placement, ensures the otherwise strong album cannot actually end on a high.
8 "Your Mother Should Know"
From 'Magical Mystery Tour' (1967)
There are some great songs featured on Magical Mystery Tour (especially the LP version, rather than the EP one), but “Your Mother Should Know” is not one of them. It’s a lesser Paul McCartney song that puts on, in full display, his traits that tend to receive the most criticism/scorn. It’s a plinky-plonky, corny, and grating track, and this is coming from someone who honestly doesn’t mind “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”
7 "What Goes On"
From 'Rubber Soul' (1965)
This whole ranking is going to be quite kind to Ringo Starr, because while he gets quite a bit of criticism for being the least essential Beatle (it’s not a fair criticism, but you do tend to see it), there are only two songs sung by Starr featured in this ranking. Side-note, but it feels weird to call him “Starr.” It’s much more fun to call him “Ringo.” It’s a bit like awkwardly calling Kanye West “West” when “Kanye” feels so much more appropriate.
Uh, wait, where were we? Oh yeah, Ringo singing. He sings “What Goes On.” It’s not as creepy a song as “Run for Your Life,” nor does it derail Rubber Soul at as pivotal a point as that song does, but it is the most boring and tacky Rubber Soul track. The vibes are bad on “Run for Your Life,” but at least there’s some kind of misguided passion there, and an attempt at making things feel memorable. “What Goes On” is pure filler, and it feels out of step with what’s an otherwise very high-quality Beatles album.
Source: Jeremy Urquhart/collider.com
Beatlemania … in 2026?! Thanks to director Sam Mendes’s upcoming four-part Beatles film series, the Liverpool band is about to become the biggest music act in the world once again. The hubbub is certainly thanks, in large part, to its all-star cast. The Beatles films will star Paul Mescal (Hamnet) as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson (Babygirl) as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn (Fantastic Four: First Steps) as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) as Ringo Starr. With a lineup that good, the hysteria starts to make sense.
Fans got their first taste of the foursome through a London higher-education postcard event—which revealed the first official images of the actors as their famous counterparts. Released by the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), which McCartney cofounded, the photos of Mescal, Dickinson, Keoghan, and Quinn were met with immediate excitement. I mean, it doesn’t get more spot-on than Mescal’s McCartney.
Now set photos from one of the films are leaking on social media, showing the four Beatles swarmed in New York City in the mid-’60s. Keoghan poses as Starr snapping photos, while Quinn’s Harrison attempts to trudge through the crowd to their cars. Mescal is also wearing the classic single-sleeved blazer that the Beatles arrived in when they first landed in America. Check out the photos out below.
The four films will hit theaters in 2028, which each film focusing on the perspective of one of the Beatles. Fans have very little to go on so far as to what that exactly means for the Beatles films. Questions remain, including: Do the movies all take place at the same time? Will all four films release in theaters on the same day? Will you need to see all four films to get the full story?
I’m sure we’ll find out eventually. For now, all we know is the cast. Alongside the Beatles, Saoirse Ronan (Bad Apples) is Linda McCartney, James Norton (House of Guinness) is Brian Epstein, Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus) is Pattie Boyd, Harry Lloyd (Brave New World) is George Martin, and Anna Sawai (Shōgun) is Yoko Ono.
Of course, the real test of any music biopic is the music. Fans have yet to hear any of the actors speak or sing as their Beatles counterparts, even though I’m sure the campaign for each of them will reach Elvis levels of performance dissection.
According to Sawai, the group already sounds like the real deal. “It’s really amazing, just being on set with the boys and seeing them jam together,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “It really feels like I’m watching the Beatles.”
Source: Josh Rosenberg/esquire.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were an enviable songwriting duo when the Beatles first debuted. They became the pair against which every other rock band measured itself. Even today, bands aim to have a songwriting arm as strong as these two legends. However, that legacy was sullied by the fact that the duo fell apart towards the end of the band’s tenure.
By the time the Beatles announced their breakup, Lennon and McCartney were mainly name partners only. Their songwriting efforts were separate in every sense of the word. However, staying on the more positive side of their relationship, let’s take a look back at some of their first efforts together. One early release from the pair helped forge their partnership. However, both Lennon and McCartney agreed it wasn’t up to snuff as their career trekked on.
McCartney and Lennon were great at playing off and against one another. Often, they were in perfect harmony, but at other times, it was their differences that made their songs so stellar. “If I did something that was a little bit ahead of the curve, then John would come up with something that was a bit ahead of my curve,” McCartney once said. “And then so I’d go, ‘Well, how about this?’ and there was a lot of friendly competition.”
“If you know someone that long from your early teenage years to your late 20s, that’s an awful long time to be collaborating with someone, and you grow to know each other, and even when you’re apart, you’re still thinking about each other, you’re still referencing each other,” he continued. “I’ll Be On My Way”
Towards the end of the Beatles’ career, those differences stopped being creative sparks and started driving a wedge between the pair. They didn’t agree on much in the latter days of their collaboration.
However, one song they did agree on was an early offering called “I’ll Be On My Way.” This simple, late ’50s song was elementary compared to the music they were making in the late ’60s. Lennon and McCartney had a rare moment of agreement when discussing this song in hindsight.
“It’s a little bit too June-moon for me, but these were very early songs, and they worked out quite well,” McCartney once said.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
On February 5, 1962, Ringo Starr stepped behind the drum kit for The Beatles for the very first time at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club. He was filling in for the band’s drummer, Pete Best, who was sick on the day. Best had been drumming for The Beatles since 1960, with the main attraction for his recruitment being that he owned his own drums. At the same time, Starr was a familiar face on the circuit, having played with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who were hot in the Merseyside scene. At the substitute gig, the chemistry between the band and the new drummer was obvious, and within months, Starr was a permanent member. Looking back, the move made the four so "fab," and Starr’s unconventional approach to drumming changed rock and roll forever. The Genius of Simplicity: Ringo Starr’s Drumming Was Revolutionary.
Starr’s genius was not a flashy exhibition of technique, but was led by emotional intuition, demonstrating his musicality more sensitively. Compared to his contemporaries, Starr’s understated approach was genuinely refreshing. Keith Moon of The Who commanded chaos, Ginger Baker’s virtuosity left jaws on the floor, and Mitch Mitchell’s heavy jazz influence brought a new flavor to psychedelia. But Starr’s supposed, and even mocked, minimalism rang loudly in its impact on rock.
Ringo Starr's drumming was always anything but simple, and he quietly tore down the expectations of rock drummers. Starr was different from childhood, being naturally left-handed. At the time, this wasn’t perceived to be acceptable, so he was forced to drum on a right-handed kit. This, in itself, was enough to result in a slightly unusual, almost delayed, but very personal sound.
But what is truly so special about the style of Starr is how he approaches the drums as a melodic instrument rather than merely a time-keeping tool. In The Beatles, Starr went far beyond using the drums as a simple rhythmic accompaniment; he really entwined them as part of the arrangement. It was revolutionary in the rock world to see how the drums could be so expressive, delicate, and tuneful. This wonderful signature style is particularly prevalent in “In My Life,” “Come Together,” and “Something.”
Starr’s refusal to overplay was a defining mark of class in a band that was sometimes plagued by competitiveness. His emotional stability is evident in his playing, with a steady and reliable backbone that served the songs and band without ever making any fuss. This maturity has, sometimes, been mistaken for simplicity in the past, but Starr is exactly what The Beatles and the music-loving world needed.
Ringo Starr Helped Shape The Beatles’ Cultural Impact
Ringo Starr’s genuinely beautiful drumming is an often-overlooked reason The Beatles are so ingrained in Western popular culture. Starr’s perfectly restrained approach was guided by emotional intuition and served as a form of dialogue within the songs. This emotive drive gives many Beatles songs their well-known charm. His personality can really be felt through his playing and arrangements, relaxed, nonchalant, but very sweet and even amusing.
Source: Fiona MacPherson-Amador/collider.com
It was perhaps the most daunting second act in pop culture history. After the Beatles‘ break-up in April 1970, the then-27-year-old Paul McCartney was suddenly faced with the question of what he would do for the rest of his career following the meltdown of the greatest pop group in history.
As evidenced by the tireless touring and recording he’s done in the half-century since, McCartney needn’t have worried about what came next. But in the new trailer for the biopic Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, which chronicles Macca’s rebirth following the Beatles, the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer describes that worrisome time and his determination to punch through the fear.
“The Beatles had broken up and I was thinking, ‘what do I do now?,” McCartney says over the strains of the Paul McCartney and Wings‘ 1974 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Band on the Run.” In voiceover, he continues, “‘How can I ever do anything that’s anywhere near as good as the Beatles?'”
The answers will be revealed in the film directed by Oscar-winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor), which follows McCartney’s rebirth after the band’s messy dissolution. The movie will be released into theaters for one-night-only by Trafalgar Releasing on Feb. 19, with tickets on sale now here. Each screening will also include a bonus conversation between McCartney and Neville.
In addition to McCartney weighing in on the his rise from the Fab Four’s ashes, the film includes rare, unreleased archival footage and music, as well as photos from the singer’s late wife and bandmate Linda McCartney, as well as interviews with Linda, Paul and their daughters Mary and Stella, Wings band members, Sean Ono Lennon, Mick Jagger, Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde and others.
“I was on my own for the first time,” McCartney says in the minute-long trailer. “I had to look inside myself, so I put a new band together.”
Along with the April 1974 chart topper that gives the movie its title, Wings also scored five other No. 1 singles on the Hot 100: “My Love,” “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘Em In” and “With a Little Luck.” In Feb. 2024, the band’s third album returned to the Billboard charts following the 50th anniversary re-issue of Band on the Run, when it hit No. 5 on the Top Album Sales chart and No. 156 on the Billboard 200 album chart; during its initial run the LP scored four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1974. Wings landed five albums at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 before breaking up in 1981.
Source: Gil Kaufman/yahoo.com
Of the many famous figures featured on the iconic 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, only Bob Dylan, Dion DiMucci, and artist Larry Bell are still alive today, aside from surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Each of these three survivors—Dylan, DiMucci, and Bell—continues to be active in their respective fields of music and art, maintaining their cultural relevance decades later. Italian actress Sophia Loren, though originally intended to appear on the cover, was ultimately not visible in the final image but is also still alive at age 91.
The cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released on June 1, 1967, is one of the most studied images in pop culture history. Packed with writers, actors, artists, gurus, and cultural rebels, for many, it became a list of the era’s most notable people.
More than half a century later, most of those faces are long gone, making the few survivors all the more remarkable. Excluding Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr of the Beatles, who are still very much with us, only three people pictured on the cover are alive today—though one additional person who was supposed to be on the cover but isn’t visible is also still around. Bob Dylan (84)
American folk pop singer Bob Dylan at a press conference in London. Dylan’s inclusion on the top row was reportedly John Lennon‘s idea, and it makes perfect sense. By 1967, Dylan had already reshaped songwriting and pushed folk into rock. These days, he’s still recording and touring. He remains very popular, as evidenced by the success of his recent biopic, A Complete Unknown.
Dion DiMucci (86)
Dion appears in the second row, included by artist Peter Blake, who admired him deeply. Long before he was known for introspective songwriting, Dion was a Bronx kid who helped bring doo-wop and early rock into the mainstream. Songs like “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer” were already part of the cultural fabric by the mid-1960s. He is still releasing music and sometimes playing live, though he is often seen relaxing at his home in Florida on social media.
Artist Larry Bell attends the screening of Dennis Hopper's "The Last Movie" during Paris Photo Los Angeles at Paramount Studios on April 25, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Larry Bell is one of the quieter names on the Sgt. Pepper cover, but his importance shouldn’t be underestimated. A key figure in the Light and Space movement, Bell was part of the West Coast art scene that was redefining perceptions of materials and minimalism in the 1960s. His inclusion reflects how wide-ranging the album’s cultural net really was. Bell is still alive today, and his work continues to be exhibited.
The famously breathtaking Italian movie star, along with Jesus, Gandhi and several others, was originally supposed to be on the cover, but didn’t make the final cut. According to behind-the-scenes photos, a cut-out of her was placed behind the wax version of the Beatles, and thus blocked in the final photo.
Source: Lauren Novak/remindmagazine.com
