Beatles News
During their time together, the Beatles released over 200 studio-recorded songs. Out of all of those, Ringo Starr was officially credited with helping to write just five of them.
"I started writing songs and I would, like, tell John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] and George [Harrison], 'I've got this song I've written,'" Starr recalled in a 2025 interview for SiriusXM. "And they'd be rolling on the floor laughing because — I didn't know I was doing it — I would just rewrite someone else's song."
That's not to say the others didn't want to include Starr at all — in fact, Lennon and McCartney wrote several songs over the years meant specifically for Starr to sing, and the drummer had at least one lead vocal on most of their albums.
“When you think about it, how many people in rock and roll can sing?" McCartney said to Rolling Stone in 2015. "But Ringo can deliver a song.”
Starr had to start somewhere as far as songwriting went. The very first Beatles song he landed a composition credit on was "What Goes On," which appeared on 1965's Rubber Soul.
The Earlier Origins of 'What Goes On'
"What Goes On" actually dated back a few years in the Beatles' recording career.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com/Allison Rapp
John Lennon once called the Beatles' Ticket to Ride "one of the earliest heavy metal records made."
Try to imagine that song pumping through the house speakers before a Morbid Angel show, and you might conclude that Lennon's statement was a bit of a stretch. Still, the song's lumbering groove and droning riff were unusually heavy for 1965, especially within a pop landscape dominated by tracks like Wooly Bully and Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter.
Ticket to Ride was groundbreaking for another reason, though; It was the first Beatles record to feature Paul McCartney on lead guitar. He'd quietly slipped some gentle acoustic strumming into I'll Follow the Sun the previous year, but Ticket to Ride was different.
His electric leads enthusiastically leaped across the divides between the song's bridges and verses, then returned to playfully bob and weave throughout the outro, introducing listeners to a side of McCartney most fans barely realized existed.
"I guess I think of myself as a guitar player, really," he said in 1990. "If I couldn't have any other instrument, I would have to have an acoustic guitar.
"To the general public, McCartney is, of course, all about that bass. Publications from Rolling Stone to Bass Player have routinely ranked him as one of the greatest bassists ever, and four-string giants like Flea, Geddy Lee, John Paul Jones, Chris Squire and Sting have extolled his inventive, melodic approach to the instrument.
Source: yahoo.com/Damon Orion
On this day (September 11) in 1962, the Beatles recorded the third version of “Love Me Do.” It was their debut single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 17. The song was also originally meant to be their debut single in the United States. However, the label balked and refused to release it until 1964, when it became their fourth consecutive chart-topper.
The Beatles recorded the first version of “Love Me Do” in June 1962 with Pete Best on drums. This recording didn’t see the light of day until it was included on Anthology 1 in 1995. Then, on September 4, they recorded it again, with Ringo Starr on drums. They released this version as their debut UK single in October 1962. Finally, on September 11, 1962, they cut the song a third time. This time, session musician Andy White played drums, and Starr played tambourine. The tambourine is an easy way to tell the two popular versions apart.
According to Songfacts, Parlophone Records issued “Love Me Do” as a single in the United Kingdom. Sales, especially in the Liverpool area, were good enough to take the song to No. 17. Capitol Records, Parlophone’s US partner, refused to release the single, fearing it would flop. Tollie finally released the song in the US in April 1964. By that time, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” had all reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Love Me Do” Is Older Than the Beatles.
When John Lennon and Paul McCartney were teenagers, they would skip school to write songs together. The duo wrote several songs before “Love Me Do,” but this was the first they liked enough to record.
While the song is officially a Lennon-McCartney co-write, there was some debate about the actual authorship of the song. “Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was 16, or even earlier,” Lennon said. “I think I had something to do with the middle.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Clayton Edwards
On 26 September 1969, The Beatles released their eleventh studio album Abbey Road. It was the last album the band recorded together and is widely regarded as a masterpiece.
Abbey Road was a triumphal swan song for The Beatles’ astonishing recording career. It also captured them still in their prime, capable of creating music that left most of their contemporaries standing.
Across its 47:03 running time, Abbey Road spans a dizzying array of styles, yet it is a stunningly cohesive work. It is also bold and innovative, as demonstrated by the song that opens the album, Come Together.
Come Together is a strikingly raw and direct song, written by John Lennon. It opens with one of the most iconic bass lines in rock and melds surreal stream-of-consciousness lyrics with a mean and gritty swamp-infused groove.
The initial idea for Come Together was reportedly sparked when American psychologist, writer and early advocate for psychedelic drugs, Dr Timothy Leary, asked John Lennon to write a song. This was to be used for Leary’s campaign to become Governor of California in 1969.
Source: musicradar.com/Neil Crossley
One man's trash is another man's treasure, as the saying goes…or to put it in classic rock terms, a "throwaway" song for the Beatles was a breakthrough hit for the Rolling Stones.
"I Wanna Be Your Man" was originally released by the Stones as a single in 1963 and became the band's first Top 20 hit in the U.K., peaking at #12. But it was actually written for Ringo Starr to sing by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who were walking down London's Charing Cross Road when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards passed them in a taxi.
"So they shouted from the taxi and we yelled, 'Hey, hey, give us a lift, give us a lift,' and we bummed a lift off them," McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now by Barry Miles.
"So there were the four of us sitting in a taxi and I think Mick said, 'Hey, we're recording. Got any songs?' And we said, 'Aaaah, yes, sure, we got one. How about Ringo's song? You could do it as a single,'" he added.
"We often used to say to people, the words don't really matter, people don't listen to words, it's the sound they listen to," McCartney continued.
"So 'I Wanna Be Your Man' was to try and give Ringo something like 'Boys'; an uptempo song he could sing from the drums. So again, it had to be very simple."
In Lennon's opinion, the song was a "throwaway." "The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones," Lennon explained in All We Are Saying by David Sheff.
Source: yahoo.com/Jacqueline Burt Cote
The Beatles changed the face of popular music, releasing 13 studio albums and around 213 songs throughout their decade-long career. The prolific hitmakers also inspired entire subgenres of music, especially with their iconic 1966 record, Revolver. And on this day, 60 years ago, Revolver skyrocketed to No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
‘Revolver’ by the Beatles Hit No. 1 on Sept. 10, 1966
Released as the Beatles’ seventh studio album on Aug. 5, 1966, Revolver marked a musical shift for the four-piece rock outfit. They built on the artistry established on the preceding album, Rubber Soul, producing an innovative, genre-bending affair with influences from rock, pop, R&B, psychedelia, and Hindustani classical music, as heard in “Love You To.”
The Fab Four released a double A-sided single in promotion of the album: “Eleanor Rigby” and “Yellow Submarine.” The latter fared better than the former, chart-wise, peaking at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while “Eleanor Rigby” climbed to the No. 11 spot on the same chart.
Revolver entered the Billboard 200 on Sept. 3, 1966, one week before taking the top spot. It reigned at No. 1 for six weeks. It hit No. 1 on six other weekly global charts, including the UK Record Retailer LPs Chart. It also received critical acclaim, especially in the UK. At the time of its release, Record Mirror lauded the album for its “musical ingenuity,” while KRLA Beat praised it as “a musical creation of exceptional excellence.
Source: mensjournal.com/Melody McCune
Filming for The Beatles biopics continued on Tuesday, as the four lead actors were spotted hotting the road in St John's Wood.
Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr), Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney) and Joseph Quinn (George Harrison) were seen filming the Sam Mendes-fronted films, which will be broken down into four instalments.
Paul, 30, and Barry, 33, were pictured in a Commer PB camper conversion, with the latter flashing two fingers at the camera before he was then seen in a Jaguar E-Type Series 1, during which he raised his middle finger.
The four biopics are due for release next year and are based on each of the members and set for simultaneous release. Last month, the foursome were seen recreating the famous zebra crossing moment at Abbey Road, for the album of the same name as the iconic venue.
The cover image was taken by Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan, a close friend of John, who balanced precariously on a ladder in the middle of the north London road. Filming for The Beatles biopics continued on Tuesday, as the four lead actors were spotted hotting the road in St John's Wood, led by Barry Keoghan making rude gestures
Paul Mescal is taking the role of Paul McCartney. He had just ten minutes to get his shot so he got the Fab Four to walk back and forth continuously over the now famous zebra crossing.
Source: dailymail.com/Ciara Farmer
John Lennon released his second solo album, Imagine, on Sept. 9, 1971. It became his first solo album to reach No. 1.
By late October, the album had pulled off a rare transatlantic feat. It topped the charts in the U.S. and U.K. at the same time.
Billboard called Lennon "the real British Dylan" in its review, per uDiscover Music. The title track became one of Lennon's most enduring songs. He later called it his best work.
"Imagine is the best song I've ever written," Lennon told writer David Sheff in 1980, per MusicRadar. "It's almost like a prayer."
The song's origins, though, involved more collaboration than Lennon first let on. The song's title traces back to a poem in Lennon's wife Yoko Ono's 1964 book, Grapefruit. The poem "Cloud Piece" included the line "imagine the clouds dripping."
Lennon borrowed that imagery directly for his own lyrics. For years, though, he never publicly credited Ono for the connection.
That changed in a 1980 interview with BBC Radio 1's Andy Peebles, per MusicRadar. Lennon admitted the song should carry both their names.
"A lot of it, the lyric and the concept, came from Yoko," he admitted. "But in those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted her contribution, but it was right out of Grapefruit, her book.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com/Paolo Songco
Tensions between the four members of The Beatles were clear when it came time to record Abbey Road. George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon were pulling in different directions, and the Peter Jackson documentary, Get Back, shows it. But the final time the four were in the studio together proved fruitful despite the animosity in the studio.
Reflecting on the late 1960s and those career-best recordings, Harrison would single out McCartney as the problem in the studio. Contributions made by McCartney were seen by the other band members as far from his best, with Maxwell’s Silver Hammer singled out for scrutiny by Harrison.
He said in 1977: “And it was a good date. Paul would always help along when you’d done his ten songs – then when he got ’round to doing one of my songs, he would help. It was silly. It was very selfish, actually. Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs.
“I mean, my God, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was so fruity. After a while, we did a good job on it, but when Paul got an idea or an arrangement in his head… But Paul’s really writing for a 14-year-old audience now anyhow. I missed his last tour, unfortunately.”
McCartney too would later say he was a bit of a menace in the studio around this time. Speaking during the Anthology documentary series, McCartney said: “In fact, he was about one and a half years younger than me. That’s quite a big age difference at that time.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
George Harrison spent the last three decades of his life falling in love with a garden. The former Beatle purchased an old Victorian mansion known as Friar Park in January 1970. According to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, which built an entire exhibition around Harrison’s love for gardening, he was only 27 years of age when he acquired this neglected property. This simple purchase grew into a restoration project that continues to thrive under the care of Harrison’s family.
A grand house that had fallen into disrepair
Friar Park was not built by Harrison. Records held by Historic England, the government body that protects the country's important sites, show the mansion was constructed in the late 1800s and was commissioned by Sir Frank Crisp, a lawyer, who designed the gardens that surround the property. By the time Harrison came looking for a new home, much of that splendor had long faded. Historic England's records, along with Selby Gardens' account, describe the magnificent Victorian mansion with its gardens as having run down, with yews having taken over the topiary.
A young Beatle finds his forever home
Harrison purchased Friar Park shortly after the Beatles disbanded, ending one period of his life as he embarked on another one. The property covered some 32 acres of land, inclusive of the main house and the smaller lodges, according to the exhibition. In an interview with NBC News at Friar Park, Harrison's second wife, Olivia, remembers how Harrison had been looking for some place away from the bustle of London, and Friar Park offered just what he wanted. She said the couple had moved several times in search of more privacy before finding Friar Park. After moving into the house with his wife, Pattie Boyd, Harrison spent more time outside than in his house.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com/Team Global
