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

More than a few of us can claim, with some con­fi­dence, to know every Bea­t­les song. And indeed it may be true, in that we’ve heard every track of all their stu­dio albums. But as decade after decade of Bea­t­les schol­ar­ship has demon­strat­ed, there’s know­ing their songs, and then there’s know­ing their songs. Musi­cian and YouTu­ber David Ben­nett has made it his project to attain the sec­ond kind of knowl­edge, and on his ded­i­cat­ed series UnBea­t­led, to share it with the pub­lic. In each UnBea­t­led video he ana­lyzes just one song — “Help!,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Pen­ny Lane,” and so on — at a lev­el of detail fine enough to neces­si­tate not just break­ing it down to its com­po­nent tracks, but also exam­in­ing the demos and unre­leased takes record­ed in the stu­dio.

This process can reveal a great deal about the Bea­t­les’ song­writ­ing process, as Ben­nett explains in the video at the top of the post. In the course of twen­ty min­utes, he cov­ers eleven songs, a selec­tion not nec­es­sar­i­ly lim­it­ed to the group’s uni­ver­sal­ly praised com­po­si­tions.

Take the first, “Yel­low Sub­ma­rine,” whose ear­ly record­ings dif­fer both lyri­cal­ly, melod­i­cal­ly, and in time sig­na­ture from the ver­sion we know (and may or may not love), begin­ning with an idea of John’s and being fur­ther shaped by Paul through its iter­a­tions. Anoth­er of John’s musi­cal seeds is “Every­body Had a Hard Year,” whose fin­ger­pick­ing pat­tern (orig­i­nal­ly learned from Dono­van in India) is also heard in “Julia” and “Dear Pru­dence,” and which evolved, with dif­fer­ent chords, into the mid­dle sec­tion of “I’ve Got a Feel­ing.”

Such inter­con­nec­tions come as rewards of close and deep lis­ten­ing to the Bea­t­les canon. And cer­tain songs turn out to be worlds of their own: “Straw­ber­ry Fields For­ev­er,” for instance, was assem­bled out of two com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent record­ings, then adjust­ed in tem­po and pitch to match in the mid­dle. One of those takes includes the voice of pro­duc­er George Mar­tin count­ing in the orches­tra, the pitch of which sug­gests that its mem­bers had orig­i­nal­ly played in a dif­fer­ent key than the one we hear. As Ben­nett notes, using the then rel­a­tive­ly nov­el tech­nol­o­gy of “vari-speed” had become prac­ti­cal­ly stan­dard in the Bea­t­les’ stu­dio process, as such tech­no­log­i­cal lay­er­ing and adjust­ment itself became a key part of their song­writ­ing process. It con­tributed much to their sig­na­ture “vibey, psy­che­del­ic, uncan­ny sound”: sought after by many bands over the past six decades, but nev­er tru­ly repli­cat­ed.

Source: Colin Marshall/openculture.com

People likely assume that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote The Beatles’ hit “Twist And Shout”. They wrote nearly all of their music, so why wouldn’t they write this one? We can’t answer that question for you, but what we can say is that Phil Medley and Bert Berns wrote this iconic single.(The Top Notes intitially performed “Twist And Shout” in 1961, two years before The Beatles go a hold of it.)

Back to the story, both writers were incredibly influential in the development of modern popular music, yet their names are known merely by those who fancy themselves as music historians and super fans. Medley and Berns wrote “If I Didn’t Have a Dime (To Play the Jukebox)”, “Killer Joe”, “These Worldly Wonders”, and “Anything You Wanna Do”.

Aside from his collaborations with Medley, Berns was a producer, writer, and record label executive; he co-founded Bang Records with a few other colleagues in 1965. Some of the artists signed to that label include The McCoys, The Strangeloves, Paul Davis, Neil Diamond, and Van Morrison. Berns is often credited with starting the careers of both Morrison and Diamond. Additionally, some of Berns’ other credits include “Piece of My Heart”, “Cry Baby”, and “Heart Be Still”. Bert Berns Accomplished All of This in Seven Short Years

Years after the writing of “Twist And Shout”, Bert Berns co-founded Bang Records in 1965. Tragically, just two years later, Berns passed away at 38 years old from cardiovascular disease. There are artists who unfortunately come and go like the wind, but Berns’ has posthumously stuck around.

“Bert Berns should be recognized as one of the most important record men of the 20th century. He was responsible for bringing Latin music into rock and roll. He was a founding father of New York uptown soul. Unlike most of his peers, he would often write and produce his songs alone,” said his son, Brett Berns.

Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com

Read More<<<

Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney are not only two music legends, but they were also at loggerheads during the height of their fame. It’s well known that during his lifetime, Elvis was not a fan of The Beatles, mainly because of their progressive politics; however, as a fellow artist, he begrudgingly admitted he enjoyed some of their music. McCartney, too, had some rather strong opinions about the king of rock 'n' roll, although his remarks remained decidedly more politically correct than the former’s. A perfect example of this is when the “Riding to Vanity Fair” singer revealed in an interview that one of Elvis’ biggest hit singles, “Blue Suede Shoes,” was, in his opinion, not better than the original.  Paul McCartney Once Dissed Elvis Presley's Cover Of "Blue Suede Shoes"

McCartney, as well, had opinions of his own about Presley's music. Namely, Presley's 1956 hit single "Blue Suede Shoes." The rockabilly hit was a cover of the famed singer, songwriter, and guitarist Carl Perkins, who had originally released the song a year earlier. According to McCartney, who was a close associate of Perkins, he preferred the original version to Presley's rendition. In an interview with Perkins, McCartney recalled: “[I] had heard Elvis had done that, but the thing I always loved about it was your intro. It’s much hipper, you're beginning. I did it in a club, and the guitar player knew your version, and he got so mad at the band because they did the Elvis version."
elvis-presley-king-of-rock-n-roll

The year was 1973, and the iconic rock album Band on the Run was released. Three years prior, Paul McCartney left the band that would catapult him into fame, which was, of course, The Beatles. From there, he embarked on his own successful solo career, which spans decades and saw him produce arguably some of his best work ever, such as the albums Pipes of Peace, Press to Play, and Off The Ground. However, as many avid McCartney fans are sure to know, the "Hey Jude" singer joined another rock band, known as Paul McCartney and Wings, which famously featured his wife, Linda, on keyboards. The American-British band released a total of seven studio albums and achieved twenty-three US Top 40 hits, including six number one singles on the Billboard 100 chart. The group's most critically praised and popular album, Band on the Run, featured over nine songs on the original UK release, including the hit tracks "Jet" and "Band on the Run."

Source: Karly B./collider.com

Beatlemania took over London last weekend as the capital was transformed into 1964 New York for filming. The new Beatles epic is now underway with Paul Mescal playing Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn portraying George Harrison and Harris Dickinson taking on the role of John Lennon.

The dramatic scenes form part of director Sam Mendes' ambitious four-film anthology charting the rise of The Beatles. First look snaps show the streets lined with screaming fans, police barricades and period details as scenes recreated the band's legendary arrival outside The Plaza Hotel.

Passers-by stopped in their tracks as history repeated itself, with London briefly standing in for Fifth Avenue at the height of Beatlemania.

Source: Gemma Jones/express.co.uk

During a promotion for The Beatles’ eleventh album, Abbey Road, George Harrison picked some of his favorite tracks, including “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window,” a song Paul McCartney wrote about fan Diane Ashley, who was once hanging outside of his home in St. John’s Wood in London and eventually broke in. Harrison called it “a very good song of Paul’s with great lyrics.”

He also praised “Golden Slumbers,” a McCartney ode to finding solace in love, inspired by a 17th-century poem by Thomas Dekker, and John Lennon’s more atmospheric “Because.”

The track, featuring the Beatles’ three-part harmony, overdubbed twice more to give the effect of nine vocals, was the last song Lennon brought in during the Abbey Road sessions, and the final one recorded for the album.

Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”

A classically trained pianist, one day in 1969, Yoko Ono was playing around with Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 14” in C-sharp minor. Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” struck Lennon, who asked Ono to play the chords backwards and started writing “Because.”

“Yoko was playing ‘Moonlight Sonata’ on the piano,” recalled Lennon. “I said, ‘Can you play those chords backward?’ and wrote ‘Because’ around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they’re clear. No bulls–t. No imagery, no obscure references.”

Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/American Songwriter

Read More<<<