Len Garry, who was best known for playing with The Quarrymen and bandmates Paul McCartney and John Lennon, died at the age of 84.

According to report, Garry, who had been diagnosed with dementia in 2024, was recently rushed to hospital with a chest infection.

Jane Garry, his daughter, announced his death on social media Monday.

“My dad ‘Len Garry’ passed away at home in the early hours this morning,” she posted. “The doctor told us he had hours to live and I said straight away ‘he has to come home.’ Which the doctor allowed. I travelled with dad in the ambulance and got him home. My mum, my sister, my brother in law and myself stayed by Dad’s bed holding his hand, talking to him and telling him how much we love him and how proud we are of him as he was passing away and taking his last breaths. I love you Dad and I will miss you Dad for the rest of my life. I’m beyond devastated. Dad believed in God and we believe he is in heaven now.”

Len Garry was a part of The Quarrymen in the 1950s. Roughly a decade later after Garry left the group, the band became the Beatles in 1960.

He reunited with the surviving non-Beatles members of The Quarrymen in 1994 and the group released three albums — “Together” in 1997, “Songs We Remember” in 2004 and “Grey Album” in 2012.

He was also the frontman for a rock gospel group called “Come Together” later in life.

Source: al.com/Mark Heim

Ringo Starr will release a new album on April 24.

Long Long Road marks the former Beatle's second collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett, following 2025's successful Look Up, his first country album in more than 50 years.

Listen to the album's first single, "It's Been Too Long," below.
Hear Ringo Starr's 'It's Been Too Long'

The 10-track Long Long Road, like its predecessor, is a country record that features songs by a list of high-profile artists.

Billy Strings, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, and, on "It's Been Too Long," Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz join Starr.

"I'm blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records," Starr noted in a press release announcing Long Long Road. "After we did the last record, which I love listening to, this one just sort of happened.

"I like to say sometimes I make the right moves, like you can go left or right at any point, and one of the right moves was hooking up with T Bone for Look Up, and now for this one, which I'm calling Long Long Road, because I've been on a long long road."
What's on Ringo Starr's New Album?

Source: ultimateclassicrock.com/Michael Gallucci

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John Lennon and Paul McCartney, renowned for their work with The Beatles and as solo artists, also wrote for a variety of musicians over the decades. Their songwriting genius shines through multiple genres, with their signature style leaving a recognizable imprint on the songs they gave to others.

Liverpool natives Lennon and McCartney performed with The Quarrymen in the late 1950s before they brought in George Harrison and Ringo Starr to form The Beatles in 1962. Together, the friends-turned-bandmates were responsible for some of the most beloved Beatles tracks, including "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "Eleanor Rigby," and "In My Life," to name only a few hits. When The Beatles broke up in 1970, Lennon and McCartney frequently found themselves at odds, but rekindled their friendship in the years leading up to Lennon's tragic passing in 1980.

While their own releases are cemented in music history, many of the hit songs they wrote for other artists remain relatively obscure as Lennon-McCartney compositions.

Listen closely, and you’ll hear their distinct voices echoing throughout each of these seven songs, regardless of who’s on the mic.

"FAME" (DAVID BOWIE)
"SAY SAY SAY" (MICHAEL JACKSON)
"I WANNA BE YOUR MAN" (THE ROLLING STONES)
"COME AND GET IT" (BADFINGER)
"A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE" (PETER AND GORDON)
"VERONICA" (ELVIS COSTELLO)
"ONLY ONE" (KANYE WEST)

To the untrained ear, it might not be so obvious who wrote this track with David Bowie, but Beatles fans know. Lennon not only helped pen the tune, but he was featured as both a vocalist and guitarist. "Fame" was released in the mid-1970s as the lead single on Bowie's Young Americans album. Lennon and Bowie always held each other in high regard; Lennon praised Bowie’s talent, and Bowie admired Lennon’s exceptional songwriting.

"Fame" was Bowie's first single to top the Billboard Hot 100, and it remains a favorite among fans.  "SAY SAY SAY" (MICHAEL JACKSON)

Paul McCartney wrote "Say Say Say” with Michael Jackson, two years before their dispute over The Beatles' catalog began. The track, featured on McCartney's Pipes of Peace in 1983, was accompanied by a short film where the duo acted as "Mac and Jac." The collaboration between the two industry greats remained at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks.

Source: mentalfloss.com/Logan DeLoye

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You’ll have no problem finding various lists containing folks’ opinions on The Beatles’ best songs. That’s not our intention here. Instead, we’re trying to pinpoint the four songs that did the most to cement their legacy as the consensus greatest band in music history.

In other words, without these four songs, they still would have been great, but maybe not quite as monumental. See if you agree.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”

In terms of their recorded output, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” represented a somewhat natural progression in complexity and songwriting acumen. You could reasonably argue that “Please Please Me” and “She Loves You”, both of which preceded it as singles, were of better quality. But “I Want To Hold Your Hand” proved to be the right song at the right time. It broke The Beatles in America. They crossed a threshold that no previous British artist had managed. And it sent their worldwide superstardom to unprecedented levels. We’ll never know if any of their other early songs might have done the same had they been released in the same time frame. But we can say for sure that “I Want To Hold Your Hand” got the job done.
“Yesterday”

“Yesterday” was by no means the first Beatles ballad. And we wouldn’t even say that it was the best Beatles slow song to that point in their career. (“If I Fell” certainly gives it a run for its money.) But several factors come to the fore when it comes to its impact on The Beatles’ legacy. The use of strings stood out at the time, as most beat groups had previously stuck to traditional rock instrumentation. Soon after “Yesterday”, rock artists were falling over themselves to include baroque touches in their songs. On top of that, the song represented the first time that a mostly solo performance counted as a group effort. That opened the door for other groups, free from having to follow any formulas, to expand the palette of rock and pop music.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia

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Although The Beatles didn’t write or record the original version of “Twist And Shout”, this early rock ‘n’ roll number became inextricably linked to the Fab Four’s musical legacy when they released their rendition of Phil Medley and Bert Berns’ song on March 2, 1964. (This came almost a full year after the band released the track on their debut album, Please Please Me, in their native U.K.)

The Beatles’ version of “Twist And Shout” was a massive success, topping the charts in the U.S., Argentina, New Zealand, and Finland. The song also reached Top 10 status in Canada, Australia, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands. “Twist And Shout” was also notable in that it was The Beatles’ first and only cover song to reach No. 1 in the U.S. Interestingly, this chart-topper ranking only came from Cash Box. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song only reached No. 2 because The Beatles’ other single, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, was riding high at No. 1.

However, that success didn’t come easy. According to John Lennon, who performed lead vocals on “Twist And Shout”, the song “nearly killed” him.  The Physical Sacrifices Made to Record The Beatles’ “Twist And Shout”.

Some lucky vocalists can produce clean or dirty tones at the drop of a hat. They can be singing sweetly and purely one second, and in the next, they’ll take on a gritty, rock ‘n’ roll rasp. But not every singer is so fortunate. For John Lennon, the only way he was going to achieve the vocal tone he was after was to strain his larynx to the point of full-blown laryngitis.

In the early Beatles days, the quartet worked long hours in the studio. They recorded entire albums in a single 10-hour session. George Martin carefully arranged the band’s work schedule so as not to tire them out too early. And that included saving “Twist And Shout” for the end of the night.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

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When Let It Be arrived in 1970, it was meant to signal a fresh start for The Beatles—a stripped-down return to the camaraderie that once defined them. Instead, the sessions exposed deep fractures, with creative clashes and personal resentments spilling into the music, leaving some historians and fans to view the release as the moment the world’s biggest band could no longer hold itself together.

On Sunday, March 1, Far Out Magazine compiled a list of albums that left musicians "cursed," and Let It Be took the No. 1 spot. The album was one of the final projects of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

"It was a disaster," biographer Barry Miles previously wrote, according to the outlet. "Paul bossed George around; George was moody and resentful. John would not even go to the bathroom without Yoko at his side … The tension was palpable."

And many fans would agree that Let It Be was the beginning of the end for The Beatles.

"'Let It Be' is a project that was scarred by the huge shadow of resentment the Beatles had for each other when it finally came out," Giles Martin, son of late Beatles producer Sir George Martin, previously told People magazine. "That's what we remember about it."

And while Let It Be was the last album released by The Beatles, they actually recorded Abbey Road after that. Nevertheless, Let It Be often takes the blame for being the album that ultimately broke up the band in April 1970.

Source: Effie Orfanides/yahoo.com