By early 1970, The Beatles were on their last legs as a band. The previous September, during a particularly hostile meeting, John Lennon had told the other members of the group that he was leaving.

That didn’t strike anyone present as a big surprise. After all, a disgruntled George Harrison had quit the group for a while during the Let It Be sessions earlier in ’69. Meanwhile, everyone in the band (Ringo included) had solo projects going.

But when John released the “Instant Karma” single in February ’70, you could picture what his solo career would be like. It sold a million copies, outperforming all other Beatles solo efforts to that point. In the coming decade, he’d release nine top 10 singles and three No. 1 albums.

“Instant Karma,” which peaked at No. 3 (while “Let It Be” sat one place ahead), hinted of the success John would have. Here were his biggest hits after leaving The Beatles.

Source: cheatsheet.com

Read More<<<

 He was the first to guide an X-rated film to the top of the Oscar heap, introduced the Beatles to Hollywood with “Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” and convinced a reluctant Ian Fleming that, yes, James Bond might fare pretty well as a cinematic character.

A third-generation movie man, David V. Picker was a studio chief at United Artists, Columbia and Paramount in a prestigious run of box-office successes including “Last Tango in Paris” and “Ordinary People.”

Despite the accolades and the Oscars, Picker was quick to remind admirers that his career would likely have turned out the same even if he’d rejected the movies he helped bring to the movie houses of America and greenlighted those he’d kicked to the curb.

“My career would have probably turned out the same,” he wrote in “Musts, Maybes and Nevers: A Book About the Movies,” his 2013 memoir.

Source: Steve Marble/latimes.com

Read More<<<

Nowhere Boy, the 2009 biopic that starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the young John Lennon, is being developed for the stage.

Producers Brian Lee and Dayna Bloom of AF Creative Media and Robyn Goodman and Josh Fielder of Aged in Wood announced the project on Monday.

The musical play is inspired by the film about Lennon's adolescence in Liverpool and his complex relationships with his aunt, Mimi Smith, who raised him, and his mother, Julia Lennon, who abandoned him as a child. The story traces his initial steps into the music world and the creation in 1956 of his first band, The Quarrymen, which was joined a year later by Paul McCartney.

The feature directing debut of photographer and video artist-turned-filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson (then Sam Taylor-Wood), the movie was written by Matt Greenhalgh, who also wrote the 2007 music film Control, about Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Read More<<<

By 1969, The Beatles had much more than Yoko Ono to worry about. The previous year, John Lennon and Paul McCartney nearly got into a fistfight while recording The White Album.

Lennon’s disdain for “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was the occasion for that episode in what had become a fractured relationship. But George Harrison had also nearly fought John over some comments he made about the band’s finances in the papers.

Meanwhile, John was insisting Allen Klein take over management for the band. After George and Ringo sided with John in that matter, it pitted all three Beatles against Paul. In other words, it was only a matter of time before the band parted ways.

That left George with something to prove as a solo artist. The years of taking a backseat to the Lennon-McCartney empire were done. Once he scored his first hit album, there was basically no way The Beatles could get back together.

Source: cheatsheet.com

Read More<<<

Late in the brilliant run of The Beatles, the band members had pretty much had it with one another. Geoff Emerick, the recording engineer on The White Album, told the story of John Lennon getting driven mad by the endless takes needed to produce “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”

By then, John was absolutely fed up with what he called Paul McCartney’s “granny music.” Once John went solo, he told the world how he felt on “How Do You Sleep?” In that takedown tune, he describes Paul’s solo work as “Muzak to my ears” while reeling off other insults.

Still, the band found ways to make Abbey Road and Let It Be, The Beatles’ final studio releases. Despite the animosity and regular confrontations over business matters, the four band members still had the sort of chemistry that allowed them to take the world by storm in ’64.

Source: cheatsheet.com

Read More<<<

It took a lot more than Yoko Ono to break up The Beatles. In fact, you can argue the show could have gone on had Paul McCartney agreed to the manager (i.e., Allen Klein) his three bandmates decided they wanted for the group. But there was almost no chance he would.

Paul’s pick for manager was the father of Linda Eastman, his future wife. So the Fab Four had serious business disagreements by early 1969. And they never ended up settling them.

After more rounds of bickering, recording, and releasing hit albums, The Beatles announced they’d parted ways in April 1970. Soon enough, you could hear John Lennon knocking around his old songwriting partner in song. (George Harrison and Ringo would get in some shots as well.)

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t miss each other. In fact, John went on the record several times talking about that special thing The Beatles had when they were in a recording studio together.

Source: cheatsheet.com

Read More<<<