While Anna Sawai has been busy conquering TV and film, the Emmy-winning “Shōgun” star first got her start in show business as a member of the J-pop band FAKY. Now, Sawai is going back to her musical roots in the role of Yoko Ono in Sam Mendes’ forthcoming “Beatles” biopics.

“It was my dream to tell her story and I didn’t think it would come this quick,” Sawai told Variety at the Los Angeles premiere of Apple TV’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Season 2 on Thursday night. “There’s a version of her I feel people still don’t understand. And in this film, I think we’re going to be able to tell that side of the story.”

To prepare, Sawai has been busy reading everything she can about the artist and musician. “So much reading, oh my gosh,” she said. “So many books, so many videos, so many articles…She has so much artwork that also shows her personality.”

While on set in London, Sawai teases it’s been fun to hear the cast — Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr — play the iconic band’s music. “They’re not even looking at the sheet music anymore. They can just play it off and sing it, and it really sounds like the Beatles to me. It feels surreal.”

The four biopics will release simultaneously in theaters on April 7, 2028.

Source: Payton Turkeltaub/variety.com

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It's 1969. The Beatles are trying to record what would become their final albums, and they're at each other's throats. Nothing is working. Then a visitor enters the studio, the keyboard player Billy Preston. On a whim, he sits down to join them for a song, and the mood totally changes.

LENNON: You've given us a lift, Bill. We've been doing this for days.

MARTIN: Did you catch what they said? You're in the group. You've given us a lift. We've been doing this for days. Preston saved those sessions, which is just one reason John Lennon called him the fifth Beatle. But Preston died in 2006. Younger generations barely know who he is. There's a new documentary that hopes to change that. It's called "Billy Preston: That's The Way God Planned It." I spoke with director Paris Barclay.

PARIS BARCLAY: I didn't know about his relationship to Beatles. I didn't know that he played with the Rolling Stones constantly. And as I started to do a little research, I discovered that not only was he a transcendent performer musically, but that his story, including even the tragic things that happened, can be sort of a cautionary tale for how we deal with genius and especially how the Black church deals with people who are different.

Source: Michel Martin/wfdd.org

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They were awards given to The Beatles at the peak of their fame - but have been out of sight for 60 years.

Now the gongs, including one for their 1966 smash hit Paperback Writer – a number one in both the UK and US charts – are to go under the hammer this coming week.  The commemorative discs are described as 'real rarities' and experts predict they'll be a hit with collectors - each selling for over £10,000.

The 7-inch silver disc for Paperback Writer was presented to the band by a weekly music paper in 1966 after the single's huge success.

The catalogue description released by Surrey-based Ewbanks Auctioneers, states: 'The Beatles received this award for the hit single 'Paperback Writer' released on the Parlophone label 10th June 1966, from the (then) prominent British weekly music paper 'Disc' (later Disc and Music Echo)'.  Ewbanks said the award came 'at a pivotal point in the band's career, marking the end of live shows and touring and becoming a more experimental studio based creative powerhouse, a time when Brian Epstein's influence was fading, Beatle Boots, suits and head shaking were all in the past'. However, it was 'a time that many consider the peak of their artistic career'.

The mounted award is estimated to fetch up to £10,000.  The second award, a mounted gold disc, was given by the Recording Industry Association of America, which represented major US record labels.

Silver disc given to the band in 1966 by British weekly music paper 'Disc' for Paperback Writer.  Gold disc given by the Recording Industry Association of America to commemorate the success of the 1964 US album Meet The Beatles!

It was handed out in recognition of the success of Meet The Beatles!, the US title for the first Beatles album, released on the Capitol Records label in 1964 and which reached No.1 for 11 consecutive weeks.

Millions of Americans rushed out to buy the album after seeing the band on the epoch-making Ed Sullivan Show.

The award, estimated to sell for up to £12,000, commemorates 'The Sale Of More Than One Million Dollars Worth Of The Capitol Records Long-Playing Record Album 'Meet The Beatles!'

Roag Best, half-brother of Pete Best, drummer for the Beatles in their early years between 1960 and 1962, and who advises The Beatles Museum in Liverpool, believes the newly unearthed awards will be a hit with collectors.

He said: 'These are awards hidden away for years. Collectors will like them for sure.'

Source: Richard Marsden/dailymail.co.uk

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Paul McCartney’s new documentary revisits life after the Beatles and the formation of Wings. McCartney described seeing footage of Linda as “very emotional” and deeply personal.  Lost home videos resurfaced, adding a special family touch to the film.

At the screening of his latest film, which explores his life after the Beatles and the formation of Wings, McCartney reflected with Us Weekly, “I think all the stuff with the kids and Linda is lovely to see. I mean, obviously, the Linda stuff was very emotional. She looks so beautiful. She’s so cool.”

He continued, “Me and Linda interacting is very special, because she’s not here. Seeing the kids little, ’cause they know they’re not little anymore … they’ve got kids of their own. Linda, the kids, me and John [Lennon], just these memories … it’s like a life flashing in front of me.”

According to the outlet, several of the photos and home videos featured in the documentary were taken by Linda, adding a special and deeply personal touch to the film. McCartney later admitted he had long believed the footage was gone for good and was stunned when it resurfaced.

“Because in the ’60s and ’70s, you’d have a lot of break-ins. You wouldn’t really bother locking your door too much. So fans would come in, just nicking a lot of stuff. It was just like … it was how it was,” he said, adding, “So I kind of automatically just thought, ‘Well, it’s all gone. But [the] kids at my office were fantastic. They looked in every little, you know, storage units and every little drawer and everything, and they found it all.”

Paul and Linda wed in March 1969, and went on to raise four children together: Heather, 63, whom Paul adopted, Stella, 54; Mary, 53; and James, 48.

Source: Marika Kazimierska/parade.com

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It sounds counterintuitive to suggest that The Beatles, the most celebrated band of all time, has forgotten songs, and even more so to suggest the group has forgotten No. 1 hits. In fact, interest in the Fab Four has remained incredibly high in the decades since the band broke up back in 1970. But as the years have passed, the popularity of individual songs within The Beatles' discography has fluctuated. If we look at the numbers of streaming platforms such as Spotify, we can see at the time of writing that some of the band's iconic singles, such as "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" — both of which hit the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 — continue to attract a huge listenership. Yet many of the most popular Beatles songs were not singles at all but album tracks that have aged particularly well, such as "Here Comes the Sun" and "In My Life."

With that in mind, we're revisiting five of the 20 Beatles singles that topped the charts in the United States but whose popularity has waned slightly within the band's discography. Don't get us wrong: These songs still have tens of millions of plays on streaming platforms (it's The Beatles, after all). But the truth is they no longer have a seat at the top table in terms of listener numbers in the way, say, "Come Together" or "Yesterday" have, and you might have even forgotten they were No. 1 singles at all. 

"Love Me Do" remains instantly recognizable as an early Beatles classic, but if we're honest, there is plenty to justify modern listeners' comparative lack of interest in the song. Unlike other early hits like "She Loves You" and "Can't Buy Me Love," the pace of the 1964 U.S. No. 1 is glacial rather than explosive. The lyrics are also exceptionally simple, even by the standards of early Beatles singles.

The song it resembles most among the early No. 1's is "I Want To Hold Your Hand," The Beatles' breakthrough single in America, which arguably beats "Love Me Do" on almost all metrics. But the truth is that "Love Me Do" is the one that started it all — well, in the U.K. at least, where it was The Beatles' first single. And it has to be noted that though the track may sound utterly inoffensive now, in the context of the very early '60s, it would have been something of a bombshell: A stripped-back love song featuring raw vocals that, when you actually listen to them, are subtly seductive.

Source: S. Flannagan/grunge.com

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“It was John’s original inspiration, I think my melody, I think my guitar riff. That’s my recollection”: Lennon might have written the lyrics, but as McCartney remembers it, he “wrote the tune” to one of The Beatles’ greatest and most poignant songs.

Anyone looking to pinpoint the moment when The Beatles turned from pop idols into mature artists will inevitably hone in on their landmark sixth studio album Rubber Soul. Recorded over a four-week period, from 12 October to 11 November 1965, Rubber Soul is The Beatles’ first masterpiece, a hugely influential pre-psychedelia work that draws on folk, soul and pop.

Sonically the album signalled a major shift, as the band incorporated soul-style bass lines, fuzz bass effects, harmonium and sitar. But it also marked a transition in John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s songwriting, from pop singles to a more cohesive, mature, album-orientated style.

Much of this was due to the ongoing influence of Bob Dylan, the folk-rock jangle of The Byrds and soul artists on the Motown and Stax labels whose music The Beatles soaked up from radio stations across the US during the summer of 1965.

Then, of course, there is the influence of marijuana, which is omnipresent within the mellow tones of Rubber Soul.

By 1965, John Lennon in particular was demonstrating a lyrical maturity that was far more personal and introspective. On Nowhere Man, Lennon perceives himself as someone with no direction in life, while Norwegian Wood is a veiled account of an extramarital affair.

Source: Neil Crossley/musicradar.com