On an unassuming summer’s day in the early 1960s, Johnny Russell found himself in a position that anyone with a puppy-love crush would dread: having to cancel a date with someone you’re sweet on. A last-minute cancellation could offend the canceled-upon, maybe even so much so that the relationship falters, which makes breaking the news a delicate dance. That day, Russell chose comedy.

As explained in Ace Collins’ The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs, Russell was planning on taking a sweetheart out on a date one summer evening when he received a phone call from some friends in Oklahoma. “They were doing a recording session in Los Angeles, and they wanted me to come down and help them. There was no getting out of it. So, I had to break a date with a girl I had been seeing. When she asked me why I was going to L.A., I answered, ‘They are going to put me in the movies and make a big star out of me.’”

“We both laughed,” Russell said. But Russell soon realized that his attempt to smooth things over with his date had more potential than a funny excuse. Pretty soon, Russell had a melody to go with the lyrics, “They’re gonna put me in the movies / They’re gonna make a big star out of me / We’ll make a film about a man that’s sad and lonely / and all I gotta do is act naturally.” There was the hook, song title, and sinker.  How “Act Naturally” Went From a Raincheck to a Real Hit

The same day Johnny Russell told his date that he had to cancel so he could move to Los Angeles and become a big movie star, he wrote the future country standard, “Act Naturally”. He had the song in hand before he even made it to the recording session that caused him to bail on his girlfriend in the first place. Although Russell tried to get the artist performing at that session to cut a demo of “Act Naturally”, the songwriter said the musician couldn’t get it under his fingers. So, Russell kept the song for himself, trying—and failing—to pitch it to other artists who might want to cut it.

“I really thought ‘Act Naturally’ was a fresh approach about talking about being in love,” Russell said in Ace Collins’ book. “I believed that it was unique enough to work, but I couldn’t find anyone else who did. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get anyone interested in it.” Eventually, the song landed in the hands of Buck Owens, who recorded the first studio version of the song on February 12, 1963. Owens’ “Act Naturally” flew to the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, spending a total of four months on the chart.
The Beatles Used the Country Classic for a Ringo Starr Vehicle

Two years later, The Beatles would record their own version of Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally” with Ringo Starr on lead vocals. While a country tune might have seemed out of left field for a group of British rockers, Paul McCartney later said the Fab Four drummer always had an affinity for Americana. “He always loved country from the first minute I met him,” McCartney told Mojo in 2025. “He liked the old country singers. George Jones and people like that. He was a big fan of that. So, I think, you know, maybe it suits his personality. He’s a very sincere, straightforward guy, and I think that’s the sort of theme behind a lot of country music.”

Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com

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The very mention of The Beatles conjures up images of screaming fans, mop-top haircuts, and songs that became synonyms with the swinging sixties, added a fresh chapter in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, and etched themselves forever in the hearts and minds of generations; songs about love, peace, social consciousness, loneliness, childhood nostalgia and drug culture that still hit differently. The four working-class boys, who shot to global stardom from the smoky clubs of Merseyside in Liverpool (UK), evoke nostalgia like few other bands’ members do.

For those interested in everything Beatles, there is good news. Sam Mendes, the British filmmaker behind American Beauty (1999), Road to Perdition (2002), Revolutionary Road (2008), and Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), is set to showcase the band’s journey in a four-film project about The Beatles, with all movies scheduled for a simultaneous theatrical release in April 2028. The films, featuring Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney), Joseph Quinn (George Harrison), and Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr), will offer distinct perspectives on the band’s history.

The first announcement in this regard was made in early 2024, but with the recent updates on the project, including the fact that Farhan Akhtar — who was recently seen in 120 Bahadur and is rumoured to play Don in the third instalment of his own directorial after Ranveer Singh exited — is going to play sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in his Hollywood debut, there is going to be great interest in India as well. In 1968, as the counterculture was searching for new spiritual coordinates, Ravi Shankar became an important bridge between Indian classical music and Western rock royalty. That February, The Beatles travelled to Rishikesh to study Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram on the banks of the Ganges.

Source: Nawaid Anjum/thefederal.com

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When The Beatles broke up in 1969 (although it wasn’t announced until 1970), the four men made a point of moving forward into solo forays pretty quickly. They also inherently understood that their work on their own would always be compared to what they’d done within the Fab Four, especially when it came to the charts.

Eventually, each man found their way to No. 1 in the US, a spot where they’d perched so often with their former group. Here are the songs that did it for them.  “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison

It makes sense that George Harrison was the first Beatle to reach the top of the US pop charts. After all, he had amassed a large quantity of songs that he’d written for the Fab Four that were either refused by the band or just didn’t quite muscle onto an album. Also, remember that Harrison’s songs stood tallest on Abbey Road, the last album The Beatles recorded. Harrison was able to release a triple album (All Things Must Pass) in 1970 with everything he had in his backlog. The first single, “My Sweet Lord”, immediately topped the charts. Down the road, the song caused Harrison quite a few headaches when a court decided he had unconsciously plagiarized The Chiffons’ hit “He’s So Fine”.   “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” by Paul McCartney

We tend to think of the early part of Paul McCartney’s solo career as being characterized by misfires. Yet the success of “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, a US No. 1 single released barely a year after the announcement of the Beatles’ breakup, flies in the face of that. Paul’s solo debut album (McCartney) in 1970 featured him keeping things as adornment-free as possible. But on the Ram album in 1971, Macca indulged himself in ornate, richly produced tracks. This song features a George Martin-arranged orchestral score, plentiful sound effects, and layered backing vocals prominently featuring Linda McCartney. It’s also a song suite reminiscent of what McCartney helped to spearhead on Side Two of Abbey Road.  “Photograph” by Ringo Starr

Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com

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Paul McCartney’s new documentary, Man On The Run, gets its television premiere on February 27 on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. Now comes word that a companion soundtrack album will be released that same day. Titled Man On The Run – Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack, the 12-track collection features a selection of recordings McCartney made throughout the 1970s, either as a solo artist; as a duo with his first wife, Linda; or with his post-Beatles band Wings.

The album includes various hits, deep cuts, and rarities, offering a snapshot of McCartney’s creative output during the 1970s. Two tracks have been made available exclusively on Amazon Music in advance of the album’s release. One is a previously unreleased rough mix of “Arrow Through Me,” a reggae-influenced gem from Wings’ 1979 studio album Back To The Egg. The other is a live version of McCartney and Wings’ hit 1973 James Bond theme “Live And Let Die,” from the 1980 concert film Rockshow.

Another previously unreleased track also will appear on the soundtrack album. The song, “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance,” originally was featured in the 1973 The James Paul McCartney TV Special.

The Man On The Run soundtrack, which can be pre-ordered now, will available in a variety of formats. Among them are a single-CD edition, via digital formats, and various vinyl variants. The vinyl variants include a limited-edition “tangerine peel orange” colored LP available exclusively on Amazon and a standard black vinyl LP. All vinyl versions of the album are packaged with a Man On The Run poster.

A limited-edition “New York Taxi Cab Yellow” colored LP, pressed by Jack White’s Third Man Pressing plant, already is sold out.

Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com

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After working with co-producer Phil Spector on his third album, All Things Must Pass, George Harrison started working on the producer’s then-wife, the Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector‘s comeback album, which would be released on the Beatles‘ Apple Records. For her, Harrison contributed two songs he’d recorded during the All Things Must Pass Sessions.

Though Spector’s album was later abandoned due to her husband’s erratic behavior during recording, some of the songs they recorded were later revived by Harrison.

 George Harrison originally wrote “Try Some, Buy Some” during the All Things Must Pass sessions in 1970. By April 1971, another version was released as a single by Ronnie Spector. Co-produced by Phil Spector and Harrison, the new version features the former Beatle on guitar and peaked at No. 77.

“The song itself, I think, is really good,” Harrison told Record Mirror in 1972. “It’s so simple yet so complicated. It was the sort of thing I found myself playing over and over again and being amazed by the simplicity of the movement of the bass lines.”

Way back in time
Someone said, try some
I tried some
Now buy some – I bought some…
Oh oh oh
After a while
When I had tried them
Denied them
I opened my eyes and
I saw you

Not a thing did I have
Not a thing did I see
‘Till I called on your love
And your love came to me

Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com

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George Harrison was always known as the “quiet” Beatle during his tenure with the Fab Four. He was a bit more mysterious compared to his fellow bandmates, and rarely spoke out of turn during interviews. A talented songwriter and guitarist, both during The Beatles’ run in the 60s and his solo career that followed, Harrison seemed to prefer to express himself through song.

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Though, despite being reserved, Harrison had an interest in a particularly loud sport. George He wasn’t a fan of a more relaxed sport like tennis or maybe golf. Rather, Harrison was quite a big fan of sports cars and motor racing, particularly F1 racing. And he allegedly said that the vroom-vroom of an F1 car was the only thing that gave him the same rush as performing with The Beatles. And in the mid-to-late 1970s, Harrison leaned heavily into his favorite hobby outside of music.
George Harrison’s Love of F1 Racing

George Harrison had been a lover of racing drivers and motor sports since he was a young boy. He attended his first race when he was just 12 at the 1955 British Grand Prix, located at Aintree Racecourse in Merseyside, England.

George Harrison’s affinity for motor sport naturally resulted in the purchase of a McLaren F1 road car. He was one of only 100 people to buy the vehicle. One of Harrison’s first particularly extravagant cars was a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, purchasing new in 1965. When you’ve got Beatles money and a hobby, you can bet that money will be spent. That particular flashy car was sold at an auction in 2011 in London, bought for £350,000 by a Beatles collector.

Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com

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