On this day (August 12) in 1964, A Hard Day’s Night starring The Beatles premiered in theaters across the United States. It was a low-budget film created to capitalize on Beatlemania and sell records, and was successful in doing so. However, no one involved with the film’s production could have predicted its impact on the music world.

A Hard Day’s Night was far from the first movie to star a popular musician. For instance, Elvis Presley starred in more than a dozen movies before The Beatles made their big-screen debut. However, this was something different. Instead of casting John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney in a movie about something far-removed from their real lives, this movie focused on the band. More specifically, it portrayed their massive popularity.

According to the British Film Institute, screenwriter Alun Owen was “a working-class Welshman who’d grown up in Liverpool, so he understood the group’s vernacular.” This, and the fact that he had spent time on the road with the Fab Four, allowed him to capture the group’s dynamic and their personalities for the film. At the same time, he took their lack of acting experience into account and wrote short and memorable lines for them.  How The Beatles Changed the World with Their First Movie

A Hard Day’s Night was made specifically to help sell more Beatles records and merchandise. It did that. However, unlike other movies featuring rock stars, it was a critically acclaimed film. It even received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. This proved to the world that rock and roll movies didn’t have to be low-budget cash grabs created solely to extract ticket money from fans. It set the stage for countless biopics and mockumentaries. That was only the beginning, though.

MTV declared director Richard Lester the “Father of the Music Video” in 1984. His use of Beatles songs over action sequences made each song feel like a smaller, separate movie within A Hard Day’s Night. His vision for the film helped create the music video.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Clayton Edwards

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The Beatles arguably remain the most influential band in history, despite being formed more than six decades ago.

Their timeless hits like Yesterday, Let It Be and All You Need Is Love continue to resonate with fans across generations. But did you know the Fab Four's lineup could have been drastically different?

The band's drummer Ringo Starr was once wanted by another group - and it was an offer he considered. Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, a Liverpool-based band, formed in 1958, around the same time The Beatles were still known as The Quarrymen. Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes began making waves in West Germany shortly after their formation, but they soon faced issues.

When their drummer Dave Lovelady left the band, which had secured a regular gig at the Star Club in Hamburg, they found themselves in need of a replacement. Their sights turned to Ringo Starr.  Ringo had already made a name for himself in Germany, playing with another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. When Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes approached him with an offer to join their ranks, he faced a tough decision.

Ultimately, it all boiled down to the paycheck. While Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes offered Ringo a weekly wage of £20 ($26), John Lennon and Paul McCartney returned with an offer of £25 ($33). Ringo chose the higher bid, stepping into Pete Best's shoes as the drummer for The Beatles.

Source: irishstar.com/Scarlett O'Toole

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John Lennon wasn’t the most complimentary of Paul McCartney‘s music. He often thought his songwriting leaned on the silly side, calling his unique voice “granny sh**.” That fact might come as a shock to many new Beatles fans, considering Lennon and McCartney were the most famous writing duo in the band. While they had their moments as a united front, the cracks in their partnership grew larger over time.

Lennon issued that insult to many McCartney-penned songs, but there is one hit in particular that Lennon once called “meaningless.” There was only one saving grace to this song, according to Lennon: his contribution.

“Hello, Goodbye” is one of the Beatles’ most famous songs. It’s also one of their simplest. On the surface, there is nothing super complex or profound about this track. It feels as though it was written more for the jovial vibe than any hard-hitting statement. Nevertheless, McCartney had a theme in mind while penning this song.

“‘Hello, Goodbye’ was one of my songs,” McCartney once said. “There are Geminian influences here I think: the twins. It’s such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write. It’s just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.”

Source: americansongwriter.com

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Why a ’70s Singer Missed Out on Recording What Became the Beatles' Final Hit Song originally appeared on Parade.

Can you imagine anyone but Paul McCartney singing “The Long and Winding Road”? Released in May 1970, a month after The Beatles broke up, the song stood as a makeshift eulogy for the band. Fans found solace and sympathy in McCartney’s voice as he sang, “The wild and windy night that the rain washed away / Has left a pool of tears, crying for the day / Why leave me standing here? / Let me know the way.”

Released as a single in the U.S. (and oddly, not in the U.K.), “The Long and Winding Road” went to the top of the charts. As of today, it’s the band’s last No. 1 song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100—but, as Beatles lore goes, it was meant for someone else: Tom Jones.

Recently, Tim David Kelly, aka Tim From Kicking Harold, highlighted how McCartney and Tom Jones “were having a great time” while out on the town. After a few drinks, Jones asked McCartney to write him a song. “Paul, who very much enjoyed doing this type of thing, told his friend he’d be happy to write a song for him.”

McCartney soon had the song ready and sent it over to Jones. But McCartney included a catch.

“The condition was that I could do it, but it had to be my next single,” Jones told Wales Onlinein 2013. “Paul wanted it out straight away. At that time, I had a song called ‘Without Love’ that I was going to be releasing.”

Source: Jason Brow

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Even before the band went their separate ways, The Beatles had begun working on their own projects. The last years of the 1960s saw relations strain due to many factors, including differences of opinion regarding their artistic output and business arrangements.‌

The sessions for 1968's 'The White Album' were notoriously tempestuous, causing Ringo Starr to leave the band for a period during the recording of 'Back in the USSR'. The acrimonious mood continued into 1969 as The Beatles worked on the 'Get Back' project, which resulted in their final studio album 'Let it Be'.‌

This time, George Harrison walked out of the band following an argument with Paul McCartney, though he returned days later. The actual split followed shortly after.‌

The group's break-up was made public in 1970, but the process was said to have begun the previous year when John Lennon asked for a "divorce" from The Beatles. This led Paul to retreat to his home in Scotland to write his debut solo album, believing the band's time was over.

This was confirmed with the release of Paul's album 'McCartney' in April 1970, a press release for which said he was no longer working with the band. 'Let it Be' was released the following month, bringing The Beatles' time together to an end.

John had begun recording and releasing his own music before the split. Alongside his second wife Yoko Ono, he formed the Plastic Ono Band in 1968 and the couple released two editions of experimental tracks called 'Unfinished Music' in 1968 and 1969 respectively.‌

The Plastic Ono Band's first single was 'Give Peace a Chance', written by John in opposition to the Vietnam War. Released in July 1969, it became the soundtrack of the American anti-war movement in the 1970s and peaked at two on the British charts.

Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth

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Paul McCartney's live shows are packed with material from his days with The Beatles and Wings, as well as plenty of solo tracks. Though he's into his ninth-decade, Paul still performs three-hour sets to huge audiences around the world.‌

After the European leg of his long-running Got Back tour came to an end with concerts in Manchester and London last December, Paul has announced he will be back on the road later this year. The Walton-born Beatles legend, 83, will take the tour, which began in 2022, around North America in 2025.‌

The tour will begin on September 29 in Palm Desert, California, stopping in places including Las Vegas, Denver, Tulsa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Montreal before it concludes in Chicago in November.‌

Paul's most recent live appearance was at Anfield on June 7 when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at the home of Liverpool FC to play two tracks, including The Beatles' 'Cant Buy Me Love'.

He also played intimate gigs at the Bowery Ballroom in New York in February, which were announced at the last minute and led fans dashing to the venue for tickets. Nowadays, the shows are celebrations of Paul's entire career but his concerts weren't always like that.

When he started touring with Wings in the early 1970s, wanting to return to playing live after The Beatles retired from doing so in 1966 in order to focus on their studio work, Paul didn't play any songs by the Fab Four.

Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth

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