Beatles News
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
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
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
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
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
Ringo Starr has a very unique place in The Beatles’ career. While most listeners know that the band’s sound wouldn’t have been what it is without Starr’s singular playing, his non-flashy, simple style keeps him from the spotlight at times.
Starr’s playing is characterized by impeccable timing. He always knew exactly what to play for each song, whether a simple blues-rock number or a psychedelic haze. Even Starr himself recognizes his timing. He once credited it as the thing he’s most proud of from his time with the group.
Starr was brought on after the other three members had been established, but The Beatles didn’t become The Beatles until Starr joined their ranks. Right from the start, it was clear that Starr’s timing was going to completely reshape the group’s career.
“Yeah, and I’ve got a lot of footage of George,” Starr once said. “He had that great line, he said, ‘You know, and the Beatles did this,’ and somebody said to him, ‘Did you have a click track?’ He said, ‘Yes, we did. Ringo, his name was.’”
Starr’s Timing
According to Starr, there is no trick to his signature timing. Instead, it’s just innately inside the iconic drummer. His timing can’t be repeated. He’s a once-in-a-generation talent.
“God gave me just great time,” Starr admitted in the same interview. “Jeff Lynne—they did a documentary on him. Jeff would call me over, ‘Could you play on this track?’ because we live close, and I’d go over, and he’d say, ‘Oh, just let me get the click.’ I said, ‘Jeff, I am the da** click.”
“It’s been asked a million times,” he continued. “I don’t know how I got to [play like] that. It just happened. And a lot of the way I play [it] just happens. I’ll keep the time and play rock or shuffle or whatever, and then I’ll come in wherever I come in, because you feel it from your heart.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Tehuan Harris is a news and features journalist at Collider, reporting and writing about all things music and reality TV (sometimes). She is a talented journalist and a natural storyteller who writes with curiosity and interest. After graduating from university, she jumped straight into journalism, with one goal in mind: to tell stories that matter.
Only the Fab Four saw the breakup coming, as tensions had been brewing for a while. However, the show must go on, as all four members of The Beatles pursued solo careers. George Harrison’s first stop was at the studio with Bob Dylan, as he helped him record “If Not for You,” a love song for Dylan’s wife, Sara, before their turbulent divorce.
Although Dylan was friendly with The Beatles, which led the four-piece band to record “I’m a Loser” inspired by the man himself, Dylan was closer to Harrison than to any other member. “If Not for You” helped build a friendship that no one in music can replicate, and the pair came together in a supergroup called The Travelling Wilburys. However, the friendship would not last as long as it should, as Harrison would soon succumb to cancer in 2001.
Harrison grabbed the opportunity to work with the “Like a Rolling Stone” singer almost immediately after he went solo. In fact, news of their collaboration created a buzz in the media while the Beatlemania slowly died down, and fans grieved the Fab Four’s separation. Dylan first recorded the song in March 1970, a month before the Beatles’ breakup hit the tabloids. It was recorded during the Self Portrait sessions, though the song was never meant to be for the album.
Source: Teguan Harris/collider.com
Of the four distinct personalities that comprised The Beatles, the one largely regarded as the most clean-cut, straight-laced, and the kind of guy you’d be willing to introduce to your parents was the “cute” one, Sir Paul McCartney. Yet, in an ironic twist of events, McCartney was the first Beatle to spend a significant time in jail over drug possession. Of course, it wasn’t the charge that was remarkable—everyone but Ringo Starr had already had run-ins with the police over drugs by 1980. But Macca was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
More specifically, the musical legend behind hits like “Blackbird”, “Helter Skelter”, and “Yesterday” was at the Tokyo International Airport while on tour with his band Wings. The musicians had recently been in the States, and while there, McCartney had amassed an, er, significant collection of marijuana. Not wanting to waste his stash, McCartney quickly threw it into his carry-on luggage and went through airport security.
As McCartney described it, “When the fellow pulled it out of the suitcase, he looked more embarrassed than me,” per Performing Songwriter. “I think he just wanted to put it back in and forget the whole thing, you know. But there it was.” And indeed, there it was.
Paul McCartney Spent Just Over a Week in a Tokyo Prison
While marijuana certainly wasn’t legal in the United States in 1980, legal punishment for possession was much more lax in the U.S. than in Japan. Airport security officials arrested McCartney on the spot and escorted him to the Drug Supervisory Center for interrogation. From there, police took McCartney to the Tokyo Narcotics Detention Center, where he was given the descriptor “Inmate No. 22.” Japanese drug laws meant that McCartney was facing up to seven years of hard labor. He managed to get out in nine days on good behavior (and super-mega-rockstar status), though he was banned from Japan for years.
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
McCartney's oldest child, Heather Louise McCartney, was born to Linda and her then-husband Joseph Melville See Jr., on Dec. 31, 1962, in Tucson, Ariz. By the time she was 3, however, Heather's parents had divorced.
In 1967, Linda and McCartney met. The couple got married on March 2, 1969, and McCartney officially adopted Heather around the same time. Like her parents, Heather has pursued a career in the creative arts. She studied printing at the Photographers' Workshop in Covent Garden, London, later winning the Young Black and White Printer of the Year award.
She then studied pottery and design in college and became an established potter. She eventually launched her own line of houseware products, called Heather McCartney Designs. In 1999, McCartney traveled to Atlanta to support the launch of Heather's brand, marking his first public appearance in the United States since Linda's death the previous year. "I'm happy to be here," he told Entertainment Tonight. "She's a lovely girl and I'm very proud of her."
When asked by the outlet who her biggest inspirations were, Heather answered, "My mom and dad. My brother and sisters, completely."
Aside from appearances in the documentaries The Beatles: Get Back and Let It Be when she was little, Heather has largely stayed out of the public eye. McCartney and Linda's first child together, Mary Anna McCartney, was born in London on Aug. 28, 1969.
Mary followed in her mother's footsteps and became a photographer. In an interview with journalist Alain Elkann, Mary revealed that she fell in love with photography at a young age, having been introduced to it by her mom.
Source: Nicole Briese/people.com
