Beatles News
The Beatles helped revolutionize music in several incalculable ways, from re-energizing the British music scene to popularizing the concept album, but one of the smaller — but still significant — ways the Fab Four changed the creative landscape was rewriting the rules of what could be a radio hit.
“Hey Jude,” the 1968 standalone single penned by Paul McCartney, clocked in at 7 minutes and 12 seconds, around twice the length of an average pop single the band would be competing alongside for the coveted #1 spot on the charts.
To make matters worse, the second half of the song simply repeats a variation of “Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah/ Hey, Jude” for at least 3 and a half minutes. While this creative decision has since made the anthem a crowd favorite at sports events (most recently, England’s 2026 World Cup stint, as an ode to Jude Bellingham), as well as McCartney’s concerts, there were concerns that this would be cut by radio stations, comprising on McCartney’s “fade-out to end all fade-outs,” as described in a 2018 retrospective on the song by The Guardian.
George Martin, the Beatles’ longtime producer, warned that the length would discourage DJs from playing the song altogether, clipping its commercial success. Lennon, however, offered his signature defiance in response: “They will if it’s us.”
Lennon’s pragmatism proved to be correct, with the song staying on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 9 weeks, from September 28 to November 23, 1968, and broke the record for the then-longest #1 single in U.S. chart history — as well as the longest in song length.
Source: mensjournal.com/Bethany Gemmell
Paul McCartney is among hundreds of public figures backing a new international campaign calling on the United Nations to abolish trophy hunting. Launched on July 1, 2026, the initiative brings together celebrities, conservationists, former heads of state, Indigenous leaders and religious figures around a declaration calling for an end to trophy hunting. The launch was timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, whose death in 2015 became a major international flashpoint in the debate over trophy hunting. The Wildlife & Conservation Foundation, through its Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, is coordinating the initiative. Its organisers say more than 500 founding signatories have backed the Declaration on the Abolition of Trophy Hunting, which was developed with the late primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall.
McCartney is joined by a large group of actors, musicians and other public figures. The campaign's launch announcement names Michael Caine, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Judi Dench, Joanna Lumley, Hilary Swank, Bryan Adams, Annie Lennox, Liam Gallagher and Gary Lineker among its supporters. Jenson Button, Ricky Gervais, Pierce Brosnan, Alec Baldwin, Mark Ruffalo, Kim Basinger, Daryl Hannah, Brian Cox, Michael Palin, Alan Cumming, Kate Moss and Bianca Jagger are also listed. Other prominent names include the Dalai Lama, Priscilla Presley, Edie Falco, Bill Maher, Isabella Rossellini, James Cromwell, Alicia Silverstone, Alyssa Milano, Heather Mills, Belinda Carlisle and Ranulph Fiennes. The campaign also lists former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and former Botswana President Ian Khama among its supporters. The coalition extends beyond celebrities. Its supporters include conservationists, African community representatives, Indigenous leaders and religious figures. The campaign's declaration calls for governments to prohibit trophy hunting as well as the international import and export of hunting trophies, with the longer-term aim of securing a global agreement to abolish the practice.
Source: inkl.com
Even before the infamous Beatles breakup, the Fab Four had to navigate interpersonal dynamics that often bred contempt and competitiveness, particularly between the two principal songwriters, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The prolific duo had plenty of respect for one another, much of which was established by becoming so close so quickly at such a young age. But they weren’t always forthcoming with their praise of the other—at least Lennon wasn’t.
In a 2018 interview with 60 Minutes, McCartney confirmed that he and Lennon had a competitive relationship when it came to their songwriting. If one musician came up with a particularly good track, the other would take it as motivation to write a better one. They were less interested in doling out compliments to the other, as made clear by McCartney’s memory that Lennon only complimented him once.
The idea of Lennon only openly admiring McCartney’s work once during their tenure as bandmates seems ludicrous in hindsight, given the knowledge we have of McCartney’s tremendous cultural impact. Nevertheless, Lennon played his cards close to the chest—except when it came to “Here, There And Everywhere”. John Lennon Praised Paul McCartney for This ‘Revolver’ Track.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Paul McCartney put on a fake pained expression and said John Lennon only complimented him “once in that whole time,” as if to emphasize that he, too, thought the dynamic was strange in hindsight. McCartney remembered his bandmate listening to “Here, There, And Everywhere” and telling Macca, “‘That’s a really good song, lad. I love that song.’ And I was like, ‘Yes! He likes it!’ I’ve remembered it to this day. It’s pathetic, really,” he added with a smile.
In one of his final interviews before his death, Lennon told Playboy that “Here, There And Everywhere” was “Paul’s song completely, I believe,” adding that it was “one of my favorite songs of The Beatles.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
Over the course of their impressive 10-year run, the Beatles released 12 studio albums (13 if you include 1967's Magical Mystery Tour in the core canon). The Fab Four's catalog improved with each new release, and one particular entry in their discography, considered by some to be their magnum opus, took the world by storm on this day 57 years ago.
'Abbey Road' by the Beatles Was Released on Sept. 26, 1969
The Beatles released Abbey Road on Sept. 26, 1969. The four-piece rock outfit's 11th studio album was actually recorded after their final record, Let It Be, but released before it. On Oct. 6, the band unleashed a double A-side single featuring "Something" and "Come Together" to promote it.
While the atmosphere was less tense than the Let It Be recording sessions, the group still had their fair share of disagreements, clashing over the album's presentation and Yoko Ono's presence in the studio. However, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr looked back on the process with fondness, and John Lennon had positive things to say about Abbey Road as a whole.
Infusing musical styles such as rock, pop, blues, and progressive rock, Abbey Road boasts two of George Harrison's best contributions: "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." The album was a massive commercial success, topping a whopping 11 global weekly charts, including the US Billboard Top LPs and the UK Albums Chart. Abbey Road peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard chart on Nov. 1, 1969, where it reigned for 11 weeks. It also spent a remarkable 507 weeks total on said chart.
'Abbey Road' Then and Now
Source: yahoo.com/Melody McCune
Jane Asher’s love story with Paul McCartney is set to play out on screen in the forthcoming Beatles biopics – however, the actor won’t be queuing up to see it in cinemas.
Asher, 80, has revealed in a new interview that she has no plans to watch Lucy Boynton’s portrayal of her in Sam Mendes’s four films about the Beatles.
The Bafta nominee began dating McCartney in 1963, with the pair’s romance inspiring numerous songs for the group, including “And I Love Her” and “I’m Looking Through You”. They announced their engagement in 1967 but called it off a year later amid rumours of McCartney’s infidelity.
In Mendes’s forthcoming series The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which is due for release in 2028, McCartney is being played by Hamnet’s Paul Mescal, while Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton is portraying Asher.
In a new interview, Asher said that the filmmakers “approached me about it, of course, but I said my usual”, referring to how she no longer speaks about her relationship with McCartney.
When asked how she felt about Boynton playing her, she told The Telegraph: “Well, of course, Lucy is beautiful. But I won’t watch the films, otherwise everyone will ask me what I thought.”
Source: the-independent.com/Lauren Morris
When John Lennon was asked about the song "Wait" in 1970, he couldn't recall writing it. "That must be one of Paul's," he said then.
Paul McCartney did, however, recall. It was mainly his composition, though it was credited to the usual "Lennon-McCartney." His story was that it was written in early 1965 when the Beatles were in the Bahamas shooting Help! the film. Shortly before that, the band had connected with Brandon deWilde, a child actor whose career had blossomed into big sitcom roles (Jamie) and an Academy nomination (for his role in 1953's Shane) as an adult.
"Brandon De Wilde was an actor, a James Dean type," George Harrison recalled in Anthology. "He liked the Beatles' music and he heard we were going to film in the Bahamas, so he came over from the States with a big bag of reefer. We smoked on the plane, all the way to the Bahamas. It was a charter flight, with all the film people – the actors and the crew – and we thought, 'No, nobody will notice.' We had Mal [Evans, the Beatles' road manager] smoking cigars to drown out the smell." Brandon deWilde, Witness to 'Wait'
It was deWilde that McCartney, apparently, wrote the song "Wait" in front of.
"He was a nice guy who was fascinated by what we did," McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. "A sort of Brat Pack actor. We chatted endlessly, and I seem to remember writing 'Wait' in front of him, and him being interested to see it being written."
Lennon didn't really factor in, in McCartney's memory: "I think it was my song. I don't remember John collaborating too much on it, although he could have."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com/Allison Rapp
This year marked what would have been the 100th birthday of George Martin.
Martin, who died in 2016 aged 90, was the man who signed The Beatles and also the producer for the vast majority of their music during their remarkable eight years together. Who is the Fifth Beatle? George Martin, Brian Epstein, Pete Best and more
In the wake of the wave of Beatlemania, Martin also helmed a number of orchestral covers albums featuring Beatles hits.
These have long remained out of print, never being available on CD or streaming, but three of these records are finally being released next month on new formats and vinyl too.
All of them have been recut from the original tapes by Giles Martin, George's son who has inherited his role when it comes to the remastering and remixing of Beatles releases in recent years.
The albums are Off the Beatle Track (1964) and Help! (1965), in addition to ..and I Love Her (1966), which includes Beatles numbers alongside hits by The Rolling Stones, Petula Clark and other stars of the moment.
The albums will be released on November 6, and are trailed by 'Can't By Me Love' from Off the Beatle Track.
"These records came at a time when orchestral music had begun to embrace the sound of beat music - something it had initially dismissed as a 'noisy' genre, dismissing its integrity entirely," reads the blurb.
Source: goldradio.com/Mayer Nissim
Boston photographer Roger Farrington was flown to New York to document Lennon and Ono’s return to the recording studio in 1980. Now, he’s sharing the images in a new book. An unusual call sent a Boston photographer to New York to photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Forty-six years later, he’s sharing the photos.
In August 1980, after a five-year hiatus from recording and releasing music, Lennon and Ono returned to the recording studio in New York to begin work on what would become Double Fantasy, Lennon’s final album.
On the day of their return, Boston photographer Roger Farrington received a call asking him to photograph the couple’s first recording session in five years. He was soon on a flight to New York.
Farrington spent the day photographing Lennon and Ono. The resulting images capture a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the couple months before Lennon’s death in December 1980.
Now, 46 years later, Farrington has published never-before-seen images from that day in a new book together with Beatles historian Kenneth Womack, giving fans a closer look at Lennon and Ono’s return to the studio.
Farrington will share his stories behind the photos with Womack and radio host Cha-Chi Loprete at the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, housed in the Boch Center Wang Theatre, on Oct. 28.
Source: boston.com/Fiona Bright Holton
The Beatles not only wrote wonderful songs, but they also constantly innovated in terms of how they recorded them. Listening back to their catalog now, however, it’s fascinating to hear instruments that have long since fallen out of fashion adorning certain tracks of theirs.
These four songs are among the most beloved in the Fab Four catalog. And they all contain a key part from an instrument that’s a bit on the old-fashioned side, at least from our perspective today.
“We Can Work It Out”
Paul McCartney wrote the verses of “We Can Work It Out”. It’s one of several songs that he penned about his relationship with Jane Asher, his girlfriend throughout much of the 60s. John Lennon added the middle eight, his somewhat pessimistic outlook contradicting McCartney’s hopefulness. In terms of the music, it whooshes about behind McCartney’s main melody without calling too much attention to itself. But in the middle eight, which takes on a different rhythm from the rest of the track, you can hear a wheezing, accordion-like sound. That’s a harmonium, an organ-like keyboard with a pumping element that you don’t hear all that often today.
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
Most people who listen to the beginning of “Strawberry Fields Forever” assume that The Beatles hired a flautist. In actuality, that’s a keyboard instrument called a Mellotron. It was the closest thing that 60s bands had to a synthesizer. With recordings of other instruments essentially built into it, the Mellotron could mimic those other instruments without having someone actually play them. But the reproduction wasn’t quite exact, which lent this odd keyboard a kind of haunting quality. “Strawberry Fields Forever” features Paul McCartney playing a Mellotron on a flute setting. The Moody Blues, contemporaries of The Beatles in the British Invasion, made heavy use of the Mellotron in their music.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
The Beatles weren't exactly a cult band as 1965 ended. Their albums and singles dominated the pop charts. They played in front of more than 55,000 fans at Shea Stadium. They even conquered the big screen. Twice.
But Dec. 3, 1965, proved to be a seminal moment for the Fab Four – the release of Rubber Soul, the album where "the Beatles became the Beatles."
Widely considered one of the most influential albums ever made, it's hard to believe Rubber Soul was something of a rush job. The Beatles went into the studio in October 1965 to crank out an album in time for the holiday season. Despite the tight deadline, however, The Beatles decided to make their most audacious record yet.
"By the time of Rubber Soul, they were ready for new musical directions," said George Martin, The Beatles' long-time producer. "In the early days, they were very influenced by American rhythm and blues … and then, as time went on, other influences became apparent: classical influences and modern music."
Said drummer Ringo Starr: "We were all open to anything. You could walk in with an elephant, as long as it was going to make a musical note." While filming the movie Help! in April of 1965, guitarist George Harrison was introduced to the sitar, a stringed instrument that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The sitar solo Harrison added on Rubber Soul's "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" is believed to be the first time the instrument was featured on a Western pop recording.
That was just one classic moment on an album brimming maturity and innovation. Rubber Soul spawned classics such as "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man" and "In My Life", the latter of which is considered one of the greatest songs of all time.
Source: yahoo.com/John Lembo
