Beatles News
Four months after returning with The Boys of Dungeon Lane, Paul McCartney, never short of songs, has pulled out a handful more. Three songs from Macca’s album sessions with Andrew Watt feature on a new expansion of the June LP, alongside a “flip mix” of “Home to Us,” the Ringo Starr duet from the record. (The new version reverses their parts.) Stream the full expanded album below or skip to track 15 for the new songs: “City Fox,” “One Night Stand,” and “Chelsea Boots.”
Source: pitchfork.com/Jazz Monroe
On the surface, John Lennon might have been seen as the Beatle most likely to form a lasting bond with Bob Dylan, such were the often cynical and aloof parallels of their character traits. Yet, it was The Quiet One who became the lifelong pal, and who would persuade the American to be part of his second celebrated chart-topping group.
Bob had met all four Fabs at the same time, on their first visit to the US in 1964, infamously introducing them to the delight of marijuana during an all-night and well into the early hours pow-wow at New York’s Delmonico Hotel. Whenever Dylan subsequently played in the UK, at least one Beatle’s name would be on the guest list, and they made sure he was among the first to hear albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, tacitly acknowledging the debt they felt their rapidly developing craft owed him.
In his 2026 book Where The Music Had To Go: How Bob Dylan And The Beatles Changed Each Other, author Jim Windolf suggests the demands of their respective careers were an obstacle in them ever getting especially close. He also argues that neither Lennon nor McCartney were in the frame to forge any kind of lasting friendship with their contemporary and admirer; John’s outlook and demeanour were too similar, while the ever wary Paul was too competitive.
However, the deeper roots of the Bob and George friendship date from 1968 when Harrison was in the US checking out potential acts to sign to the group’s then fledgling Apple label. Dylan invited him to spend Thanksgiving at his home in Woodstock, upper New York state, and the visit stretched on for several days.
Source: Terry Staunton/uncut.co.uk
Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote dozens of songs for the Beatles, most of which are credited to the iconic "Lennon-McCartney" and, on rare occasions, "McCartney-Lennon." As teenagers, the duo made a pact that both their names would appear on their songs, regardless of who wrote them. This partnership set the stage for one of music history’s most legendary songwriting collaborations.
Some of the Beatles’ fan favorites actually began as songs penned by a young Lennon and McCartney in Liverpool, both before and during their days with the Quarrymen. Whether written solo or as a team, these tracks foreshadow the artists’ creative genius; a genius that would one day set the tone for the musical landscape of the 1960s and 70s.
Here are four Beatles songs John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote as teenagers.
"Hello Little Girl"
"One After 909"
"I'll Follow the Sun"
"Love Me Do"
"Hello Little Girl"
John Lennon wrote his first song, "Hello Little Girl," in 1957 when he was just 16. Inspired by a 1930s or ‘40s tune his mother used to sing to him, Lennon’s first musical endeavor is credited to Lennon-McCartney. The Beatles performed it during their 1962 Decca audition. The Fourmost and Gerry & The Pacemakers recorded their own versions, and the Beatles followed in 1963. "Hello Little Girl," an idea jotted down by a young Lennon, eventually appeared on the Fab Four's Anthology 1.
“That was me. That was actually my first song. That always fascinated me for some reason or another. It’s also connected to my mother. It’s all very Freudian. She used to sing that one. So I made ‘Hello Little Girl’ out of it,” Lennon revealed during his “last major interview” with David Sheff.
Source: mentalfloss.com/Logan DeLoye
Through moving lyrics entwined with themes of peace, love and spirituality, George Harrison offered fans harmony at a time of intense political unrest—a message that has transcended his lifetime. Harrison and his bandmates transformed the world as we know it, leaving behind an immutable impact on society. The Beatles’ profound influence is now documented within the grooves of vinyls, silver bromide of film, and voices of older generations as they pass down those stories to their children.
While photographed and interviewed relentlessly throughout their career, Harrison was also simultaneously documenting himself and The Beatles in private, capturing moments that make these larger-than-life rock gods feel incredibly human. The images take us inside his mind and behind the scenes of the band; the intimacy between them palpable in a boyish smile, a sideways glance, or the dropping of that happy facade entirely. Harrison’s images bounce back and forth between highlighting the stars as they were perceived to be and the people they actually were. In The Third Eye: Early Photographs by George Harrison, Harrison’s archival photography is published alongside essays from Olivia Harrison, George Saunders and Colm Tóibín. Below, find a glimpse behind the cover and be transported back to the heart of Beatlemania.
Source: interviewmagazine.com/Isabella Socci
As production continues on Sam Mendes's The Beatles - A Four-Film Cinematic Event, Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn have recreated an iconic Beatles moment in a newly released set photo.
With Mendes' four-film Beatles event slated for release all at once in April 2028, filming has been taking place in Liverpool and London since 2025. The cast includes Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
A new image from the upcoming biopic, shot in Liverpool, shows Mescal and Quinn in character as the production recreates the moment Barry Chang collected the band from Gambier Terrace, where John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe once lived.
The scene shows the Beatles leaving for Hamburg, where they would develop their live act. Morfydd Clark was also spotted on set playing Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife. In the new image, Quinn and Mescal can be seen atop a vehicle, seemingly packing their equipment as they prepare to set off on their journey.
As well as the famous foursome, Harry Lawtey is set to star as Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bass guitarist for The Beatles, who was a member of the band during its formative period in Hamburg, Germany.
Also in the cast are Tracy Beaker Returns and The Dumping Ground star Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo Starr's wife Maureen Starkey and Lady Bird's Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney.
ShÅgun's Anna Sawai will play Yoko Ono, John Lennon's wife and musical collaborator, while Sex Education and The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood will portray Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's wife.
"Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right," said Mendes, "and I'm thrilled that we've managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure."
Source: digitalspy.com/Harriet Mitchell
High above London’s West End, a 45°F wind whipped across the fragile, pitched roof of 3 Savile Row.
This wasn’t the roaring, electrified mania of Shea Stadium. Rather, it was a cold, uncertain Thursday morning.
Fifteen minutes before showtime, the atmosphere was thick with hesitation. Ringo, complaining of the bitter chill, shivered in his wife’s red raincoat. George, ever the skeptic, muttered, “What’s the point? Why are we doing this?” Paul, acting as the band’s diplomatic engine, pleaded, “C’mon, guys, let’s do it. It’ll be fun. We need to do something.”
John settled it. “Fuck it, let’s do it.”
That line would change music history forever
On a roof reinforced with steel props just to keep them from crashing through the ceiling of the room below, the Beatles stepped into the wind. It was a universe away from the screaming crowds of their youth.
As the first notes of “Get Back” echoed through the chimney stacks, the West End stood still.
While director Michael Lindsay-Hogg envisioned a “social study” of the band’s final interaction with the establishment, the day was defined by bizarre hurdles few fans ever heard about.
Source: culturesonar.com/Thomas Clifford
The Beatles recorded most of the landmark album in four weeks to meet the Christmas market deadline
A new Oct. 2 special edition includes remixed tracks, home demos and previously unreleased session recordings
Giles Martin says the album’s darker lyrics and studio experimentation marked a major creative shift
Though their musical talents have been commented upon with some frequency, one under-appreciated aspect of the Beatles is their ability to hit a deadline.
They famously recorded the bulk of their first album in a single day. (And their second one took even longer.) So when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr entered EMI Studios in October 1965 with just four weeks to produce a new LP — and single! — in time for the Christmas market, the schedule might almost have seemed leisurely to them.
What emerged from that compressed burst of creativity was Rubber Soul, one of the most dramatic evolutionary leaps of their career. Across 14 tracks, the band stretched beyond the straightforward love songs and rock ‘n’ roll arrangements that had made them a global phenomenon. Instead they embraced introspective lyrics, unfamiliar instruments and a more adventurous approach to the studio itself. The result helped redefine what a pop album could be.
Now the landmark record can be heard in unprecedented detail on a new Rubber Soul special edition, out Friday, Oct. 2. The latest in a series of expansive Beatles remix collections overseen by Giles Martin — son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin — the set features a new stereo mix created with engineer Sam Okell from the original four-track tapes, alongside previously unreleased home demos and session outtakes. Various editions also include the contemporary double A-side single “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out,” while the Super Deluxe version adds the original mono mix and the substantially different American Capitol version of the album.
Source: people.com/Jordan Runtagh
During its 11-season run, Happy Days featured a large list of guest stars, but one of the biggest star sightings took place behind the scenes. Fifty-two years ago, John Lennon showed up on the Happy Days set—totally unplanned. The Beatles legend’s son, Julian, was a huge fan of the ABC sitcom, so the two snuck over during a tour of the Paramount lot.
In an interview on the Still Here Hollywood podcast posted on Oct. 5, Happy Days star Anson Williams shared details on the singer’s visit to Happy Days. “It was the first year of Happy Days, 1974,” Williams told host Steve Kmetko. “And it was a very cold morning. We’re on the set, you know, bored out of our mind, like kitchen scenes or something at the time. It was before we went live audience, so it was like a movie. And it’s just it was a guest star and the four of us and Jerry, our director.”
Williams added that he went over to get a cup of coffee and saw Lennon standing to the side.
“And there’s this guy with kind of cool glasses and a young kid,” he recalled “Walk back, go to go up to Donny [Most]. ‘Hey, Donny. This guy looks just like John Lennon with a kid.’ And Donny’s going [sarcastically] ‘Oh, yeah. John Lennon is here to hang out with us.’ It was John Lennon there to hang out with us. And it was Julian’s favorite show and he saw the show. He loved the show.”
Williams revealed that Lennon “stuck around for hours” “And pretty soon it was like it was he was like, ‘Hey John,” he said. “I mean it was at first you’re like gaga, and then he becomes a friend. So shy, so nice, and he’s doing all these original doodles for the crew.’ They now could buy houses with them, right?”
“What happened was they were on a VIP tour, and they escaped, and no one knew where they were …’Oh, Happy Days is there,’ and they snuck on,” Williams explained. “So the PR department found out about it, and they brought a guy who shot a picture. There’s a picture. That’s all we got. We have a picture. But we didn’t get a signature or anything … but it’s fabulous. It was fabulous to have that opportunity with a legend like that.”
Williams isn’t the only Happy Days star to talk about that fateful day. In 2018, Henry Winkler (Fonzie on the show) appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and recalled the day that “John Lennon just came to visit and brought with him Julian.”
“He was so—he was so shy, and I didn’t know how to get into a conversation with John Lennon,” Winkler shared. “Then I just started talking about his Imagine solo album. There’s a cut on it called ‘Mother,’ which is like a primal scream. I started talking to him about that, and he opened like a flower. It was amazing.”
Source: parade.com/Victoria Miller
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr share a musical connection like none other. The two surviving Beatles have worked together for more than six decades across albums, breakups, animated appearances and various musical projects since the Beatles broke up.
Plus, you can usually count on Starr, 86, to show up and drum every so often with McCartney. But until this year, the two legendary British knights have never recorded a duet together.
'Home to Us' was inspired by Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney's working-class youths in Liverpool.
That changed this year with “Home to Us,” a McCartney/Starr duet on McCartney’s new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which dropped in May. The album leans heavily on looking back to McCartney’s early days, and the nostalgic song’s lyrics were inspired by their experiences growing up as working-class musicians in Liverpool.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 2, the 86-year-old McCartney explained the circuitous route that led to the new single, which never actually involved the two of them in the studio at the same time.
Ringo Starr laid down drumming tracks for producer Andrew Watt in hopes they'd be used in Paul McCartney's album.
“It came about because I’d been working with the producer of this, Andrew Watt,” McCartney told Jimmy Kimmel. “Ringo heard I’d worked with him, and after I’d left, Ringo went over to see him and did a bit of drumming with him. I talked to Ringo, and he said ‘Yeah, I’m hoping you’ll make a track out of it.’”
McCartney said the unusual proposal caught him off guard. “I said, I’m not sure that’s how it works! So anyway, Andrew didn’t make a track out of it, and Ringo was well p------."
Source: okmagazine.com/Paul F. P. Pogue
It took George Harrison a few years into the Beatles’ recording career before he started to show a comfort level as a songwriter. Once he reached that point, his unique perspective on the world brought something indispensable to the group’s music.
It’s hard to imagine any of these four songs coming from any other member of the group besides George. His candor and point of view truly set these lyrics apart.
“Don’t Bother Me”
Partly because they got off to a much earlier start as writers, John Lennon and Paul McCartney did most of the composing on early Beatles records. In fact, from 1962 through 1964, Harrison managed just a single writing credit for the group. That came with “Don’t Bother Me”, released in 1963 on the group’s sophomore LP, With The Beatles. Harrison, under the weather one night in a hotel room, forced himself to write a song just to prove he could do it. “Don’t Bother Me” immediately established his fondness for somewhat unorthodox chord patterns. And its standoffish message represented a stark contrast from the typical Lennon/McCartney affability.
“You Like Me Too Much”
After “Don’t Bother Me”, Harrison retreated from his songwriting efforts for another year or so. When he returned to it on the Help! album in 1965, he came up with two originals. The lovely “I Need You” deserves credit as being the better song of the two. But its message is a tad on the conventional side. In terms of this list, the better choice is “You Like Me Too Much”. For all their massive success, The Beatles projected an air of humility. In their songs, McCartney and Lennon often presented themselves as the lovable underdogs. But Harrison tells it like it is in this song. He explains to the girl he’s addressing that he doesn’t believe she’d actually leave him. As a famous rock star, Harrison likely knew that feeling well.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
