Beatles News
If there was one particular year in which the Beatles' global impact could no longer be denied, it may have been 1964.
It was during this year that the Fab Four accomplished a plethora of feats that took them from darlings of Liverpool to international superstars. In February, they made their first pilgrimage to America, where they were greeted by hoards of adoring fans. With their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the deal was sealed — the world was positively obsessed with the band and Beatlemania entered full swing.
"We didn't think we were going to make it at all. It was only Brian telling us we were gonna make it. Brian Epstein our manager, and George Harrison," John Lennon told Playboy in a group interview the band did with the magazine in October of that year. "The thing is, in America it just seemed ridiculous. ... I mean, the idea of having a hit record over there. It was just, you know, something you could never do. That's what I thought anyhow. But then I realized that it's just the same as here, that kids everywhere all go for the same stuff."
And that was really just the beginning. During the course of 1964, the Beatles' only real competition for the top of both the American and British charts was more or less themselves. Whole books could be written about the year the band had, but below, we've compiled 27 of the most interesting highlights.
Source: Allison Rapp/ultimateclassicrock.com
The Beatles are perhaps the most beloved and respected musical group of all time. While they may be adored by seemingly everyone–especially those in the music industry–their list of awards isn’t quite as impressive as some more contemporary stars. In a few months, the band may earn another shot at adding to their trophy shelf, if not several.
When the nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards are called out later this year, The Beatles could become nominees once again. The group has one new single eligible for contention, and it could easily snag at least one nod, if not quite a few.
In November 2023, The Beatles returned with “Now and Then,” their first new single in decades. The tune was largely written and partially recorded while all four members were still alive, but for many years, it was considered unusable due to poor recording quality. Artificial intelligence helped Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr finish the title, and it went on to become a big hit on charts all around the world.
Grammy voters love The Beatles, and they take every opportunity to reward them and the impact they’ve had on the world. For years, those picking who wins the awards have had to settle for honoring projects connected to the group, but not the musicians themselves. Now, they have a shot to put the Fab Four back on a pedestal, and they may take it.
“Now and Then” could bring The Beatles back to the Grammys for the first time in more than a quarter-century. The band last won awards in 1997 for their single “Free as a Bird,” which collected Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Music Video, Short Form. That year, they also took home Best Music Video, Long Form for The Beatles Anthology.
Source: Hugh McIntyre/forbes.com
Ringo Starr is reviving his Peace & Love event for his 84th birthday today, and this year, it’s going into space.
On the 7th July each year since 2008, the Beatles drummer has invited the world to think, say or post the words “peace and love” at noon to complete his birthday wish of a wave of peace and love across the planet.
This year, the main event will be celebrated in Los Angeles, with musical tributes throughout the day from the likes of Diana Warren, Asa & Roy Orbison, Ben Harper, Ben Dickey, Steve Dudas and more.
Peace & Love events will also be taking place across the globe, including in Australia, New York, Italy, Estonia, Mexico and Spain. There will also be two events here in the UK with one in Liverpool and another in the Abbey Road Institute in London.
This year is a special one too because NASA will be helping spread the message beyond the atmosphere and into the universe!
Speaking in a video to his fans, Ringo said, “OK, Peace and love, here we go again!
“Thanks for joining me on my birthday. I am so grateful to you all for helping me promote Peace & Love. I want to give special thanks to all the Peace & Love Ambassadors – we are in 34 countries! Thanks for doing it – and I gotta thank all the fans, peace & love – just join me in your mind, or on the bus or wherever you are on the 7th of the 7th just go Peace & Love at Noon your local time.”
Source: Virgin Radio
Sir Paul McCartney has wished his long-standing friend and former bandmate Sir Ringo Starr a “fabulous day” on his 84th birthday.
The former Beatle, 82, shared a photo to Instagram of the pair laughing together to mark the occasion on Sunday, which also marks his late father’s birthday.
It comes ahead of Sir Ringo, whose real name is Richard Starkey, hosting his annual “Peace and Love” birthday celebrations in Los Angeles.
Alongside the photo, Sir Paul said: “Happy birthday to Ringo and to my Dad!
“Hope Sir Richard Starkey has a fabulous day.”
US actress and wife of Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, also offered birthday wishes, writing: “Happy birthday, Ringo and happy heavenly birthday, Mr McCartney!”
Sir Ringo is set to welcome a host of famous faces including Eagles former member Joe Walsh, comedian and actor Fred Armisen and actor Ed Begley Jr to his annual birthday event which promotes peace and love.
The former Beatles drummer has collaborated with Nasa who will post the message on their social media pages to help amplify the message across the planet.
Musicians will also celebrate Sir Ringo’s music with tribute performances expected from Ben Harper, Gabe Witcher, Willie Watson, Greg Leisz, Don Was, Ben Dickey and Gregg Bissonette with Steve Dudas.
Source:largsandmillportnews.com
I first saw A Hard Day’s Night at a film festival over 20 years ago, at the insistence of my mum. By then, it was already decades old, but I remember being enthralled by its high-spirited energy.
Still fab after 60 years: how The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night made pop cinema history
Still fab after 60 years: how The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night made pop cinema history
A Beatles fan, mum had introduced me to the band’s records in my childhood. At home, we listened to Please Please Me, the band’s 1963 single, and the Rubber Soul album from 1965, which I loved.
Television regularly showed old black-and-white scenes of Beatlemania that, to a ten-year-old in the neon-lit 1980s, seemed like ancient history. But then, I’d never seen a full-length Beatles film. I had no idea what I was in for.
When the lights went down at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre, the opening chord of the film’s title song announced its intentions: an explosion of youthful vitality, rhythmic visuals, comical high jinks and the electrifying thrill of Beatlemania in 1964.
This time, it didn’t seem ancient at all.
Source: hindustantimes.com
On October 9, 1969, seven weeks and a day after The Beatles' final recording session together at Abbey Road Studios, Giles Martin was born in London. It was John Lennon’s 29th birthday.
On July 7, 2024, The Beatles: Love, the acclaimed Cirque du Soleil show that has run for 18 years, closes permanently in Las Vegas. It will be Ringo Starr’s 84th.
“It’s quite sad. They’re knocking down the casino, and even the powers that be can’t change that,” Martin, 54, laments to The National.
“I was with Paul McCartney last week and we were talking about how long it’s been. It was the first thing I did on this journey, and it changed my life, genuinely speaking – making that show,” he continues. “And I’m very proud of it.”
The show wouldn’t have existed without Martin. In the early aughts, plans for a collaboration between the French circus and the Fab Four nearly fell apart before Martin, the son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin, had an idea of how to make it work.
“The whole thing was collapsing in on itself and out of pure desperation I went to Neil Aspinall, who was the head of the Beatles at the time, and I said to him, ‘I think I can create a show just by chopping up the Beatles tapes.' He was like, ‘well, I’ll give you three months. You have until Christmas, and we’re not going to pay you.’”
Martin was undeterred. The collaboration had been George Harrison’s idea before he died in 2001, as he was friends with the circus’s founder Guy Labierte. Martin wasn’t about to let the whole thing fall apart.
Source: William Mullally/thenationalnews.com
The Beatles arguably the most iconic band to have ever graced the global stage, formed in Liverpool in 1960, yet their legendary music continues to resonate with both young and old fans alike.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr - the celebrated Liverpudlian foursome - crafted a legacy that transcends the confines of Merseyside, sweeping across continents and carving their name into musical history. By 1964, The Fab Four were global sensations, earning the adulation of fans worldwide.
The Beatles not only conquered the UK but also took America by storm, landing stateside on February 7, 1964. But it seems our friends across the pond are only just now clocking onto the clever wordplay behind The Beatles' iconic spelling.
Source: Ariane Sohrabi-Shiraz/liverpoolecho.co.uk
The Beatles rose to prominence in tandem with the hippie movement. Their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club featured psychedelic imagery and linked the band to the countercultural movement. According to those who knew the band, though, they could not stand hippies. George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, spoke about how the band felt about the youth movement.
The Beatles’ later albums reflected changing social trends in the 1960s, and the band members’ appearances shifted as well. While they seemed to fit in with the hippie movement in some ways, Boyd said the band did not like it.
“That whole hippie movement, which by the way, The Beatles found disgusting,” she said in the book All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. “I think the hippie movement … I went to Haight-Ashbury with George. There was really no grace. It was summer and we understood that it was a beautiful and nice, a charming place to go to.”
Source: Emma McKee/MSN
It’s impossible to underestimate the influence of Richard Lester’s Beatles collaboration A Hard Day’s Night, released 60 years ago on 6 July 1964. Its imagery of the Fab Four rapidly entered the lexicon of popular culture, its antic approach to pop music on screen going on to influence everything from fashion, attitudes and culture to music videos and MTV. With an initial background in advertising, Lester’s third feature proved he was an astute and vibrant filmmaker, all but defining the fun, energetic surrealism of 1960s British culture in one fell swoop.
Scripted by Alun Owen, A Hard Day’s Night follows a day in the life of the lads at the height of Beatlemania. John, Paul, George and Ringo, playing themselves, are joined by Paul’s conniving but very clean grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell) as they make their way to a live television concert in London. Unable to be restrained from misadventures by their manager Norm (Norman Rossington) and their roadie Shake (John Junkin), the Fab Four find themselves in the upper echelons of the capital: a world filled with ad agencies, high-end casinos and wine soirées with the music press. With Ringo going AWOL only hours before the show, however, will the group reunite in time for their live broadcast concert?
As the film was intended as promotional material for its music as much as a feature (one which United Artists funded so they could exploit the loophole of being able to distribute the soundtrack), Lester approached the project with his creative verve firing on all cylinders. Rather than simply being a string of music videos, A Hard Day’s Night is a beautiful and atmospheric portrait of London just as it started to swing. From lavish venues to industrial landscapes, all filmed on location, Lester’s film is one of the great London portraits of the decade.
Source: bfi.org.uk
From a self-portrait sketch to a never-before-released ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ drawing, Ocean Blue Galleries, 109 Duval St., offers 50 to 60 limited-edition prints of John Lennon’s artwork July 5 and 6. CONTRIBUTED
Sure, you’ve heard “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” but have you SEEN it?
The song, of course, is one of 73 that John Lennon wrote for The Beatles, but it’s also a drawing, also by Lennon, showing a bespectacled figure in an A-line dress floating above a field.
That drawing, along with dozens of others by John Lennon, are now on display and available for sale at Ocean Blue Galleries, 109 Duval St., Key West. Celebrations of the never-before-released, limited edition prints by John Lennon will take place at the gallery Friday and Saturday, July 5 and 6, from 2 to 7 p.m.
“I’m always shocked by how many people, including some diehard Beatles fans, don’t know about the art component to John Lennon’s career,” said Daniel Crosy, the Los Angeles-based art representative who has been working with Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, for the past 15 years, releasing Lennon’s drawings and handwritten lyric sheets to the art-, music- and peace-loving public.
“Yoko had been releasing some of John’s prints at pop-up galleries and art shows for years, but recently wanted my help in bringing it to the fine art world, and Ocean Blue Galleries is a perfect fit,” said Crosby, who had worked previously with the gallery owners Amber and Jay Shaffer. “The estate of John Lennon has a connection with Key West given its legendary open-mindedness and welcoming atmosphere. And listen, let’s be honest, John Lennon knew how to get his party on, too.”
Source: Mandy Miles/keysweekly.com
