Beatles News
Best Classic Bands site reports that George Harrison will be the subject of a new biography coming from acclaimed Beatles biographer, Philip Norman. The book will be titled George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle.
It is described as a rare and revealing portrait of the most misunderstood and mysterious Beatle, and is based on decades-long research and unparalleled access to inside sources. The publishing date is set for October 24, 2023, from Scribner in the U.S. and Simon & Schuster in the U.K. Norman is the author of the New York Times bestseller John Lennon: The Life and the million-copy selling Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation.
In its announcement, the publisher notes: “Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.”
Source: Ljubinko Zivkovic/livinglifefearless.co
John Lennon said The Beatles didn't pay much attention to their manager. Still, they didn't want to make music without him.
The Beatles began working with their manager, Brian Epstein, on their rise to fame. He helped them grow as artists and was an essential part of their success. Though he appreciated the way The Beatles changed his life, he once decided he’d had enough of them. The band told him that if he sold them to another label, they would stop making music altogether.
Though Epstein was the band’s manager, he didn’t have all that much power over them.
“Brian could never make us do what we really, really didn’t want to do,” John Lennon said in The Beatles Anthology. “He wasn’t strong enough.”
Epstein grew frustrated with this dynamic, though, and eventually told The Beatles he was going to sell them to another label. They refused to listen to him on this, either.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr lied about his job to impress girls. He shared that this didn't always work out the way he intended it to.
Before The Beatles, Ringo Starr’s career ambitions had a lot to do with what would look good to girls. After recovering from an illness, Starr took a job on a boat with hopes of earning a position at deep sea. He also hoped the position would win him popularity with women. His attempts at flirting didn’t often go well, though.
Starr was sick for much of his childhood. Once he began to recover, he took a job on a local boat, hoping it would launch a career for him.
“Then I worked on the St. Tudno, a pleasure steamer that went from Liverpool to Menai in North Wales,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “I wanted to go deep sea, and this was an easy way to get my ticket. If you did three months on the local boats, it was easier to get on the big liners. I got as far as the day boats, but that was it.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
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"Day Tripper" by Otis Redding (1966)
Since the Beatles had great respect for Redding as an artist, it made sense the soul and R&B legend would take his turn at one of the band's biggest hits. "Day Tripper" seemed like a song made for Redding's special vocal styling. His soulful take on the classic, with Booker T. & the M.G.'s backing him up, is one of the great covers of all time.
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"Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" by Jimi Hendrix (1967)
The legend goes that Hendrix was so captivated by the title track from one of the greatest records of all time that he couldn't wait to play it live on stage. He did so just days after the record was released. In true Hendrix greatness, he shreds from beginning to end without an ounce of pretentiousness. Hendrix was not shy about his respect for the Beatles, and the feeling was mutual, as Paul McCartney would often talk about.
Source: Jeff Mezydlo/yardbarker.com
The Beatles returned in 2023 with their first new single in decades, much to the delight of fans. The band’s “Now And Then” cleverly utilized artificial intelligence technology to allow all four members of the group to contribute to the tune–even though half of the outfit is no longer with us. “Now And Then” became a quick hit on many Billboard charts, but on most of those, it didn’t hold on very long.
The single is still present on a handful of Billboard rankings to this day, months after it was released. As the cut continues to perform well, it has not only become a welcome win for the group, but their longest-charting hit single on a number of lists.
“Now And Then” has spent the most time on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. That tally ranks the most-consumed rock and alternative tracks in the U.S., as its name suggests. The list uses a methodology that combines sales, streams, and radio airplay to show what rocking tunes America loves.
Source: Hugh McIntyre/forbes.com
Paul McCartney cites the crowds as a reason he continues touring as the 'Got Back' tour concludes.
Paul McCartney recently reflected on the “Got Back” tour and revealed why he keeps touring.
“When people ask me, ‘Why do you still do it (touring)?' it's because of the crowds,” McCartney revealed. “Brazil has been fantastic. It's a beautiful nation. When you go on stage with an audience like that, the feedback you get, it's like meeting a dear friend in the street you haven't seen for a long time. But it's that 40,000 times over.”
Since the Beatles' breakup, McCartney has continued going strong. He has released several solo albums and even formed a second band, Wings. As a part of Wings, they embarked on five tours. After Wings' dissolution, McCartney has embarked on 17 solo tours.
The “Got Back” tour was McCartney's first since the pandemic. It kicked off with a show in Spokane, Washington. 15 shows were played across North America, and the tour's first leg culminated with a headlining show at the Glastonbury Festival. In 2023, McCartney and his band hit the road again.
Source: Andrew Korpan/clutchpoints.com
Of course, Paul McCartney‘s work with The Beatles will always be a major calling card. However, his solo work is equally (if not more) impressive. Without his bandmates in tow, he could truly flex the expanse of his musicianship.
McCartney put an onus on writing and performing songs all on his own. A famously particular recording artist, McCartney has been documented making his fellow Beatles record take after take trying to get a song the way he envisioned it. Going at it completely solo likely freed him up from having to relay his vision to those around him. Instead, he simply put pen to paper and notes to tape.
Find the four best songs written and performed solo by McCartney, below.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
A painting by The Beatles will make $600,000 at its auction sale in New York in February if estimates are met.
The picture, Images of a Woman, is jointly credited to all four band members. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr have all clearly signed it.
It will be sold on February 1. The estimate is $400,000 to $600,000.
“It’s such a rarity to have a work on paper outside of their music catalog that is [a] physical relic, this tangible object with contributions from all four of the Beatles,” Casey Rogers of the auctioneers told News Miami. “It’s memorabilia, it’s a work of art… It’s a wonderful piece of storytelling.”
It’s hard to price such a unique item.
A full set of four Beatles signatures can be worth 10s of thousands of pounds with the right context.
The illustrated manuscript of “The Singularge Experience of Miss Anne Duffield,” a Lennon piece from his book, A Spaniard in the Works, fetched $209,000 when it was auctioned in 2014.
This piece is well-known. Its provenance is fully documented. The circumstances of its painting are recorded in most Beatles biographies. It appears in photographs by lensman and Beatles associate Robert Whitaker.
Source: news.justcollecting.com
The Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964 may have brought Beatlemania to North America and inspired a generation of musicians to try their hand at rock'n'roll, but it wasn't the first time the quartet appeared on American TV.
Three months earlier, on the November 18, 1963 edition of the Huntley-Brinkley Report, NBC News' correspondent Edwin Newman anchored a segment which gave US audiences their first taste of the excitement surrounding The Beatles. The broadcast included concert footage filmed at a show at the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth two days earlier, when three American networks – NBC, CBS and ABC – had been given permission to film.
There's no surviving footage from this broadcast – which Newman closed with the sneering comment, "Robert Percival, an artist, proposes to capture the Mersey Sound on canvas. Percival, mercifully, is deaf" – but viewers at home got further chances to acquaint themselves with the band who would change the world. Both NBC and CBS would run news bulletins that took a similar tone (NBC reported that the band made "non-music"), while ABC wouldn't use their footage at all.
Source: Fraser Lewry/loudersound.com
In tribute to the producer, who would have celebrated his 98th birthday today, Radio X picks ten songs of his greatest knob-twiddling, string-wrangling, tape-reversing genius.
"Good George Martin is our friend / Buddy, Pal and Mate / Buy this record and he'll send / A dog for your front gate."
That’s how John Lennon paid tribute to the Beatles producer in the sleeve notes to Big George’s orchestral album of Fab Four tunes, Off The Beatle Track, back in the halcyon days of 1964. Here at Radio X, we’d like to pay tribute to the late musician, arranger and producer, who died aged 90 in March 2016, by picking a handful of tracks that demonstrate his knob-twiddling genius. Thanks George - it wouldn’t have been the same without you.
Twist & Shout (from the album Please Please Me, March 1963)
Source: Martin O'Gorman/radiox.co.uk
