Beatles News
When I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the U.S. charts, Paul McCartney and John Lennon felt the pressure to write another hit song.
The Beatles had already won the hearts of fans in the U.K. and Europe, but soaring to the number one spot on the American charts in February 1964 took their fame to even greater heights. The band's song I Want To Hold Your Hand climbed swiftly to the number one spot in America just days before they landed in New York for their debut U.S. performance.
Dominating the top spot for seven weeks, the song triggered Beatlemania across the States. Amid this frenzy, and while touring in Paris, news of their chart-topping success reached The Beatles, leaving Paul to head straight to their hotel piano to write their next hit.
Paul ended up writing Can't Buy Me Love. Discussing the song, Paul said, "Can't Buy Me Love is my attempt to write a bluesy mode."
He further explained, "The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won't buy me what I really want. It was a very hooky song. Ella Fitzgerald later did a version of it which I was very honored by."
While John openly acknowledged the song was mostly Paul's, he claimed to have contributed to the chorus. Recounting in a 1980 interview, John commented, "That's Paul's completely. Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know. I always considered it his song."
Source: themirror.com/Dan Haygarth
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were each other’s favorite audience. That was plainly clear as the besotted Beatles bantered, bickered and obsessed over the 23 years they were friends and rivals.
Ian Leslie’s new biography “John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs” (Celadon, 436 pp., out now) unpacks their intense and complicated relationship from their first meeting in 1957 to Lennon’s murder in 1980.
Along the way, there’s psychoanalysis (Leslie specializes in writing about human psychology, communication and creativity) and the occasional hair-curling discovery.
Nothing here is entirely new: Leslie relies on previously published interviews and conducted just one himself for the book, with “Let It Be” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. But Leslie does an extraordinary job of providing context for familiar anecdotes, and there are many that will feel surprising.
Among the biggest revelations:
Paul McCartney planned to pursue a solo career if The Beatles never hit it big. The complex relationship between Beatles songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney is the focus of the new book "John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs."
When the Fab Four signed their contract with manager Brian Epstein in 1961, Paul requested a clause allowing Epstein to split up the artists “so that they shall perform as separate individual performers.” Epstein’s assistant, Alistair Taylor, recalled Paul saying he would go solo if things didn’t work out with the band.
Source: usatoday.com
The Beatles biopic is officially happening, which means it's time to brush up on all there is to know about the Fab Four.
Actually, make that biopics—there are four of them: one for Paul McCartney (Paul Mescal), one for Ringo Starr (Barry Keoghan), one for George Harrison (Joseph Quinn), and one for John Lennon (Harris Dickinson). And naturally fan-casting has already started for the giant cast of characters in each of these men's lives. Specifically, their wives and girlfriends.
If you aren't up-to-date on who The Beatles were dating in the 60s due to reasons like not being born yet, let's start with a deep dive on Paul's famous relationships with the likes of Jane Asher and Linda Eastman.
Paul and Dot met at Casbah Club in 1959 and immediately hit it off. As in, they dated for two-and-a-half years and even got engaged. But since their relationship was largely pre mega-fame, not much is known about Dot and there aren't readily available pictures of her and Paul together. In fact, Beatles biographer Bob Spitz told The Globe and Mail, "She was very reluctant at first to talk. This takes her from being a very private person to a very public person. This was a story she had kept to herself for nearly 40 years. It took a lot of time to convince her talk to me. She told me her story very hesitantly, in a halting way. In the manner she told it, I knew it was absolutely accurate."
Source: cosmopolitan.com/Mehera Bonner
Music icon George Harrison never understood Paul McCartney's 'fruity' Abbey Road song.
By 1969, the cracks that had formed between The Beatles during the recording of The White Album and Let It Be had turned into craters and they were on the brink of breaking up. However, they wanted to squeeze out one more hit album, Abbey Road.
Harrison had already quit the band once in January 1969, during the recording of Let It Be, due to rising tension between him and McCartney. He was also fed up with constantly being pushed to the side along with his music and eventually began hating all the tracks McCartney put forth.
Reflecting on his time in The Beatles during a 1977 interview with Crawdaddy, Harrison said: "Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs. I mean, my god, Maxwell's Silver Hammer was so fruity. After a while we did a good job on it, but when Paul got an idea or an arrangement in his head... But Paul's really writing for a 14-year-old audience now anyhow. I missed his last tour, unfortunately."
Whether or not McCartney's songs were good or not, Harrison had grown sick of working on them instead of his own. An over-arching tension began for Harrison during the recording of The White Album. George Harrison didn't like one of Paul McCartney's Abbey Road songs.
Source: themirror.com/Hannah Furnell
Pete Best, the drummer most famous for getting fired from The Beatles before the group shot to international fame, has retired. The news was announced by his brother Roag Best, who wrote on Twitter/X, “Well what an absolutely wonderful ride we’ve had. However, everything comes to pass.” (All Things Must Pass would’ve been too on the nose, we suppose.) “My brother Pete Best has announced today he is retiring from personal appearances and performing with the group. His daughter has informed me it’s due to personal circumstances.” Best (whose handle on the platform is “BeatlesPeteBest”) confirmed the news with a repost, adding, “I had a blast. Thank you.”
Best was an original member of The Beatles, and his family was closely entwined with the group. His mother, Mona Best, owned the Casbah Coffee House where the band played many of its early gigs—the band members even helped her decorate the space—and she became a pseudo-manager for them in their early days. (She shared a son, Roag, with The Beatles’ longtime road manager Neil Aspinall.) But when the band fired Pete in the early 1960s in favor of Ringo Starr, he ended up quitting the music biz for decades, instead becoming a civil servant in their hometown of Liverpool. It wasn’t until the late ’80s that he returned to the stage, eventually becoming the frontman of The Pete Best Band. According to his website, his group “captures the sound of the Beatles in their formative years – the early years for many ‘was’ The Beatles.”
Source: avclub.com
Paul McCartney’s Venus and Mars charts again in the U.S. after a massive 5,435% sales spike.
Paul McCartney doesn’t need to release anything new to bring himself back on the Billboard charts, though, of course, he’s not yet done creating. The legendary musician appears on a pair of rankings this week — not under his own name, but rather with the moniker he used during one of the most successful periods of his post-Beatles career. As fans raced to get their hands on a reissued version of a decades-old title, the beloved project experiences a surge in sales.
Wings’s Venus and Mars is back on two Billboard charts. The full-length reappears on the Vinyl Albums tally at No. 23 and also lands on the Top Album Sales ranking, where it settles at No. 45. The set isn’t brand new, but now it’s back in the conversation in the music industry, if only for a short time, as interest in the collection grew exponentially.
Venus and Mars is now back among the bestselling vinyl titles in the U.S. for just the second time ever. It once climbed as high as No. 11 on that ranking, nearly giving Wings a top 10 on a list that didn’t even exist when the album first arrived.
Over on the Top Album Sales tally, the collection has only spent a total of three frames as one of the top-selling releases in the country. The highest it’s ever climbed on that chart is No. 31, so while this latest return at No. 45 doesn’t mark a new peak, it’s also not too far from it’s best showing.
Source: forbes.com/Hugh McIntyre
She told the story of how she met Ringo Starr
The allure of the Beatles endures around the globe, with their music continuing to enchant audiences, and forthcoming major films about the band's lives generating immense interest. Consequently, numerous stories regarding the '60s music legends persist in circulating. One particularly fascinating account provides a glimpse into what it was like to date Ringo Starr prior to his rise to fame.
A woman's brother shared a story on Reddit, asserting that she met Ringo, then known by his real name, Richard Starkey, while at Butlin's in North Wales. According to the story, the two allegedly began dating after meeting at the popular British holiday resort.
The brother penned: "My sister dated Ringo at Butlin's in North Wales before he joined the Beatles. When the Beatles first televised appearance came out on UK TV in 1962, I (10M) and my sister (18F) both watched it.
"She suddenly sat bolt upright in her chair and said 'I know him! That's Dick Starkey'. Ringo had been playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes at a Butlin's 'holiday camp', or Stalag as it was known to the clients, that our extended family went to, and it turns out she had a little vacation fling with him."
The story has left people stunned, and many took to social media to express their astonishment at the extraordinary tale. They just couldn't get over how the pair allegedly met.
A gobsmacked follower commented: "That's wild. She must have some story about it all. Pretty unique situation. 'Stalag' is equally wild. Good grief." Another enthusiast was quick to exclaim: "That is just so crazy awesome!" Someone else wrote: "How cool!"
Source: express.co.uk/Katie-Ann Gupwell
Before there was a documentary. Before the rooftop reunion. There was The Beatles Anthology—their story, told in their own words, in one unforgettable volume. Now, 25 years later, it’s back.
The landmark international bestseller—The Beatles’ own story, in their own words—reissued on the 25th anniversary of its first publication.From their years growing up in Liverpool through their ride to fame to their ultimate breakup, here’s the inside story. Interwoven with The Beatles’ own memories are the recollections of such associates as road manager Neil Aspinall, producer George Martin, and spokesman Derek Taylor.
The Beatles Anthology is a once-in-a-lifetime volume: warm, frank, funny, poignant, and bold—just like the music that’s been a part of so many of our lives. The Beatles Anthology is, for the first time, the story of The Beatles by The Beatles. Created with the full cooperation of Paul, George, Ringo, and Yoko Ono Lennon, it also includes the words of John, painstakingly compiled from sources worldwide. The Beatles Anthology is, in effect, The Beatles autobiography.
The Beatles Anthology features over 1300 images, most previously unpublished. Paul, George, Ringo, and Yoko Ono Lennon all opened their own archives just for this project, as did Apple, EMI, and others long associated with The Beatles, allowing the unprecedented release of photographs, documents, and other memorabilia from their homes and offices. The result is an extraordinary wealth of visual material brimming on each and every page.
Source: thatericalper.com/Eric Alper
New book Words Of Love celebrates the life of the late rock and roll musician and songwriter Buddy Holly as Sir Paul McCartney reveals how he inspired The Beatles.
A new book shows Buddy Holly as you've never seen him before - including without his trademark glasses.
Buddy Holly: Words Of Love celebrates the life of the late rock and roll musician and songwriter and the inspiration he had on many of the greatest musicians of the last six decades. Released this week in hardback, the book documents Holly's career and legacy through a collection of never-before-seen photography and personal items as well as stories from those close to him.
One shot in an open neck checked shirt shows him without glasses aged 17 and was taken from his 1954 school yearbook. He is also shown in an oversized white or cream jacket on stage in Tampa, Florida from January 1957 when he supported Hank Thompson.
The following month in February 1957, Buddy would rehearse and re-record That'll Be The Day with his new band the Crickets. It would achieve widespread success and go gold with more than a million sales in the US.
Born in 1939 the book also traces things right back to his childhood and his first radio shows in 1953 at the age of just 14 where he performed in Lubbock, Texas.
Source: mirror.co.uk/Mark Jefferies
In 1969, as Abbey Road climbed the charts, a strange rumor exploded across college campuses and late-night radio waves: Paul McCartney was dead. According to the theory, Paul died in a fiery car crash in late 1966, and rather than devastate fans worldwide, the remaining Beatles — with alleged help from British intelligence — replaced him with a lookalike named Billy Shears. To ease their guilt or slyly share the truth, they began leaving cryptic clues in lyrics, album artwork, and even backmasked recordings. The result? A full-blown pop culture phenomenon that had fans poring over Beatles records like ancient scrolls.
Here are 20 of the most iconic and widely cited “Paul is dead” clues that kept a generation of fans guessing.
1. “Turn Me On, Dead Man” – Revolution 9
When fans played the experimental White Album track Revolution 9 in reverse, many claimed to hear the phrase “Turn me on, dead man” repeated clearly. This eerie line, combined with the track’s already nightmarish soundscape, seemed to point directly to a hidden message about Paul’s death, sparking one of the theory’s most persistent audio clues.
2. Abbey Road as a Funeral Procession
The Abbey Road cover became Exhibit A for the conspiracy. John, dressed in white, was interpreted as a priest; Ringo, in black, the undertaker; George, in denim, the gravedigger; and Paul — barefoot, out of step with the others, and holding a cigarette in his right hand despite being left-handed — was seen as the corpse. Fans believed this “funeral procession” was a symbolic farewell to the real Paul.
Source: thatericalper.com/Eric Alper
