Beatles News
John Lennon, a musical luminary and co-founder of The Beatles, left an indelible mark on the world with his revolutionary approach to songwriting and activism. Born in Liverpool in 1940, Lennon's profound influence extended far beyond the realms of music. His solo career, marked by iconic albums like Imagine, showcased his introspective songwriting. An outspoken advocate for peace, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono staged memorable peace protests. Tragically, Lennon’s life was cut short in 1980 when he was fatally shot outside his New York City apartment, leaving an enduring legacy of musical brilliance and a vision for a more harmonious world.
John Lennon’s doorman recalls terrifying moment
For Jay Hastings, a former doorman at the Dakota, the iconic New York City apartment building that once housed the late John Lennon, the date, December 8, 1980, remains etched in his memory. Hastings shared with People in the latest issue, reflecting on his role during that fateful moment in music history. He said, "I can vividly recall everything as if it happened yesterday.”
At 10:50 p.m. local time, Lennon was tragically shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of the Upper West Side residential building. Within 10 minutes, he was rushed to the nearby Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Source: Samridhi Goel/pinkvilla.com
Paul McCartney said the B-side of The Beatles' song "Let It Be" was a joke. Paul was a huge fan of this joke song.
Paul McCartney said the B-side of The Beatles’ song “Let It Be” was a joke. Paul was a huge fan of this joke song. Notably, the tune wasn’t included on a Beatles album for years.
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of The Beatles’ “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number).” “John had arrived one night with this song which was basically a mantra: ‘You know my name, look up the number. You know my name, look up the number,'” he said. “And I never knew who he was aiming that at, it might have been an early signal to Yoko.”
John never imagined the song as anything more lyrical. “It was John’s original idea and that was the complete lyric,” he said. “He brought it in originally as a 15-minute chant when he was in space-cadet mode and we said, ‘Well, what are we going to do with this then?’ and he said, ‘It’s just like a mantra.’ So we said, ‘OK, let’s just do it.'”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
A rare piece of Beatles' history is hitting the auction block ... a Grammy given to John Lennon is expected to bring in a fortune -- so, something tells us if you wanna come together with this trophy, ya better be a multimillionaire. Gotta Have Rock and Roll, the music memorabilia-based auction house, has a unique Grammy Trustee award given to John as one of its many new lots, and this golden trophy is estimated to make up to $500,000 when it closes next week. John, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney were each given one of the pieces of golden glory in 1972 ... and the one up for auction initially went to John. The Trustee Award is given to those who made significant contributions to the field of recording during their careers as musicians. Source: TMZ Staff
“Are you going to get a haircut at all while you’re here?” a reporter asked The Beatles during their first U.S. press conference at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City on February 7, 1964. “Nope,” said Ringo Starr, followed by a “No, thanks” by Paul McCartney. George Harrison shared “No, I had one yesterday,” and John Lennon added a curt “Nope.”
The Beatles’ long hair caused bewilderment amongst the media and some public backlash by the early 1960s with kids often emulating the mop-top hairdo and facing the consequences at school and how long boys could wear their hair before being reprimanded.
When the Beatles first arrived in America in February of 1964, TIME magazine called their top halves “mushroom haircuts,” while Newsweek referred to them as “sheep-dog bangs.”
Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com
George Harrison and Ringo Starr spent time in the hospital as children. While there, both decided that they wanted to play instruments.
Each of The Beatles became interested in music at a young age. They obsessed over artists like Elvis Presley and began dedicating themselves to learning to play instruments. Both George Harrison and Ringo Starr became interested in playing music while in the hospital. They shared how their lengthy stays made them want to learn to play an instrument.
When Harrison was a preteen, he fell ill with kidney problems.
“I’d just left Dovedale Junior School and gone to the big school, the Liverpool Institute, when I went into hospital. I got sick when I was twelve or thirteen with kidney trouble,”,” he said in The Beatles Anthology, adding, “I always used to get tonsillitis; childhood illnesses. I had a really sore throat, and this one year the infection spread and gave me nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
New bio 'Living The Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans' tells one of the the strangest stories in all of Beatles lore.
Before Peter Jackson’s epic film Get Back, only the most hardcore Beatles fans had any idea who Mal Evans was. But anyone who sees the movie has to come away in love with Mal. He’s the devoted Beatles roadie, one of the only trusted friends in their innermost circle. He’s a cheerful goofball with a jolly grin, banging the anvil when they play “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” The six-six giant who cleverly stalls the cops at the door, when they’re trying to shut down the rooftop performance. Their personal assistant, confidant, fixer, guardian angel. But then, just a few years later, in 1976, he’s in a drug-crazed rage, aiming a rifle at the L.A. cops, and gets gunned down. It’s one of the strangest stories in all of Beatles lore.
Source:Rob Sheffield/rollingstone.com
This John Lennon song was projected to become a No. 1 single. John and Yoko Ono had the same reaction to this news.
Yoko Ono hoped one of John Lennon‘s songs would hit No. 1 on the pop charts. Sadly, it reached that milestone after John’s tragic death. A reporter revealed what John was thinking in the final days of his life.
David Sheff famously interviewed John and Yoko Ono for Playboy in 1980. He wrote about the experience in a 2020 forward to the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “I completed the interview in early September, and it was scheduled to be released in mid-December,” he said. “When, on December 6, [Playboy executive editor] Barry [Golson] got a hot-off-the-press advance copy of the magazine, he messengered it to The Dakota [Apartments, where John and Yoko lived].
“John and Yoko called me in Los Angeles the next day,” Sheff added. “Yoko was pleased with the interview, and she reported they were thrilled that the first single from Double Fantasy, ‘(Just Like) Starting Over,’ was projected to hit No. 1 on the record charts.”
Source:Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Kate Middleton wove emotional tributes into her Together At Christmas carol concert.
On Friday night, the Princess of Wales, 41, hosted the holiday service at Westminster Abbey for the third year in a row. This year's event featured a piece of pop music history in honor of John Lennon and George Michael.
During the program, U.K. radio host and mental health advocate Roman Kemp, 30, the son of pop stars Martin Kemp and Shirlie Holliman, introduced singer-songwriter Jacob Collier’s performance of “Last Christmas,” which he performed on a piano that originally belonged to Beatles frontman Lennon and was once owned by Michael.
“Last Christmas” was originally sung by Michael, Kemp’s late godfather, through his duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1984. Michael died on Christmas Day in 2016, and his godson remembered him at Together At Christmas as a “a man of great kindness and compassion,” adding that he was there in “spirit.”
Source: Janine Henni/people.com
Philip Norman’s competent, professional and highly readable biography can only get so close to its subject
When George Harrison was seven years old, his mother took him on a visit to their Irish cousins in Dublin.
As the Liverpudlians strolled up O’Connell Street, their photograph was taken by Ukrainian immigrant Arthur Fields who snapped over 180,000 people there from the 1930s until his retirement in 1985. This particular image captured what was to become one of the world’s most famous faces, already looking sullen and suspicious.
Source: Andrew Lynch/businesspost.ie
The Jean Nicolas Lambert violin was signed by the pair in a Mallorca restaurant in 1971
A violin signed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono is up for auction on Catawiki, with the starting bid at €35,000.
The violin is owned by Spanish violinist and collector Jose Eugenio Sanz Sampedro, who bought the violin in Madrid in 1965. He worked in an orchestra at the Hotel Castillo Son Vida in Palma de Mallorca from 1970 to 1981.
In the auction item description, the violinist describes witnessing the pair being turned away from the hotel restaurant, as Lennon was not wearing a tie. Lennon later returned to the restaurant with a tie attached to his head, and was then admitted to the restaurant.
He approached Lennon and Ono’s table and performed ‘Yesterday’ for them. ’I asked John if he could sign an autograph for me on the violin which they both kindly did using a pen engraving the names into the wood.’The violin also holds signatures from German conductor James Last, and Carlos Arias Navarro: last Head of Government of Spain during the Franco dictatorship.
Source: thestrad.com
