Beatles News
The most-streamed Beatles song has over a billion streams
The Beatles are undoubtedly one of the most influential and successful bands in music history, dominating the 1960s and shaping the future of rock and pop music.
With over 600 million albums sold worldwide, they revolutionized the industry through their innovative songwriting, studio experimentation, and unmatched cultural impact. However, much of their success was built in an era before digital streaming. The Beatles were kings of vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, and radio airplay, long before Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube became the dominant ways of consuming music.
Despite this, The Beatles continue to thrive in the modern streaming age, with their songs racking up hundreds of millions - and in some cases, billions - of streams. Based on official Spotify streaming figures, here are The Beatles’ top 10 most streamed songs, ranked from 10 to 1.
10. ‘Help!’
With over 300 million streams on Spotify, ‘Help!’ was released in 1965 as the title track for both the Beatles' fifth studio album and second feature film, reflecting John Lennon’s growing stress under the pressures of fame. Lennon later admitted that ‘Help!’ was a genuine cry for assistance during a turbulent time in his life. Its upbeat tempo contrasts with the vulnerability in the lyrics, marking a pivotal moment in the band’s evolution.
Source: express.co.uk/Maria Leticia Gomes
An artist isn’t always the best indicator of which songs will be well-received. They have their own opinions about how a recording session goes that aren’t always indicative of success. That was the case with one Beatles song and John Lennon. Despite fans chalking “Across the Universe” up to being a masterpiece, Lennon thought it was badly recorded.
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me
Jai guru deva, om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
“Across the Universe” was penned by Lennon and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. Many fans consider this track one of the Beatles’ best compositions. It’s very Lennon, with its off-kilter lyrics and warbly instrumentation. Despite his high hopes for this track, Lennon felt it fell short. Though it’s not an opinion shared by many, Lennon made his feeling well known.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
What do you do if you are John Lennon at the height of Beatlemania and you want to get away from it all? You go home.
But peace didn’t last long. The country house gave Lennon refuge, but it also brought boredom. So he did nothing. Until he wrote “Nowhere Man.”
Lennon had escaped to his home in Weybridge, England, in an attempt to hide away from the mass hysteria surrounding The Beatles. But the silence became too much to tolerate. After a while at home, he felt isolated.
He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
He told author David Sheff, “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down.”
Sheff’s interviews with Lennon (and Yoko Ono) are compiled in his book All We Are Saying (2000). The interviews were first published in Playboy in November 1980. Lennon was murdered a month later.
Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Lazy Days
In 1966, Lennon told the Evening Standard he was “physically lazy.” He said, “I don’t mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with anymore.”
However, writing “Nowhere Man” is doing something. The idea of sitting around with nothing to do created a temporary writer’s block. But once Lennon stopped thinking about anything, the song came to him. He quit trying to write. Gave up to sleep.
Source: americansongwriter.com/americansongwriter.com
You may think Ringo Starr is more Abbey Road than Music Row, but the iconic Beatles drummer says he's always had a soft spot for country music.
Starr will celebrate his longtime love for the genre alongside country greats like Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow at the world-famous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in a new 2-hour concert special called "Ringo & Friends at the Ryman," airing Monday, March 10 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
"When I was a teenager with Hank Williams and people like that the name of the game was to get here," he told CBS News senior culture correspondent Anthony Mason in an interview for "CBS Mornings" while walking backstage at the Ryman, once home of the Grand Ole Opry. "Peace, love and country music"
Mason met up with Starr at the start of his 2-day country "tour" at the Ryman following the release of his new country music album, "Look Up," produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett.
Source: cbsnews.com/Anthony Mason, Jennifer Earl
Considering he was one of the most famous people on the planet, George Harrison probably didn’t need too much urging to sing about the damage that can be done by unfounded gossip. When he stumbled upon a clever phrase to represent this phenomenon, he was off and running.
“Devil’s Radio” turned out to be one of the high-energy highlights of Cloud Nine, the 1987 album that rocketed Harrison back to the top of the rock and roll world. His sharp wit is ever-present on the song, although it can’t quite hide his obvious disgust for loose talk.
To Beat the “Devil”
The credits list for “Devil’s Radio” gives you an idea of how many big names were itching to work with George Harrison as he reentered the pop music arena after years away. Eric Clapton plays lead guitar, Elton John adds piano, producer Jeff Lynne handles the bass, and Harrison’s Beatle buddy Ringo Starr lays down the beat on drums.
They combined to make a formidable noise on the song. But it’s Harrison at center stage, as he was throughout the Cloud Nine album, writing, singing, and playing with renewed vigor.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
Whenever you release music into the world, you’re no longer in control of how the public will interpret a song’s meaning—something Paul McCartney quickly learned once people started imbuing Beatles songs with extra messages and references the Fab Four didn’t intend to make. On the one hand, these different perceptions are what makes music such an interesting, universal experience.
But on the other hand, it’s rarely a pleasant experience to have someone put words in your mouth. In a 1967 interview with British artist and graphic designer Alan Aldridge, McCartney clarified what some Beatles lyrics actually meant and, perhaps more importantly, what they didn’t. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” Wasn’t An Ode To LSD
The Beatles’ iconic track “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is the third song on the A-side of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a concept album that marked the height of the Fab Four’s psychedelic phase. Consequently, many people believed “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was an ode to LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, a potent hallucinogen commonly referred to as acid. Paul McCartney told interviewer Alan Aldridge that the connection was “cunning” but that the band “never thought about it.”
“What happened was that John’s son, Julian, did a drawing at school and brought it home, and he has a schoolmate called Lucy, and John said, ‘What’s that?’ And he said, ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds.’ So, we had a nice title. We did the whole thing like an Alice in Wonderland idea, being in a boat on the river, slowly drifting downstream. This Lucy was God, the big figure, the white rabbit. You can just write a song with imagination on words, and that’s what we did.” “Fixing a Hole” Wasn’t About Injectable Drugs.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
John Lennon’s I Am the Walrus Beatles lyrics deciphered by music expert
One of John Lennon’s favourite of his Beatles songs is 1967’s I Am the Walrus. Arguably the most cryptic of the Fab Four’s tracks, fans have debated the meaning behind the lyrics’ surreal imagery for decades.
In fact, the late star wrote it to confuse people who were overanalysing the band’s songs, such as Strawberry Fields Forever. In reality, it was partially inspired by two of his LSD trips and Lewis Carroll’s famous 1971 poem The Walrus and the Carpenter.
Now, professional musician Margrét Juliana Sigurdardottir, founder of Moombix, an online platform specialising in adult music education, has shared her thoughts on the true meaning of Lennon’s I Am the Walrus lyrics.
“The song begins with a phrase that sounds philosophical but remains open to interpretation. It suggests a sense of togetherness and equality. We are all interconnected, sharing in the same human experience despite our apparent differences. This sense of interconnectedness may possibly be influenced by Lennon's interest in Eastern philosophy, which was blossoming in the late 1960s.
Source: express.co.uk/George Simpson
Critics and music lovers have been scouring the Beatles discography for deeper hidden meanings and profound messages from the Fab Four for decades, but the track Paul McCartney chose as his iconic band’s “most philosophical song” is honestly a bit surprising. To his credit, McCartney offered his pick for the most metaphysical Beatles song in 1967, which predates albums like their eponymous “White Album,” Abbey Road, and their final record, Let It Be.
Nevertheless, even in 1967, McCartney’s choice seems a little odd. But then again, maybe that’s a consequence of assuming philosophy needs to be complex and near-indecipherable.
Paul McCartney Picks Most Philosophical Beatles Song
In 1967, Paul McCartney sat down for an interview with British artist, designer, and illustrator Alan Aldridge. The contemporaries discussed hidden meanings behind Beatles songs that, for the most part, McCartney said were largely fan-produced. “We write songs. We know what we mean by them,” he said. “But in a week, someone else says something about it, says that it means that as well, and you can’t deny it. Things take on millions of meanings. I don’t understand it.”
These “millions of meanings” include covert references to psychedelics, á la “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Other misinterpretations included “Dr. Robert,” who some believed to be a psychiatrist, when in actuality, the character was just an inside joke in the Fab Four about doctors who freely prescribed pills in the States.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
McCartney started with the man in the mirror. He released his first solo album in 1970, only a week after he announced his departure from the world's favorite rock band. The album wasn't a polished work like people had come to expect from The Beatles. After years of creating music to be perfect, grand, and complete, McCartney made an experimental stripped-back album. The very personal project was fittingly titled McCartney. His next album was a joint venture from him and his wife, Linda McCartney; Ram is a work of familial love. While it wasn't beloved by critics at the time, putting years between the listening experience and the immediate sting of grief many felt post-Beatlemania reveals an honest and joyful celebration of domesticity.
It wasn't long before Paul McCartney found himself back in a band. A year after the end of The Beatles, McCartney formed Paul McCartney and Wings, also known simply as Wings. This group is perhaps the most successful venture McCartney had after The Beatles.
Source: screenrant.com/Rebekah Hendricks
We are getting our first look at Ringo Starr’s upcoming CBS special, Ringo & Friends at the Ryman.
The network has shared a clip of Ringo performing his solo track “It Don’t Come Easy,” joined by Sheryl Crow, country star Mickey Guyton and Americana artist Molly Tuttle.
Ringo & Friends at the Ryman premieres Monday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+. It was recorded during Ringo’s two nights at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in January, following the release of his new country album, Look Up.
Other special guests joining Ringo during the show include Jack White, Brenda Lee, Billy Strings, Rodney Crowell and The War and Treaty.
Source: kshe95.com
