Beatles News
The Beatles, in the year 2023, have a hit song.
In the first chart week following the release of the song “Now And Then,” the track topped the U.K. singles chart. Official Charts notes it’s the band’s 18th No. 1 single in their native country. It’s also their first No. 1 single in 54 years since “The Ballad of John and Yoko” topped the charts in 1969.
“Now And Then” is also the most-streamed Beatles song in one week ever in the U.K. The new single netted over 5.03 million streams in one week of release. The next highest streaming figure in one week came in 2021 when “Here Comes the Sun” was streamed 1.05 million times.
Meanwhile, in the United States, “Now And Then” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 7, which is The Beatles’ 35th top 10 single. This is The Beatles’ first top 10 song on the Hot 100 since the release of “Free as a Bird” from Anthology in 1996.
Citing Luminate, Billboard notes “Now And Then” had “11 million streams, 2.1 million in radio reach and 73,000 physical and digital singles sold.”
Source: Erica Banas // Rock Music Reporter/rock929rocks.com
Joni Mitchell and John Lennon famously wrote beautiful songs but their feud got surprisingly ugly.
Joni Mitchell was mad at John Lennon due to unwanted advice he gave her about her music.
Mitchell resented Lennon's comments.
Elvis Presley also reportedly hated Lennon.
Similar to influential bands like Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell is an icon who has changed the course of music history. Given everything that Mitchell accomplished, it certainly seems like her peers like John Lennon should have praised her.
Even though the two celebrated artists seemed to have a lot in common, however, Lennon made remarks that insulted Mitchell. In response, the beloved folk singer seemed to be extremely angry with the former member of The Beatles.
Source: Matthew Thomas/thethings.com
Even though it's received reverent reviews, Ringo Starr has issues with The Beatles' "Rain." "Rain" was a hit in the United States, but it didn't chart in the United Kingdom.Even though it’s received reverent reviews from music critics, Ringo Starr criticized The Beatles’ “Rain.” He compared it to other songs that feature his drumming. While “Rain” was a hit in the United States, it didn’t even chart in the United Kingdom.
During a 2015 interview with Goldmine, Ringo discussed his drumming on “Rain.” “It’s not my best playing; it’s just different,” he said. “I played ‘Rain’ and I’ve never played like it since or before it. It’s very busy for me.”
“I always tend to take the fill half-time whereas with that song it was full-on [smacks his hands] fast!” he added. “If anyone asks me about my strangest drumming, it’s ‘Rain.’ I don’t think it’s the best I ever played and I don’t think it’s the most inventive I’ve ever played but it’s certainly different than 99% of everything else I’ve played.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr revealed “Back Off Boogaloo” was an accident that came about when he was working with George Harrison. Ringo explained how "Back Off Boogaloo" fits into his songwriting discography.
Ringo Starr‘s “Back Off Boogaloo” is so good that one listen should be enough to give any of the former Beatle’s detractors pause. During an interview, Ringo revealed that the song was a happy accident that came about when he was working with George Harrison. The “It Don’t Come Easy” singer explained how “Back Off Boogaloo” fits into his discography as a songwriter.
During a 2015 interview with Goldmine, Ringo discussed the origin of “Back Off Boogaloo.” “‘Back Off Boogaloo’ is an incredible example of how accidents are sometimes fabulous when coming up with a song,” he said.
“You see, George wanted me to play that pattern on the bass drum but the problem is I’m not that efficient as a drummer,” he added. “I can’t go [imitates a beat] and play regular. So I started doing it on the snare and it worked a treat. You know, it was just out of the blue.” George and Ringo were credited as co-writers on “Back Off Boogaloo.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr is sometimes overlooked in The Beatles. In Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary, there are times when Starr waits passively while John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison work out their arguments.
Remember When: Alan Jackson Protests on Behalf of His Idol at the CMA Awards
But Starr’s swinging groove was an essential and vastly under-appreciated part of The Beatles’ sound. Though outshadowed by the other lads, occasionally Ringo grabbed the mic and stepped out front—as he would with a number of successful solo albums and his ever-evolving All-Starr Band on stage.
But here are the five most high-profile times Ringo Starr stepped into the spotlight as the lead singer of the greatest band in rock ‘n’ roll history.
1. “Yellow Submarine” from Revolver (1966)
Revolver was a groundbreaking album. Innovative and musically diverse, The Beatles experimented with tape loops and double-tracking, using the recording studio as an instrument. Starr leads the band through “Yellow Submarine” and its singsong chorus, whose whimsy might make it the most Ringo-sounding song there is. The tune could be mistaken for a children’s song if not for the lyrical fragments that sure sound like one of the song’s writers (“Yellow Submarine” was a true Lennon/McCartney composition) was describing an LSD trip.
Source: Thom Donovan/americansongwriter
On Nov. 2, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr of the Beatles dropped a single titled “Now and Then,” which they have proclaimed is “the last Beatles song.” This track features vocal and instrumental tracks from the two deceased members of the Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison.
John Lennon originally sang the demo for “Now and Then” in the ’70s, and the tapes were given to the Beatles by Lennon’s partner Yoko Ono in the ’90s. While Harrison, McCartney, and Starr attempted to rework the song in the ’90s, Lennon’s vocals were too obscured by the track’s piano backing to be usable.
Today’s version of “Now and Then” was created thanks to new developments in AI audio software. “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson’s studio WingNut Films remixed a few Beatles demos for the Disney+ film “The Beatles: Get Back” in 2021. While working on the film, Jackson’s studio also managed to parse out a usable version of Lennon’s voice in the “Now and Then” demo. McCartney and Starr then added Harrison’s ’90s recordings to the track as well as their own modern vocals. Besides aiding the production of the song, Jackson also directed the “Now and Then” music video, which includes vintage footage of Harrison and Lennon edited alongside their aged bandmates.
Source: thecrimson.com
Ringo Starr wasn't impressed with the interviewers, and that was evident at the start when Paul McCartney was brought up.
Ringo Starr doesn't shy away from Paul McCartney questions and the two are still close friends, according to a recent interview.
Starr had a short fuse during an interview on Loose Women, even asking the panel to get the Paul McCartney questions out of the way.
Starr no longer signs autographs due to his signature being sold online, but he still maintains a strong friendship with McCartney.
Ringo Starr isn't afraid to speak the truth and that held true when he put a Beatles conspiracy theory to bed. The Beatles band member might've also have a short fuse during interviews. According to Sherrie Hewson, that was the case both on and off camera during Loose Women.
We'll take a look back at the interview and how things went off the rails at the start. In addition, we're going to reveal how things just got worse behind the camera when Starr refused to sign autographs for the fans.
Source: Alex Passa/thethings.com
The group made history last week when Now And Then topped the singles chart a record 54 years after The Beatles’ last number one single with The Ballad Of John And Yoko in June 1969.
Reissues of the foursome’s greatest hits compilations, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, are now looking to enter the charts 50 years on from their original release in 1973.
Commonly referred to as the Blue Album due to its artwork, 1967-1970 is set to enter at number one whilst 1962-1966, otherwise known as the Red Album, is likely to take the number two spot.
The history of The Beatles’ new single Now And Then spans nearly five decades, beginning with the home demo made by John Lennon on a cassette in the late 1970s, a few years before he was shot dead aged 40 in 1980.
Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, passed the tape to Sir Paul McCartney in the early 1990s and he worked on the recording with fellow Beatles members Sir Ringo Starr and George Harrison, who died in 2001.
They decided that the sound was too poor for use but in 2022 software was able to isolate Lennon’s voice from the original recording, which was then used as the basis for the current version of the song.
Source: PA Media/news.stv.tv
George Martin probably had more claim than anyone on Earth to the title of the Fifth Beatle.
He not only produced (almost) everything The Beatles recorded in their peerless eight-year recording career, but also played on oodles of it, and helped push the band further than anyone in pop with their joint studio experiments.
Less than impressed by a demo tape of the band sent by Brian Epstein, a sympathetic Martin agreed to give The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and, at that time, Pete Best – an in-person tryout at Abbey Road.In the flesh, things didn't go any better. The not-yet Fab Four set up at Studio Two on June 6, 1962, and after some difficulties with McCartney's amp, eventually got going with a run through Consuelo Velazquez's 'Besame Mucho'.
Source: Mayer Nissim/goldradiouk.com
The Beatles icon has discussed Guns N' Roses' famous cover of the Wings single and how his kids' friends never believed he wrote it.
Sir Paul McCartney was happy when Guns N' Roses covered Live and Let Die, but remembers how his children's friends at school wouldn't believe their dad wrote it.
The legendary Beatle penned the Wings track with his wife Linda McCartney for the 1973 Bond film of the same name and he remembered his shock at hearing the US rock band cover it almost two decades later.
Speaking on his A Life In Lyrics podcast, he said: "I thought it was pretty good actually. I was more amazed that they would actually do it, this young American group.
"The interesting thing was my kids would go to school and they would go, ‘My dad wrote that.’ They’d go, ‘No he didn’t, it was Guns N’ Roses,’ so nobody would ever believe them. For a while it was just Guns N’ Roses."
He added: "I was very happy that they had done it. I always like people doing my songs."
Source: radiox.co.uk
