Beatles News
Has there ever been a rock record more lush than The Beatles’ 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Putting the work on your vinyl record player feels as much like walking into a jungle of sound as it does listening to a recorded bit of music.
Combing through an album like that can be one of the most fun things to do, but whittling it down to its top three songs—now that’s a difficult task. But it’s one we here at American Songwriter took on! These are the three best songs from The Beatles’ 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“With A Little Help From My Friends” (Track 2, 2:42)
Just about every album from The Beatles includes a song where drummer Ringo Starr sings. It provides an almost cartoonish respite as you meander through the modern art museum that is the rest of the album. But to pigeon hole Starr as some silly performer is way too shallow. He is your avatar in the band. To think you might have John Lennon’s, Paul McCartney’s, or George Harrison’s talent is absurd. But Ringo? He is you. So, be kind.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” (Track 3, 3:28)
Only The Beatles can follow “With A Little Help From My Friends” sung by Ringo Starr with “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”. One of the most neighborly classic rock songs ever followed by one of the most psychedelic and transcendent? That’s a winning combination, it turns out. But would other bands have the courage? Well, The Beatles did and that’s why they are who they are.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jacob Uitti
Sometimes a single side-by-side comparison can say more than a full timeline. That’s exactly what happened when two photos of John Lennon taken just one year apart started circulating online.
In a post on Reddit, fans pointed out how dramatically his appearance changed between 1966 and 1967—sparking a wider conversation about how quickly things were evolving during that era. A Visual Shift That Feels Bigger Than One Year
At first glance, the difference between the two photos is striking. In one, Lennon appears polished and aligned with the clean-cut image associated with early Beatlemania. In the other, the look is noticeably more relaxed and experimental.
While it’s technically just a one-year gap, the contrast feels much larger. It captures a moment when not just his style, but the entire direction of the band, was beginning to shift.That’s what makes the comparison feel so significant.
Source: aol.com/Vinyl & Velvet
Love triangles go along with Rock 'N' Roll. There have been many tangled romances throughout music history, and they often fuel emotions that create classic songs. But one famous love triangle was named the "messiest musician love triangle that rocked the music world."
According to Ranker, the #1 spot belongs to the love triangle among music legends Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and Pattie Boyd. "George Harrison, like the other members of the Beatles, was no stranger to romantic drama, much of which centered on his wife, Pattie Boyd, and his good friend and collaborator, Eric Clapton," Ranker wrote. The good news is that the twisted love story produced at least three iconic songs.
But what exactly went down? Pattie Boyd Met George Harrison on a Film Shoot & He Proposed to Her Immediately.
People described Boyd as "the iconic fashion model whose style and beauty helped define an era." According to the magazine, she was married to both Harrison and Clapton; Harrison wrote "Something" with her in mind, and Clapton wrote both Layla and Wonderful Tonight about Boyd.
She told her side in a book of photos. According to People, she met Beatle Harrison on a film set, and he proposed to her just moments after their first meeting. She had a boyfriend, but they soon broke up, and she started dating Harrison, a relationship that would last a decade. They married in 1966.
Clapton wrote Layla about Boyd when she was still married to Harrison, according to Christie's.
"So I went up to the flat and he put on a cassette, and it was Layla," Boyd told Christie's, which auctioned off some of her letters and photos. "It was inspired by a 12th-century Persian tale called The Story of Layla and Majnun about a young poet whose unrequited love turns him mad, and it was so passionate and full of love and raw emotion. I was taken aback by its beauty — but at the same time I felt guilt."
Source: yahoo.com/Jessica McBride
The Beatles released a lot of music over the course of their career, and there’s no doubt some songs are better than others. So, which Beatles songs are the best?
Of course, the answer to that is subjective, but Collider has some thoughts, and it just came out with its choices for the 10 most “perfect” Beatles tunes, noting songs were chosen based on “songwriting, musical construction, overall influence, and the song's impact on the band's musical evolution.”
Topping the list is the 1968 classic "Hey Jude," which Paul McCartney wrote for Julian Lennon after John Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia Lennon.
"Whether it's tears of triumph or pain, 'Hey Jude" is a song meant to make you feel something," the mag writes. "It's what music is all about, after all."
Coming in at #2 is 1969’s "Come Together," followed by 1970’s "Let It Be" at #3, 1968’s "Blackbird" at #4 and 1964’s "A Hard Day’s Night" at #5.
Rounding out the top 10 are: "In My Life," "All You Need Is Love," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Yesterday" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand."
Source: yahoo.com/Jill Lances
The Beatles’ songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked in several different ways. In the early days, they did indeed write some songs together in a room, line by line. Later, one would often bring a song more or less complete. The other then suggested changes.
On a few occasions, the two men were working on separate songs. And they combined these separate creations into a magnificent whole. Here are three hybrids delivered by Lennon and McCartney for The Beatles. “A Day In The Life”
Many people consider “A Day In The Life” to be the pinnacle of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership and the finest Beatles song ever. That such an achievement came from two unique songs sort of crammed together is a marvel in itself. John Lennon created the ethereal main part, based in part on his struggles to find much meaning in anything that daily life could offer him. Needing something to connect the sections of Lennon’s song, Paul McCartney suggested a number with a jumpy rhythm that he was concocting. McCartney’s lyrics touched on the hassles of the typical morning routine. Give credit to George Martin for helping the two songs not only seamlessly transition one into another but also eventually meld into a unified whole in the final verse. The crazy orchestral flourish somehow captured everything the lyrics were trying to express.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
The Beatles legend, Sir Paul McCartney has shared that he mended his friendship with John Lennon, and their shared love of baking served as the catalyst to their friendship.
The pair's relationship became frosty around the time of The Beatles split in 1970 but Paul has now opened up about how the childhood friends grew close again in the years after the break-up, reports ‘Female First UK’.
Speaking in Audible's new Words + Music series The Man on the Run, Paul explained the pair started talking about fatherhood after John welcomed son Sean in 1975 and they went on to bond over bread.
He said, "Eventually we were actually able to talk to each other instead of (arguing). It was more chatting about what we were doing. John had Sean so he was now the father of a young baby so we would talk about kids and domestic things. I had started making bread and was getting pretty good you know and I started talking to him and he was like, 'Oh yeah I'm making bread'”.
“So the things we had in common were just the ordinary little domestic things. Somehow that was peaceful. It was nice that we had that in common. And we weren’t fighting anymore. So I would go and visit him and we had quite a bit of interaction, and the same with George and Ringo. It was all getting much nicer”, he added.
Source: newsgram.com/IANS Agency
There was always a sense of friendly competition between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The former songwriting partners always compared their writing, and their individual solo careers only exacerbated that. Once the pair parted ways, they penned songs about one another—some of which were pretty nasty. But, underneath any jealousy-induced squabbles was a deep-seated respect. That respect eventually allowed them to become friends again shortly before Lennon was murdered in New York.
That respect also reared its head after Lennon heard one particular McCartney solo effort. It was so good that, apparently, Lennon decided he needed to get into the studio after hearing it. Find out which McCartney song made his former partner want to start writing again below.
McCartney got a little weird on his 1980 solo track, “Coming Up.” This song saw the former Beatle use pitched-up vocals and an era-defining musicality. It marked a departure from the sound many expected from McCartney and went on to impress even the toughest of crowds: Lennon.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
Paul McCartney’s new album will be called The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, according to his brother Mike McCartney.
In a grammatically loose post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) Mike said “Josh saw this teaser for r kids new album ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ in Liverpool yestas. It was familiar to him as he had designed the Dungeon Lane(Speke) artwork for his Uncle”
Josh is Mike’s son, Paul’s nephew and “r kid” is an abbreviation of ‘Our Kid’ which is of course an affectionate term for a sibling, particularly a brother, in Liverpool. Dungeon Lane is a road in Speke, a suburb of Liverpool near what is now Liverpool John Lennon Airport, about a 15 minute drive from Paul’s old house in Forthlin Road. The postcode area is L24
A website has also been set up, with the URL theboysofdungeonlane.com which currently displays the artwork.
The title suggests Paul’s new album, at least in part, will have a nostalgic element to it, perhaps with references to The Beatles in their early days (‘Early Days’ was actually a song on 2013’s New). With Paul turning 84 on his next birthday (in June) it is hardly surprising that he’s thinking about where it all began. The Boys Of Dungeon Lane will be Paul’s 19th solo studio album (20th if you include Ram, which technically isn’t a solo album) and his first since the ‘rockdown’ release of McCartney III in 2020.
Source: superdeluxeedition.com
Even as his early creative peak, George Harrison would typically be given two slots to fill on Beatles albums. That tends to happen when your bandmates are named John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The Beatles split in 1970 and Harrison quite understandably began his solo career with a backlog of great songs. He came roaring onto the charts: Every single Harrison issued over the first five years of his solo career reached the Billboard Top 40 – and two of them hit No. 1.
He'd add four more Top 40 hits, including another No. 1 hit, before taking a break from music in the early-'80s. Then, as before, Harrison returned with a clutch of great songs in the early '00s. How George Harrison Staged a Remarkable Comeback.
Harrison would score the most recent solo Beatles U.S. No. 1 song during a period of late-'80s rebirth. He almost cracked the Top 20 twice with two other singles in this same era – and then was halted just outside the U.K. Top 40 with 1990's "Nobody's Child" with the Traveling Wilburys.
There were some strange anomalies, too. Harrison scored a hit in his native U.K. with the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," but the single only reached No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their follow-up single, the then-ubiquitous "End of the Line," somehow stalled at No. 63 on the main charts – and got no further than No. 52 in the U.K. (Both were No. 2 smash singles on Billboard's mainstream rock chart.)
As with his former bandmate Lennon, Harrison's music would revisit the top of the charts in the wake of his too-early death. A reworked version of his first-ever chart-topping smash soared to No. 1 again in the U.K. amid mourning after Harrison lost a battle with cancer.
Source: ksenam.com/Nick DeRiso
The Beatles' Legendary Hit Song Held the No. 1 Spot on the Billboard Charts for 9 Straight Weeks.
In a conversation about the biggest Beatles' song of all time, a lot of timeless tracks may come to mind. The legendary band boasts a rich discography, many of which weren't just critically praised but were also commercially successful. That includes songs like "Let It Be," "Can't Buy Me Love," "She Loves You," "Hello Goodbye," "Yesterday," "Twist and Shout," and many more. But history has kept its record. And the one song that became one of the biggest hits of their career is none other than "Hey Jude" — a non-album single released in 1968.
Written by Paul McCartney and credited under the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, "Hey Jude" became the longest-running number-one single by a rock act of the 1960s on the US Billboard Hot 100 — an impressive achievement for any artist in the decade. It was also the band's longest-running number-one single ever, having spent a total of nine weeks on the chart. It surpassed the record made by "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (another successful track from the band), which spent seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Hey Jude" was also a number-one hit in various countries and sold millions of copies. The track, however, is more than just a commercial triumph for the band; it has also been cited as one of the greatest songs of all time, not only by the band themselves but also in the history of music.
Source: collider.com/Ryan Louis Mantilla
