Beatles News
Ringo Starr has released a second track from his upcoming country-inspired album, Long Long Road.
The latest is “Choose Love,” described as a “fresh take” on the title track of Ringo’s 2005 album. The new version features vocal harmonies from rocker St. Vincent.
“Choose Love” is now available via digital outlets.
Long Long Road, described as having “roots in Country and Americana,” will be released April 24. It is Ringo’s second album with producer T Bone Burnett, following 2025’s Look Up. Ringo previewed the record at a listening party in Los Angeles Thursday, with stars like Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges and John Mellencamp in attendance.
Long Long Road is available for preorder now.
Ringo and his All-Starr Band – Toto’s Steve Lukather, Men At Work’s Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson – are set to hit the road this spring, starting May 28 in Temecula, California, and wrapping June 14 in Los Angeles. A complete list of dates can be found at RingoStarr.com.
Source: enidlive.com
On April 4, 1964, The Beatles held the entire Billboard Hot 100 top five.
Breakout US releases and hit singles sparked widespread Beatlemania and unprecedented chart domination.
The Beatles had nine additional singles on the Hot 100 that week.
On April 4, 1964, iconic rock group The Beatles completely dominated the top five spots of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time ever.
After breaking out just a couple of years prior with singles like “Love Me Do” and “She Loves You”, the band achieved international success in 1964 when their records finally became available in the United States.
The Beatles had already released two studio albums in the United Kingdom by the time Introducing… The Beatles hit shelves on the other side of the Atlantic. It was essentially a repackaging of Please Please Me, their debut U.K. album that spawned hits such as “Twist and Shout”, “Anna (Go To Him)”, and the title track.
Introducing… The Beatles was quickly followed by Meet The Beatles! just a few days later in the United States, and the Liverpudlian rock group were officially global icons. Their second U.S. record included many popular tracks from With The Beatles alongside their chart-topping singles that were omitted from the U.K. album releases.
By February 1964, The Beatles’ two breakout records had turned them into pop-rock sensations—and thus, ‘Beatlemania’ was born. So when they released “Can’t Buy Me Love” in March, it shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Love Me Do” also climbed to the No. 2 spot that week, as it had become somewhat of an anthem for the Beatlemania frenzy. “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, which had been the Beatles’ first No. 1 single overseas, was now sitting at No. 4.
Source: mensjournal.com/Jack Walters
When Cream was working on their 1969 album, Goodbye, Eric Clapton and George Harrison co-wrote a song for the band’s fourth and final release. Harrison was returning the favor to Clapton, who played lead guitar on Harrison’s classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” from the Beatles‘ White Album. At first, their new Cream song didn’t have a title, but somewhere along the way, it ended up mis-titled.
“Each of them had to come up with a song for that ‘Goodbye’ Cream album, and Eric didn’t have his written,” recalled Harrison. “We were working across from each other, and I was writing the lyrics down, and we came to the middle part, so I wrote ‘Bridge.’ Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing. ‘What’s a Badge?’ he said.”
Harrison added, “After that, Ringo [Starr] walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park.”
The song remained as “Badge” and appeared on Goodbye, marking the duo’s first collaboration.
Thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car
Thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far
And I’m thinkin’ ’bout the love that you laid on my table
I told you not to wander ’round in the dark
I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park
Then I told you ’bout our kid, now he’s married to Mabel
Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down
Don’t you notice how the wheel goes ’round?
And you’d better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down
Yes, before they bring the curtain down
Source: americansongwriter.com/Tina Benitez-Eves
Through the decades, The Beatles have remained relevant and a source of inspiration. People of all generations have at least one Beatles' song that has marked their lives, and there are too many perfect Beatles songs to count. However, one song always stands out from the rest.
"Hey Jude" is perfect from all angles. It's the perfect song to sing along in a stadium, a beautiful love song to share, an inspirational anthem, and an all-around incredible track. Written by Paul McCartney and released as a revolutionary 7-minute long single. The song went on to become an anthem for Beatles fans, but almost everyone will sing the outro if the song comes on. Here's why it's the most perfect Beatles song ever written: Paul McCartney Wrote "Hey Jude" For John Lennon's Son.
In 1968, The Beatles were recording their self-titled album, popularly known as the White Album. At the same time, John Lennon was divorcing his first wife, Cynthia, after falling in love with Yoko Ono. His bandmate and best friend, Paul McCartney, was caught in the middle. He wanted to support his friend in his new relationship, but felt bad for Lennon's ex-wife, and the kid they shared. He'd known Lennon's first wife for a long time by then, and cared deeply for their child, Julian, who called him Uncle Paul. It was one day while he was on his way to visit Cynthia and Julian to spend time with them. McCartney explains in his book, The Lyrics, that the idea of writing a song about the situation came to mind. "I was thinking about how tough it would be for Jules, as I called him, to have his dad leave him, to have his parents go through a divorce. It started out as a song of encouragement."
Source: collider.com/Val Barone
The best artists tend to be perfectionists. They will tinker with music that most others would think is perfectly fine until they get it right where they want it to be. And they’re usually right about the end result.
The Beatles certainly harbored the tendency to constantly fuss with their songs in a quest for transcendence. These four classics epitomize the correlation between their restlessness and their excellence.
“Yellow Submarine”
Even a group as anthologized as The Beatles has hidden surprises in the vault. In recent years, deep-dive reissues of the Fab Four’s most famous albums have been popping up with regularity. And, on Revolver, an early demo of John Lennon singing the verse melody to “Yellow Submarine” surfaced. Most folks had assumed that the song was a Paul McCartney creation. The lyrics to this unearthed demo were startling, with Lennon singing, “In the place where I was born/No one cared, no one cared.” That harrowing statement represents quite the 180 from where the song finished up, which was as a genial children’s song given over to Ringo Starr to bellow. One wonders what song might have emerged had Lennon followed up on his initial instincts.
“Tomorrow Never Knows”
By the time The Beatles made it to Revolver in 1966, they insisted on testing the limits of the studio. In “Tomorrow Never Knows”, they found the perfect vehicle for such exploration. The song, in its basic form, mostly lurched about on a single chord. Meanwhile, John Lennon spouted profound lyrics about the nature of existence. You can hear on the Anthology version of the song that the group was messing around with a bizarre rhythm that sounded like a steamer muscling its way through heavy waves. They eventually scrapped that in favor of insistent drum patter and wild tape loops that were thrown together at random for maximum anarchy.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
Gone Troppo was released by former Beatle George Harrison back in 1982. A notably pop-rock world with synthy new wave elements, Gone Troppo was dropped later in the year by Dark Horse Records, along with a handful of excellent singles, including “Wake Up My Love”, “I Really Love You”, and “Dream Away”.
It’s a fine production, one that makes good use of the production skills of Harrison, Ray Cooper, and former Beatles engineer Phil McDonald. And yet, it wasn’t a successful release.
The album did make it to No. 108 on the Billboard 200. It also did surprisingly well in Norway at No. 31. However, Gone Troppo didn’t chart at all in the UK. That’s surprising, considering Harrison’s previous album, Somewhere In England from 1981, peaked at No. 13 in the UK and No. 11 in the US.
There’s a reason Gone Troppo was a flop, and it really has nothing to do with the album’s quality. This is a really fantastic release from Harrison. If he cared a little more about promoting it, it likely would have been a smash hit. Why ‘Gone Troppo’ Deserved Better, and It Was Partly George Harrison’s Fault That It Didn’t Succeed
By the time Gone Troppo hit the shelves, George Harrison had become wholly uninterested in the pop music world. As such, he really didn’t try to promote it… at all. Because of this, Gone Troppo remains his only solo album released after The Beatles broke up that didn’t chart in the Top 20 in the US. And after it was released, Harrison took a long break from music that would last (outside of occasional soundtrack compositions) until the release of Cloud Nine in 1987.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney returned to the stage over the weekend with a two-night stint in the comparatively intimate surroundings of the Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles.
Usually, of course, McCartney – one of the few individuals for whom that hackneyed phrase ‘living legend’ is applicable – plays arenas and stadiums, something he acknowledged early on, saying: “It’s great to be at these little gigs - I mean, it’s not that little.”
“It’s very lovely,” the 83-year-old ex-Beatle said of the venue, which used to be known as the Hollywood Music Box Theatre before it was named after Henry Fonda. “It’s good to see the whites of your eyes.”
The 23-song set covered all the Beatles and Wings classics you’d expect, plus the recent ‘last’ Beatles single, Now And Then, as well as a scattering of lesser heard McCartney songs, including Flaming Pie, Every Night and My Valentine.
Interestingly, there wasn’t room for the just-released new track Days We Left Behind (nor anything from the upcoming album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane). Why? The band are “in the process of learning it,” McCartney told the crowd. “But I’m glad you love it, yeah.”
Stage patter was kept to a minimum, with Macca alternating between piano and his iconic Hofner bass. But he did slip into some misty-eyed reminiscences about the Beatles’ first trip to the US in early 1964.
Source: yahoo.com/Beth Simpson
Each great discography has its own shape, and that is part of what makes an exercise like this worthwhile. Some albums announce themselves immediately with a towering centerpiece. Others spread the wealth around, with the best song revealing itself only once you sit down and listen closely to the album as a whole.
In this series, we go album by album through an artist’s studio catalog and pick the single best song from each release, not just to spotlight the obvious standouts, but to trace how the artist grew, shifted, and occasionally surprised themselves along the way.
The Best Way to Introduce The Beatles. If you know someone who has never delved into The Beatles’ storied discography, these five essential Beatles songs for first-time listeners are sure to pique their interest and have them exploring the group’s albums in full.
The Fab Four of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr made some of the most important pop music of the 20th century, and their albums helped reshape both music and pop culture with every release.
But what are the best songs from each of the band’s 12 studio albums, not counting Yellow Submarine due to its dearth of original material? Put on your listening cap and let’s find out.
Please Please Me (1963) – “Please Please Me”
While many of the Beatles’ most notable early-career works came via non-album singles (“From Me to You,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand”), their debut album still delivers a steady stream of notable early classics in the group’s legendary discography.
Source: livemusicblog.com/Chris Guest
The Beatles would never be considered “underrated” under any circumstances. They were the biggest band of the 20th century, and their legacy is still felt today. In fact, their releases in the 1960s continue to make fans out of young listeners. That being said, the band has released a few songs that are underrated when compared to their major chart-toppers. Just as well, some of their songs could be described as overrated, too. And both those things can be true when talking about the band’s psychedelic era in the mid-to-late 1960s. Let’s look at two underrated psychedelic gems and one somewhat overrated tune from the Fab Four, shall we?
3 New Wave Hits From 1981 That Every 80s Kid Can’t Stop Singing
Underrated: “Baby, You’re A Rich Man”
This jam was the B-side of “All You Need Is Love” in 1967. Apparently, the song was originally supposed to be part of the Yellow Submarine film but was instead released as a single. Everybody knows “All You Need Is Love”, but I feel like few know “Baby, You’re A Rich Man” quite as well. That’s a shame, because this is a genuinely fun psychedelic pop tune, born out of a true collaboration between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It also features the clavioline, an early analog synthesizer.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Em Casalena
Sir Paul McCartney says The Beatles "liked" seeing men in the crowd studying their musicianship.
The 83-year-old Hey Jude hitmaker has recalled the Fab Four's first trip to America, and the difference between the demographics in the audiences they were playing to.
Over the weekend, Sir Paul played a couple of intimate shows at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, and he took the time to reflect on his early experiences in the US.
As reported by PEOPLE magazine, he told the fans: “We hadn’t really seen much, and we certainly hadn’t seen America, so it was pretty amazing.
“What we used to notice was that all the guys in the audience were looking at the chords you were playing, and they’d study it… and we kind of liked that. And all the girls weren’t.”
The fans started screaming at the reference to Beatlemania, and Sir Paul was happy to encourage it.
He quipped: "Yeah, the girls were screaming. Give us a Beatles scream!”
During the show, Sir Paul explained why fans weren't going to hear new single Days We Left Behind or other tracks from his new record The Boys of Dungeon Lane at the small gigs.
He explained that he and his band were still "in the process of learning it".
Source: music-news.com
