Beatles News
The Beatles arguably remain the most influential band in history, despite being formed more than six decades ago.
Their timeless hits like Yesterday, Let It Be and All You Need Is Love continue to resonate with fans across generations. But did you know the Fab Four's lineup could have been drastically different?
The band's drummer Ringo Starr was once wanted by another group - and it was an offer he considered. Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, a Liverpool-based band, formed in 1958, around the same time The Beatles were still known as The Quarrymen. Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes began making waves in West Germany shortly after their formation, but they soon faced issues.
When their drummer Dave Lovelady left the band, which had secured a regular gig at the Star Club in Hamburg, they found themselves in need of a replacement. Their sights turned to Ringo Starr. Ringo had already made a name for himself in Germany, playing with another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. When Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes approached him with an offer to join their ranks, he faced a tough decision.
Ultimately, it all boiled down to the paycheck. While Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes offered Ringo a weekly wage of £20 ($26), John Lennon and Paul McCartney returned with an offer of £25 ($33). Ringo chose the higher bid, stepping into Pete Best's shoes as the drummer for The Beatles.
Source: irishstar.com/Scarlett O'Toole
John Lennon wasn’t the most complimentary of Paul McCartney‘s music. He often thought his songwriting leaned on the silly side, calling his unique voice “granny sh**.” That fact might come as a shock to many new Beatles fans, considering Lennon and McCartney were the most famous writing duo in the band. While they had their moments as a united front, the cracks in their partnership grew larger over time.
Lennon issued that insult to many McCartney-penned songs, but there is one hit in particular that Lennon once called “meaningless.” There was only one saving grace to this song, according to Lennon: his contribution.
“Hello, Goodbye” is one of the Beatles’ most famous songs. It’s also one of their simplest. On the surface, there is nothing super complex or profound about this track. It feels as though it was written more for the jovial vibe than any hard-hitting statement. Nevertheless, McCartney had a theme in mind while penning this song.
“‘Hello, Goodbye’ was one of my songs,” McCartney once said. “There are Geminian influences here I think: the twins. It’s such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write. It’s just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.”
Source: americansongwriter.com
Why a ’70s Singer Missed Out on Recording What Became the Beatles' Final Hit Song originally appeared on Parade.
Can you imagine anyone but Paul McCartney singing “The Long and Winding Road”? Released in May 1970, a month after The Beatles broke up, the song stood as a makeshift eulogy for the band. Fans found solace and sympathy in McCartney’s voice as he sang, “The wild and windy night that the rain washed away / Has left a pool of tears, crying for the day / Why leave me standing here? / Let me know the way.”
Released as a single in the U.S. (and oddly, not in the U.K.), “The Long and Winding Road” went to the top of the charts. As of today, it’s the band’s last No. 1 song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100—but, as Beatles lore goes, it was meant for someone else: Tom Jones.
Recently, Tim David Kelly, aka Tim From Kicking Harold, highlighted how McCartney and Tom Jones “were having a great time” while out on the town. After a few drinks, Jones asked McCartney to write him a song. “Paul, who very much enjoyed doing this type of thing, told his friend he’d be happy to write a song for him.”
McCartney soon had the song ready and sent it over to Jones. But McCartney included a catch.
“The condition was that I could do it, but it had to be my next single,” Jones told Wales Onlinein 2013. “Paul wanted it out straight away. At that time, I had a song called ‘Without Love’ that I was going to be releasing.”
Source: Jason Brow
Even before the band went their separate ways, The Beatles had begun working on their own projects. The last years of the 1960s saw relations strain due to many factors, including differences of opinion regarding their artistic output and business arrangements.
The sessions for 1968's 'The White Album' were notoriously tempestuous, causing Ringo Starr to leave the band for a period during the recording of 'Back in the USSR'. The acrimonious mood continued into 1969 as The Beatles worked on the 'Get Back' project, which resulted in their final studio album 'Let it Be'.
This time, George Harrison walked out of the band following an argument with Paul McCartney, though he returned days later. The actual split followed shortly after.
The group's break-up was made public in 1970, but the process was said to have begun the previous year when John Lennon asked for a "divorce" from The Beatles. This led Paul to retreat to his home in Scotland to write his debut solo album, believing the band's time was over.
This was confirmed with the release of Paul's album 'McCartney' in April 1970, a press release for which said he was no longer working with the band. 'Let it Be' was released the following month, bringing The Beatles' time together to an end.
John had begun recording and releasing his own music before the split. Alongside his second wife Yoko Ono, he formed the Plastic Ono Band in 1968 and the couple released two editions of experimental tracks called 'Unfinished Music' in 1968 and 1969 respectively.
The Plastic Ono Band's first single was 'Give Peace a Chance', written by John in opposition to the Vietnam War. Released in July 1969, it became the soundtrack of the American anti-war movement in the 1970s and peaked at two on the British charts.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
Paul McCartney's live shows are packed with material from his days with The Beatles and Wings, as well as plenty of solo tracks. Though he's into his ninth-decade, Paul still performs three-hour sets to huge audiences around the world.
After the European leg of his long-running Got Back tour came to an end with concerts in Manchester and London last December, Paul has announced he will be back on the road later this year. The Walton-born Beatles legend, 83, will take the tour, which began in 2022, around North America in 2025.
The tour will begin on September 29 in Palm Desert, California, stopping in places including Las Vegas, Denver, Tulsa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Montreal before it concludes in Chicago in November.
Paul's most recent live appearance was at Anfield on June 7 when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at the home of Liverpool FC to play two tracks, including The Beatles' 'Cant Buy Me Love'.
He also played intimate gigs at the Bowery Ballroom in New York in February, which were announced at the last minute and led fans dashing to the venue for tickets. Nowadays, the shows are celebrations of Paul's entire career but his concerts weren't always like that.
When he started touring with Wings in the early 1970s, wanting to return to playing live after The Beatles retired from doing so in 1966 in order to focus on their studio work, Paul didn't play any songs by the Fab Four.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
The Beatles’ catalog, decorated as it is, includes a few songs that just don’t get a ton of attention. Diehard fans know their entire output inside and out. But those who only dabble in Beatle fandom, or those who are maybe just learning about the group, might have missed a few gems. These five songs won’t appear on too many greatest hits compilations by the Fab Four. But we’re here to tell you that they’re wonderful Beatles deep cuts that should be praised to the utmost.
“I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” from ‘Beatles For Sale’ (1964)
It makes sense that one of the songs on this list would come from Beatles For Sale. That LP doesn’t get a lot of attention as a whole. The record came at a point where John Lennon and Paul McCartney were starting to stretch their songwriting boundaries, both in terms of topics and styles. “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” came from John Lennon, and it finds him trying out a subtle country and western vibe. But it’s the lyrics that truly stand out, as the narrator struggles with insecurity over a girl he can’t seem to corral.
“Yes It Is” B-side (1965)
B-sides also tend to fall below the radar when it comes to rating Beatles songs. At least “Yes It Is” snuck onto an LP in America (Beatles VI). Other B-sides of British singles couldn’t be found on American albums until the Past Masters series in the 80s. “Yes It Is” also wasn’t helped out much by its main composer, as John Lennon denigrated the song’s quality in interviews. Lennon felt like it was too derivative of “This Boy”, another harmony-drenched song of his. But “Yes It Is” stands tall on its own sorrowful terms.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
Weapons debuted at No. 1 at the box office this weekend — what's the haunting classic rock song that opens the chilling new mystery horror film?
The movie — written and directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner and Alden Ehrenreich, among others — follows the baffling case of 17 children from the same classroom who all run away on the same night, seemingly abducted by an unseen force.
"Last night at 2:17 a.m. every child from Mrs. Gandy's class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark," the Weapons release poster says. "... And they never came back."
Weapons begins, accordingly, with the kids running out of their houses in the middle of the night. (Not a spoiler!) And their mysterious exodus is soundtracked, fittingly, by George Harrison's "Beware of Darkness."
"Beware of Darkness" appeared on Harrison's 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass, opening its second disc. As with many Harrison songs from that era, it's achingly beautiful but vaguely foreboding — and it's in that second light that the lyrics perfectly suit the premise of Weapons.
"Take care, beware of the thoughts that linger / Winding up inside your head / The hopelessness around you / In the dead of night / Beware of sadness," Harrison sings in the second verse. In the following verse he warns: "Watch out now / Take care, beware of soft shoe shufflers / Dancing down the sidewalks / As each unconscious sufferer / Wanders aimlessly / Beware of Maya."
"Beware of Darkness" warns against allowing illusion to get in the way of one's true purpose, reflecting the philosophy of the Radha Krishna Temple and its influence on Harrison's own life. The ex-Beatle wrote the song around the time he invited some members of the Hare Krishna movement to stay at his Friar Park estate in spring 1970, helping him restore the house and gardens to give the home a new spiritual atmosphere.
"'Beware of Darkness' was written at home in England during a period when I had some of my friends from the Radha Krishna Temple staying: 'Watch out for Maya'," Harrison wrote in his 1980 memoir I, Me, Mine. (In Hinduism, "Maya" is the supernatural power wielded by gods and demons to create illusions.) "The lyrics are self-explanatory."
Plenty of uninitiated listeners will get acquainted with "Beware of Darkness" if Weapons' box office receipts serve as any indication. The film opened with an estimated $42.5 million this weekend, beating the other new release Freakier Friday, which bowed with $29 million.
Source: Bryan Rolli/Bryan Rolli
Though they would reform for the Anthology releases a decade after this “absolute rubbish” performance, The Beatles did “reunite”.
At the wedding of Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd, three of the four Beatles got together to perform for the first time since their impromptu rooftop gig. Almost a decade on from their tumultuous split and Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison got back together on stage. Harrison, who had been married to Boyd, finalised their divorce in 1977 but remained a close friend. He would marry Olivia Arias in 1978, and remained with her until his death in 2001. But he still attended Boyd’s wedding, with Clapton and Harrison remaining friends despite the infidelities between them.
Clapton had written the hit track Layla for Harrison’s then-wife, while the so-called quiet one would begin an affair with Starr’s first wife, Maureen Starkey. Despite the messy personal relationship between the group, Starr, Harrison, and McCartney attended Clapton’s wedding and gave what would can be considered the last-ever performance of The Beatles.
Though they were missing John Lennon, the band would take to the stage of Clapton and Boyd’s wedding, where Mick Jagger and Elton John were also in attendance. Denny Laine from Wings was there too, and called the set “absolute rubish”.
Despite the lacklustre set, it would be the last time the three were on stage together and performing Beatles hits. They played Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Get Back, and Lawdy Miss Clawdy. A recording of Something, allegedly played at the wedding, is linked below. Lennon was absent from the wedding for unknown reasons.
Laine was also a part of the jam session at the wedding reception, but does not view it as a reunion of The Beatles. Instead, he believes it was just a collection of “people I knew,” including Clapton, who Laine had knwon when the Derek and the Dominos guitarist was a member of The Yardbirds.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
The Beatles understandably reached back to unused material from their time together while completing early solo projects. With so much musical talent, some very good stuff got left on the cutting-room floor.
Songs that the Beatles took the longest to finish include four entries from Paul McCartney's first LP after their split in 1970. There are three more from George Harrison's and one from John Lennon's, as well.
But the Beatles had long made a habit of resurrecting unreleased material, with Lennon and McCartney including songs they'd started in their teens on band recordings. They also turned to legacy material when they found themselves struggling creatively, first because overwork and then later amid growing interpersonal issues.
After their breakup, the group's three main songwriters continued to dig around in the vaults. None of them was more determined to complete older unissued tracks than Harrison. He was still releasing songs he'd started but never finished with the Beatles into the '80s.
In compiling this countdown of 25 Beatles songs that took the longest to finish, we focused as much as possible on starting with their first run throughs of the material during band sessions. (Recollections can be rather murky about when the writing of many tracks took place.)
The results ended up touching on every period of their careers, from the mop-top and psychedelic eras through the group's dissolution and into their celebrated solo catalogs:
No. 25. "Hold Me Tight"
From: The Beatles, With The Beatles (1963)
Origin Story: McCartney started on this song sometime in 1961, with Lennon helping complete things in September 1962
Finally Released: November 1963
Time Elapsed: 14 months (more than two years)
No. 24. "Every Night"
From: Paul McCartney, McCartney (1970)
Origin Story: One of several McCartney songs premiered during the sessions that produced Let It Be, beginning on Jan. 21, 1969
Finally Released: April 1970
Time Elapsed: 15 months (more than a year)
No. 23. "Hot as Sun/Glasses"
From: Paul McCartney, McCartney (1970)
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com/Nick DeRiso
It’s been 60 years since The Beatles released Help!, their fifth British LP. Perhaps because it was attached to a chaotic movie, or maybe because it was followed up by a series of masterpiece albums, this 1965 LP doesn’t quite get its proper due.
The Beatles were transitioning away from the simplicity of their early stuff into much more lyrically and musically complex work. Here are some tidbits about the making of the album that you might not have known.
“Yesterday” now stands as one of the most important songs in pop music history. It showed that a rock band need not release music reliant on the instrumentation we usually associate with the genre. And thanks to the touch of producer George Martin, it demonstrated a way for strings to be incorporated into a pop music structure without overdoing it. Still, The Beatles felt a little self-conscious about the whole thing at the time of its release. That’s why they chose not to release it as a single in England. In America, where they had less control over their catalog, it did come out as a single. And it soared to dizzying levels of success in the process.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
