Beatles News
Paul McCartney's exit from The Beatles caused serious tension behind the scenes and in court.
Paul McCartney sued The Beatles and their manager, Allen Klein, in 1970, in an attempt to protect their creative freedom and prevent their earnings from going into a shared pot.
Despite being blamed for breaking up The Beatles, McCartney claims he filed the lawsuit to save the band and their music from falling into the hands of Allen Klein.
Manager Allen Klein later sued The Beatles for $19 million after they decided not to renew his contract. The lawsuit was settled in 1977, with Apple paying Klein $5 million and Klein paying out $800,000.
All these years later, Paul McCartney isn't quitting on music, the artist is still going strong into his 80s. He still has big plans for a final Beatles song, and he plans to use John Lennon's voice as well.
Source: Alex Passa/thethings.com
On This Day, September 28, 1968…
The Beatles’ non-album single “Hey Jude” began a nine-week run at #1 on the Billboard Hot 10. It was the longest run at #1 for any Beatles single.
With a run time of seven minutes and 11 seconds, “Hey Jude” also set a new record for the longest song to top the chart.
Paul McCartney famously wrote “Hey Jude” for John Lennon’s son Julian, during John’s separation from his first wife, Cynthia.
The song, which was the first release on the band’s new Apple Records label, also topped the chart in several other countries, including the U.K., Australia and Canada.
It was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
Source: abcnews/deltaplexnews.com
Poet Paul Muldoon has had enviable access to Paul McCartney, as the two collaborated on a book about lyrics, so their podcast is delightful and detailed. McCartney proves he’s one hell of a storyteller as he describes the characters he’s created, revealing that the US audience thought Penny Lane was about selling puppies. With a huge back catalogue, there’s plenty more to come, from Back in the USSR to Eleanor Rigby and Live and Let Die.
Source: Alexi Duggins/theguardian.com
By the time The Beatles recorded The White Album, the band was already becoming quite fractured personally and professionally. It was 1968, and the band’s most ambitious effort was the project, almost ending their partnership. The White Album was The Beatles’ ninth studio album and the only double LP they would ever record. But one moment in the studio led John Lennon to go “ballistic” on Paul McCartney, leading to a moment that would forever change one of their most iconic songs.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr recorded The White Album in mid-1968. The album features 30 songs, 19 of which were written during March and April 1968.
However, tensions between the bandmates heightened as the recording wore on. Lennon and McCartney couldn’t agree on the recording of several songs.
The collaborators worked for one week on just two songs, claimed Abbey Road Studios recording Geoff Emerick. He wrote the 2006 memoir Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles.
Source: Lucille Barilla/cheatsheet.com
"Come Together" and its wacky lyrics kick off 'Abbey Road' in epic fashion. It provided The Beatles with one of their final number one singles topping the Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the chart for 16 weeks. It has one of the coolest, most-recognizable intros in music history. Simply put, it's 4:19 of rock and roll perfection that is unlike anything else in the Beatles catalog.
54 years ago today, The Beatles released their massive, eleventh studio album, Abbey Road. It is the last album the group recorded. Let It Be was the last album completed before the band’s break-up in April 1970. They recorded it mostly in the summer of 1969. They eventually released it on this day, September 26th, 1969, in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States. It reached number one in both countries. A double A-side single from the album, “Something” / “Come Together” debuted in October, which also topped the charts in the US.
Source: Brent Porche/wmmr.com
Paul McCartney requires little introduction—he’s arguably the most iconic rock artist alive. Born in 1942, the English musician became famous with The Beatles as their bassist. But after The Beatles broke up in 1970, McCartney continued to enjoy success as a solo artist. His three-album solo run from 1970 to 1973, in particular—comprised of McCartney, Ram, and Band on the Run—can safely be classified as one of the most inimitable creative streaks of all time.As is the case with any of The Beatles, most of McCartney’s work is stellar. Diving deeper than the hits is an endlessly rewarding undertaking. Here are five of the many hidden gems McCartney released under his own name.
1. “Temporary Secretary”
“Temporary Secretary” came to life during a period of heady jamming that birthed the 1980 record McCartney II. Its arrangement has as much in common with new wave and early techno as it does classic rock. It’s built on bassy synthesizer arpeggiations and a simple drum groove. The song’s lyrics are about a man yearning to hire a secretary, for reasons that go beyond professional assistance. It’s a true McCartney oddity that highlights his enduring knack for experimentation.
Source: Ted Davis/americansongwriter.com
John Lennon and Paul McCartney had contradictory memories of who penned The Beatles' "Come Together." They discussed the tune's relationship to a Chuck Berry song.
Any hardcore fan of The Beatles will know that Paul McCartney’s memories didn’t always align with John Lennon’s. John said The Beatles’ “Come Together” was his work. Meanwhile, Paul said he was the one who made it “a genius record.”
During a 2017 interview with The Washington Post, Paul discussed his songwriting partnership with John Lennon. “We had a very easy manner where both of us knew that the other was only in it to help and we were pooling our resources,” he said. “So many times I would help John out with a problem in his song, but conversely, he’d do exactly the same with me. We knew that we would do that, and it was perfectly allowed.
“It’s not a question of pushing,” Paul added. “It’s a question of just being. I’m writing, ‘It’s getting better all the time’ and John comes in with, ‘Couldn’t get no worse.’ Instead of going, ‘Oh, you’re spoiling my lovely song.’ I go, ‘Genius, great.’
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Years before Olivia Newton-John left her cinematic mark as Sandy Olsson in Grease, the late Australian singer-songwriter already had a number of hits from her first 10 albums.First breaking out in the early 1970s, Newton-John released her debut If Not For You in 1971, a covers album of contemporary artists from the 1960s and early ’70s. The album featured her renditions of the Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster-penned “Me and Bobby McGee,” later becoming a posthumous hit for Janis Joplin, and the title track, which she pulled from Bob Dylan’s 11th album New Morning.Newton-John’s Dylan cover became her first hit, topping the charts internationally, including the U.S. on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, where it spent three weeks. Her tender rendition of “If Not For You” also broke the top 40 of Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 25, and peaked at No. 7 in the UK.
Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com
In 1963, Beatlemania began in the United Kingdom, soon spreading across the globe, especially in North America. Since the Beatles first came to the world stage, no band has ever repeated their dominance or captured the time so well. However, many Beatles conspiracy theories have grown in the 60 years since that era. A recent online post delves into fans' ideas on deeper truths. Here are some suspicious takeaways.
1. “Two of Us” Was About John
The first thread concerns the song “Two of Us,” which appears on the Let it Be movie soundtrack and album of the same name. “Paul just insists this is about him and Linda, but the lyrics are about him and John,” says one observer. “I think Macca was getting nostalgic as the band started to crumble into dust.”
Source: Ben Rice/wealthofgeeks.com
The concert was scheduled to end at midnight. But the 15,000 people crowded into Crisler Arena were content to hang around.
John Lennon was worth the wait.
The former Beatle and his wife, the artist Yoko Ono, were giving their first U.S. performance in two years in support of John Sinclair, a radical poet imprisoned for possessing two marijuana cigarettes. Sinclair, a graduate of UM-Flint and founder of the White Panther Party, was 29 months into a sentence of up to 10 years. His incarceration made him a cause célèbre for those who viewed Sinclair as a political prisoner and victim of oppressive drug laws.
“I won’t be bringing a band or nothing like that because I’m only here as a tourist, but I’ll probably fetch me guitar, and I know we have a song that we wrote for John. So that’s that,” Lennon said in a recorded message two days before the Dec. 10, 1971, concert.
The sold-out John Sinclair Freedom Rally was a mishmash of music, poetry, and political speeches. Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, and Commander Cody – all Michigan performers – shared the stage with poet Allen Ginsberg, Black Panther cofounder Bobby Seale, and several members of the Chicago Seven, activists charged with, and later acquitted of, inciting a riot outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Source: record.umich.edu
