Beatles News
A British heart charity is almost $3,000 richer thanks to a rare copy of The Beatles self-titled 1968 album, better known as The White Album.
Natalie Langsford, shop manager of the British Heart Foundation’s Sutton Coldfield branch, tells BBC News a “generous donor” gifted the album to the organization, along with other items. After listing it on eBay, the album brought in over $2,900 for the charity.
So, what made this copy of The White Album worth all that money? Well, it was one of only 10,000 copies of the first version of the record that included a misprint. It was also in good condition and came with all the original inserts, as well as a foldout poster.
The charity’s area manager, Marcie Somel, said they were delighted by the “amazing amount” of money raised by the record, adding, “We were thrilled to have such a rare donation come into our shop.”
Source: 977theriver.com
The Beatles set an impossibly high bar for groups that followed them. They had dozens of top-100 hits during their brief but prolific career, and even when they abandoned songs that didn’t work, they performed well for other artists. Several of The Beatles’ non-album singles became incredibly successful. Let’s look at five of them that went to No. 1.
“Paperback Writer” arrived in May 1966. The tune became an interesting nexus in The Beatles’ sound. It mixed beautiful vocal harmonies that pointed to the group’s not-too-distant past with a biting guitar riff and thundering bass that hinted at the band’s future sonic experimentation.
Paul McCartney said they picked it as the A-side over “Rain” because it was catchier and more immediate. It’s hard to argue with the decision. Still, the more experimental “Rain” — complete with Ringo Starr’s “weird” drum track — held its own, rising to No. 23 during a seven-week stay on the Billboard charts.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles and Abbey Road Studios are deeply connected. So much so that the studio was initially EMI Studios but changed its name after Abbey Road was a hit album. However, the fab four did not make a great first impression during their initial recording session at Abbey Road.
The Beatles’ first recording session at Abbey Road Studios occurred on June 6, 1962. While the band gained a small following in the U.K., they had not yet secured a recording contract. At the time, The Beatles consisted of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best, as Ringo Starr hadn’t joined yet.
In a 2008 interview with Sound on Sound, engineer Norman Smith, who recorded The Beatles’ first six albums, recalled their first session. He said they did not make a “very good first impression,” mainly because their equipment made it nearly impossible to get any clean sound for a song.
“We heard nothing of John and Paul’s songwriting ability,” Smith said. “They had tiny little Vox amplifiers and speakers, which didn’t create much of a sound at source. I got nothing out of the Beatles’ equipment except for a load of noise, hum, and goodness knows what. Paul’s was about the worst — in those days, we had echo chambers to add onto the reverberation, and I had to raid the Studio 2 echo chamber in order to fix him up with a sound so that we could get something down on tape.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
The letter dates back to the time the Beatles were studying meditation in India.
A handwritten letter from Paul McCartney to fellow Beatles bandmate John Lennon and actress Mia Farrow is set to bring in thousands at auction. It will go under the hammer at Ryedale Auctioneers, in North Yorkshire, on 19 and 20 May , along with other collectable items. A viewing of the items will take place on 18 May.
The letter dates back to the time The Beatles were studying meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, in the late 1960s. It features Paul McCartney’s signature and comes with a certificate of authenticity from Heroes and Legends.
Handwritten letter from Paul McCartney to fellow Beatles bandmate John Lennon and actress Mia Farrow.
Source: Kian Rains/liverpoolworld.uk
Ringo Starr is known, first and foremost, as a drummer, but he appeared in multiple movies over the course of his career. All of The Beatles picked up some acting experience, but Starr took steps to build a career as an actor. Not all of his movies performed well – even the drummer’s biggest fans should avoid a few of them — but some are worth a watch. Here are four of Starr’s movies worth putting on your to-watch list.Starr’s first movie is also one of his best. In 1964, The Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night, a musical comedy film in which the band played themselves. The film gave Starr a good deal of screen time — he chaperones Paul McCartney’s grandfather and gets arrested.
While director Richard Lester believed George Harrison was the best actor in the film, he also said that Starr had the showiest part in the movie. He has a similarly prominent role in the second Beatles film, Help!, but A Hard Day’s Night is the better movie.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. In fact, when asked recently if he has any plans for retirement, the former Beatle said: “No. I tell everybody: ‘As long as I can lift a drumstick, we will play.’ And I love to play. I still love to play.” That means new music is on the horizon—three EPs this year alone, including a country project.
Starr and the All-Starr Band’s 2023 fall tour was recently announced following the previous announcement of the band’s 2023 spring tour, which begins May 19 at Pechanga Resort in Temecula, CA. The first show immediately sold out after going on sale.
Last year, the band’s 2022 summer tour was suspended due to band members Winter and Lukather contracting COVID. The shows were pushed back into the fall, when Starr made up the losses six days in a row, one show per day. But after that, the famous drummer tested positive for COVID himself, twice. So additional tour stops needed canceling.
The musician is eager to get back to it.
Source: Kelsey Goeres/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney showed The Beatles’ “Yesterday” to Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon. They decided the song shouldn’t be a single in the United Kingdom. When it became a single there, it wasn’t as popular as it had been in the United States.
Paul McCartney said Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon didn’t want to add anything to his demo for The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” Subsequently, the band decided the song shouldn’t be a single in the United Kingdom. It eventually became a single there 11 years after its release in the United States.In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the way the other Beatles reacted to an early version of “Yesterday” with no string section. “Ringo said, ‘I don’t think I can really drum on that,'” he said. “George said, ‘Well, I’m not sure I can put much on it either.’ And John said, ‘I can’t think of anything, I think you should just do it yourself.'”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Spring is in full flush, so Clash has decided to revisit George Harrison’s abiding passion – gardening.
Sure, the Beatles icon’s first passion may have been the guitar, but the free-thinker could take or leave the vagaries of the music industry. Famously the first of the Fab Four to tire of the road and its endless travel, he clearly had an innate urge to put down some roots.
First developing his green finger at Surrey property Kinfauns, George Harrison then saved Friar Park – a spectacular Victorian neo-Gothic Friar Park mansion – from demolition in 1970. Perhaps the main attraction for the guitarist was the 36-acre garden – woefully overgrown, George built a team of 10 gardeners and helped them pull each weed, and plant each carefully chosen fern and flower.
In fact, his autobiography I Me Mine was famously dedicated “to gardeners everywhere”. George Harrison wrote:
I’m really quite simple. I don’t want to be in the business full time, because I’m a gardener. I plant flowers and watch them grow. I don’t go out to clubs. I don’t party. I stay at home and watch the river flow.
Source: ClashMusic/clashmusic.com
A song from The Beatles‘ Magical Mystery Tour was originally two different songs, one by John Lennon and the other by Paul McCartney. Subsequently, a sound engineer who worked on the song was enthralled with it. The tune complements some other Fab Four songs very well.
John gave fans insight into how the song came together. “One half was all mine,” he recalled. “‘How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people, now that you know who you are, da da da da.’ Then Paul comes in with [sings] ‘Baby, you’re a rich man,’ which was a lick he had around.”
Eddie Kramer is a sound engineer who worked on songs by Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and some tracks from Magical Mastery Tour. During a 2013 interview with Guitar World, Kramer discussed John’s role in creating “Baby, You’re a Rich Man.” He said John added electronic keyboard riffs to the track that sounded like Indian music.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles worked at a non-stop pace during their career. They cranked out albums between tours in their early days. Then they churned out lush, layered, and complex albums when they focused their efforts in the studio. Leaving the road impacted their music for the better. They rarely let any errors slip onto their records, but The Beatles left two mistakes on the Abbey Road song “Her Majesty.”
Most Fab Four fans (OK, probably all of them) wouldn’t mention “Her Majesty” among Abbey Road’s best songs. Perhaps the only notable things about it are that it’s one of the first “hidden” tracks to appear on a rock album and that it’s The Beatles’ shortest song.
It wasn’t supposed to appear on Abbey Road at all. The Paul McCartney song originally sat smack dab in the middle of the Side 2 medley before being removed. You can hear the two mistakes The Beatles left in the song if you listen closely.
The noisy chords and cymbal crash at the beginning of the song were actually the end of “Mean Mr. Mustard.” The single note hanging on at the end was the beginning of “Polythene Pam.”
Paul’s gentle strumming linked the two songs before he instructed engineer John Kurlander to cut “Her Majesty” from the medley. We understand why Macca wanted it removed. The tune doesn’t fit in with the vibe of the rest of the medley. It comes across as a throwaway, so Paul wanted it thrown away.
Source: cheatsheet.com/Jason Rossi
