Beatles News
Remembering Ringo Starr’s Forgotten Acting Career After the Beatles
“They’re gonna put me in the movies,” Ringo Starr sang on The Ed Sullivan Show as the Beatles covered Buck Owens’ hit “Act Naturally.” The 1965 appearance featured songs from the group’s new film, Help!, director Richard Lester’s send-up of James Bond movies and other elements of spymania, as well as a follow-up to the greatest jukebox movie ever made, A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Both films put the rhythm up front. It was natural.
Prior to the nationally broadcast live performance, Starr prepared the audience by introducing himself as “all nervous and out of tune,” and smiled embarrassedly without missing or slowing a beat through his propulsive country swing. Starr was a natural performer, a locally famous beat-keeper in Liverpool before joining the Beatles, whose rhythm patterns had a character which set him apart from other drummers. His beats had personality. As the song says, he played the parts so well that he barely needed rehearsing for his first foray into a featured scene in a feature film.
Source: Tony Sokol/denofgeek.com
It was in the 1950s that record companies spotted an opportunity to release a new format that occupied a space between singles and long-playing records. Whereas singles were traditionally two tracks, and albums anything from 8 to 12 tracks, EPs (so-named to denoted "extended play") had four tracks. Artists often released these as “bite-sized” album-tasters, and in some cases, they even released all the tracks from an LP on a series of EPs, as they did with The Beatles' Yesterday EP.
Parlophone, The Beatles UK label had released a whole string of EPs by the band starting with “Twist and Shout” in the summer of 1963; it naturally topped the EP chart, a feat equaled by six more of their EP releases and when their Yesterday EP came out on March 4, 1966, it quickly climbed the chart and became their seventh No.1 on March 26, 1966, going on to spend seven weeks at the top of the bestsellers list.
Source:Richard Havers/yahoo.com
Paul McCartney once wrote that “your mother should know.” But it was Elsie Starkey, the mother of Ringo Starr, who was key to the creation of his first studio recording outside of The Beatles. Sentimental Journey, released in the UK on March 27, 1970, was an album of remakes of standards designed to reflect Elsie’s favorite songs. They were the ones that she and the Starkey family would sing around the house and at special gatherings.
Starr began recording of the LP in late October, 1969, while The Beatles were still together. But by the time he finished, the group’s demise was close to being confirmed. The McCartney album followed three weeks after Sentimental Journey and, by the time Let It Be was released in May, The Beatles were effectively no more.
The 12-track Ringo Starr album was produced by the group’s trusted confidant, the much-missed George Martin. But it was constructed with the deliberate approach of using a different arranger on each track.
Source: Paul Sexton/yahoo.com
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met as teenagers, and their decision to work together resulted in The Beatles. They were a part of one of the most influential and enduring bands of all time. After the band split, both also went on to have successful solo careers. If they had never met, though, would their lives have looked the same? According to Beatles producer George Martin, Lennon may have been content to keep his music as a hobby.In 1957, a friend brought McCartney to a village party where Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen, was playing. The band impressed McCartney, but Lennon was the one who clearly stood out to him.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
While many refer to The Beatles as the fab four, producer George Martin was an essential fifth member. He was vital in ensuring every Beatles song and album sounded as good as it did. Martin had a role in every one of The Beatles’ albums. However, there was one album Martin wasn’t thrilled about, even though it’s one of the band’s most popular records.1968’s The White Album is a double album consisting of 30 songs. 19 songs were written during The Beatles’ trip to India for a Transcendental Meditation course. The album came after Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a concept album where the band worked together closely on the story and concept. The White Album consisted of many different sounds and styles, with each member contributing their own songs to the track listing.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
It's 1966, and Paul McCartney has penned one of the Beatle's most poignant tracks as the band transition from ruling the world's stages to pushing the boundaries of rock arrangement and recording technology.
Or rather, according to John Lennon in 1980, "It's his first verse, and the rest of the verses are basically mine. But the way he did it was... he knew he'd got the song, so rather than ask me, 'John, do these lyrics' because, by that period, he didn't want to say that to me, okay..."
As Lennon recalls the song's completion in a 1980 Playboy interview, it's clear that while the facts may be in dispute - in 1997 McCartney said "John helped me on a few words but I'd put it down 80–20 to me" - the collaboration between pop's greatest songwriters was already strained, at least as far as John was concerned.
Source: Will Groves/musicradar.com
In 1966, while the Beatles were global superstars, George Harrison stopped playing the guitar.
Then, in the summer of 1968, as abruptly as he’d abandoned the instrument, Harrison recommitted to it.
It was impossible not to notice a transformation not only in Harrison’s songwriting but also in his guitar playing.
Here are ten of his best from the late ‘60s and beyond…
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Source: Christopher Scapelliti/guitarplayer.com
ingo Starr's son Zak Starkey was not always a fan of The Beatles' drummer.
Following Starr's footsteps, Starkey scored the chance to play with other bands, including The Who and Oasis. He mostly credits his father as he thinks The Beatles' drummer is one of the greatest drum players of all time.
However, Starkey did not always feel that way.
In the past, Starkey revealed that - instead of his father - Star's friend Keith Moon was one of his biggest influences. He told Modern Drummer that he wanted to play the drums because of him.
"When I was very young there was music all around me in my parents' house. You would go into the living room and find stacks and stacks of LPs. I would spend my days listening to records," he said." My dad took me to see T. Rex when I was six."
He then desired to be like Marc Bolan before fanboying over David Bowie.
Starkey added that Starr only gave him one drumming lesson, and he became on his own.
Source: Angeline Sicily/musictimes.com
It was 60 years this week when the Fab Four released their first album, Please Please Me, kickstarting Beatlemania.
The Liverpudlian Mop Top legends would become a chart phenomenon – selling more than 600million albums.
Now James Moore reveals some top pop trivia about each of the band’s classic studio albums recorded between 1963 and 1970, and Buzz.ie has given each album our rating out of ten
1. REVOLVER (1966), 10 out of 10
Revolver – named after how an LP revolves - was nearly called Abracadabra and its cover, drawn by pal Klaus Voorman, almost featured Paul sitting on a toilet.
Heralding the band’s psychedelic phase, She Said She Said had links to the drug LSD, while Got To Get You Into My Life was an ode to cannabis...
Source: buzz.ie
The Beatles had already won over music fans when they released their debut album, Please Please Me. The title song was the first of several Fab Four hits that didn’t surprisingly didn’t hit No. 1. When the album hit shelves in England on March 22, 1963, it started an incredible run of success. Let’s look at the five best Please Please Me songs, tunes that helped launch The Beatles’ legendary career.
Once Please Please Me made it on the charts in England, it locked down the top spot for an incredible 30 weeks, per the Official Charts Company. The debut album lasted for 70 weeks on the charts. Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road are the only Beatles albums with longer tenures.
Perhaps most impressively, Please Please Me was the first of eight straight Beatles studio albums to reach No. 1. Magical Mystery Tour broke the streak in 1968. For a debut to leave such an impact underscores The Beatles’ mastery of their craft and music fans’ desire for a new sound in the early 1960s.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
