Beatles News
The Beatles star George Harrison was a fantastic songwriter, but he was pitted against the genius minds of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Bob Dylan once mused that Harrison was almost wasted because of his proximity to his Fab Four bandmates.
He said: "George got stuck with being the Beatle that had to fight to get songs on records because of Lennon and McCartney. Well, who wouldn’t get stuck? If George had had his own group and was writing his own songs back then, he’d have been probably just as big as anybody."
But everything changed in 1963 when Harrison finally penned a song he felt was worth something.
The band's second album, With The Beatles, included the song Don't Bother Me, which was one of Harrison's first songs for the band.
The melancholy song is a classic heartbreaker penned in Harrison's signature style.
And while it is not one of the songs that Beatles fans might pick as their favourite, it was good enough to be included in the album. It also spurred Harrison on to keep writing songs for the band; even if Lennon and McCartney felt they had it covered.
Harrison later recalled: "At least it showed me that all I needed to do was keep on writing, and then maybe eventually I would write something good."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
The Beatles have impacted every generation. Despite being over 60 years old, modern audiences still recognize The Beatles’ music, and many listen to it consistently. However, it’s not exactly music that would get played in the club, as that’s typically pop and dance songs. Still, Paul McCartney said he heard one song by The Beatles at a party, and everyone kept dancing.
“Twist and Shout” is a 1961 song written by Bert Berns and Phil Medley. The Top Notes originally recorded the track but it didn’t become a hit until it was covered by The Isley Brothers in 1962. The Isley Brothers’ version reached No. 17 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 42 on the U.K. Singles chart.
The eccentric dance track skyrocketed in popularity after it was covered by The Beatles in 1963 on their debut album, Please Please Me. It was later released in the U.S. as a single in 1964, where it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It failed to reach No. 1 because The Beatles’ own “Can’t Buy Me Love” held that spot.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles practically owned the charts in the 1960s. They had 20 No. 1 hit singles and several No. 1 albums. Since the Fab Four were constantly at the top, it blocked other acts from reaching the summit. The Beatles even prevented a cover of a John Lennon song from becoming a No. 1 single in 1963.
It’s hard to overstate The Beatles’ success in the 1960s. They had an incredible 64 top-100 songs during their active career. Nearly half of those — 31, to be precise — came in 1964 alone. On three occasions, their albums kept other Beatles records from hitting No. 1.
The band started cannibalizing their own success almost as soon as they hit the charts in 1963. The Beatles kept a cover of the John Lennon song “Do You Want to Know a Secret” from hitting No. 1 in May 1963.
“Do You Want to Know a Secret,” one of The Beatles’ originals on Please Please Me, was officially a Lennon-Paul McCartney song. Yet John wrote the song and recorded a demo (complete with a flushing toilet) during one of the Fab Four’s Hamburg, Germany, residencies.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were songwriting equals in The Beatles, but the bassist still looked up to his bandmate. He craved compliments that rarely came. Macca praised John by calling him the Elvis of the Beatles, but he typically drew the line at mimicking his friend. Still, Paul copied John in one of the last songs he made as a member of the Fab Four.
Paul McCartney (left) and John Lennon sing into a shared microphone during a 1966 concert in St. Louis.
The Beatles stood on their last legs when they recorded Abbey Road in 1969. The contentious recording sessions that produced the Let It Be album and infighting over who would be their next manager all but drove the band apart. Abbey Road was the last thing the band did as a foursome.
Paul copied John on the song that channeled some of the energy and attitude The Beatles had earlier in the decade with “Oh! Darling.”
The song was a spiritual cousin of the pleading, 1950s-style love songs the Fab Four made in their early days. Paul’s singing takes his vocal cords to their breaking point. John did the same on “Twist and Shout” from The Beatles’ 1963 debut, Please Please Me. His impassioned vocals shredded his voice and left him ashamed of his effort on the song, but it was a highlight on the album.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Kanye West and Paul McCartney were a surprising team-up that created excellent music. However, their collaboration wasn’t the first time they met. While it would make sense for Kanye to want to get some music pointers from the legendary musician, the rapper appeared to be more interested in Sir Macca’s knighthood.
McCartney and Kanye first crossed paths at a Met Gala that honored his daughter, Stella. McCartney was excited to meet the American rapper, and the feeling was mutual. However, the “Heartless” rapper appeared more interested in his knighthood than his extensive discography of iconic music.
“With Kanye, I’m always so excited that he knows who I am, and he’s come up. I’m a fan of his,” McCartney told GQ in 2012. “I met him and ‘Jay Zed’, as we call him, at the Met Ball that Stella was being honored at. I never know what to say. They were just saying, ‘Hey man, you’re really a Knight!’ Their perspective on that, as Americans, as ex-Project guys – for them, a knight is like Sir Lancelot. It’s always funny as I’m just Paul, one of the guys.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
He is, to state the obvious, a legend. The bass guitar player for no less than the most successful band of all time and writer of so many classic songs that he makes the output of of most modern day songwriters look meagre by comparison. This is a man who changed the course of popular music, and took bass guitar playing to a completely new level.
Although Paul McCartney is perhaps more widely adored for his songwriting skills, on this isolated bass track of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds you can really hear the greatness of his bass playing. He isn’t all in-your-face bass heroics – he’s a songwriter first and a bass player second, and that’s what we love about him. Bass playing that’s supportive and still central to the song. Speaking to MusicRadar (opens in new tab), the bass-playing Beatle named the song as his greatest moment on bass.
Source: Nick Wells/guitarworld.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon go way back. They lived in the same neighborhood as teenagers and started playing music together shortly after meeting one another. During those first few years, the duo wrote over 100 songs together. Today, those songs are lost. Here are two accounts of what happened to them, and a look back at the early days of Lennon and McCartney. When McCartney met Lennon, they couldn’t have been more different. McCartney got good grades. He had a strong moral compass, bordering on self-righteous. Lennon, on the other hand, was a trouble-maker. He had emotional outbursts and could be cruel to his peers and authority figures alike. Plus, there was a two-year age difference between them. But the boys’ interests drew them together. They were both incredibly passionate about music, and they worked well together.
Source: Kelsey Goeres/cheatsheet.com
Dolly Parton is ready to rock and roll – and she’s got the Beatles back together to help her.
Sir Paul McCartney, 80, and Sir Ringo Starr, 82, teamed up with the country music singer to record Let It Be on her latest album, Rockstar.
As well as the Fab Two, the Beatles classic features Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood.
Dolly, 77, has also made tracks with several other legends – including Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me with Sir Elton John, Every Breath You Take, with Sting and Wrecking Ball, with her god-daughter Miley Cyrus.
She said: “I am very honoured and privileged to have worked with some of the greatest iconic singers and musicians of all time.
“To be able to sing all the iconic songs was a joy beyond measure.”
Dolly decided to channel her inner rock chick after her induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last year.
Source: Chris Riches/express.co.uk
In the early days of The Beatles, the lineup was John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Stuart Sutcliffe. The group eventually brought Pete Best as the drummer, but the four musicians founded the band. Both McCartney and Harrison admitted that they didn’t think Sutcliffe was a very good musician, but they still felt jealous of him. McCartney shared why they couldn’t help but feel this way.
A black and white picture of Paul McCartney and Harrison playing guitars and singing into the same microphone.
McCartney and Harrison got to know Sutcliffe through Lennon. They went to art school together and formed a tight bond. Lennon had been working with McCartney and Harrison in The Quarry Men, and the group worked to convince Sutcliffe to join them. He didn’t have any musical background, but he did have enough money to buy a bass guitar after he sold a painting.
“It was a fortune in those days, like an inheritance,” McCartney said, per The Beatles Anthology. “He said he had to buy canvases or paint. We said, ‘Stu, see reason, love. A Hofner, a big ace group … fame!’ He gave in and bought this big Hofner bass that dwarfed him. The trouble was he couldn’t play well. This was a bit of a drawback, but it looked good, so it wasn’t too much of a problem.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles' final album, "Let It Be," included a song that was considered John Lennon's cry for help.
On May 8 53 years ago, The Beatles released its what-would-be last album, "Let It Be." The 13th album was dropped less than a month before the famous boy group members decided to call it quits after a decade of performing together.
The 1970 album ran for 35 minutes, with the original release presenting two sides of songs to fans. The next versions included "Two of Us," "Across the Universe," "The Long and Winding Road," "For You Blue," "Get Back," "Let It Be," and "Don't Let Me Down."
The latter track was part of the album as a primary release, and it was considered the late Beatle's emotional song.
According to Express UK, "Don't Let Me Down" was not officially included on the album. Still, it became one of the most popular songs released by the Fab Four. In fact, The Beatles' rooftop performance of the song remains the most-viewed video on the band's YouTube channel, with more than 435 million views.
Source: Angeline Sicily/musictimes.com
