Beatles News
People like to debate about the identity of the fifth Beatle, but there’s really only one answer that makes sense. George Martin was the guy in the room with the four members of the group for the vast majority of their recordings, and his input into their music was often essential to its overall effect.
We could have made this list much longer if we chose. But here are five instances where George Martin’s expertise and taste as a producer made a massive difference in The Beatles‘ catalog.
“Please Please Me” from Please Please Me (1963)
When The Beatles signed with the Parlophone branch of EMI, Martin, who served as the in-house producer for the label, wasn’t quite sure what he’d been handed. They came in with what he felt was an inferior drummer (which led to the hiring of Ringo Starr to replace Pete Best), and he didn’t think their original songs were all that great. In fact, he forced them to raise their game by refusing to allow them to record “Please Please Me” in its original, Roy Orbison-influenced arrangement. The Beatles listened to his advice, sped up the tempo, and came away with their first No. 1 single in the UK.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
Have we underestimated Yoko Ono all along? (And did she keep the Beatles together?) Nonfiction: David Sheff’s “Yoko” dives into the musician/artist/activist’s work and life.
In September 1966, John Lennon, who had just finished what would be the Beatles’ last world tour, visited an exhibition, “Unfinished Paintings and Objects.” Featuring the work of Japanese-born American artist Yoko Ono, it was scheduled to open in London the next day.
Spying a stand with a note saying “Apple,” Lennon took a bite. When he realized he had wrecked Ono’s sculpture and hoping to atone, Lennon asked if he could participate in “Painting to Hammer a Nail (No.9).”
“It’s so symbolic, you see — the virginal board,” Yoko explained, before agreeing to let him bang it for five shillings. “Well, I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in,” Lennon replied. “And that’s when we really met,” he subsequently said. “That’s when we locked eyes and she got it and I got it.”
In “Yoko,” David Sheff — author, among other books, of “Beautiful Boy,” which borrows its title from a Lennon song and is about Sheff’s son’s struggle with addiction — examines the life and work of a multifaceted woman. Her name is recognized around the world, but little is known about her life, outside of her connection to Lennon.
Sheff interviewed the couple for an article in Playboy in 1980, shortly before Lennon was murdered, and remained friends with Ono. Taking full advantage of his access to her, his biography manages to be celebratory without losing sight of her idiosyncrasies, flaws and failures.
Sheff quotes extensively from scathing reviews of Ono’s singing and her avant-garde art installations. He explains how her reliance on tarot cards, psychics and astrologers, along with bouts of loneliness, depression and fear, made her ripe for exploitation.
Source: startribune.com/Glenn C. Altschuler
Although Beatle Mania may be a thing of the past for Paul McCartney, he clearly still enjoys a spot of beach mania.
Sir Paul, 82, enjoyed a day in the surf with his wife, Nancy Shevell, 65, in the Caribbean.
Wearing a cream hat, sunglasses and a fruit-patterned swimsuit, Ms Shevell could hardly contain her smiles as she was carried by her husband in the sea off St Barts.
Macca, protecting himself from the sun in a dark, long-sleeved top, was in good spirits, too, as he took a break from a busy start of the year.
Although he's in his eighties, the former Beatle is still performing, selling out two shows in minutes in New York last month.
The audience at one of the gigs at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan, which only has a capacity of 575, included stars such as Tom Hanks, 68, Anne Hathaway, 42, Cara Delevingne, 32, and Woody Harrelson, 63.
Sir Paul McCartney, 82, enjoyed a day in the surf with his wife, Nancy Shevell, 65, in the Caribbean
Wearing a cream hat, sunglasses and a fruit-patterned swimsuit, Ms Shevell could hardly contain her smiles as she was carried by her husband in the sea off St Barts. The concert was a follow-up to a surprise 90-minute show the day before, which he only announced on the day.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
One of the favourite songs of The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney was written by fellow Fab Four member George Harrison.
McCartney, 82, confirmed Here Comes the Sun from Abbey Road was one of his all-time favourite recordings from Harrison. The Wings frontman also confirmed Brainwashed, Harrison’s posthumous release, which dropped in 2002, was among his favourite albums. In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) to promote his 2020 album, McCartney II, McCartney confirmed Here Comes the Sun was one of his favourite songs from Harrison. He wrote: “It is a brilliant song and the kind of song that’s really good in times like these.”
The “times like these” McCartney refers to in his comment is the lockdown the United Kingdom, and other countries across the world, experienced due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A previous compilation release from McCartney saw the legendary songwriter name a Brainwashed track as another favourite from Harrison’s discography.
The album Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury Groove compiled some of McCartney’s favourite songs. Compiled by McCartney himself, the album featured classics like God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, Cheek to Cheek by Fred Astaire, and George Harrison’s Marwa Blues.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
The Beatles’ best of the best:
1. “Twist and Shout” (1963): This represented the Beatles before they had become so musically condescending. John Lennon’s vocals were simply magnificent. I once read “the way (Lennon’s, Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s) harmonies came together at the song’s climax … was perhaps the most iconic moment of their career”. It’s hard to argue that. (Also, remember this song from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?”)
2. “Yesterday” (1965): In 1997, this masterpiece was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. There are more than 2,200 cover versions out there.
3. “Day Tripper” (1965): Lennon described “Day Tripper” as a “drug song” in 1970,[and in a 2004 interview McCartney said it was “about (LSD)”.
4. “Revolution” (1968): The song opens with arguably the best guitar riff of the modern pop era via Lennon, followed by the famed scream from McCartney.
5. “The Long And Winding Road” (1970): The quintessential soft rock ballad?
6. “In My Life” (1965): Rolling Stone magazine ranked this No. 21 among its 500 greatest songs of all time in 2021.
7. “Something” (1969): Critics have long said this particular song, coupled with his work on “Here Comes The Sun,” vaulted George Harrison to the same level of songwriter as band mates Lennon and McCartney.
8. “Lady Madonna” (1968): Surprisingly, it’s McCartney’s keyboard work — not his guitar abilities — that punctuate this song.
9. “Back in the U.S.S.R.” (1968): For the past 57 years, every time I hear the line “Come and keep your comrade warm” I have to smile.
10. “Hello, Goodbye” (1967): “You say yes, I say no … “
Source: Muddy Rivers News
John Lennon described what Bowie did in his glam rock days as “just rock ’n’ roll with lipstick on”. I was in the lipstick camp. But if Ziggy was from Mars (magical realism with a dash of science fiction) and the Beatles were from Liverpool (trippy social realism) then of the Fab Four, my heart-throb was Ringo. Screeeeam! His wit, deadpan expression and how unbothered he always seemed at the height of the Beatles’ fame made him all the more alluring. When I discovered he joined the band after a summer job drumming at Butlin’s, I loved him even more.
As it happens, George Harrison might be my favourite songwriter out of these four blazing talents – “Something” is a truly uncanny love song. It’s hard to convey a mood that is onside with ambivalence and certainty at the same time. And when I cook spaghetti to “My Sweet Lord”, I appreciate its yearning to see and know something unknowable. Harrison was a Hare Krishna devotee. An older friend once told me that in the Sixties, after chowing down lots of psychedelic drugs, there was a split between those who delivered themselves to spirituality and those who dragged themselves to psychoanalysis.
But Ringo and George are not the subjects of Ian Leslie’s empathetic and enjoyable literary equivalent of a biopic, or perhaps psycho-pic, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs. Leslie has devoted his considerable writing talent to focus on Lennon and McCartney. As the blurb tells us in somewhat overfamiliar language:
Source: newstatesman.com/Deborah Levy
The Beatles had their first number one in America when I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the Cashbox chart in 1964 and they were then sent into a studio to record a German version
The Beatles skyrocketed to international fame in 1964, but that didn't mean they were always happy to get in the studio and record.
During a 19-date residency in Paris, the band's manager Brian Epstein broke the news to them that I Want to Hold Your Hand had rocketed to number one on the US' Cashbox charts — their very first American chart-topper.
By February 1, the track clinched the top spot on America's main chart, the Billboard Hot 100, holding the title for an impressive seven weeks. Convinced of their global potential, Epstein marked that moment as the beginning of their push into international markets.
Given their early stardom in Hamburg, Odeon Records in Berlin persuaded Epstein and producer George Martin that recording German versions of their hits like She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand could enhance sales in West Germany.
The Beatles then found themselves in Paris' PatheĢ Marconi studio. However,......
Source: themirror.com/Dan Haygarth
Paul McCartney and John Lennon met on Saturday, July 6, 1957 — 12 years after the war, 10 years before they released Sgt Pepper — amid the pageantry of a suburban English garden party in Woolton, Liverpool: brass band, fancy-dress parades, cake stalls and hoopla games. Paul, 15 years old, was over from Allerton, a mile or two across the golf course. He didn’t hang out in Woolton much — it was a posh neighbourhood, a little prissy — but a friend from school, Ivan, lived there, and had suggested they go to the fête. There would be girls, plus Ivan had this local friend, John Lennon, whom Paul might like to meet, or at least see play with his group, the Quarry Men.
At about 4pm, he and Ivan arrived at St Peter’s Church. The noise of Lennon’s group was billowing through humid air from the field next to the church. Paul had seen John around, on the bus, in the chip shop, and he was already fascinated by him. Paul was an intellectually hungry boy who was unconvinced by school and unimpressed by the prospect of an office job. Here was this older lad, nearly 17, a leather-jacketed, sideburned, vulpine rocker who seemed to have already made an irreversible break from workaday life.
Source: thetimes.com/Ian Leslie
Peet’s Coffee has announced it will no longer charge extra for plant-based milks.
The decision comes just days after Sir Paul McCartney, a longtime advocate for animal welfare, penned an open letter to the East Bay company urging it to eliminate the $1 surcharge for vegan milk.
“We were proud to introduce the first fully plant-based menu item at scale for coffee shops in 2021,” Gordon Bitter, a senior vice president at Peet’s, said in a statement. “Now, we’re excited to take the next step by offering non-dairy options at the same price as all milk-based drinks.”
Starting June 4, beverages with non-dairy options — including oat, almond and pea protein milk — will be offered without an upcharge.
“I am really happy to hear this!” McCartney said in a statement Saturday, March 15.
Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, also celebrated the decision.
“With a little help from our friend Sir Paul McCartney, PETA notched a swift win for animals, the planet, and kind consumers, who shouldn’t be punished for making the ethical and healthy choice to ditch dairy,” she said in a statement.
Source: sfchronicle.com/Aidin Vaziri
Today in history:
On March 22, 1963, The Beatles’ debut album, “Please Please Me,” was released in the United Kingdom on the Parlophone record label.
