Beatles News
Paul McCartney is reminiscing about his busy time in New York.
The Beatles legend headlined three intimate club shows at the Bowery Ballroom, Feb. 11, Feb. 12 and Feb. 14, then closed SNL50: The Anniversary Special Sunday night. He just posted a carousel of photos from both on Instagram.
“We had a fabulous week in New York with three small gigs leading to the 50th anniversary show of @nbcsnl,” McCartney writes. “It is always exciting to play at small venues it reminds me of when we began in places like the Cavern and Hamburg. The three gigs we played at @boweryballroom were fabulous.”
He adds, “We really enjoyed playing to the young, enthusiastic audience and the atmosphere was intimate and electric!”
The three shows had McCartney playing a mixture of Beatles, Wings and solo material. At SNL:50 he ended the show with the Abbey Road side two medley that includes “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”
Source: Classic Rock News
The Beatles fans have seemingly decided on their favourite George Harrison song, with a lesser-known track beating Here Comes the Sun.
Though the legendary songwriter has tracks like Here Comes the Sun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Taxman, a song from the band’s third album, A Hard Day’s Night, reigns supreme. A post to r/TheBeatles on Reddit has since seen fans share their favourite songs sung by Harrison, and his earlier works have become a fast favourite of fans. Hundreds of comments were left on a thread which asked: “What’s your favourite Beatles song sung by George Harrison?” While songs like I Me Mine and While My Guitar Gently Weeps did appear, they were not the highest rated on the thread.
Instead, the song I’m Happy Just to Dance With You took a spot above Here Comes the Sun. One user suggested the song and it led to a flurry of replies suggesting it was the best vocal work Harrison had provided the Fab Four. One user wrote: “My first thought was this. He sounds so good on that song.” Another added: “Definitely a classic… his voice hits you differently than the others.”
Other users did suggest the more obvious choices from The Beatles’ discography, including Something. The song suggestion was the most upvoted comment on the thread and a clear favourite of Fab Four fans. One user replied: “It’s the most cliched answer but I’ll be damned if that song isn’t perfect in every way.”
Another wrote: “I mean, it’s a cliché for a reason. Sometimes the obvious answer is the best answer.” A third has since suggested the Anthology version of the track. They wrote: “I think the demo on the anthology is as perfect even tho it’s technically flawed. The demo of all things must pass is amazing as well.”
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
-The former drummer for The Beatles, now turned solo artist, Ringo Starr, will make his Opry debut on February 21 at the Grand Ole Opry as part of the Opry’s ongoing celebration for their 100th anniversary.
Back in January, Grand Ole Opry member and Country Music Hall of Famer, Emmylou Harris, surprised Starr onstage during his concert at the Ryman.
Harris welcomed him to Nashville and asked if he would come back next month to play the Grand Ole Opry for the first time.
Starr’s accomplishments include winning 10 Grammys, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, an Academy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
There will also be performances by Opry members Lauren Alaina, Mandy Barnett, Don Schlitz and many more.
Source: (WSMV)
Like me, you probably think you know the story arc of The Beatles pretty well. As we’ve worked on this new publication, the latest edition in our Ultimate Record Collection series, out tomorrow, it’s been a delight to find that the Beatles narrative can still offer up some delightful surprises.
And the story here? This magazine presents insightful new writing on every Beatles record in order of its appearance, forming a definitive timeline of the first and most thrillingly intense part of the group’s career. What emerges as you listen to the music and read the following pages isn’t only a renewed pleasure in the songs, but also a respect for the Beatles’ composure as the storm of their new fame grew around them.
New fantastic self-penned music followed quickly on the heels of their initial hits. No group had done anything quite like this before, and neither had the record industry, which now had to meet the phenomenal demand for new music. Here you’ll be able to get an idea of how that worked in real time. Alongside the albums you likely know and love already, you’ll see the profusion of new singles, and also the less-familiar formats like the EPs, in their incentivising picture sleeves. Then there’s the overseas editions.
You could spend a happy lifetime immersing yourself into the worldwide Beatles, but here we’ve confined ourselves, with a few exceptions, to the UK and North American records. For sure, there’s a wry remark or two to be made at the expense of the way the United States handled the album releases – slicing and dicing “superfluous” tracks here, assembling new albums from the cuts, adding the singles (or taking them away). But observing their label’s initial lack of interest, and their haste to try and catch up, you feel not only the size of a less-connected world – and also just how manic Beatlemania must have felt to those involved with servicing its demands. You could even find yourself making the case that Meet The Beatles is a superior document of the era because it starts with “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. We’ve aired our thoughts, and reviewed every record.
Source: John Robinson/uncut.co.uk
Between 1963 and ’64, as the Beatles toured the globe, Paul McCartney snapped hundreds of photos of his daily life. In between candid shots of his bandmates and images of foreign locales, they offer a rare peek into Beatlemania, as seen from the inside. “There’s a sort of innocence about them,” the bassist reflected in 2023.
A trove of these photos has made its way across museums from the U.K. to the U.S. for the past two years. But there’s more where that came from. A show in Beverly Hills will soon surface yet more previously unseen images from McCartney’s archives, which will be offered for sale.
In April, Gagosian will present 36 works by McCartney, some of them newly rediscovered, created between December 1963 and February 1964. They were shot in Liverpool and London in the U.K., Paris, France, as well as New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
At this time, the Beatles had embarked on their first tour of the U.K., hot on the heels of their number one album, With the Beatles, released in November 1963. The following year saw them descend on Paris, then New York, where they made their now-legendary debut appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February. By the end of the month, they had made the cover of Newsweek, in a front-page story that trumpeted “Bugs About Beatles.”
Source: news.artnet.com/Min Chen Art & Pop Culture
It's been more than 50 years since The Beatles broke up, not to mention decades since the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison, but that hasn't stopped the group from winning awards. At the February 2, 2025 Grammys, The Beatles won their eighth trophy for Best Rock Performance. The long-forgotten song "Now and Then" was completed by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with an assist from AI, and its success is just one measure of the band's enduring appeal.
But The Beatles were even more than the sum of their parts. In the wake of the band's legendary 1960s run came a number of high-profile solo releases from each individual member. That includes Ringo, whose eponymous 1973 album peaked at #2 on the U.S. charts and yielded two #1 singles—with a little help from his friends, of course. Those tracks were just the beginning of Starr's successful solo ventures—the former Beatles guitarist kicks off a U.S. tour with his All-Starr Band in June 2025, playing fresh material from his brand-new country album, "Look Up," which came out Jan. 10, 2025.
Source: MSN
Legendary artist and musician Yoko Ono turned 92 on February 18, although will likely be celebrating her big day privately as she has for years.
The Japanese icon, best known for her marriage to and collaborations with her late husband John Lennon, has lived a life away from the public eye for several years.
In honor of her special day and legacy, here's what we know about Yoko's life out of the spotlight now, from her home to her family…
Where does Yoko live now? For five decades, the musician lived in her famous apartment in New York in the exclusive Dakota building, outside where Lennon was tragically shot and killed in 1980.
It was at this famous apartment that she hosted several of the world's elite and raised her son with Lennon, although as it turns out, she's now found a new abode.
Source: hellomagazine.com/Ahad Sanwari
The new exhibition at Selby Gardens is George Harrison: A Gardner’s Life as part of the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series. It is on view from now until June 29th at the downtown Sarasota campus. For those who didn’t know, George loved music but he also loved gardening and spent much of his time after the Beatles disbanded toiling in the earth.
Selby’s artist in residence, musician & poet Patti Smith came to honor the opening of George’s exhibition with her music, stories and reading poetry from Olivia Harrison’s book dedicated to George and their life together entitled “Came the Lightening”. Patti was introduced by Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki. George’s wife also traveled to Sarasota to lecture on art & nature and share about George’s passion of gardening. She was in the audience for Patti’s performance.
It was a sold-out crowd for Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and who is named one of the greatest artists of all time, Patti Smith is a true renaissance woman. She opened with spoken word of “Grateful” and played a cover of the Beatles, “If I Needed Someone.” She was accompanied by her son Jackson Smith on guitar and longtime bandmate Tony Shanahan on guitar and keyboards. She is humble, humorous and brings wisdom to the sold out crowd in the evening balmy breeze and a bright full moon on beautiful Sarasota Bay. She jokes as she looks through her notes about being well prepared as the audience laughs along.
Patty Smith
She performed a cover of a solo George Harrison tune, “Isn’t It A Pity.”
Source: Vicky Sullivan/suncoastpost.com
George Harrison didn’t always get his flowers in the Beatles writing sessions. Part of what made him move to leave the band was his feeling that it was becoming the Paul and John show. However, he did manage to sneak in a few songs here and there–moreover, when he did, they were mega hits for the group. The final hit he scored for the band became one of their calling cards. Learn more about Harrison’s swan song with the Fab Four, below.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
Little darling
It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it’s been here
“Here Comes The Sun” is pop perfection. Though the Beatles were purveyors of rock, Harrison leaned into easy-breezy, easily digestible melodies for this song. While winding down after a long day of fighting with his bandmates, Harrison penned this track at Eric Clapton’s house. The lyrics flowed out of him while feeling the long-awaited warmth of the sun amid a long English winter. This song has a similar effect on all its listeners. It’s impossible to not get a dose of summer-time joy after pressing play on this Beatles hit.
In the years since its release, “Here Comes The Sun,” has become one of the band’s biggest hits. It’s so pervasive that it has become almost second nature to us. Those around in 1969 might remember the first time they heard this track, but those who popped up any decade after might find they’ve known this song since birth. It’s ubiquitous.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Part of the paradoxical allure of the Beatles is that despite being largely self-taught musicians, some of their music is so challenging that a traditionally taught musician like George Martin struggled to keep up. The fact that these homegrown Liverpudlians could hold their own among the music world’s best seemed indicative of whatever otherworldly star power they possessed to make them one of the greatest and most enduring bands of all time.
Interestingly, the Beatles song too challenging for George Martin was also one that John Lennon called his “first real, major piece of work.”
The Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul was one of the clearest examples of the band’s creative range thus far in their career. From the moody “Girl” to the parlor-style “Michelle” to the rocking “Drive My Car,” the Fab Four explored genre and subject matter in a way they had only dabbled with in previous records. One of the tracks that stands out the most on that iconic album is the sentimental “In My Life,” a heartfelt and retrospective ballad about remembering lovers and friends I still can recall.
During the recording process, the band ended up with a 12-bar instrumental section with nothing to put into it. Producer and honorary fifth Beatle George Martin came to the rescue, coming up with a melodic piano part to fill the space. The only problem, of course, was when he was playing along to the tape, he realized he wrote far too intricate of a piano part for that tempo. A more proficient pianist could have done it, but they didn’t have one on hand. So, Martin devised a clever workaround: record the piano part to tape at half-speed, then speed it up in post to match the overall tempo.
The results were highly effective, giving the piano a Baroque harpsichord tone that seemed to add to the song’s timelessness. Martin tracked the piano part while the Beatles were on break, and when they returned to the studio, they quickly approved of Martin’s work. “George Martin had a very great musical knowledge and background,” John Lennon recalled in Anthology. “He’d come up with amazing technical things.”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
