Beatles News
The Beatles’ “Flying” was inspired by 12-bar blues songs. Paul McCartney said it’s credited all members of the band because it’s not a real song. The tune appeared on the hit album Magical Mystery Tour.
The Beatles‘ “Flying” is a track with no lyrics that appears in the movie Magical Mystery Tour. Paul McCartney explained why the song features writing credits from all four of The Beatles. Subsequently, a notable band covered the song for a film based on Fab Four tunes.
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of “Flying.” “‘Flying’ was an instrumental that we needed for Magical Mystery Tour so in the studio one night I suggested to the guys that we made something up,” he said. “I said, ‘We can keep it very very simple, we can make it a twelve-bar blues. We need a little bit of a theme and a little bit of a backing.'”
Paul said he was instrumental in writing the tune. “I wrote the melody,” he said. “The only thing to warrant it as a song is basically the melody, otherwise it’s just a nice twelve-bar backing thing. It’s played on the Mellotron, on a trombone setting. It’s credited to all four, which is how you would credit a non-song.” Very few of The Beatles’ songs were credited to all four members of the band.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
It’s hardly a stretch to say The Beatles dominated the 1960s, especially from 1963 onward. Their energetic debut album, Please Please Me, bowled over young English music fans. The United States finally caught up nearly a year later with the Fab Four’s historic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The fact that The Beatles had 71 songs land in the top 100 of the Billboard singles chart is as impressive as their 20 No. 1 hits.
The Fab Four existed as a recording band for eight years, but their impact and success stretched well beyond that timeline. Need proof? Three of those top 100 songs came in the 1990s, and two of those were demos (“Free as a Bird” and “Real Love) released when their trio of Anthology albums saw the light of day. “Baby It’s You” also charted in the mid-1990s.
The Beatles found the top 100 three times in the 1970s, too. “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” found Billboard success in 1976, and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” hit the charts in 1978, more than a decade after the album hit shelves. “The Beatles Movie Medley” smashed seven songs from their feature films into a four-minute song. It peaked at No. 12 on Billboard’s charts in 1982.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
George Martin, popularly known as the “Fifth Beatle,” was in high spirits with the Beatles’ audition for EMI on June 6, 1962, after which the producer offered them a recording contract. However, he was not satisfied with the performance of the band’s drummer, Pete Best. Hence, the Fab Four had to bring in a newbie, Ringo Starr, to take charge of the drums, because they thought him better than their former drummer.
Within a month of joining the band, Ringo Starr was in jitters about his future with the Beatles due to a decision made by Martin.
After two failed prior attempts by the Beatles to record the song “Love Me Do,” Martin noticed that Starr could not keep up with the pace. In a bid to get the song out as quickly as possible, he decided to hire a session drummer, Andy White, to get the job done.
Martin revealed the reason for his decision was that the inexperienced Starr was not yet ready for a fast-paced recording session. “I didn’t rate Ringo very highly; he couldn’t do a roll — and still can’t — though he’s improved a lot since,” he said in the book Ringo: With a Little Help by Michael Seth Starr. “Andy was the kind of drummer I needed, Ringo was only used to ballrooms. It was obviously best to use someone with experience.”
Source: doyouremember.com
The Beatles‘ “Your Mother Should Know” was inspired by Paul McCartney’s interactions with his aunt. In addition, it was supposed to advocate peace between generations. Notably, its message was really out of step with the 1960s counterculture.
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of “Your Mother Should Know.” “My Aunty Jin and Uncle Harry and a couple of relatives were staying and they were in the living room just across the hall, so I just went to the dining room and spent a few hours with the door open with them listening,” he recalled.
This environment inspired him to write “Your Mother Should Know.” He felt the song was “basic.” Paul felt he probably wouldn’t have written it if Aunty Jin wasn’t nearby.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles wrote many songs that were love letters to various things and locations in the U.K. “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” are both dedicated to locations they visited in Liverpool. Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote one song in the early days of The Beatles as a “tribute to British rail.”
The Beatles first recorded “One After 909” in 1963 on the same day as “From Me to You.” However, The Beatles did perform it live earlier as The Quarrymen in 1960 and at the Cavern Club in 1962. The recorded version of the song wasn’t released until 1970’s Let it Be, the band’s final album. In a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, John Lennon said he wrote the song around the age of 17 and claims it was primarily a solo job.
“I wrote it when I was 17 or 18,” Lennon said. “We always wrote separately, but we wrote together because we enjoyed it a lot sometimes and also because they would say, well, you’re going to make an album together and knock off a few songs, just like a job.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles’ “Come Together” and “Something” were together and initially charted at different positions. Billboard changed its rules so that A-sides and B-sides charted together. “Come Together” and “Something” hit No. 1 together in the United States.
The Beatles‘ “Come Together” and “Something” both topped the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. This only happened because Billboard changed its rules. On the other hand, the songs did not perform as well in the United Kingdom.
The Beatles’ 1969 singles “Come Together” and “Something” initially charted at No. 23 and No. 20, respectively. Then, the songs reached No. 10 and No. 11, and then No. 2 and No. 3. Subsequently, Billboard changed its rules.
Now, A-sides and B-sides would be counted together. Because of this, “Come Together” and “Something” reached the top of the chart at the same time, making the Fab Four’s first pair of singles to do so. The same phenomenon happened to The Beatles’ later singles “The Long and Winding Road” and “For You Blue.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Heather Mills "struggled" to live in Paul McCartney's family home, claims her new documentary The Trials of Heather Mills, which airs on Channel 5 and looks back on her tough childhood and her tumultuous marriage to McCartney. According to Mirror, Mills and McCartney were first introduced by Piers Morgan in May 1999 at the Pride of Britain Awards in London where McCartney presented an award in his late wife Linda's name, who had unfortunately passed away due to breast cancer. The Here Comes the Sun singer and the former model married in 2002 at a lavish wedding in Glaslough, Ireland.
Source: Mary Anthony/inquisitr.com
Emmy-nominated actress, model and author Barbara Feldon joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about the "freedom and fun" of the 1960s, being a contemporary of the Beatles and her new memoir "Getting Smarter" on "Everything Fab Four," a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon.
Feldon, best known for portraying the striking, sophisticated superspy Agent 99 on Mel Brooks and Buck Henry's classic sitcom "Get Smart," started out as a showgirl and model in New York City before moving on to acting. In fact, she and her husband at the time, the charming Lucien Feldon-Verdeaux (whose shocking story she details in her memoir, which is available on her website), were living in a fifth floor apartment off Park Avenue when the Beatles arrived to play "The Ed Sullivan Show" (on which Feldon herself had previously performed as a dancer) in February of 1964. "We heard this roar coming up from the street," she explains to Womack. "And looking down over the parapet, we saw this mob of young women." When she asked what they were screaming about, someone yelled up, "It's the Beatles!"
Source: Nicole Michael/salon.com
Today marks St George’s Day and so Sir Paul McCartney has honoured the two late Georges associated with The Beatles. Firstly, his fellow bandmate George Harrison, who died in November 2001, aged 58. And also Sir George Martin, The Beatles record producer, who died in March 2016 at the age of 90.
On his Instagram account, Sir Paul McCartney posted a picture of the two Georges in the studio, as captured by his late wife Linda McCartney, who died in April 1998 aged 56. The 80-year-old wrote: “Happy St George’s Day to Georges everywhere - Paul.”
Macca has posted similar tributes to the pair of “Georges I have known and loved” over the past few years. In fact, he still “talks” to Harrison through the evergreen coniferous tree that the Quiet Beatle gifted him before he died. Speaking previously with All Things Considered, Sir Paul said how Harrison was very into horticulture and a great gardener.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Among the astonishing 250-plus shows that The Beatles played in 1963, a couple were especially poignant. On April 8, The Beatles were entertaining the Swimming Baths in Leyton, east London, while Cynthia Lennon was alone in Sefton General Hospital, Liverpool, giving birth to Julian. It was not yet necessarily the custom for fathers to attend births in 1963, but even so, Lennon would not have a moment to meet his first-born until April 11, squeezed between shows in Birkenhead and Middleton.Another significant gig was the August 3 booking at their former proving ground, The Cavern. Since the most recent of their 280-plus previous engagements at the Mathew St cellar on April 12, the tenor of the fans had changed. Quoted in Spencer Leigh’s book, The Cavern, club doorman Paddy Delaney recalled, “The crowds outside were going mad. By the time John Lennon had got through the cordon of girls, his mohair jacket had lost a sleeve. I grabbed it to stop a girl getting away with a souvenir. John stitched it back on.”
Source: Danny Ecclesto/mojo4music.com
