Beatles News
On a sultry summer night in 1965, 55,600 people took part in a historic musical and cultural event. It was Aug. 15, the day The Beatles played the very first major stadium concert at Shea Stadium in Queens. This week marks its 60th anniversary.
The Beatles had already become popular at home in England, although “popular” is perhaps an understatement. Young people were screaming, crying and fainting in the band’s presence, and it seemed that mass hysteria followed everywhere they went. One British tabloid, the Daily Mail, coined a name for the phenomenon: Beatlemania.
Beatlemania first hit U.S. shores when the four lads from Liverpool arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Feb. 7, 1964, just two months after the assassination of the 35th president prompted a name change for the facility. The band would be exposed to a wider audience through their performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” two nights later.
The sold-out performance at Shea Stadium the following year, which set world records both for attendance and for revenue, was the peak of Beatlemania. According to concert promoter Sid Bernstein’s 2002 memoir “It’s Sid Bernstein Calling,” John Lennon, speaking in 1971, said he “saw the top of the mountain on that unforgettable night” as he reflected on the concert.
But that night wasn’t about hearing The Beatles play — the tens of thousands of screaming fans drowned out the primitive public-address system of the newly opened stadium.
Source: David Paone/timesunion.com
Paul McCartney has always been generous in giving credit where it’s due. Throughout his legendary career, he has openly acknowledged the artists who inspired him, but one musician stands out above the rest — Brian Wilson. Wilson’s masterpiece, “God Only Knows,” is a song McCartney once described as “brilliantly done.”
In a 2007 interview with BBC Radio 1, McCartney opened up about why this Beach Boys classic holds such a special place in his heart.
“It’s one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it,” McCartney confessed. “It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian.”
Coming from the man who penned “Yesterday,” “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road,” this wasn’t just casual praise — it was the greatest tribute.
McCartney’s admiration for Wilson’s composition went far beyond words. The track directly inspired some of the Beatles’ most beloved songs. “God Only Knows” served as the blueprint for McCartney’s own “Silly Love Songs,” which incorporated the same build-up of vocal counterpoints that made Wilson’s track so alluring.
Wilson himself was humble about the praise. When McCartney first called “God Only Knows” the “greatest song ever written” in the 1970s, Wilson responded, “If that’s true, then what was there left for me to do?”
Originally released in 1966, “God Only Knows” peaked at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 but achieved top 10 status in several other countries, cementing its place in the Beach Boys’ legendary catalog. However, the song’s impact didn’t stop in the ’60s.
Following Wilson’s recent passing on June 11, 2025, “God Only Knows” has experienced a massive resurgence on social media. TikTok users have been rediscovering the track, with many hearing Wilson’s harmonies for the first time.
The song’s renaissance reached a high when Spin posted a video isolating Wilson’s raw vocals from the track. The viral clip garnered over a million views and left fans stunned by the producer’s talent.
“Now I see why Paul McCartney felt threatened by the harmonization,” one user joked in the comments. Another added, “Brian Wilson really said ‘I’m glad you guys liked the decade of silly surf rock songs I made, now here’s the greatest pop album of all time.'”
Source: parade.com/Isabella Torregiani
1969 was a bit of a heavy time for Paul McCartney. He was desperately trying to keep The Beatles together via a project that would force them to play together once again. Maybe it was only natural that his mind would wander off to more innocent days.
It was around that time that McCartney started writing the teenage-themed “The Back Seat Of My Car”. Although he’d never record it with The Beatles, he and his wife Linda would eventually make it the closing track of their 1971 album Ram.
Taking a “Back Seat”
On The Beatles’ 1968 double LP The White Album, individual members often went their separate ways in the studio to record songs without input from the others. With the Get Back/Let It Be project that began in early 1969, Paul McCartney sought to bring everyone back together into a tight musical unit.
He did this via an album that they planned to build from scratch in rehearsals, all while being filmed. As we know, the project ended up exposing more rifts than repairing them. After the rooftop concert at the end of January, the album/documentary was put on ice for over a year, by which time the band had broken up.
Band members were encouraged to bring whatever musical idea they had to the proceedings for possible inclusion on the album. Paul McCartney began working on the bare bones of “The Back Seat Of My Car” at one of those sessions. But he abandoned it before the rest of the band could give their input.
He brought the song out of mothballs to make it the stirring closer of Ram, the 1971 album credited to both Paul and his wife, Linda. In an interview with Mojo in 2001 (as reported by The Beatles Bible), McCartney explained where his head was at when he was writing “The Back Seat Of My Car”:
“Back Seat Of My Car’ is very romantic: ‘We can make it to Mexico City.’ That’s a really teenage song, with the stereotypical parent who doesn’t agree, and the two lovers are going to take on the world: ‘We believe that we can’t be wrong.’ I always like the underdog.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
The Beatles released their fifth studio album Help!, which was the soundtrack to their film of the same name.
The album produced three #1 singles, including the title track, “Yesterday” and “Ticket to Ride.”
Help! was a critical success, and hit #1 on the Billboard Albums chart, spending nine weeks in the top spot. It was also nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, marking The Beatles’ first Grammy nomination in that category.
Help! was the second film to star The Beatles, following 1964’s A Hard Days Night. It had the band trying to protect drummer Ringo Starr, who’s the target of a sinister cult and mad scientists trying to obtain a sacrificial ring he received as a gift from a fan.
Source: everettpost.com
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s friend and confidant Elliot Mintz was the guest on the latest episode of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan’s interview podcast The Magnificent Others. Mintz, who was Lennon and Ono’s publicist during their years living at the Dakota building in Manhattan, recently published a memoir about his experiences with the legendary couple titled We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me.
During his conversation with Corgan, Mintz discussed being a witness to what he believes was the final time Lennon and fellow Beatles legend Paul McCartney ever spent time together.
According to Mintz, the get-together happened around Christmas time in 1978. He told Corgan that John and Yoko had invited him over to the Dakota, and while he was sitting in their living room, some other guests arrived at the building.
As Mintz recalled, “[T]here’s a knock on the door … and [John] opens it, and Paul and Linda McCartney walk in, and they greet each other.”
Elliot noted that this was the first time he’d ever met McCartney. Continuing his story, Mintz said. “And [Paul and Linda] come in, and John just said, ‘This is our friend Elliot.’ And I said, ‘Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Linda.’ And we sat and we talked for a while. … How should I say it? It wasn’t overly jubilant. It wasn’t icy. It was just correct.”
The Couples and Mintz Then Went Out for Dinner
Mintz recalled that it was then decided that the group would get dinner at the Manhattan restaurant Elaine’s. As Elliot noted, Elaine’s was a popular dining spot for celebrities, although its food was notoriously mediocre.
He remembered that no one was particularly thrilled at the menu choices, so Linda suggested that they order a pizza from a nearby pizza place she liked and have it delivered to Elaine’s. Mintz was tasked with getting the pizza to the restaurant.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Matt Friedlander
Even During Their Feud, Paul McCartney and John Lennon Still Defended Each Other
When the other three Beatles signed with Klein, Paul McCartney was forced to take drastic measures that would affect their relationship forever. In an effort to dissolve the band's partnership so he wouldn't be tied to Klein, the bassist took his former bandmates to court. McCartney, to this day, acknowledges that his decision was a big part of what led to the feud, but at the same time, it was inevitable.
After Lennon left England, he and McCartney stopped seeing each other for a while, but they were certainly still thinking and talking about each other. More importantly, even though their songwriting partnership had effectively ended with The Beatles (except for "Give Peace a Chance," but that's a different story), they were still influencing each other's writing. They were both writing songs about each other, mostly to attack each other, and that, apparently, made people think that they could get on their good side by badmouthing the other to them. But according to Alice Cooper, who was friendly with Lennon in the '70s, they quickly learned that wasn't the way to go.
"When they were after each other’s throats, when it came to the breakup and all that stuff, if anybody in the Vampires back in those days – that was our drinking club – if anybody said anything bad about Paul, John would take a swing at you, because that was his best friend," Cooper explained.
"You are not allowed to talk about their best friends. They were best friends no matter what was going on in the whole thing."
The same thing, it seems, happened with George Harrison. The Quiet Beatle wasn't as angry with McCartney as Lennon was, but they still had a strained relationship at the time. In fact, Harrison played guitar on Lennon's diss track, "How Do You Sleep?" But he wouldn't stand for anyone insulting his childhood friend, even when he was actively bashing him. Jim Keltner, a session drummer who worked with both Lennon and Harrison in the early '70s, explained that, while they worked together, the two of them would make "really brutal" comments about their former bandmate.
Source: collider.com/Val Barone
Paul McCartney is set to hit the road again this year. The Walton-born Beatles icon, 83, revealed last month that his Got Back tour will kick off again in September as he makes his way across North America.
The tour will launch on September 29 in Palm Desert, California, making stops in cities like Las Vegas, Denver, Tulsa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Montreal before wrapping up in Chicago in November. Paul's latest live performance was at Anfield on June 7 when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at Liverpool FC's home ground.
He also performed intimate shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York in February, which were revealed at the last minute and had fans rushing to the venue for tickets. The previous leg of Paul's ongoing Got Back tour wrapped up in December, after concerts in Manchester and London brought the European run to a close.
The final evening in the capital saw him reunite with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr on stage, as the duo performed 'Helter Skelter' and the reprise of 'Sgt Pepper' together.
Source: themirror.com/Connor McCrory, Dan Haygarth
It’s been 55 since the Beatles split up, but a show that’s coming to Guildford in September could possibly be the next best thing to hearing them perform.
An audience at G Live will hear all 30 songs from the “White Album” played by a Canadian touring company just as they sound on the record, note for note.
The “White Album” – officially titled simply The Beatles – must surely be one of the most diverse music projects of all time, containing styles as varied as folk, country rock, blues, old time music hall, hard rock, psychedelia and avant-garde. So this performance by Classic Albums Live could be the ultimate Beatles challenge.
Craig Martin – “We pay the album the ultimate respect”
CAL is no tribute band in the usual sense. Their founder, Craig Martin, says: “The concept take is simple: perform classic albums exactly the way they were recorded – note for note, cut for cut, as the original artists intended it to be. No gimmicks, just pure musical excellence.”
From that first few seconds when you hear the rushing sound of a jet coming in to land (in the opening track, Back in the USSR) the audience is transported through 93 minutes of some of the Beatles’ finest music.
CAL is considerably bigger than most touring outfits. “When we perform the Beatles, we hire a great many musicians to get every sound just right,” says Martin. “When it comes to properly performing ‘Glass Onion’ or ‘Revolution 9’ it’s all hands on deck. Our string and horn sections have become well versed in orchestral percussion.”
Ah yes, Revolution 9. How do they handle that surreal cacophony of sound effects and tape loops that goes on for eight minutes and 22 seconds?
Martin acknowledges the difficulty. “We have been working our way through Revolution 9 since the series began,” he says. “Seeing this performed live confuses half the audience and thrills the other half.”
So what are the main challenges involved in performing such an iconic album?
“Getting the beautiful sound of the voices is always the most daunting task,” Martin says. “We take our time and find the musicians for the right part. Matching the musician to the album is crucial. When we say note for note, we mean it.”
Source: guildford-dragon.com/David Reading
“What goes on tour, stays on tour” goes the old adage, yet for Paul McCartney on January 16th 1980, some secret ‘sustenance’ for Wings' long-anticipated Japanese tour became global news as the beloved ex-Beatle was locked up for a staggering nine days when a sizeable bag of marijuana was found on his possession.
To confound matters even further, Paul’s 7.7 ounce (219 gram) bag of fresh Hawaiian cannabis wasn’t even hidden. It had been naively stuffed within within his carry-on luggage alongside clothes and other essentials. Seemingly, without a hint of subtlety.
As Paul and his wife (and bandmate) Linda passed through security at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, a diligent customs officer opted to be as thorough with his screening of the incoming music legend as he had been with the rest of the new arrivals.
After all, Paul had form.
Having been arrested in Sweden in 1972 and at his home in Scotland the same year for pot-related offences (possessing it, and growing it respectively), simply getting permission to come to the hyper-stringent Japan had been something of a legal hoop-jump, as the country’s rigid laws had zero tolerance for drugs of any sort.
But, after finally being granted the long-sought work visas (which had previously put pay to a mooted 1975 tour of the country), eleven dates were now on the calendars of delighted Asian fans.
This tour was set to take in premiere venues of Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, with the latter featuring a return to the Nippon Budokan where, over a decade before (and in a previous musical outfit) Paul had previously put on a memorable show alongside his bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. A time when the entire world was gripped by Beatlemania.
But now things were quite different.
Unzipping the suitcase, the customs officer was aghast to find the not-even-slightly concealed bag of marijuana, which had a street value of 600,000 yen.
There was a tense moment when Paul and the officer met each others’ eyes.
Source: musicradar.com/Andy Price
Why Moon wanted to join The Beatles as a drummer has nothing to do with jealousy, but more to do with admiration. Moon had always been a fan, a friend, and an occasional collaborator who even offered backup vocals in their track “All You Need Is Love,” long before The Beatles’ breakup. As iconic and essential to rock music as Moon is, he would have never fit in with The Beatles.
The Beatles and The Who, although friendly, were also compared to each other by music fans. Both bands were on a trajectory to greatness, as The Who climbed the charts and England and worldwide descended into Beatlemania. However, while tension was well and truly alive in The Beatles, something even more violent was occurring in The Who.
Internal conflicts rocked his relationship with the band, and Moon grew frustrated with it, especially after he chased fellow member Pete Townshend with a knife. Moon was dealing with drug use during his time as a drummer in The Who, which contributed to the tension. Things came to a head when Roger Daltrey flushed his drugs down the toilet, prompting him to search for other bands to join.
Paul McCartney Turned Down Keith Moon’s Preposition
When Moon asked McCartney for a spot in the Fab Four, he politely turned him down as they were not looking for a new drummer. Starr was the perfect fit for The Beatles as he matched the sound and the aesthetic the group needed. Even when he was the first to leave The Beatles, he returned behind the drum kit to feed more Beatlemaniac fans with more classic rock songs that defined the genre. However, McCartney did point him to Starr’s direction to speak to him about the preposition, but whether that conversation was had is unknown.
Even after getting rejected by The Animals and The Beatles, Moon didn’t leave the band. He stayed and contributed to more of The Who’s greatest songs and classics, such as “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” as the band gained more popularity. Moon stayed in The Who as their drummer until his unexpected death in September 1978.
Keith Moon Was Essential to The Who, Just as Ringo Starr Was to The Beatles
The Who were not always the best of friends, even when tensions lessened. Still, they always came together to create classic hits, and continued as a band in Moon’s honor after he died of a drug overdose. Sadly, as for The Beatles, tensions continued to rise, which ultimately led to their breakup.
Source: collider.com/Teguan Harris
