Beatles News
The soundman turned down poor Yoko Ono's microphone...
Before we get started it's worth underlining that no, Yoko Ono didn't "break up The Beatles", and that she was an accomplished and acclaimed artist in her own right before she even met John Lennon.
With all that acknowledged, it's also fair to say that her improvised contribution to John duetting with his musical hero Chuck Berry took a few people by surprise, especially Chuck himself.
As one of the pioneers of rock 'n' roll, The Beatles were all massive Chuck fans, and covered around 15 of his songs during their early years.
They repeatedly picked Berry's hits when they popped up on the radio, and you can hear the Fab Four's versions of "Too Much Monkey Business', 'Carol', 'Johnny B. Goode', 'Memphis, Tennessee', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'Rock and Roll Music' and 'I Got to Find My Baby' on the official Live at the BBC compilation.
Source: Mayer Nissim/goldradiouk.com
Like the rest of The Beatles, Ringo Starr grew up in Liverpool, but left the city behind when his music career took off. Starr looks back on his hometown fondly, though he would not move back there. During an interview in 2008, Starr said there wasn’t much he missed about living in Liverpool. The offhand remark angered many of the city’s residents.
Starr was born in Liverpool, England, in 1940. According to his Beatles bandmate, Paul McCartney, all of the Beatles faced hardship in Liverpool, but Starr had it the worst.
“I don’t want to bring in the violins, but we all came from hardship,” McCartney told Rolling Stone in 2015. “All of us except for George [Harrison] lost someone. I lost my mum when I was 14. John [Lennon] lost his mum. But Ringo had it worst. His father was gone; he was so sick they told his mum he wasn’t going to live. Imagine making up your life from that, in that environment. No family, no school. He had to invent himself. We all had to come up with a shield, but Ringo came up with the strongest shield.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr drums on the beach, sings in front of spinning backdrops, and pushes plenty of peace and love in the vibrant new music video for “Everyone and Everything,” a song hailing from the Beatles legend’s latest solo effort, “EP3.”
The colorful clip has a little bit of everything, from troublemaking cats and psychedelic imagery to Ringo marching in front of a majestic mountain backdrop. If there’s one predominant theme, however, it’s the 82-year-old Stern Show veteran’s desire to bring the world together with peace and love.
Written by former 4 Non Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry, “Everyone and Everything” is one of four tracks on “EP3,” which landed in September and is available on cassette and vinyl. The effort serves as Ringo’s third release since the start of last year, following EPs “Zoom In” and “Change the World.”
Source: howardstern.com
George Harrison loved all Beatles fans. However, he had a hard time understanding some of them. He had a problem with the fans who wanted the group to live on, despite their issues with each other as bandmates or how much they wanted to move on.
During a 1974 press conference (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), a reporter asked George if he was “amazed by how much the Beatles still mean to people today.”
It didn’t impress George. Actually, he thought it was a problem that some people were still attached to the band. Living in the past was not good. “Not really,” he said. “It’s nice. I realize the Beatles did fill a space in the ’60s, and all the people the Beatles mean anything to have grown up. It’s like anything; if you grow up with something you get attached to it.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
The album that we have all come to call “The White Album” is in reality called The Beatles, but virtually from the moment it was released, on November 22, 1968 (en route to topping the UK charts on December 7), it picked up its more popular moniker. Such was the impact of the album, the ninth studio outing by The Beatles, that there are some who have mistakenly cited it as the first double-album of the rock era. However, that honor belongs to Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, which was released two years earlier.
In fact, The Beatles was not even the first double-album by a band. A few months after Dylan’s opus, Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention released their debut, the double-album Freak Out! And yet, 50 years after its release, The Beatles remains a groundbreaking record.
Source: Richard Havers/yahoo.com
Ken Mansfield, the former U.S. manager of the Beatles' Apple Records, died on November 17th at age 85. Mansfield, who promoted the “Fab Four” on Capitol prior to being among the first on the Apple team, had worked with such legends as the Beach Boys, Buck Owens, Glen Campbell, Judy Garland, and many others before joining the group's personal label.
Starting with “Hey Jude,” Mansfield played a crucial role in promoting both the Beatles' music, as well as other Apple acts such as Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Jackie Lomax, and Badfinger.
In 2018, Mansfield published his second memoir on his time with working with the Beatles, titled The Roof: The Beatles’ Final Concert.
Source: Music News/myradiolink.com
The Beatles’ Revolver album, first released in 1966, has rushed to No. 1 on multiple Billboard charts following its deluxe expanded reissue on October 28. The set re-entered at No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Catalog Albums (all dated Nov. 12) – its first week at No. 1 on all three lists. Revolver also re-enters Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Tastemaker Albums at No. 2.
On the Billboard 200, the former No. 1 – which spent six weeks atop the list in 1966 – re-entered the list at No. 4.
For Revolver’s special edition, the album was reintroduced and remixed in a variety of expanded formats and editions, including many with previously unreleased tracks. The range included a standard digital album priced at $9.99 in the iTunes Store up through a boxed set boasting four vinyl LPs and two seven-inch singles that sold for $200 or more, depending on the retailer.
Source: Tim Peacock/finance.yahoo.com
The Beatles often hid references to drugs and sex in many of their songs. However, most of the band’s music is relatively clean in terms of profanity and swear words. Still, The Beatles were creative in hiding their provocative references, and Paul McCartney reveals the Fab Four managed to hide a curse word within the lyrics of their song, “Sun King.”The Beatles made up some words and phrases for their songs, such as “Goo goo g’joob” in “I Am the Walrus” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” However, the band mixed actual words from other languages in “Sun King,” a song from Abbey Road. The final group of lyrics contain words from Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. In a 1969 John Lennon interview (shared by Beatlesbible.com), Lennon shared how he and McCartney came up with the blend of languages.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles are international cultural staples. People worldwide know their music and the iconic styles that made them incredibly popular during the 1960s. Today, the band’s worldwide influence can still be seen, and Paul McCartney shares when he knew The Beatles were “changing the world.”
The Beatles are one of the most successful artists ever. The four band members were born in Liverpool, England, and began their musical careers in the U.K. After finding success there, the band’s influence began to expand. Once the British Invasion reached the U.S., Americans became entranced by the music and style of The Beatles.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr was the last person to join The Beatles, but he was a key piece. Ringo’s down-to-earth attitude helped save them from ending up like Elvis Presley as the Fab Four shot to worldwide fame. His demeanor also meant that John Lennon never forgot Ringo’s reaction to the start of his relationship with Yoko Ono, which was pure Ringo.
John once said he had no interest in The Beatles after meeting Yoko. That was in 1966, but John stuck it out with the Fab Four until they broke up in 1970. The rest of The Beatles weren’t necessarily happy about Yoko being around so much.
Paul McCartney admitted he wasn’t keen on Yoko, but he understood John needed to have a new relationship after John’s first marriage was doomed.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
