Beatles News
For the first time since it was originally published in 2000, Chronicle Books will release The Beatles Anthology, 25th Anniversary Edition in a unique co-release with Disney+, UMG, and Apple Corps
The Beatles’ expanded Anthology Collection music releases will also be released Nov. 21 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe
The Beatles’ restored, expanded “Anthology” documentary series begins streaming November 26 on Disney+
RINGO: In 1963 the attitude of my whole family changed. They treated me like a different person.
One absolutely clear vision I had was round at my auntie’s, where I’d been a thousand times before. We were having a cup of tea one night and somebody knocked the coffee table and my tea spilt into my saucer. Everyone’s reaction was, "He can’t have that. We have to tidy up." That would never have happened before. I thought then, "Things are changing." It was absolutely an arrow in the brain.
Suddenly I was "one of those," even within my family, and it was very difficult to get used to. I’d grown up and lived with these people and now I found myself in Weirdland.
GEORGE: My family changed, but in a nice way. They were so knocked out with the whole idea of what was happening. Anybody would be. Everybody likes success, but when it came on that scale it was ridiculous. They loved it.
My mother was a nice person, but she was naive; as we all were in Liverpool in those days. She used to write to anybody who’d written to us, answering the fan mail. She’d answer letters from people saying, "Dear Mr Harrison, can you give us one of Paul McCartney’s toenails?" Still, to this day, people come up to me brandishing letters that my mother once wrote to them. Even back when I was a kid, she had pen-pals, people who lived in Northumberland or New Zealand or somewhere, people she’d never met: just writing and sending photographs to each other.
RINGO: Home and family were the two things I didn’t want to change, because it had all changed "out there" and we were no longer really sure who our friends were, unless we’d had them before the fame. The guys and the girls I used to hang about with I could trust. But once we’d become big and famous, we soon learnt that people were with us only because of the vague notoriety of being "a Beatle." And when this happened in the family, it was quite a blow. I didn’t know what to do about it; I couldn’t stand up and say, "Treat me like you used to," because that would be acting "big time."
The other thing that happens when you become famous is that people start to think you know something. They all want to know what you think about this and that, and I would blah on — as a 22/23-year-old — as if suddenly I knew. I could talk about anything, I knew exactly how the country should be run, and why and how this should happen; suddenly I was a blaher: "Yeah, Mr Blah here, what do you want to know?" It was so crazy. I remember endless discussions that went on for days and days — nights and days, actually, discussing the world, discussing music.
Source: Lizz Schumer/people.com
Imagine, released in 1971, dug as deep lyrically as John Lennon’s solo debut (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band). But Lennon also focused on making the album a more commercial affair that would reach a wider audience. He ended up with perhaps the most beloved album of his career. Here are five tidbits of trivia surrounding the songs on Imagine.
The whole idea behind the Imagine album was for John Lennon to deliver his opinions and beliefs in ways that were much more palatable to the music listening masses. Thanks to this strategy, the title track became an anthem almost instantly upon its release. Lennon had borrowed some ideas from Yoko Ono’s work for the concept of imagining a better world. After the song was released, Lennon mused that he should have given Ono credit as a co-writer. Years later, he would make good on his devotion to Ono’s musical input, as she would write and sing half the songs on Double Fantasy.
John Lennon did everything he could to leave behind the specter of The Beatles once he left the group. On his first solo album, he even included the song “God”, which made clear his intention to put the Fab Four in his rear view mirror. But he didn’t shy away from some of the writing he did before the band broke up. In the case of “Jealous Guy”, Lennon reached back to a song that he wrote back in 1968 when he was on retreat in India with his other Beatles. It was originally called “Child Of Nature” and was inspired by a lecture given by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
April 10, 1970, is one of the most memorable days in music history. It is the day the world lost the greatest band of all time, The Beatles. The Beatles’ breakup came in the form of a press release announced by Paul McCartney. To this day, the breakup seemingly makes many skip a heartbeat and lose a breath or two. It was just that culturally severe to the world. Though it wasn’t unexpected, as The Beatles’ breakup was years in the making, and their growing divide was rather common knowledge.
The most common timeline of The Beatles’ demise more or less starts in 1968 with the recording of the White Album and ends in 1970 with McCartney’s announcement. That is the arc the majority of fans refer to and have accepted. However, a source close to The Beatles once said that their demise started years before their end. Specifically, after The Beatles quit touring.
That source is Hunter Davies, the author of the only authorized biography of The Beatles. According to Davies, The Beatles’ decline started before the White Album, and in total, lasted roughly around four years.
Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com
Las Vegas has hosted its share of spectacles (and then some), but nothing quite like the night Sir Paul McCartney turned Allegiant Stadium into Abbey Road West. One of pop music’s most celebrated living legends brought his Got Back tour to Sin City, and the result was a euphoric, nearly three-hour romp through a rock n’ roll time machine that had nearly 60,000 fans singing, dancing, crying, and grinning like teenagers seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan all over again.
It was McCartney’s first show at Las Vegas’ shiny Allegiant Stadium—opened in 2020—and the energy was off the charts from the opening chord. With no Los Angeles stop on this leg, the stars turned out in force, with Amy Schumer, Drew Carey, and even Celine Dion among the crowd of fans and fellow icons who came to worship at the altar of Macca.
McCartney remains the embodiment of rock’s eternal youth. At 83 years young, he’s still cheeky, tireless, and bounding across the stage like a man half his age. This Got Back run marks his first major North American tour since 2022, and though he’s now playing to grandkids of his original fans, the music has lost none of its bite or brilliance.
He and his band—including Wix Wickens on keys, Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitars, Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, and the Hot City Horns—opened with “Help!”, Paul’s voice as bright and urgent as ever, before slamming into “Coming Up”. “This world needs a little peace and understanding,” he said in earnest, before nodding to his show as the biggest party in Vegas on a Saturday night. That led into a run of “Got to Get You Into My Life”, “Drive My Car”, and a horn-soaked “Letting Go”.
Source: liveforlivemusic.com/Josh Martin
Sony's long-awaited Beatles movie biopic plans are finally coming together.
Director Sam Mendes took the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to reveal the cast for the features and said that all four films are set for theatrical release in April 2028. The surprising plans to make four films - one for each member of the famed band - were first announced last year.
Drumroll, please: Mendes also brought the cast onstage. Set to star in the films are Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Each of the four movies will focus on one of the members of the Fab Four.
"We're not just making one film about the Beatles - we're making four," Mendes said. "Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply."
Mendes claimed that Sony film boss Tom Rothman called the projects "the first binge-able theatrical experience." After hitting the stage, all four actors recited lyrics from the band's song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and then took a Beatles-style synchronized bow.
"You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy," Rothman told The Hollywood Reporter last year about the project that earned the Oscar-winning director a coveted signoff from the group's selective label Apple Corps. "There hasn't been an enterprise like this before, and you can't think about it in traditional releasing terms."
Source: MSN
Sixty-two years ago today, on October 5, 1962, a single song marked the start of the most influential band in modern music history. “Love Me Do” introduced The Beatles to the world and launched a career that would transform popular music forever.
“Love Me Do” was released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone Records, under the catalogue number R4949, according to the official Beatles website. It was backed with “P.S. I Love You,” and became The Beatles’ debut single after years of performing in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs.
The song was one of the earliest originals from John Lennon and Paul McCartney, written several years before the group was signed. Early recordings featured three different drummers – Pete Best, Ringo Starr, and session player Andy White. Each one offered a slightly different sound that captured the band’s developing identity.
Though “Love Me Do” only reached No. 17 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1962, it was a big deal for an unknown band with no radio reputation. The harmonica-led tune and dual vocals by Lennon and McCartney gave the track a unique sound that set it apart from the heavily orchestrated pop that was dominating British airwaves at the time.
For The Beatles, “Love Me Do” was proof that original songwriting could connect with a mass audience. At the time, most new artists launched with cover songs, but this release showcased Lennon and McCartney’s ability to write and perform their own material.
The Beatles relaxing on a sofa during their early years in London.
When “Love Me Do” was reissued in the United States in 1964, at the height of Beatlemania, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, confirming that the little tune from 1962 had become a global phenomenon.
Plus, its influence extended beyond the charts. The single demonstrated the band’s signature blend of catchy melody and authentic charm, a formula that would soon define 1960s pop.
After “Love Me Do,” The Beatles released “Please Please Me,” “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” With each song, their popularity skyrocketed and before long, they became the biggest act in the world.
In 1982, to mark the single’s 20th anniversary, EMI reissued “Love Me Do” in the UK, where it climbed to No. 4 and was proof that the song’s appeal had continued across generations.
Today, “Love Me Do” is remembered as the song that opened the door. With just a few harmonica notes and two voices in harmony, The Beatles began the journey that cemented them in pop culture history.
Source: Whitney Danhauer/parade.com
The first recorded use of guitar feedback can be found on The Beatles‘ I Feel Fine, according to John Lennon.
The guitarist claimed he and George Harrison‘s work on the track would be an innovative moment not just for the band but for music history, as it is allegedly the first recorded example of guitar feedback. Lennon would claim this in interviews after The Beatles broke up, where he would speak highly of the song. Lennon once described his work with Harrison on the A-side track as featuring a “typical Beatles bit”, and it seems to have worked. The song would top the charts in the UK and the US on release. Lennon would suggest I Feel Fine featured the first “feedback”, and doubled down on it in later interviews, going as far as to say The Beatles were ahead of Jimi Hendrix and The Who.
He said in 1972: “This was the first time feedback was used on a record. It’s right at the beginning.” Lennon would claim again in 1980 in an interview with Playboy, issuing a challenge for anyone to find a conscious use of guitar feedback. He said: “That’s me completely. Including the guitar lick with the first feedback anywhere.
“I defy anybody to find a record… unless it is some old blues record from 1922… that uses feedback that way. So I claim it for the Beatles. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody. The first feedback on record.”
Before these claims surfaced, Lennon would suggest I Feel Fine is more a “typical Beatles bit” than anything else. He said: “George and I play the same bit on the guitar together– that’s the bit that’ll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say. The middle-eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it’s a typical Beatles bit.”
Source: Ewan Gleadow/cultfollowing.co.uk
Given the strength of the Beatles’ albums, it may come as a surprise to learn that John Lennon didn’t enjoy making them. Making albums is a strenuous process. It’s more than compiling a collection of songs. They need to work together in a way that makes it better than the sum of its parts. In Lennon’s point of view, albums weren’t always the strongest medium. Singles interested him more. However, there were a couple of artists who were exceptions to that rule. Find out who below.
The Beatles were more than ahead of their time when it came to making albums. They wrote the rulebook on experimental recording in their heyday. They altered the album-making process. Despite changing the game, Lennon once spoke about feeling like he had to make albums for others. It did little for him personally.
According to Lennon, it was an artist’s singles that really made them. He was more focused on writing a killer song that could stand alone. He felt that other artists also flexed their skills in that way. There were really only two artists that Lennon thought were worth buying a whole album for, and they weren’t a part of his generation. Lennon felt like no one post-Beatles was album-worthy.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Many things contributed to the Beatles’ breakup, and every fan has their own opinion on what moment was the “final straw.” However, according to Paul McCartney, that breaking point had nothing to do with the Beatles’ creative differences, Yoko Ono, or the songwriting cuts. Instead, it was something somewhat out of the band’s control.
There are many theories as to what exactly happened to the Beatles. Some blame McCartney’s iron grip on the creative process, while others blame the wedge Yoko Ono supposedly built between McCartney and John Lennon. While those things certainly contributed to the band’s downfall, there was one member of their personnel that McCartney credits with being the “final straw.”
Towards the end of the band’s career, the Beatles hired Allen Klein as their interim manager. In addition to the other reasons why the Beatles came to dislike Klein (withheld royalties, stolen publishing rights, etc.), McCartney believed he meddled too much in the band’s creative process.
“We made Let It Be but, because of all the fraught personal relationships, the final straw was Allen Klein coming in,” McCartney once said. “It was his decision that Let It Be wasn’t good enough and that it needed strings, needed tarting up.”
There was one song in particular that McCartney thought Klein egregiously tampered with: “The Long And Winding Road.”
McCartney listened back to the first mix of the song, which featured a plethora of instruments and vocals that he hadn’t initially intended for the ballad to include. They were added at the request of Klein, who extended his reach far beyond his job description.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles’ powerful songwriting duo, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, are known for writing iconic Beatles hits until the band's disbandment. However, they were also responsible for this legendary rock band going mainstream after giving them a helping hand. Over 60 years ago, The Rolling Stones got their first taste of mainstream success thanks to Lennon and McCartney’s genius songwriting, and the song in question was “I Wanna Be Your Man.”
“I Wanna Be Your Man” was released by The Rolling Stones in 1963 in the UK and in the US in the following year. It was the song that first introduced many fans to The Rolling Stones, and it became a stepping stone to the band's success. However, despite the helping hand from Lennon and McCartney, what once was a collaboration soon turned into a rivalry fueled by the media and fans.
The Rolling Stones Needed New Material, and Lennon-McCartney Stepped Up.
There are several stories of how “I Wanna Be Your Man” ended up in the hands of The Rolling Stones, as Lennon, Mick Jagger, and The Rolling Stones’ historian Bill Janowitz have different accounts. Janowitz claimed that The Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, bumped into Lennon and McCartney outside and ushered them into the studio, where Lennon completed “I Wanna Be Your Man,” a song originally written by McCartney. Lennon and McCartney learned that The Rolling Stones needed new material, and “I Wanna Be Your Man” was just completed before lunch.
Lennon would later reject Jagger’s memory as to how The Rolling Stones came to release “I Wanna Be Your Man.” He recalled that The Beatles had already recorded their version of the song, but decided against releasing it as a single. Instead, he offered the song to Jagger and The Rolling Stones, and dismissed it as a “throwaway”. “The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones,” he said. “That shows how much importance we put on it: We weren’t going to give them anything great, right?”
Source: Teguan Harris/collider.com
