Beatles News
During his days in The Beatles, George Harrison was often overlooked. He was the quiet Beatle, but that wasn’t exactly true. George didn’t start as the strongest songwriter, but his songwriting skills skyrocketed halfway through his time as a Beatle. When he embarked on his solo career, he became the first Beatle to snatch a No. 1 song as a solo artist. Later, his career only got better and better.
However, being one of the best recording artists and a Beatle didn’t exactly convince George that fans would remember him when he was gone. His wife Olivia says this is impossible, but it’s also a very George thing to think.
George Harrison and his wife Olivia out to dinner in 1990.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison had friends in strange places. He was friends with Formula One race car drivers and the comedians in Monty Python. It just proves how charismatic George was. But another group welcomed George that many fans probably don’t know about, the Hells Angels. Can you picture George Harrison hanging out with one of the most intimidating biker gangs?
However, George was friendly with them and told them to visit him if they ever visited England. He probably didn’t expect to be taken up on the offer. He also probably didn’t think the gang would set up camp at Apple Records either.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In 1964, millions of girls daydreamed about running off to England in search of the Beatles. Two 16-year-old girls from Cleveland Heights actually did it. Janice Hawkins (now Janice Mitchell) was one of them. Her new book, My Ticket To Ride: How I Ran Away to England to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock and Roll Banned in Cleveland gives a firsthand account of her adventure — and of the early days of Beatlemania.
Mitchell was bit by the Beatlemania bug from the moment she first heard “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on Cleveland radio station KYW in December 1963. But listening to the Beatles’ records, reading about them in magazines and even seeing them in concert wasn’t enough. She wanted to live in their world. Janice’s own life, in an unhappy home with a legal guardian who seemed to resent her, was deeply unhappy. To her, the Beatles sounded like freedom.
Source: Vince Grzegorek/clevescene.com
It’s been 50 years since the release of John Lennon’s most famous album and it appears to gain more deeply tangible meaning through the ages.
“Imagine” was released on Sept. 9, 1971 and even today, it is unquestionably a fan favorite, a global classic body of work. It’s durably clever in the way each of the ten tracks serves a different purpose while solidly connecting to Lennon’s imagery of attaining mental peace and having thoughts beyond himself.
There’s no surprise at the album’s initial success after its release in 1971 and after Lennon’s assassination almost a decade later. Since his larger-than-life fame with the Beatles, “Imagine” defined the artist’s mainstream pop music comeback after occasional singles and the generational disdain for his wife, Yoko Ono.
Source: Trinity Bland/thedailyaztec.com
Paul McCartney has recalled the story behind The Beatles‘ ‘Rocky Raccoon’ during a conversation with Bob Mortimer – you can watch the video below.
The chat between McCartney and comedian Mortimer arrived as a teaser for the former’s upcoming biography The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present, which is set for release on November 2.
It will recount the legendary musician’s life through his earliest boyhood compositions, songs by The Beatles, Wings, and from his lengthy solo career.
Arriving today (September 22), the one-minute trailer for the book sees Macca speak to Mortimer at the British Library in London – where he recalls “the story of ‘Rocky Raccoon’“.
A verse in the 1968 track goes: “Now the doctor came in stinking of gin/ And proceeded to lie on the table/ He said, ‘Rocky, you met your match’/ And Rocky said, ‘Doc, it’s only a scratch/ And I’ll be better, I’ll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able“.
Source: Tom Skinner/nme.com
George Harrison and Paul McCartney met in 1957 after they realized that they went to the same school. They became friends, and George was like Paul’s little brother. A year later, Paul asked George to join his and John Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen. George was only 15, yet he impressed everyone with his guitar-playing skills. Reflecting on his time in The Beatles, Paul knows that he definitely underestimated George. He was a late bloomer, but George wrote some of The Beatles’ biggest hits.
George and Paul might have fought sometimes, but they were family. As George was dying, Paul sat at his bedside and held his hand for hours. After George’s death, only one thing helped Paul grieve his best friend.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr was the last member of The Beatles to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he said he was only in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because of the intervention of another celebrity.
The Beatles entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison entered the Hall of Fame as solo artists in 1994, 1999, and 2004, respectively. Ringo didn’t get inducted as a solo artist until 2015.
During an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres commented that Ringo’s induction was long overdue. She mentioned that Paul would be at the ceremony. “Well, I’m only doing it because of Paul,” Ringo commented. He said he wasn’t trying to get inducted, but Paul pushed for his entry into the Hall of Fame.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr’s health: The secret to looking terrific at 81 is “broccoli and blueberries.”
Ringo Starr, drummer for the BEATLES, is in excellent health. What is the secret of the quiet, calm, and collected rockstar who overcame life-threatening sickness as a child to survive into his 80s?
Finally, the actor has disclosed some of his “keeping young” techniques. Following his appearance at the Grammy Awards, many people were left wondering how the music veteran managed to keep his young appearance. Surprisingly, Starr disclosed that his daily meal of broccoli and blueberries is the source of his happiness. To keep this rockstar rocking, he must eat a vegetarian diet in general.
Starr told BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball that he has greatly enjoyed all of the compliments on his appearance.
Source: Helena Sutan/en.brinkwire.com
PAUL McCARTNEY, PETER JACKSON, Michael Lindsay Hogg, Glyn Johns, Giles Martin and more contribute to the most detailed and revealing exploration of the Beatles’ Let It Be album, film and upcoming Get Back documentaries yet published.
In the latest MOJO magazine, in UK shops from Tuesday, September 21, MOJO writers pull together all they’ve learned from Peter Jackson’s upcoming three-part Get Back documentary, the revelatory bonus material in a new box set of the music made by the Beatles in January 1969, plus the 120 hours of Beatle footage and recorded conversation perused by MOJO writer John Harris in the course of editing content for a companion book, also entitled Get Back.
Source: John Lewis & Partners/mojo4music.com
“We were just a band that made it very, very big. That’s all.” Was John Lennon’s myth-busting synopsis of The Beatles’ story, uttered during an interview with Rolling Stone. While the technical truth of that statement is inarguable, for millions around the world, The Beatles were – and remain – a huge deal more than just another band. From that first fabled meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney at the Woolton Village Fete in July 1957 to the spontaneous final rooftop performance atop Apple Corps’ Savile Row HQ at the culmination of the 1960s, The Beatles became one of the most seismic forces ever to impact popular culture.
Source: Andy Price/guitar.com
