Beatles News
To coincide with The Beatles' first-ever feature film in 1964, A Hard Day's Night, the band released songs from their album of the same name. Included in this album was a song written by John Lennon which he considered to be his first-ever ballad If I Fell. Unfortunately for the Fab Four, they missed out on a UK audience with the single.
If I Fell was written by Lennon in February 1964, just a few months before A Hard Day's Night was released in July 1964.
Speaking to journalist David Sheff in 1980, Lennon later recalled writing the song and how it inspired later songs that followed.
He said: "[If I Fell] is my first attempt to write a ballad proper.
"That was the precursor to [1965 song] In My Life. It has the same chord sequence as In My Life: D and B minor and E minor, those kinds of things."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
The Beatles landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was one of most impactful, experimental and beloved albums of all time, and a paradigm-shifter in terms of what albums could do. Most albums before that were essentially collections of singles. The idea of a concept album – in which all the songs were unified symphonically, all pieces fitting together to form a whole – was rare pre-Pepper. Sinatra’s smoky late-night In The Wee Small Hours was a nascent concept , as was Belafonte’s Calypso album. But both are exceptions.
The Beatles created a whole new kind of concept album, as they wrote all the material as well. Their songwriting, always remarkably sophisticated, and chromatic musically, expanded into new realms of lyrical brilliance, both traditionally narrative and bravely surreal. The idea was to create an album which sounded unlike anything that came before, which is exactly what they did.
Remarkably, it was made on recording equipment which, by today’s standards, was arcane and also tremendously restrictive: four-track analog. That they created a sonic masterpiece with this technology exemplifies the old adage: limitations create possibilities. Though Sgt. Pepper is often framed as The Beatles triumph despite these limitations , in fact it seems more accurate to say they triumphed because of these technical limits. What they did was not only inspired, it was ingenious.
Source: americansongwriter.com
Through his work with The Beatles and his solo material, John Lennon’s songs have had a tremendous influence on other artists. For example, Bono said he’s been writing his own versions of one of John’s song for his whole life. On the other hand, Bob Dylan had a very different reaction to the track.
For his 60th birthday, Bono made a list of his 60 favorite songs. In Rolling Stone, he wrote a fan letter to each artist he honored. He ranked John’s “Mother” No. 11 on his list, higher than any of the Beatles’ solo songs. As part of his list, he addressed a letter to John’s son, Julian Lennon.
“Dear Julian,
All the Beatles solo work has held me at one time or another,” he said. “I know you know these songs will be with us forever.” He went on to mention The Beatles’ “Let It Be,” which Paul McCartney wrote in tribute to his mother. Bono felt the song made it so that everyone could feel her presence.
Source: cheatsheet.com
After almost seven years of renovations, hotel developer Ed Riley can say he’s renovated every floor of the old Hotel Syracuse, now the Marriott Syracuse Downtown.
Thursday, Riley will join Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon for a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the brand new “Hotel Syracuse 1924 Suite” and 54 additional guest rooms.
“Hotel Syracuse 1924 Suite”
The “Hotel Syracuse 1924 Suite” is made up of five smaller suites and a common area. The rooms can be booked separately, or put together like a puzzle into one grand suite.
From the elevator lobby, the main door opens to to the front common area with a dining-room table, china cabinets and five separate suite doors.
A central door opens to the primary two-bedroom suite, which can be expanded by two side suites that have their own doors to the common area.
One portion of the suite connects to the bridal rotunda, a space often used by wedding parties having receptions in the Grand Ballroom.
Source: Andrew Donovan/localsyr.com
Royal Mail has unveiled a set of 12 special stamps honouring Sir Paul McCartney.
The collection features eight album covers which have defined his career, along with photos of Sir Paul in the recording studio.
The ex-Beatle has written or co-written 188 charted records in the UK and has been awarded more than 60 gold discs.
Royal Mail said the stamps were "a fitting tribute to one of the UK's much loved and revered musical icons".
Source: BBC News
In the many decades since the band split in 1970, their music has remained as popular as ever, although Beatles royalties varied, with Lennon and McCartney having most of the songwriting credits. All four also had successful solo careers. Paul started the band Wings, George formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, and Ringo had his All Starrs band. In 1995 and 1996 the three surviving Beatles also released the three retrospective Anthology albums (and lucrative TV series). The first album alone went 8x Platinum in the US, with sales of over 3.6million. Together with the Beatlejuice radio show host Geoff Lloyd, we look at how the four musicians all diversified beyond their own music, to generate wealth in sometimes surprising ways.
Ringo Star: In 2020 Ringo was named the wealthiest drummer in the world with an estimated $350million fortune. He has never stopped making music and is currently waiting to get back on the road with his All Starr Band.
His involvement with the TV launch of Thomas The Tank Engine in 1984 never ceases to surprise people. He actually narrated the early series from 1984-1986 and from 1989-1990 in the US.
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
Paul McCartney was used to adoration as a member of The Beatles. The dozens of songs he wrote sold millions of copies and generated critical acclaim as some of the best pop music ever written. So, imagine his surprise when his first solo effort after the breakup of the Fab Four was critically slagged. And imagine his further surprise when his second solo effort, “Ram”, released in 1971, was also put through the critical wringer. Granted the bar for the guy who wrote Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby and The Long & Winding Rd is going to be higher than for most other artists but the dislike for this record was almost universal within the music press.
Jon Landau in Rolling Stone called it “incredibly inconsequential” and monumentally irrelevant” and “emotionally vacuous”. New Music Express said it was “an excursion into almost unrelieved tedium” and Robert Christgau called it a “bad record” Oh, and John Lennon(feuding with Paul at the time) called it “muzak”.
It wasn’t all negative although Melody Maker was a bit back-handed when they said “Its a good album by anybody’s standards and certainly far better than the majority of released by British groups and singers. Trouble is you expect more from a man like Paul McCartney.
Source: Tom King/wsau.com
Paul McCartney has paid a heartfelt tribute on social media following the sad death of his good friend, American recording engineer Al Schmitt.
MORE: Paul McCartney reveals exciting family news - and it involves his children!
The Beatles star took to Instagram to share a black-and-white photo of the pair in a recording studio laughing, alongside a personal message.
The music icon wrote: "So sad to hear of the passing of my friend Al Schmitt.
"Al was the lead engineer in charge of the 'Kisses on the Bottom' session and was a fantastic guy besides being one of the world’s great engineers.
"He always had a twinkle in his eye and was ready for a laugh but most importantly when we had done what we thought was a good take and went into the control room to hear the playback it sounded fantastic. His self-effacing skills always came through.
Paul McCartney paid a heartfelt tribute to his friend Al Schmitt following his death
Source: Hanna Fillingham/hellomagazine.com
In 1973, former Beatle George Harrison began a brief affair with the wife of his still-close friend and previous band mate Ringo Starr.
Starr’s reaction was to go carousing with John Lennon in L.A.
The other injured party, Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd, discovered the most effective revenge against her husband. She threw herself into something he had strictly forbade her to do throughout their marriage.
In 1971, Starr bought John Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park estate from his band mate. The drummer and his wife entertained often there and it was during one of these evenings that the 26-room Berkshire home became the location for the beginning of the end of the Starrs’ marriage.
In her book Miss O’Dell: Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, author Chris O’Dell, who was an employee of the Beatles’ Apple Corporation and good friend to the Harrisons and Starrs, documented the unsavory incident.
Source: cheatsheet.com
At the height of their fame, The Beatles were offered prominent roles in Disney‘s The Jungle Book. The animators specifically designed characters that resembled each Beatle member, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and George Harrison. But as we now know, the musicians refused to take on roles in the Disney classic.
While it is now much more common for A-list celebrities to appear as voice actors in animated films, it was much less common back in the 1960s. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1990s that notable celebrities started to take on roles as voice actors. Robin Williams, who mastered his role as Genie in Aladdin, was one of the first big stars to accept work as a voice actor.
“I’m doing it basically because I want to be part of this animation tradition,” Williams said, according to The Los Angeles Times. “I want something for my children.”
Similarly, The Beatles were given the opportunity to be in The Jungle Book.
Source: cheatsheet.com
