Beatles News
In the book titled Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, written by Kenneth Womack, the author reveals a strategy behind Beatles records.
Martin and the band decided to have Ringo sing one song on every Beatles album. And it wasn't just to be nice to Ringo. In the first wave of Beatlemania, Ringo was the most popular Beatle.
Years ago, comedian Mitzi McCall and her husband Charlie Brill were a comedy team called McCall & Brill. They were a nightclub act that finally got a big break to be on the Ed Sullivan Show. But that big break happened on February 9th, 1964 - the historic night the Beatles also appeared.
The comedy team came on right before the Fab Four's second set that night, but they couldn't hear each other while performing their sketch because the 14-year-old fans were screaming for the Beatles.
Seventy-three million people watched that night. It was their big opportunity - and no one remembered McCall & Brill. Their agent didn't call them again for six months after that. They say they never watch the video of that night.
Source: CBC Radio
Legendary musician Paul McCartney has had an incredible career, and he's still writing and performing at the age of 78. That doesn't come naturally: There's a lot that goes into maintaining a healthy lifestyle that promotes longevity. Recently, McCartney discussed a strange exercise that he's been doing for years. Both Paul and his daughter, Mary McCartney, say this one technique has helped keep a key body part healthy over the years. There's even a video of Paul demonstrating the exercise on YouTube. Read on to find out what routine this music icon swears by.
Source: Allie Hogan/bestlifeonline.com
The Beatles influenced a lot of classic rock musicians. However, one took this influence even further. A famous rock star admitted to Rolling Stone that he “stole” a number of Beatles’ riffs. Here’s what he said about The Beatles — and here’s a look at his collaborations with Paul McCartney.
Rolling Stone released their list of the 100 greatest Beatles songs. It includes a lot of famous songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “A Day in the Life” as well as less prominent songs like “I’ve Got a Feeling.” In addition, it begins with an introductory essay that reveals something very notable about a talented rock star.
Elvis Costello wrote the essay, in which he discusses The Beatles’ influence on other groups. “The word ‘Beatlesque’ has been in the dictionary for quite a while now,” he noted. “You hear them in Harry Nilsson’s melodies; in Prince’s Around the World in a Day; in the hits of ELO and Crowded House and in Ron
Source: cheatsheet.com
Fans of John Lennon and Yoko Ono over in the US will be pleased to hear that the documentary 24 Hours: The World of John and Yoko is now available on Amazon Prime Video US.
The mini-documentary first aired on the BBC back in 1969 and this will be the first time that it has been made available online via Amazon’s Coda Collection.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about the documentary is simply that it is now over half a century old, a fact that the official logline was quick to state: “Last seen more than 50 years ago, and having aired just once on TV, this intimate documentary – captured over a five-day period – shows a day in the life of John and Yoko while Lennon was still a member of The Beatles, controversies raged and activism became a central concern in the couple’s everyday reality.”
Source: Tom Taylor/faroutmagazine.co.uk
It’s rare these days to come across any Beatles-related content that can be described as “new.” More than 50 years after they broke up, it can feel like every video clip, photo and interview connected to the Fab Four has already been unearthed and dissected. But while 24 Hours: The World of John and Yoko, streaming now via The Coda Collection, isn’t exactly brand new, it’s pretty damn close — the half-hour BBC special only aired once, on Dec. 15, 1969, and it’s now available to watch online for the first time.
Directed by Paul Morrison, the cinéma vérité-style documentary actually spans five days (despite its name), following John Lennon and Yoko Ono at Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park estate, Abbey Road Studios and the Apple Records offices in London as they work on their campaign to promote peace. We’re gifted with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the couple, whether they’re intimate moments (like when we see them waking up and drinking tea in bed) or more mundane business decisions (trying to decide how many “War Is Over” posters and billboards is enough).
The one thing that 24 Hours: The World of John and Yoko really hammers home is how savvy Lennon was with the press. (How could he not be after nearly a decade of being in the most popular band in the world?) In his mind, he was selling the concept of peace. “The campaign hasn’t been going as long as Coca-Cola’s or Shell, and the identification symbols aren’t as well known,” he says at one point. “It’s going to take us a few years for them to know when we say ‘peace’ what it means.”
Source: Bonnie Stiernberg /insidehook.com
The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There” includes one of the band’s most iconic lines: “She was just 17/If you know what I mean.” However, Paul McCartney’s original opening lines of the song were very different. Here’s what The Beatles originally wrote — and why they decided that 17 was the right age for the girl in the song.
The original version of the line ‘She was just 17/If you know what I mean’ from The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ was much different
According to the book The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Write — The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song, Paul McCartney started writing “I Saw Her Standing There” one night in 1962. He wanted the song to appeal to The Beatles’ fans, who were mostly female.
“I didn’t think a lot about it as I sang it to myself,” he said. “Originally the first two lines were ‘She was just 17/Never been a beauty queen’. It sounded like a good rhyme to me at the time. But when I played it through to John the next day, I realized that it was a useless line and so did John. So we both sat down and tried to come up with another line which rhymed with 17 but which meant something.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
The world lost one of its greatest musical talents when John was horrifically killed outside his New York home on December 8, 1980, aged just 40. But the star also left behind one son who was still a little boy and another he had seemingly abandoned years before and with whom was just starting to rebuild and fragile new relationship. The former Beatle was also on the cusp of relaunching his music career whe everything was so tragically ripped away. Sean and Julian had very different upbringings on either side of the Atlantic but have forged their own bond in recent years and they opened up recently about what binds them together and their memories of their father.
Julian was born while John was still married to Cynthia Lennon. The Beatles were already starting to become a global sensation and John was rarely at home.
Julian inspired the songs Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and Hey Jude but was closer to Paul McCartney. In fact, the latter song (originally called Hey Jules, for Julian) was written by Paul to comfort the young boy during his parents divorce in 1968 when he was only five.
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
THE BEATLES legends Paul McCartney and John Lennon always listened to each other's solo music, even when they were estranged,`. . and Paul revealed that one of his bandmate's most personal and moving songs remains his favourite. Incredibly, it is also Yoko Ono's favourite.
The Beatles officially split in 1970, although the rifts had been building over the previous couple of years - exacerbated rather than directly caused by John's immersion in his new relationship with Yoko. Much of John's solo output was directly influenced by his love for his second wife and their exploration of a new personal and artistic life together. For many years, the two former Beatles had a fragile, sometimes non-existant, relationship, but Paul recently spoke about how they were still influencing each other's solo work and which tracks made the deepest impact on him.
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
Back in 1964, Toronto artist Myra Lowenthal was far more than just a fan of the rock ’n’ roll supergroup, The Beatles.
Only 18 years old when this picture was taken by Toronto Star photographer Ted Dinsmore, Lowenthal is captured here putting the finishing touches on an impressive oil painting of lead singer John Lennon.
“This was the tip of the iceberg of my outpouring of Beatle imagery,” Lowenthal says, “using art to express the impact that the Beatles and their music had on me at that young age.”
Myra Lowenthal was an early convert to Beatlemania.
“They were not generally know in North America at that time,” she says. “I first noticed an article in the People section of TIME magazine about these four lads in England and their mop top haircuts, and I was intrigued.”
Soon thereafter (Feb. 9, 1964, to be exact), Lowenthal recalls, “They appeared on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show,’ and I was hooked.”
Later that year, tickets went on sale for the Beatles’ first shows in Toronto, and Lowenthal stood in line in the pouring rain for six hours to secure her seats. But, it was her art that brought her closest to the band.
Source: thestar.com
In October 1970, drummer Denny Seiwell was a sought-after New York City session musician who split his time between studios and jazz clubs. Like a lot of local session men, he used an answering service to set up his gigs. One day, the service called to give him good news and bad news: A session he was supposed to attend had been canceled, but Barry Kornfeld, a friend and folky guitarist, wanted him to do a demo. Normally, Seiwell was too busy to do demos, but because of the cancelation, he had an open slot, and he hadn’t seen Kornfeld in a while. He agreed to go.
“They gave me the address, and I said, ‘Jeez, is there a studio there?’” Seiwell says. “It didn’t sound right. I went to the address, and it was a brownstone, way over on the West side, on 43rd Street or something. And it didn’t look like it had electricity. Like they were going to renovate the building or something. I walk up the steps to the lobby there, and there’s a guy. I said, ‘Is there a studio here?’ And he pointed to the basement. And here it is, this dingy, dirt-floor basement, a ratty set of drums sitting in the middle of it, and Paul and Linda sitting on a folding chair over in the corner. That was it. It was very bizarre.”
Source: Ben Lindbergh/theringer.com
