Beatles News
The Beatles were never scared to try something new and experiment with different sounds. The Fab Four revolutionised popular music in the second half of the 1960s, evolving from their early rock and roll stylings to create an innovative, psychedelic and avant-garde new sound.
1965's 'Rubber Soul' is credited with beginning that journey in earnest, as the band looked more closely at what they could achieve with an album and how they could push the boundaries lyrically and musically. The 1966 album 'Revolver' is viewed as the start of The Beatles' psychedelic era, influenced by their time in India and use of LSD.
The following year saw 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' reinvent what could be done with an album - using new studio techniques, capturing the zeitgeist of the so-called 'summer of love' and changing music forever. Though The Beatles' experimental music in this period was adored by critics and fans, it didn't always lead to harmony within the band.
The ECHO has recently looked at John Lennon's dislike of 'Sgt Pepper', his worry that Paul McCartney was trying to sabotage his work on 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and his disdain for the song 'Let it Be'. We've also looked into how the recording of 'Back in the USSR' on 1968's 'The White Album' led Ringo Starr to leave The Beatles temporarily.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com/Dan Haygarth
Snoop Dogg and Paul McCartney might not be the first musical duo one thinks of when considering kindred creative spirits, but stranger things have certainly happened. After a fortuitous meeting of the two musical icons backstage at a charity concert, it seems likelier than ever. (Okay, well, maybe it’s just in our heads at this point. But what’s the harm in dreaming?)
The touching moment between the California rapper and former Beatle showed not only the mutual admiration and respect each musician had for the other. But it also highlights the diverse musical interests each artist has outside of the genre for which they became famous.
Snoop Dogg Meets Paul McCartney
During a January 2025 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Snoop Dogg recalled meeting the legendary Sir Paul McCartney for the first time. The California rapper was backstage at a fundraiser concert when someone from McCartney’s team reached out to him. “They was like, ‘Sir Paul would like to meet you,’” Snoop said, putting on a fake British accent. “I’m like, ‘For real?’” The rapper told McCartney’s team to bring him over, and the two hit it off instantly. “[The conversation] was just about respect and love,” Snoop said.
“He really knew who I was musically. That blew my mind,” he continued. “It’s like, I’m telling him about all the records I like from him, but then he telling me about who I am and how he liked me. It’s just appreciation. I call that, you know, mutual love. Fan appreciation.” Despite the swagger that Snoop Dogg has come to be known for over his decades-long career, he couldn’t help but feel humbled in McCartney’s presence. When show host Kimmel mentioned how exciting it must have been to realize Macca was aware of his work, the rapper modestly joked back, “What did I do?”
Then, of course, Kimmel had to ask the all-important question: did Snoop Dogg and McCartney light a doobie together? Unfortunately for all the hopeful stoners out there, that smoke sesh never came to be. “I smoked around him,” Snoop Dogg added with a sly smile. He added that although he wanted to keep talking to McCartney, actor Woody Harrelson joined the conversation and “just bogarted the whole situation. Then, Paul was like, ‘I’ll catch up with you later! I’m like, ‘Damn, Woody, I was over here having a conversation.’”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
As years pass and time goes by taste and talent change immensely. There are hoards of different factors that redefine somebody’s artistic palette and these very factors do not discriminate whatsoever. Hence, they even touch the most incredible minds, including the ever so great, Paul McCartney.
Paul McCartney has been very candid about the songs he likes, dislikes, and absolutely detests. That being so, he’s not one to bite his tongue for the sake of pride, and he proved that to be more than true when discussing The Beatles classic, “When I’m Sixty-Four.”
Paul McCartney Made an Ageist Mistake
“When I’m Sixty-Four” was released on The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In a holistic sense, both the album and the song marked a major transition in The Beatles’ career. Prior to the release of the album, McCartney and The Beatles had been more than busy, but for McCartney, there was still ground to be broken. Thus, their psychedelic masterpiece was born and so was “When I’m Sixty-Four.”
However, when Paul McCartney spoke with the Los Angeles Times he divulged his grievance with the song. He told the publication, “It was really an arbitrary number when I wrote [‘When I’m Sixty-Four’]. I probably should have called it ‘When I’m 65,’ which is the retirement age in England.” “And the rhyme would have been easy, ‘something, something alive when I’m 65.’ But it felt too predictable. It sounded better to say 64,” he added.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Peter Burditt
On This Day, Jan. 16, 1988 …
George Harrison hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Got My Mind Set On You,” a cover of a 1962 track originally recorded by James Ray.
The recording was produced by ELO’s Jeff Lynne, who also played bass and keyboards on the song. It appeared on Harrison’s 11th studio album, Cloud Nine, which was the final solo album to be released during Harrison’s lifetime.
“Got My Mind Set On You” would be Harrison’s third and final #1 solo single. It also marked the last time a member of The Beatles hit #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K.
The song hit #1 just one week before The Beatles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Source: Everett Post
John Lennon and Phil Spector had a series of drunken recording sessions together. Lennon's friend said it was a wonder nobody was hurt.
In 1973, John Lennon threw fuel on his already-chaotic Lost Weekend when he started recording with producer Phil Spector. While some of their recording sessions were productive, many others devolved into drunken arguments and violence. Lennon’s friend, Elliot Mintz, expressed shock that no one wound up seriously hurt.
John Lennon’s friend said the recording sessions with Phil Spector were dangerous
Lennon and Spector began working on the album Rock ‘n’ Roll together. Their studio sessions often collapsed into utter chaos.
“The Spector Sessions, as they came to be known, were among the most notorious jams in rock ‘n’ roll history,” Mintz wrote in his book We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me. “I ended up spending about half a dozen all-nighters at these riotous, drug- and alcohol-fueled bacchanals, occasionally finding myself in the unenviable position of having to tidy up some of the messes afterward.”
Source: cheatsheet.com/Emma McKee
Paul McCartney wouldn’t describe himself as a risk taker. In fact, the musician feels his career has been pretty tame–despite the oodles of success he has amassed. However, there is one massive risk McCartney is glad he took. Find out what that is, below.
The Beatles were a tough act to follow. The fervor around the band was unprecedented. They became emblematic of a new age where musicians didn’t have passive listeners, but active, life-centering fans. When they decided to hang up their hats, there was a few million fans out there who’s dreams were dashed.
But, life must go on. A musician must play music. But, the question of how to go about that could’ve proved disastrous. Truthfully, it did for a moment in McCartney’s career. His follow up band to the Beatles, Wings, wasn’t popular upon their debut. Listeners still had the golden age of the Beatles to compare everything to. Wings didn’t seem to measure up.
Eventually, McCartney’s second leg proved profitable. Wings earned a fanbase in their own right, producing a host of beloved hits. According to McCartney, the decision to start Wings was his riskiest professional move–one that ultimately paid off.
“The main question I had was whether to keep going after The Beatles, because it was a hard act – some might say, an impossible act – to follow,” McCartney once said. “The ingredients in the Beatles were so unique. You had John right there, who could have made any group brilliant. Then you had George’s talent, and Ringo’s, and then me.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
On the heels of his new country album Look Up, the former Beatles drummer will play the Nashville institution in February.
Nashville is reaching peak Ringo. On the heels of his new country album, Look Up, Ringo Starr will make his Grand Ole Opry debut next month. The former Beatles drummer was invited to perform on the long-running country-music radio show by Emmylou Harris, herself an Opry member.
Harris popped the question to Starr onstage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the onetime home of the Opry, during the first of Starr’s two-night stand at the hallowed theater. “I’d love to,” Starr replied. “It’s an honor and a pleasure. Thank you.” Starr’s Opry appearance is slated for Feb. 21, part of the Opry’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Harris is one of many guests performing with Starr at the Ryman for the recording of a CBS special to air on a later date. Jack White, Rodney Crowell, Sheryl Crow, Mickey Guyton, Jamey Johnson, and the War and Treaty are among the other artists collaborating with Starr or singing their own versions of his songs. Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, and Larkin Poe, who all perform on Look Up, are on the bill too. (The second concert is set for Wednesday night.)
Source: rollingstone.com/Joseph Hudak
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of George Harrison’s fourth solo album, 1973 album, Living in the Material World made available in two configurations, a 2-CD collection and a Super Deluxe Edition box set, each culling new mixes and previously unreleased material numbering outtakes and alternative versions.
Leading the charge on the sonic front is renowned Grammy-Award-winning engineer and long-time family friend Paul Hicks, who had previously worked on archival projects by The Beatles, Harrison and John Lennon. With Living In The Material World, Paul was responsible for remixing the original album and uncovering a flurry of revelatory outtakes. We spoke with Paul, who served as our guide behind this seminal release.
Rock Cellar: Paul, you worked on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and then you moved onto this record, Living in the Material World. They’re two entirely different records. Sonically, Living in the Material World is a much more stripped-down and intimate record.
Paul Hicks: Yes, absolutely, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Obviously, every project is different and this album was a totally different beast to All Things Must Pass. The way we do it is I get the multi-tracks, listen and then I do a mix match as close as possible to the old mix and then I take a step back. I ask myself, “OK, what do we think we can improve here? What’s good about it?”
Obviously, with All Things Must Pass, from knowing George, Dhani and Olivia, George wanted less reverb on things. That was the mission with that album.
Source: rockcellarmagazine.com/Ken Sharp
One of the most interesting things about Beatrice McCartney, the youngest child of famous musician Sir Paul McCartney, is that she lives a very quiet and private life. Beatrice actually lives a very normal, everyday life and never seems to be in the public eye, even though she was born to arguably the most important musician in the history of popular music.
Beatrice comes from a family with an unmatched musical history. Her father loved music, and her mother Heather Mills was an advocate. We will learn more about Beatrice McCartney’s life in the next article, which will focus on her childhood, her ties to The Beatles’ legacy, and what the future may hold for her.
Beatrice Milly McCartney was born on October 28, 2003, in London, England. She is the daughter of Sir Paul McCartney, famous as the bass player and songwriter for the rock band The Beatles, and Heather Mills, formerly a model and activist. She is the youngest of Sir Paul McCartney’s five children and his only daughter. She is from a creative and generous family with great feats attached to their names.
Source: explosion.com/explosion.com
Paul McCartney has returned to his home city through the years for numerous appearances and projects - but on one particularly visit to Liverpool, he had to keep a "closely guarded secret." In more recent years, the former Beatle has been spotted back in his hometown for a graduation ceremony at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), to perform at the Philharmonic pub and more.
But back in the 1980s, many will remember when Sir Paul made a rare television appearance on BBC sitcom Bread, alongside his late wife, Linda. Loved by millions since it first aired in 1986, Bread was a massive hit, reaching 21 million viewers at its peak.
Written by Carla Lane, the series followed the lives of the the close knit families from Dingle and filmed on the steep Victorian terraced Bread streets, which went on to become some of the most well known streets in Liverpool. Among them was Elswick Street, which the ECHO recently visited - and residents living on the street told us how the sitcom life isn’t too far from the truth.
Now nearly 40 years on from when Bread first aired, we've delved into the archives to uncover a number of behind the scenes photos from the set of the hit BBC series. Courtesy of our archive, Mirrorpix, we also found a number of photos, unseen for years, of Paul and Linda on set 36-years-ago.
At the time, the ECHO reported how the famous couple spent two days filming in the city on a "top secret" visit, to appear in an extra-special episode of the Scouse sitcom. The BBC was believed to have launched a £1,500 security operation to keep the McCartney's away from curious star-spotters and the scenes filmed followed Linda setting up an animal rescue centre in Liverpool and meeting the Boswell family.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Jess Molyneux
