Beatles News
Early on, George Harrison realized he wasn’t guaranteed the guitar solo on every song The Beatles recorded. In late 1964, while the band was laying down “I’ll Follow the Sun,” George had to campaign to get the lead part on the Paul McCartney track.
Geoff Emerick, the engineer on most of the Fab Four’s best recordings, recalled George walking into the control booth at Abbey Road studios to demand he get the solo on that song.
“I am supposed to be the lead guitarist in the band, after all,” Emerick quoted George saying in the book, Here, There and Everywhere. (George got his wish, but not without Emerick calling the solo “embarrassing.”)
As the ’60s wore on and George experimented with the sitar (at the expense of his guitar playing), the Beatles’ lead guitarist found himself ceding more solos to his bandmates (usually, Paul). On the title track of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it happened again.
Source: cheatsheet.com
You’d have a hard tracking down all the covers of Beatles songs. Just looking at “Yesterday,” you’d count into the thousands. Everyone from Frank Sinatra to Joan Baez took a stab at that classic, penned by Paul McCartney and attributed to Paul and John Lennon (i.e., Lennon-McCartney).
But if you want to look at the number of successful Beatles covers, the list is shorter. Obviously, Lennon and McCartney wrote their music with themselves in mind as the vocalists, so you needed guts to cover a track like “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “Come Together.”
In fact, for all the thousands of interpretations of Lennon-McCartney songs, only two ever made it to No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts. And of those two, only one was a track the Fab Four recorded for one of the group’s studio albums.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In 1972, The Beatles had been broken up for two years, but all four former members of the band were enjoying successful solo careers. George Harrison (All Things Must Pass) and John Lennon (Imagine) had already released platinum-selling albums; Ringo Starr’s would follow in ’73.
For his part, Paul McCartney tasted success as a solo artist right away with April 1970’s McCartney. After releasing Ram (1971) with his wife Linda, the couple formed Wings, which would would be Paul’s outlet for the rest of the ’70s.
Like the final Beatles releases, Wings albums went out on the Apple label, and Paul would occasionally use Abbey Road studios to record tracks. And that’s where he was in late ’72 while working on Red Rose Speedway.
Source: cheatsheet.com
For everyone who’s been waiting and wondering about the Beatles’ 50th anniversary of “Let it Be,” we have to let it be for now.
The actual anniversary of the album’s release is May 8th, and the Michael Lindsay-Hogg movie came out on May 13, 1970.
But I’m told the whole 50th anniversary celebration will occur in the fall, not this spring. There are two reasons.
One reason is that no work has been done yet on the mixing, remixing and so on of the original album, the original movie’s soundtrack, or the Peter Jackson documentary. The mixing sessions are set for this July. It shouldn’t take too long. At this point Giles Martin and his crew know exactly what they’re doing.
The other reason is that all these expensive packages will be aimed at a holiday release. They’re a waste of time in May for Apple Records and for retailers. If they come in October, they’ll be part of the Christmas shopping madness. It makes more sense all around.
Source: by Roger Friedman/showbiz411.com
The Duke of Sussex joined Jon Bon Jovi on a rainy London zebra crossing to recreate the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover at the recording of a charity single.
In one of his final engagements before stepping back as a working royal, Harry attended a re-recording of Bon Jovi’s song Unbroken, performed with the Invictus Games Choir to raise money for the international multi-sport event for injured or sick military personnel.
At Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded in the 1960s, Harry joined the singer at the microphone in a video shared on the Sussexes’ Instagram account. “We’ve been gargling next door, so we’re ready to go,” Harry joked to a sound engineer.
Source: The Guardian
Boys
- Bill ("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill")
- Chuck ("When I'm Sixty-Four")
- Dave ("When I'm Sixty-Four")
- Dennis ("You Know My Name [Look Up the Number]")
- Desmond ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da")
- Duke ("Cry Baby Cry")
- George (Harrison)
- Harrison (George)
- John (Lennon)
- Jones ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da")
- Jude ("Hey Jude")
- Lane ("Penny Lane")
Source:
There are few figures more controversial in rock history than Yoko Ono. For decades, fans and critics have theorized about the extent of her influence on John Lennon and debated her role in the Beatles’ breakup. It should come as no surprise, then, that even Lennon and Ono’s first meeting is mired in uncertainty.
Born in Japan, Ono became interested in experimental art when she attended college in New York in the ’50s. By the time she met Lennon in the ’60s, she was on her second marriage, to American jazz musician Anthony Cox, which had produced a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, in 1963. According to Ono, the relationship between Cox and her had soured, although they remained married. She left the raising of little Kyoko to her husband so that she could focus on her avant-garde artwork. Ono’s involvement in the art community brought her to London in the mid-’60s
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
A new memorial devoted to George Harrison is set to be built in Liverpool to mark the Beatles icon’s 77th birthday.
The project, announced by Liverpool City Council and the George Harrison Estate, will see a new memorial woodland being created in honour of the late star.
The George Harrison Woodland Walk will be located in the suburb of Allerton, close to where Harrison was born and spent his formative years.
Upon completion in 2021, the memorial woodland will feature a selection of artistic installations directly inspired by Harrison’s seminal lyrics and his life.
Source: Nick Reilly/nme.com
You can't rush a good thing. This phrase is certainly true when describing George Harrison composing his highly acclaimed song "Something." George had been known to take his good old sweet time when composing a song, maybe many months, something he would admit in interviews throughout his Beatles career. He also used to be quite self conscious about his compositions, not sure if they were good enough to be included among the Lennon / McCartney songs on a Beatles album. "I haven't got a clue what's commercial and what isn't," George stated to interviewer David Wigg in 1969. And this certainly was the case with "Something."
Source: beatlesebooks.com
Before John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a record deal or songwriting contract, they were like any other young musicians trying to make it. They would try out songs in all sorts of styles, and some later made it onto albums by The Beatles.
“Michelle,” which Paul workshopped for parties among John’s art-school set (circa ’58), found a spot on Rubber Soul (’65). Likewise, “When I’m Sixty-Four,” which Paul also wrote in the ’50s for someone like Frank Sinatra, ended up on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (’67).
But others didn’t make the leap from the early days to the Lennon-McCartney era (from ’62 on). “World Without Love” which became a huge hit for Peter and Gordon in ’64, was one such song. In that song’s case, John couldn’t listen to it without laughing.
Source: cheatsheet.com
