Beatles News
Over the years, there have been some dynamite covers of Beatles songs, and they started coming soon after the Fab Four released their versions. That certainly applied to “Something.” When Ray Charles and James Brown recorded the great love song, George Harrison was thrilled.
The same went for Stevie Wonder’s 1970 rendition of “We Can Work It Out.” Wonder’s cover stands above most versions of the Lennon-McCartney original. (Some would even argue it surpasses the Beatles’ own.) But Wonder wasn’t the only one leaving a unique mark on Fab Four tracks.
When Joe Cocker released “With a Little Help From My Friends” in 1968, it sounded miles from the Sgt. Pepper version Ringo Starr sang the previous year. To Paul McCartney, it was more than just a great cover. Paul called Cocker’s rendition “mind-blowing.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
About five years ago I told a friend I was thinking about writing a book. He said, "About the Beatles?" I replied sarcastically, "Yeah, because that's what the world needs. Another book about The Beatles."
It's impossible to pinpoint a number, but there are thousands, maybe in the tens of thousands, of books written on The Beatles. I found an author, Mark Lewisohn, who has written more than twenty by himself. So, yeah, the world really didn't need another book about the Fab Four.
But yet, when I found out that Peter Asher was writing a Beatles book, I could help but to be excited. Here's a guy who is a musical legend in his own right. He was the first name in the duo "Peter & Gordon." He's been a long time record producer and manager; working with illustrious names like Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Cher. In fact, he was the one who brought Taylor to the attention of The Beatles and had him signed to his first record deal with Apple.
Source: Howard Moore/chicagonow.com
Paul McCartney has revealed he's recorded a ‘secret’ Christmas album – but the chances of fans ever getting to hear it are slim, as the former Beatles icon created it “just for the family.”
McCartney was speaking with BBC Radio 4’s World At One when he revealed that the material takes the form of Christmas carol instrumentals, explaining: “Years ago, I thought, ‘There's not very good Christmas records,’ so I actually went into my studio over a couple of years and I made one.
“But it’s just for the family. It gets brought out each year, I’ve just got a little demo of it, but the kids like it. It’s kind of traditional – it's something they've heard through the years and now it's the grandkids getting indoctrinated with my carols record.”
Yesterday, it was revealed that McCartney’s 2005 children’s book High In The Clouds which he created with Geoff Dunbar and Philip Ardagh, is to be adapted into an animated film on Netflix.
Source: loudersound.com
Take an unforgettable journey down Penny Lane with The Beatles LOVE, a flower-power fantasy that's the closest you'll come to a real, live Beatles concert. Featuring a custom-crafted soundtrack with elements from more than 100 cherished songs, The Beatles LOVE is a trippy multimedia presentation that only Cirque du Soleil could create.
LOVE is a departure from traditional circus-based productions and Cirque's first foray into the works of other artists. Based on an idea by Cirque co-founder Guy Laliberté and band member George Harrison, LOVE re-creates, through dance and acrobatics, the origins of the Fab Four, their meteoric rise to fame and the profound impact of their music on the world.
Presented in an astounding 360-degree theater with 2,000 seats and more than 6,300 speakers, LOVE blends hi-tech wizardry with live performance on a scale that few can rival. Surreal, dazzling and full of color, it breathes life into familiar names like Sergeant Pepper, Father McKenzie, Lucy In The Sky and Lady Madonna.
Source: By Sam Novak /lasvegasmagazine.com
It’s been 39 years this month since John Lennon left us so violently and so soon on a cold December night in his beloved New York City. One of John’s greatest loves in the last years of his life was spending time with his young son, Sean.
John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and two-year-old Sean Lennon in 1977
John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and two-year-old Sean Lennon in 1977 | Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
In fact, as recollections go of that Dec. 8, 1980 evening, Sean was the reason that John wanted to hurry home to the Lennons’ Dakota apartment.
John’s other son, Julian, is from his first marriage to Cynthia Powell in 1963. The two Lennon sons are 14 years apart in age, and a world apart in terms of how they were raised. Julian born into the chaos of Beatlemania, while Sean was raised in the relative peace of John’s final years of domestic bliss.
Find out if Julian and Sean, 14 years apart in age, have grown close over the years.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney is already king of pop-rock holiday radio with his synth-driven 1979 staple "Wonderful Christmastime." But it turns out he also dominates his home stereo around Yuletide with a full album of Christmas carol instrumentals he recorded "just for the family."
"Years ago, I thought, ‘There's not very good Christmas records,’ so I actually went into my studio over a couple of years and I made one," the former Beatle told BBC Radio 4’s World at One. “It gets brought out each year, I’ve just got a little demo of it, but the kids like it. It’s kind of traditional — it's something they've heard through the years, and now it's the grandkids getting indoctrinated with my carols record.”
While it's not technically an original Christmas album in the traditional sense, McCartney did assemble a goofy, holiday-themed recording as a present for his Beatles bandmates in 1965. Throughout the extremely rare set, which surfaced online in 2017, he impersonates an American DJ and plays cuts from artists like the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Yes, the album cover is famous, it's iconic, it is whatever you want to call it. Jesus-like John Lennon, barefoot (dead?) Paul, and George and Ringo too. How many of your friends and neighbors have used a picture of their family at a crosswalk for their Facebook cover photo or an annual holiday card? Maybe you have done it yourself (no, the Raffs have never given it a try!)
But it wasn't for the visual effect that I asked my sound system to play the album last night. Barb was out at one of her many book clubs, I was going to do some reading, and I wanted a little background music. Background music? HAH! For the next 45 minutes or so, I didn't read another word.
You can look up the rankings of Beatle albums (I looked at a bunch) and Abbey Road never falls below #4. But you can have your Revolver and Sgt Pepper and Rubber Soul. For my money (OK-I don't pay for music with Alexa) there is no better Beatle listen than AR.
Source: chicagonow.com
Paul McCartney announced that his 2005 children’s book High in the Clouds is being adapted into an animated movie produced by Netflix and Gaumont.
Oscar nominee Timothy Reckart will direct from a script by Jon Croker, while McCartney himself will provide original songs and music.
“To the creatures of the woodland, the land of Animalia sounds like a dream – a tropical island where all the animals live in harmony,” the book’s synopsis reads. “They are overshadowed by a much more evil community: the polluted Megatropolis, whose dirty skyscrapers block the horizon. And then one day, Wirral the Squirrel's woodland is destroyed by developers and he is thrown into the nightmare world of Megatropolis.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
hroughout his career, world-renowned British composer Howard Goodall has learned not to be too prescriptive, allowing his collection of sacred and secular music to take on a life of its own.
“It’s not my job to tell people what to think or what to believe,” he said. “It’s my job to put pieces out there that prompt people to think about things and respond in their own way.”
Whether writing choral music, stage musicals, or film and television scores, he is not presumptuous in regards to how his work impacts others - an approach that correlates with his insistence on editorial independence as a distinguished music historian and broadcaster.
Source: Nick Powell and Julian Gill, Staff writer/houstonchronicle.com
By 1966, The Who had become bona fide pop stars. “My Generation,” released late in the previous year, shot to No. 2 on the UK charts. “Substitute,” the band’s follow-up, cracked the top five in March ’66. That made four top-10 singles in about a year’s time.
But that didn’t make the band any less dysfunctional. In fact, ’66 was one of the high points for chaos within The Who. Though the band allowed singer Roger Daltrey back into the bands after he’d beaten up drummer Keith Moon, the situation hadn’t gotten much better.
In fact, by spring ’66, Daltrey was skipping Who gigs, which prompted speculation the band would replace him. Meanwhile, relations between Moon and Pete Townshend had deteriorated beyond belief. It included an incident in which Moon chased Townshend through a train car while wielding a knife.
Source: cheatsheet.com
