Beatles News
John was one quarter of the world famous band The Beatles, along with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. The four of them were thrust into the spotlight at a young age, but soon struggled to cope with the magnitude of their popularity. Artistic differences drove the band apart and in 1970 they split, with all of them going on to create their own solo material although animosity remained for a good few years afterwards.
Many credit John with being the most famous Beatle, particularly after his tragic death in 1980 when he was shot by a crazed fan outside his New York apartment.
When he died he was married to Yoko Ono, but an uncovered letter from 1958 revealed the strength of feeling John had for his girlfriend and, later his first wife, Cynthia Powell.
Writing in Vanity Fair in 2012, Bruce Handy revealed how the music icon wished his love interest a Happy Christmas.
Source: Kate Nicholson/express.co.uk
Paul McCartney’s newest collaboration isn’t what you think.
To promote his 2018 album Egypt Station, McCartney’s team reached out earlier this year not to his record label -- but to sweater label Lingua Franca to create a collection of limited-edition cashmere sweaters embroidered with titles of two of the album’s tracks: “People Want Peace” and “Do It Now.”
“Is this for real?” Lingua Franca’s founder and longtime Beatles fan Rachelle Hruska MacPherson recalls thinking when she received the email from the Beatle’s reps.
Indeed it was: two hundred emails later, the premium jumpers, as the British call sweaters, are now available for $400 apiece at McCartney’s official merchandise shop.
Artists have been selling limited-edition merch for years, but McCartney is one of many acts working to elevate their offerings even further beyond the standard concert t-shirt and enlisting new partners to help. Kanye West spurred many of these efforts with his wildly successful pop-up shops across the country in 2016, the year of his Life of Pablo Tour.
Source: Mia Nazareno/billboard.com
Dr. Dre hasn’t released an album since 2015 and hasn’t gone on tour since the turn of the millennium. His last production credit on a No. 1 hit was in 2009, when he worked the boards on Eminem’s “Crack a Bottle.” But the hip-hop superproducer still topped all other music stars in earnings this decade, pulling in an estimated $950 million thanks mostly to his roughly 20% stake in Beats, the bass-heavy headphone maker Apple bought for $3 billion in 2014.
Other stars had more traditional ways of making money. Taylor Swift was the decade’s second-biggest earner with $825 million followed by Beyoncé with $685 million, both profiting from multiple centimillion-dollar tours, several multiplatinum albums and a slew of multimillion-dollar sponsor partnerships with brands from Adidas to AT&T.
Forbes measures the industry’s top-earning musicians annually for the Celebrity 100 by looking at touring data from Pollstar, music consumption numbers from Nielsen and interviews with managers, agents and many of the stars themselves. The list doesn’t include behind-the-scenes earners such as agents, managers and promoters, nor does it deduct living expenses or taxes.
Source: Zack O'Malley Greenburg/forbes.com
Paul McCartney, 77, prepares to unwind for the festive period as he and wife Nancy Shevell, 60, arrive at JFK airport ahead of Christmas
Published: 03:17 EST, 23 December 2019 | Updated: 08:46 EST, 23 December 2019
He recently revealed he's produced an album of carols only for his family after struggling to find 'good Christmas records'.
And Paul McCartney prepared for the festive period as he and his wife Nancy Shevell touched down at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday evening.
The Beatles icon, 77, carried his essentials in a black duffle bag as he joined his partner, 60, in her native state, ahead of their annual trip to St Barts.
Source: Rianne Addo/dailymail.co.uk
If you go by creative output, The Beatles’ 1968 trip to India was a huge success. During their stay in Rishikesh studying transcendental meditation under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the members of the world’s most famous band wrote about 30 songs.
The Fab Four recorded most of them for The White Album, and fans know them well. While abroad, Paul McCartney wrote (among other tracks) “Rocky Raccoon,” “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road,” and “Back in the U.S.S.R.” (the last one with a minor assist from Beach Boy Mike Love).
George Harrison came back with “Sour Milk Sea,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and a few others. John Lennon wrote “Julia,” “Dear Prudence,” “Sexy Sadie,” and more. In fact, their time was so productive that John and Paul each wrote a song following the same lecture by the Maharishi.
Paul’s tune, “Mother Nature’s Son,” went out on the White Album later that year. As for John’s song (titled “I”m Just a Child of Nature” at first), that one never went out as a Beatles track. However, it became one of John’s most famous solo works.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Does any album have more acclaim than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? If so, we’d like to see someone make that case. For decades, that 1967 release has stood as a monument in The Beatles’ career (and in music in general).
In the ’90s, Paul McCartney he said he’d pick Pepper as his favorite Fab Four album (should he be forced to make such a choice). Looking back some 25 years, Paul thought the album still held up and was proud of his prominent role in its production.
In his typically conflicted way, John Lennon recognized the importance of the record (especially “A Day in the Life“) while poking holes in the concept and general reception. “The Pepper myth is bigger, but the music on The White Album is far superior,” he said in 1971.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Born on October 9, 1940, John Lennon grew up to become one of the most influential individuals of his time. Best-known as a founder and co-lead vocalist of the Beatles, he is renowned for his musical talent and prolific writing abilities, establishing the group as one of the greatest of all time. However, his life went far beyond Strawberry Fields and wanting to hold hands. He was an incredibly complex person that led a life of highs and lows just like any other person. Take a look to see what made John Lennon’s life so interesting and how he became the cultural icon that he is today.
Source: Scott Croker/idolator.com
When The Beatles released the “Get Back” single in 1969, the track instantly connected with the record-buying public. With a toe-tapping pulse and a clutch assist from Billy Preston, the track shot to No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
While promoting the single, Paul McCartney described the composition he wrote as something the band “made it up out of thin air” while working in the studio early in ’69. To paraphrase Paul, once they had the words, they laid down the track and that was that.
It definitely wasn’t that simple, though. John Lennon’s guitar solo on the song is a reminder that George Harrison walked out on the band during rehearsals for “Get Back.” (John took over lead duties with George gone.)
As for the song falling from the sky, you can make a case that didn’t happen, either. A track George originally worked out for The White Album shares several things in common with “Get Back.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
While the songwriting credits on the record never changed, John Lennon and Paul McCartney weren’t collaborating a great deal by the late 1960s. Looking back at The Beatles’ run, many point to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) as the end of the line for the Lennon-McCartney machine.
“A Day in the Life,” the crowning achievement of Sgt. Pepper’s (and maybe the band overall), might have been the last example of the pair fully working together. If you go by No. 1 singles that were pure Lennon-McCartney, you have to go back earlier.
During the Rubber Soul sessions (1965), John and Paul topped the charts on both side of the Atlantic with the single, “We Can Work It Out.” (In America, the song went out on the Yesterday…And Today album; in England, it was just a single.)
While it started as a hit-in-the-making idea from Paul, the contribution from John pushed in to its classic status.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles have opened an immersive listening exhibition based on their classic album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ — which promises to be as close as you can get to experiencing the album being played live.
The event at Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool has been designed by The Beatles’ firm Apple Corps in association with Tate Liverpool, Dolby Laboratories and National Museums Liverpool.
It’s based on the new mix of the album released in 2017 by Giles Martin, son of Sir George Martin, who produced the original ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album in 1967.
A statement of the presentation of the album in Dolby Atmos sound said: “This is an immersive sound environment which feels as if the band is performing live in the space. It will transport listeners to Abbey Road this Christmas.” Free tickets for the experience are sold out, but further similar events are planned for 2020.
Source: John Earls/nme.com
