Beatles News
The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool and went on to completely change the course of popular music. Although the group broke up over forty years ago, fans still love and obsess over the band and the music they wrote still resonates with people today. From soft-rock hits like “Strawberry Fields” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” to sweet ballads like “Hey Jude,” there is a Beatles song for every occasion.
The Beatles even have some holiday hits to jam to, although they never achieved the level of success that some of their other songs did. Although not even the most devout Beatles fan may know what the band did especially for the holidays each year that was a special treat just for their fan club.
The Beatles spent their early years as a band playing clubs around Liverpool. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had what it took to make it big and after their first big hit, “Love Me Do,” debuted on the airwaves. It was only a few short years until they achieved worldwide stardom. By 1964, the Beatles were the biggest stars in the world and led what became known as the “British Invasion” of English pop artists on the United States music charts.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In February of 1962, Beatles manager Brian Epstein arranged an audition for the band in front of BBC Radio executives. After struggling to find the then-unknown mop tops a record deal, Epstein hoped that some radio exposure would lead the group to a contract.
BBC producer Peter Pilbeam was impressed with the group’s four-song audition and booked them to appear on the program Teenagers Turn (Here We Go), to be taped on March 7. The line-up for that initial broadcast featured John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best (Ringo Starr wouldn't join the group until August that year).
“They were very nervous, obviously,” Pilbeam later recalled on a radio interview. “I was very impressed with them. I booked them straight away for another date after that first show.”
Thus began a relationship that would span roughly three years, with the Beatles delivering 52 performances for the BBC between 1962 and 1965. Decades later, recordings from these shows would make up the compilation album Live at the BBC.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most acclaimed musicians of all time. Yoko Ono is a touch less acclaimed. Despite the difference in perception of the two musicians, they both inspired one of the most intriguing Beatles compositions: “Because.”
Like many Beatles records, “Because” is is a bridge between the new and the old. The track’s appeal to contemporary audiences was rooted in its Beach Boys-style vocal harmonies and psychedelic lyrics. To appeal to an older generation, the song has a stiff, almost mathematical chord progression which recalls classical music.
The classical elements of “Because” were intentional. Snopes quotes John Lennon explaining the song’s origins: “[Yoko] trained as a classical musician. I didn’t know that until this morning. In college she majored in classical composition. Now we stimulate each other like crazy. This morning I wrote this song called ‘Because.’ Yoko was playing some classical bit, and I said ‘Play that backwards,’ and we had a tune.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
Todd Rundgren may be on the phone to draw attention to an all-star tribute to the Beatles' "White Album" on which he'll share a stage with Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Joey Molland of Badfinger, Christopher Cross, and Jason Scheff of Chicago.
But that doesn't mean he has to like it.
And by "it," I mean "The White Album."
"I make no bones about it," Rundgren says.
"I think it's a contender for the Beatles' worst album. And it's not necessarily a judgment about the music on it. I'm talking about a Beatle album, not a bunch of half attempts at solo albums, which is what 'The White Album' is. So as a Beatle album, it's terrible. Very rarely do all four of them play at the same time on the record. Having said that, it was a great start for a George Harrison solo record."
Rundgren laughs, as he does often in the course of casually dismissing one of rock's most celebrated albums with a disarmingly playful irreverence that couldn't be more charming.
Source: Ed Masley/azcentral.com
1. The Beatles got the idea for their name from Buddy Holly and The Crickets
The band liked the idea of using the name of an insect as a band name, and they were fans of Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Because John Lennon loved puns, he altered the spelling of “Beetles” to “Beatles”.
2. John Lennon’s father was absent for much of his early life but showed up when his son became famous
John Lennon’s father, Alfred Lennon, was a merchant mariner who had a stormy relationship with Lennon’s mother and was gone for most of his son’s youth. John Lennon was mostly raised by his aunt. When the Beatles exploded on the pop scene, Alfred Lennon tried to reconnect with his son and also made a novelty recording that was somewhat successful to capitalize on the fame of the Fab Four.
Source: Bo Weber
A pair of John Lennon's trademark round sunglasses are going up for auction along with a parking ticket given to Beatles drummer Ringo Starr -- items kept for half a century by a former driver for the band.
Alan Herring, who worked as a chauffeur for Starr and bandmate George Harrison in the late 60s, said Lennon had given him the glasses after leaving them on the back seat of his Mercedes.
"When John got out of the car I noticed that he'd left these sunglasses on the back seat and one lens and one arm had become disconnected," he said. "I asked John if he'd like me to get them fixed for him. He told me not to worry, that they were just for the look."
The vintage glasses and the parking ticket -- issued on April 25, 1969 in London outside the band's own label Apple Records -- will be sold online by Sotheby's with other Beatles memorabilia next month. Herring said the decision to sell the objects was an emotional one, but that "the memories I have of this very special time in my life working with the Beatles are far more important to me".
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline and a visionary who has over 750 patents, told me “My advice to CEOs is to pay more attention to history.” As I think about it, one of the greatest lessons on innovation and success comes from none other than the Beatles.
On April 4, 1964 the Beatles made history by having all of the top five songs on the music charts:
#1 “Can’t Buy Me Love,”
#2 “Twist and Shout,”
#3 “She Loves You,”
#4 “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and
#5 “Please Please Me.”
Even with this unprecedented success the Beatles proceeded to completely reinvent themselves in what might be called one of the most profound examples of creative destruction.
Source: Robert Reiss/forbes.com
Sir Paul McCartney has said he sometimes picks up his grandchildren from school, and that it is a “joy”.
The former Beatles star said that he is “pretty normal” when it comes to his relationship with his eight grandchildren despite his fame, and that they often go on holiday together.
Sir Paul, 77, told Chris Evans on his Virgin Radio Breakfast Show that he is a “terrific” grandparent, adding: “You know, I love them and I love being a granddad.
“And we spend quite a good bit of time together. We don’t live near each other, but we go on holiday together, like Christmas. And in the summer we’ll see each other. And then sometimes me and (my wife) Nancy pick them up from school. So that’s nice.”
He said: “It’s great fun you know, because you don’t know how to do it like parenting. It’s ad lib, it’s the biggest ad lib. So when grand-parenthood comes around, it’s like, ‘OK, what do we do here?’ And so I say that joy is like picking them up at school and they love it.”
He added: “I don’t think it’s just us, I think it’s also the ice cream that’s got something to do with it! So you do all those things, you know, and you can play with them and stuff.
Source: irishnews.com
November 29, 2001 would be remembered forever in the music rock history. On this day 18 years ago, this legend passed away from lung cancer at age of 58.
As a 15-year old boy from Liverpool, Harrison became a member of the Quarrymen (who would later become The Beatles), despite John Lennon thinking that he was too young. Having to compete with the power-writing duo that was Lennon and Paul McCartney, George was able to slip a song or two of his own onto almost every Beatles album during the group’s existence.
Some of the songs included “Taxman” (1966’s Revolver), “Within You Without You” (1967’s Sgt. Papper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something” (both from 1969’s Abbey Road) and many more.
Even more impressive may have been his solo work, as the period following The Beatles proved Harrison to be a truly great singer-songwriter in his own right, now being out of the shadow of his former band mates. 1968 would see him be the first Beatle to release a solo record, with Wonderwall Music, and the following year with Electronic Sounds, in which Harrison made use of experiments with the Moog synthesizer.
He would release the triple-album All Things Must Pass in 1970 to massive acclaim from both critics and fans alike with the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life”.
Having adopted Hindu mythology and Transcendental Meditation years earlier, and a friendship with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar, Harrison would go on to put together 1971’s Concert for Bangladesh at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, a major benefit concert that raised awareness and funds for the refugee situation of East Pakistan, as a result of the mass genocide committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The show would feature a super group consisting of Harrison, ex band mate Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and many more.
In the late 1980’s, Harrison would co-found The Traveling Wilburys, a behemoth group made up of Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne of ELO, all of which had worked with one another in some capacity on past and future projects.
The group’s first album Traveling Wilburys Vol.1, would go multi-platinum with support from the singles “End of the Line” and “Handle with Care”. Orbison would pass before the group recorded their second and final album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Harrison would be remembered as one of the truly rock’s greatest artists and ambassadors.
Paul McCartney reacts to George Harrison’s death in 2001
Between 1963 and 1970, The Beatles released 12 studio albums. But have you ever wondered which one was the favourite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr? Well, at different points in their lives the Fab Four revealed their individual personal picks of the dozen.
Ringo Starr – Abbey Road (1969)
Probably The Beatles album with the most famous cover, Abbey Road celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
The band’s penultimate record was a favourite for Ringo, who especially liked the much-maligned Abbey Road Medley.
Ringo told Rock Cellar Magazine a couple of years ago: “For me, that would be the second side of Abbey Road.
“That one is my favourite because I just love all those bits and pieces that weren’t full songs that John and Paul had been working on and pulled all together — Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, and She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
