Beatles News
Back in 1962, Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best in The Beatles as their drummer. However, he wasn’t allowed to play the drums on Love Me Do or the B-side of PS I Love You.
This may surprise some Beatles fans considering how positive Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison were when they first heard Ringo play the drums.
According to The Spectator, Paul said: “This was, like, a grown-up musician.
“I remember the moment, standing there and looking at John and then looking at George, and the look on our faces was like …what is this?
“And that was the moment, that was the beginning, really, of the Beatles.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
It will be 18 years at the end of this month since “quiet Beatle” George Harrison passed away of throat cancer in 2001. His music lives on with his timeless melodies on songs such as Something, Here Comes the Sun, and I Got My Mind Set On You.
After George and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, separated in 1974 and then divorced three years later, he met and married Olivia Arias in 1978.
Olivia was a secretary when she met George. Born in Los Angeles, Olivia Trinidad Arias saw the Beatles in concert two times, once at the Hollywood Bowl on August 29, 1965, and then a year later at Dodger Stadium on August 28, 1966.
In 1973, she started working at A&M Records, which by the following year won the rights to distribute George Harrison’s Dark Horse solo records globally.
In the midst of the negotiation process, George and Olivia chatted by phone frequently. Eventually, the former Beatle wanted to know more about his phone friend and asked his friends to get more information about her for him.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon tried out mop-top haircuts while in Hamburg. It would become the Beatles' signature look. Original drummer Pete Best, left, stuck with his Liverpool ducktail cut. (The Plain Dealer)
You can make the Beatles fan in your life very happy this holiday season -- if you’re feeling particularly generous. And if your Beatlemaniac potential giftee doesn’t put Ringo first among the Fab Four.
Heritage Auctions is offering up a postcard signed by the Beatles when the Liverpudlians were resident rockers in the German city of Hamburg, a couple of years before they hit it big.
They were already big enough in Hamburg, however, that they had their own band-specific postcard offering the group’s “best wishes” on April 5, 1962. Heritage Auctions’ “buy now” price for the collectible: $12,500. The auction is open until Dec. 2.
Source: oregonlive.com
The official Twitter account for the Beatles tweeted out the following Ringo Starr quote. The quote actually comes from an old media interview that he gave. The quote expands on the reasoning for why The Beatles broke up and gives us a small glimpse into the making of that decision. Paul McCartney wife reveals ‘miserable’ Ringo Starr photo.
The quote stated:”(None) of the decisions were made quickly. We’d all expressed them & moaned about them, laughed about them & cried about them. Then it had got to a head where it was ‘yes’ or ‘no’ time – and we seemed to do that with the touring, with the recording & with the breaking-up.”
In other news regarding The Beatles, fans took to social media to reflect on Ringo Starr’s most recent studio release – ‘What’s My Name.’ One reviewer wrote: “This latest offering by Ringo literally flew under my radar if it were not for a tip-off from an old pal that Ringo was covering Lennon’s unreleased “Grow Old With Me” in collaborative fashion with McCartney’s inclusion.
Source: Mike Mazzarone/alternativenation.net
By the late 1960s, George Harrison had come to a realization: He could match the songwriting efforts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Beatles fans probably started to see that around the days of Revolver (1966). By the time Abbey Road (1969) went out, there was no denying it.
“I could see everybody’s a Lennon/McCartney if that’s what you wanna be,” George said in early 1970. “But the point is nobody’s special. If Lennon/McCartney are special, then Harrison and Starkey are special, too. What I’m saying is that I can be Lennon/McCartney too.”
With “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” George no longer needed to prove his case. And indeed he’d learned some tricks from John and Paul. One such trick was starting with someone else’s line to get a song’s lyrics going.
Just as John had done with an Elvis Presley line on “Run For Your Life,” so George did with a James Taylor line at the start of “Something.” And he also ran with one of John’s lyrics to start “Here Comes the Sun.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
“Let It Be Christmas” returns to Naperville’s Community Christian Church with nine performances in December. The rock opera tells the story of Jesus’ birth through the music of The Beatles. (Jennifer Pedley)
For 12 years, a Naperville church has presented the story of Christmas set to the songs of The Beatles. The result is “Let It Be Christmas (The Gospel According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo).”
“Let It Be Christmas” returns with nine performances at Community Christian Church in Naperville, presented by Epic Theatre Company. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6-7, Dec. 13-14 and Dec. 20 and 3 p.m. Dec. 7, Dec. 14 and Dec. 21; and 11 a.m. Dec. 21.
The cast consists of 80 local children and adults. Epic is associated with the church.
“It’s grown quite a bit. It’s been quite the evolution,” said Elic Bramlett, director of “Let It Be Christmas.”
How did they come up with the idea?
“Well, like all good ideas, we stole it from someone,” he laughed. “It helps that it is a good friend that we stole it from.”
Source: Annie Alleman/chicagotribune.com
When we look back at The Beatles’ career, it’s only natural that we trace their progress through the groundbreaking albums they made between 1963 and 1969. But that only tells part of the story. The Beatles may have helped shift the focus from singles to long-playing albums, but at the start of their career they were, first and foremost, a band that made phenomenal singles, many of which didn’t actually appear on their albums. With pop music still primarily a singles market in the mid-60s, The Beatles’ singles, then, offer something of a parallel discography: a different lens through which to trace their artistic trajectory.
1962: ‘Love Me Do’
The group had actually recorded a single even before signing with Parlophone. Credited as The Beat Brothers, John, Paul, George and Pete Best backed the English singer Tony Sheridan on a rocked-up version of ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’, which was released on Polydor in West Germany. It was a customer’s request for that recording that led to Liverpool record-shop owner Brian Epstein tracking down and eventually managing The Beatles.
Source: udiscovermusic.com
Ringo Starr is regarded as talentless by some fans of the Beatles. Others simply feel he didn’t have as much talent as the other three members of the band. Many Beatles fans might be surprised to know that Ringo did not play the drums on the group’s first hit, “Love Me Do.” Here’s why.
Despite what others have said about Ringo, the other Beatles were in awe of his talent. According to The Spectator, Paul McCartney has positive memories of the first time he saw Ringo drumming.
“This was, like, a grown-up musician. I remember the moment, standing there and looking at John and then looking at George, and the look on our faces was like …what is this?” he said. “And that was the moment, that was the beginning, really, of the Beatles.”
Although Paul said the Beatles weren’t really the Beatles until Ringo joined the band, the group’s producer, George Martin, felt differently. He didn’t like the sound Ringo brought the band’s recordings.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Next month marks the 39th anniversary of John Lennon’s death at the hands of gunman Mark David Chapman outside the historic Dakota apartment building in New York City. Lennon fans will be eager to watch Killing John Lennon, “a dramatic psychoanalysis and step-by-step breakdown of the lead-up to one of the most infamous assassinations in history,” said Thomas Gould, Flame’s VP, Content Sales, Worldwide Transport. “The one-hour biographical documentary also explores the life of John Lennon leading up to his murder, when he broke up with The Beatles to pursue a solo career … and as a political activist alongside his wife Yoko Ono in New York city.”
Food, art and design buffs will surely appreciate Flame’s new eight-part series, A Long Weekend in…With Rory O’Connell. A world-renowned chef and food writer, O’Connell takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of art, culture, architecture during his culinary adventures in cities like Copenhagen, Vienna and Lisbon.
Source: apex.aero
Elton John has opened up about how former Beatles guitarist George Harrison helped him during his long battle with drug addiction.
Speaking to Chris Evans on his Virgin Radio Breakfast show, the 72-year-old recalled how Harrison helped him when he was at the peak of his addiction. something he discussed in his recent memoir ‘Me’. The book sees Elton recalling the time he hijacked a Rolling Stones show while high on cocaine, as well as the moment when he mistook Bob Dylan for his gardener while high – describing him as “scruffy”.
Evans asked Elton what the “best piece of advice” was that Harrison gave him. “Stop putting that marching powder up your nose,” John laughed, before celebrating his 29 year sobriety with Evans. “Twenty-nine-years it’s been. The nose is still here!”
Elton also went on to give some advice to young musicians starting out now on the show. “You’ve got to play live…If you want to have a career, record sales will go up and down and people are so fickle,” Elton advised. He continued: “Now, when you’re young, they’ll drop you like a five-pound note on the floor and you’ve got to be able to play live and believe in yourself, but play live.”
Source: Elizabeth Aubrey/nme.com
