Beatles News
If there’s one song by John Lennon that has stood the test of time, it’s his peace anthem “Imagine.” It’s one of the few tracks by a former Beatle to rival the band’s biggest hits in terms of critical acclaim. While “Imagine” is his most iconic song, it was not his most successful as a solo artist. Let’s look at John’s biggest hits. “Imagine” has achieved an ubiquity that few songs have. Despite this, it’s not John’s first, second, third, or even fourth biggest hit. The dreamy ballad encapsulate John’s ethos better than any other song, but it apparently didn’t find nearly as much favor with the public upon its initial release as it has in more recent years. Many of the albums that John made as a solo artist or with his wife, Yoko Ono, are avant-garde and difficult to understand. “Imagine” is the only standard that he wrote after the Beatles broke up. The song has been covered by everyone from Lady Gaga and Madonna to Avril Lavigne and CeeLo Green.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Scrap of paper bearing autographs of all four Beatles sells for £4,200 after it was hidden in cupboard for 56 years. The band had been playing a gig at the Town Hall Ballroom in Shropshire in 1963. The owner of the paper had attended the gig and asked them to sign it for her 72-year-old said she had previously been offered £100 for the paper in 199.
The white piece of paper had been hidden in a cupboard for 56 years in order to stop the signatures from fading. Band members had signed the paper after a gig in 1963 at the Town Hall Ballroom in Shropshire, after only a handful of fans had turned up to see them perform.
The 72-year-old owner, who does not want to be named, asked the band to sign the paper after the gig.
Source: Terri-ann Williams For Mailonline
When Beatles fans call Revolver their favorite album, they have plenty to support the pick. From the heavy George Harrison opener “Taxman” to Paul McCartney’s “Here, There and Everywhere” and John Lennon’s “I’m Only Sleeping,” the band was at or near its peak on this record.
In terms of subject matter, though, it’s among the Beatles’ darkest. If John wasn’t singing about “what it’s like to be dead,” George was offering advice “for those who die” or Paul was getting his hands dirty burying Eleanor Rigby. Weren’t these the lads who just wanted to hold your hand?
Well, Paul was still that guy in a lot of ways. He brought the sweet and innocent “Yellow Submarine” to the Revolver sessions. And he recorded the gorgeous “Here, There and Everywhere” on that record, too.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Did The Beatles ever record a bigger hit than “Yesterday”? If you go strictly by performance on the Billboard Hot 100, maybe you can argue in favor of “Hey Jude” (nine weeks on top) or “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (seven weeks).
However, if you count the number of radio plays, you’ll have a hard time making a case against “Yesterday.” In 1999, the great Paul McCartney ballad had topped 7 million radio plays. So forget the Fab Four for a moment — “Yesterday” is one of the biggest hits in contemporary music.
In fact, no song has been covered by more artists. (Over 3,000 cover versions of “Yesterday” exist.) And every time someone hears someone else’s rendition, they think of the Beatles’ original that features only Paul on guitar and string musicians behind him.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In the spring of 1969, Paul McCartney telephoned George Martin to ask if he would be willing to work with the Beatles on a new album they planned to record in the months ahead. Martin, who was widely regarded as the most accomplished pop-record producer in the world, had overseen the making of all nine albums and nineteen singles that the Beatles had released in Britain since their début on E.M.I.’s Parlophone label, in 1962. His reputation was synonymous with that of the group, and the fact that McCartney felt a need to ask him about his availability dramatized how much the Beatles’ professional circumstances had changed since the release of the two-record set known as the White Album, in the fall of 1968. In Martin’s view, the five months of tension and drama it took to make that album, followed by the fiasco of “Get Back,” an ill-fated film, concert, and recording project that ended inconclusively in January, 1969, had turned his recent work with the Beatles into a “miserable experience.”
Source: Jonathan Gould/newyorker.com
The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has revealed how John Lennon made him cry. In speaking with GQ recently the iconic drummer for the fab four was asked about the upcoming track on his new album that was written by Lennon called “Grow Old With Me”. In which Starr states during the interview that he didn’t even hear or know about the demo that was done until a little while back. John Lennon revealed what this man did with ‘Mouth’ for him.
“I didn’t find it till this year. I never heard about it, never knew about it. I was really emotional when Jack Douglas, the producer who produced John, mentioned it to me. He said, “Have you heard what they call The Bermuda Tapes?” I said, “No, I don’t have a copy.” This disgusting restaurant photo featuring John Lennon and his widow was just uncovered.
Source: Mike Mazzarone/alternativenation.net
A New York family has created a spectacularly spooky 50th anniversary tribute to the legendary Beatles album Abbey Road.
Jeff and Ellen Pitkin of Guilderland, New York, erected a Halloween-themed recreation of the Abbey Road album cover, which shows the four members of The Beatles crossing the famous London road.
Jeff and Ellen Pitkin of Guilderland erected a Halloween-themed recreation of the Abbey Road album cover showing the four members of the Beatles crossing the famous London road/Photo: Jeff and Ellen Pitkin
In Pitkin's display, the four members of The Beatles are skeletons crossing a made-up crosswalk on the family's lawn. The skeletons even have hair matching what the Beatles wore on the album cover.
Source: komonews.com
If you listen to a certain corner of the internet (it began offline long ago, actually), you’ll hear some interesting theories about The Beatles. We present a taste of those in the italics below.
There’s only one thing you need to know about Paul McCartney: He’s dead. In November 1966, he blew his mind out in a car. The following year, his replacement, named William, took over on Sgt. Pepper’s. (Billy Shears is just another way of saying, “Billy’s here.”)
It’s obvious. Otherwise, why would Paul wear a black carnation in Magical Mystery Tour while his bandmates wore red ones? And why would he be barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road? That’s a clear sign he’s dead. (George Harrison is obviously the gravedigger; Ringo is the undertaker.)
We won’t even touch the part of Paul holding a cigarette in his right hand on the album cover. Everyone knows he was left-handed, and thus would only hold cigarettes in his left hand.
Source: cheatsheet.com
As with the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles (aka The White Album), any fan could argue that this new mix of Abbey Road is unnecessary. Some may go as far as saying that tinkering with the Fab Four’s last-recorded studio album is sacrilegious. If you’re happy with your old vinyl or early CD, no one can fault that. For those who enjoy digging deeper into the Beatles legend, however, this anniversary set is marvelous and revelatory. For this review, your humble scribe made comparisons to a clean 1995 LP pressing and the 2009 CD remaster (a major overhaul itself).
Source: illinoisentertainer.com
In a city filled with stunningly beautiful monuments, a Gothic bridge of much atmospheric antiquity, a languid river, a sprawling palace complex, the John Lennon Wall is a bit of an anomaly. But there is no doubt about it: this wall dating back to the 60s is a historical record-of-sorts, replete with much drama and turbulence. Spanning a stretch of less than a kilometre, the compound wall belongs to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Catholic lay religious order. Every conceivable inch of it is covered with bright, even lurid, graffiti. Just off-centre is the familiar face, with its round glasses.
Alongside Lennon’s face run the words ‘All you need is love’. The face is almost fully covered with fresh drawings now, only the eyes watch steadily.
Source: Sheila Kumar/newindianexpress.com
