Beatles News
Abbey Road,” one of the Beatles’ most classic, career-defining records, celebrated its 50 year anniversary on Sept. 26. The record, featuring the then twenty-something-year-olds walking down the now-iconic London road, commemorated the milestone with a super deluxe edition release and new video for “Here Comes the Sun”—proving there’s still “something in the way” the British rock band moves us today.
“I think it was in a way the feeling that it might be our last, so let’s just show ’em what we can do, let’s show each other what we can do, and let’s try and have a good time doing it.” said Beatles member Paul McCartney in an interview about the project.
In the winter of 1969 and post “White Album” and “Let It Be,” Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr returned to the studio, hoping to reconnect and create music the way they’d done in the past. “Abbey Road” would be the last Beatles album to be recorded before their breakup in April 1970—ending their career with one of the most innovative, respected albums in music history.
Source: Crystal Lugo/nevadasagebrush.com
On the whole, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was an upbeat, positive record. Between the whimsical title track, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” and “Fixing a Hole,” the first side is heavy on Paul McCartney at his brightest and bounciest.
Paul keeps it going on the second side with “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Lovely Rita,” and the “Sgt. Pepper’s” reprise. If you didn’t know any better, you might think the songwriter never saw a cloud in the sky and never had a dark thought in his life.
And we haven’t even gotten to “Getting Better.” From the ringing opening chords to the lyrics touting the improvements in life since the narrator met his girlfriend, Paul sings with his trademark determination to look at the sunny side of life. But things take a very dark turn in the third verse.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Abbey Road is not only among the Beatles’ most critically beloved albums —ranking 14th on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time — it’s also one of their most lucrative. Despite being written as the band was on the verge of breaking up, the album was a commercial stronghold, spending 11 weeks at Number One on the Billboard 200 at after its release in September 1969.
And now, fifty years after its release, Abbey Road still sells. The album comes in at Number Three on this week’s Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart, which tracks music consumption via independent analytics company Alpha Data, thanks to a 40-track “super deluxe” reissue released by Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol/UMe to celebrate the album’s anniversary.
Source: Emily Blake/rollingstone.com
Almost 50 years ago, Sir Paul McCartney and his band Wings decided to decorate an open-top bus in psychedelic colours to take them on tour across Europe.
He converted the double-decker for his post-Beatles band and their families, with the seats on the upper deck replaced by mattresses and bean bags.
Now, after being found in Spain, the Wings Over Europe bus is back in the UK and is to be sold at auction.
Sir Paul made an appeal for the double-decker's whereabouts in 2017.
It is being sold by Omega Auctions in Merseyside on Tuesday with an estimated value of £15,000-£25,000.
The bus originally served local routes in Essex and Norfolk in the 1950s and 60s before being bought by McCartney, who didn't fancy being cooped up in a normal bus during the summer tour in 1972.
Source: Ian Youngs /bbc.com
Everyone has a favorite Beatles album — even the band members themselves. For John Lennon, it was The White Album, a record that showcased some of his best guitar rock with the Fab Four. For Paul McCartney, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a high point.
Ringo and George Harrison picked other records. For Ringo, the medley on the second side of Abbey Road made that album his favorite. (John disliked the band’s final record for the very same reason.)
But George’s pick went back to a special record in the Beatles’ discography: Rubber Soul (1965). With tracks like “In My Life,” “Girl,” and “”Norwegian Wood,” the band showed remarkable growth from the prior year when they first landed in America.
On that record, you’ll George playing sitar for the first time, a harpsichord-sounding solo by the band’s producer, and other great sounds never heard on Beatles records before. George loved all of that about Rubber Soul.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles are the most iconic band of the 20th century. They managed to have their cake and eat it too in a way that few artists have – they managed to be enormously popular with the public and highly respected by critics. They produced some of the most popular songs of all time, but which are their most popular? Here are the Beatles‘ biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
5. ‘Let It Be’
The title track from the Fab Four’s final album is also the band’s final stadium anthem. Like “Hey Jude” before it, “Let It Be” proved that the Beatles could create a giant, grandiose sing-a-long using only a piano and Paul McCartney’s voice. Like many of the band’s greatest works, this song delivers a message of hope in times of hardship with the utmost sincerity.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Early in his solo career, Ringo Starr told us that “it don’t come easy,’ but in 1973 and early 1974, he made a nonsense of that title with two American No. 1 singles in precisely nine weeks. Both featured contributions by former Beatles colleagues, and the first, the thoroughly genial ‘Photograph’ — co-written by Ringo with George Harrison — entered the Hot 100 on 6 October 1973.
The two friends had been enjoying a close working relationship in their own names; closer, perhaps, than had even been possible in the final chapters of The Beatles’ time together. Starr had played on Harrison’s 1970 epic All Things Must Pass and 1973’s Living In The Material World, and George more than returned the favour by producing Ringo’s first two big solo hits, ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ and ‘Back Off Boogaloo.’
Source: Paul Sexton/udiscovermusic.com
Speculation that the former Beatle will play Glastonbury in 2020 is rife - so what can we expect if he headlines next year?
With tickets for Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary festival on sale this weekend, there’s been renewed speculation as to who will headline the Pyramid Stage in 2020.
With names like Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and Elton John all being bandied about, one of the most likely candidates is Sir Paul McCartney.
Michael Eavis even let slip himself that the former Beatle was in his sights for the 50th anniversary, but warned a BBC reporter “You won’t make a big thing of it, will you?” Macca has recently claimed that the headline slot is a "remote possibility"....
Paul McCartney at Glastonbury during its 50th year IS a big deal, however. With The Beatles back in the charts thanks to a reissue of their classic album Abbey Road in 2019, next year will see five full decades since the Fab Four split - sending McCartney on a stellar solo career.
Source: radiox.co.uk
The Beatles' iconic "Abbey Road" album has made UK chart history as it returns to the top of the charts with a series of 50th anniversary reissues.
The feat of returning to No. 1 after a record-breaking 49 years and 252 days has been officially recognized as a Guinness World Record for the longest time for an album to do so in the country, as "Abbey Road" regains top spot for the first time since its initial 17-week run ended on January 31, 1970.
This new milestone extends The Beatles' own record, previously held by "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which topped the charts in June 2017 after a gap of 49 years, 125 days.
"It's hard to believe that Abbey Road still holds up after all these years," says Paul McCartney. "But then again, it's a bloody cool album."
Source: Bruce Henne/antimusic.com
Linda McCartney: The Polaroid Diaries is a sampling of 30 years of previously unseen snapshots by the late photographer and musician. The book provides an intimate look at the McCartney household. Portraits of beloved pets along with scenic glimpses of countryside are scattered among candid shots of Paul and the children happily at play. As Linda’s close friend Chrissie Hynde notes in the book’s introduction, “Around her, everyone was always relaxed and at ease.”
For fans of Paul McCartney’s music, there are some great shots in the collection to admire. There’s a cheeky shot of Paul and Ringo Starr hanging out in the 70s. Towards the end of the book, there’s a photo of Paul toasting mismatched mugs with George Harrison and Beatles mentor George Martin. There’s also some brief glimpses of studio time in Nigeria, where it’s known the couple worked on the Wings album Band on the Run.
Source: Myles Tanzer/wsj.com
