Beatles News
Though George Harrison died over 10 years ago, he is a long way away from ever being forgotten. The lead guitarist for The Beatles was one of the most iconic musicians of his time. Though a lot of his life has been put in front of the public eye, there are some things that even the biggest Beatles fans don’t know about him. Here, PPcorn present a list of 15 facts you probably didn’t know about George Harrison.
Number Fifteen: He Was Part of The Quarry Men
Before there were The Beatles, there were The Quarry Men. They made a record in the summer of 1958 that featured Harrison, and the record cost 17 and sixpence to create.
Number Fourteen: He Was Involved in the First Recording the Beatles Made
The very first song the Beatles recorded was “Cry for a Shadow.” Which was an instrumental song Harrison did with John Lennon.
Number Thirteen: He Was Deported From Germany
When the Hamburg police realized that Harrison had entered the country under the age of 18, they deported him. The rest of the Beatles stayed to perform, although they were all later deported as well.
Source: ppcorn.com
The new Danny Boyle movie, Yesterday, is a charming if lightweight picture. But before Richard Curtis’s script devolves to an all-too-predictable rom-com finish, the film does raise an interesting question: If the Beatles’ songs suddenly appeared without publicity, history or legend in today’s very different musical climate, would the public still respond to them? Would listeners embrace the music even if it arrived in inferior versions from Jack Malik, a struggling singer-songwriter from the smallest coffeehouses in Suffolk?
Yesterday offers a resounding yes to that question, and while I think the filmmakers overstate the case—after all, it took the Beatles several years of failed auditions before they gained any traction—the songs are still great in any context.
The movie posits that during a 12-second, worldwide power outage, all traces of the Beatles have vanished from stores, libraries, the internet and people’s minds. Only three people in the world remember them at all, and Jack is one of them. But as he tries to recreate the songs to perform them in public, he has no recordings or sheet music to consult, so he has to rack his brain to recall the words and chords.
Source: Savannah Sicurella/pastemagazine.com
If you read about Paul McCartney in the studio with The Beatles, writers often focus on his professionalism and, at times, perfectionism to a fault. While recording Abbey Road, Paul drove the entire band nuts recording “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” It simply took too long.
For Paul, it was just another day (or three) at the office. From the books published on The Beatles, he seems like the band member who always felt comfortable in the studio. Whatever it took to get a track right, Paul was ready to do it — even if it pissed off John Lennon to no end.
At the Beatles’ first recording sessions in 1962, Paul arrived confident and ready to play. After some discussion, producer George Martin allowed them to try out their own composition, “Love Me Do.” But he asked for a last-minute change.
Rather than keep John singing and playing harmonica (which cut off some lyrics), Martin asked Paul to sing the chorus on his own. Suddenly, Paul realized he’d be singing the break without any music behind him. The idea terrified him.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr was in search of a reset, after devolving into alcoholism in the '80s. He found it within the friendly confines of a group. Only this time, rather than the Beatles, it was an All-Starr Band.
"I was afraid at the beginning," Starr told Rolling Stone in 2019. "[I thought,] 'I don't know how you do anything if you're not drunk.' That's where I ended up: I couldn't play sober, but I also couldn't play as a drunk. So, when I did end up in rehab, it was like a light went on and said, 'You're a musician; you play good.'"
Still, at this point, Starr hadn't put out an album since 1983's Old Wave, and by then he'd already lost his recording contract. He hadn't reached the Top 40 since 1976's Ringo's Rotogravure. Along the way, he'd lost his career, followed by his confidence.
Then David Fishof reached out. A one-time sports agent, Fishof had recently emerged as a tour producer with a hot hand. He imagined a series of guest-laden dates featuring Starr, in keeping with his recent successes with the Happy Together Tour and the Dirty Dancing trek.
"I wrote a letter, and a few months later I got a call to go over to England and meet with Ringo," Fishof told the Jerusalem Post in 2018. "At that time, he was doing absolutely nothing – he and [wife] Barbara [Bach] had come out of rehab and were looking for something to do."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
The Beatles icon Paul McCartney revealed how he felt ripped off after he bought an album believing it was a new Little Richard record, but it was in fact Buck Ram Orchestra album with Little Richard featured on one song. Paul McCartney recently dropped a The Police reunion bombshell.
McCartney told his official website social media team, “I mean many people may not know this, but I love to give value for money. That was sort of what George Martin always used to say and talk about: it’s good value for money. That sort of hit a nerve with us because we remembered, particularly when we were first recording in Abbey Road. We remembered recently having been the people who had bought the records, not made them. And if you ever got cheated, you hated the artist or the label.
I once bought a record by Little Richard and I thought, ‘Wow! A new record by Little Richard!’
Source: Brett Buchanan/alternativenation.net
By 1962, The Beatles could boast of some humble accomplishments as a band. They’d wowed audiences from Liverpool to Hamburg and gained a solid local following along the way. Bit by bit, they had begun building their reputation.
However, they still didn’t have a hit record to their name. When Brian Epstein (the band’s manager) got them an audition at EMI in London, they had a shot at changing that. Unfortunately, producer George Martin didn’t think drummer Pete Best was good enough for the record.
Martin planned to use a session drummer for the recording date and have Best sit it out. But The Beatles had other plans and fired Best, replacing him with Ringo Starr. The thing was, that didn’t settle the issue for Martin.
After seeing Ringo in action on “Love Me Do” he decided to bring in that session drummer anyway. When the record label released “Love Me Do” and it sold well, Ringo wasn’t on the hit version.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Once The Beatles were established, No. 1 hits became routine. By the end of the band’s epic, six-year run on the Billboard charts, the Fab Four topped the pack 20 times with hit singles. That was more than Elvis and will likely stand as an unbeatable record.
But they had to claw their way to the top first. The journey included trips to Hamburg to hone their style and residencies in Liverpool spots like the Cavern Club. However, a band can’t go anywhere without a hit record.
As of late 1962, The Beatles still hadn’t even released a record (let alone scored a hit). However, when the band booked a record date with EMI in London, they made sure to seize the opportunity.
Instead of going with a performance of another songwriter’s tune, John Lennon and Paul McCartney pushed to record one of their own compositions. The track was “Love Me Do,” and it broke the top 20 on the UK charts.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Looking back at Beatles recordings, the run that began with 1965’s Rubber Soul represented a clear shift for the band. After tracks like “Norwegian Wood” and the journalistic “In My Life” went out on records, the band embarked on a period of intense experimentation.
By 1966’s Revolver, the group (along with its industrious engineers) were testing all sorts of new tricks in the studio. And even though George Harrison and other band members could drive people nuts making records, everyone agreed the effort was worth it.
For Ringo Starr, who sat at the drum kit for nearly every Beatles track ever recorded, there were too many highs during that period to count. However, Ringo has no problem pointing out what he considers the best work he did with the Fab Four — and the group’s all-time greatest songs.
Source: cheatsheet.com
When the Beatles represented the United Kingdom during Our World, the world’s first live global TV linkup in 1967, a lot was at stake as they delivered “All You Need is Love,” a song specially written for the moment. An audience of 400 million people were watching, members of the Rolling Stones and the Who were in the studio, and the resulting recording was to be released on vinyl just days later.
But, as Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick told Uncle Joe Benson on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show, the responsibility for making it all work out fell on the shoulders of “two young kids” – himself, aged and his even younger assistant Richard Lush.
“I was in a terrible state because this thing was going to go out live and we didn’t have the technology then – backups and God knows what else,” Emerick said. “[T]he record that actually goes out and the one you see them recording, everything’s live apart from, I think, just Ringo (Starr)’s drum. The only overdub I remember doing afterwards was Ringo’s snare roll at the beginning.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
By the time The Beatles got to the late 1960s, they were squabbling about a number of things. Among them, George Harrison greatly resented the lack of respect he got from John Lennon and Paul McCartney. That led to arguments with Paul and a bona fide fistfight with John in early 1969.
But the list didn’t begin to end there. John was beyond tired with Paul’s so-called “granny music” and let him know about it whenever they worked on tracks like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” Meanwhile, Paul was disappointed John wouldn’t let him play on tracks like “Come Together.”
As for Ringo Starr, the Beatles’ drummer would get down on himself when he felt he wasn’t playing his best. It didn’t help that Paul and John would criticize him in the studio at these moments.
When Paul felt he had ideas for Ringo to try out on drums, he wouldn’t be shy about telling him. The Beatles’ chief engineer witnessed Paul’s “coaching” of Ringo on several occasions.
Source: cheatsheet.com
