Beatles News
After getting the offer for their first recording contract in 1962, The Beatles made a personnel change. They decided to drop Pete Best and bring in Ringo Starr, who occasionally sat in with the band, as the full-time drummer.
It wasn’t a rash decision. George Martin, who’d go on to produce nearly all of The Beatles’ hits, said Best wasn’t good enough to record in the studio. Ringo completed the band as a legitimate player. And then it became time to get down to business.
Once they started recording, The Beatles tried to convince Martin to record one of their own tunes as the band’s single. But Martin wanted the group to play “How Do You Do It” instead. Eventually, the producer agreed to release John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “Love Me Do” as the first Beatles single.
By 1964, with their eyes on a debut U.S. tour, Paul believed the only way to arrive in America was with a No. 1 hit. With “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” a Lennon-McCartney tune recorded in late ’63, they had their ticket to ride.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney is set to be presented with the International Advocate for Peace Award by students of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution.More »
Paul McCartney is set to be presented with the International Advocate for Peace Award by students of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. McCartney will receive the award during Cardozo’s commencement ceremony on May 28 at Lincoln Center in New York City. President Bill Clinton, Senator George Mitchell, Benjamin B. Ferencz, playwright Eve Ensler and songwriters Peter, Paul and Mary are among the past recipients of the award, which is given annually to a person or group that makes a noteworthy contribution to promoting peace. McCartney is being honored for his five decades of songs that “celebrate love and understanding, empathy and connection-the foundations of peace that are the heart of the human struggle,” according to students of the CJCR. Former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, who earned her JD from the University of Missouri Law School, will deliver the keynote address at the event.
Source: fm100.com
Check out Venice Beach canal home of Dhani Harrison, son of Beatles legend
The sophisticated home of the son of Beatles guitarist George Harrison has hit the Venice Beach market, priced at $3.99 million. Musician Dhani Harrison recently decided to sell his glamorous canal home.
The sophisticated home of the son of Beatles guitarist George Harrison has hit the Venice Beach market, priced at $3.99 million. Musician Dhani Harrison recently decided to sell his glamorous canal home. By David Caraccio
The sophisticated home of the son of Beatles guitarist George Harrison has hit the Venice Beach market, priced at $3.99 million.
Musician Dhani Harrison recently decided to sell his glamorous canal home, toptenrealestatedeals.com reported.
The listing for the home at 2415 Eastern Canal, Los Angeles, notes its “rare east, west and north south canal facing views.” Originally designed by Carl Day, it’s been featured in Architectural Digest.
Source: David Caraccio/sacbee.com
It may be known as the Beatles hit that wasn’t, but “How Do You Do It” embodies an era in pop music.
When the Beatles first signed with Parlophone in 1962, few artists wrote their own material. Producers would usually select appropriate songs for them, written by professional composers Artists (particularly new ones) simply recorded material chosen for them; after all, songwriters and producers knew best what songs would perform well on the charts.
The Beatles broke that rule, however: Shocking producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick, John Lennon decried the surefire hit “How Do You Do It” as “crap” and stated that he and Paul McCartney had written better material. The song they countered with: “Please Please Me,” the track that kicked off the Beatles’ career. Martin subsequently gave “How Do You Do It” to Gerry and the Pacemakers, who rode the track to No. 1 on the UK charts and cracked the Top 10 in the U.S.
Source: by Kit O'Toole/somethingelsereviews.com
The Beatles icons Paul McCartney nearly punched John Lennon for being on drugs and behaving poorly, White Album recording engineer Geoff Emerick reports in his book Here, There and Everywhere (via Cheat Sheet). John started referring to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” as “more of Paul’s ‘granny music sh*t.’”
Recording was extended, and by the fourth or fifth day, Emerick said John “went ballistic” and walked out of the studio “ranting and raving.” When he returned visibly high, things got even worse.
Emerick said when Lennon returned to the studio, he made the grand proclamation that he was on drugs, and feeling very high. “I am fucking stoned!” he yelled walking in the door, to the shock of everyone present.
“I am more stoned than you have ever been,” John continued shouting. “In fact, I am more stoned than you will ever be! And this is how the f*cking song should go.” With that, he hammered the opening chords to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” on the piano. Emerick said Paul was furious.
Source: Brett Buchanan/alternativenation.net
Looking back, it’s hard to imagine The Beatles without Ringo Starr. For all the knocks he’s taken over the years, most would agree now that Ringo was the ideal drummer for the band. It has as much to do with his personality (wry, happy) as it does with his talent (steady, always tasteful).
But that certainly wasn’t the case in 1962. Then (and for the previous two years), Pete Best played drums for the group. He’d joined the band at the invitation of Paul McCartney, just before The Beatles went to play Hamburg for the first time.
In August ’62, just as the band was about to get its first real recording contract, Beatles manager Brian Epstein called Best into his Liverpool office and fired him. Considering an angry fan head-butted George Harrison over the move, it’s fair to say not everyone agreed with the decision.
Contrary to some stories that went out over the years, the move didn’t come because Best’s hair didn’t fit in or he was so pretty he made the other Beatles jealous. Bringing Ringo aboard was mainly about business.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In August 1965, The Beatles ended their North American tour with two concerts at San Francisco's Cow Palace. This video includes Channel 7 reporters with The Beatles as they arrive, excited fans who got to see them and a wide ranging news conference held in between performances.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr answered questions in their own sly style on everything from police protection to criticism of music with electronic amplification to what they think of San Francisco.
The Beatles played San Francisco three times. The first concert was at the Cow Palace in August 1964 when the city was their first stop on an American tour. They returned a year later in 1965. Then in August of 1966, the Beatles played at Candlestick Park in what would be their last stage performance ever.
Source: Jennifer Olney/abc7news.com
Luke Hobbs of Gardiner Houlgate with the letters and the number plate set to go under the hammer,
A Beatle’s car numberplate that was first sold in Leeds in return for free haircuts could fetch thousands of pounds next month when it goes up for auction.
The numberplate KMT 499C was removed from an Aston Martin DB5, once owned by the late George Harrison, by a mechanic at Arnold G. Wilson Limited’s Regent Street dealership in Leeds in the early 1970s.
It was one of two plates being replaced with new style reflective plates while the car was being serviced. The rear numberplate remained at the dealership for several years until a member of staff sold it to a local barber, who collected car memorabilia, in return for free haircuts for life. The numberplate was subsequently sold to the collector.
Source: Emma Ryan/yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk
While Beatles fans learned the band split up in April 1970, the four members of the group had already gone their separate ways. That’s how Paul McCartney managed to release his own album before Let It Be (the Fab Four’s last) hit record stores that year.
Paul’s debut album, which John Lennon dismissed as “rubbish,” nonetheless found plenty of fans. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in May and stayed there until Let It Be bumped it from the top spot after a few weeks.
Later in the year, fans got a look at what the two other major songwriters in the group had to offer on their own. George Harrison, who delivered the triple-disc All Things Must Pass in November, came next.
Source: cheatsheet.com
A new exhibit, set in the early '60s, will transport visitors back to the time when Beatlemania was all the rage.
"Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!" will debut at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland on Friday, May 10.
“It doesn’t take a hard day’s night of thinking to understand the impact that The Beatles had on the history of music and popular culture,” said OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. “The Oregon Historical Society is excited to bring to Portland this fun, interactive exhibition celebrating the band that forever changed rock and roll.”
Source: Destiny Johnson/kgw.com
