Beatles News
When The Beatles landed in the U.S. for the band’s first tour, they were nearly as young and innocent as they seemed. They just topped the Billboard charts with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and had “She Loves You” (yeah, yeah, yeah) coming soon.
Meanwhile, their passports wouldn’t get one Beatle into a New York bar these days. Lead guitarist George Harrison was still 20 years old on February 7, 1964. Ringo Starr, the elder statesman of the group, wouldn’t turn 24 until late in the summer.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon landed in the middle of their bandmates on the age scale. Even though they’d go from singing “Love Me Do” to being “so lonely” they “wanna die” by the time they broke up, not many years had passed.
In fact, none of The Beatles had reached the age of 30 when the band split up in spring 1970.
Source: cheatsheet.com
After the breakup of The Beatles, we got to see what the band members thought about each other’s music. In the case of John Lennon, it’s safe to say he didn’t find much to like in the solo works of old bandmate Paul McCartney.
“That sound you make is Muzak to my ears,” John sang in a brutal 1971 takedown of his former songwriting partner. Ringo wasn’t impressed by Paul’s work, either. “Everything you try to do, you know it sure sounds wasted,” Ringo sang in 1972.
While those critiques of Paul might sound harsh, it was nothing compared to what the critics were saying. By the time Paul partnered up with his wife Linda and formed Wings, reviews of his first two albums ranged from unimpressed to downright scathing.
The beatings at the hand of rock critics really kicked in with Wild Life (1972).
Source: cheatsheet.com
While Paul McCartney has described The White Album (1968) as “the tension album,” things didn’t really improve during the sessions for Let It Be. Judging by the documentary film of the same name, Beatles tensions ran quite high through early 1969.
A little over a year later, the band would split up and start releasing solo albums. Though Paul made the first statement with McCartney in spring 1970, the George Harrison triple-disc All Things Must Pass (from November ’70) stood as a much more substantial work.
For George, who you see telling Paul he’d do “whatever [Paul] wants” during the Let It Be sessions, it must have felt like a triumph when his single “My Sweet Lord” hit No. 1 in December. Neither Paul nor his other bandmates had topped the Billboard Hot 100 at that point.
Source: cheatsheet.com
To you, he’s Paul McCartney — but, to his five kids, he’s just dad. The Beatles icon may have lived quite the life thanks to an endless string of No. 1 hits and touring around the world, but nothing compares to him being a father.
The 76-year-old musician is the proud papa four daughters — Heather, Mary, Stella and Beatrice — as well as son James. Like their famous dad, each child has — besides Beatrice who is still a teen — flourished in their careers and have made quite the name for themselves.
Considering the fact that Mary is a photographer and James is a singer-songwriter, the McCartneys even get to work together sometimes! In fact, Mary was the one who shot the iconic Abbey Road album cover and James has contributed to a number of solo albums by his parents, including Flaming Pie and Driving Rain by his father and Wide Prairie by his late mom, Linda McCartney. So cool!
Source: Kelly Braun/closerweekly.com
In 1983, Peter Brown and Steven Gaines’ The Love You Make hit bookstores and caused a huge commotion among Beatles fans. In an interview with Billboard, Gaines said he and Brown conducted somewhere between 60 and 80 hours of interviews for the book they co-authored. Though all have been archived and digitized, none of the audio has been heard by the public, and Gaines says now he would like the tapes to be available publicly for whoever wants to hear them, either via sale (such as an auction) or donation (likely to a university). He also says Brown once told him he'd never sell the tapes.
Those interviewed for The Love You Make -- mostly in 1980 -- include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Yoko Ono, Harrison's first wife Pattie Boyd, Starr's first wife Maureen Starkey, Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, Apple Corps head Neil Aspinall, John Lennon's first wife Cynthia, Linda McCartney's brother and later McCartney legal representative John Eastman, Allen Klein, who took on the Beatles’ business affairs after manager Brian Epstein’s death, and Beatles authorized biographer Hunter Davies, among many others. John Lennon was not interviewed for it.
Source: Steve Marinucci/billboard.com
'We All Stand Together' from the animated film Rupert and the Frog Song and reached number three in the UK Singles Chart in 1984. (Parlophone)
Bears have been big business at the movies over the last few years, with Winnie the Pooh enjoying box office success via Christopher Robin, and Paddington becoming a bona fide franchise smash thanks to two hugely popular films, with another on the way.
But another bear – as cute as Winnie and Pads, and just as well-known in the UK – failed to get an invite to the celluloid party. Rupert – he of the yellow scarf, red jumper and tweed trousers – debuted in the pages of the Daily Express in 1920, and his adventures have been entertaining children of all ages ever since.
But in spite of small screen success via multiple TV shows, Rupert is yet to make his big screen debut.
Though some 35 years ago, a Beatle came close.
Source: Chris TillyContributor/yahoo.com
In the wintry early months of 1971, John Lennon embarked on a recording project that would prove to be momentous in its influence on rock music and the world at large. The album’s title track is still sung today at protest marches, sporting events, pop concerts, prayer vigils and anywhere else people gather in unity. It will most likely still be sung and treasured for many years to come.
The Imagine album ranks high among Lennon’s towering musical achievements, both as a solo artist and with the Beatles. At turns brutally honest and achingly intimate, the record opened up new vistas of expressiveness for songwriters and creative artists in every medium.
But Imagine isn’t usually regarded as much of a guitar album. Because the disc’s piano-driven title track has become a timeless international peace anthem, it tends to loom larger in the public consciousness than the rest of the disc. Which is a bit of a shame, as “Imagine” is only one of several album tracks that find Lennon at the top of his game as a songwriter. From “Jealous Guy” to “How Do You Sleep?,” the disc reflects Lennon at his most vulnerable and his most vicious.
Source: Jon Wiederhorn/guitarworld.com
The week of April 11 – 17, 1971 was a busy one for the Beatles — even though the band had split up.
During that week, each former Beatle had a solo single on the UK Top 40 chart, indicative of the public’s insatiable need for all things Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon, even after the messy and dramatic dissolution of the world’s most famous band by 1970.
Highest on the UK Top 40 chart that week was “Power to the People,” a single from John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band, a song which later turned up on the 1975 release Shaved Fish. The song sat at No. 10, sandwiched between No. 9, “Walkin” by CCS and No. 11, which we’ll get to next.
Paul McCartney’s “Another Day,” his first official solo single, was right on Lennon’s heels at No. 11 on the chart that week. Written originally during the Beatles’ Let It Be sessions, the song would later turn up on Sir Paul’s many Greatest Hits compilations and re-issued versions of RAM.
Source: Rock Cellar Magazine Staff/rockcellarmagazine.com
For many fans of The Beatles, the band’s 1970 breakup couldn’t really be the end. After each member released a solo album — several of which took shots at Paul McCartney — a reassuring calm reigned by the mid-’70s.
During that period, you’d hear John Lennon giving interviews in which he said nice things about Paul. For those familiar with the days of John and Ringo savaging their old bandmate on record, that seemed like major progress.
Meanwhile, no one ever seemed to have a feud with George Harrison. That meant the four elements that needed to be combined for a reunion had no serious problem with one another. That was more than anyone could say during the band’s final years.
In fact, once John and Paul jammed together at a 1974 recording session, the groundswell necessary for a Beatles reunion had begun. Things actually got close during this period.
Source: cheatsheet.com
No one’s ever been able to rack up No. 1 hits in America like The Beatles did. While their recording career only lasted seven years, their early contracts kept them producing multiple albums (and plenty of singles) every year.
As you can tell by glancing at the band’s run on the Billboard charts, every Beatles studio album made was a major hit. Besides, there were years when they saw five different singles — and three different albums — reach No. 1 in the same year.
However, though 20 Beatles songs topped the charts, nearly all were written and sung by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It wasn’t until late in the band’s run that George Harrison and Ringo Starr got near the top of the charts with tunes they wrote and/or sang.
Source: cheatsheet.com
