Beatles News

A collector has paid more than $5,300 on eBay for an ultra-rare early stereo pressing of the Beatles‘ ‘White Album,’ which may — or may not — have once belonged to John Lennon.

The auctioneer claimed that the first five copies of the album went to the Beatles, with the additional album going to producer George Martin, and that Lennon allegedly claimed No. 5.

UNDATED (CNN) -- A treasure trove of rare letters from the likes of Marilyn Monroe and John Lennon is hitting the auction block. The collection also includes a correspondence from former president Dwight Eisenhower to his wife during World War II.

Monroe, Hemingway, Eisenhower; all of them icons, all of them so exposed, you might think you knew everything about them. Had seen all there was to see until now.

A collection of more than 200 rare personal letters, documents and photographs released from a private collector will soon to be sold by one of the world's largest auction houses: profiles in history.

What if the Beatles had lived in an alternative universe, and the group's 1968 megahit "Hey Jude" was not intended to cheer up John Lennon's son Julian, but to sound like a funeral dirge?

That's just what you'll get with this version of "Hey Jude," mashed down into a minor key that feels completely different, especially to those of us who've grown up with the Beatles and their groundbreaking music.

THIS picture shows the moments before a legendary York performance by The Beatles.

Taken shortly before their performance at York’s Rialto concert hall in February 1963, a fresh-faced Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are seen alongside co-manager of the Rialto John Hattersley-Colson in the never-before published photograph.

The Fab Four were already pretty fractured at this point, but Sir Paul McCartney made it official in a written Q&A included with his debut solo album: "I do not foresee a time when the Lennon & McCartney partnership will be active again in songwriting." It should also be noted that eight years earlier, original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, bassist died of brain hemorrhage at 21.

Maybe bands should beware the Ides of April, since this week, in 1997, also marked the break-up of Soundgarden -- for a dozen years, anyway.

As Harrison, who came from an impoverished background, began to make millions of pounds, he soon found out about the unfairness of these policies and lashed out about them in song. He portrayed the government, in the voice of one of Her Majesty’s tax collectors, as unrepentantly greedy.

The lyric “Be thankful I don’t take it all” echoes the famous remarks by former Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, who, in 1957, said that “most of our people have never had it so good.While Britain’s economy at the time was strong, many considered it to be dismissive and condescending.

Paul McCartney is coming to Memphis. The Beatles legend has confirmed a May 26 concert date at the FedExForum, part of his 2013 “Out There” world tour.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com or 800-745-300.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of artist 'Pablo Picasso'. In 1973, shortly after Picasso's death, Paul McCartney released his song 'Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)'. In an interview Paul McCartney says he was on vacation in Jamaica where he snuck onto the set of the film 'Papillon' where he met Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen.

After a dinner with Hoffman, with McCartney playing around on guitar, Hoffman didn't believe that McCartney could write a song "about anything", so Hoffman pulled out a magazine where they saw the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, "Drink to me, drink to my health.

Watching not just the Beatles but the Beatles' children grow older is one surefire way to be astonished at the quick passage of time. Julian Lennon, the most famous Beatlekid of them all, turns 50 on April 8, which would be cause enough for gasps or sighs, for those of us with a "where did the years go?" mindset.

It's all the more breathtaking when you consider that "little" Julian has now lived a decade longer than John did.

"It was a match made in heaven, rampant youth colliding," Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones' first manager and now a Sirius XM deejay, wrote in his memoir.