Beatles News
Though it may be hard to understand in hindsight, some hit songs aren’t apparent in the studio. Even songs that become instant classics can seem like they are built on shaky ground to an artist who hasn’t yet received their audience’s opinion. Paul McCartney experienced this with one of his biggest solo hits. We can’t imagine ever hearing this song and not thinking it was a masterpiece, but McCartney didn’t feel as confident when he first wrote it. Find out which solo hit McCartney thought he overdid below.
McCartney’s solo work has proven to be quite different from his Beatles material. Though there are glimmers of what he would produce when left to his own devices, the input from the rest of his bandmates somewhat watered down his songwriting voice.
McCartney’s earliest solo pursuits were markedly less produced than his work with the Beatles. He focused on sparse instrumentals and haphazard delivery. Unsurprisingly, this alienated some listeners, but it also set McCartney on a path to solo greatness.
“When The Beatles had broken up and I was on my own for the first time, I got that four-track Studa in my living room,” McCartney once said. “And just kind of started making up songs and stuff, and it was a very bare album.”
While his sense of production earned him an enduring career, it didn’t give him a perfect track record. There are songs from McCartney’s solo discography that didn’t play well with audiences. And then, there are some songs, McCartney thought wouldn’t be well received but ended up being smash hits. It just goes to show, not even a Beatle has an unflappable confidence.
There was one song in particular that McCartney recalled being “scared of” while writing. Unbeknownst to him, it would prove to be one of his calling cards.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
Considering The Beatles' success, which continues to mount more than five decades after their split, it's hard to imagine any of the Fab Four wishing for more. Or, maybe it's not when reflecting on how much a perfectionist John Lennon was concerning the band.
Lennon was often the most critical of The Beatles' endeavors, both in and out of the recording studio, and continuously voiced negative views even after the group called it quits. He wasn't ever shy to throw certain Beatles songs under the bus and brutally bash them.
In fact, Lennon wasn't happy with any of The Beatles' songs, it turns out, and once confided in one of the most important figures in the band's life, their producer, George Martin, who was often referred to as the fifth Beatle, about a wild wish he had about their tunes.
Lennon wrote some of the most famous songs in music history with and without his songwriting partner, Paul McCartney, but Martin said that he didn’t exactly look back at his songs fondly. Throughout The Beatles' lifetime, Lennon would call some of their songs like Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Hey Bulldog, Run For Your Life, and Dig a Pony garbage or even embarrassing. Despite what he thought about The Beatles' work, Lennon always commended Martin for helping them translate their ideas into music.
He once said (per Far Out), "He had great musical knowledge and background. He taught us, and I’m sure we taught him a lot through our primitive musical ability. Which I still have. I can’t always translate what I’m trying to say all the time."
Martin always praised the group and fondly reflected on their musical collaboration, but there was one memory of working with Lennon that always unsettled him. Lennon once told him that he wanted to redo every song The Beatles had ever recorded.
While speaking to Robert Sandall, Martin remembered him having plans for re-recording certain songs, too.
Source: themirror.com/Hannah Furnell
An early version of Norwegian Wood from The Beatles‘ Rubber Soul album has been hailed as “genius” by fans.
Preference for the early version comes as a demo version of the song was uploaded to YouTube. Racking up nearly two million views over the last nine years, fans are still cropping up in the comments to share their love for the Norwegian Wood alternate. It’s a version that has people still left surprised by the song, while others have suggested this Norwegian Wood is superior to the one featured on the album. The Beatles’ Rubber Soul is considered a turning point for the band, with Norwegian Wood featuring lyrics influenced by Bob Dylan. The legendary artist would not, however, influence the sitar featured on the song.
John Lennon had asked George Harrison to add a sitar layer to the song, with the track suggested as a veiled account of an extramarital affair. Harrison’s additions to the song have been hailed as a “genius” inclusion on the track. One user wrote: “I can’t get over how much of a genius George is.”
Another agreed, adding: “Paul McCartney’s harmonies on this song get me every time. Their two voices together were something else…” A third praised the sitar work on the song, writing: “I love how the sitar note in the verses fits perfectly with bass and drum. They were changing everything in the world of music.”
Others believed this early version of Norwegian Wood highlighted how Harrison’s genius was overshadowed by McCartney and Lennon. The fan wrote: “George was the greatest. Very underrated, being overshadowed by the genius of John and Paul. There will never be another like him. Not afraid to think outside the box.
“This is a great example of that. Wish I could have met him. He was just a lad from Liverpool. RIP George. Blessings and peace to Olivia and Dhani.” Another hailed this versio as “groovy,” writing: “It makes you fly, you transport yourself to another dimension. Groovy.”
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
Meet the Beatles! That’s what happened 60 years ago when the Fab Four played their only concert in the Twin Cities on Aug. 21, 1965.
The show was at Met Stadium, the old ballpark in Bloomington that was home to the Twins and Vikings, located where Mall of America now stands.
Tickets cost $3.50, $4.50 and $5.50 (about $56 in today’s money).
Sixty years later, the tax man would do a double take at the price to see Beatle Paul McCartney at U.S. Bank Stadium on Oct. 17 — from $135 and to $750-plus.
That’s now. Let’s look at some numbers from back then.
A ticket from The Beatles' only Minnesota performance, on Aug. 21, 1965 at the old Met Stadium. Provided by Jeff Syme. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
1 Ringo Starr and George Harrison each sang one tune at Met Stadium. John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney sang the rest.
2 There were only two Beatles souvenirs for sale at Met Stadium that night, a $1 program and a $1 megaphone, with all four musicians photos on it.
4 A quartet of limousines waited at Wold–Chamberlain Field airport to transport each Beatle to the stadium. Instead, all four rode in the same limo.
4 Opening acts were Brenda Holloway, King Curtis, Cannibal & the Headhunters and Soul Incorporated. Three local bands — the Underbeats, the Accents and Gregory Dee & the Avanties — also performed in the concourse of the stadium.
11 The Beatles breezed through 11 songs in 30 minutes, though they performed 12 tunes in some other cities on the tour. (These days, McCartney is doing about three dozen songs over nearly three hours.)
16 The Fab Four’s 1965 North American tour, their second visit to the States, featured 16 concerts in 10 different cities.
20 Two full decades is how long Met Stadium stood after the Beatles show. The facility was demolished in 1985, three years after the Twins and Vikings headed to the Metrodome. The Mall of America opened on the Bloomington site in 1992.
21 That was the age of the woman in McCartney’s Leamington Hotel room when Minneapolis Police Inspector Donald Dwyer threatened the noisy Beatles entourage for having “lured” underage girls into their fifth-floor chamber in downtown Minneapolis. Telling the Minneapolis Star that “those people are the worst I have ever seen visit this city,” Dwyer threatened to take McCartney to jail unless a young woman left the room within two minutes. She emerged, showing identification that she was 21 and from Cleveland.
25 The preshow press conference at Met Stadium lasted 25 minutes, almost as long as the concert itself. Best exchange: “Is your hair real?” Harrison: “Our hair’s real, lady. What about yours?”
40 With the stage set up near second base at Met Stadium, the closest fans were 40 yards away from the British rock stars.
150 The estimated number of “media” people (including their children) who attended the Beatles preconcert press conference. Another favorite exchange: “What do you do with all your money?” Starr: “We bury it.”
Bloomington police during the Beatles concert at Met Stadium Aug. 21, 1965. (KENT KOBERSTEEN/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Source: startribune.com/Jon Bream
George Harrison, the late, great, and often underrated member of The Beatles, was arguably the most fearless. He was the first to release a solo album (the 1968 effort Wonderwall Music) among the Fab Four. And he was also the first to release his own autobiography.
4 of the Best Opening Lines in Rock Music History
The autobiography in question was released on this day in 1980 and was titled I, Me, Mine. Published on August 15, 1980, this little memoir was clearly something very special to Harrison. In its original publication run, each book was hand-bound and considered a limited edition, with about 2,000 signed by Harrison himself.
But don’t expect to find any new Beatles lore in this book. Though, Harrison did talk about how much he loved Monty Python.
What George Harrison Revealed in ‘I, Me, Mine’
I, Me, Mine felt like a true published diary of Harrison’s, as well as a little piece of music history. The book, which you can still find today, is filled with copies of Harrison’s own handwritten song lyrics. It also features commentary from The Beatles’ press officer, Derek Taylor.
George Harrison revealed quite a bit in the book about himself. And while it is considered a vital piece of music history, the book didn’t reveal too much about The Beatles’ history. It wasn’t gossipy. Rather, Harrison talked about his life and creative processes from the perspective of a man, rather than a quarter of one of the biggest bands of the 20th century. Harrison was forthright about how his excitement to become famous quickly turned to fear following the boom of Beatlemania. But, outside of that, The Beatles isn’t a particularly hefty point of conversation in the book.
I, Me, Mine was also the subject of quite a bit of controversy. It was released several months before Harrison’s former bandmate, John Lennon, was murdered in December 1980. Lennon was pretty offended by what Harrison had written in his memoir, saying that he “was hurt by it” and that “my influence on his life is absolutely zilch and nil” because Lennon was not mentioned significantly in the book. Though, he was mentioned several times; just not as a major musical influence to Harrison.
Harrison would later comment on Lennon’s feelings toward the book several years after the latter Beatle had passed away. In a 1987 interview, Harrison said that Lennon was “annoyed” because Harrison “didn’t say that he’d written one line of this song ‘Taxman’.”
“But I also didn’t say how I wrote two lines of ‘Come Together’ or three lines of ‘Eleanor Rigby’, you know?” Harrison continued. “I wasn’t getting into any of that.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Em Casalena
The Beatles' legendary member, Sir Paul McCartney, played a pivotal role in creating what fans now call a "perfect" song. McCartney suggested the band shift their sound on Abbey Road and minimize the Chuck Berry influences for this particular track.
This strategy seems to have paid off, as the song is now considered one of the all-time favorites by the band. The song, written by John Lennon but credited to the Lennon-McCartney writing partnership, has been delighting fans for decades. Now 83, McCartney has shared insights into how The Beatles crafted the song and how one small change made a significant impact.
The song, Come Together, is hailed as a 'perfect' song by The Beatles, a band known for its numerous timeless hits. Fans were touched by McCartney's explanation of how the song was created. In a snippet from the documentary series "McCartney, 3, 2, 1," the "Let It Be" songwriter revealed the suggestion he made that transformed the song into a hit.
He recalled: "I said, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute, that's a Chuck Berry song.' The opening line is, 'Here come old flat-top.' I said, 'But we gotta do something to get away from that. So I just suggested we slowed it down."
The "swampy back and forth" brought about by the slower tempo is what made the song a hit. Fans unanimously agree that McCartney's suggestion was the game-changer.
Fans were delighted to discover the backstory behind the iconic track, with one supporter noting that the song remains as powerful today as it was five decades ago.
They commented: "Hard to believe it's been over 50 years and Come Together still sounds so fresh and relevant.
Source: MSN
Paul McCartney reveals what he would want to say to John Lennon and George Harrison. Paul McCartney revealed what he would say to John Lennon and George Harrison if they were still alive today. John was fatally shot by Mark David Chapman at the age of 40 in 1980 and George died from cancer at the age of 58 in 2001.
Both of their deaths caused an outpouring of grief across the world as Beatles fans came together to remember the icons. Paul frequently pays tribute to them, marking their birthdays on social media with messages, while he also uses his live performances to remember John and George and the music they made as a band.
Paul was on reflective form in a 2024 documentary as he looked back at The Beatles' early days, how he wrote the group's songs and what he would now want to say to John and George. Released on the streaming platform on November 29 last year, "Beatles '64" captured Paul, John, George and Ringo Starr's triumphant arrival in America in 1964.
Produced by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, the film combined archive footage and new interviews to look back on the spread of Beatlemania across the United States.
Having already tasted huge success in the UK and Europe, the band arrived in New York City on February 7, 1964 and were met by legions of fans.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
We can all think of that one slightly strange sandwich combination that's followed us from childhood through adulthood. For some, it might be the peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich (aka the Elvis sandwich), or maybe it's the Fluffernutter, filled with marshmallow fluff and peanut butter. George Harrison, lead guitarist of The Beatles, didn't just remember his go-to sandwich fondly, but instead immortalized it on a song recording.
To make Harrison's favorite sandwich, you need cheese, lettuce, and the often-debated Marmite spread (one of many all-time favorite foods of The Beatles). While Harrison didn't give any explicit directions on how to make this sandwich, there are two ways to go about it. It's likely that Harrison would have had a cold version in 1960's Britain, made with sliced white sandwich bread, butter, a layer of Marmite, cheese, and crisp lettuce. For a hot sandwich, begin by lightly toasting the bread, spread a layer of Marmite, pile high with lettuce and cheese, then toast or grill the entire thing until crispy and gooey. In either version, you'll want to serve the sandwich with a side of savory chips, or you can follow in Harrison's footsteps even further and enjoy the sandwich with a piping hot cup of coffee to wash it all down.
George Harrison's adoration for this sandwich was revealed during the intro to The Beatles 1968's song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," where in the recording, Harrison tells someone off-screen that he'll "just have cheese and lettuce and Marmite sandwich and coffee." There's an audio clip that supposedly comes from "Lady Madonna's" backup vocals, where Harrison munches on chips (which the Brits call crisps) and suggests ones with Marmite flavor. While Harrison's Marmite crisps vision did come to fruition many years later, fellow bandmate Ringo Starr can be heard saying, "Well, I don't like Marmite!" Though Starr did like Star Steakhouse, one of the 10 restaurants that were once frequented by The Beatles.
To those unfamiliar with Marmite, it's a thick, savory, yeast-extract spread most commonly found in England, because yes, there is a real difference between Marmite and Vegemite. Harrison's sandwich combination isn't entirely unusual in U.K. households, with plenty of people on Reddit sharing stories about growing up eating similar (if not exactly the same) kinds of sandwiches. Marmite isn't everyone's cup of tea, as evidenced by Starr's strong, public disapproval, but it's as the company likes to say, one of those "love it or hate it" ingredients. If you want to try it for yourself, you can buy a jar of Marmite on Amazon.
Source: yahoo.com/Holly Tishfield
The Beatles’ breakup in the tail-end of the 1960s and the earliest part of the 1970s was a shocking blow to the musical community at large, but it was an even more devastating blow to bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon. After becoming one of the biggest bands in the world together, the musicians parted ways, finally free to pursue their own interests (and even scarier: to sit with the silence when there was nothing they felt like chasing).
For some members of the Fab Four, their coping mechanism was the bottle. McCartney would later say that this was his go-to method of emotional soothing until his wife, Linda McCartney, snapped him out of the vicious cycle. Harrison chose comedy. George Harrison Reflects On What Saved Him In The 1970s
As the old adage goes, the higher you fly, the harder you fall. One could apply this idea to many facets of the 1960s, from the disillusionment of the Summer of Love movement to an increase in political turmoil both at home and overseas to the changing of the musical vanguard of the time. The Beatles’ breakup in the final moments of the ‘60s almost served as another period, another ending, another definitive conclusion. Some things couldn’t last forever. Not the Summer of Love. Not the Fab Four.
In addition to an overarching sense of cultural and social shifting, the ex-Beatles were also at a unique point in their respective careers. They could do anything they wanted now. The only question was: what? For George Harrison, he turned to a type of performance art that had always spoken to him, even when he was still a member of the Beatles. With all his newfound free time, Harrison started pursuing a collaborative relationship with the English comedy troupe, Monty Python.
During a 1981 appearance on Good Morning America, Harrison compared Monty Python’s approach to comedy to the Beatles’ approach to music. “We were trying to be something new,” Harrison said of his former band. “We were trying to give some alternatives. And likewise in the comedy situation. Everything was pretty boring, I thought. It was pretty much the same for years and years. Then, Python came along with this totally off-the-wall type of humor. They were laughing about most of the things which should be laughed about. Governments and the way we all are. They didn’t really leave many stones unturned.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
On this day (August 12) in 1964, A Hard Day’s Night starring The Beatles premiered in theaters across the United States. It was a low-budget film created to capitalize on Beatlemania and sell records, and was successful in doing so. However, no one involved with the film’s production could have predicted its impact on the music world.
A Hard Day’s Night was far from the first movie to star a popular musician. For instance, Elvis Presley starred in more than a dozen movies before The Beatles made their big-screen debut. However, this was something different. Instead of casting John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney in a movie about something far-removed from their real lives, this movie focused on the band. More specifically, it portrayed their massive popularity.
According to the British Film Institute, screenwriter Alun Owen was “a working-class Welshman who’d grown up in Liverpool, so he understood the group’s vernacular.” This, and the fact that he had spent time on the road with the Fab Four, allowed him to capture the group’s dynamic and their personalities for the film. At the same time, he took their lack of acting experience into account and wrote short and memorable lines for them. How The Beatles Changed the World with Their First Movie
A Hard Day’s Night was made specifically to help sell more Beatles records and merchandise. It did that. However, unlike other movies featuring rock stars, it was a critically acclaimed film. It even received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. This proved to the world that rock and roll movies didn’t have to be low-budget cash grabs created solely to extract ticket money from fans. It set the stage for countless biopics and mockumentaries. That was only the beginning, though.
MTV declared director Richard Lester the “Father of the Music Video” in 1984. His use of Beatles songs over action sequences made each song feel like a smaller, separate movie within A Hard Day’s Night. His vision for the film helped create the music video.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Clayton Edwards
