Beatles News
Near the end of John Lennon‘s life, all signs pointed to him never playing a Beatles song live again. He wasn’t frequently on the road as a general rule. The likelihood that he would revisit his old material amid one of his rare appearances was close to zero. Luckily for Beatles fans, Lennon did manage to sneak in one final live performance of a Beatles classic before he was murdered. Find out which Beatles song bookended Lennon’s career below.
One of Lennon’s last performances saw him play alongside Elton John at Madison Square Garden. It seems that only the consequences of a bet (more on that later) could bring Lennon back on stage after so many reclusive years.
Amid the set, Lennon and John decided to play a rendition of “I Saw Her Standing There.” This early Beatles cut is among their most beloved songs. It is indicative of the writing style of Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was one of the first songs they penned together.
“I wrote it with John in the front parlour of my house in 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton,” McCartney once said. “We sagged off school and wrote it on guitars and a little bit on the piano that I had there.”
“We were learning our skill,” he continued. “John would like some of my lines and not others. He liked most of what I did, but there would sometimes be a cringe line, such as, ‘She was just seventeen, she’d never been a beauty queen.’ John thought, ‘Beauty queen? Ugh.’ We were thinking of Butlin’s so we asked ourselves, what should it be? We came up with, ‘You know what I mean.’ Which was good, because you don’t know what I mean.”
In many ways, it seems fitting that “I Saw Her Standing There” would be the last Beatles song Lennon ever performed–poetic almost.
Final Performance with Elton John
Before their MSG performance, Lennon and John wrote a collaborative track, “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night.” The pair already had a strong personal friendship, but this song also connected their careers.
After writing the song, John made a wager with the former Beatle, begging him to join him in New York for a surprise appearance if the song went no. 1. Much to Lennon’s surprise, the song did reach the top of the charts. He went through with his end of the bet, leading to the iconic and bittersweet performance below.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
Here’s one for Sir Paul McCartney fans: a house near his long-term St John’s Wood home is for sale with Robert Irving Burns for £3.6 million.
McCartney bought his house on Cavendish Avenue for £40,000 in 1965, embarking on a months-long refurbishment and finally moving in the following year. It has been his London home since.
Cavendish Avenue is one of the capital’s most in-demand streets, where houses rarely come up for sale. According to the Land Registry, there have only been 20 property transactions on the road in the last 30 years.
The average sold price of houses on the road in the last five years is £6.925 million, according to the Land Registry’s figures.
To Lee Koffman, director of Robert Irving Burns, the £3.6 million house now for sale represents an opportunity to “buy the worst house on the best street,” as the old estate agent’s adage goes.
“Cavendish Avenue is the best road in St John’s Wood,” says Koffman. “The houses on the street are few and far between.
“They’re very rare because once people buy there, they stay on the road for decades and don’t move out, because they’ve got the convenience of everything on their doorstep and yet Cavendish Avenue itself is a very quiet road. The security is off the charts because of the types of people who live there.”
Compared to the listed, stucco-fronted 19th century townhouses on the rest of the road, number 20 was built in 1969 and is “in need of modernisation”.
As well as being more affordable than the street’s listed townhouses, its price per square foot is 20 per cent cheaper than the more modern houses too, at £1,448 compared to £1,731, says Antony Antoniou, CEO of Robert Irving Burns.
“If you’re happy with the look outside and you want to be on the best street, then conceivably it’s a deal,” says Koffman. “Houses on the opposite side are trading at £3,500 to £4,000 per square foot. I can’t compare this house to those, but once this house is done, it’s going to be worth quite a lot of money, being Cavendish Avenue. Someone will trade off the aesthetic of the front of the house to be on the best road in St John’s Wood.”
Source: uk.finance.yahoo.com/Emma Magnus
The Beatles, known for stirring the pot, certainly did so when John Lennon's bold statement in 1966 that they were "more popular than Jesus" sparked outrage among American Christians, contributing to the band’s cessation of touring later that year.
Their knack for pushing boundaries also saw several of their songs slapped with bans by radio stations. The BBC censored 'A Day in the Life' over alleged drug references, while 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' faced bans from some US stations for its mention of Christ.
The trend of controversy carried on even after John, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr went on to solo endeavours post-1970. For instance, the ECHO delved into how Paul McCartney and Wings' 'Hi, Hi, Hi' was shunned by the BBC for perceived nods to sex and drugs.
John's Beatles legacy includes one particularly infamous tune, 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun', penned by him in 1968 and presented under the Lennon-McCartney songwriting banner like all compositions from the duo for the Fab Four.
The title, which kick-started the song, was lifted straight from the May 1968 issue of American Rifleman magazine, where an article by Warren W. Herlihy depicted his experience teaching his son shooting skills, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Regarding his first impression upon seeing it, John remarked, "I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something."
The song was part of the Beatles' iconic 'White Album', released in November 1968, a tumultuous time for the band as creative differences began to emerge. Despite their differences, they collaborated to craft this intricate track. John revealed that he merged "three sections of different songs" to create the final piece, which tackled various themes.
Upon its release, certain sections of the song were interpreted as references to sex and drugs. The 'warm gun' in the title was seen as a metaphor for John's desire for Yoko Ono, leading to a ban by the BBC and commercial radio stations.
The line 'I need a fix' was also perceived by some as a reference to heroin. However, John disputed this, explaining: "'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' was another one which was banned on the radio – they said it was about shooting up drugs. But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out of it. It wasn't about 'H' (heroin) at all".
Source: mirror.co.uk/Michael D. Carroll, Dan Haygarth
The Beatles hit #1 with their eighth studio album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which featured such classic Beatles tunes as the title track, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “When I’m Sixty Four,” “Lovely Rita” and “A Day in the Life.”
Sgt. Pepper’s was The Beatles eighth #1 album and spent 15 weeks at the top of the charts in the U.S. It went on to win the Grammy for album of the year, the first rock album to ever win the top award, and was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2003.
A critical and commercial success, Sgt. Pepper’s has been certified 11-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Source: everettpost.com/ABC News
In the emotional aftermath of John Lennon's 1980 assassination, a then-17-year-old Julian Lennon was thrust into a world of grief, confusion, and suspicion.
Julian, Lennon’s son from his first marriage to Cynthia Lennon, had been living quietly in the U.K. when Yoko Ono summoned him to the Dakota, the Manhattan home she shared with John. The purpose, at first, seemed rooted in grief. But what unfolded was far more complicated.
“She was falling apart,” Julian recalled of Ono. “I had to be strong for myself — and strong for her. She hadn’t even told Sean [John and Yoko’s son] that dad had died yet. She asked me how she should break the news.”
But things soon took a tense turn. According to Julian, Ono grew suspicious when a guitar that had belonged to John was anonymously delivered to him in England. That delivery, she believed, might be linked to the theft of some of Lennon’s missing diaries.
“Shortly after Dad died, Yoko found out about the guitar being given to me and sent someone over from New York so I could sign for it,” Julian said. He continued: “Then I was flown to New York and asked to sign a confession, saying I knew nothing about the missing diaries.”
Julian complied, though he maintains he had no connection to the stolen items. “Apparently, someone told Yoko the diaries were given to me, which they weren’t,” he said. “Some have now been recovered, but not all.”
Julian recounted the episode with an eerie calm manner, but the implications were stark: amid mourning, he was caught in a web of distrust within his father’s inner circle. He had little financial support at the time. John had left a modest trust fund for him years earlier, which had largely dried up.
Source: irishstar.com/Connor McCrory
The Beatles' rise to global stardom was meteoric, with their fame skyrocketing in under a year and a half following the UK release of 'Love Me Do' in October 1962. By February 1964, an astonishing 73 million viewers in America were glued to their screens watching the Fab Four on the Ed Sullivan Show as 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' swept the nation.
This track not only marked their first chart-topper in the States but also kicked off a period of unrivaled chart success for the Liverpool lads. After a seven-week reign, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' handed over the number one spot to 'She Loves You', and this was just the beginning—four more hits soared to the top within six months.
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr, four young men from Liverpool, had become the most recognizable faces on the planet, and it all happened at breakneck speed. Adjusting to such intense fame wasn't a walk in the park for them.
Lennon, in particular, found the transition challenging, a struggle that influenced his songwriting. Reflecting on those times in a 1980 Playboy interview, he confessed: "The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help".
His inner turmoil manifested into the classic tune 'Help! which became the lead single for the band's sophomore film and its soundtrack album. The inspiration struck John in the spring of 1965, right after the movie's title was decided, reports the Liverpool Echo.
John's mate Stanley Parkes recalls the moment John had to pivot creatively due to the film's title change: "Came in from the studio one night. 'God,' he said, 'they've changed the title of the film: it's going to be called 'Help!' now. So I've had to write a new song with the title called 'Help!'"
Lennon delved into his own personal battles with fame when writing the hit song. Reflecting in 1980, he revealed: "When 'Help!' came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n' roll song."
Source: John O'sullivan, Dan Haygarth/irishstar.com
Despite being the biggest stars in the world, The Beatles made the decision to stop touring in 1966. The band were fatigued after years on the road and playing live shows to huge, expectant crowds and instead wanted to devote time to working on their innovative ideas in the studio.
That decision led to a run of boundary-pushing albums, including 1967's 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and 'The White Album' the following year. The Beatles' final organised gig took place on August 29, 1966, at San Francisco's Candlestick Park.
Other than an unannounced rooftop concert at their Apple Corps headquarters in London on January 30, 1969, the four did not play live as a band again. The 'Get Back' sessions in 1968 and 1969, which became the album 'Let it Be', were meant to inspire an all-conquering return to being a live band - on Paul McCartney's suggestion - but The Beatles' split in 1970 meant it did not materialise.
As such, when Paul, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison went their separate ways and took their solo projects on the road, they had not played live for some time. Paul had released two solo albums - 'McCartney' and 'Ram' before he formed the band Wings in 1971. Part of Paul's reasoning for establishing Wings was that he wanted to be part of a band to start playing live on stage again.
He had floated the idea in the final days of The Beatles that the band should play unannounced gigs at pubs - something he did at the Philharmonic on Hope Street in 2018 - but his bandmates rejected the idea.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
Hey Jude was a huge hit for the Beatles, a classic song that has become part of the very fabric of pop culture.
However, for Julian Lennon, this track sometimes brings more annoyance than comfort. Julian, the son of John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia, has confessed that despite the song's heartfelt message, listening to the 1968 chart-topper isn't always a pleasant experience.
Hey Jude was written by Paul McCartney following the collapse of John and Cynthia's marriage. "It was 'Hey Jules' at first, but that didn't quite sit well rhythmically," Julian recounted of the song. "'Hey Jude' was a better interpretation."
In a candid chat with Esquire in 2023, Julian delved into his complex feelings about Hey Jude. He revealed, "Paul wrote it to console Mum, and also to console me."
Paul, who maintained a close bond with Cynthia and Julian during those turbulent times, confirmed that the song was written as a supportive gesture for a young Julien whose domestic life was upended by his father's romance with Yoko Ono.
Despite the fact that countless fans have found solace and inspiration in the uplifting lyrics, Julian concedes that its presence everywhere — on the radio, at weddings, restaurants and on TV — can sometimes be overwhelming.
"It's a beautiful sentiment, no question about that, and I'm very thankful - but I've also been driven up the wall by it," he remarked. "I love the fact that he wrote a song about me and for Mum, but depending on what side of the bed one woke up on, and where you're hearing it, it can be a good or a slightly frustrating thing."
Source: irishstar.com/Maria Leticia Gomes, Scarlett O'Toole
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were the driving creative force behind The Beatles. The majority of the band's songs were written by the two and credited to Lennon-McCartney, irrespective of how collaborative the writing process was.
In the early days, John and Paul wrote together. But as the 1960s went on and creative differences between them came to the fore, they often wrote independently before presenting songs to one another for final tweaks. They began writing together after meeting at a Woolton church fete in 1957. Their first works were composed at Paul's childhood home on Forthlin Road in Allerton and at John's aunt Mimi's house on Menlove Avenue. They wrote hit after hit until The Beatles went their separate ways in 1970.
Every song written by John and Paul for The Beatles received that joint credit.
About their partnership, Music and Musicians magazine's Wilfred Mellors wrote in 1972: "Opposite poles generate electricity: between John and Paul the sparks flew. John's fiery iconoclasm was tempered by Paul's lyrical grace, while Paul's wide-eyed charm was toughened by John's resilience."
In a 1980 interview with Playboy, John said about working with Paul: "(He) provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes. There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n' roll.
"But, of course, when I think of some of my own songs - 'In My Life', or some of the early stuff, 'This Boy' - I was writing melody with the best of them."
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
George Harrison's childhood home has been transformed into an Airbnb rental and a house museum.
The Beatles star's former family home in Liverpool was recently acquired at auction by Ken Lambert and he's now turning the property into a destination for fans of the band. Lambert, 48 - who is in the business of commercial construction - told the New York Post newspaper: "Once I realised I was the winner, it was pretty shocking.
"I really started to think about what I was going to do with the property. I’m not a wealthy individual. It’s not like I go around buying up properties. I’m a Beatles fan, yes, but I am a big George Harrison fan specifically."
Lambert bought the property for £171 000 (R3.32 million) and is only the third person to have owned the home since the Harrison family.
Here is the property as it was marketed by Omega Auctions: The property owner ultimately decided to transform the landmark into an Airbnb and a house museum for weekly tours. Lambert took the decision after observing the success of house museums dedicated to John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney.
"I think it was a shame that George’s house had no relevance to millions of Beatles fans, but they’re waiting in line to walk into John Lennon’s house. "George is my favourite Beatle. I want to respect his legacy."
Lambert walked through the property after he managed to buy it at auction, and he can still vividly remember the experience.
He shared: "It was pretty insane when I was able to walk through the house. I was there by myself. I kind of walked through it after I owned it. "It was a very surreal experience, it was a remarkable feeling."
Source; capeargus.co.za/Bang Showbiz
