Jack Walters is a film and television journalist based in Newcastle, UK. He is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's New Movies team, and has also published work at Loud & Clear Reviews, Next Best Picture, and ScreenSphere.

Another important casting announcement was recently unveiled for Sam Mendes' four Beatles biopics. Saoirse Ronan will officially play Linda McCartney in the four-movie cinematic event, while Anna Sawai, Aimee Lou Wood, and Mia McKenna-Bruce are reportedly circling the roles of Yoko Ono, Pattie Boyd, and Maureen Starkey, respectively.

Mendes' Beatles films will be released simultaneously in April 2028, with each movie detailing the Beatles' story from a different band member's perspective. This will be a very interesting step forward for the biopic genre, and it crucially means that certain characters will appear multiple times across the movies - so it's even more important that they're accurately cast.

8. Cynthia Lennon - Depending on which era of the Beatles' career these movies take place throughout, Cynthia Lennon will need to be present to some degree. Even if Sam Mendes decides to set his stories after John and Cynthia's breakup, there's no way to write her out of the story entirely without undermining a huge portion of Lennon's background.

7. Brian Epstein - Epstein was with the Beatles long before they were the "Fab Four", and his death had an immeasurable impact on their dynamic towards the end of the '60s. There would never have been "The Beatles" as we know them today without Epstein, so it's inevitable that he'll show up in Mendes' movies in some measure.

Source: Jack Walters/screenrant.com

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Before he was known as a writer, producer and one of the world’s foremost fingerstyle guitarists, Laurence Juber spent three years, from 1978 to 1981, as a member of Wings. Prior to that, he had established himself as an in-demand London session guitarist. An invitation to jam with Wings guitarist-bassist Denny Laine soon changed into a life-changing event when Paul and Linda McCartney joined in.

After playing a few blues and reggae tunes, Paul turned to Juber and asked, “What are you doing for the next few years?”

“It was in that nanosecond that everything flashes in front of you,” Juber says. “I had spent my entire teenage years and beyond becoming a studio musician, and then there's Paul McCartney offering me a gig.

“On the one hand, you think, What am I giving up? On the other hand, I was in a place in my life where, if there was going to be a big change, the universe was kind of leading me to it. How could I say no?”

Juber contributed guitar parts to the 1979 Wings album, Back to the Egg — his fire-spitting solo on the punk-rockabilly number “Spin It On” is a particular standout — and he played with Wings on their 19-date U.K. tour that year.

Source: Joe Bosso/guitarplayer.com

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Paul McCartney will release "McCartney III" in December, a new collection of stripped-back songs all written, performed and produced by the ex-Beatle, 50 years after his first solo album.

Recorded this year in Sussex in southern England, McCartney III is mostly built from McCartney's live takes on vocals and guitar or piano, overlaying his bass playing and drumming.

It joins two other albums - McCartney and McCartney II - created single-handedly by the 78-year-old at critical times in his life, in 1970 and 1980, when he was seeking a creative rebirth.

"I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next?" said McCartney.

He turned to half-finished fragments he'd created over the years.  "Each day I'd start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album."

 McCartney's most recent album is 2018's Egypt Station, and the musician was still touring last year.

McCartney III is described as offering a vast and intimate range of modes and moods, from soul searching to wistful, from playful to raucous and all points between.

Source: reuters.com

Most of what made The Beatles magical was, of course, the band members themselves. The Fab Four had such a perfect mix of songwriting, performing, and instrumental talent packed into the band. But themselves alone weren’t what made The Beatles so great. Their producers, agents, and occasional collaborators also helped produce some of the Fab Four’s best songs. Let’s take a look at just three very famous Beatles collaborators who made a few noteworthy contributions.

The OG Rolling Stones leader was involved with The Beatles in a few ways. He was around during the process of producing “Yellow Submarine”, but he was also brought into the mix a few years later during sessions for the song “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”.

This song was recorded during sessions for Magical Mystery Tour, but the song itself wasn’t released until after Jones’ passing. Specifically, you can hear the tune on the 1970 finale Let It Be. Jones can be heard playing the sax on the song. Considering he was better known as a guitarist, some people may not know that’s him on “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”.

Eric Clapton was associated with The Beatles for some time, namely for his friendship with George Harrison. Though, that friendship wasn’t without its serious drama, particularly when it came to the love triangle involving Harrison’s wife (and eventually Clapton’s wife, too), Pattie Boyd. What better way to duke it out over a love affair than to record music in lieu of fisticuffs? Regardless, before things got particularly tumultuous, Clapton offered his guitar skills to the 1968 song, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, which was famously written by Harrison.

Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com

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When The Beatles first arrived on the international music scene via their introduction to America, they were the good boys of rock ‘n’ roll. Clean-cut, boyishly charismatic, well-behaved, and in line with the societal standards of the time. Many of their contemporaries, such as The Rolling Stones, were not that. For the early years of their career, Paul McCartney and The Beatles held onto that image, and while they never went full “bad-boy”, they did start to drift away from this innocent and respectable image.

3 Nostalgic Songs From the 1970s That Will Bring You Back to Your First Love

There is no way to know if The Beatles did this on purpose. In reality, who cares if they did or didn’t? Nevertheless, The Beatles’ image went from the boys next door to counter-culture figures around 1966. Of course, there was not one thing that marked this transition, but a big one was seemingly when Paul McCartney confessed to taking a psychedelic drug on national television in 1967.

In retrospect, do people care that The Beatles did drugs? No, but given the day in age and their former reputation, it was a huge deal. An enormous deal given that the media of the time sensationalized, scrutinized, and spread it across the world.

Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com

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Paul Simon wrote “Bridge Over Troubled Water” on Blue Jay Way, a location made infamous by George Harrison in The Beatles song of the same name.  Paul Simon and George Harrison became friends and performed together on Saturday Night Live in 1976.
Simon described Harrison as “amazing ... brave, open, kind.”

Simon & Garfunkel were at the height of their folk-rock fame in 1969 when they recorded one of their most enduring classics. Yet, few fans realize this song has a surprising connection to The Beatles.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were writing and recording “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and other songs for what would become the album of the same name in the latter part of 1969. After wrapping up a television special and a grueling tour, the exhausted duo set out to finish this seminal album.

Simon said in a 1972 interview with Rolling Stone that his and Garfunkel’s Beatles connection came via George Harrison, in a home on Blue Jay Way, immortalized in the Magical Mystery Tour song of the same name.

“We were in California. We were all renting this house. Me, Artie and Peggy [Harper], (Simon’s wife) were living in this house with a bunch of other people throughout the summer. It was [written at] a house on Blue Jay Way, the one George Harrison wrote ‘Blue Jay Way’ about,” he explained.

However, while the location of the songs was the same, the resulting tunes couldn’t have been more different. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is a Gospel-influenced folk-pop ballad, while “Blue Jay Way” is psychedelic and experimental.

Source: Lucille Barilla/Parade.com

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