Beatles News
The story of how one of The Beatles' biggest ever songs was almost not released under the band's name.
The Beatles were always so much more than the sum of their parts. Despite the delights of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's solo careers (and those of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, too), when the Fab Four were together they genuinely changed the history of popular music and the whole society.
But even when they were together there were moments when individual members of the band were in complete creative control.
That was especially true on The Beatles (aka The White Album), when each corner of the band was frequently off doing their own thing. But there's one much earlier example that really stands out, too. 'Yesterday' is one of the most famous Beatles song that very nearly wasn't a Beatles song. This is why.
Who wrote 'Yesterday'?
Like the vast majority of The Beatles' original songs, 'Yesterday' was credited to Lennon–McCartney. It says it right there on the label.
But we all know that while some of the duo's songs for the Fab Four were true co-writes and many were driven by one of the pair and polished by the other, there were songs that were pretty much or actually entirely written only by either Paul McCartney or John Lennon.
These songs were still credited to the duo, thanks to an agreement they had from their earliest days writing songs together.
So 'Yesterday' was a Lennon–McCartney song, but it was actually written almost entirely by Paul McCartney.
In one interview in 1966, Lennon suggested he'd pitched in a little ("we just held finish off the ribbons 'round it"), but by his Playboy interview in 1980 he said plainly: "That's Paul’s song, and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful – and I never wished I'd written it."
There was a little bit of afters, decades later, when Sir Paul tweaked the songwriting credits for The Beatles songs on 2002 Back in the US live album to "Paul McCartney and John Lennon".
Yoko objected, ad a year later he switched it back, and told the Sunday Herald: "I'm happy with the way it is and always has been. Lennon and McCartney is still the rock 'n' roll trademark I'm proud to be a part of – in the order it has always been." Regarding the actual writing, the "official" story goes that Paul McCartney woke one night at the family home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher at 57 Wimpole Street with the melody for the song in his head.
In those pre-voice note days, he jumped on to the nearby piano and played it out so he wouldn't forget it.
"There wasn't any room for me to keep my records," McCartney said in The Lyrics book of his room at Jane's. "They had to be kept outside on the landing. But somehow I had a piano in there - a small, sawn-off piano that stood by my bed."
That top line was so incredibly, obviously brilliant that Macca was initially convinced that he'd pinched it from somewhere.
As well as friend, singer and pop fan Alma Cogan ("I think she may have thought I was writing it for her," McCartney later recalled), Paul revealed in Hulu doc 3, 2, 1 that he played the melody to George Martin: "George's got a wider knowledge of particularly older songs.
"So I said, 'What's this?' He said, 'I don't know.' I said...it's this melody, y'know, 'cause I can't have written it. There was no conscious effort involved. I just woke up and it was there.'"
Source: Mayer Nissim/goldradio.com
Saoirse Ronan is set to play photographer and musician Linda McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopic.
The Oscar nominated actress will play alongside Paul Mescal, who takes up the role in the four films, directed by Sam Mendes.
The films are set for simultaneous release, with each film focusing on one of the four band members. Saoirse Ronan is set to play photographer and musician Linda McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopic.
Linda married Paul in 1969, with the pair going on to have three children together. Born and raised in New York City, Linda was the second of four children to Louise and Lee Eastman. Linda attended Scarsdale High School and then Vermont College, where she obtained an Associate of Arts in 1961.
She majored in Fine Arts at the University of Arizona, where she also developed a fondness for photography. Linda didn’t complete her studies due to the tragic death of her mother in a plane crash in 1962. Linda got her start in photography when she took up a receptionist and editorial assistant gig with Town & Country magazine.
Before Paul, Linda was married to Joseph Melville See Jr. They married in 1962 and divorced three years later in 1965. Their only daughter, Heather, was born in December 1962.
Five years later, Linda met Paul for the first time during a photo job in London. Linda eventually made the move to London with her daughter Heather, with the pair marrying in 1969. It was a devastating time for Beatles fans as Paul was the last of the band members “unattached.” The pair went on to have three children — Mary, Stella and James — with Paul also adopting Heather. Paul is also father to Beatrice McCartney, 21, who he shares with his second wife, Heather Mills.
The children have all forged great careers for themselves with Heather an artist, Mary a photographer and documentarian, Stella a fashion designer and James a musician and songwriter.
Source: Extra ie
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
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
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
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
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
Producer George Martin wasn’t called the “fifth Beatle” for no reason. Truly, this man is responsible for getting the Fab Four their start and had a big hand in many of their greatest hits. And among those hits, Martin spoke about his top picks and favorite tunes. Let’s look at just a few of George Martin’s favorite Beatles songs, shall we?
This No. 1 US hit from the Fab Four was one of George Martin’s top picks. Years ago, Martin appeared on a 1995 episode of BBC Sounds’ Desert Island Discs, where Sue Lawley would interview various big names in the music world to learn more about their favorite songs and general music taste. Martin appeared on the show to talk about his favorite tunes, like “Oboe Quartet in F Major” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” by George Gershwin. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from 1963 made it to his list.
This one’s not a song, per se, but a medley of songs that make up more than half of a massively famous Beatles record. George Martin described the second side of Abbey Road from 1969 as “very much [his] favorite” and described the medley as “one of [his] favorite works.” For reference, Side Two of Abbey Road, which wasn’t released last but was the band’s final recording, features 11 songs. Some tracks from Side Two include “Mean Mr. Mustard”, “The End”, and the hidden track “Her Majesty”.
“Side two of ‘Abbey Road’ was very much my favourite,” the world-famous producer once said. “Because it was Paul and I doing what I wanted to do after ‘[Sgt.] Pepper’.”
UMe’s announcement today that it is reissuing Ringo Starr’s first four solo albums on colored vinyl on Oct. 24 puts a spotlight on his celebrated 1973 album Ringo, which enabled him to set a pair of Billboard Hot 100 records that he holds to this day.
Starr is the only ex-Beatle to land two No. 1 singles from one studio album and the only one to release back-to-back singles that both reached No. 1. Starr topped the Hot 100 in November 1973 with “Photograph,” which he co-wrote with his former Beatles bandmate George Harrison. His follow-up, “You’re Sixteen,” a jaunty remake of a 1960 hit by Johnny Burnette, reached No. 1 in January 1974.
Both singles were released from Starr’s third studio album, Ringo, which was produced by Richard Perry, one of the hottest producers of the era. (Perry died last December at age 82.) Starr’s first two studio albums were Sentimental Journey, a 1970 collection drawn from the Great American Songbook, and Beaucoups of Blues, a 1970 country- and folk-shaded album recorded in Nashville. So Ringo was his first contemporary pop/rock album. On the album, Starr collaborated with his Beatles bandmates John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Harrison, as well as Harry Nilsson, Martha Reeves, Billy Preston, Marc Bolan of T. Rex and The Band’s Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm and Rick Danko, among others.
Released on Nov. 2, 1973, Ringo reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. It was Starr’s highest-charting album, which makes him the only ex-Beatle not to top the Billboard 200. Ringo was kept out of the top spot by Elton John’s classic double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. (There were no hard feelings: John contributed to Starr’s follow-up album, Goodnight Vienna, co-writing “Snookeroo” and playing piano on the track.)
Source: Paul Grein/billboard.com
