Beatles News
Sony's long-awaited Beatles movie biopic plans are finally coming together.
Director Sam Mendes took the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to reveal the cast for the features and said that all four films are set for theatrical release in April 2028. The surprising plans to make four films - one for each member of the famed band - were first announced last year.
Drumroll, please: Mendes also brought the cast onstage. Set to star in the films are Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Each of the four movies will focus on one of the members of the Fab Four.
"We're not just making one film about the Beatles - we're making four," Mendes said. "Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply."
Mendes claimed that Sony film boss Tom Rothman called the projects "the first binge-able theatrical experience." After hitting the stage, all four actors recited lyrics from the band's song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and then took a Beatles-style synchronized bow.
"You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy," Rothman told The Hollywood Reporter last year about the project that earned the Oscar-winning director a coveted signoff from the group's selective label Apple Corps. "There hasn't been an enterprise like this before, and you can't think about it in traditional releasing terms."
Source: MSN
Sixty-two years ago today, on October 5, 1962, a single song marked the start of the most influential band in modern music history. “Love Me Do” introduced The Beatles to the world and launched a career that would transform popular music forever.
“Love Me Do” was released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone Records, under the catalogue number R4949, according to the official Beatles website. It was backed with “P.S. I Love You,” and became The Beatles’ debut single after years of performing in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs.
The song was one of the earliest originals from John Lennon and Paul McCartney, written several years before the group was signed. Early recordings featured three different drummers – Pete Best, Ringo Starr, and session player Andy White. Each one offered a slightly different sound that captured the band’s developing identity.
Though “Love Me Do” only reached No. 17 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1962, it was a big deal for an unknown band with no radio reputation. The harmonica-led tune and dual vocals by Lennon and McCartney gave the track a unique sound that set it apart from the heavily orchestrated pop that was dominating British airwaves at the time.
For The Beatles, “Love Me Do” was proof that original songwriting could connect with a mass audience. At the time, most new artists launched with cover songs, but this release showcased Lennon and McCartney’s ability to write and perform their own material.
The Beatles relaxing on a sofa during their early years in London.
When “Love Me Do” was reissued in the United States in 1964, at the height of Beatlemania, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, confirming that the little tune from 1962 had become a global phenomenon.
Plus, its influence extended beyond the charts. The single demonstrated the band’s signature blend of catchy melody and authentic charm, a formula that would soon define 1960s pop.
After “Love Me Do,” The Beatles released “Please Please Me,” “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” With each song, their popularity skyrocketed and before long, they became the biggest act in the world.
In 1982, to mark the single’s 20th anniversary, EMI reissued “Love Me Do” in the UK, where it climbed to No. 4 and was proof that the song’s appeal had continued across generations.
Today, “Love Me Do” is remembered as the song that opened the door. With just a few harmonica notes and two voices in harmony, The Beatles began the journey that cemented them in pop culture history.
Source: Whitney Danhauer/parade.com
The first recorded use of guitar feedback can be found on The Beatles‘ I Feel Fine, according to John Lennon.
The guitarist claimed he and George Harrison‘s work on the track would be an innovative moment not just for the band but for music history, as it is allegedly the first recorded example of guitar feedback. Lennon would claim this in interviews after The Beatles broke up, where he would speak highly of the song. Lennon once described his work with Harrison on the A-side track as featuring a “typical Beatles bit”, and it seems to have worked. The song would top the charts in the UK and the US on release. Lennon would suggest I Feel Fine featured the first “feedback”, and doubled down on it in later interviews, going as far as to say The Beatles were ahead of Jimi Hendrix and The Who.
He said in 1972: “This was the first time feedback was used on a record. It’s right at the beginning.” Lennon would claim again in 1980 in an interview with Playboy, issuing a challenge for anyone to find a conscious use of guitar feedback. He said: “That’s me completely. Including the guitar lick with the first feedback anywhere.
“I defy anybody to find a record… unless it is some old blues record from 1922… that uses feedback that way. So I claim it for the Beatles. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody. The first feedback on record.”
Before these claims surfaced, Lennon would suggest I Feel Fine is more a “typical Beatles bit” than anything else. He said: “George and I play the same bit on the guitar together– that’s the bit that’ll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say. The middle-eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it’s a typical Beatles bit.”
Source: Ewan Gleadow/cultfollowing.co.uk
Given the strength of the Beatles’ albums, it may come as a surprise to learn that John Lennon didn’t enjoy making them. Making albums is a strenuous process. It’s more than compiling a collection of songs. They need to work together in a way that makes it better than the sum of its parts. In Lennon’s point of view, albums weren’t always the strongest medium. Singles interested him more. However, there were a couple of artists who were exceptions to that rule. Find out who below.
The Beatles were more than ahead of their time when it came to making albums. They wrote the rulebook on experimental recording in their heyday. They altered the album-making process. Despite changing the game, Lennon once spoke about feeling like he had to make albums for others. It did little for him personally.
According to Lennon, it was an artist’s singles that really made them. He was more focused on writing a killer song that could stand alone. He felt that other artists also flexed their skills in that way. There were really only two artists that Lennon thought were worth buying a whole album for, and they weren’t a part of his generation. Lennon felt like no one post-Beatles was album-worthy.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Many things contributed to the Beatles’ breakup, and every fan has their own opinion on what moment was the “final straw.” However, according to Paul McCartney, that breaking point had nothing to do with the Beatles’ creative differences, Yoko Ono, or the songwriting cuts. Instead, it was something somewhat out of the band’s control.
There are many theories as to what exactly happened to the Beatles. Some blame McCartney’s iron grip on the creative process, while others blame the wedge Yoko Ono supposedly built between McCartney and John Lennon. While those things certainly contributed to the band’s downfall, there was one member of their personnel that McCartney credits with being the “final straw.”
Towards the end of the band’s career, the Beatles hired Allen Klein as their interim manager. In addition to the other reasons why the Beatles came to dislike Klein (withheld royalties, stolen publishing rights, etc.), McCartney believed he meddled too much in the band’s creative process.
“We made Let It Be but, because of all the fraught personal relationships, the final straw was Allen Klein coming in,” McCartney once said. “It was his decision that Let It Be wasn’t good enough and that it needed strings, needed tarting up.”
There was one song in particular that McCartney thought Klein egregiously tampered with: “The Long And Winding Road.”
McCartney listened back to the first mix of the song, which featured a plethora of instruments and vocals that he hadn’t initially intended for the ballad to include. They were added at the request of Klein, who extended his reach far beyond his job description.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles’ powerful songwriting duo, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, are known for writing iconic Beatles hits until the band's disbandment. However, they were also responsible for this legendary rock band going mainstream after giving them a helping hand. Over 60 years ago, The Rolling Stones got their first taste of mainstream success thanks to Lennon and McCartney’s genius songwriting, and the song in question was “I Wanna Be Your Man.”
“I Wanna Be Your Man” was released by The Rolling Stones in 1963 in the UK and in the US in the following year. It was the song that first introduced many fans to The Rolling Stones, and it became a stepping stone to the band's success. However, despite the helping hand from Lennon and McCartney, what once was a collaboration soon turned into a rivalry fueled by the media and fans.
The Rolling Stones Needed New Material, and Lennon-McCartney Stepped Up.
There are several stories of how “I Wanna Be Your Man” ended up in the hands of The Rolling Stones, as Lennon, Mick Jagger, and The Rolling Stones’ historian Bill Janowitz have different accounts. Janowitz claimed that The Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, bumped into Lennon and McCartney outside and ushered them into the studio, where Lennon completed “I Wanna Be Your Man,” a song originally written by McCartney. Lennon and McCartney learned that The Rolling Stones needed new material, and “I Wanna Be Your Man” was just completed before lunch.
Lennon would later reject Jagger’s memory as to how The Rolling Stones came to release “I Wanna Be Your Man.” He recalled that The Beatles had already recorded their version of the song, but decided against releasing it as a single. Instead, he offered the song to Jagger and The Rolling Stones, and dismissed it as a “throwaway”. “The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones,” he said. “That shows how much importance we put on it: We weren’t going to give them anything great, right?”
Source: Teguan Harris/collider.com
Ringo Starr recently wrapped up a series of September tour dates with his All Starr Band. Now the legendary Beatles drummer says he’ll turn his attention to finishing up a sequel to his 2025 country album, Look Up, which he recorded with acclaimed producer, songwriter, and musician T Bone Burnett.
Starr, who turned 85 in July, revealed some new tidbits about the project in a recent Associated Press interview.
Ringo reported that he’s eyeing a February 2026 release for the album, although he admitted that those plans could change. “We’re busy and [Burnett is] busy, too,” Starr noted. “And we’re gonna work on the record in October. So, how long will that take? We don’t know. So, let’s relax. It’s out February. But you know, the record label may change my mind.”
Ringo added, “[The label might ask,] ‘Do you think we could have it January the 19th?’ But whatever. … We’ll see.” Starr told the AP interviewer that it’s been a busy time for him. He noted that as he prepared to head out on tour with the All Starrs earlier in September, he also was busy with the album.
“You got me on a workload of making with T Bone the next country album of mine, and some other things we’re doing together,” Starr explained. “And then writing a few songs for the country [album,] and … playing drums on every track, and singing every track. So, you know, it’s been work.”
During a September 9 press conference promoting the All Starr Band trek, Ringo revealed that the upcoming album will include a cover of a song by late rockabilly great Carl Perkins. Starr shared a little more about the tune with the AP journalist, albeit without revealing the title.
“I’ve just done a remake of another Carl Perkins song on my new country album, ’cause T Bone loves the idea that the first two songs I [sang] on Beatle records [were by] Carl Perkins,” he said. “And I just loved it because it was like country and rock at the same time.”
The Perkins-penned tunes covered by The Beatles were “Matchbox” and “Honey Don’t,” which appeared on Fab Four albums released in the early-to-mid 1960s. Starr revealed that the Perkins song he recorded for his new album “is a little sadder.” He added, “I’d never heard this one, and T Bone told me neither had he. But it’s beautiful. [Perkins] was such a great writer.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Matt Friedlander
One of the most infamous stories about the Beatles is the love triangle between George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Patti Boyd. Though the late Beatle and Clapton were close friends and collaborators, the latter’s infatuation with Boyd drove a wedge between them. This rift produced many stories we, as rock fans, can’t help but be enticed by. They give color to the songs both of these rock giants wrote.
At one point, after Clapton’s love for Boyd was out in the open, Harrison decided to take his friend to task in a way only a musician could.
The Time George Harrison and Eric Clapton Got Into a Silent Duel
Both Harrison and Clapton were great guitar players. Though Clapton is considered, perhaps, more technically skilled, Harrison’s playing with the Beatles completely changed the trajectory of rock music. Their shared love of their instrument was what brought them together in the first place, but it later became a fighting tactic.
Boyd has given extensive interviews about this period of her life. She hasn’t been shy about the reality of this trio’s messy situation. “George came over and demanded, ‘What’s going on?’” Boyd once said. “To my horror, Eric said, ‘I have to tell you, man, that I’m in love with your wife.’ I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: ‘Well, are you going with him or coming with me?’”
In a 2007 interview, Boyd spoke about a “duel” Harrison and Clapton had in her honor. After Clapton dropped the devastating news that he was in love with his wife on Harrison, he fought back peculiarly.
“His Guitar Playing Was Unbeatable”
As the story goes, Harrison saw Clapton at a party after his love confession and decided to get into a guitar battle with him. They both let their playing speak for them.
“George handed him a guitar and an amp—as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword—and for two hours, without a word, they duelled,” Boyd added. “At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn’t allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar playing was unbeatable.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
During their ten-year career, The Beatles were responsible for more seismic shifts in music than any other band. But they rarely get the credit for playing such a formative part in the development of rock music. Here are a dozen tracks that show just how important they were - and how much they rocked.
I’m Down
Tired of having Long Tall Sally and Twist And Shout as their usual set-closers, Paul McCartney decided to write something where he could really let rip and rival John Lennon as the Beatle with the rock’n’roll edge. “I could do Little Richard’s voice,” he told Barry Miles in 1997. “Wild, hoarse, like an out-of-body experience.”
I’m Down (the B-side of the seven-inch of 1965’s Help!) was a last blast (for the time being) of the raucous stylings typified by Lennon’s versions of Money (That’s What I Want) and Chuck Berry’s Rock And Roll Music.
From 1966’s Revolver, it’s the one time a George Harrison track would open a Beatles album, but what a statement, and what an album. As biting musically as it is lyrically – thanks to a little help from a reluctant Lennon – it snapped at the heels of HM Treasury and signalled the baby boomer generation’s post-austerity awakening. A wild guitar break (by McCartney, at George Martin’s request) and wired mod groove still pays off today. Tomorrow Never Knows.
Here’s where LSD, The Tibetan Book Of The Dead and one of Ringo Starr’s malapropisms collide. Debuting a one-chord drone, Lennon attempts to sound “like a thousand Tibetan monks”, intoning lyrics inspired by Timothy Leary through a swirling Leslie speaker. Add McCartney’s avant-garde tape loops, processed beats and backwards instrumentation (that Taxman solo, reversed) and rock music shifted course once again.
Back In The USSR
This time Paul tried out his “Jerry Lee Lewis voice, to get my mind set on a particular feeling” on the lead track from The Beatles (1968). Fusing Chuck Berry’s Back In The USA with the Beach Boys’ California Girls, it sets off at quite a lick, tongue firmly in cheek as McCartney romanticises Iron Curtain life in a Cold War climate. Although ashram buddy and Beach Boy Mike Love was instrumental to the concept, in the US the track went over like a fart in church.
Source: loudersound.com/Jo Kendall
Directed by Simon Hilton and David Frearson (with graphics and guerilla street art animation by Frearson) and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, Delphine Lamandé-Frearson, Sophie Hilton, Faye Jordan and Grace Davyd, the captivating video illustrates, through a kinetic text narrative and statistics of how many civilians and soldier's lives have been tragically lost from violent conflicts around the world, and the perpetually escalating financial costs incurred - including The Troubles in Ireland, the Vietnam War, the Iran-Iraq War, Lebanon, Tiananmen Square, the Lockerbie bombing, the Bosnian War, the Rwanda and Darfur genocides, the Chechen Wars, 9/11, the Iraq War, Syria, the Ukraine War, the War in Gaza and from mass shootings in the United States of America.
It poignantly ends with the reminder that more than 1.5 million people have been killed by guns in the U.S.A. since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 December 1980. He would have been 85 on 9 October 2025.
Written about Bloody Sunday, the January 30, 1972, massacre of 13 unarmed protesters, including six children, by British soldiers during a protest march in Derry, Northern Ireland. The tragedy also famously inspired U2’s classic 1983 song of the same name.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is featured on the new box set, POWER TO THE PEOPLE, a 12-disc collection that chronicles and celebrates John & Yoko’s non-violent political activism in NYC in the early ‘70s. Songs from Sometime In New York City have been reordered, rejuvenated and completely reimagined as a new set of Ultimate Mixes, entitled New York City.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE was produced by Sean Ono Lennon and his 5x Grammy Award-winning production team. The centerpiece of the collection is the One To One Concert that took place on 30 August 1972, at Madison Square Garden in NYC featuring John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory and Special Guests. These two performances were John’s only full-length concerts after leaving The Beatles.
Source: Tyler Damara Kelly/thelineofbestfit.com
