Beatles News
Like me, you probably think you know the story arc of The Beatles pretty well. As we’ve worked on this new publication, the latest edition in our Ultimate Record Collection series, out tomorrow, it’s been a delight to find that the Beatles narrative can still offer up some delightful surprises.
And the story here? This magazine presents insightful new writing on every Beatles record in order of its appearance, forming a definitive timeline of the first and most thrillingly intense part of the group’s career. What emerges as you listen to the music and read the following pages isn’t only a renewed pleasure in the songs, but also a respect for the Beatles’ composure as the storm of their new fame grew around them.
New fantastic self-penned music followed quickly on the heels of their initial hits. No group had done anything quite like this before, and neither had the record industry, which now had to meet the phenomenal demand for new music. Here you’ll be able to get an idea of how that worked in real time. Alongside the albums you likely know and love already, you’ll see the profusion of new singles, and also the less-familiar formats like the EPs, in their incentivising picture sleeves. Then there’s the overseas editions.
You could spend a happy lifetime immersing yourself into the worldwide Beatles, but here we’ve confined ourselves, with a few exceptions, to the UK and North American records. For sure, there’s a wry remark or two to be made at the expense of the way the United States handled the album releases – slicing and dicing “superfluous” tracks here, assembling new albums from the cuts, adding the singles (or taking them away). But observing their label’s initial lack of interest, and their haste to try and catch up, you feel not only the size of a less-connected world – and also just how manic Beatlemania must have felt to those involved with servicing its demands. You could even find yourself making the case that Meet The Beatles is a superior document of the era because it starts with “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. We’ve aired our thoughts, and reviewed every record.
Source: John Robinson/uncut.co.uk
Between 1963 and ’64, as the Beatles toured the globe, Paul McCartney snapped hundreds of photos of his daily life. In between candid shots of his bandmates and images of foreign locales, they offer a rare peek into Beatlemania, as seen from the inside. “There’s a sort of innocence about them,” the bassist reflected in 2023.
A trove of these photos has made its way across museums from the U.K. to the U.S. for the past two years. But there’s more where that came from. A show in Beverly Hills will soon surface yet more previously unseen images from McCartney’s archives, which will be offered for sale.
In April, Gagosian will present 36 works by McCartney, some of them newly rediscovered, created between December 1963 and February 1964. They were shot in Liverpool and London in the U.K., Paris, France, as well as New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
At this time, the Beatles had embarked on their first tour of the U.K., hot on the heels of their number one album, With the Beatles, released in November 1963. The following year saw them descend on Paris, then New York, where they made their now-legendary debut appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February. By the end of the month, they had made the cover of Newsweek, in a front-page story that trumpeted “Bugs About Beatles.”
Source: news.artnet.com/Min Chen Art & Pop Culture
It's been more than 50 years since The Beatles broke up, not to mention decades since the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison, but that hasn't stopped the group from winning awards. At the February 2, 2025 Grammys, The Beatles won their eighth trophy for Best Rock Performance. The long-forgotten song "Now and Then" was completed by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with an assist from AI, and its success is just one measure of the band's enduring appeal.
But The Beatles were even more than the sum of their parts. In the wake of the band's legendary 1960s run came a number of high-profile solo releases from each individual member. That includes Ringo, whose eponymous 1973 album peaked at #2 on the U.S. charts and yielded two #1 singles—with a little help from his friends, of course. Those tracks were just the beginning of Starr's successful solo ventures—the former Beatles guitarist kicks off a U.S. tour with his All-Starr Band in June 2025, playing fresh material from his brand-new country album, "Look Up," which came out Jan. 10, 2025.
Source: MSN
Legendary artist and musician Yoko Ono turned 92 on February 18, although will likely be celebrating her big day privately as she has for years.
The Japanese icon, best known for her marriage to and collaborations with her late husband John Lennon, has lived a life away from the public eye for several years.
In honor of her special day and legacy, here's what we know about Yoko's life out of the spotlight now, from her home to her family…
Where does Yoko live now? For five decades, the musician lived in her famous apartment in New York in the exclusive Dakota building, outside where Lennon was tragically shot and killed in 1980.
It was at this famous apartment that she hosted several of the world's elite and raised her son with Lennon, although as it turns out, she's now found a new abode.
Source: hellomagazine.com/Ahad Sanwari
The new exhibition at Selby Gardens is George Harrison: A Gardner’s Life as part of the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series. It is on view from now until June 29th at the downtown Sarasota campus. For those who didn’t know, George loved music but he also loved gardening and spent much of his time after the Beatles disbanded toiling in the earth.
Selby’s artist in residence, musician & poet Patti Smith came to honor the opening of George’s exhibition with her music, stories and reading poetry from Olivia Harrison’s book dedicated to George and their life together entitled “Came the Lightening”. Patti was introduced by Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki. George’s wife also traveled to Sarasota to lecture on art & nature and share about George’s passion of gardening. She was in the audience for Patti’s performance.
It was a sold-out crowd for Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and who is named one of the greatest artists of all time, Patti Smith is a true renaissance woman. She opened with spoken word of “Grateful” and played a cover of the Beatles, “If I Needed Someone.” She was accompanied by her son Jackson Smith on guitar and longtime bandmate Tony Shanahan on guitar and keyboards. She is humble, humorous and brings wisdom to the sold out crowd in the evening balmy breeze and a bright full moon on beautiful Sarasota Bay. She jokes as she looks through her notes about being well prepared as the audience laughs along.
Patty Smith
She performed a cover of a solo George Harrison tune, “Isn’t It A Pity.”
Source: Vicky Sullivan/suncoastpost.com
George Harrison didn’t always get his flowers in the Beatles writing sessions. Part of what made him move to leave the band was his feeling that it was becoming the Paul and John show. However, he did manage to sneak in a few songs here and there–moreover, when he did, they were mega hits for the group. The final hit he scored for the band became one of their calling cards. Learn more about Harrison’s swan song with the Fab Four, below.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
Little darling
It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it’s been here
“Here Comes The Sun” is pop perfection. Though the Beatles were purveyors of rock, Harrison leaned into easy-breezy, easily digestible melodies for this song. While winding down after a long day of fighting with his bandmates, Harrison penned this track at Eric Clapton’s house. The lyrics flowed out of him while feeling the long-awaited warmth of the sun amid a long English winter. This song has a similar effect on all its listeners. It’s impossible to not get a dose of summer-time joy after pressing play on this Beatles hit.
In the years since its release, “Here Comes The Sun,” has become one of the band’s biggest hits. It’s so pervasive that it has become almost second nature to us. Those around in 1969 might remember the first time they heard this track, but those who popped up any decade after might find they’ve known this song since birth. It’s ubiquitous.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Part of the paradoxical allure of the Beatles is that despite being largely self-taught musicians, some of their music is so challenging that a traditionally taught musician like George Martin struggled to keep up. The fact that these homegrown Liverpudlians could hold their own among the music world’s best seemed indicative of whatever otherworldly star power they possessed to make them one of the greatest and most enduring bands of all time.
Interestingly, the Beatles song too challenging for George Martin was also one that John Lennon called his “first real, major piece of work.”
The Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul was one of the clearest examples of the band’s creative range thus far in their career. From the moody “Girl” to the parlor-style “Michelle” to the rocking “Drive My Car,” the Fab Four explored genre and subject matter in a way they had only dabbled with in previous records. One of the tracks that stands out the most on that iconic album is the sentimental “In My Life,” a heartfelt and retrospective ballad about remembering lovers and friends I still can recall.
During the recording process, the band ended up with a 12-bar instrumental section with nothing to put into it. Producer and honorary fifth Beatle George Martin came to the rescue, coming up with a melodic piano part to fill the space. The only problem, of course, was when he was playing along to the tape, he realized he wrote far too intricate of a piano part for that tempo. A more proficient pianist could have done it, but they didn’t have one on hand. So, Martin devised a clever workaround: record the piano part to tape at half-speed, then speed it up in post to match the overall tempo.
The results were highly effective, giving the piano a Baroque harpsichord tone that seemed to add to the song’s timelessness. Martin tracked the piano part while the Beatles were on break, and when they returned to the studio, they quickly approved of Martin’s work. “George Martin had a very great musical knowledge and background,” John Lennon recalled in Anthology. “He’d come up with amazing technical things.”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
The murder of John Lennon remains one of the most infamous showbiz tragedies of all time. On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman fatally shot Lennon as he returned to his New York residence.
At that time, Lennon was married to the renowned Japanese artist Yoko Ono, who turns 92 today (Tuesday, February 18), and they had a son, Sean Lennon. For almost four decades, Ono refrained from discussing the harrowing day her husband was killed, partly due to apprehension over potential backlash from avid Beatles fans.
Yet in an interview some years back, she finally opened up about their final moments together.
On an episode of Desert Island Discs, Ono gave a heartfelt account of their last exchange, recalling: "I said 'shall we go and have dinner before we go home?' and John said 'No, let's go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.'"
When probed on whether Lennon uttered any words after being attacked, Ono somberly answered "no". he also highlighted aspects of life married to one of the biggest stars globally, expressing her belief that she would always be viewed as merely "the wife of an ex-Beatle", reports Liverpool Echo.
Lennon's life was tragically cut short at roughly 11.15pm on the night of the killing. He was swiftly transported to Roosevelt Hospital by police car where he was pronounced dead.
It comes after John Lennon infamously declared in 1966 that the band were "more popular than Jesus", which was met with outcry by American Christians and played a part in The Beatles' retirement from touring at the end of that year.
They also had a number of songs banned by various radio stations. Among them were 'A Day in the Life', which was banned by the BBC for its supposed references to drugs, and 'The Ballad of John and Yoko', which was banned by some radio stations in the United States due to its references to Christ.
Source: Aaron Curran, Chloe Dobinson/express.co.uk
John Lennon had a rough childhood, and, some would argue, an even rougher life. Yes, fame and fortune may seem like guarantees for a fulfilling and carefree life, but this was far from the truth for Lennon. He never had much of a family; his mother died when he was 17, and his father was largely absent for most of his adolescence. Instead, Lennon, who always had a lifelong love for music, found family in his pals in the Quarrymen and, later, the Beatles. Undoubtedly, as the Beatles’ career progressed, the band grew closer and closer together. However, like many bands, tensions eventually arose between the egos of individual members; contracts and finances became more important than creativity and music, and the members (especially George Harrison) became increasingly interested in launching their own solo careers.
Second only to Harrison, it seemed like Lennon was the most anxious of the Beatles to delve into a solo career. And while Lennon and Harrison had solo albums during their Beatles tenure, they were nothing more than experimental, instrumental tracks they constructed in their spare time while they weren’t in sessions. Therefore, “Plastic Ono Band” was Lennon’s first spirited attempt at a purely solo record, and what an attempt it was.
Source: wesleyanargus.com
It’s amazing The Beatles were able to record two classic albums in 1969, considering how relationships between the four men had deteriorated by that time. As it turned out, the infighting also helped a random artist out one fateful evening during that eventful year.
That artist was Steve Miller, then near the beginning of what would become an illustrious career. As fate would have it, he showed up at a London studio one night at just the right time to call on the services of a very frustrated Paul McCartney, and the two made cathartic musical magic.
Friday, May 9, 1969, was the date for a recording session at Olympic Studios in London, a session earmarked for doing some mixing on the project The Beatles had undertaken at the beginning of the year. That project, originally called Get Back but eventually released as Let It Be when it finally appeared in 1970, was to feature some off-the-cuff, in-between-songs dialogue captured during those sessions. This particular evening was devoted to choosing those snippets.
The Beatles started in the afternoon and worked through the evening. But there was a visitor that night that caused some friction. Allen Klein, who had been chosen by John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr to take over the band’s managerial duties and financial oversight, showed up as well.
Paul McCartney was holding out, feeling they should do a bit more due diligence before making this decision. The other three insisted McCartney needed to sign that evening. A standoff ensued during the session, with McCartney first suggesting there’d be no harm waiting till Monday, since business couldn’t be conducted on the weekend. He also argued the group should hold out for better terms. None of his bandmates agreed.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
