Beatles News
You could argue forever about which of the Beatles’ songs is the greatest. According to the Daily Telegraph, it’s something nostalgic: In My Life. According to the NME, it’s something psychedelic: Strawberry Fields Forever, which wasn’t even the best song on the single it appeared on, alongside Penny Lane. According to Rolling Stone and USA Today, it’s something epic: A Day in the Life, which often does well in polls, perhaps because it’s written by both Lennon and McCartney.
The debate is diverting but doomed. The Beatles’ range was so broad that it would be easier to name Matisse’s best painting or Meryl Streep’s best performance – which wouldn’t be easy at all. This isn’t just apples and oranges, it’s the whole fruit stall, so if we must use superlatives, we’d better narrow them down. The most covered Beatles song is Yesterday, the biggest seller is She Loves You and the biggest crowdpleaser is Hey Jude.
Source: theguardian.com/Tim de Lisle
Hey guess what? Totally cool, handsome and talented movie star Ryan Reynolds is at is again. Would you add 'self-satisfied' to that list? Whoops, no time for that no - we've got a story to be getting on with.
Yes, the Canadian actor is - let's face it - the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World when it comes to Internet #bantz (move over, KSI).
As ever, nobody is out of bounds. Hell, if Ryan Reynolds met Queen Elizabeth II he could probably run around Buckingham Palace with his knob out and he wouldn't even get beaten up by the Queen's Guard.
Source: Tom Wood/ladbible.com
Film crews were spotted close to the Beatles legend's former home
Film crews spotted in Liverpool close to Paul McCartney’s childhood home have sparked rumours that the former Beatles legend is filming his new music video in the city.
According to The Liverpool Echo, film crews were spotted in Garston, Liverpool, near the town’s leisure centre which is near to where the Beatles legend grew up.
McCartney revisited the area and his childhood home recently as part of an episode of Carpool Karaoke with James Corden.
Film crews were also spotted in Liverpool on Inwood Road and Garston Park with shops in the area also being covered up for filming.
Source: Elizabeth Aubrey/nme.com
An amazing 70 bands from more than 20 countries, along with fans from around the globe, will be flocking to Liverpool, spiritual home of the Fab Four, to celebrate.
JAMES MOORE has dug out 20 memories from their long and winding road..
1. The Beatles have sold more records than any other group – over one billion units – and had 31 UK top 40 hits including 17 No1 singles, plus 15 UK No1 albums.
2.Hailing from Liverpool, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met at a church fete in 1957. By 1960 the song-writing duo had teamed up with guitarist George Harrison and changed their name from the Silver Beatles to the Beatles.
Source: James Moore/dailystar.co.uk
Come together
He often fantasises of getting the old band back together - but it never runs smoothly
ROCKER Sir Paul McCartney has dreams of a Beatles reunion - but admits the fantasy gigs always end up in disaster.
The music legend, 76, says he often fantasises about reuniting onstage with Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon and George Harrison, although the performances never go to plan.
Paul often dreams about getting the old band back together
He said: “We’re playing a dreadful gig somewhere, and the audience are walking out. That happens a lot.
“But it’s kinda nice – I get to meet John and George. So that’s kinda good.”
Source: Adam Nutburn/thesun.co.uk
The legendary “fifth Beatle” died two years ago after a lifetime as a successful record producer.
And now a new biography is claiming Martin had a “cold war” with The Beatles in 1968 when they recorded The White Album.
Author Kenneth Womack details the affair in his new book, Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, the Later Years, 1966-2016.
The Guardian reveals the claim is that Martin would turn up to recording sessions and just sit reading newspaper and eating chocolate.
Womack alleged: “I asked them [the sound engineers] what George was doing when John was playing a particularly guitar part or when Ringo was working on some drum part.
“They would say ‘nothing, he was in the back of the booth, reading newspapers, sharing his chocolate with us.’
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
A handwritten letter from John Lennon’s Aunt, Mimi Smith, which dates from September 1967 and refers to The Beatles visit to Bangor, is set to be auctioned next weekend.
The Beatles visited Bangor on 25th August 1967 to attend a conference at the Normal College, now the University’s Management Centre, led by Maharishi Yogi, a guru in Transcendental Meditation.
The visit to Bangor however was tragically cut short, after the group heard the news on Sunday 27th August, that their manager Brian Epstein had died age 32, following an overdose of sleeping pills.
Source: thebangoraye.com
He was the producer often referred to as the fifth Beatle. But George Martin was “frozen out” by the band while they were making the White Album in 1968, a new biography claims.
Its author, Kenneth Womack, said that a “cold war” between Martin and the band led to him turning up to those recording sessions with “a large stack of newspapers and a giant bar of chocolate” – only to sit at the back of the control booth reading and eating. Martin had produced Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of many landmarks of music that he oversaw, but he would speak “only if he was called on by the Beatles” while they made the White Album.
Source: Dalya Alberge/theguardian.com
Thirty years ago, an album called The Traveling Wilburys appeared and quickly went platinum. It had four famous singer-songwriters and one famous producer-musician performing under stage names. It was the work of George Harrison. The actual story of the Wilburys album captures what can happen when a group of talented artists gathers, often by chance, at a certain time when everything is right, the stars are lined up, and the creativity is focused.
In April 1988, Harrison needed to record a B-side for a European single. There was a deadline issue and Harrison asked Bob Dylan for the use of his Malibu studio. Tom Petty and Roy Orbison joined them, and with Dylan cooking barbecue, Harrison instructed the musicians, including producer Jeff Lynne, to make up words to his chords.
Source: Michael Corrigan/idahostatejournal.com
“Yesterday” was, in effect, the first solo record from a Beatle. Paul McCartney famously wrote the song’s melody while asleep, hearing it in a dream. He held onto it for weeks, convinced that he’d been thinking of some nagging previously existing melody. He sang it for people, asking them whether they knew what song it was. Nobody knew, so McCartney finally decided, rightly, that it was his. (Not that the Beatles were ever that shy about swiping musical ideas.)
McCartney kept tinkering with “Yesterday” on the set of the Beatles’ movie Help!, reportedly aggravating both director Richard Lester, who threatened to take away his piano, and the rest of the band. He kept working on the words, too. For a while, the song’s working title, as a sort of private in-joke, was “Scrambled Eggs.” When McCartney did figure it out, when he recorded it, he was the only Beatle to do so.
Source: Tom Breihan/stereogum.com
