Known first as "The Quiet Beatle," George Harrison was a great songwriter who had the misfortune to be surrounded by two stone cold geniuses whose work often obscured his talents. Yet Harrison compositions such as "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" are as good as anything the Beatles ever recorded. And with his solo debut All Things Must Pass, he stepped completely out of the shadows of his Beatle band mates to reveal himself a powerfully spiritual songwriter with an expansive sense of melody. Harrison was also a gifted, fluid guitarist and hugely influential in introducing the Beatles — and, by extension, the entire Sixties generation – to Eastern religion and musical influences. His devotion to Hinduism was expressed publicly through rock and roll's first massive charity event, the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.

The J.J. Hapgood General Store & Eatery in Peru had royalty from the music world drop by for dinner Sunday afternoon.

After spending a day on the slopes at nearby Bromley Mountain, famed musician Paul McCartney and five other people spent about an hour in the dining room enjoying a quiet meal that included margherita pizza and organic kale salad.

Restaurant owner Juliette Britton said she didn't want any hoopla to disrupt the legendary Beatle's visit, so she didn't even notify her coworkers that McCartney was a guest in their presence. Britton said McCartney was joined by his wife, Nancy Shevell, and two other couples.

The Beatles had sung about a day tripper, and I was ready to become one, making a one-day visit from London to the Fab Four's northern hometown of Liverpool. With all the buzz about the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first trip to America, the time seemed right to return the favor with a pilgrimage to the place where it all began. A full day on my own during a recent trip to visit friends in London provided the perfect opportunity to check out the Merseyside Mecca.

A plaque commemorating The Beatles manager Brian Epstein has been unveiled at his birthplace in Liverpool.

The memorial was erected on 4 Rodney Street where the pop impresario was born in 1934.

It was organised by tour guide Marie Darwin who said it was important to mark the birthplace of a "visionary".

It was unveiled by Watford's Viv Jones, once an employee of Epstein, who said she was "very proud" to honour "the man who made the Beatles".

John Lennon's sister Julia Baird and Jeni Crowley who was secretary of The Beatles fan club were also at the ceremony.

Epstein, born into a family of furniture retailers, yearned for a career in the arts and after failed attempts to become an actor discovered The Beatles.

Selection of former Beatle’s drawings on display at Liss Gallery in Toronto

The George Harrison Memorial Tree, infamously killed by beetles, will be replanted on Feb. 25 in Griffith Park on what would have been the former Beatle’s 72^nd birthday.

Chris Carter, host of the longest-running Beatles radio show “Breakfast With the Beatles,” will MC  the event organized by Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, in whose district Griffith Park sits.

The ceremony will take place at 4 p.m., north of the Griffith Observatory parking lot. The original tree, a Canary Island Pine Tree dubbed "The George Harrison Tree" on the accompanying bronze memorial plaque, was planted on Harrison's birthday in 2002. “In memory of a great humanitarian, who touched the world as an artist, a musician and a gardener,” the plaque reads.

“Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 40th anniversary with a star-studded and surprisingly inclusive televised gala on Sunday evening. The show’s legacy in comedy, late-night television, edgy and often surrealist content, and influence on the development of “comedy news” shows like those presided over by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, has been well-documented and is impossible to question.

But what about “SNL’s” effect on popular music? Well, beyond a doubt, that influence has been equally vast. And it all comes down to the “Live” in “SNL.” Yes, for 40 years, the show has offered us warts-and-all performances captured in real time and beamed directly into our living rooms in all their unvarnished glory.

"That was great — and I don't even like that song!" So proclaimed a thirtyish dude last night as Paul McCartney — Sir Paul, Macca, the Cute One, the One Who Once Was the Dead One But Now Blessedly Is One of the Two Still Alive — treated a crowd of 1,000 or so to a stellar, stirring "And I Love Her."
McCartney invested this minor standard with wistful vigor and urgency. "Bright are the stars that shine/ dark is the sky" has accumulated significance over fifty years. Young Paul's stately wisp of a song about romantic timelessness has snuck into the firmament, now as fixed in our lives as stars and sky, but Old Paul's treatment of it sounds far from settled: Savor those new "oooh"s he eases into on a coda.

A little over 30 years ago, the Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama walked through Central Park with one of the most famous couples in the world. It was sunset, autumn; they sat on a bench just in front of the pond, bordered by trees, a sliver of New York skyline visible in the distance, including the building where they lived. He asked them to kiss, and he clicked the shutter. Three months later, on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was fatally shot at the entrance to the Dakota, home to him and his wife, Yoko Ono. Just three weeks prior to Lennon’s death, Shinoyama’s photograph of John and Yoko’s kiss at Central Park Pond had appeared on the cover of what would be their final studio album, “Double Fantasy.”