There are so many books stuffed with learned theories about The Beatles, that we can easily overlook the point that really matters. Simply, The Beatles were the greatest device that was ever invented for causing enjoyment on a global scale. There used to be a record label whose half-ironical slogan was ‘Happy to be Part of the Industry of ...
Liverpool’s most famous sons, The Beatles, were wartime babies: Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) born 7 July 1940; John Winston Lennon born 9 October 1940; James Paul McCartney born 18 June 1942; and George Harrison born 24 February 1943. All four families moved at least once at the end of the war as Liverpool was rebuilt and renovated. They were ...
Between early 1963 and early 1964 The Beatles went from being virtual unknowns to international pop superstars, a position they maintained over the next two years by an intense schedule of recording and touring, as well as two major feature films. They did it by writing consistently better and better songs, often under extreme pressure, and by ...
The first cracks in the seemingly impregnable façade that had been built up by three years of Beatlemania seemed insignificant. When John Lennon casually remarked that The Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’ in March 1966 he had no idea that his words would haunt him with increasing malevolence for the rest of the year. The Beatles narrowly avoided another major ...
The end of The Beatles was a complex, messy affair, not surprisingly for a band that for the previous five years had been the biggest group in the world and encouraged to believe that they were divine. The blame for their demise was cast in many directions: Yoko Ono’s presence in the studio destroyed the Lennon and McCartney songwriting ...
the bloody rock’. McCartney’s first gig was at the New Clubmoor Hall, Norris Green, on 18 October. ‘A disaster. I got sticky fingers.’ Personalities | Introducing The Beatles Personalities | The Beatles | The Formative Years (1958) | Key Events ...
January ‘Please Please Me’ ‘Gentlemen, you have just recorded your first number one,’ producer George Martin told The Beatles after they’d completed ‘Please Please Me’. He was right … just. It was released on 11 January, the same day that The Beatles appeared on the influential Thank Your Lucky Stars networked ITV show. The single made the Top ...
the UK. March ‘More Popular than Jesus’ In an interview with ‘trusted’ journalist Maureen Cleave in the London Evening Standard John Lennon, talking about religion, remarked that The Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus now’. The comment aroused no interest in Britain, but when it was reprinted in America a few days later there was instant outrage among ...
January The Let It Be Sessions After inconclusive discussions about playing a concert, The Beatles agreed instead to film rehearsals for a ‘back-to-basics’ album, with Michael Lindsay-Hogg who had directed their singles’ promos. But the tensions that had dogged The White Album quickly resurfaced and the atmosphere was as cold as the sound stage at the Twickenham Film Studios. ...
restore the sound as much as possible and pressed 50 copies for family and friends. The songs were publicly released on The Beatles’ 1995 Anthology 1. Personalities | Introducing The Beatles Personalities | The Beatles | The Formative Years (1959) | Key Events ...
When ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ shot to No. 1 in the Cashbox chart on 18 January, having leapt from No. 43 to the top slot, The Beatles were in Paris on a three-week run at the Olympia, staying at the grandiose George V Hotel where they were also writing songs for their forthcoming feature film. A ...
February ‘Penny Lane’/‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ The first record to emerge from the studio-bound Beatles was another pair of contrasting McCartney and Lennon songs, a recurring feature of recent singles but, with time to perfect and polish, the songs had moved up another level. Both made a nostalgic return to Liverpool for their inspiration but while Paul McCartney strode ...
January The Last Beatles Recording Session On 3 January Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (John Lennon was in Denmark) gathered at Abbey Road Studios to record Harrison’s ‘I Me Mine’, a song they had rehearsed at the Let It Be sessions a year previously but never recorded. Two versions of an album from the original sessions had already ...
, but they flunked out when they had to catch the last train back to Liverpool, missing their final slot that included the all-important ‘Clapometer’. Personalities | Introducing The Beatles Personalities | The Beatles | The Formative Years (1960) | Key Events ...
were almost immediately discovered by fans and returned to London. Work Begins on Help! After the phenomenal success of A Hard Day’s Night, the budget for the second Beatles movie was doubled to £500,000 and Richard Lester retained as director. Producer Walter Shenson promised a ‘mad, zany comedy thriller’ but they started with another threadbare plot that ...
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