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Paul McCartney had a famously stoic reaction to John Lennon's death in 1980.  Lennon's son Sean Ono Lennon defends McCartney in the new documentary Man on the Run.  McCartney's daughter Stella also reveals he did, in fact, have an emotional reaction to Lennon's death.

Just hours after John Lennon’s death, Paul McCartney was bombarded by reporters asking him for a reaction to losing his lifelong friend and bandmate.

The stunned McCartney, 83, famously offered a stoic response, nonchalantly telling the reporters, “[It’s a] drag, isn’t it?” in a clip that has been repeatedly analyzed by fans. Now, in a new documentary following McCartney’s life and career, Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon is opening up about why the singer’s reaction actually makes a lot of sense to him.

“I always notice the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice. Really felt like someone who was unable to process what was going on,” Sean says in the documentary Man on the Run (in theaters Thursday, Feb. 19 and Sunday, Feb. 22 only and out on Prime Video Feb. 27). “He just seemed almost robotic, which I think some people took possibly as coldness, but I never t details

Though John Lennon reached the highest levels of musicsuccess with The Beatles, the prolific singer-songwriter only topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart once while he was alive. Lennon’s 1974 song, “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” was put together with an assist from another major player in the music game, Elton John, and was inspired by an unexpected television show.

The song made its debut on September 28, 1974 and made it to the top of the chart by November. American Songwriter reports that the song’s title and message came from Lennon’s late-night channel surfing habit.

May Pang, who was his wife Yoko Ono’s personal assistant and who was in a romantic relationship with Lennon (approved by Ono!) at the time he wrote the song, told Radio Times, “One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous Black evangelist, who was saying, ‘Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter, it’s whatever gets you through the night.’ John loved it and said, ‘I’ve got to write it down or I’ll forget it.’”

The song eventually made its way onto Lennon’s 1974 album, Walls and Bridges, with a little help from Elton John. Whi details

Paul McCartney met the actor set to portray him in an upcoming four-film project about the Beatles.

McCartney, 83, and Paul Mescal, 30, were amongst the attendees at the London screening of Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville’s Man on the Run. The Amazon MGM documentary details McCartney’s life after the Beatles disbanded.  Mescal attended the premiere with girlfriend Gracie Abrams. The pair posed with McCartney on the red carpet.  A photo illustration of The Beatles for the Obsessed podcast.

Mescal will be seen as McCartney in the forthcoming movie series The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event. The set of four films, each focusing on a Beatles member, will release theatrically in April 2028. In addition to Mescal, the films feature Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. 

Each segment of the film anthology will be directed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, known for critically acclaimed projects like American Beauty and Skyfall. Mendes also produced Hamnet, in which Mescal starred as William Shakespeare.

Other key characters will be played by a starry cast: Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCa details

Billy Preston recorded several albums for the Beatles’ Apple Records and added a driving organ to the song “Get Back” (1969), which was credited to “the Beatles with Billy Preston,” the only time the group shared credit with another artist. He also contributed to the albums Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), and he was part of the band’s legendary rooftop concert during the making of the documentary film Let It Be (1970).

Source: britannica.com

Nearly 60 years after the most devastating breakup in music history, Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville is shedding new light on what kept the Beatles from reuniting.

“Every single interview any of them gave in that entire decade, they were asked, ‘When are the Beatles going to get back together?’” Neville, 58, told Obsessed: The Podcast host Matt Wilstein in a new interview about his latest documentary, Man on the Run. “They could not escape it.”

Despite the band’s refusal to answer those questions at the time, Neville now believes they had something in the works.

“I actually think, if John had lived, they would’ve gotten back together,” the director added. “Eventually, somehow, somewhere.”
Portrait of the The Beatles. From left to right: Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison, circa 1965.
The Beatles' split in 1970 rocked the music world to its core and left each of the band's members questioning their musical futures. McCartney later reflected that he thought he might "never write another note of music ever."  

Neville has spent his 30-year career piecing together the live details

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville dove in deep to create “Man on the Run,” a movie about Paul McCartney in the 1970s after the Beatles’ breakup. The film, which is playing at selected theaters locally, arrives on Prime Video on February 27th.

By the time he’d completed the film, the director had far more interview material than he could fit into two hours. McCartney’s company, MPL, decided to use that material as the basis for an oral history book, “Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run.”

Ted Widmer, a historian and former speechwriter in the Clinton White House, was leaving a McCartney concert in 2023 when he ran into a book editor he knew, Bob Weil, and they discussed their love of the Beatles.

Later, Widmer positively reviewed McCartney’s photo book, “1964: Eye of the Storm,” and it turned out that Weil had been the editor of that book and other recent McCartney publications. Widmer learned all this in early 2024 when Weil called and invited him to compile the oral history into a book.  “I was excited,” Widmer said in a recent video interview. “We had to work really fast. We had a good team with Bob and a couple details

People all around the world will never stop listening to music from The Beatles. Even more than a half-century after the Fab Four split, the group constantly appears on charts in most Western nations, especially the United Kingdom, where the four members – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison – hail from.

Usually multiple albums, and one or two tracks, can be found on the weekly lists, and this time around, two Beatles smashes return and become bestsellers again, with one reaching never-before-seen peaks.  The Beatles Bring "Golden Slumbers" Back

"Golden Slumbers" by The Beatles rebounds onto both the Official Singles Downloads and Official Singles Sales charts. The track becomes a top 40 win for the first time on the downloads-only roster as it reenters at No. 37. The same cut narrowly misses out on that important tier on the Official Singles Sales list, where it settles at No. 41. Those are new peaks for "Golden Slumbers" on both charts.

The Beatles debuted "Golden Slumbers" on both the Official Singles Sales and Official Singles Downloads charts back in November 2017. As the song returns, it earns only its second stay on the lists as a true bestseller in details

On an unassuming summer’s day in the early 1960s, Johnny Russell found himself in a position that anyone with a puppy-love crush would dread: having to cancel a date with someone you’re sweet on. A last-minute cancellation could offend the canceled-upon, maybe even so much so that the relationship falters, which makes breaking the news a delicate dance. That day, Russell chose comedy.

As explained in Ace Collins’ The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs, Russell was planning on taking a sweetheart out on a date one summer evening when he received a phone call from some friends in Oklahoma. “They were doing a recording session in Los Angeles, and they wanted me to come down and help them. There was no getting out of it. So, I had to break a date with a girl I had been seeing. When she asked me why I was going to L.A., I answered, ‘They are going to put me in the movies and make a big star out of me.’”

“We both laughed,” Russell said. But Russell soon realized that his attempt to smooth things over with his date had more potential than a funny excuse. Pretty soon, Russell had a melody to go with the lyrics, “They’re gonna details

The very mention of The Beatles conjures up images of screaming fans, mop-top haircuts, and songs that became synonyms with the swinging sixties, added a fresh chapter in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, and etched themselves forever in the hearts and minds of generations; songs about love, peace, social consciousness, loneliness, childhood nostalgia and drug culture that still hit differently. The four working-class boys, who shot to global stardom from the smoky clubs of Merseyside in Liverpool (UK), evoke nostalgia like few other bands’ members do.

For those interested in everything Beatles, there is good news. Sam Mendes, the British filmmaker behind American Beauty (1999), Road to Perdition (2002), Revolutionary Road (2008), and Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), is set to showcase the band’s journey in a four-film project about The Beatles, with all movies scheduled for a simultaneous theatrical release in April 2028. The films, featuring Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney), Joseph Quinn (George Harrison), and Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr), will offer distinct perspectives on the band’s history.

The first announcement in this regard was made in ea details

When The Beatles broke up in 1969 (although it wasn’t announced until 1970), the four men made a point of moving forward into solo forays pretty quickly. They also inherently understood that their work on their own would always be compared to what they’d done within the Fab Four, especially when it came to the charts.

Eventually, each man found their way to No. 1 in the US, a spot where they’d perched so often with their former group. Here are the songs that did it for them.  “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison

It makes sense that George Harrison was the first Beatle to reach the top of the US pop charts. After all, he had amassed a large quantity of songs that he’d written for the Fab Four that were either refused by the band or just didn’t quite muscle onto an album. Also, remember that Harrison’s songs stood tallest on Abbey Road, the last album The Beatles recorded. Harrison was able to release a triple album (All Things Must Pass) in 1970 with everything he had in his backlog. The first single, “My Sweet Lord”, immediately topped the charts. Down the road, the song caused Harrison quite a few headaches when a court decided he had unconscio details

Paul McCartney’s new documentary, Man On The Run, gets its television premiere on February 27 on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. Now comes word that a companion soundtrack album will be released that same day. Titled Man On The Run – Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack, the 12-track collection features a selection of recordings McCartney made throughout the 1970s, either as a solo artist; as a duo with his first wife, Linda; or with his post-Beatles band Wings.

The album includes various hits, deep cuts, and rarities, offering a snapshot of McCartney’s creative output during the 1970s. Two tracks have been made available exclusively on Amazon Music in advance of the album’s release. One is a previously unreleased rough mix of “Arrow Through Me,” a reggae-influenced gem from Wings’ 1979 studio album Back To The Egg. The other is a live version of McCartney and Wings’ hit 1973 James Bond theme “Live And Let Die,” from the 1980 concert film Rockshow.

Another previously unreleased track also will appear on the soundtrack album. The song, “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance,” originally was featured in the 1973 The James Paul McCartney TV details

After working with co-producer Phil Spector on his third album, All Things Must Pass, George Harrison started working on the producer’s then-wife, the Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector‘s comeback album, which would be released on the Beatles‘ Apple Records. For her, Harrison contributed two songs he’d recorded during the All Things Must Pass Sessions.

Though Spector’s album was later abandoned due to her husband’s erratic behavior during recording, some of the songs they recorded were later revived by Harrison.

 George Harrison originally wrote “Try Some, Buy Some” during the All Things Must Pass sessions in 1970. By April 1971, another version was released as a single by Ronnie Spector. Co-produced by Phil Spector and Harrison, the new version features the former Beatle on guitar and peaked at No. 77.

“The song itself, I think, is really good,” Harrison told Record Mirror in 1972. “It’s so simple yet so complicated. It was the sort of thing I found myself playing over and over again and being amazed by the simplicity of the movement of the bass lines.”

Way back in time
Someone said, try some
I tried some
details

George Harrison was always known as the “quiet” Beatle during his tenure with the Fab Four. He was a bit more mysterious compared to his fellow bandmates, and rarely spoke out of turn during interviews. A talented songwriter and guitarist, both during The Beatles’ run in the 60s and his solo career that followed, Harrison seemed to prefer to express himself through song.

3 Sloppy and Rushed Pop Albums That Ended Up Being Brilliant

Though, despite being reserved, Harrison had an interest in a particularly loud sport. George He wasn’t a fan of a more relaxed sport like tennis or maybe golf. Rather, Harrison was quite a big fan of sports cars and motor racing, particularly F1 racing. And he allegedly said that the vroom-vroom of an F1 car was the only thing that gave him the same rush as performing with The Beatles. And in the mid-to-late 1970s, Harrison leaned heavily into his favorite hobby outside of music.
George Harrison’s Love of F1 Racing

George Harrison had been a lover of racing drivers and motor sports since he was a young boy. He attended his first race when he was just 12 at the 1955 British Grand Prix, located at Aintree Racecourse in Merseyside, England.

Paul McCartney is known as one of the most famous musicians in the world thanks to the fame he found with The Beatles but he almost gave it all up when things turned sour for the band

Paul McCartney will tell the story of how his life fell apart after The Beatles split, leading him to almost abandon his music career.  Paul, 83, discusses his life as a global superstar in the iconic band and beyond in the new Prime Video documentary, Paul McCartney: Man on the Run. When The Beatles - Paul and bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr - broke up in 1970, Paul was left battling depression.

He then formed a new band, Wings, with his wife, Linda McCartney. In the trailer, he says, "The Beatles had been my whole life, really. When we split up, I thought I'll never write another note of music ever. I had fear of being a grown-up."

He continued, "I felt very depressed, but I was very lucky because I had Linda." He then said of Wings, "If anybody badmouthed us, I was thinking, 'I'm going to make the best record you've ever heard.'... People thought we were totally crazy, but that was our way."

Wings eventually had a string of hits, including Band on the Run, Live and Let Die, Jet a details

“We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it." – this is how John Lennon, one of the foremost musicians of the 20th century, described the aspect of love.

As Valentine’s Day celebrates love, grand gestures, today’s quote by John Lennon shifts the focus to something deeper — effort. In 'The Beatles' founder's words, love is a gift, but also like a “precious plant” that needs constant care and nurturing.
What Lennon's quote means?  Lennon’s quote reminds us that love is a living element – not an object – something that does not survive on autopilot mode.

Through his analogy, John Lennon compares love to a ‘precious plant’. In doing so, Lennon strips away the fantasy often attached to romance.  A plant does not thrive on admiration alone – it needs watering, sunlight and regular care. If neglected, it withers. Love works the same way.

The quote suggests that love is not self-sustaining. It asks for emotional details

The Forgotten Song Paul McCartney Wishes Was His. Unlike many of his peers, McCartney has never been a musician who kept his compliments to himself. He’s always been generous with his words about his fellow musicians and their work.

In one conversation, McCartney nodded to several songs he wished he had a part in.  “There’s always a couple that I hear that I think I’d have liked [to have written,” McCartney pondered. “I liked Sting’s ‘Fields Of Gold,’ and I thought: ‘Y’know what, I should have written that’…How dare he? I told him: ‘You stole my song.’ I thought that was a nice one, y’know?”

While he mentioned several songs, there was one he put an importance on from the ’20s.

“I don’t really want to have written anyone else’s songs, but, as a fantasy question, I love ‘Stardust’ by Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish,” McCartney once said. “It’s a beautiful song.”

When thinking of songs McCartney could be envious of, the mind immediately goes to a blues number, given the Beatles’ affinity for that genre. However, M details

The 33-year-old Irish actor, who portrays Ringo Starr in a four-part Beatles film series, has acquired an Alsatian for personal protection. Keoghan has spoken about dealing with intense public attention, especially following his breakup with American pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter, 26. Social media clips show him engaging Duke with a blue chew toy.

A trainer from Lawless K9 shared, "During a recent visit, we got to get some great bonding in with Barry and Duke, and they got the opportunity to work together, which was really nice to see. Barry naturally picked it up fast.  "Plenty more to come from Duke, lots of training and development.  

He has been nurtured and trained by us to make sure he is a well-rounded dog, and his protection training is done correctly over time and not forced.", reports the Irish Mirror.

Keoghan, known for his role in the thriller Saltburn and a Bafta winner for The Banshees of Inisherin, recently flaunted the mop-top hairstyle he's sporting to play Ringo at a red carpet event.

All four Beatles films, each spotlighting a different band member, are set to be released simultaneously in 2028. Paul Mescal will portray Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson will pla details

It's not at all easy to choose favorites, as there are just so many to choose from. What makes it a bit simpler would be the albums Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, which in this writer's opinion are McCartney's post-Beatles masterpieces. Material from those two records take up the majority of this list, but it's still difficult to pin down which of those tracks to put here. "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" is a lovely anthem that also serves as an intricate and unpredictable callback to "Jet" (which is great in itself). "Rock Show" is fun, but also has a terrific mini-jam at the end that's driven by a piano riff worthy of the gods. There are also more easy-going songs like "Listen to What the Man Said" and "Bluebird," but anyone can choose their favorites and not be wrong. Ranked by complexity, cohesion, and catchiness, here are McCartney's ten best post-Beatles songs.
10 "Mrs. Vanderbilt"
'Band on the Run' (1973)

The bassline in "Mrs. Vanderbilt" is just as exciting as the acoustic guitar; together they create an excellent foundation for a song that is relatively simple in structure and avoids being over-produced. McCartney's playfully hurried vocals in the first verse are the perfect start to the son details

 The world is extremely familiar with the Fab Four–four musicians from Liverpool formally known as the Beatles, who emerged in the 1960s and changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll forever with their innovative songwriting, varied discography, and hit-after-hit reputation. The Beatles set the standard for every artist who followed in their footsteps, which is why the upcoming biopics must showcase the group’s legacy with the utmost respect – but is Hollywood up for the job?

Sam Mendes, the director of Hamnet (2025), 1917 (2019), and American Beauty (1999), is set to direct a series of four separate Beatles films to be released in April 2028. The cinema extravaganza will retell the band’s compelling history, with each film dedicated to the unique perspective of each member. This past January, the first pictures from the biopics were released to the public, showing the cast’s “transformation” into the iconic rock stars.

Casting was announced back in March 2025, featuring Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and none other than Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Well-known actors Mia McKenna-Bruce, Saoirse details

The announcement that Farhan Akhtar will play Ravi Shankar comes with an image most people already recognise: Shankar on stage at The Concert for Bangladesh, quietly changing the rules of what popular music could be used for. That moment in 1971, when George Harrison helped organise the first major charity concert in rock history at Shankar’s urging, was not a late-career footnote. It was the culmination of an influence that had begun years earlier, when a sitar entered the Beatles’ world and refused to behave like a pop instrument.Ravi Shankar did not merely lend the Beatles a sound. He introduced them to discipline, to seriousness, and to the idea that music could carry moral weight without becoming spectacle. The sitar was not a prop

When the sitar entered Beatles music, it was immediately treated in the West as a symbol. But to Ravi Shankar, it was never symbolic. It was a demanding classical instrument rooted in lineage, years of apprenticeship, and a relationship between teacher and student that left no room for shortcuts.That difference in attitude created an early tension. Shankar would later say of the first sitar-heavy Beatles track, “I was very shocked. I didn’t like it at all.” details

It appears likely that 2026 will be a busy year for Paul McCartney, who may tour again as well as release a new album for the first time in years.

During a Q&A following a screening of the new Prime Video documentary, Man on the Run, in New Orleans, Louisiana, McCartney's longtime manager, Scott Rodger, provided updates on the former Beatles member (via Calico Skies Radio).

According to Rodger, McCartney is planning on touring later in the year. While the full list of countries he will visit was not revealed, Rodger said he would visit Japan. If this is true, this will mark McCartney's first concerts in Japan since the 2018 leg of the Freshen Up Tour.

Additionally, Rodger mentioned that McCartney's next album is complete. What's holding it up from being released is the cover artwork. It sounds like McCartney is taking his time organizing it.
When will Paul McCartney tour in 2026?

If McCartney tours in 2026, it will likely occur late in the year. Over the last two years, McCartney has only performed from September to December. The 2022 leg of the Got Back Tour did start in the spring, but it may be too close to announce spring tour dates.

In 2025, he announced his 2025 slate of sh details

Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as The Beatles' drummer in 1962. Rumors cited jealousy, but Lennon insisted Best was fired for poor drumming.  Best's popularity with female fans fueled speculation about his departure.

Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing drums for The Beatles except for Ringo Starr.

While Starr may not have been in the band’s original lineup when the group was first starting off, he nevertheless lived up to his position within the Fab Four, pairing remarkable well to the musical talents of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Yet to this day, most music fans can’t help but wonder what history might have been like if Starr’s predecessor, Pete Best, had remained in The Beatles as the group achieved increasing popularity the world over.

Among the founding members of The Beatles, Best served as the band’s drummer from 1960 to 1962. Though a decent enough performer, Best’s fellow bandmates apparently viewed Best’s abilities as a drummer with indifference, believing he lacked the proper talent to be a member of The Beatles.

Over the years, many hypothesized that The Beatles’ firing of Best owed large details

Director Sam Mendes is rounding out the call sheet for “The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event,” his upcoming cinematic extravaganza about the wildly popular British band.

“Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” star Farhan Akhtar will portray influential Indian composer Ravi Shankar, “Bohemian Rhapsody” actor Lucy Boynton is joining as British actress and girlfriend of Paul McCartney Jane Asher, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” breakout Morfydd Clark will play John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia Lennon, and “Industry’s” Harry Lawtey has been cast as the band’s original bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe.  They’ll star alongside Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harrison Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison in “The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event.”

As the title suggests, Mendes is making four separate movies — one from each Beatles member’s point of view — that will intersect to capture the band’s improbable journey from Liverpool to the center of global culture, leading to their 1970 breakup. This marks the first time that App details

The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, born Richard Starkey, married hairdresser Maureen Cox at Caxton Hall in London.

Beatles manager Brian Epstein served as Ringo’s best man, with John Lennon and George Harrison both acting as witnesses.

The couple had three children, future drummer Zak Starkey, born in 1965, Jason Starkey, born in 1967, and Lee Starkey, born in 1970.

The couple divorced in 1975. Cox died from leukemia in December of 1994.

Cox will be portrayed by British actress Mia McKenna-Bruce in Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films, The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which will hit theaters in April 2028. Starr will be played by Barry Keoghan.

In April 1981, Starr married actress Barbara Bach, who he met on the set of the film Caveman. They are still married to this day.

Source: Jill Lances/1430wcmy.com

From Liverpool to the world, The Beatles sang across nearly every genre and explored countless corners of the globe. The quintessential British quartet — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr — started out as a working-class band, juggling their music with blue-collar jobs. By the latter half of their careers, however, they had seen much of what the world had to offer, providing more than enough inspiration to write over 200 songs in just eight active years. One of those songs would later find an unexpected home with one of this generation's most influential pillars of pop culture: Marvel Comics.  "The White Album" Jumped from British Blues to Country Tales Like "Rocky Raccoon". Surrounded by press, The Beatles wave at fans as they arrive in New York City in 1964.

"Rocky Raccoon" is far more narrative than introspective, telling the story of a young, feisty boy named Rocky Raccoon. Set in the "black mining hills of Dakota," the song follows Rocky after his woman runs off with another man, leaving him humiliated and nursing a black eye. Refusing to let the slight go, Rocky checks into a local saloon, armed with a gun, and storms into the room next to his. When he bursts details