Beatles News

In honor of Paul McCartney’s birthday today (June 18), we look back during the magical time when the Beatles ruled the world and changed the face of music forever.

Enjoy these classic Beatles images!

Source: John Lennon Fan

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The Beatles – “Love Me Do”

HIT #1: May 30, 1964

STAYED AT #1: 1 week

“Love Me Do” was eight years old by the time it hit #1. A 16-year-old Paul McCartney had written most of the song while skipping school in 1958, with his friend John Lennon helping out on a few parts. The two of them hadn’t even formed the Beatles yet. “Love Me Do” was also the Beatles’ first single; they released it in the UK toward the end of 1962. They recorded three different versions of it with three different drummers, though the one that featured the newly recruited Ringo Starr was the one that ended up coming out. The song only made it to #17 in the UK, but it established the group as something. It was only a beginning.

Source: Tom Breihan @tombreihan /stereogum.com

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Friday came and went without the new Paul McCartney album a television report said was headed our way, but the Beatles legend continues to drop hints that something big may be announced soon.

This morning, that included tweeting out an image that looks an awful lot like an album cover, featuring what appears to be a red ticket on a yellow background with his name and the letters "N.B.P." on it.

If McCartney is about to release a new album - and if you still feel like speculating, tomorrow (June 18) is his birthday - it would be his first collection of new material since New, in 2013.

McCartney had been hinting at at releasing new music this year, mentioning on his website in January that he was “putting the finishing touches” on a new album.

Source: ultimateclassicrock.com

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With his big, expressive eyes and lovely compositions that leaned toward the sweeter side of the Beatles' catalog, it's easy to get why Paul McCartney, among his mop-topped mates, was pegged early on as "the cute one." And though he reportedly didn't love that label, he never did shy away from those sillier aspects of his personality guaranteed to raise a smile. Here, in honor of his 76th birthday (June 18), a nostalgic look back at Paul at peak adorable. (Pictured above: pulling faces on his 22nd birthday during a tour in Sydney, 1964.)

Source: Keystone/Getty Images

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More remarkable than the admittedly poor audio quality of the performance itself is George Drynan’s off-the-cuff interviews with St. John Ambulance attendants and crowd members, all of whom assumed he was a reporter owing to his button-down appearance and professional manner.

On Aug. 17, 1966, amid the din and hullabaloo of what would be the last-ever Beatles concert in Canada, nobody seems to have noticed the middle-aged man in the stands with a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He was George K. Drynan, QC, a day-tripping father of three, war veteran and sedan-owning Rotarian who travelled to Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens from Oshawa, Ont., with his wife – the accomplished organist, composer and choirmaster Margaret (Peggy) Drynan – and a family friend. The oldest son, John, handled the driving. Younger son James also attended the show, but had arranged separate transportation.

Source: Brad Wheeler/theglobeandmail.com

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Even as recently as the 80s, visitors to Liverpool could have been forgiven for not realising they were in the birthplace of The Beatles. Things changed when, in 1984, a dedicated museum to the group – Beatle City – opened on Seel Street, in the city centre. That museum boasted the greatest collection of Beatles memorabilia ever brought together – the prize exhibit was the original Magical Mystery Tour bus, restored to its psychedelic glory, which offered tours of the former Fabs’ family homes, and various other places of interest in and around the city. But that museum was plagued by financial difficulties and so closed its doors for the last time after less than two years.

What Beatle City had demonstrated, however, was that there was an appetite for Beatles tourism – a fact not lost on the people behind the then-burgeoning Cavern City Tours enterprise, who have been behind most major Beatle-related projects in the city for 35 years.

Source: Paul McGuinness/udiscovermusic.com

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Richard Nixon tried to get John Lennon thrown out of America because he saw him as a ‘counter-culture enemy’, according to a new documentary.

The former US President was so paranoid the Beatles singer could inspire the youth vote against him that he wanted him deported.

Lennon biographer Tim Riley said that Nixon regarded the Liverpudlian as ‘dangerous political leader’ and wanted him gone before the 1972 US election. According to ‘John Lennon: It Happened Here’, which is screening on US TV network Reelz, Lennon’s anti-war views and support of free speech made him a target for Nixon.At the time Lennon was living in New York where he recorded ‘Imagine’ in 1971 after the break-up of the Beatles.

He also staged his ‘Bed-In for Peace’ with his wife Yoko Ono where they stayed in bed for a week to call for peace.

All of this turned Lennon into an icon on the left at a time of protests over the Vietnam War and rising suspicion of the US government.

Riley said that the Nixon White House took the threat posed by Lennon so seriously that they ‘decided to attack his immigration status’.

Source: Daily Mail

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Sir Paul McCartney has been pretty prolific in the making music department over the past six decades.

But surprisingly, he hasn't recorded as many duets with other artists as often as you might think.

Every now and then, he has teamed up with some of the world's greatest, and here's our very favourites.
1. 'The Girl is Mine' (with Michael Jackson)

Perhaps surprisingly, this pop ballad was the first single to be taken from Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

This song features the pair fighting over the same girl. She clearly has no particular type! Jackson said it was “one of my favourite songs to record” as there was “lots of playing, and throwing stuff at each other, and making jokes.” Many members from Toto also took part in the recording.
2. 'Ebony and Ivory' (with Stevie Wonder)

OK, this one might be a bit on the sickly sweet side, but come on, it's a classic!

It is a self-empowerment anthem that tackles issues of racial equality, and it reached number one on both the UK and the US charts. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony, folks!".

Sour details

Musicians can be a fickle lot. They can be unpunctual, slack with returning phone calls and precious about criticism.

But if there's one area they can be some of the most frustrating people on Earth, it's in deciding a band name.

Having played in countless bands, I can safely suggest that the more experienced, talented and democratic your group is, the harder it is to decide on a name.

My last band, for example, had three different names for its first three gigs. In fact, by the third gig we simply went without a name because we couldn't agree.

One of the best ways around it is to have a guitarist who assumes some form of pseudo leadership and everybody just nods, smiles and agrees to prevent them having a hissy fit.

Source: ABC Radio Adelaide By Malcolm Sutton/abc.net.au

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SHABBY ROAD

John, Paul, George and Ringo made the crossing a mecca for music fans after it appeared on their 1969 album Abbey Road

WORKERS have dug up the iconic zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles.

The Fab Four were pictured walking over the crossing for the cover of their fabled Abbey Road album — named after the North London recording studio nearby. Workmen pose as The Beatles walking across the iconic Abbey Road crossing.

Workmen pose as The Beatles walking across the iconic Abbey Road crossing. Workmen pose as The Beatles walking across the iconic Abbey Road crossing. The Fab Four were pictured walking across the road outside Abbey Road Studios for the iconic 1969 album cover

Fans flocked to the site to pick up pieces of rubble being left behind by the resurfacing works as the old paintwork was ripped up.

Source: Neal Baker/thesun.co.uk

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