Beatles FAQ

Four years after his recording debut, David Bowie had still made little progress. Despite a name change and several changes of musical style, he remained a fringe figure. Convinced that Deram (Decca) was mismanaging his career, Bowie was looking for a new label. In the spring of 1968, The Beatles announced the formation of Apple Records, a new label for ‘creatives’. Bowie immediately instructed his then-manager, Kenneth Pitt, to submit an audition tape. Swamped As a signed artist with a major label, Bowie might have expected an automatic hearing. Unfortunately, however, Apple's offer had backfired. The new label was besieged by aspiring musicians, managers, agents, artists, and hucksters. All were clamouring for an audition.    A further complication was that the new label would only recruit new talent with the agreement of all four (endlessly squabbling) Beatles. The office was filled with a mountain of demo tapes. From an early stage, any attempt to listen to them wa...

 Outside the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne, June 1964. An estimated 300,000 greeted The Beatles in Melbourne in June 1964. The Queen had only attracted half that number the preceding year. Aussie Beatlemania was particularly intense for the Melbourne stop because it marked the return of Ringo.  The drummer had been hospitalised a few days before the start of the tour. This had caused consternation amongst Beatle fans, but now he was climbing off his sickbed in London to join his buddies down under. Down Under It proved a difficult journey.  The flight was horrendous... It’s... a hell of a long way. I remember the plane felt like a disaster area to me. Fans clearly thought the effort worthwhile. Replacement drummer, Jimmy Nichol was less thrilled. He was sent back to London and obscurity, after a few weeks in the celebrity sun - read more .

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8063909 The best-known interpretation of a Beatles song was performed sensationally at Woodstock in 1969. On Sgt. Pepper With a Little Help From My Friends is a charming sing-along, ideally suited to Ringo's vocal range. Joe Cocker takes it to a different place. Paul's opinion Paying tribute to the late Sheffield singer, Paul McCartney said:   I remember him and [producer] Denny Cordell coming round to the studio and Saville Row and playing me what they recorded. It was just mind-blowing. He totally turned the song into a soul anthem, and I was forever grateful to him for doing that."

Photo by Saubhagya gandharv on Unsplash George Harrison’s first serious attempt at an ‘Indian’ composition had the unpromising working title of “Granny Smith”. George revealed his 'difficulty with words' in an interview with Maureen Cleave for the London Evening Standard in February 1966. Beautiful Words? He wishes he could write fine songs like Lennon and McCartney do, but he has difficulty with the words. “Pattie keeps asking me to write more beautiful words,” he said. He played his newest composition… ’Love me while you can: before I’m a dead old man…’ George was aware that these words were not beautiful. Evening Standard readers may have had the impression that “Love You To” was a love song celebrating George’s recent marriage to new Pattie (Boyd). The couple had, after all, just returned from a honeymoon in the (then) impossibly glamorous Barbados. Perhaps more pertinent, however, was another Maureen Cleave’s observation from the same interview. Indian music and culture,...

Pete Best was The Beatles' drummer from August 1960 until August 1962. He was with them in Hamburg and at their first Abbey Road recording session.  Best also played an important role in establishing The Beatles' popularity in Hamburg and Liverpool, but had a slightly distant relationship with the others. By the summer of 1962, the other Beatles were plotting against him. Using the pretext that George Martin had rejected his drumming as substandard, they approached Ringo Starr, an old friend of the band from Hamburg. Read the full story behind the sacking of Best (free on Medium 6 mins)

  At Abbey Road, George Harrison had a reputation for taking a long time to write songs. The biggest issue was completing lyrics with 'beautiful words'.

The first meeting between The Beatles and Bob Dylan took place in a room at the Delmonico Hotel in New York on Friday, 28 August 1964.

  “We’ve just come across... the most weird song.  I’ve no recollection of ever recording it.” George Harrison Anthology

  I play guitar: A, D, E./  I don't play bass cause that's too hard for me./  I play the piano if it's in C .  From Early 1970