Beatles FAQ

The Beatles collect their MBEs - contrary to myth they were  thrilled to get them Paul McCartney has often expressed his admiration for Queen Elizabeth, who came to power five years before he joined The Quarrymen.  We all kind of liked the Queen. It’s an age thing. We were kids when she was crowned, so to us she was like a glamorous film star. We identified with her. She’s ours. She’s the Queen.   Interview with the Radio Times, September 2019 The Beatles with Princess Margaret. The four Beatles tracks which mention the late Queen Elizabeth II are:  Penny Lane For You Blue Mean Mr Mustard Her Majesty Read more  (free) Free Beatles Teaching Materials

"Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout' Early Lennon & McCartney songs contained few direct references to their home city. The aim was to produce music that would appeal to a global rather than local appeal. The culmination of this approach was I Want to Hold Your Hand - written  with the express intention of appealing to the US market.  The formula worked - I Want to Hold Your Hand became the biggest selling single of all time. It was however, limiting artistically. By 1965, The Beatles success - and that of the openly introspective Bob Dylan - encouraged Lennon & McCartney to draw on more autobiographical material.  In My Lif e Lennon refers  generally to the 'places I remember'.  Strawberry Fields Forever, names one of these, a local Salvation Army Children's home, and weaves it into a hallucinatory dreamscape. On the surface McCartney takes a more functional approach:  Penny Lane" was kind of nostalgic, but it was real...