Beatles FAQ

On 29 September, I967, John Lennon worked with George Martin and the Abbey Road sound engineers on a potential new Beatles single.

  “I’m a quarter Irish or half Irish or something,”  John Lennon On arrival at Dublin Airport in 1963 John Lennon declared to reporters. “We’re all Irish!”. Lennon was half-joking, and referring primarily to the reputation Liverpool as an historic centre of Irish immigration. No Beatle was eligible for an Irish passport or even selection for Jack Charlton's famously flexible Republic of Ireland soccer team. That said, President Biden regularly describes himself as 'Irish', sometimes even omitting to add 'American'. If we apply what might be termed Biden Rules (ancestors going back a generation or five)  then at leastthree of the Fab Four can climb aboard.  Read more   4 minutes on Medium - free

  Country soul pioneer “If the Beatles wanted a sound, it was R&B. That’s what we used to listen to and what we wanted to be like. Black, that was basically it. Arthur Alexander.”  Paul McCartney, quoted in  Lewisohn,   Mark (2013).  The Beatles: All These Years Arthur Alexander was a relatively obscure singer songwriter from Alabama and an exact contemporary of The Beatles. They covered his song Anna (Go to Him) and his most successful single, You Better Move On was also an early hit for the Rolling Stones.  Yet despite being the only songwriter to be covered on studio recordings by The Beatles, The Stones and Bob Dylan, Alexander failed to follow-up early success. By the end of the 1960s he had effectively left the music industry and was driving a bus Full story (5 minute free read)

The George Martin who the Beatles first met in 1962 presented as Professor Higgins to their Eliza Doolittle. With his smart suit, upper class (southern) accent and courtly manners he appeared to be what Brian Epstein described as “a stern but fair-minded schoolmaster”.  Martin's initial hesitation was due to their personal presentation as much as their musical shortcomings he wasn’t sure about .... shaggy hair, Liverpool accents .... their beat-up gear .... {their}studio professionalism ... source According to Womack, this may have been rooted in his own ‘hidden’ background. For while The Beatles cheerfully conceded what Mark Lewisohn describes as 'their unvarnished working class roots', Martin carefully concealed his.  According to Kenneth Womack's biography,  Maximum Volume  (2017), the suave, sharply dressed producer came from  ' a family that had no electricity or running water and had one gas jet.' George Martin - the early years (3 minute free read) T

Despite their local success in Liverpool and Hamburg — and Brian Epstein’s best efforts — The Beatles struggled to get their first recording deal. Columbia, HMV, Pye, Philips, and Oriole all turned them down. Dick Rowe at Decca signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes in preference, famously added insult to injury ‘Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr Epstein’. After the failure of the Decca audition, Brian Epstein was running out of options. Early in 1962 he managed to get a meeting with George Martin, the manager of Parlaphone Records, an eclectic label owned by EMI. Martin was more charmed by the Beatles manager than their music. “I wasn’t too impressed with the tape Brian Epstein had played me,” Martin  told Desert Island Discs in 1996 . “There was something there but I couldn’t find out whether it was worthwhile or not.” Read full story here   5 minute free read

'a combination of Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby' with improvements via George Martin

Was Please Please Me The Beatles first UK Number One? At the end of the lengthy recording session for the single version of Please Please Me  George Martin turned to The Beatles and said, 'Gentlemen, you have your first Number One!' George was rarely wrong about anything but in this case the jury is still out. 

I n February 1964 The Beatles arrived at  Kennedy Airport on their first official visit. For three of the four member of the group their first experience of the USA was the sight and sound of thousands of screaming fan. Only George Harrison had crossed the Atlantic Ocean before, on a solo visit five months earlier. In September 1963, The Beatles were given a short break in their manic schedule. While the others holidayed in Europe, George Harrison travelled to rural Illinois to visit his older sister, Louise,. Accompanied by his brother, Peter, George flew to New York and then on to St Louis. Louise then drove her brothers to her new family home in Benton, Illinois (pop.7,000). George with his siblings and niece in Benton, Illinois On the day of his arrival in Benton, The Beatles reached Number One in the UK record charts with She Loves You. But in the USA they had not yet charted and were almost completely unknown in America. There were no fan awaiting him at either airport and this w

    The Beatles first flew into New York in February 1964. They had what to many American ears was a charmingly fresh approach to the  English language.  Interestingly, this came across more in their spoken interviews than their lyrics. Early Beatles songs consciously followed the established 'American' style: 'I Wanna Be Your Man'.  In fact 'I want to hold your hand' (sung wanna)  arose from a direct request from Brian Epstein for a single tailored to the US market.  Atlantic Crossing Success gave The Beatles to licence (or license!) to 'Act Naturally' as Ringo sings. By the mid-Sixties British cultural and linguistic references permeate their song lyrics. Here are a small selection:  '...crawled off to sleep in the bath' ( from Norwegian Wood). This refers directly to the bathtub rather than the room. the (UK)  National Health Service  (from ‘Dr Robert’)  '...the  News of the World  (newspaper notorious for sex scandal stories  from ‘Polyt

'Evidence' of an alleged height disparity