I saw a video of a concert given by the Beatles in 1963 which made me think, oh my God, 50 years have gone by since then, some of the young fans singing along with their idols at the concert may no longer even be around any more, but gone like John and George.Continue Reading
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 By
P.S. I Love You, P.S. I Love You
Beatles fans celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Beatles record, Love Me Do, on October 5. It was released as a single. Love Me Do was the A-side, and P.S. I Love You, the B-side. Both are Lennon-McCartney compositions, though owing more to Paul McCartney than to John Lennon. I love all the Beatles songs, especially the early ones, so I love Love Me Do, which peaked at number 17 when originally released in the UK in October 1962. In the US, it was a number 1 hit. But I love P.S. I Love You even more. It’s so sweet, tender and romantic.
Wikipedia says about the Beatles’ recording of P.S. I Love You:
George Martin was not present at the session, which was run by Ron Richards in his absence. Richards told the group that the song could not be the A-side of their single because of an earlier song of the same title.
Yes, there was an earlier song with the same title, but it came out long ago, in 1934. That earlier P.S. I Love You had music by Gordon Jenkins and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Here it is sung by Billie Holiday.Continue Reading
Saturday, February 25, 2012 By
Remembering George Harrison
Happy Birthday, George Harrison. We miss you so much. twitpic.com/8oaoyg
— Beatles Facts (@FabFourFacts) February 25, 2012
I just can’t forget The Beatles. Here are more tributes to George Harrison and music videos showing the quiet Beatle. Continue Reading
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 By
I can hear music
I love the Beach Boys' song, I Can Hear Music. The ardour of young love and the sweet harmony capture all that is beautiful in life. Yes, it's just a teenage love song, but listen to the jangling guitars, insistent beat and plaintive voices. Isn't that what life is all about: wishing and hoping and, if you are lucky, getting what you want?
Popular music perhaps most faithfully articulates our feelings, for it changes with every generation, and no two generations have ever seen eye to eye. I can't stand rap music any more than the rappers have time for the Beach Boys and the Beatles. This evanescence is what makes popular music so appealing, for it mirrors our own lives. We know it's going to fade away, just as we will, but that's why it's all the more dear to us, because we can identify with it.
Friday, December 25, 2009 By
Elvis and the Beatles: 1960s Christmas chart-toppers
It's Christmas! The 1960s were the golden era of music. The Beatles topped the UK singles chart four years during Christmas — in 1963, with I Want To Hold Your Hand, in 1964 with I Feel Fine, in 1965 with Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out, and again in 1967, with Hello Goodbye. The 1966 Christmas No 1 was Green, Green Grass Of Home by Tom Jones. Before the Beatles came Elvis Presley. He had two Christmas No 1s: It's Now Or Never in 1960 and Return To Sender in 1962. Here they are — Elvis and the Beatles.
1963 UK Christmas No 1
Monday, December 7, 2009 By
UK top 25 karaoke hits
It's official. Waterloo, the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest winner by Abba, the Swedish pop group, tops the list of 25 most popular karaoke songs in Britain.
The list was compiled by PRS for Music, formerly the Performing Right Society, a licensing organization which monitors music use to collect royalties for songwriters.
Another Abba hit, Dancing Queen, is the fifth most popular karaoke song, reports the Telegraph.
The only other artists with two entries in the top 25 is the band Queen, with Bohemian Rhapsody, at number two, and Don’t Stop Me Now, at number 16.
Here are my own favourites from the top 25, followed by the full list.
The Beatles, of course, my all-time-favourites, singing Hey Jude surrounded by fans on the David Frost Show in 1968. The music begins after the first minute.
Next up: The Rolling Stones, Don MacLean, the Monkees, Neil Diamond, and — yes — Abba at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest!
Sunday, November 29, 2009 By
Top 20 guitar riffs of all time
Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the best guitar riff of all time by the musicians' website Music Radar.com, reports the Telegraph.
Also in the top 10 are some of my favourites such as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones, ranked 10th, Day Tripper by the Beatles, eighth, Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, fourth, and Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin, third. Only Led Zeppelin has three songs in the top 20.
First my favourites, then the full 20 top list.
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles.
Sunday, July 12, 2009 By
The truth about the Beatles
I can't wait to read Elijah Wald's How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll. The New York Times reviewing this history of popular music says:
While Wald never says in so many words that the Beatles destroyed rock ’n’ roll, he does take a stance several degrees removed from standard-issue Beatles worship. He suggests that their ambitious later work, widely hailed as a step forward for rock, instead helped turn it from a triumphantly mongrel dance music that smashed racial barriers into a rhythmically inert art music made mostly by and for white people.
I love the Beatles, but most of my favourites are from their early days, up to 1966 and 67. Of course, they continued to make great music later. Tracks like Get Back and Ballad Of John And Yoko are among their very best. But I fell in love with the Beatles when I first heard songs like I Want To Hold Your Hand, Help, She Loves You, Ticket To Ride and my favourite – A Hard Day's Night.
Sunday, March 1, 2009 By
U2 and the Beatles
Thanks to YouTube, anyone around the world can watch videos of this U2 concert on top of the BBC’s Broadcasting House on February 27.
A crowd of around 5,000 people gathered to watch the Irish four-piece as they played the songs Beautiful Day and Vertigo, reported the Telegraph.
They also aired Get On Your Boots, the first single from their forthcoming album No Line On The Horizon, and another new track called Magnificent.
The 20-minute gig was reminiscent of the Beatles' famous concert on the roof of Apple HQ on London's Saville Row in January 1969.
“The Beatles started it all with their rooftop gig at Apple in 1969, famously halted by over zealous London constabulary,” recalled Neil McCormick in the Telegraph. “These days the police are to be found putting up crash barriers and redirecting the traffic. Presumably if they objected to this use of their resources, Bono would just call the mayor. Or the prime minister.”
As an old Beatles fan, I would say the Beatles were definitely better. And younger too at the time. They certainly rocked, as this clip shows.
Sunday, December 7, 2008 By
Paul carrying the weight for Beatles breakup
The Sunday Times has a great piece on Sir Paul McCartney confronts the ghosts of his past.
He has almost breezily drawn a line under the messiest divorce (with Heather Mills) in decades, and yet his role in the split from the Beatles still cuts deep, writes Mark Edmonds. McCartney is clearly in touch with his mortality, and he doesn’t want his immortality tarnished.
Mark Edmonds writes in the Sunday Times:
The Beatles were together for just eight years, until the split in 1970. McCartney has spent the greatest part of his life and career as a solo performer, with painfully less success than he enjoyed with Lennon. He concedes that he will probably never again write songs with the luminescence of Here, There and Everywhere or Eleanor Rigby.
His musical legacy is guaranteed, but that of “the man who broke up the Beatles” because he couldn’t be the boss, haunts him, as does his relationship with John Lennon.
The roots of the Beatles’ break-up go back to 1967, with the death of Brian Epstein. The group’s finances became chaotic and McCartney pushed for the Eastmans, his in-laws (first wife Linda’s parents), to take over their management. Lennon opposed McCartney’s desire to control the band’s destiny and legacy, and proposed a new manager, Allen Klein, with whom he, George and Ringo had already signed.
McCartney sued to wind up the band, ensuring it couldn’t reform without him. Lennon later fell out with Klein, but the Beatles did not reunite.
Looking back, McCartney says: “I have been thanked by Yoko and everyone else for saving the Beatles from Allen Klein…I was placed in the most awkward position I’ve ever been placed in. I had to fight three mates to save their legacy, their money, as well as mine, and I did so knowing it would put me in a very dodgy position…It was pretty scary having to say to Johnny, Georgie, Ringo, I’m suing you!”
