Beatles FAQ

Until 1968, wives and girlfriends stayed away from Abbey Road whenever The Beatles were recording. 

"We all play on it; i t’s a genuine Beatles recording .  ” Paul McCartney via  Henry Grossman/Wikimedia Commons  and Apple Corps

The Beatles famously brought LSD to public attention. Less well known is that George Harrison became rapidly disillusioned with the drug.

  He was a terrible driver…with bad eyesight. John Lennon's cousin, Stan. John Lennon's Austin Maxi, the last car he ever drove

John Lennon was very short-sighted, but in his teens refused to wear spectacles in public.

The Beatles' record sales dwarfed those of Bob Dylan. In terms of musical influence, the relationship was inverse. 

  The two most influential pop acts of the 1960s were initially wary of each other. As the world was going Beatles-mad, Bob told pals he had no time for 'bubblegum music'. Paul, for his part, dismissed the 'folk crap' he had not actually heard. Meanwhile, the rivals were busy checking each other out.    The Beatles hear Bob In Paris in January 1964 was the first time I ever heard Dylan at all. Paul got the record [ The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan ] from a French DJ. For three weeks in Paris, we didn’t stop playing it. We all went potty about Dylan. John Lennon quoted in Anthology Bob, for his part, joined 70 million fellow Americans in watching that Ed Sullivan Show a few weeks later. And in August 1964, he pitched up at their hotel when they were next in New York. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan  Released in May 1963, Dylan's second studio album marked his emergence as a major singer-songwriter. Several tracks ('Blowing in the Wind, Times They Are a-Changing, A Hard ...

"But that isn't my car!"  Lovely Rita meter maid Nothing can come between us There are two origin stories - three if you count a composite version.

Ringo famously obtained his first drum while in hospital.  A spell on the children’s ward was also the catalyst for George Harrison obtaining his first musical instrument. When he was thirteen, George was admitted to hospital with what turned out to be a minor kidney problem.  To cheer up his sick son, Harry Harrison agreed to buy a classmate’s Dutch Egmond flat-top acoustic guitar. Dutch Egmond Acoustic — George Harrison’s first guitar What George would later describe as a ‘cheapo, a horrible little guitar’ had a selling price of £3 ($4). This was a large sum for a poorly paid bus driver, though it would prove an inspired long-term investment.  Technical issues The Egmond proved very difficult to master, partly because it was poorly set up (a common problem with cheaper mass-produced guitars).  Progress was also hampered by an ill-advised experiment. Curious to see how the guitar was engineered, George unscrewed the head and was unable to fix it back on.  Aband...

  Outside Paul's family home in the early 1960s Soon after first seeing them at the Cavern, Brian Epstein invited The Beatles for a formal meeting at his office. This was arranged for the afternoon of Sunday, 3rd December 1961, at 4.30. Epstein wanted to manage the band but had doubts about their reliability and professionalism. The Beatles, for their part, had achieved success in Hamburg and Liverpool but had no record deal or national profile. John, George, and Pete took the bus to the meeting. They arrived on time - but after forty five minutes, there was still no sign of Paul.  A call was made to the McCartney family home. This revealed that  Paul had just got up and was having a bath. Epstein exploded, "How can he be so late for such an important meeting?"     To which Harrison famously replied, "He may be late, but he's very clean".  A frosty silence melted into laughter. Why was Paul so late? On one level, Paul's lateness was symptomatic of  wha...

  We were first introduced in about 1974 by Elizabeth Taylor. 

The 'Paul is Dead' rumour began in early 1967. The Abbey Road cover photo provided new 'clues.' 

57 Wimpole Street where Paul lived with the Asher family

The Beatles learned some very basic, functional German while in Hamburg. They were resolutely English in their approach to pronunciation, intonation and attempting to mimic accent. 

On July 4th 1966, The Beatles played two concerts in the Philippines as part of what would be their final world tour. These took place over a single afternoon and evening  at the Rizal Stadium, Manila. 

We didn’t sing our own songs in the early days — they weren’t good enough, John Lennon We started as a little covers band,  Paul McCartney

Julia Lennon  (née Stanley) gave birth to her first child, John Winston Lennon, at Liverpool Maternity Hospital during the early hours of 9 October, 1940.  

  Slim Whitman with his Gibson - the sound George aspired to.  George tried to teach himself [the guitar]. But he wasn’t making much headway. ‘I’ll never learn this,’ he used to say. I said, ‘You will, son, you will. Just keep at it.’  Louise Harrison, the mother of George

Paul & Mary McCartney Paul McCartney has recently suggested a ‘subconscious’ inspiration for the line I said something wrong/Now I long for yesterday  was his regret at once chiding his mother for ‘talking posh’:

Paul soon abandoned the trumpet

Tabla - traditional Indian instrument

  The name change from the original The Quarry Men to The Beatles went through many stages and spellings. Some ludicrous options were considered or even used on occasion. Johnny and the Moondogs, the Beatals, the Silver Beetles, and the Silver Beats are notorious examples.  None of these monikers was as bad as The Beat Brothers. Yet this was the name that appeared on the first records John, Paul, George (and Pete) recorded for Polydor in 1961.  Tony Sheridan German Polydor producer (and celebrated musician) Bert Kaempfert wanted to cash in on Tony Sheridan's (modest) fame.  Sheridan, very shrewd in most musical matters, had old-school preconceptions about showbiz names.  He dropped his own real surname (McGinnity) when first appearing on Ready Steady Go. The Beat Brothers, he argued, would have more market appeal than the weird-sounding The Beatles. Subsequent record sales spectacularly refuted this thesis.  Tony Sheridan and the Beat Boys  - Beat...

The collage on the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band  shows a gathering of over 70 famous figures, cultural icons, and waxworks.  How were the people chosen? The organising principle is that The Beatles have chosen who will feature. Their choices are engagingly random. English comic Tommy Handley shares the stage with Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, for example. Very much alive, Fred Astaire is next to the long-dead nineteenth-century author, Edgar Allan Poe. Film star Sophia Loren is in the image - but you can't see her. She and fellow Italian   Marcello Mastroianni  are hidden behind the waxworks of The Beatles. Who missed out? Changes were made right up to the last moment. Some very unlikely options were considered.  A cardboard cut-out of Hitler was produced but (wisely) removed from the photoshoot at the last minute.  Brian Epstein rejected John Lennon's suggestion of Jesus. He did not wish to reignite  the controversy of the p...

Three female songwriters have co-credits on songs covered by The Beatles

Lennon and McCartney frequently named women in song titles - some real, some disguised, several invented.

The Beatles first played the Cavern on February 9, 1961: a lunchtime session for which they were paid £5. Despite lengthy absences in Hamburg, they would do over 290 more gigs there over the next two years. On Good Friday, 12 April, 1963, they gave their penultimate performance there, returning in triumph as national chart toppers. This was widely assumed to be their farewell to the tiny venue. But an obscure contractual obligation to a local promoter brought them back to do one more date down those cellar steps. Final Cavern Gig Their last performance was on Saturday, August 3rd, 1963. It would prove a chaotic swansong.  The crowds outside were going mad. By the time John Lennon had got through the cordon of girls, his mohair jacket had lost a sleeve. I grabbed it to stop a girl getting away with a souvenir. John stitched it back on. Read full story    Why did The Beatles Stop Performing Live ?

On the 22nd August 1969, The Beatles completed their final official engagement.  

​ Ringo never aspired to be a principal songwriter for The Beatles but he does have two  sole writing credits.

Freddie Lennon in the mid 1960s

The room above the Bambi Kino cinema George Harrison was seventeen when he first arrived in Hamburg in August 1960. Though the legal age limit for performers was eighteen, club  owner Bruno Koschmider was initially unconcerned.  It was when The Beatles jumped ship to work at the bigger Top Ten that Koschmider found his conscience stirred. He then informed the police of his shocking discovery. Those devious Englishmen had an underage performer in their ranks . pen & ink sketch of Hamburg club owner Bruno Koschmider (1926-2000) The police duly deported Harrison on November 21. The guitarist spent his last night teaching John Lennon his parts before reluctantly packing a " crappy suitcase and things in boxes, paper bags with my clothes in, and a guitar." Homeward bound The logistics of getting home proved challenging, as George related in Anthology: Astrid and Stuart dropped me at Hamburg station. It was a long journey on my own on the train to the Hook of Holland. From ...

Throughout his life, George celebrated his birthday on February 25th. But in the early 1990s, there were claims of a newly discovered 'hospital document'. 

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 .

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