The Beatles Blogs
(51 views)Medicom teams up with Silly Thing for this “Can’t Buy Me Love” collaboration project that features the most notorious music group ever,
The Beatles, in 1000% vinyl figures. All four members of The Beatles are included in the collaboration including Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The 1000% figures stand 2′3″ or 68cm tall. Pick up your set now at THINK SILLY store and other MEDICOM TOY CO. retailers.
Tags: The Beatles John Lennon George Harrison Paul McCartney Ringo Starr
(71 views)Happy birthday Mim!
I hope you have a truly fantastic day.
And as ever it's time to roll out the old 'Birthday' classic! :)
But I think this is rather fitting today too...
Oh, and before I forget, (and I will)...
Someone else wants to say Happy Birthday too...
Catch ya later Mim!
Lots of love.
Alex x.
:)
Tags: The Beatles
(118 views)Welcome to Saturday, friends. There are just two more selections to go as we wind down our week of covers of Beatles' songs. I promise you I have saved the best two for last.
"Got to Get You into My Life" is another Beatles' song from their 1966 "Revolver" album. Written by Paul McCartney, it made prominent use of a brass section.
The Beatles' version was released in the US as a single in 1976, a decade after its initial release and six years after The Beatles split up, as a promo for the "Rock 'n' Roll Music" compilation album. It reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, The Beatles' last top ten hit there until their 1995 release "Free as a Bird."
In Barry Miles' 1997 book "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now," McCartney disclosed that the song was about marajuana. "'Got to Get You into My Life' was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot... So [it's] really a song about that, it's not to a person." Many lyrics from the song suggest this: "I took a ride I didn't know what I would find there / Another road where maybe I could see some other kind of mind there.",'"What can I do, what can I be when I'm with you I want to stay there / If I am true I will never leave and if I do I know the way there."
Earth, Wind & Fire remade the song and released it as a single which was included on their album "The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1." Their version reached #1 on the Black Singles chart and #9 on the Pop Singles chart.
The Earth, Wind & Fire version of the song won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) and also garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
From their 1978 greatest hits compliation, here are Earth, Wind & Fire with their version of The Beatles' "Got to Get You into My Life."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cByrcn4-iAw
Tags: The Beatles Earth Wind and Fire
(97 views)A good Friday to you all. I hope your day fares better than mine. I was just making a quick change to yesterday's blog by The Jam a few minutes ago (I'm a stickler for correct spacing...) and I hit the EDIT button to file it. *POOF* Into cyber heaven it went. :-( Fear not, VIPs. I did manage to have a copy of it elsewhere and have reposted it. Let's hope I have better luck with today's post.
The "Magical Mystery Tour" album consists of the six-song soundtrack to a one-hour television movie of the same name originally aired in 1967. The six-track double-extended play disk (EP) was released in the UK on 8 December 1967. In the US the record was released 11 days earlier on 27 November 1967 as an 11-track LP which also included five of the six songs on the band's three 1967 singles on the B-side ("Hello Goodbye"'s B-side, "I Am the Walrus," having also been on the film's soundtrack on the album's A-side).
The song is credited to both Lennon and McCartney, but Paul said it was co-written, while John said, "Paul's song. Maybe I did part of it, but it was his concept." Lennon also said to the Hit Parader in 1972: "Paul wrote it. I helped with some of the lyric."
McCartney said the "Roll up! Roll up!" introduction was inspired by a barker. The remaining lyrics explain in a general way the premise of the film: a mystery tour of the type that was popular in Britain when the Beatles were young. Lennon and McCartney expanded the tour to make it magical, which allowed it to be "a little more surreal than the real ones.
Recording began on 25 April 1967, less than a week after the final sessions for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The song was not complete when the session began and much of the evening was spent in rehearsals, but by the end of the evening the basic rhythm track was complete. The Beatles added bass guitar and vocal overdubs on 26 and 27 April. On 3 May, the brass fanfare and other parts were added in a disorganized session where the trumpet players began the evening without a score. According to Philip Jones, a friend of one of the players who was present, one of the players eventually took matters into his own hands and wrote a score out for them.
With their take on The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," from their 1991 greatest hits compliation, here is Cheap Trick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVZQ02DBsSs
Tags: The Beatles Cheap Trick
(102 views)A good Thursday to you, my friends. Moving right along in our look at covers of Beatles songs, this time we turn to The Jam.
"And Your Bird Can Sing" can be found on The Beatles 1966 "Revolver" album in the UK and on "Yesterday...and Today" in the U.S. Songwriting credits are listed as Lennon/McCartney, though the song was written solely by John Lennon. The working title was "You Don't Get Me." Lennon was later dismissive of the song, as he was of many of his compositions at the time, referring to it as "another of my throwaways...fancy paper around an empty box."
The song, a hard-edged rocker, is memorable for its extended dual-guitar melody, played by George Harrison and Paul McCartney. A version of the song featuring George on his Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, was recorded on 20 April 1966 but was scrapped. The band recorded the album version on April 26. The rejected version, heard on the "Anthology 2" album, features a vocal track on which Lennon and McCartney are giggling hysterically. The "Anthology" liner notes state that the tapes do not indicate the source of the laughter.
You probably know all there is to know about Paul Weller and Company, so I'll get straight to the video.
From their 1992 complilation album of B-sides, rarities and unreleased tracks titled "Extras," here are The Jam with their cover of The Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmwuX9X2XUs
Tags: Paul Weller The Beatles The Jam
(152 views)A good Wednesday to you all. This week is turning out to be more fun than I had anticipated. I'm so happy you're enjoying the Beatles' covers as much as I'm enjoying bringing them to you.
"I'm Only Sleeping" is from The Beatles 1966 album "Revolver." It was released two months earlier in the United States on the album "Yesterday and Today" and did not feature on the original US version of "Revolver." The song was primarily written by John Lennon but, like all The Beatles' songs written by Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is credited to Lennon/McCartney.
The recording of the song began in Abbey Road Studios on 27 April 1966 with eleven takes of the rhythm track. Five further takes of the song were recorded but none was used. Take 11 was chosen as the master and two days later Lennon added his lead vocals. On 5 May, George Harrison wrote and recorded the double guitar part. The next day the recording was completed by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's backing vocals.
The song features the then-unique sound of a reversed guitar duet played by Harrison, conceived after the tape operator accidentally threaded the tape into the machine upside down and performed by Harrison in a five hour late-night recording session with producer George Martin. Harrison perfected the part with the tape running backwards so that, when reversed, it would fit the dreamlike mood. One guitar was recorded with fuzz effects, the other without.
During the break before the second bridge, at about 1:57 into the song, a barely audible voice (probably Lennon's) can be heard saying, "Yawn, Paul," followed by a slightly more audible yawn at 2:00 minutes. The prominent acoustic rhythm guitar track is electronically compressed.
The first draft of Lennon's lyrics for "I'm Only Sleeping," written on the back of a letter from 1966, suggests that he was writing about the joys of staying in bed rather than any drug euphoria sometimes read into the lyrics. While not on tour, due to his lack of routine, Lennon would often spend his time sleeping, reading, writing or watching television, often under the influence of drugs, and would often have to be woken by McCartney for songwriting sessions. In a London Evening Standard article published on 4 March 1966, which contained quotes from an interview in which Lennon made his "more popular than Jesus" remark, Maureen Cleave, a friend of Lennon's, wrote, "He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England. 'Physically lazy,' he said. 'I don't mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with any more.'"
Lennon later wrote another song on the subject of sleep (or the lack of sleep) with "I'm So Tired," which appeared on The Beatles' 1968 eponymous album "The Beatles" (aka "The White Album").
Today's selection features Madness frontman, our old friend and former Virgin/Absolute Radio DJ, Suggs. I think he does a great rendition of this tune. I hope you think so as well.
From his 1995 solo effort, "The Lone Ranger," here is Suggs with "I'm Only Sleeping."
Tags: Madness The Beatles
(102 views)Happy Tuesday, Beatles fans!! Judging by the number of views yesterday's blog had, you apparently like the theme for this week. And I'd like to thank you so much for your reader/viewer/listenership. I truly do appreciate it.
"Money (That's What I Want)" was a 1959 hit single by Barrett Strong for the Tamla label, distributed nationally on Anna Records. The song was written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, and would become the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. The Beatles covered the song in seven takes on 18 July 1963 with their usual lineup. A series of piano overdubs were later added by producer George Martin. The song was released in November 1963 as the final track on their second UK album, "With The Beatles."
Formed by and led by record producer David Cunningham, The Flying Lizards were a loose collective of avant-garde and free improvising musicians, such as David Toop and Steve Beresford as instrumentalists, plus Deborah Evans-Strickland, Patti Palladin, and Vivien Goldman as main vocalists. They also boasted the painter, Michael Upton.
Cunningham's recording contract with Virgin Records was for only two singles, but when "Money" started to climb the charts, they signed him to a new contract. The group released their debut album, "The Flying Lizards" late in 1979. The album included two songs - "HerStory" and "The Window" - written and sung by Goldman. Their single issues included their postmodern cover versions of songs such as Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and "Money."
The album sold enough copies to justify Virgin financing another Flying Lizards album, but 1981's "Fourth Wall" put its focus on the eclectic experimentalism of Cunningham's music. Despite the presence of another mangled cover of a pop standard (Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up") the album was a commercial disappointment though it received strong reviews.
Their 1984 album "Top Ten" consisted entirely of covers, done in a deliberately emotionless, harsh and robotic style, including James Brown's "Sex Machine" and Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." By this time, Cunningham was devoting much of his time to producing other artists. After releasing 1984's "Top Ten," which combined Cunningham's eccentric take on pop with electronic textures and the vocals of Sally Peterson, Cunningham retired the Flying Lizards.
Their version of Barrett Strong's "Money" remained popular, and was used in the film soundtracks for "The Wedding Singer," "Empire Records," "Charlie's Angels," and "Lord of War," as well as in the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama, "Nip/Tuck."
Okay...it's a cover of a Beatles' cover. So sue me!! *lol* But you all know it as a Beatles' song, right? I know I do.
From their 1979 eponymous album, here areThe Flying Lizards with their take on "Money (That's What I Want)."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHs-6xnMEdE
Tags: The Beatles The Flying Lizards
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