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STORY BEHIND THE SONG

One of the Beatles’ most famous songs from the first album wasn’t written by Lennon and McCartney. They recorded the rock and roll song ‘Twist and Shout’ (by Phil Medley and Bert Russell) at the end of that long day. Everyone loved John’s voice on the song. In fact, he was very tired at the time. ‘I was just screaming,’ he remembered later.

They recorded their second album later in the same year. With the Beatles still had rock and roll songs like Chuck Berry’s ‘Roll over Beethoven but Lennon and McCartney wrote more songs for the album. The cover’s black-and-white photo became famous. They asked the photographer to copy Astrid’s photos of the band in Hamburg.

‘America was ours!’

The Beatles were selling millions of records in Britain. The Sunday Times newspaper compared Lennon and McCartney with Beethoven. But many of the group’s fans had other things on their minds. A lot of young fans dreamt about their favourite Beatle:

Paul was the sweet, romantic one.

George was the quiet one.

Ringo was the happy, funny one.

John was the intelligent one. He often made jokes, but they weren’t always kind.

Follow the leader

In the very early days, John was the band’s leader. When the band became successful, his position wasn’t so clear. Both he and Paul wrote songs and sang for the band. In front of the cameras, Paul often spoke for the band, but John usually had the last word. To George, John was always the strongest person in the group. Years after John’s death, he said, ‘I think he is still the leader now, probably.’ At the beginning of 1964, the Beatles were the most popular band in Britain. They were famous in Europe, but they were still a little nervous about the United States. Many English stars looked for success across the Atlantic before the Beatles, but failed.

The Beatles’ first singles in the US didn’t do very well. But interest grew, and finally ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ reached number one. The band flew there in February 1964. They all knew how important this trip was. In Ringo’s words, America was all that they dreamt about years earlier.

The trip was a big success. When the band played on TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show .they were watched by an American TV audience of almost seventy-three million people. It was one of the most important shows in the history of popular music. The Beatles played in Washington and Miami, and went home happy. As Ringo said, ‘America was ours now.’ The band were world stars.

The Beatles returned to the United States later in 1964, as part of a big world tour. This trip was as successful as the last one. Ringo remembers that ‘it was just so much fun. ‘As usual, nobody could hear the music at the concerts because of the screams of the fans. At this time it wasn’t a big problem for the band, but it became more and more important later. George’s memory of this tour was less happy than Ringo’s. President Kennedy was killed only a year before, and George didn’t want anyone to shoot one of the Beatles.

Up and Up

After the first American tour, the Beatles turned to another world - films. They made A Hard Day’s Night in the spring of 1964. The title of the film and the song of the same name was something that Ringo said. The rest of the band often laughed at the drummer’s unusual way of saying things.

The film’s writer, Alan Owen, spent a few days with the band. The Beatles were funny, and the film showed this. Owen also understood the band’s daily life. For much of the film, they were running away from screaming fans. The band liked making the film, but George probably enjoyed it most. He fell in love with one of the actresses, Patti Boyd. They were married in 1966.

The black-and-white film was first shown in London and Liverpool. It was a big success. (The album was, too. This time, all the songs were by Lennon and McCartney.) Many people really liked Ringo’s acting in the film. Some even called him ‘the new Charlie Chaplin’. But Ringo remembers that he came straight from a club for one very funny part. He says that he wasn’t acting much!

John and Paul’s musical ideas were growing all the time. Each new song was different and exciting.

A different sound

John and Paul were both big fans of Bob Dylan’s music.

The subjects and language in the young American’s songs were always unusual and interesting. The song Tm a Loser’ on the album Beatles for Sale, at the end of 1964, sounded a little like a Dylan song. The same was true of the following year’s ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’.

John even found time to write a book in 1964. John Lennon In His Own Write was full of funny short stories and pictures. It didn’t have any serious meaning. In the introduction Paul wrote, ‘If it seems funny, then that’s enough.’ John wrote another book the next year.

In early 1965, the Beatles made their second film. After the success of A Hard Day’s Night, there was more money. But the band just wanted to travel and have a good time. ‘We started saying, “We’ve never been to the Bahamas. Could you write that in?”’ Paul remembers. As George said later, ‘We had fun in those days.’ But John remembered it differently. This wasn’t a happy time for him. ‘You can’t see it but I’m singing “Help!”’ he said.  ‘Here to stay’

Later in 1965, Paul wrote one of the most popular songs of all time. ‘Yesterday ‘was a beautiful, sad song about lost love.

STORY BEHIND THE SONG

The music for ‘Yesterday’ came to Paul in a dream. He ‘just woke up one morning’ with the song in his head. At first, he thought it was an old song. But none of his friends knew it. The first words to the song were about eggs!

George Martin loved the song immediately. But, in his opinion, it needed something different. Paul recorded it without the rest of the band. He played the guitar alone, while a small group of musicians played strings.

The song is one of the band’s most famous - it has been recorded by many different singers and groups and in many different ways. Paul was sometimes angry when people called it their favourite Beatles song.