The Beatles

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Back in the C.H.A.R.T.S?

It's been forty four years since The Beatles had released their last studio album as a group, Let It Be. An album that topped UK album chart on 23 May, 1970 and unfortunately an album that ended an unforgettable reign. However, just because The Beatles broke up in 1970 doesn't mean their music has stopped toppling charts with new releases such as The Beatles Live At The BBC Volume II, which was released last November, peaking number seven in US Billboard 20, or even Beatles covers by various artists and bands like Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, and so forth, who have all placed on charts, ranging from as high as first position and staying as long as twenty weeks (Source; The Tastiest UK Cover; Beatles Covers in The UK Charts). Once again, a beloved Beatles classic returns back to the charts on Billboard's Top 10.

It was 25 June, 1967 when a message of peace and love clung to every word John Lennon crooned as The Beatles performed on the first ever live television satellite debut, Our World. The iconic song was heard by millions (a four-hundred million estimate) across five continents becoming an anthem of the late 1960s, topping the charts at number one in eleven different charts, from Billboard Hot 100 to Cashbox staying at number one in US charts for up to thirteen weeks (Source; The Guardian The Beatles: Every album and Single With Chart Position).

The song was released as the last track on The Beatles ninth studio album, Magical Mystery Tour, during the height of The Summer of Love. The Song itself was re-released in 1987, but placed the highest at spot number nineteen in the Irish Singles Chart. As of yesterday, 24 October 2014, that all changed as "All You Need Is Love" returns back to Billboards Top 10 chart thanks to a well-known Jazz artist, Dave Koz who joined other renowned names, from Eric Benét, Jonathan Butler, Gloria Estefan, Heather Hadley, Richard Marx, Johnny Mathis, Maysa, BeBe Winans and Stevie Wonder to record the iconic classic, making it Koz's second Beatles cover, after recording "Got To Get You Into My Life" last year.

Earlier this month Dave Koz released Dave Koz & Friends: The 25th of December, which peaked number 2 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums Chart, containing classics from "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" to "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" and yes, even to "All You Need Is Love", a song that's never thought of as a Christmas or holiday song, so why put it in?

"It was important to me, as an artist to say, 'Here [is] a song that you've never heard before [sequenced among holiday classics] that we're going to throw into the mix.'" - Dave Koz

"This album was made with that spirit in mind…an abundance of love and joy went into every single note. For me, making it was like hosting the best holiday party ever! I invited some wonderfully talented friends over…we ate, we drank, we reminisced, and then we retired to the living room, sat around the piano, and sang some songs—first, each duet partner and me; then before the party was over, we all came together for one last song: the Beatles gem 'All You Need Is Love.' Though not a Christmas song, it truly holds the message of the holidays (and really, of life) for me." -Dave Koz, DaveKoz.com

The Dave Koz & Friends Beatles cover has reached Number eight in Billboard charts, making in the last time any recording of the song has place in top ten in the last forty-seven years.

You can order Dave Koz & Friends: The 25th of December on either of the following;

iTunes- by clicking here

Amazon- by clicking here

Enjoy the following video of Dave Koz & Friends' "All You Need Is Love" via Youtube;

Love Is All You Need

Other Articles That May Interest You;

Thursday, October 16, 2014

John Lennon on Spotify

Yes, you read it correctly, the moment most of us Spotify listeners have been waiting for, John Lennon joins the other Beatles by coming to the music media site with a catalogue of his solo albums - Paul and Ringo who has already had their full discographies and George who has a few selected songs available.

A week ago today we celebrated what would of been John Lennon's 74th birthday, and what better way to remember the inspirational musician than having eight, yes eight of your favorite John Lennon and Plaistic Ono Band, albums streaming from your very own phone or computer. As part of the Spotify movement the following albums were added;

Albums;

Milk and Honey
Plastic Ono Band
Rock 'N' Roll
Imagine
Mind Games
Sometime In New York City
Walls and Bridges
Double Fantasy

Compilations;

Gimme Some Truth
Signature Box
Power To The People: The Hits

Although eight of John Lennon's albums starting from the 1970s to 1980 are available to stream, his work while experimenting with Yoko Ono in Unfinished Music No 1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions and Wedding Album are not yet part of the Spotify collection.

The following was post via Twitter by John Lennon verified account (@JohnLennon) on 7 October, 2014.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Macca helps save The Bombed Out Church

The interior of St. Luke's; 1941

St Luke's Church stands proudly at 41 meters (133 feet) tall, 18 meters (60 feet) wide, and 54 meters (177 feet 6 inches) long on the corner of Berry Street and Leece Street in the heart of Liverpool. Designed by John Foster Sr and John Foster Jr in the early 1800s, the building was complete in 1832 becoming an Anglican Parish church becoming known as "the doctor's church", being near Rodney Street, home of many local doctors. Through 1832 St Luke's was not only used for religious purposes but as a venue of celebrations as well as a concert hall until 1849 when the Philhamronic Hall opened on Hope Street. To many Liverpudlians this church is known as 'The Bombed Out Church', due to the Liverpool Blitz on 6 May, 1941. During this brutal bombings St. Luke's suffered from an incendiary device causing a rapid fire. As fire spread, the interior turned to ash while the exterior and shell still stand today. In 1952 the church became known as a Grade II building, being defined as "particularly important buildings of more than special interest" (English Heritage, Listed Buildings).

Yes, yes, I know, the name of this website is "The Fab Four Blog", so why am I telling you about a church?
Two days ago, Sunday 5 October, 2014, it was announced that Sir James Paul McCartney is helping the Bombed Out Church's Crowdfunder campaign and Club Freeze to preserve this "international legend" (says Curator of St Luke's, Ambrose Reynolds). After Crowdfunder raised over £20,000 towards the church, Club Freeze dance music promoter's turned to one of Liverpool's most iconic productions, Paul McCartney, who was delighted to help;

"St Luke's Church - better known as 'The Bombed - Out Church' to the people of Liverpool- is a place that encourages people to express themselves. The people of Liverpool should do everything possible to keep this venue open for the use of the people and run by the people. It is a place that is regularly staffed by students from LIPA and every-day people of all ages, religions and backgrounds. It would be a terrible shame if we lost this cultural icon." -Sir James Paul McCartney via PaulMcCartney.com

Not only has Paul McCartney taken a step towards helping a Liverpool treasure, but John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who had taken a keen interest in the church, even making it part of her "Skyladder" art work this past March. As part of her work she stated that the idea was for her husband John, Lennon that is, who was "very proud of Liverpool". After her husbands passing she had the urge to visit Liverpool and start a public art display of stepping ladders inside The Bombed-Out church for anyone to bring a ladder that "takes you a bit closer to the sky." (Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono: Skyladders ).

Skyladders

Along with her art display Yoko Ono takes her own part in spreading awareness to raise money for the struggling church via Twitter where she wrote

"Seven reasons why we should cherish Liverpool's St Luke's Bombed Out Church http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/seven-reasons-should-cherish-liverpools-6860932 "

If you're interested in taking part in the progression to save The Bombed-Out Church here are some ways;

Visit the Bombed Out Church website
Sign a petition by clicking here
Visit St. Luke's from 12 noon - 6 pm Wednesday - Sunday

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Meat Free Monday Fan Video

Yesterday, 22 September, 2014, Paul McCartney and Crew released a new video celebrating Meat Free Monday's fifth Anniversary. What is Meat Free Monday? I encourage you to read all about Meat Free Monday's history and Paul McCartney's part in the campaign by clicking here.

This year alone, McCartney has released six music videos. From his lyric video for "New" to his official videos for "Queenie Eye", "Appreciate" and "Early Days", and two fan videos including "Meat Free Monday" and "Save Us". All songs, with the exception of "Meat Free Monday", came from Sir Paul's New album, released this past October. For those who don't know what a Fan Video is, it simple involved Paul McCartney asking his fans to send in a picture of themselves displaying a line from one of his selected songs, such as the following Fan Video (via Youtube) for "Save Us";

With great success and participation in "Save Us", The McCartney crew along with the musician himself, had decided to continue to spread Meat-Free Monday awareness by asking fans to submit pictures for another Fan Video, this time for Paul's campaign song. In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the organization, Paul, his daughters, Mary and Stella, along with others have been asking around for people to pledge to join Meat- Free Monday and save not only animals lives but the planets. During his attempts to get others to join, Sir Paul released a video of himself rapping;

I now ask you all to join not only myself, The McCartney's, and many others in joining Meat-Free Mondays, one day can save thousands of lives. Please enjoy the following "Meat Free Monday" Fan video;

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Peace, Love, Meditation, and Men of The Year

I know this is a little late, but it's never too late to talk about Ringo Starr now is it?

New York based magazine, the Gentlemen's Quarterly, also known as GQ, is well known for their articles on men's style, culture, through various thoughts from food to fitness, movies to music, films to books, and much more. Amongst these articles are the annual GQ Men Of the Year Awards. Many celebrities such as Ozzy Osbourne, David Beckham, Keith Richards, even to Simon Cowell hold their place in GQ Men Of the Year Hall of Fame, now as GQ nears their 17th annual release of the issue who better to feature on the cover along with the title of "Men of The Year" than Ringo Starr?


Starr recieving the Lifetime of Peace and Love award by Lynch

On Tuesday, 2 September, 2014, Starr along with many others gathered in London's Royal Opera House as guest by GQ, to accept their awards. During the ceremony Ringo was recognized for his effort and support towards the David Lynch Foundation, a non-profit organization to "fund the implemention of scientifically proven stress-reducing modalities" ( as stated on DavidLynchFoundation.org). The charity was started by David Lynch himself in 2005 calling it the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness- Based Education and World Peace to help those "who suffer the living hell of post-traumatic stress disorder and women and girls who are victims of terrible violence." (-David Lynch, DavidLynchFoundation.org). The foundation reaches out to inner-city students, veterans with PTSD and their families, American Indians suffering with various diseases, the homeless who are trying to overcome various addictions, juveniles, anyone who needs help, by using a Transcendental Meditation program, said to be scientifically proven to reduce stress and have received much support from leading medical schools such as Harvard Medical School, Stanford Medical School, and Yale Medical School. Ringo Starr, who himself had started mediation in 1967 with The Beatles (read all about it here), was awarded with the Lifetime of Peace and Love Award in L.A's El Rey Theater this past January,

"We want to generate the electricity of peace through music, and it's a thrill to know that the super-creative, enthusiastic musician of our world are with us to achieve this goal."- David Lynch, Rolling Stone Magazine, Andy Greene.

On accepting the award Ringo stated;

"I truly believe in the David Lynch Foundation. They started to bring meditation into inner-city schools and now it's a fact that those schools and neighborhoods violence has gone down. Meditation brings people back to being human again."

Ringo is proudly displayed (thanks to John Varvatos) on the cover of GQ's autumn/winter 2014 campaign. Starr will be donating his profits to the David Lynch Foundation.

If you would like to help Ringo donate to the David Lynch Foundation, it's simple! For Ringo's 74th birthday (this past 7 July), he started a trend called "Peace Rocks" with John Varvatos, who created a Peace Rocks fall fashion collection to be featured in the autumn/winter 2014 GQ magazine. But how can you help? Just tweet a picture via Twitter, of yourself flashing the peace symbol using the hashtag #PeaceRocks. By doing so Varvato's company will donate a dollar to every tweet sent to the Ringo Starr Peace & Love Fund supporting the David Lynch Foundation.

"It's amazing how this thing has grown from when I started seven years ago on the streets of New York, just asking people to say 'Peace and Love'."- Ringo Starr

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Apple Years 1968-75

"...I cannot wait for music lovers to get their hands on these newly remastered versions."- Dhani Harrison

It was announced previously this month that Universal Music Group, along with help from Olivia and Dhani Harrison will be releasing The Apple Years 1968-75, a box-set containing eight digitally remastered discs (seven CDS and one DVD) of George's first six solo albums from Wonderwall Music in 1968 to Extra Texture (Read All About It) in 1975, all recorded under The Beatles' Apple Records label.

The album was designed to follow and compliment George's first box-set release with The Dark Horse Years 1976-92 released in 2004. George's son, Dhani, speaks about the project as;

"I am so happy that what we started a decade ago by releasing The Dark Horse Years is now complete with the release of his first six albums as The Apple Years. Some of these records have long been out of print, and so I cannot wait for music lovers to get their hands on these newly remastered versions. It's a very proud moment for us, and I would like to thank everyone who has helped us in any way to achieve this."- Dhani Harrison, GeorgeHarrison.com

The Apple Years box edition will contain the following;

Digitally remasted Wonderwall Music album
Digitally remastered Electronic Sound album
Digitally remastered All Things Must Pass album
Digitally remastered Living In The Material World album
Digitally remastered Dark Horse album
Digitally remastered Extra Texture (Read All About It) album
Book with introduction by Dhani Harrison

Essays by radio producer and author, Kevin Howlett
Rare, unpublished images

George Harrison - The Apple Years DVD which includes;

seven-minute film with unreleased footage
directed by Olivia Harrison
The Concert For Bangladesh press kit
"Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) from the 1991's Live In Japan video
"Miss O'Dell" and "Sue Me Sue You Blues" alternate versions
Dark Horse promo clip
"Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong" video in which George directed

With the new release of The Apple Years, new opportunities to celebrate the music of George Harrison are popping around the Los Angeles scene, even taking a spot every night on TBS's Conan, who is honoring the great musician with a week (starting on 22 September) of guests from Beck to Dhani Harrison himself, performing and paying tribute to George Harrison.

But having a week dedicated to the beloved man on the popular, comedic, late-night show, isn't enough to celebrate the music and love of George Harrison and that's why Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre will bring musicians such as Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and many others, together to celebrate George Fest: A Night To Celebrate the Music of George Harrison, on 28 September (all proceeds go to the Sweet Relief Fundraiser).

You can Pre-order The Apple Years box set at The Official George Harrison Store by clicking here.

Amazon by clicking here.

Or the digital version from iTunes here.

Or You can wait until the release of the box-set on 22 September, 2014.

To watch The Apple Years 1968-75 promotional video click here.

picture by Dhani Harrison via Instagram this past July

Some articles that may intrested you;

The following video (via Youtube) is George Harrison's "Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong" ;

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Hope of.... 'Destiny'?

D E S T I N Y

Defend the last safe City on Earth. Defeat our enemies. Discover the ancient ruins of our solar system. Become a legend.

Throughout his years of a beloved musician, Sir James Paul McCartney will not stop at expanding his musical genius towards new audiences. Whether it's classical ballads such as "Glory of Love", to heavy rock anthems in "Cut Me Some Slack", even to beloved children songs with Wings version of "Mary Had A Little Lamb", McCartney has taken a new approach, stepping into the video gaming industry.

Two years ago (2012), it was shared on Paul's Twitter that he was going to experience as a "video game composer" working with the associates of Bungie (the same crew who worked with the Halo phenomenon) for the new, intense, game, Destiny. On Bungie's official 'Destiny' website the following story line is posted;

Our civilization once spanned the solar system. Its ruins are still out there: buried in the dunes of Mars, hidden in the jungles of Venus, lost in a wild and abandoned Earth. For centuries we've huddled under the safety of the Traveler, protected from our enemies. Now, a new era has begun, and the only hope for our future lies in unlocking the greatest mysteries of our past.

But how did the seventy two year old get involved in the video game industry?
Composers of the Halo series approached McCartney providing details of how the video game industry depends on music; ever players action, every storyline, needs the correct musically score, and McCartney was up to the challenge, not only working with composers such as Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori to create the fifty minute game's musical arrangements, but also writing the closing credit's track, "Hope For The Future", which PaulMcCartney.com News & Blog writer is calling the song "as epic as the game itself."

"Hope For The Future" was produced by Abbey Road and Beatles producer, Sir George Martin's son, Giles, who had previously worked with Macca for the 2013 album, New. Marty O' Donnell recalls working with Paul during this video game journey with an interview with Rolling Stone Magazines, Daniel Kreps, on the 11 September, 2014, stating that McCartney would bring equipment used during The Beatles days which excited all musicians working on the project.

McCartney, O'Donnell, Salvatori

On the 9th of September, 2014 an interview held by Vulture's, Lane Brown, with Bungie's Community Manager, Eric Osbourne, was published to Vulture's website. Amongst the many questions about the game, said to be the one of the biggest entertainment launches of 2014, Brown asked;

"Yes, but the guy wrote "Hey Jude". How on Earth did you convince him to do music for a video game? How did you pitch this to him, and why do you think he did it? I'm guessing that there was an enormous check involved."

Osbourne replied;

"There was no check involved, big or otherwise. He's in it for the creativity. He got a wonderful opportunity to reach an audience that wouldn't typically be immersed in Paul McCartney. They might hear the name - of course he's everywhere, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics, obviously he's touring and recording nonstop - but he sees it as a way to reach a new audience that might not otherwise hear his music."

From baseball stadiums, ballets, working with the Foo Fighters, performing for the Queen, to making his way into the video game world the question asked is;

When will McCartney stop?

and the only answer is;

Never.

"Hope For The Future" will be officially released later within the year, but more information on that will released within the next for weeks. For now, listen to the track in the video (via Youtube) below;