At the start of Feb. 1968, the Beatles found themselves, after a month-and-a-half break, back in Abbey Road studios to begin work on their next single, their first release for 1968. On Feb. 4, the day after work began on Paul McCartney's newest creation, 'Lady Madonna,' sessions took off on a new John Lennon song called 'Across The Universe.'
"I'd like to say 'Thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition"
In 1969, terror and paranoia swept through the film and music communities of Los Angeles after actress Sharon Tate, Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and 18-year-old Steven Parent were brutally murdered in a house on Cielo Drive. In a bizarre twist to an already sensational story, the Beatles' 'White Album' wound up being played in court during the subsequent murder trial of Charles Manson, who claimed to have planned the killing spree because of messages he believed were buried in the music.
British music fans suffered a blow this week when venerable U.K. record store HMV announced it was teetering on the brink of liquidation -- but while the company makes a last-ditch effort to stay in business, it's worth taking a moment to pay tribute to the way it used its clout to help jump-start one of the most important careers in rock history.
"Congratulations, gentlemen. You've just made your first No. 1."
Yesterday, all our troubles seemed so far away . . . but that was before a clip came online of John Travolta singing the Beatles classic 'Yesterday' at a hotel in Beverly Hills last night, accompanied on guitar by country star and 'American Idol' judge Keith Urban.
Mash-ups - the art of taking elements of two or more songs and creating something new out of them - are a hit-or-miss proposition. Too often the soungs don't match up musically in an attempt to create an interesting or ironic juxtaposition.
It's had a pretty good run at the top, but after two years of dominating the vinyl market, the Beatles' 'Abbey Road' ended 2012 looking up at another LP on the charts.
One of the reasons the Beatles defined the 1960s is because they broke up shortly after that decade had ended. On Dec. 31, 1970, Paul McCartney took the first step in dissolving the group by filing a lawsuit against his three bandmates and their parent company, Apple Corps.
