The Beatles: 20 things you did not know about the Fab Four.So you think you are the biggest fan of the Beatles. But how many of the
following facts did you know?
By Subhajit Banerjee
Published: 3:57PM BST 07 Sep 2009
A Hard Day's Night is the only album to exclusively contain Lennon-McCartney compositions
Beatles album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Two days after Sgt Pepper's released, Jimi Hendrix opened his set with the title track
Paul and Linda McCartney
Paul is not McCartney's first name, James is Photo: AP
Ringo Starr is too busy to sign autographs
Ringo was the first to leave the Beatles
President Ford (third from right) with musicians (from left) Billy Preston, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar in 1974
Billy Preston (far left) was the only musician to be credited on a Beatles single Photo: AP
Rolling Stones' home town names streets after hit songs
Lennon and McCartney provided backing vocals for the Stones' We Love You
Yoko Ono introduces the new video game
John Lennon changed his middle name to Ono after marrying Yoko Ono Photo: GETTY
The Beatles
The closest the Beatles came to reuniting was at Eric Clapton's wedding to Patti Boyd in 1979
1. Impossible as it may sound there are still Beatles songs unreleased - the most notable ones being Carnival of Light (an experimental piece recorded on 5 January 1967 for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave) and a 27-minute jam of Helter Skelter. A John Lennon composition the three surviving Beatles worked on in the early '90s prior to the Anthology release called Grow Old with Me also remains unreleased.
2. The Beatles (or at least half of it) sang for the Rolling Stones: Lennon and Paul McCartney provided backing vocals to the 1967 single We Love You.
3. Besides writing hundreds of songs for the Beatles, Lennon and
McCartney also wrote dozens of songs for other artistes such as From A
Window (Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas), One and One Is Two
(The Strangers with Mike Shannon), Step Inside Love and It's For
You (Cilla Black), Come and Get It (Badfinger) and Woman
(Peter and Gordon).
4. The Beatles’ third studio album A Hard Day’s Night
is the only one to exclusively contain Lennon-McCartney compositions.
5. Paul is not McCartney's first name, James is. Lennon changed his
middle name from Winston to Ono after marrying Yoko Ono in 1969.
6. At the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, Lennon is heard
mumbling what sounds like "I buried Paul", which helped fuel the
'Paul is Dead' rumours. He's actually saying "cranberry sauce".
7. The only Beatles single to ever feature another musician on the
credit is Get Back/Don't Let Me Down (credited to The Beatles
with Billy Preston). Preston, recruited by George Harrison to ease the
growing tensions in the band, played the Hammond organ on both songs.
8. Two days after Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released,
Jimi Hendrix opened his set at London's Saville Theatre with the title
track, something McCartney considers his "single biggest tribute".
9. The final version of Strawberry Fields Forever was created
combining two takes of the song in two different keys and speeds - a
remarkable achievement considering the equipment and technology of the time
- but still failed to fully satisfy Lennon.
10. The only Beatles track to be credited to Lennon and Harrison is an
early instrumental called Cry for a Shadow recorded in 1961 when the
band was backing Tony Sheridan. Flying and Dig It are the only
two tracks to be credited to all four Beatles.
11. The BBC banned several Beatles songs - I Am the Walrus (for
the use of the word 'knickers') and Fixing a Hole, Lucy in the Sky
with Diamonds and A Day in the Life (all for alleged drug
reference).
12. The working title for the film Help! was Eight Arms to
Hold You.
13. For the Sgt Pepper album cover, cutouts of Adolf Hitler,
Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ were requested by Lennon, but ultimately
they were left out, though a cutout of Hitler was made for use.
14. Ringo Starr was the first to actually leave the group, walking out
in 1968 during the acrimonious White Album sessions. As a result, the
remaining Beatles all took turns on the drums for some of the tracks. When
Starr finally returned he found his drum kit covered in flowers.
15. The closest the Beatles came to reuniting was at Eric Clapton's
wedding to Patti Boyd in 1979, where McCartney, Harrison and Starr played.
Lennon did not attend.
16. The last time Lennon and McCartney played together was at the Los
Angeles Hit Factory studio in 1974. The abysmal (and possibly drug-fuelled)
session, which also featured Stevie Wonder and Harry Nilsson, was of such
bad quality that the bootleg recording was released as A Toot And A Snore
In 74.
17. Lennon and McCartney each recorded demos called India which
remain unreleased. Each of them also recorded a version of Fats Domino's Ain't
That a Shame for their rock and roll albums (called Rock 'n' Roll
and Снова в СССР
respectively).
18. The first song ever written by Lennon was called Hello Little
Girl. McCartney's first was I Lost My Little Girl.
19. Lennon was charged with plagiarism by Chuck Berry's publisher over Come
Together which resembled Berry's 1956 song You Can't Catch Me.
The case was settled out of court. George Harrison faced and lost a similar
lawsuit over his solo hit My Sweet Lord which resembled the Chiffons' He's
So Fine.
20. Lennon's number 9 connection: Lennon was born on 9 October 1940,
his son Sean was also born 9 October, 1975. He wrote the songs #9 Dream
(part of Lennon's ninth solo album Walls and Bridges which was
released in the ninth month of 1974 and peaked at number 9 in the US charts)
and with the Beatles - One After 909 and Revolution 9. He
lived in apartment number 72 on 72nd Street in New York and was killed in
the evening of December 8 when it was already early morning of December 9 in
his birthplace of Liverpool.