The Beatles Are Awarded MBEs On October 26, 1965

The Beatles were appointed as Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBEs) on October 26th of 1965. They received the awards from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

This award was given primarily to military veterans and civic leaders at the time and The Beatles reception of the MBEs caused some controversy among some conservative Brits who felt that a "pop group" such as The Beatles shouldn't be given such an honor.

In 1967 Paul McCartney & George Harrison wore their MBE awards on their Sgt Pepper costumes for the photo taken for the cover of the Sgt Pepper album.

In 1969 John Lennon returned his MBE to the Queen in protest over England's involvement in the Vietnam War.

The Beatles Released Their First Single In The UK On October 5, 1962

The Beatles released the first single of their career on October 5th of 1962. The song was "Love Me Do" and it would later be included on their first album Please Please Me.

While it only reached #17 upon it's initial release in the UK, it would reach #1 in the United States as a single in 1964. It reached #4 in Canada in 1964. And it also reached #4 in the UK upon it's re-release in 1982.

"Love Me Do" was recorded with three different drummers; Pete Best, Andy White, & Ringo Starr. All three versions have been released. The Pete Best version was included in 1995's Anthology 1. The Andy White version was released on Please Please Me. The Ringo Starr version can be heard on the Past Masters Vol. 1 collection.

The Beatles performing "Some Other Guy" in 1962:

The Beatles Hit The Top Of The UK Album Charts On October 4, 1969

The Beatles hit the top of the UK album charts with Abbey Road on October 4th of 1969. It stayed at #1 for 11 weeks before the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed took the top spot for one week. Abbey Road went back to #1 for another 6 weeks after that.

The album was named after the studio where the Beatles recorded all of their albums, Abbey Road Studios. Pink Floyd recorded many of their most famous albums there as well including Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Abbey Road Studios is named after Abbey Road which is the street in front of the recording studio. This street is featured on the album cover of Abbey Road with a photo of the Beatles crossing the cross walk.

Abbey Road was the final album the Beatles recorded, although Let It Be would be the final album released when it came out in 1970.

Like almost all of the Beatles recordings it was produced by George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick.

The album is known for a great contrast between the first side of the LP and the second. The first side has six individual songs "Come Together," "Something," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Oh! Darling," "Octopus's Garden," and "I Want You (She's So Heavy.") While the second side features two songs ("Here Comes the Sun" and "Because") before going into a medley which consisted of some fully realized songs like "You Never Give Me Your Money" (which starts the medley off) and some shorter song fragments like "Mean Mr. Mustard."

The album has been ranked among the best of all time by many. In 2001 VH1 ranked it the 8th greatest album ever. In 2003 it ranked #14 on the Rolling Stone's list of the top 500 albums of all time. It's currently ranked as the second best album of all time on RateYourMusic.com, the Beatles also rank #1 with 1966's Revolver.

The Beatles never performed any of the songs from Abbey Road live.

Here's the second track from the album, "Something," performed by Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and many others at the Concert For George in 2002:

The Beatles Started Filming Magical Mystery Tour On September 11, 1967

The Beatles began filming the Magical Mystery Tour film on September 11th of 1967. It would premier on UK TV on December 26, 1967.

The accompanying LP would be released on November 27th in the US featuring new songs and some singles that had been released over the last 12 months but which had not yet been featured on an album. In the UK it was initially released just as an EP without the previously released singles (Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, Baby You're A Rich Man, & All You Need Is Love.) Later, in 1976, the LP version was also released in the UK and today the LP version is an "official" Beatles album.

Some clips from the movie:

"Magical Mystery Tour" (intro)


"Your Mother Should Know"


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The Beatles Performed "Hey Jude" On Frost On Sunday On September 8, 1968

The Beatles performed "Hey Jude" on the UK television program Frost on Sunday on September 8th of 1968.

"Hey Jude" had been released as a single in late August (8/26 in the US & 8/30 in the UK) not long before this performance. It had just reached #1 on the UK charts the day before. It stayed at #1 in the UK for 2 weeks. It was #1 in the US for 9 weeks, the longest stay at #1 in the US for any Beatles single.

At over 7 minutes long, "Hey Jude" was an extremely long song for it's time. In fact it was the longest #1 song in the UK until 1993 when it was surpassed in length (but certainly not in any other way) by Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That.)"

The B-Side to the single was the fast version of "Revolution." Neither "Hey Jude" nor the fast version of "Revolution" were included on any Beatles albums (until later "Greatest Hits" and singles compilations.)

"Hey Jude" was ranked #8 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the top 500 songs of all time. It has also been included in countless other "best of" lists. It's currently the 5th most listened to Beatles song on Last.FM, where the Beatles are also the most listened to artist at this time, over 37 years since they broke up.

"Hey Jude" was written and sung by Paul McCartney. It was written for John Lennon's son, Julian Lennon, because of the divorce that his parents were going through at the time. The song was originally called "Hey Jules" and was later changed to "Hey Jude" because the sound worked better for the song.

Watch this September 8, 1968 performance of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles:



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The Beatles & Bob Dylan Meet For The First Time On August 28, 1964

The Beatles & Bob Dylan met each other for the first time on August 28th of 1964. It was during this meeting at a hotel in New York that Bob Dylan introduced the Beatles to marijuana.

Ringo was the first to try it and he started laughing quite a bit, this made the others want to get in on it. They soon did and there were laughs all around. The Beatles manager Brian Epstein was also taking part and kept saying "I'm so high I'm on the ceiling, I'm up on the ceiling."

Paul McCartney was particularly thrilled by marijuana. He said "I'm thinking for the first time, really thinking." He had Mal Evans (the Beatles friend & roadie) follow him around writing down everything he was saying for posterity. Evans kept these notes until his death in 1976. Unfortunately they were confiscated and lost by the police.

Although the this was the first time the Beatles smoked marijuana they were already no strangers to drugs. They had been taking "prellies" (Preludin) for years. Prellies are a stimulent which the Beatles would use to keep a high energy level for their long shows during their early career. Prellies are now an illegal Schedule II drug in the United States, the same class that Cocaine & Meth are in.

Below are John Lennon & Bob Dylan on something. The videos are out takes from the Dylan documentary Eat The Document which is a documentary of Dylan's 1966 tour of Europe.

Part 1:



Part 2:

The 4 Beatles Were In Abby Road Studios For The Last Time On August 20, 1969

The four Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, & Ringo Starr) were together in Abbey Road studios for the very last time on August 20th of 1969. 38 years ago today.

On this day they completed the final mix for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and worked on the running order for Abbey Road. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" would be placed as the 6th & final song on Side A of the LP.

The song was never performed live by The Beatles.

The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" reaches #1 in the US on August 19, 1967

The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" became their 14th song to hit #1 in the US on August 19th of 1967. 40 years ago today.

The b-side to the single was "Baby You're A Rich Man." Both songs were later included on the Magical Mystery Tour album.

The song was performed by The Beatles on June 25, 1967 on Our World which was the first live global television broadcast. It was broadcast into 26 countries and watched by 350 million people. "All You Need Is Love" was the UK's contribution as The Beatles had been asked to contribute a song for the show.

The song was released as a single shortly thereafter and became a #1 hit in the US, UK, and Canada. It hit #1 on the world charts as well.

The song has many elements of other songs within it including the French anthem "La Marseillaise" and snatches of other songs such as Bach's "2-part invention #8 in F" and the standard "Greensleeves."

John and Paul also sing the Beatles own "She Loves You" over the outro. It's been said this was spontaneous but it's also possible it was planned.

The song has an unusual rhythmic structure with the verses being 2 measures of 7/4 then 1 measure of 8/4 and back with 1 more measure of 7/4. The chorus is 6 measures of 4/4 and ends with 1 6/4 measure. The song is the only one to use the 7/4 structure and hit #1 in the US. "Money" by Pink Floyd is another famous song to use the 7/4 structure.

The Our World performance:



Among those in attendance (and singing backing vocals) were Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Graham Nash, Marianne Faithful, and Eric Clapton.

The version on the single release (and later on the Magical Mystery Tour album) was mostly from the live recording on June 25th but Lennon was unhappy with his verse vocals so those were re-recorded in the studio.

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The Beatles pay for and sign a marijuana legalization petition printed in The Times of London on July 24, 1967

40 years ago today the marijuana legalization petition that the Beatles signed was ran as a full page ad (paid for by The Beatles) in the Times of London. All four Beatles signed the petition along with their manager Brian Epstein.

Sir Francis Crick and Francis Huxley also signed the petition.

Related: Very Important Potheads.

The Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine premieres on July 17, 1968

It was 39 years ago today that the Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine premiered on July 17th of 1968 in London.

The movie featured some new songs (such as "It's All Too Much") but the soundtrack was mostly made up of past Beatles hits like the title track "Yellow Submarine," "Eleanor Rigby," and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

The album released with the same name as the film featured 6 Beatles songs (4 of which were new releases) along with 7 instrumentals written by their producer, George Martin.

A "Songtrack" also titled Yellow Submarine was released in 1999 to coincide with the re-release of the film. This songs on this version were remixed and instead of just 6 songs it had 15 songs with no instrumentals. This "Songtrack" is a pretty good introduction to the Beatles psychedelic period.

A clip from the movie with the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

The Beatles went to #1 on the US album charts with Beatles VI on July 10, 1965

The Beatles began a 6 week run at the top of the US album charts with Beatles VI on July 10th of 1965.

As was the normal at the time Beatles VI was not a proper Beatles release but a collection of songs from various sources that Capitol put out in America to take advantage of their overwhelming popularity. The UK releases (the originals as the Beatles intended) were generally 14 tracks while the chopped up and thrown together American versions were 11 tracks.

It was not until 1967's Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that the same album that came out in the UK (as the Beatles intended) came out also in America.

Beatles VI contained 6 songs from Beatles For Sale, 3 songs from Help!, and 2 b-sides.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! (Beatles For Sale)
2. Eight Days a Week (Beatles For Sale)
3. You Like Me Too Much (Help!)
4. Bad Boy (b-side)
5. I Don't Want to Spoil the Party (Beatles For Sale)
6. Words of Love (Beatles For Sale)
7. What You're Doing (Beatles For Sale)
8. Yes It Is (b-side)
9. Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Help!)
10. Tell Me What You See (Help!)
11. Every Little Thing (Beatles For Sale)

The Beatles performing Kansas City live on the debut episode of Shindig!:


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The Beatles Movie A Hard Day's Night Made It's Debut On July 6, 1964

The Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night premiered on July 6th of 1964 in the UK. It was released just over a month later on August 11th in the United States.

The movie was joined by an album by the same name which was released on July 10th. The A Hard Day's Night album is the only Beatles album to contain only Lennon/McCartney originals this is because most of their other early albums contained some cover songs and their later albums had songs by George Harrison (and to a lesser extent Ringo Starr) as well.

A "Behind The Scenes" video:

Stu Sutcliffe was born on June 23, 1940

Stuart Sutcliffe was born on June 23rd of 1940 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Stu Sutcliffe was an art school friend of Beatles legend John Lennon and played bass with The Beatles for two years before leaving the band to concentrate on his art and to live with his fiance Astrid Kirchherr in Hamburg, Germany.

Sutcliffe can be heard playing bass with the Beatles (They were a five piece with Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison all on guitars at the time. Pete Best was the drummer) on three tracks on the Beatles Anthology 1 collection: "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," "You'll Be Mine," and "Cayenne."

Sutcliffe's role with the Beatles early career and his relationships with Astrid Kirchherr and John Lennon are the basis of the movie Backbeat.

Sutcliffe died at the age of 21 on April 10th of 1962 from a brain hemorrhage. It is not known for sure what caused the hemorrhage.

Below you can see a self portrait painted by Stu Sutcliffe:


Two "Making Of" videos for the Backbeat movie (which was released in 1994.)

Paul McCartney talks about using LSD on June 19, 1967

On June 19th of 1967 Paul McCartney of the Beatles admitted to using LSD during an interview with Life Magazine. Although McCartney was actually the last member of The Beatles to use LSD he was the first to talk about using LSD in public.

The Beatles music of the time (specifically Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour) seems to be influenced by their use of LSD.

Here's an interview of Paul McCartney talking about LSD:


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Various Artists - Beatles Tribute: Number One Again

The Beatles arrived in Adelaide, Australia on June 12, 1964

The Beatles arrived in Adelaide, Australia on June 12th of 1964 and were greeted by a quarter of a million fans.

Jimmy Nicol was filling in for Ringo Starr who was recovering from having his tonsils removed at the time.

Watch this video documentary about Beatlemania in Australia in June of 1964:


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The Beatles Sgt. Pepper Was Released On June 1, 1967

40 years ago today Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released by The Beatles. It came out on June 1, 1967 in the UK and the following day in the US.

Sgt. Pepper is often regarded as the most influential rock album of all time.

It's often referred to as the first "Concept Album" although it's only a concept album in the loosest most broad use of the term.

The track listing:
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help from My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise)
13. A Day in the Life

The Beatles on making Sgt Pepper (from The Beatles Anthology)

The Beatles debut album "Please Please Me" goes to #1 on the UK charts on May 11, 1963

The Beatles debut album Please Please Me went to #1 on the UK charts on May 11 of 1963, 44 years ago today. The album set a record of 30 consecutive weeks at #1. A record that still stands today.

The album was released on March 22nd of 1963. 10 of the songs (all of the songs that weren't previously released on singles) were recorded in less than 10 hours all on February 11th of 1963!

The final track on the album was also the last recorded due to the tremendous stress it put on John Lennon's voice. That track was a cover of the song "Twist & Shout" which the Beatles made their own.

Watch this live performance of "Twist & Shout" at the London Palladium on November 4th of 1963:


The albums track list is as follows:
1. I Saw Her Standing There (Lennon/McCartney original)
2. Misery (Lennon/McCartney)
3. Anna (cover)
4. Chains (cover)
5. Boys (cover)
6. Ask Me Why (Lennon/McCartney)
7. Please Please Me (Lennon/McCartney)
8. Love Me Do (Lennon/McCartney)
9. PS I Love You (Lennon/McCartney)
10. Baby It's You (cover)
11. Do You Want To Know A Secret? (Lennon/McCartney)
12. A Taste Of Honey (cover)
13. There's A Place (Lennon/McCartney)
14. Twist & Shout (cover)

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Paul McCartney's first US concert performance since The Beatles was on May 3, 1976

On May 3rd of 1976 Paul McCartney made his first concert appearance in America since his days with The Beatles as Wings kicked off their Wings Across America Tour in Fort Worth, Texas. It had been almost 10 years since his last American concert with the Beatles on August 29th of 1966 in San Francisco.

Paul McCartney & Wings - "Band on the Run"

Ringo Starr records the vocals for Octopus's Garden on April 29, 1969

"Octopus's Garden" a track from the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road was one of only two Beatles songs that Ringo Starr wrote. The other was the White Album's "Don't Pass Me Buy."

On April 29th of 1969 Ringo's lead vocal was recorded onto the song.

Listen to these early recordings of "Octopus's Garden" as Ringo seems to be showing the other Beatles the song idea and they then work on it to try and flesh it out.

"Ballad Of John & Yoko" by The Beatles was recorded on April 14, 1969

"Ballad of John & Yoko" by The Beatles was recorded on April 14th of 1969 by John Lennon & Paul McCartney at Abbey Road studios in London.

The song is not a "ballad" in the sense usually used today but a ballad in the sense that it's a story set to music. The lyrics describe John & Yoko's recently completed honeymoon.

John had the inspiration for the song and did not want to wait for George & Ringo who were not available at the time due to a vacation (George) and working on a film (Ringo) so he called up Paul and they laid it down just with the two of them on this day April 14th, 38 years ago. Paul played drums, bass, piano, maracas, and provided backing vocals while John played the guitar and sang lead vocals.

It was released as a single only 6 weeks later and went to #1 in the UK (#8 in the US) The song did not do as well in the US because of the use of the word "Christ" and the lyric "They're gonna crucify me." The song was actually banned by a number of radio stations in the US.

The Beatles break up is official on April 10, 1970

Paul McCartney was the first to publicly announce The Beatles breakup when he did so on April 10th, 1970. This was a week prior to the release of his first solo album the self titled McCartney. The fact that Paul chose to announce the breakup in this way did not please the other Beatles.

John Lennon had told the rest of the band that he was leaving The Beatles on September 20th of '69 but the rest of the band convinced him not to announce it publicly. He resented that McCartney was the first to announce the break up publicly.

The Beatles Let It Be album was released in May of 1970 after the Beatles break up was already official.

The last time The Beatles ever recorded together with all four members present was August 20th of 1969 for the completion of the Abbey Road track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"

The final Beatles recording (save the 1990s Anthology recordings for Free As A Bird and Real Love) was January 3rd of 1970 when one of George Harrison's contributions to the Let It Be album "I Me Mine" was completed.

The Beatles - "Let It Be"

The Beatles occupy the top five slots of the Billboard charts on April 4, 1964

The Billboard charts for the week of April 4th of 1964 had the Beatles ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th on the singles chart.

This amazing feat has never been equaled by anyone since.

The songs were as follows:

5th - "Please Please Me"

4th - "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

3rd - "She Loves You"

2nd - "Twist & Shout"

1st - "Can't Buy Me Love"

They also had the following songs all in the top 100 the week of April 4th, 1964:

31st - "I Saw Her Standing There"
41st - "From Me To You"
46th - "Do You Want To Know A Secret?"
58th - "All My Loving"
65th - "You Can't Do That"
68th - "Roll Over Beethoven"

The Beatles also had an incredible 6 #1 singles released in 1964 in America:

I Want To Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, Can't Buy Me Love, Love Me Do, A Hard Day's Night, and I Feel Fine all hit #1 in '64.

Check out the scene for "Can't Buy Me Love" from the A Hard Day's Night movie:

John Lennon & Yoko Ono April Fools Joke On April 1, 1970

37 years ago today John Lennon & Yoko Ono released a statement that they were going to be undergoing side by side sex change operations so that Lennon would become a woman and Ono a man. This of course turned out to be an April Fools Joke.

Watch this interview with John & Yoko from around this same time period. In this interview they are defending their activities for peace.

The Beatles First Album Please Please Me Was Released On March 22, 1963

The Beatles very first album Please Please Me was released in the UK 44 years ago today, March 22nd.

The album contained 8 originals by the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team and 6 covers including "Twist & Shout" which The Beatles made their own by making the original version irrelevant. The 8 originals were attributed to McCartney/Lennon rather than the more familiar Lennon/McCartney which was how the songwriting team was attributed from their second album on.

The albums recording and release were very rushed. The Beatles had had a minor UK hit with their first single "Love Me Do" and a major UK hit with their second single "Please Please Me" so there was a feeling that they must capitalize on this new popularity by releasing their first album as soon as possible.

They already had four songs from the two sides of each of their first two singles. They wanted 10 more to make a 14 song album. All 10 of these songs were recorded in less than 10 hours on February 11, 1963. There were very few edits or overdubs. The last recording of the day was "Twist & Shout" which was saved for last due to the intense stress it put on John Lennon's voice particular because Lennon was suffering from a cold. Producer George Martin didn't want Lennon's voice to be shot for the day so it was saved for last.

The album went to #1 in the UK but was not released in America. The Beatles wouldn't hit it big in the States till the following year.

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Check out this early performance of the hit single "Please Please Me":

The Beatles "She Loves You" - Hits #1 In The United States On March 21, 1964

On this day, 43 years ago, "She Loves You" by the Beatles hit #1 in the US.

The song had been recorded & released in 1963 to little fanfare in America. It was released as a single again after the success of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

"She Loves You" was never included on a proper Beatles album as was often the case with The Beatles singles. Their reasoning was that they didn't want to cheat their fans by including a song that they already had as a single on the album as well.

But in America the record companies chopped up the official UK Beatles albums and released them in different forms without The Beatles consent. For example "She Loves You" was included on an American LP release The Beatles' Second Album.

The Beatles recorded German versions of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" and Beatlemania was so strong at this time that the German version of "She Loves You" which is called "Sie Liebt Dich" was released in America and charted at #97 on the singles charts.

You can hear this German version today on the Past Masters Volume 1 CD.

In this video you can see The Beatles performing "She Loves You" live in 1963 in Manchester before they broke big in the States.



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John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married in Gibraltar on March 20, 1969

John and Yoko were married on this date 38 years ago.

This time in their life was written about in the John Lennon penned Beatles song "The Ballad of John & Yoko" and Gibraltar is mentioned in the lyrics.

Gibraltar is a small UK overseas territory that is only 2 and a half square miles and has a population of about 25,000 people. It shares a land border with Spain to the north.

"The Ballad of John & Yoko"


Interesting Beatles trivia: Only John Lennon and Paul McCartney are on the the recording of "The Ballad of John & Yoko" and Paul played the drums. McCartney also played the drums on "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence"

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George Harrison was arrested for marijuana possession on March 12, 1969

Beatle George Harrison was arrested on this date, March 12th, 38 years ago for marijuana possession.

Sergeant Norman Pilcher was the man behind the arrest. He was also behind John Lennon's arrest for drugs the previous year. Pilcher showed up at the house of Harrison and his wife Pattie Boyd with a team of men, a pack of dogs, and a search warrant. Harrison was not home at the time but came home upon the call of Pattie. When he arrived home he found his house torn apart by the police. He was quoted as saying "You needn't have turned the whole bloody place upside down. All you would have had to do is ask and I would have shown you where I keep everything." Pilcher had already found 120 marijuana joints.

When a photographer showed up as the police led them out of the house his temper flared and he chased down the photographer and stomped on his camera when it was dropped.

Harrison thought the bust was a frame and that the joints had been planted in his house. He said that the police failed to find the drugs that he actually kept in his house and that this bust was set up to take away from the fact that on this very same day fellow Beatle Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman.

Lending much credence to Harrison's claim is the fact that in 1972 Sergeant Pilcher was charged with "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice" for having planted drugs in many cases. He was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

Besides Lennon and Harrison, Pilcher also arrested Mick Jagger and Donovan on drug charges.

It's possible that it is Pilcher being referenced in the Beatles classic I Am The Walrus with the line "Semolina Pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower" but Lennon never explained the lyric. Pilcher was the subject of a song by the band Primus called "Pilcher's Squad."

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Listen to Harrison's Beatles classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (acoustic version):

Paul McCartney becomes Sir Paul McCartney on March 11, 1997

10 years ago today, March 11th, former Beatle Paul McCartney became Sir Paul McCartney.

Sir Paul McCartney is arguably the most successful recording artist in history (in fact according to the Guinness Book of World Records he is just that.) which is of course exactly how he became a Knight! He's done a lot of good for the British economy.

Paul's one Knight who has taken LSD, listen to him speak about it. Well really he's speaking more about the reaction to him saying he's taken it than the experience itself which he doesn't get into in this clip. Also the sound is all off from the picture so close your eyes:



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Paul McCartney fined 100 Pounds for growing Cannabis on March 8, 1973

34 years ago today, March 8th, Paul McCartney was fined 100 pounds (about 170 in US dollars) for growing cannabis (aka marijuana) on his farm in Campbeltown, Scotland.

McCartney had been enjoying marijuana for quite some time and says that the McCartney written and sung Beatles classic "Got To Get You Into My Life" is actually about Marijuana.

See McCartney performing "Got To Get You Into My Life" with Wings during a live 1979 concert:



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Hear the Beatles talking about drug use:

John Lennon's interview in which he claims that the Beatles are "more popular than Jesus" is published on March 4, 1966

41 years ago today, March 4th, The London Evening Standard publishes an interview with John Lennon in which he claims that the Beatles are "bigger than Jesus."

This was barely noticed in the UK but when the news of this interview spread to America via an article published in a US Teen magazine called Datebook it started a backlash against John Lennon & The Beatles. Most of this backlash was in the Bible Belt region of the US.

Conservative Christian groups staged public Beatles record burnings and many radio stations in banned the Beatles music. Some venues even canceled Beatles concerts.

Lennon's quote was "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I don't know what will go first, rock n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

Here's a clip from a documentary called Beatles Revolution that features the Beatles during this time period.



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John Lennon performs "Instant Karma" on Top of the Pops on February 12, 1970

John Lennon became the first Beatle to perform on the UK music program Top of the Pops since 1966 when he played his solo single "Instant Karma" 37 years ago today, February 12th.

See below for the live performance of "Instant Karma" by John Lennon:



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The Beatles "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" videos on Top of the Pops - February 9, 1967

40 years ago today the videos made for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were shown on the Brit music show "Top of the Pops." "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were at the time on the Beatles latest single release. This incredible combination of two of the best songs ever recorded made this double A-side arguably the greatest single ever released. Fittingly enough it was the first Beatles single not to go to #1 (it only made it to #2) on the UK charts since 1963. #1 on the charts that week? Englebert Humperdink's "Release Me." No Accounting For Taste.

Below you can watch these two videos. Imagine them in black & white because that's how most of the viewers saw them in February 1967!

"Penny Lane" Video



"Strawberry Fields Forever" Video



Also extremely interesting to people really interested in music production and the details of things may want to hear George Martin (the Beatles legendary producer) talking about working on "Strawberry Fields Forever"



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John Lennon & Yoko Ono Donate Their Hair To The Black Power Movement - Feb. 4th, 1970

On this day 37 years ago John Lennon and Yoko Ono donated their hair to the Black Power movement.

This doesn't really have anything to do with this - but it's kind of interesting: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Chuck Berry (well he's black) on the Mike Douglas show making macrobiotic food:



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The Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand" - #1 on the US charts - February 1, 1964

On February 1, 1964 (43 years ago today.) The Beatles started a 7 week run at #1 on the US singles charts with "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

This was the beginning (atleast as far as the United States is concerned) of a musical revolution we are still feeilng the effects of today. In fact I think The Beatles effect not only on popular music but our entire world is incalculable. If you take the Beatles out of our history you would have to completely rewrite it. I'm not really sure what would have happened.

I Want To Hold Your Hand remains the beatles all time highest selling single (despite what some erroronious reports say about Hey Jude besting it with it's run in 1968.)



This was the first #1 hit in the US by a band from the United Kingdom since The Tornados "Telstar" in 1962.

This is my first entry. Most days there will be an entry like this talking about something that happened on that day however many years ago. Some days there may be more than one entry. Some there won't be any.

This combines two of my favorite subjects. Music and Time. One thing I find very interesting about 1964. In 1964, 1921 was 43 years ago. If I think about that a bit it puts later Beatles songs like "When I'm 64" and "Your Mother Should Know" in a totally different light.

Alright, as you can see, I want things to be a bit open here. I want to use the topic, whatever it is, as a stepping off point to having some sort of discussion. Please comment and let me know what you think. Assuming that you do.

I've got big plans for this site. This music by day thing will be here on the main part of the site and it'll be updated frequently with interesting tidbits from music's past. I'll also be including an album review section. I'll be doing my own reviews as well as accepting guest reviews.

Enjoy yourself. Have some tea. And some donuts. I'm hungry.

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