đ ON THIS DAY: The Beatles are photographed with their Madame Tussauds wax figures (1964)
The London wax museum Madame Tussaudâs had unveiled effigies of all four Beatles on 28 March 1964. The Beatles were the first pop group to appear in the museum.
On 29 April the band were photographed with the dummies at the museum.
In 1967 the museum lent the wax figures to artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth to be used on the cover of The Beatlesâ album Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band. Three of the heads â John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr â used for the cover were rediscovered in 2005 after being lost for nearly two decades, and were auctioned for ÂŁ81,500.
The Beatlesâ changing image resulted in Madame Tussaudâs reworking the figures on several occasions throughout the 1960s.
đ ON THIS DAY: Recording: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
The Beatles began work on the title track of what would become their next film and EP/LP release, âMagical Mystery Tourâ, recording three takes of the backing track.
The group rehearsed the song extensively in the studio before recording began, with Paul McCartney guiding the group from the piano. Eventually they taped a rhythm track of two guitars, piano and drums.
Satisfied with take three, The Beatles then oversaw five reduction mixes to free up extra tracks on the tape. The last of these, numbered take eight, was used for further overdubs on subsequent days.
The group also assembled a tape loop of traffic noises, taken from EMIâs sound effects collection Volume 36: Traffic Noise Stereo. This was added to the song during a final mixing session on 7 November 1967.
đ ON THIS DAY: UK album release: McCartney by Paul McCartney (1970)
Paul McCartneyâs debut solo album, simply titled McCartney, was released on 17 April 1970 in the United Kingdom.
The album was a mix of home and studio recordings, new songs, Beatles rejects and ad-libbed offcuts. It was swiftly assembled, released to coincide with The Beatlesâ break-up, and divided fans and critics alike.
The release of McCartney was subject to much wrangling and disagreement within Apple. Neil Aspinall initially asked McCartney if the album could be delayed for a week, to allow Ringo Starrâs debut Sentimental Journey more time in the spotlight. McCartney agreed to this, but was dismayed to find that Allen Klein had already postponed his albumâs release. A furious McCartney telephoned George Harrison to reinstate the original release date of 17 April, and sent a confirmation telegram to the other Beatles, Klein and Aspinall.
The Beatlesâ Let It Be album was also complete, and the rest of the band were keen for it to be released ahead of the film of the same name. John Lennon informed EMI of Appleâs decision to delay the McCartney album, writing that âWe have arrived at the conclusion that it would not be in the best interests of this company for the record to be released on that date.â
Harrison then wrote to McCartney, marking the envelope âFrom us, to youâ and leaving it at Apple for a messenger to deliver. However, Starr offered to take it to Cavendish Avenue, McCartneyâs north London home. Harrisonâs letter read:
"Dear Paul, We thought a lot about yours and the Beatles LPs â and decided itâs stupid for Apple to put out two big albums within 7 days of each other (also thereâs Ringoâs and Hey Jude) â so we sent a letter to EMI telling them to hold your release til June 4th (thereâs a big Apple-Capitol convention in Hawaii then). We thought youâd come round when you realized that the Beatles album was coming out on April 24th. Weâre sorry it turned out like this â itâs nothing personal. Love John George. Hare Krishna. A Mantra a Day Keeps MAYA! Away."
McCartney was furious, but continued with his plan to release the album on schedule. He announced the formation of his own company, McCartney Productions Ltd, on 7 April 1970. Its first projects would be the McCartney album and an animation based on the character Rupert Bear.
đ ON THIS DAY: Recording: A Hard Dayâs Night (1964)
Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
The Beatles recorded the title track of their third album and first feature film, âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ, on this day.
"Usually, John and I would sit down and if we thought of something weâd write a song about it. But Walter Shenson asked John and me if weâd write a song specially for the opening and closing credits. We thought about it and it seemed a bit ridiculous writing a song called âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ â it sounded funny at the time, but after a bit we got the idea of saying it had been a hard dayâs night and weâd been working all the days, and get back to a girl and everythingâs fine⌠And we turned it into one of those songs." â Paul McCartney, Anthology
âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ had been written in haste by John Lennon, shortly after the title of the film was decided upon. The phrase had been coined by Ringo Starr, and had previously appeared in the Sad Michael story in Lennonâs first book In His Own Write.
"I was going home in the car and Dick Lester suggested the title Hard Dayâs Night from something Ringoâd said. I had used it in In His Own Write, but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringoism, where he said it not to be funny, just said it. So Dick Lester said we are going to use that title, and the next morning I brought in the song. âcause there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A side, who got the hit singles." â John Lennon, All We Are Saying
âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ was recorded at EMI Studios in a session taking place from 7-10pm. It took nine takes to record, and completed the number of songs needed for the film soundtrack.
đ ON THIS DAY: Recording, mixing: Paperback Writer, Rain (1966)
Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
The Beatles had begun recording their next single, âPaperback Writerâ, on the previous day. It was completed during this session, as was the backing track of its b-side, âRainâ.
Work took place at Studio Three. Between 2.30 and 7.30pm they added a range of overdubs, not all of which were used in the final mix.
Paul McCartney recorded his lead vocals alone on one track, and on another he added a Rickenbacker bass part. The latter was taped along with falsetto backing vocals by John Lennon and George Harrison. Other overdubs included a piano part through a Leslie speaker played, and a Vox Continental part, both by George Martin, and extra lead guitar fills by McCartney.
A reduction mix allowed a fourth track to be cleared. Onto this were added more backing vocals by Lennon and Harrison, including the chorus and the famous âFrère Jacquesâ countermelody.
Between 7.30 and 8pm two mono mixes of âPaperback Writerâ were made in the control room of Studio Three. This featured heavy tape echo in the vocals of the chorus refrain, which was toned down somewhat on the later stereo mix.
Work then began on âRainâ, with five takes recorded before work ended at 1.30am.
"One of the things we discovered when playing around with [tape] loops on âTomorrow Never Knowsâ was that the texture and depth of certain instruments sounded really good when slowed down. With âRainâ The Beatles played the rhythm track really fast so that when the tape was played back at normal speed everything would be much slower, changing the texture. If weâd recorded it at normal speed and then had to slow the tape down whenever we wanted to hear a playback it would have been much more work." â Geoff Emerick
The backing track had Starrâs drums and Lennon and McCartneyâs electric guitars, all on track one of the four-track tape. Take five was chosen as the best.
The Beatles performed the song at a fast tempo and in the key of B flat major. The original tempo and pitch can be heard on the 2022 reissue of Revolver.
McCartney overdubbed a bass guitar part onto track two, playing in B flat. The tape machine was then slowed down from 50 cycles per second to 42 cycles, and Lennon recorded lead vocals onto tracks three and four.
âRainâ was completed on 16 April during a session that saw a range of further overdubs, including backwards vocals in the coda.
đ ON THIS DAY: UK single release: Get Back (1969)
The Beatlesâ 19th British single, and their first for 1969, was âGet Backâ, with âDonât Let Me Downâ on the b-side.
It was the first commercial release from the troubled Get Back sessions of January 1969. Many takes of the songs were recorded that month, before both sides of the single were taped on 28 January.
âGet Backâ was issued as Apple R 5777. Although the official release date was 11 April 1969, many stores didnât receive copies until several days later, as Paul McCartney had ordered a remix on 7 April. He had been unhappy with the earlier mix after hearing it played on BBC Radio 1 by Alan Freeman and John Peel the previous day.
Despite the rush-release, âGet Backâ entered the UK singles charts at number one on 23 April, where it remained for six weeks. In all it spent 17 weeks in the charts.
The two songs were officially accredited to The Beatles with Billy Preston, the first â and only â time another musician was honoured in such a fashion, aside from the groupâs early Hamburg releases with Tony Sheridan.
âGet Backâ was also the last Beatles single to be released in mono. âThe Ballad Of John And Yokoâ, released on 30 May 1969, was in stereo, as were all future UK releases.
Stuart Sutcliffe, the brilliant young painter who was a bass guitarist with The Beatles in their early period, died on this day of a brain haemorrhage.
He had been suffering from increasingly severe headaches and blackouts since settling in Hamburg with Astrid Kirchherr, his German fiancĂŠe. The cause of these remained uncertain, though Sutcliffe believed they were a consequence of overwork.
In February he had collapsed during an art school class, and dropped out of education. The Kirchherr family suspected a brain tumour, and sent him for x-rays, although nothing amiss was found. Two doctors subsequently saw Sutcliffe but they too could find nothing wrong.
By March 1962 the headaches had grown in frequency, escalating at times to violent fits, and Sutcliffe often suffered temporary blindness. His moods were volatile, ranging from calm normality to suicidal mania. Most of the final two weeks of his life were spent in bed.
On 10 April Astrid Kirchherr received a call from her mother while working in her photography studio. She was told that Sutcliffe had collapsed once more and he was to be sent to the hospital.
Kirchherr rushed home to accompany him in the ambulance. Sutcliffe was already unconscious, and died in her arms during the journey to the hospital. The cause of death was listed as cerebral paralysis caused by bleeding in the right ventricle of the brain.
The precise nature of Sutcliffeâs health issues has never been determined, and there has been considerable speculation as to the causes. One theory is that a blow to the head during a fight, possibly with John Lennon, led to the haemorrhage.
However, the lengthy deterioration in Sutcliffeâs health make cerebral bleeding through injury an unlikely scenario. It is more probable that Sutcliffe died as a result of an aneurysm or arteriovenous malformation (AVM), both of which are congenital disorders.
đ ON THIS DAY: Paul McCartney announces The Beatlesâ split (1970)
With his debut solo album McCartney due for release on 17 April 1970, Paul McCartney chose not to do any promotional interviews. Instead, he asked Appleâs Peter Brown to write a list of questions to which he supplied the answers. They included his ruminations on the Beatles and the end of his partnership with John Lennon.
McCartneyâs self-interview caused an immediate storm after its contents were revealed by Daily Mirror journalist Don Short, and its contents were widely reported around the world. Although speculation had been rife for the previous six months, confirmation that the group was no more still came as a shock to many.
"The world reaction was like âThe Beatles Have Broken Up â Itâs Officialâ â weâd known it for months. So that was that, really. I think it was the press who misunderstood. The record had come with this weird explanation on a questionnaire of what I was doing. It was actually only for them. I think a few people thought it was some weird move of me to get publicity, but it was really to avoid having to do the press." â Paul McCartney, Anthology
Although McCartney did not directly say that The Beatles had split up, his disparaging comments about the group, their management by Allen Klein and his assertion that Lennon-McCartney would not become an active songwriting team effectively cut the ties.
Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: The Beatles are photographed with their Madame Tussauds wax figures (1964)
The London wax museum Madame Tussaudâs had unveiled effigies of all four Beatles on 28 March 1964. The Beatles were the first pop group to appear in the museum.
On 29 April the band were photographed with the dummies at the museum.
In 1967 the museum lent the wax figures to artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth to be used on the cover of The Beatlesâ album Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band. Three of the heads â John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr â used for the cover were rediscovered in 2005 after being lost for nearly two decades, and were auctioned for ÂŁ81,500.
The Beatlesâ changing image resulted in Madame Tussaudâs reworking the figures on several occasions throughout the 1960s.
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: Recording: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
The Beatles began work on the title track of what would become their next film and EP/LP release, âMagical Mystery Tourâ, recording three takes of the backing track.
The group rehearsed the song extensively in the studio before recording began, with Paul McCartney guiding the group from the piano. Eventually they taped a rhythm track of two guitars, piano and drums.
Satisfied with take three, The Beatles then oversaw five reduction mixes to free up extra tracks on the tape. The last of these, numbered take eight, was used for further overdubs on subsequent days.
The group also assembled a tape loop of traffic noises, taken from EMIâs sound effects collection Volume 36: Traffic Noise Stereo. This was added to the song during a final mixing session on 7 November 1967.
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Beatles Bible
Best track on the McCartney album? (excluding Maybe I'm Amazed đ)
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: UK album release: McCartney by Paul McCartney (1970)
Paul McCartneyâs debut solo album, simply titled McCartney, was released on 17 April 1970 in the United Kingdom.
The album was a mix of home and studio recordings, new songs, Beatles rejects and ad-libbed offcuts. It was swiftly assembled, released to coincide with The Beatlesâ break-up, and divided fans and critics alike.
The release of McCartney was subject to much wrangling and disagreement within Apple. Neil Aspinall initially asked McCartney if the album could be delayed for a week, to allow Ringo Starrâs debut Sentimental Journey more time in the spotlight. McCartney agreed to this, but was dismayed to find that Allen Klein had already postponed his albumâs release. A furious McCartney telephoned George Harrison to reinstate the original release date of 17 April, and sent a confirmation telegram to the other Beatles, Klein and Aspinall.
The Beatlesâ Let It Be album was also complete, and the rest of the band were keen for it to be released ahead of the film of the same name. John Lennon informed EMI of Appleâs decision to delay the McCartney album, writing that âWe have arrived at the conclusion that it would not be in the best interests of this company for the record to be released on that date.â
Harrison then wrote to McCartney, marking the envelope âFrom us, to youâ and leaving it at Apple for a messenger to deliver. However, Starr offered to take it to Cavendish Avenue, McCartneyâs north London home. Harrisonâs letter read:
"Dear Paul, We thought a lot about yours and the Beatles LPs â and decided itâs stupid for Apple to put out two big albums within 7 days of each other (also thereâs Ringoâs and Hey Jude) â so we sent a letter to EMI telling them to hold your release til June 4th (thereâs a big Apple-Capitol convention in Hawaii then). We thought youâd come round when you realized that the Beatles album was coming out on April 24th. Weâre sorry it turned out like this â itâs nothing personal. Love John George. Hare Krishna. A Mantra a Day Keeps MAYA! Away."
McCartney was furious, but continued with his plan to release the album on schedule. He announced the formation of his own company, McCartney Productions Ltd, on 7 April 1970. Its first projects would be the McCartney album and an animation based on the character Rupert Bear.
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: Recording: A Hard Dayâs Night (1964)
Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
The Beatles recorded the title track of their third album and first feature film, âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ, on this day.
"Usually, John and I would sit down and if we thought of something weâd write a song about it. But Walter Shenson asked John and me if weâd write a song specially for the opening and closing credits. We thought about it and it seemed a bit ridiculous writing a song called âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ â it sounded funny at the time, but after a bit we got the idea of saying it had been a hard dayâs night and weâd been working all the days, and get back to a girl and everythingâs fine⌠And we turned it into one of those songs." â Paul McCartney, Anthology
âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ had been written in haste by John Lennon, shortly after the title of the film was decided upon. The phrase had been coined by Ringo Starr, and had previously appeared in the Sad Michael story in Lennonâs first book In His Own Write.
"I was going home in the car and Dick Lester suggested the title Hard Dayâs Night from something Ringoâd said. I had used it in In His Own Write, but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringoism, where he said it not to be funny, just said it. So Dick Lester said we are going to use that title, and the next morning I brought in the song. âcause there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A side, who got the hit singles." â John Lennon, All We Are Saying
âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ was recorded at EMI Studios in a session taking place from 7-10pm. It took nine takes to record, and completed the number of songs needed for the film soundtrack.
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: Recording, mixing: Paperback Writer, Rain (1966)
Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
The Beatles had begun recording their next single, âPaperback Writerâ, on the previous day. It was completed during this session, as was the backing track of its b-side, âRainâ.
Work took place at Studio Three. Between 2.30 and 7.30pm they added a range of overdubs, not all of which were used in the final mix.
Paul McCartney recorded his lead vocals alone on one track, and on another he added a Rickenbacker bass part. The latter was taped along with falsetto backing vocals by John Lennon and George Harrison. Other overdubs included a piano part through a Leslie speaker played, and a Vox Continental part, both by George Martin, and extra lead guitar fills by McCartney.
A reduction mix allowed a fourth track to be cleared. Onto this were added more backing vocals by Lennon and Harrison, including the chorus and the famous âFrère Jacquesâ countermelody.
Between 7.30 and 8pm two mono mixes of âPaperback Writerâ were made in the control room of Studio Three. This featured heavy tape echo in the vocals of the chorus refrain, which was toned down somewhat on the later stereo mix.
Work then began on âRainâ, with five takes recorded before work ended at 1.30am.
"One of the things we discovered when playing around with [tape] loops on âTomorrow Never Knowsâ was that the texture and depth of certain instruments sounded really good when slowed down. With âRainâ The Beatles played the rhythm track really fast so that when the tape was played back at normal speed everything would be much slower, changing the texture. If weâd recorded it at normal speed and then had to slow the tape down whenever we wanted to hear a playback it would have been much more work." â Geoff Emerick
The backing track had Starrâs drums and Lennon and McCartneyâs electric guitars, all on track one of the four-track tape. Take five was chosen as the best.
The Beatles performed the song at a fast tempo and in the key of B flat major. The original tempo and pitch can be heard on the 2022 reissue of Revolver.
McCartney overdubbed a bass guitar part onto track two, playing in B flat. The tape machine was then slowed down from 50 cycles per second to 42 cycles, and Lennon recorded lead vocals onto tracks three and four.
âRainâ was completed on 16 April during a session that saw a range of further overdubs, including backwards vocals in the coda.
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: UK single release: Get Back (1969)
The Beatlesâ 19th British single, and their first for 1969, was âGet Backâ, with âDonât Let Me Downâ on the b-side.
It was the first commercial release from the troubled Get Back sessions of January 1969. Many takes of the songs were recorded that month, before both sides of the single were taped on 28 January.
âGet Backâ was issued as Apple R 5777. Although the official release date was 11 April 1969, many stores didnât receive copies until several days later, as Paul McCartney had ordered a remix on 7 April. He had been unhappy with the earlier mix after hearing it played on BBC Radio 1 by Alan Freeman and John Peel the previous day.
Despite the rush-release, âGet Backâ entered the UK singles charts at number one on 23 April, where it remained for six weeks. In all it spent 17 weeks in the charts.
The two songs were officially accredited to The Beatles with Billy Preston, the first â and only â time another musician was honoured in such a fashion, aside from the groupâs early Hamburg releases with Tony Sheridan.
âGet Backâ was also the last Beatles single to be released in mono. âThe Ballad Of John And Yokoâ, released on 30 May 1969, was in stereo, as were all future UK releases.
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: Stuart Sutcliffe dies (1962)
Stuart Sutcliffe, the brilliant young painter who was a bass guitarist with The Beatles in their early period, died on this day of a brain haemorrhage.
He had been suffering from increasingly severe headaches and blackouts since settling in Hamburg with Astrid Kirchherr, his German fiancĂŠe. The cause of these remained uncertain, though Sutcliffe believed they were a consequence of overwork.
In February he had collapsed during an art school class, and dropped out of education. The Kirchherr family suspected a brain tumour, and sent him for x-rays, although nothing amiss was found. Two doctors subsequently saw Sutcliffe but they too could find nothing wrong.
By March 1962 the headaches had grown in frequency, escalating at times to violent fits, and Sutcliffe often suffered temporary blindness. His moods were volatile, ranging from calm normality to suicidal mania. Most of the final two weeks of his life were spent in bed.
On 10 April Astrid Kirchherr received a call from her mother while working in her photography studio. She was told that Sutcliffe had collapsed once more and he was to be sent to the hospital.
Kirchherr rushed home to accompany him in the ambulance. Sutcliffe was already unconscious, and died in her arms during the journey to the hospital. The cause of death was listed as cerebral paralysis caused by bleeding in the right ventricle of the brain.
The precise nature of Sutcliffeâs health issues has never been determined, and there has been considerable speculation as to the causes. One theory is that a blow to the head during a fight, possibly with John Lennon, led to the haemorrhage.
However, the lengthy deterioration in Sutcliffeâs health make cerebral bleeding through injury an unlikely scenario. It is more probable that Sutcliffe died as a result of an aneurysm or arteriovenous malformation (AVM), both of which are congenital disorders.
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Beatles Bible
Was Paul justified in announcing The Beatlesâ breakup?
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Beatles Bible
đ ON THIS DAY: Paul McCartney announces The Beatlesâ split (1970)
With his debut solo album McCartney due for release on 17 April 1970, Paul McCartney chose not to do any promotional interviews. Instead, he asked Appleâs Peter Brown to write a list of questions to which he supplied the answers. They included his ruminations on the Beatles and the end of his partnership with John Lennon.
McCartneyâs self-interview caused an immediate storm after its contents were revealed by Daily Mirror journalist Don Short, and its contents were widely reported around the world. Although speculation had been rife for the previous six months, confirmation that the group was no more still came as a shock to many.
"The world reaction was like âThe Beatles Have Broken Up â Itâs Officialâ â weâd known it for months. So that was that, really. I think it was the press who misunderstood. The record had come with this weird explanation on a questionnaire of what I was doing. It was actually only for them. I think a few people thought it was some weird move of me to get publicity, but it was really to avoid having to do the press." â Paul McCartney, Anthology
Although McCartney did not directly say that The Beatles had split up, his disparaging comments about the group, their management by Allen Klein and his assertion that Lennon-McCartney would not become an active songwriting team effectively cut the ties.
Read full article here: www.beatlesbible.com/1970/04/10/paul-mccartney-annâŚ
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