On this day in Beatles History...March 22, 1965

51 years ago today on March 22, 1965, a brand new Beatles record was released in America!  Unfortunately, that record was filled with previously released songs.

The Beatles were flying back to England after seven days spent filming the movie Help! in Austria as their fans in the United States were enjoying Capitol Records' release of The Early Beatles.  At least it was being enjoyed by new Beatles fans or fans who had worn out their copy of Introducing The Beatles which had been released on the Vee-Jay record label the previous year and contained an almost identical collection of songs.  Capitol Records had originally passed on their option to release The Beatles records in The United States, so Vee-Jay records scooped up the opportunity.  In 1965, Vee-Jay's contract ended and Capitol very quickly snapped it up and started releasing albums to make up for lost time.  The fact that this collection was essentially a re-release of old material gave it the distinction of being the only original release by Capitol Records that didn't chart in the top two.  In fact, it's highest chart position was #43.  As testament to The Beatles staying power, the album did still eventually sell over one million copies and get certified as platinum!

The Beatles 1968 Corgi Yellow Submarine Toy

By 1968, merchandise for The Beatles has already been around for several years.  It was no surprise that when The Yellow Submarine movie came out that there was a yellow toy submarine available for sale.  What probably was a surprise was that the yellow toy submarine released by Corgi in 1968 was of such high quality!  This toy was made of a very solid metal with a good amount of weight to it.  The periscope spun around and there were two little hatches that could be opened up to see the The Beatles inside.

Although Corgi didn't start making toys that tied in with movies and TV shows until 1965, had been making high quality, metal, toy cars in the UK since 1956, so they already had a lot of experience making a solid toy by the time The Yellow Submarine was released in 1968.  Additionally, from 1965 to 1968 they crafted so many toys to tie in with movies and TV such as James Bond, The Saint and the TV shows The Avenger and Batman, surely by then it would have been a simple task to create a toy submarine based on a very stylized cartoon.

On this day in Beatles History...March 4, 1966

50 years ago today on March 4, 1966, The Beatles released the Yesterday EP in the UK.  The EP contained the four songs Yesterday, Act Naturally, You Like Me To Much, and It's Only Love.  All four of these songs were previously released on the UK version of Help!  However, none of them were on the US version of Help!

Each of The Beatles sang lead vocals on one song.  Paul sang his phenomenally successful song Yesterday.   Ringo provided the lead vocals on their version of the Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison song Act Naturally.  George sang his song You Like Me Too Much.  John sang a song he co-wrote with Paul called It's Only Love which had originally been titled That's A Nice Hat.

On March 26, 1966, The Yesterday EP hit #1 and spent 6 weeks at the top of the UK charts.  It was around this time that John Lennon made his famous comment that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

Beatles Myth Busted!

Admittedly, calling this a Beatles Myth is probably a stretch since it's a myth about Paul's late wife Linda McCartney.  I'm posting it here because I've heard it stated as fact a so many times and I wanted to clear up the confusion: Linda Eastman McCartney was not an Eastman from Eastman-Kodak. I completely understand how the rumor spread.  Linda was a professional photographer and her last name was Eastman.  Those two facts are enough to keep this myth circulating.  Her family was originally Epstein, but she was also not related to Beatles' manager Brian Epstein.  Her grandfather changed the name from Epstein to Eastman when he immigrated from Russia to the United States.

On this day in Beatles History...February 17, 1967

49 years ago today on February 17, 1967, The Beatles recorded the majority of the song Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.  Throughout February and March, additional overdubs were also recorded, including numerous recordings of various pianos and organs played by The Beatles' producer, George Martin.  However, it was on February 17 that the bulk of the song was put down on tape.  The recording took place at EMI Studio Two.

The song's strange lyrics are very unusual, even for The Beatles later works!  The song was written based on a circus poster from 1843 that John Lennon purchased from an antique shop a few weeks earlier in Kent when the band was making a film for Strawberry Fields Forever.  Although it was generally assumed that the song was written primarily or entirely by John, Paul McCartney stated in a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone magazine that the pair co-wrote the song while looking at the poster in John's home.  The song title and many of the lyrics were taken directly from the poster.  One lyric that was changes was the name of the horse.  In the song, the horse is called Henry, but on the poster the horse is named Zanthus.  This change led to the song being banned from radio play by the BBC because the words Henry and Horse were both slang for heroin.

The Beatles never performed the song live as a group and it wasn't until Paul McCartney played it at a show in Brazil on May 4, 2013 that any member of the band performed the song live.  After this performance in Brazil, Paul continued to perform the song at concerts through 2015 and even live on The Colbert Report on June 12, 2013, a few weeks after the first live performance!

On this day in Beatles History...February 13, 1967

49 years ago today on February 13, 1967, The Beatles release the Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields single in the USA and became The Beatles 13th #1 single in the USA.  Although both songs are credited to the Lennon / McCartney, Strawberry Fields was written by John Lennon and Penny Lane was written by Paul McCartney.  Both songs were inspired by actual places from their past.  John played in the garden of Strawberry Field.  Penny Lane was written about the Penny Lane bus terminus where Paul and John had to switch buses whenever they went to each other's houses.  It was where the two would meet and hang our or take a bus into the city.

Strawberry Fields was the first song recorded for the Sgt. Pepper album and both songs were recorded during sessions for that album, but when the record company needed a new single, producer George Martin suggested these two.  He mentioned that he believed they were the two best Beatles songs so far.  Because they were released as a single, they were not included on the Sgt. Pepper album.

On this day in Beatles History...February 9, 1964

On February 9, 1964, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and Beatlemania went into full swing in the USA.  Legend has it that Mr. Sullivan had originally offered The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein a very substantial amount of money for a Beatles appearance on his show, but Epstein knew what an opportunity this was and countered with an offer to have The Beatles appear three times at a lower price if they could both open and close each show.  This would give the boys much more exposure.  The plan certainly worked.  Allegedly, their February 9th appearance drew a record breaking 73 million viewers!