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Let’s talk about one of the internet’s weirdest obsessions: killing off celebrities who are very much alive. What started as rare newspaper blunders in the early 1900s has morphed into a full-blown social media sport, where a single viral post can “declare” a star’s death faster than you can say “fake news.”

A still from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2001-2007) | Credits: Cartoon Network Studios

From Charlie Chaplin’s early brush with rumored demise to today’s pop icons getting “canceled” by bogus death reports, celebrities have basically become professional rumor-busters. These death hoaxes aren’t just random internet noise—they’re bizarre opportunities for stars to showcase their wit, turning potentially scary misinformation into clever comebacks and marketing moments. Turns out, in the age of viral headlines, staying alive can be its own form of entertainment.

1. Charlie Chaplin Charlie Chaplin in a still from...

Vic Flick, the famed British session guitarist who picked out the twangy riff for the James Bond theme song introduced to moviegoers on Dr. No, has died. He was 87.

His death on Thursday after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease was announced by his family on Facebook.

Flick also played on No. 1 hits for Peter and Gordon (“A World Without Love”) and Petula Clark (“Downtown”); performed on Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual” and “Ringo’s Theme” (This Boy) for A Hard Day’s Night (1964); and collaborated with the likes of Jimmy Page, George Martin, Herman’s Hermits, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton, Dusty Springfield and Engelbert Humperdinck.

“He was a musician’s musician,” Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues wrote in the foreword to Flick’s 2008 memoir, Vic Flick Guitarman: From James Bond to The Beatles and Beyond.

“He always stood up to play! Yes, I know it sounds obvious — but you...

Paul McCartney remembered the “supremely talented” Quincy Jones in a tribute to the late musician and producer shared on Instagram.

“Dear Quincy Jones has passed and left those of us who knew him feeling sad,” McCartney wrote. “He was supremely talented, and I felt privileged to have known him for many years.”

As McCartney noted, his connection to Jones began with Beatles producer, George Martin, who’d met and befriended Jones in the early Sixties. Decades later, McCartney would work with Jones and Michael Jackson on Thriller, appearing on the duet,...

How does one honor the legacy of a man who helped shape music history? Such was the ambitious task undertaken by the makers of Midas Man in recounting the story of Brian Epstein. Known as the “fifth Beatle” for his crucial role in the band’s success, Epstein spotted musical talent like few others. Behind bright eyes and a disarming smile lay a quietly complex soul, and navigating the turbulent currents of the 1960s music industry demanded drive, flair, and nerves of steel.

Epstein first glimpsed possibilities beyond small-town Liverpool after discovering a ragtag foursome called the Beatles. Charmed as much as impressed, he resolved to share their gift with the world against all odds.

Jacob Fortune-Lloyd brings our hero to life with warmth and subtlety, inviting us into Epstein’s hopes, doubts, and inner fortitude. We cheer his triumphs alongside sorrow over challenges that, even decades later, remain deeply unfair.

Some of The Beatles‘ songs might look a little simple these days. A 1990s rock star once said that many Fab Four songs are so layered they are otherworldly. Interestingly, their intricacy didn’t stop him from recording some fantastic Fab Four covers.

A 1990s rock band covered every song from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’

The Flaming Lips are a neo-psychedelia band most known for their 1990s hit “She Don’t Use Jelly.” Between their dreamlike, hazy production and oddball lyrical choices, The Flaming Lips are the heirs of the Fab Four circa Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. For that reason, it’s not surprising that they covered Sgt. Pepper from front to back for their album With a Little Help from My Fwends.

During a 2014 interview with The Stranger, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne was asked if any song by The Beatles was more complex than it seemed.

Sometimes, classic rock stars don’t understand their own work. Ringo Starr said some things about The Beatles’ “Love Me Do” that are just plain wrong. His comments don’t make sense in light of The Beatles’ career or Ringo’s career as a solo artist.

Ringo Starr said The Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’ is his defining song

During a 2023 interview with Vulture, Ringo was asked to name the defining song of his career. “Because it was the first song, my answer is ‘Love Me Do,'” he said. “We were on vinyl. We made a record.

“Even though when I got to the studio, George Martin had a session guy for the drums, Andy White, but I played on it anyway,” the “Photograph” singer added. “He played it, I played it — he’s on the album, I think, and I’m on the single, so go figure. We were...

Who, exactly, is the ‘Fifth Beatle’? Many have had that title bestowed upon them, deemed the essential but just-out-of-frame counterpart to Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. There’s producer George Martin, who worked extensively with the band in the studio, or road manager Neil Aspinall, and press officer Derek Taylor. But one of the top contenders for that title has always been Brian Epstein – the man who discovered the Fab Four in Liverpool, helped usher them into the spotlight, and died at the tender age of 32. Now, his story – and a slice of music history – is being told in biopic Midas Man, starring The Queen’s Gambit’s Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Epstein.

Empire has been working eight days a week to bring you an exclusive first-look clip from the film – featuring not just one but two ‘Fifth Beatles’, depicting a pivotal point in Beatles history: the...

There’s barely any horror fanatic who isn’t familiar with the name Stephen King. The renowned author with a high book-to-adaptation ratio is not only famed for his unique take on horror but also for his outspoken nature.

Image via Stephen King In His Own Words Featurette | YouTube

King has often gotten into controversies for his critique of other literary figures. However, he correctly predicted a trend that would go on to shape the future of two fantasy shows – Game of Thrones and The Wheel of Time.

Stephen King didn’t like The Wheel of Time

Robert Jordan’s novel series, The Wheel of Time, a 14-volume read, is quite popular among young adults and admirers of fantasy. Back in 2016, at The Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque, King had a chat with George R.R. Martin, where he admitted his dislike for Jordan’s work.

The Wheel of Time| Amazon Prime...

The Beatles were one of the best bands of all time and their songs drew inspiration from the greats, including Chuck Berry and Ludwig van Beethoven. In spite of that, one of the worst songs of all time became a big inspiration for The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” The similarity between the two songs is minor at best.

The length of The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ was inspired by an awful song

“MacArthur Park” is the worst folk song of the 1960s. On the surface, it’s about MacArthur Park in Los Angeles melting in the dark as a sweet green cake gets soaked outdoors in the rain. A man laments the loss of a woman who used to hold birds like tender babies in her hands. Metaphor is great and all, but a song should work well on a literal level. “MacArthur Park” comes up with a lot of random images that don’t really gel.

There’s a moment in “Elton John: Never Too Late,” a robustly satisfying and emotional documentary about the life and career of Elton John, that captures him, in a most revealing way, in his ’70s heyday.

It’s a clip from a television interview, in which Elton is explaining how he writes a song. The clip must be from 1971, and Elton, still looking like a puppy child, with rectangle-framed glasses and plenty of shaggy hair, sits at an upright piano and brings out a sheaf of lyrics — pages all written in longhand by his collaborator, Bernie Taupin. Elton wants to show us his method, so he talks about a song he just wrote, called “Tiny Dancer,” and finds the lyrics to it. He explains how he scanned through them and realized, when he saw the word “ballerina,” that it would have to be a slow-tempo song. He demonstrates how he kind of improvised the chords.

Many different Beatles songs have been cited as the moment when they “grew up.” Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler said that a track from Rubber Soul showcased how much the Fab Four changed in a short period of time. The track in question paved the way for an Aerosmith song.

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler liked when The Beatles took a musical trip to India

In his 2011 book Does the Music in My Head Bother You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, Tyler discussed why The Beatles blew up. “They were English and they had long hair when nobody else did and they said funny things, but it wasn’t that, either,” he said. “It was the alchemy they cooked up — Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry — and music hall numbers.” In other words, Tyler is saying that The Beatles were popular because they drew from an eclectic range of influences.

There are two types of adapters in Hollywood, those who are loyal to the source, like it is the word of God, and those who wish to loosely follow it, and the foundations of something new on top of the pre-existing work. While many exist in the blurry lines between these two categories, there is no denying that their conflicts with each other are the reason why the industry is so afraid of adapting works.

House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 6 I Max

As more and more episodes of House of the Dragon get released, it is becoming evidently clear that the series is straying away from the formula of Game of Thrones and from the source material. While many fans and readers are upset about such an approach, the series has been getting an increasing amount of praise from critics.

Amid this civil war, Steve Toussaint, who plays the role of Corlys Velaryon,...

In 1967, The Beatles and producer George Martin gathered in the studio to record the song “A Day in the Life.” They were far from the only people in the studio that day. In their typical fashion, the band invited many of their contemporaries to join them as they recorded the song. According to one of the many people present, Martin seemed embarrassed by the spectacle.

George Martin seemed embarrassed as The Beatles recorded a song

David Puttnam, who was a friend of The Beatles, was present at the “A Day in the Life” recording session. He admitted that many of his experiences with the band were chaotic.

“From the moment they started meeting to make the film [Magical Mystery Tour], there are fantastic stories of total lunacy,” Puttnam said in the book All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. “You hire a caterer,...

The Beatles were a group of four, but they required many more people behind the scenes to support them. Many, like their longtime producer George Martin, proved to be excellent connections for the band, helping them improve their music. Others were not as beneficial for the band. According to Ron Kass, the former president of Apple Records, the band trusted many people they should not have.

Those who knew The Beatles said they were not good judges of character

For much of The Beatles’ time as a band, they relied on their manager, Brian Epstein. He had concerns about their judgment when it came to other people.

“And as Brian once said, the boys were very bad judges of character,” press officer Derek Taylor said in the book All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines.

The Beatles | John Downing/Getty Images

After Epstein’s death,...

Pop history is littered with prolific partnerships, but the artist-producer pairing is arguably one of the most indispensable. Not only can an intrepid knob-twirler coax the best out of an artist, the most fruitful of these collaborations are often reciprocal. Think George Martin and the Beatles; Timbaland and Missy Elliott; or Jam & Lewis and Janet Jackson. Taylor Swift and former Fun guitarist-drummer Jack Antonoff have both achieved commercial and critical success outside of their work together, but their alliance over the last several years has, more often than not, resulted in pop magic.

The duo first worked together over a decade ago, on the unassuming “Sweeter Than Fiction,” a song from the British-American film One Chance. The following year, Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced three tracks for Swift’s blockbuster album 1989, the success of which propelled him to the top of every A&r exec’s wish list, helming tracks for Pink,...

Before Ringo Starr joined The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison worked with a different drummer. Pete Best traveled to Germany with The Beatles when they played in Hamburg. Best never reaped the prolific benefits of the band’s success, though. They fired him just before hitting it big, which McCartney described as one of the most difficult things they ever had to do.

Paul McCartney said The Beatles had to make a difficult decision

In 1962, The Beatles auditioned for producer George Martin. While Martin saw potential in the band, he didn’t see a path forward for them with Best. He asked them to consider finding a new drummer.

“He agreed to audition us, and we had a not-very powerful audition in which he was not very pleased with Pete Best,” McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology. “George Martin was used to drummers being very ‘in time,...

The Beatles began recording Let It Be at Twickenham Studios, but they finished out the album at Apple Studios. They found the atmosphere at Apple to be more comfortable and tried to add to that feeling with a roaring fire. Unfortunately, this decision was not good for the music they were recording.

The Beatles couldn’t make the studio as comfortable as they wanted

While Apple Studios wasn’t technically finished, The Beatles decided to reconvene there for a change in atmosphere. They immediately ran into a problem with the building’s heating system.

“There was a central heating boiler in the office and it was not soundproofed. So somebody pointed this out: ‘There’s the central heating making a din,’ and The Beatles said: ‘We’ll turn it off when we’re in here. We’ll just have quiet fires,’” press officer Derek Taylor said in The Beatles Anthology.

When Elden Ring was released back in 2022, one thing was sure; it brought along the potential to expand faithfully on the ranks of the Dark Souls. Besides, one of the biggest USPs of the game was that it brought together the worldbuilding talents of the acclaimed fantasy author George R.R. Martin and the extraordinary vision of game director Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Elden Ring

Novelist George R.R. Martin is best known for his series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire. These were later adapted into House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones TV shows which were highly acclaimed. Game of Thrones is an Emmy Award-winning HBO series.

Hidetaka Miyazaki spills the details about his first meeting with George R.R. Martin

During an interview with Edge Magazine ahead of Elden Ring’s launch, Hidetaka Miyazaki spilled some interesting details about how the great author contributed to the game.

In 1969, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr recorded The Beatles song “Get Back.” In 1972, Ringo Starr released a solo song that had some strikingly similar elements to The Beatles’ hit. He admitted he copied part of the song.

Ringo Starr took inspiration from a Beatles song in his career as a solo artist

Much of The Beatles’ experience recording Let It Be was agonizing. Beatles producer George Martin said the album was such an “unhappy” one that he was surprised the band reunited to record Abbey Road (per The Beatles Anthology). Still, there were some bright spots in the recording process. Starr said they enjoyed working together when they felt they were recording a good track.

“‘Get Back’ was a good track. I felt, ‘This is a kick-a** track.’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ also,” Starr said. “They were two fine tracks. Quite simple and raw — back to basics.

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring greatly builds on the brand’s ranks of Dark Souls. What makes Elden Ring all the more special is the fact that it brings together two of the greatest creators that the world has seen, the beloved fantasy author George R.R. Martin, and Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Elden Ring

While the game was directed by Miyazaki, the developers roped in the Game of Thrones to write for the game. Obviously, the results were expected to be top-tier and they definitely were on release.

Hidetaka Miyazaki on his meeting with George R.R. Martin

During an interview with GamesRadar+, Miyazaki spoke about his first-ever encounter with George R.R. Martin ahead of Elden Ring. He said,

“Yes, I have some good memories of those initial discussions. Not so much for the content but just the general feelings I had speaking with George Martin. He actually knew about the Dark Souls games.

The release of Elden Ring was a huge deal not just because it was FromSoftware’s first true open-world game (and their biggest), but also for the involvement of storied author George R. R. Martin, who laid down the foundation of the action-rpg’s world.

A collaboration between these two legends is something no one could see coming, but boy did it bear fruit. Elden Ring not only became the most successful FromSoftware title, it also won the 2022 Game of the Year award. Now, as fans eagerly await the release of its Dlc, Shadow of the Erdtree, many wonder how Martin has contributed to it.

Martin’s Aura Indirectly Extends To Shadow Of The Erdtree Shadow of the Erdtree will very much use the same foundation as Elden Ring, which was created by Martin. Credit: FromSoftware

In an interview with IGN, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki clarified that Martin didn...

A song from The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is so old-fashioned it could have come out during the Victorian era. One of The Beatles’ rock ‘n’ roll peers said that he couldn’t have written the song because he had no sense of time. Regardless, that singer’s tunes have lasted over the course of generations.

Donovan on why Paul McCartney wrote a song from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’

One of The Beatles’ fellow British Invasion stars was Donovan. He contributed to psychedelia as much as they did with hits such as “Sunshine Superman,” “Atlantis, and “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” Donovan also accompanied the Fab Four on their fateful trip to India to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and learn about Transcendental Meditation.

During a 2013 interview with BusinessLive, Donovan discussed his own sense of time. “One couldn’t remember last Tuesday or think about next Tuesday,” he said,...

The Beatles’ record label could boast about their ability to sell albums from the biggest band in the world. Beginning in 1963, the band became an undeniable success in the United Kingdom, with records flying off the shelves and an increasingly rabid fan base. Capitol Records, which would eventually become the band’s American record label, initially wanted nothing to do with the group. They were certain they would sell well in the country.

The Beatles’ record label didn’t think the band would do well in America

In 1963, “From Me to You” brought The Beatles their first Number One hit in the United Kingdom. It was their third single and marked the start of their rapid rise to success.

“It was very difficult in 1963 to think The Beatles were going to last forever and that I would be talking about them thirty years on. But it was very gratifying that they had made Number One,...

Over the course of their time in The Beatles, Paul McCartney’s bandmates grew increasingly frustrated with him. To them, McCartney’s perfectionism and insistence on controlling many aspects of the recording process was highly annoying. McCartney himself admitted that he could be a bit bossy to his bandmates. Still, he claimed that he tried to take a step back on Abbey Road but his bandmates didn’t want him to.

Paul McCartney said his bandmates wanted him to exert control over ‘Abbey Road’

Though it was not the last album the band released, the final time The Beatles got into the studio together was to record Abbey Road. The band fought bitterly while recording the White Album and Let It Be. As a result, McCartney vowed to be less overbearing with his bandmates on the latest album.

“Again the feeling that I mustn’t be dominating was plaguing me,...

The Beatles’ longtime producer George Martin worked with them on each album they put out in the 1960s. He was a key part of their success and got to know them well throughout their collaboration. Their antics, particularly in the early 1960s, grew familiar to him. Still, they sometimes pushed Martin too far. He shared what they did to let him down for the very first time.

The Beatles frustrated George Martin while recording songs in German

In the early 1960s, The Beatles traveled to Paris for a concert. While they were there, Martin booked them studio time to record German language versions of “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” A record company executive believed there was no chance the songs would sell in Germany if they were in English.

“I was disinclined to believe this, but that’s what he said and I told The Beatles,...

Though The Beatles were the biggest band in the world in the 1960s, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr still faced censure. Several Beatles songs were banned around the world. One song Lennon wrote did not receive playtime on the radio because some believed it referenced drugs. Lennon rolled his eyes at this interpretation and called the song beautiful.

John Lennon admired a banned Beatles song

In 1968, The Beatles released “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” Every member of the band was incredibly proud of the song, but some censors were not. The BBC banned the song, believing it referenced heroin use.

“‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ was another one which was banned on the radio — they said it was about shooting up drugs. But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out of it,” Lennon said in The Beatles Anthology.

The highly anticipated Elden Ring Dlc, Shadow of the Erdtree will be released very soon, and the community has just got some important information regarding its story focus.

In a recent IGN interview, Hidetaka Miyazaki, the visionary behind the game, offered insights into George R. R. Martin’s ongoing impact on the expansion’s storyline, following his involvement in the base game.

Martin’s Mythos Shaped the Elden Ring Dlc

George R. R. Martin hasn’t written any new content for the Elden Ring Dlc

In the interview, Miyazaki addressed Martin’s role in the planning of Shadow of the Erdtree, emphasizing that the integration of Martin’s narrative is consistent with the base game:

The way George Martin’s story has been incorporated is the same as it was with the base game with Elden Ring. And to avoid misunderstanding there, we just want to point out that he...

Beatles producer George Martin worked with the band extensively on each of their albums. He got to know the band and their working style well as they grew as artists. While he was typically happy to see their growth, he said they began taking too many creative liberties beginning with one album. He shared why this became a problem for the group.

George Martin said The Beatles lost focus on one album

In 1967, The Beatles pushed the limits of what was possible with an album when they released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They continued to push boundaries with their later albums, which Martin viewed as a problem.

“During Magical Mystery Tour I became conscious that the freedom that we’d achieved in Pepper was getting a little bit over the top, and they weren’t really exerting enough mental discipline in a lot of the recordings,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology.

Many of the songs John Lennon wrote for the Beatles were introspective. He wrote about his feelings and relationships, both with his first wife, Cynthia, and Yoko Ono. In 1964, he wrote the song “If I Fell” about an affair. The original lyrics were a bit harsher on the betrayed partner in the song than in the final version.

John Lennon toned down the lyrics of a Beatles song

In 1964, Lennon wrote the ballad “If I Fell.” Lennon admitted it was semi-autobiographical.

“That’s my first attempt at a ballad proper,” he said in the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff. “That was the precursor to ‘In My Life.’ It has the same chord sequences as ‘In My Life’: D and B minor and E minor, those kind of things. And it’s semi-autobiographical, but not consciously. It...

John Lennon met Paul McCartney and George Harrison when they were teenagers, and they performed together in The Beatles all through their 20s. When Lennon left The Beatles, he said he did it because he wanted to be able to grow up. He didn’t think it was possible to do this while in the band.

John Lennon said he felt he couldn’t mature in The Beatles

In 1969, Lennon told his bandmates that he no longer wanted to be in The Beatles. His life had been intertwined with his bandmates’ for so long and he was ready for a break.

“We’re all individuals. And in The Beatles we grew out of it,” Lennon said in The Beatles Anthology. “The bag was too small. I can’t impose far-out films or far-out music on George and Paul if they don’t want to do it. Vice versa, Paul can...

Richard Lewis, the stand-up comedian who also starred alongside Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” died Tuesday night at his Los Angeles home due to a heart attack, Variety has confirmed. He was 76.

Lewis announced last April he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and was retiring from stand-up comedy. He most recently appeared in Season 12 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” currently airing on HBO.

In 2021, Lewis announced he would not appear in Season 11 of “Curb” in order to recover from three surgeries. He surprised viewers by returning to set for one Season 11 episode, telling Variety at the time, “When I walked in and they applauded, I felt like a million bucks. Larry doesn’t like to hug, and he hugged me and told me how happy he was after we shot our scene.”

Lewis, who played a semi-fictionalized version of himself throughout the 24 years of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” was known for his neurotic,...

Paul McCartney wrote a large portion of The Beatles’ songs based on a variety of his personal experiences. “Let It Be” came to him after having a dream about his mother and he wrote “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” after a fan did just that. Beatles associate Alistair Taylor believed McCartney wrote a different Beatles song after a seemingly paranormal experience.

Paul McCartney wrote a Beatles song after a strange experience

In 1967, McCartney and Taylor were walking McCartney’s dog Martha in the morning. As they turned to look for Martha, they realized a man was behind them.

“We turned round to go and suddenly there he was standing behind us,” Taylor said, per the book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner. “He was a middle-aged man, very respectably dressed in a belted raincoat. Nothing in that, you may think,...

The Beatles’ songs from A to Z are a study of how the band changed the course of pop music. The songwriting, melodies, instrumentals, and recording technqiues established the band as among the most influential in music history. But for all their success, The Beatles remained active for a relatively short period of time.

In 10 years, The Beatles released 14 albums in what’s considered their core catalog. It includes just over 200 songs from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Some are much more memorable than others, but every Beatles song from A to Z has its own story and interesting facts to keep listeners entertained even when the music stops.

Beatles songs starting with ‘A’ “Across the Universe” The song holds a Guinness World Record that involves outer space. “Act Naturally” It replaced a “weird” Ringo Starr song initially meant for the album. “All I’ve Got...

Beatles fans have long debated the causes of the band’s breakup, but their longtime producer George Martin believed the split was relatively easy to explain. Martin worked with the band for years and watched as they drifted apart. While he recognized that many factors contributed to their breakup, he believed that they wanted an opportunity to live more normal, separate lives.

George Martin said The Beatles wanted normalcy in their lives

The Beatles’ touring and recording schedules, particularly in the first half of the 1960s, allowed them little time to spend with anyone but themselves. They made public appearances as a group and vacationed together. Martin believed that by the end of the decade, they were ready for some time apart.

“The split arose from many contributory things, mainly that each of the boys wanted to live his own life and had never been able to,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology.

Pop music phenoms come and go, fall in and out of favor and sometimes fade into total obscurity. Very few remain relevant a decade removed from their initial success, and you can count on maybe two hands the number of artists who can knock out a new song or reissue and top the Billboard charts 50-plus years after their debut.

And then there's The Beatles.

From the moment they scored their first number one hit in the U.K. with 1963's "From Me to You," The Beatles drew on their multitude of musical influences — blues, country, rockabilly, and the sui generis soul sounds pulsating out of Motown — to create perfectly constructed, infectiously catchy singles that earwormed their way into the fabric of your being. Within three years of breaking big in the U.S., they released the pioneering folk-rock LP "Rubber Soul," flirted with psychedelia and raga on the expansive "Revolver,...

In 1995, The Beatles released “Free as a Bird,” their first new song in years. John Lennon originally wrote it in 1977, and his surviving bandmates worked on it years later. While the song was a success on the charts, longtime Beatles producer George Martin wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He gave it his stamp of approval but felt it sounded a bit odd.

George Martin wasn’t sure about the finished product of a late Beatles song

At the start of 1994, Paul McCartney called Yoko Ono to wish her a happy New Year. Through this conversation and further ones, they began discussing the possibility of working on some of Lennon’s home demos and releasing them as Beatles songs.

“I liked ‘Free As A Bird’ immediately,” McCartney said in the book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner. “I liked the melody.

Abbey Road was the final album The Beatles recorded and was a relatively pleasant studio experience for John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Recording The White Album and Let It Be had been contentious and challenging. While the recording process for Abbey Road was smoother, not everything was perfect. Lennon walked away unhappy with a significant portion of the record.

John Lennon disliked Paul McCartney’s additions to ‘Abbey Road’

By the time The Beatles were working on Abbey Road, Lennon and McCartney were writing separately despite sharing a writing credit. Lennon did not approve of the songs McCartney added to the album.

“I tried to get Paul to get back into the old Pepper way of creating something really worthwhile and we put together the long side,” producer George Martin said in The Beatles Anthology. “John objected very much to what we did on the second side of Abbey Road,...

In 1967, The Beatles performed “All You Need Is Love” on a live broadcast. The song was a swift success for the band and became an anthem for the summer of its release. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. The band ran into copyright issues following the discovery that producer George Martin included a song that was not in the public domain.

The Beatles ran into trouble over ‘All You Need Is Love’

“All You Need Is Love” includes elements from several songs, including “La Marseillaise” and the 1939 song “In the Mood.” The latter eventually became a problem for the band.

“In arranging it, we shoved ‘La Marseillaise’ on the front, and a whole string of stuff on the end,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology. “I fell into deep water over that. I’m afraid that amongst all the little bits and pieces I used in the play-out (which...

After The Beatles broke up, John Lennon frequently spoke critically about the work he made with the band. He said he didn’t consider himself a fan of The Beatles and complained about his bandmates. He had harbored negative feelings about the band while they were still together. According to longtime Beatles producer George Martin, Lennon was visibly fed up while recording one of the band’s final albums.

John Lennon had problems with the final album The Beatles recorded

While Let It Be was the last album The Beatles released, they recorded it before Abbey Road. They recorded it in 1969, the same year Lennon announced he was leaving the band. According to Martin, Lennon’s fatigue with the group came through while recording Abbey Road.

“John got disenchanted with record production. He didn’t really approve of what I’d done or was doing,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology.

While Joni Mitchell was working on her groundbreaking album Court and Spark in 1973, a drunken John Lennon stumbled into the studio. He was working on Rock ‘n’ Roll, an album fueled by drugs, alcohol, and violence. When he visited Mitchell, he tried to give her advice on her album. She shared what she thought of his remarks.

John Lennon tried to give Joni Mitchell advice on how to write a hit

In 1973, Mitchell and Lennon were recording albums next to each other. After a few drinks, Lennon decided to see how Mitchell’s recording session for Court and Spark was going.

“I played him something,” Mitchell told Mojo (via her official website). “[He said] ‘Oh, it’s all a product of over education. You want a hit, don’t you? Put some fiddles on it!'”

Despite Lennon’s belief that the album would not be a hit, it became her most successful album.

John Lennon wasn’t always concerned with writing melodies. Despite this, he said two of The Beatles’ songs showed he could write melodies “with the best of them.” One of these tunes was a hit — but only after George Martin created an instrumental recording of it.

John Lennon said 2 Beatles songs proved he didn’t just write ‘shouting rock ‘n’ roll’ tracks

In a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John discussed his role in The Beatles. “My contribution to Paul’s songs was always to add a little bluesy edge to them,” he said. “Otherwise, y’know, ‘Michelle’ is a straight ballad, right? He provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.” This balance between Paul’s sensibilities and John’s was the main magic of the Fab Four’s sound.

“Please Please Me” was an early hit for The Beatles, but it might not have made it far in its original form. According to Beatles producer George Martin, the initial version of the song was slow and dull. When he pointed this out to the band, they felt embarrassed that they hadn’t noticed.

The Beatles’ producer embarrassed the band when he asked them to change ‘Please Please Me’

When The Beatles first played “Please Please Me” for Martin, he could scarcely keep from yawning. They wanted it on the first single, but he thought it was too boring as it stood.

“In the first year, I had the final decision on songs, but they persuaded me to let them have their own songs on both sides of their first single,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology. “I was still thinking that we should release their recording of ‘How Do You Do It.

When The Beatles released “Please Please Me” in early 1963, both Paul McCartney and John Lennon received writing credit. The pair wanted to be the next Rodgers and Hammerstein, and they established the precedent of earning joint credit for their songs. According to McCartney, though, he didn’t have all that much to do with writing the song. He admitted that “Please Please Me” was more of Lennon’s song than his own.

Paul McCartney said John Lennon wrote more of ‘Please Please Me’ than he did

After achieving success with “Love Me Do,” The Beatles exploded with the release of “Please Please Me.” It was a song McCartney and Lennon worked on together, but McCartney admitted that it was more of Lennon’s song than his.

“We’d had a fair bit of practice writing over the years, though our legendary ‘first one hundred’ was probably in reality less than half that amount of songs,...

When The Beatles told producer George Martin that they wanted to get back into the studio to record an album after Let It Be, he could hardly believe his ears. He assumed the band would break up. Recording Let It Be had been a miserable experience for all involved and he didn’t see a future for The Beatles.

George Martin said making The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ was a terrible experience

In early 1969, The Beatles gathered to begin working on Let It Be. Tensions among the band members were at an all-time high. Their recording sessions for the White Album had also been challenging, and Let It Be was no different.

“This was a very difficult period,” Paul McCartney said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “John was with Yoko full-time, and our relationship was beginning to crumble: John and I were going through a very tense period.

Over the course of his career, John Lennon worked with many musicians. The Beatles brought in other musicians to play on their songs, and he collaborated with many artists in his solo career. Despite this, Lennon said he found it difficult to talk about music with other artists. He explained that he relied on producer George Martin to do this for him because he was too shy.

John Lennon said he found it challenging to talk to musicians

In the early 1960s, The Beatles began working with Martin. He helped transform their music and bring their visions to life.

“George Martin had a very great musical knowledge and background, and he could translate for us and suggest a lot of things,” Lennon said in The Beatles Anthology. “He’d come up with amazing technical things, slowing down the piano and things like that. We’d be saying, ‘We want it to go un,...

In 1970, The Beatles released Let It Be, the final record John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr would put out together. Though it was not the last thing they recorded, the album sat unreleased for a while and came out after the band had already broken up. Lennon said this was because of how bad it was. According to him, none of The Beatles wanted to touch it. McCartney had a different perspective on the matter.

John Lennon did not think The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ sounded good

The Beatles recorded Let It Be in early 1969, but it wasn’t available to the public until May 1970. As it languished in the interim, manager Allen Klein brought in producer Phil Spector to work on it. Lennon felt that this was the best thing that could have happened to the album, even though Spector’s version has many critics.

“If...

In 1968, The Beatles released a song that might not have been a possibility in earlier years. At over seven minutes long, “Hey Jude” was too long to fit on a standard record without severely jeopardizing the sound. The band insisted on keeping it at its length, though. This required a team of sound engineers to find a way to fit it on the record.

The Beatles song ‘Hey Jude’ was too long to fit on on a record without distorting the sound

When Paul McCartney wrote “Hey Jude,” longtime Beatles producer told the band it would not be wise to release it as a single.

“We recorded ‘Hey Jude’ in Trident Studios. It was a long song,” George Martin said in The Beatles Anthology. “In fact, after I timed it I actually said, ‘You can’t make a single that long.’ I was shouted down by the boys — not for...

Paul McCartney discussed John Lennon’s role in writing The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.” Some of Paul’s comments are a little questionable. Regardless, “I Am the Walrus” is one of the key tracks of John’s career.

Paul McCartney discussed the origin of the laughter from The Beatles’ ‘I Am the Walrus’

During a 2009 interview with Clash, Paul discussed his feelings about “I Am the Walrus.” “I think in a way, for instance something like ‘I Am the Walrus,’ someone like John probably doesn’t get enough credit, because those sessions, those preparatory sessions, were very important because they set the style and often gave very accurate briefs of what we wanted,” he opined.

“For instance, all of John’s ‘Everybody’s got one’ and ‘Ho ho ho, hee hee hee, ha ha ha’ [from ‘I Am the Walrus’], all that stuff was from John at a session with [The Beatles’ producer] George Martin, a preparation session,...

Beginning in the early 1960s, The Beatles enjoyed a string of hit songs that dominated the charts and the radio soundwaves. By 1968, they had established themselves as the biggest band of the decade. Still, their producer, George Martin, worried that one song wouldn’t do well because it wouldn’t get radio playtime. Ultimately, Martin was completely off base with his concerns.

Beatles producer George Martin thought ‘Hey Jude’ was too long of a song

Paul McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” as a tribute to John Lennon’s young son, Julian, amid his parents’ divorce. Martin believed that the song, which is seven minutes long, would never get playtime on the radio.

“We recorded ‘Hey Jude’ in Trident Studios. It was a long song,” Martin said in The Beatles Anthology. “In fact, after I timed it I actually said, ‘You can’t make a single that long.’ I was shouted down...

Paul McCartney and John Lennon met as teenagers, years before they became international superstars. While it didn’t initially seem that they had much in common — McCartney admitted that he found Lennon frightening — they got along. Through their obsessions with music, they formed a friendship that invigorated Lennon.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon clicked when they wrote together

Lennon and McCartney met at a church festival. Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, had performed to an audience that included McCartney. He was impressed enough with Lennon’s talent and showmanship that he had to introduce himself afterward.

From there, they became fast friends and collaborators. McCartney would meet with Lennon over lunch, and they worked on music together.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon | Universal Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

“Paul would have a school notebook and he’d be scribbling down words,” Lennon’s classmate Helen Anderson said...