In spite of their wide-ranging cultural impact, the Beatles were relative late-comers into the realm of holiday music fare. But as it happens, their stockings weren’t entirely bare. As solo artists, the ex-Fabs scored a pair of standout tracks in John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” […]
Everything Fab Four
Everything Fab Four: All Beatles’ Eve
When it came to seasons’ greetings, the Beatles were front and center during their heyday when it came to providing holiday messages to their legions of loyal fans. Indeed, for seven consecutive years, the Beatles’ annual Christmas messages were distributed via their fan clubs in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively, as Flexi-disc […]
Everything Fab Four: Free Fallin’ With Tom Petty
Today, I am going to tell you something you probably already knew: Tom Petty adored the Beatles. He loved them, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like us, he enjoyed their music in capital letters, writ large—and instantly, also like most of us, from the very first moment he heard their arresting, awe-inspiring sound. Petty was a […]
Everything Fab Four: The Other Side of Beatlemania
As music fans are well aware, the Beatles’ arrival on American shores in February 1964 ushered in the so-called British Invasion. Among those many invaders were a host of Liverpool acts spearheaded by Beatles manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin. In short order, these Merseyside bands—namely, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and […]
Everything Fab Four: George Harrison and the Summer of Haight
With Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band dominating the airwaves of Western radio, the Summer of Love was in full swing. In August 1967, George Harrison decided to fly to America’s west coast to see what all the fuss was about. To venture into the heart of San Francisco’s Haight-Asbury district, the primal scene of […]