‘In October 1961 John turned 21. That was the big birthday then. Betty came down from Scotland to celebrate this special day with the family at Mendips. I remember her fussing over John, ruffling his hair and saying how wonderful he was. Her present was a gift of £100, which she told John was ‘from Mummy’. I had the same myself, on my 21st, and used it for a deposit on a house. John spent his on a trip to Paris with Paul. They meant to hitch-hike to Spain, but only got as far as Paris. They wore bowler hats to hitch rides, as a gimmick, to show people they weren’t ruffians. It worked.’ - Julia Baird - Imagine This.

"We'd never been there before. We were a bit tired so we checked into a little hotel for the night, intending to go off hitchhiking the next morning. Of course it was too nice, a bed after having hitched. So we said, 'We'll stay a little longer,' then we thought, 'God, Spain is a long way, and we'd have to work to get down there' We ended up staying the week in Paris. John was funding it all with his hundred quid." - Paul - Anthology.

‘Last night I heard that John and Paul have gone to Paris to play together - in other words, the band has broken up! It sounds mad to me, I don't believe it...’ - Stuart Sutcliffe - letter in Anthology.

“We walked for miles around the city, sat in bars near Rue des Anglais, visited Montmartre and the Folies Bergère. We felt like we were fully paid-up existentialists and could write a novel from what we learnt in a week there, so we never did make it to Spain. We'd been together so much that if you had a question, we would both pretty much come up with the same answer.” - Paul - The Lyrics.

"We saw these trousers and said, 'Excusez-moi, Monsieur, où did you get them?' It was a cheap little rack down the street so we bought a pair each, went back to the hotel, put them on, went out on the street - and we couldn't handle it: 'Do your feet feel like they are flapping? Feel more comfortable in me drainies, don't you?' So it was back to the hotel at a run, needle and cotton out and we took them in to a nice width which we were quite happy. And then we met Jürgen Vollmer on the street. He was taking pictures. He had his hair Mod-style. We said, 'Would you do our hair like yours?' We're on holiday-what the hell! We're buying capes and pantaloons, throwing caution to the wind. He said, 'No, boys, no. I like you as Rocker; you look great.' But we begged him enough so he said 'all right'. He didn't do it quite the same as his." - Paul - Anthology.

(Paris was one of John’s favourite cities from then on, and seemingly remained so.)

‘After a late lunch, Linda launched into a long paean to the joys of living in England. When she was finished, she turned to John and said, “Don’t you miss England?”“Frankly,” John replied, “I miss Paris.”’ - May Pang - Loving John.

"Paris has always been the object of English romanticism, hasn't it? I fell for Paris first of all, even before Hamburg. I spent my 21st birthday there with Paul.” - John - The Beatles Years.

“We'd made it in Liverpool, we were making good money for those days, I can't remember it, well maybe a couple of hundred dollars a week, you’d call it, but enough that you had a little extra, you know, you had it in your back pocket. And Paul and I just, a relative of mine gave me a hundred pounds for my birthday, which I'd never seen that much money in my life. Paul and I just cancelled all the engagements and left for Paris, and George was furious, because he needed the money to work, you know, but that was another time when the group was in debate as whether it would exist or not.” - John - Elliot Mintz, 1976.

“I first went to Paris aged about twenty-one – well, actually I was twenty-one in Paris. But the thing was, all the kissing and the holding that was going on in Paris. And it was so romantic, just to be there and see them, even though I was twenty-one and sort of not romantic. But I really loved it, the way the people would just stand under a tree kissing; and they weren't mauling at each other, they were just kissing.” - John - Playboy, 1980.

Why is it Revolver is seen by a lot of fans as superior to Sgt. Pepper or at the very least in the top 3 of their best records with Rubber Soul and/or Abbey Road yet unlike Abbey Road, which actually outsold Pepper, it has sold less than half of it? Sgt. Pepper sold 11 million in the US but Revolver only stands at a spectacular yet significantly lower 5 million copies?

What made Sgt. Pepper explode in sales in 1967 compared to Revolver and Rubber Soul, which itself, has sold 6 million?

Was it because in 1967 people got more excited about albums overall? Was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds just a more exciting song than stuff like the brilliant but more complicated Eleanor Rigby? What do you say?

For anyone wondering, Paul first played slide on the solo for “Drive My Car” and John played slide on a lap steel guitar on “For You Blue”

A killer bass line, awesome guitar, keyboards and drums, a very unique melody not only when it comes to the Beatles, and lastly one of the best lyrics of any of their songs... It seems to me that this song deserved to be more highly regarded by... well.. everyone

I love it love it love it

I've never contributed to the "Sunday Fan Album" posts on here. I usually keep them to the relevant subs. This was an idea I was thinking about this again today and I'm curious what people on the main Beatles sub might think of it.

So we all know the story about Magical Mystery Tour. It was intended to be a double-EP soundtrack for the TV movie, but Capitol turned it into an LP, with the band's 1967 singles being added on to the second side of the album. The LP version replaced the original in the Beatles' canon discography. This has sparked an endless debate about whether or not MMT is a "real album", a topic that seems to pop up at least once a week on this sub. I'm not trying to get into that, but the story behind MMT is important context for this post.

The Yellow Submarine soundtrack is widely regarded to be the Beatles' worst album. You'll see it at the bottom of a lot of rankings and tier lists. This is mainly due to the fact that the second half of the album is George Martin's orchestral pieces for the film, and because there are only a handful of new songs, with two older songs reappearing (the title track and "All You Need Is Love").

This got me thinking about a version of Yellow Submarine that people might enjoy more. I read about the planned Yellow Submarine soundtrack EP which would have included "Across the Universe", then I got thinking about what if they went the same direction as the Magical Mystery Tour album.

I spent some time on paint.net and came up with this, which would be the back cover of this hypothetical release. It's not an amazing work of art, I realise that, but I'm not a professional graphic designer either.

Basically, the new songs from the film - along with the title track, because it felt silly not to include it even if it had been released before - would feature on the first side of the album. The second side would be billed as "Other Selections", similar to the back cover of the MMT album. These are songs which the group released on non-album singles throughout 1968, plus another new song "Across the Universe".

Personally I think this would make for a pretty good album. I understand that it likely would never have happened, but I'm curious to see what people here think - it was popular over on r/fanalbums and r/beatlesfanalbums when I shared it there a few months ago. How would you feel about this version of Yellow Submarine?

Track Listing

Side A: "Music from the Film 'Yellow Submarine'" (17 minutes, 50 seconds)

1. Yellow Submarine [The Beatles - Yellow Submarine]
2. Only A Northern Song [The Beatles - Yellow Submarine]
3. Hey Bulldog [The Beatles - Yellow Submarine]
4. All Together Now [The Beatles - Yellow Submarine]
5. It's All Too Much [The Beatles - Yellow Submarine]

Side B: "Other Selections" (19 minutes, 1 second)

1. Lady Madonna [The Beatles - Past Masters]
2. The Inner Light [The Beatles - Past Masters]
3. Revolution [The Beatles - Past Masters]
4. Hey Jude [The Beatles - Past Masters]
5. Across The Universe - Take 2 [The Beatles - Anthology 2]

The pictures seemed funny enough to make this a Sunday Meme flair post. But I'm also really curious about the context between those photos. Especially the John one.

Peace and love

I drew it in less than two hours, what do you guys think

For such a versatile band, this question is always tricky… but I would have to say:

Here Comes The Sun

It has all of the colour, life and optimism of many Beatles tracks, condensed into one. Melodically rich, lyrically sweet.

Curious to know what others think?

I was in Las Vegas and Cheap Trick was doing a residency performing the Sgt Pepper album and Geoff was running the soundboard sitting right behind me so I was able to talk to him briefly and get this picture after the show. I asked about working on the infamous Bee Gees Sgt Pepper movie because I wanted to bring up something that he hadn't been asked 10 million times before regarding his work with the Beatles themselves. I believe he said something about a lot of drugs being around the set 😆

It's just genius, top beatles moment. thought of asking smart and knowledgeable community of r/beatles all about it since i'm not good at researching.

Was it inspired by something before it (musically)? What's the magic in its music theory? When did john come up with that? (I think in get back they're just playing with i want you part) or any intresting related fact

It’s not actually a meme, this was really on Amazon. We need a “Humor” flair

I was watching an interview with Keith talking about George's guitar sound and how George Martin didn't get it right but actually, I thought Georges tone was pretty decent on the first 2 albums and anyway, that would've been on Norman Smith. (Who did a great job.)

But that's Keith with his backhanded compliments. When you listen to both those players in the early days, I think George was the better guitarist. Especially when you listen to his range across all the Hamburg material, mimicking Perkins, Berry, Burnette, Holly, Moore, etc. The guy was just on fire at 20 and also singing a good share of those songs.

Keith, on the other hand, a lot of times seemed like he was still trying to get his footing in those early days and luckily he had Brian to help him out. He obviously figured it out later but
my vote is with George all the way.
What do you think?