I went to a talk by Beatles Producer George Martin, and he said that the Beatles were on a penny in the pound for their first couple of hits. After they had had their first number one, Martin suggested to EMI that they doubled the royalty rate or risk losing them and in response EMI told Martin he 'would be let go' if he made any more suggestions like that. The odd thing is Martin himself asked for a small raise - not unreasonable all things considered, but was refused and he left EMI in 1965, set up his own company AIR and then charged them practically double.
It doesn't work that way Armchair, and whilst things have changed since the 1960s, radio pays the same rate for any track it plays, the use of film/video clips are paid for via the type of and length of stock footage, not the fame of the artist. Clips used by the BBC are usually owned by the BBC, and a rate is paid accordingly to the artiste. Oddly, when the Beatles made the Anthology film series, they had to pay a fee to the BBC for use of that footage in their video sales! Strange but true!!
i heard that mccartney (who owned the buddy holly rights for long enough and maybe still does) was the one who explained the benefits to jackson.
A lot of people were admant that when the DC5 played at the Futurist at Scarborough that someone moved the curtains at the back of the stage and they glimpsed another drummer there. As you say, it happened a lot then. Time was money and if they weren't getting things wrapped up quickly enough then they brought in someone else. If it wasn't Jimmy Page on some newcomer's record there was a good chance it would be Big Jim Sullivan. Joe Brown played on quite a few as well. Can't recall his name but a guitarist from Hull appeard on a number of records late sixties, early seventies.
I think you hve the ridiculous ituation now where Yoko Ono getmoe royalties from Yesterday than McCartney, who wrote and recorded it without the involvement of the other Beatles.
It appears that Yoko Ono has been pretty shrewd with her late husbands money I read somewhere that after Lennon's death she systematically bought every apartment the became vacant in the Dakota building and now owns quite a bit of prime real estate near Central Park.
Lennon bought an apartment just to store Yoko's fur coats in at the right temperature. Hence Elton John singing - " Imagine three apartments It's easy if you choose One to live in One fur coats Another one for shoes" A lot of daft sods took the pretentious nonsense of Imagine seriously. When someone contrsted Lennon's lifestyle with the lyrics he was rather exasperated and replied "It's just a bloody song!".
Another irony of course is the video accompanying the song, shot in their palatal mansion in Berkshire I think.
Went to Liverpool last year and whilst there went on one of the many tours based around The Beatles, our was called The Magical Mystery Tour. We did Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane (behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout) isn't actually on Penny Lane. And we went to see where the Fab Four lived the art colleges and such, quite good it was too. A guy actually came out of Paul McCartney's house, he was looking after it for the National Trust I think, and started chatting to us and told us that Paul often visited, sadly not when we were there. But the biggest surprise was where 'The Working Class Hero' lived, his Aunt Mimi's, the house was the grandest of the 4 and in quite a nice area of Liverpool, Ringo's house on the other hand was in line for demolition along with the other slums round the area.
I think it must have been use in adverts, tv programs using the music or something. Maybe there were documentaries on The Beatles or retro music shows that showed old clips, but perhaps they weren't as prominent as these days, nostalgia is rampant now. Radio wasn't affected then, but Viking Gold only started in 88 and by then I was into classical. Before then maybe it was played on a retro show on radio 1 I wasn't aware of or maybe radio 2? I think some Beatles songs did get re-released sometime in the later 70s but that was before I was really into chart stuff. There's an upcoming show on ITV The Nation's Favourite Beatles Number One.
That Beatles show armchair refers to above is on now. What's everyone's fave Beatles number one? Mine is either A Hard Day's Night, Eleanor Rigby or Day Tripper.
Those two weren't number 1s. Rain ws the B side of Paperback Writer, which wasn't a double B side and In My Life an album track.
People's choice was different to yours. Wouldn't have been my choice either. Live with it. What is interesting is 50 years later every song will have been recognised fifty years later even by people whose psrents weren't even born by the time the Beatles split up. Don't think thevsamevwill,apply to any ofbthe bands of recent times. Good quote from Paul Gambaccinini when he listed what they did in 1967 and said some people had made a career out of what they did in that one year.
interesting that the top several had were mainly mccartney compositions with mccartney vocals. i don't know which one i'd've chosen. i like all of them. depends what day of the week it is. paperback writer maybe. penny lane maybe. don't know.
I honestly know very few who really like that song over most of the Beatles' catalog. It is overplayed, and people seem to groan whenever Macca brings it up. Also, I know it's not always the most reliable source, but looking at social media, more people seem to be against Hey Jude at no.1 than for it. I feel it has that vibe Wonderwall has. It regularly seems to top polls of 'best song by _____', yet most people who listen to that artist would say it is nowhere near the top. It's an obviously good song, but due to it's overexposure has become somewhat tedious to many. That's how I see it anyway.
weird. i know the favourite beatles single of exactly nobody out of all the people i know. myself included.
