The Beatles – Detta händer den 5 maj 1968
Mary Hopkin deltar i ’Opportunity Knocks’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dJQR1bBFvM
Denna upplaga av Opportunity Knocks sändes bara två dagar efter det att Mary Hopkin hade fyllt 18 år. Programmet visade framträdanden av nya akter som bedömdes genom att publiken fick rösta. Programmet spelades in två dagar innan det sändes, d.v.s. den 3 maj 1968 i ABC Studios i Didsbury, Manchester.
Fotomodellen Twiggy såg Mary Hopkins framträdande i programmet och föreslog Paul McCartney att denna sångerska skulle kunna vara en bra artist att ge ett kontrakt på Apple Records.
Mary Hopkin berättar och minns i ett nummer av tidningen Record Collector 1988:
I was a 17-year-old schoolgirl working at weekends with a group of local boys in a folk/rock band, and after about six months the group split up, so I carried on solo. Then my agent, to my absolute horror, put my name down for an audition for Opportunity Knocks, a good show for hopefuls in the music business but not really the sort of thing I wanted to do. But he persuaded me to go along for experience, so I went and sang a couple of songs; and the next thing I heard was that I’d been chosen for one of the programmes.
Rather reluctantly I made my appearance which, amazingly enough, Twiggy watched. She met with Paul McCartney that following weekend and when Paul was chatting to her about the new record label they were forming, Twiggy mentioned me. About two days later I got a telegram saying, ‘Ring Peter Brown at Apple Records’. It sat on the shelf for three days until my mother insisted I ring him.
I was a great Beatles fan so I’d heard all about the Apple boutique, but I didn’t make any connection between the Beatles and this Peter Brown telegram. So I rang up and was put through to this guy with a Liverpool accent, who invited me to come up to London and sign a contract. Being a cautious young Welsh girl, I thought, “That’s a bit sudden!”, and became a bit evasive, so this guy said, ‘Well, go and ask your mum then!’ I dragged my mother to the telephone and she proceeded to practically drop the thing because he said, ‘Oh, this is Paul McCartney, by the way’! I remember racing down the road to tell all my friends who I’d been talking to. The next day they sent a car for us and off I went with my mum to the big city.
We went to the Dick James Music studio. Paul was in the control room and I did a couple of demos for him – Joan Baez and Donovan songs – broke a guitar string and muttered some swear words into the mike. We had lunch – he took us to the Angus Steak House which we were really impressed by – and I sailed through the day in a haze, painfully shy and totally in awe of Paul. I went back home and about two days later somebody rang and said, ‘Yes, we’d like to sign you’. So I made another trip to London and Paul said, ‘I’ve got a song that might suit you. I found it years ago and gave it to Donovan and it didn’t work out, I gave it to the Moody Blues, they loved it but it didn’t happen, and I’ve been looking for the right sound for it.’ Then he strummed this song called ‘Those Were The Days’. I loved it immediately, but I must say that I’d probably have liked anything he would have played me at the time! A lot of people think Paul wrote the song, but he didn’t. Anyway, we recorded it a couple of weeks later, and five weeks after the release, in September 1968, I was number one.
Den bäst säljande vinylsingeln under 2015-2025
’Now And Then’ – bästsäljare i UK de senaste tio åren
The Official U.K. Charts Company har utsett The Beatles med den bäst säljande vinylsingeln i UK – Now And Then – avseende perioden 2015 – 2025. Detta trots att Now And Then släpptes först i slutet av 2023.
Singeln har uppnått över 35 000 sålda exemplar sedan den släpptes den 2 november 2023. Skivan kom att bli The Beatles 18:e singel på UK-listans förstaplats genom tiderna. Singeln Now And Then slog ett flertal rekord på topplistan i UK när den tog sig in på förstaplatsen på den officiella singellistan i UK i november 2023, Därtill kan fogas att singeln såldes i 19 400 exemplar bara under en vecka och satte därmed rekord som den snabbaste säljande vinylsingeln under detta århundrade.
Närmast kameran Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison med John Lennon överst.
’Children of the Revolution’ med Ringo Starr
Zak Starkey la nyligen ut en stjärnspäckad cover av en T. Rex-hit
Låten Children of the Revolution har spelats in till ett välgörenhetsalbum, som ännu inte har släpps offentligt.
The Who-trummisen Zak Starkey, som tagits till nåder igen av The Who, la ut låten på sociala medier de 23 februari 2025. med tillhörande video. Videon berättar historien om en ungdom som drabbats av cancer. Inspelningen har gjorts för att dra in pengar till Teenage Cancer Trust.
Speltid: 3:00.
The Beatles – Detta händer den 4 maj 1968
Ännu en vilodag för The Beatles
Men trots detta hände det ett och annat på Beatlesfronten denna lördag.
Den amerikansk tidningen POST hade i dagens nummer en stor omslagsartikel med Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Beatles och Mia Farrow, med rubriken Alla samlade i Indien för meditation med Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
John Lennon och Yoko Ono fortsätter med inspelningen av albumet ’Two Virgins’
Även denna lördag sent på kvällen och en bra bit in på söndagsmorgonen, fortsatte John Lennon och Yoko Ono med inspelningarna som skulle mynna ut i albumet Two Virgins.
The Beatles – Detta händer den 3 maj 1968
John Lennon och Yoko Ono spelar in ’Two Virgins’
Vid den här tiden, var John fru Cynthia på semesterresa i Grekland på Johns förslag. Hon hade åkt i väg tillsammans med Alex Mardas, Jenny Boyd, Donovan och hans flickvän Gypsy Dave.
De långvariga inspelningarna, som började denna fredag, ägde rum uppe i husets vindsvåning, som John använde som musikrum. Ljuden som spelades in bestod av sångfågelljud, vokala improvisationer, ljudeffekter av olika slag, förvridna instrumentljud, barnramsor, music hall-låtar, nya pianoljud med mera.
John Lennon:
When we got back from India, we were talking to each other on the phone. I called her over, it was the middle of the night and Cyn [Cynthia] was away, and I thought, ‘Well, now’s the time if I’m going to get to know her any more.’ She came to the house and I didn’t know what to do; so we went upstairs to my studio and I played her all the tapes that I’d made, all this far-out stuff, some comedy stuff, and some electronic music. There were very few people I could play those tapes to. She was suitably impressed, and then she said, ‘Well, let’s make one ourselves,’ so we made Two Virgins. It was midnight when we finished, and then we made love at dawn. It was very beautiful.
De avantgardiska inspelningarna kom att släppas på lp med titeln Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins den 11 november 1968 i USA och den 29 november i UK.
Något mer kontroversiellt än skivans musikaliska innehåll var skivomslaget, som föreställer John och Yoko helt nakna. Skivkonvolutets baksida innehöll samma sak med den skillnaden att paret stod med ryggen mot betraktaren tittandes över sina respektive skuldror.
Fotografiet tog inte denna dag utan senare under året i Ringo Starrs våning i källaren på Montagu Square i London, där Lennon och Ono både tillfälligtvis.
John Lennon i en intervju från 1980:
Even before we made this record [Two Virgins], I envisioned producing an album of hers and I could see this album cover of her being naked because her work was so pure. I couldn’t think of any other way of presenting her. It wasn’t a sensational idea or anything. After Yoko and I met, I didn’t realise I was in love with her. I was still thinking it was an artistic collaboration, as it were – producer and artist, right? We’d known each other for a couple of years. My ex-wife was away in Italy [här verkar det som om John minns fel, de åkte till Grekland] and Yoko came to visit me and we took some acid. I was always shy with her, and she was shy, so instead of making love, we went upstairs and made tapes. I had this room full of different tapes where I would write and make strange loops and things like that for the Beatles’ stuff. So we make a tape all night. She was doing her funny voices and I was pushing all different buttons on my tape recorder and getting sound effects. And then as the sun rose we made love and that was Two Virgins. That was the first time.
Även om Two Virgins kom att bli ett av de mest kontroversiella episoderna i Lennons liv, kom hans bekantskap och samröre med Yoko Ono att skapa en monumentalt påtalande skiftning i hans personalitet. Det blev början till slutet på hans tid som en beatle och influerad av Yoko, utmanade han publiken med ett antal kontroversiella artistiska uttalanden, politiska kampanjer och utgivning av experimentell musik.
The Beatles – Detta händer den 2 maj 1968
One more day of rest
Denna torsdag fick också bli en vilodag för The Beatles. Åtminstone vad gäller nyheter om grabbarna.