When the Beatles landed on US soil in February 1964, it was George Harrison‘s second trip to the states. While on vacation in September 1963, he visited his sister, Louise, at 113 McCann Street in Benton, Illinois. The home where he stayed in is now the Hard Day’s Nite Bed and Breakfast. While in Illinois, Harrison also performed with a band at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Eldorado.
In an interview, Louise recalled “his real first visit to America was when he came to the midwest in September of 1963 and he met these wonderful, warm, friendly, real warm Midwesterners… school teachers, retired miners and all kinds of just wonderful people… and a little band. He had a fantastic time. He thought they were just wonderful people.”
Joe Cocker performed “With a Little Help From My Friends” as the last song of his Woodstock set, August 17, 1969. Cocker’s version is slower, and in a different key and meter than the Beatles version.
His studio recording of the song, released in October 1968, eventually reached number one on the British charts. In the US, it reached number 68 on the charts. The single featured Jimmy Page on lead guitar and Steve Winwood on piano. In later years, it was used as the opening theme song of the American TV series The Wonder Years (1988-1993).
Julian Lennon made his musical debut at age 11 playing drums on his father’s first studio version of “Ya-Ya”. The 1974 recording would appear as the last track on John Lennon’s ‘Walls and Bridges’ album. This short, casual version of the song features just Julian on drums, and John on piano and vocals.
May Pang later recalled that Julian was disappointed when he found out the recording would make the ‘Walls and Bridges’ album, telling his father “If I’d known, I would have played better”.
“Ya-Ya” was originally performed by Lee Dorsey in 1961 and later covered again by John in a full length version on his “Rock ‘n’ Roll” album.
Click the Play button to hear the version with Julian:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Pete Best was the original drummer of The Beatles. He became a member of the band on August 12, 1960, just one day before they were to leave for Hamburg, Germany to play a series of shows there.
Two years later, on August 16, 1962, he was dismissed from the group but was never given a satisfactory explanation why. The only reason manager Brian Epstein gave was, “The lads don’t want you in the group anymore”. Although there were probably a few reasons why the lads were wanting to replace him, Pete’s fate was sealed when producer George Martin indicated that he wanted to use a session drummer instead of Best for their studio recordings. The other three Beatles asked Epstein to fire him and replace him with Ringo Starr, who had occasionally sat in with the band when Pete was unavailable.
Related post: Who was the original bass player of The Beatles?
Related article on BeatlesLane.com: Whatever happened to former Beatle Pete Best?
Paul McCartney was the sole Beatle wearing a beard during the recording and filming of the ‘Let It Be’ album and movie. Ironically, he was the only Beatle without a beard on the cover of ‘Abbey Road’, which was recorded the same year as ‘Let It Be’ (1969).
