Beatles News

• Ringo Starr: Still Charming At 70 (NPR)
• Pensacola Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to the Beatles (Pensacola News Journal)
• The Beatles Books…A Long And Winding Road Of Literature (TMR Zoo)
• It was this month in 1964 The Beatles launched the British Invasion (Waterbury Republican American)

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James McCartney

James Louis McCartney was born in 12 September 1977 in London to Beatle Paul McCartney and his first wife, rock photographer and animal rights activist Linda McCartney. He is a musician, songwriter and sculptor, living in London, England. He, like older sister Heather McCartney, strives to keep his life private, unlike their fashion designer sister, Stella McCartney, and photographer sister, Mary McCartney. McCartney also has a much younger half sister, Beatrice Milly McCartney, born in 2003 to his father, and his second wife Heather Mills.

Family and personal life

James was named after both his paternal grandfather Jim McCartney and father (whose birth name is James Paul McCartney), as well as Linda's late mother, heiress Louise Linder Eastman. He spent the first two and a half years of his life on the road with his older sisters and his parents, who were in a successful rock group, Wings. After the band broke up in 1980, the McCartneys settled down with their children, who attended the local state secondary school, the Thomas Peacocke Community College in Rye, East Sussex. In 1989, McCartney, along with his older sisters Mary and Stella, again joined his parents on their world tour. He continued his education with a tutor while on the road.

In 1993, celebrating his sixteenth birthday, McCartney and his friends went out to swim in the sea. When the weather started to get bad, the water currents carried him off. Paul, Linda, and Stella rushed to the site, distraught and helpless. Luckily, McCartney was recovered back to shore safely.

On 17 April 1998, in Tucson, Arizona, James McCartney, along with his father and sisters, was at his mother's side when she died from breast cancer, which had been diagnosed in 1995. Later that year, McCartney graduated from Bexhill College, near his home in East Sussex, where he pursued studies in A Level Art.

James is devoted to his family and famously appeared in support of Stella at her 1999 fashion show (her first show following the death of their mother) seated in their mother's place next to his father.

In 1995, McCartney introduced his older sister Mary to television producer Alistair Donald, the man she would later marry. He has five nephews and one niece: Mary's three sons Arthur Alistair Donald (born 3 April 1999), Elliot Donald (born 1 August 2002), and Sam Aboud (born 11 August 2008); Stella's son Miller Alasdhair James Willis (born 25 February 2005), her daughter Bailey Linda Olwyn Willis (born 8 December 2006), and son Beckett Robert Lee Willis (born 8 January 2008).

In 1999, McCartney, who is a vegan, wrote a letter to the Governor of Wisconsin to try to prevent the Dairy Expo company from selling cows' milk, which he believes was intended for calves and not for humans to drink. This activism is reminiscent of his late mother, and is shared by his father and sisters.

Career

James is most notable in the music business for playing guitar and drums as well as co-writing a few songs on some of his father's solo albums, including Flaming Pie (1997) and Driving Rain (2001). On Flaming Pie, he has an electric guitar solo on the track "Heaven on a Sunday." On Driving Rain, he co-wrote the songs "Spinning On An Axis" and "Back In The Sunshine Again" with his father, and played percussion on the former track and guitar on the latter. He also plays lead guitar on his mother's posthumously released solo album, Wide Prairie.

In 2005, he was spotted accompanying his father during his American tour.

McCartney is currently recording a solo album with his father's help, which is expected to be released in 2010.

James McCartney made his U.S. debut, performing November 14, 2009 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, during the Fourth Annual David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation in Fairfield, Iowa.

Wikipedia

"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby"

"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a song composed by Carl Perkins adapted from a similar song by Rex Griffin (Decca, 1936) Perkins recorded the song in 1957 which was covered by The Beatles in 1964.

Carl Perkins changed the music and added his own lyrics but retained the refrain and adapted two verses from the Rex Griffin song. Perkins changed the theme of the song, however, from bravado and narcissism to rock and roll groupies and the frenzy and mania of rock and roll stardom. In the Smith version, the theme is about drinking moonshine whiskey and womanizing. In Perkins' alternate take, there is an additional verse not found in Griffin's song. Perkins added two new verses, changed the theme of the song, and wrote entirely new music.

It was later covered by Johnny Cash and performed by Bruce Springsteen in concert in 1998 as a tribute to Carl Perkins.

The Beatles' version

The Beatles recorded "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" on 18 October 1964 at EMI Studios in Abbey Road, London, with George Harrison on vocals. It was first released as the final song on Beatles for Sale in the UK later that year, and as the last track on the US album Beatles '65.

The recording finishes with a false ending, with the final phrase repeating itself after the song seems to have stopped. A version recorded live at the Star-Club in Hamburg in December 1962 contained four of these musical phrases.

The Beatles also recorded "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" in June 1963 for the BBC radio programme Pop Go The Beatles, and in November 1964 for Saturday Club. The latter recording can be heard on Live at the BBC.

The Beatles performed it live again after their studio recording was released. A version recorded at Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965 was included on Anthology 2.

Personnel

* George Harrison – vocals, lead guitar
* John Lennon – acoustic rhythm guitar, tambourine
* Paul McCartney – bass
* Ringo Starr – drums

Current ownership and administration of song

The song is currently owned by the Perkins family and administered by former Beatle Paul McCartney's company, MPL Communications which still credits the song to Perkins.

Album: Beatles for Sale
Released: December 4, 1964
Recorded: October 18, 1964
Genre: Rock and roll
Length: 2:23
Label: Parlophone
Writer: Carl Perkins
Producer: George Martin

Wikipedia

Beatles News

• Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr: 'God Is in My Life' (Christian Post)
• McCartney as more than second fiddle (Boston Globe)
• 'No. 1 Beatles show in the world' comes to Norman (Oklahoma Gazette)
• 'Idol' a big Beatles fan (Inquirer.net)
• TICKET TO RIDE: A Live Beatles Tribute Rocks Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2/6 (Broadway World)
• Beatles subject of laser show at Heritage Planetarium in Maryville (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• Today's Pop Five: MikeV's favorite Cirque du Soleil shows (USA Today)
• Aboard 'Yellow Submarine' (Boston Globe)

John Lennon's Record Collection: The Contours - First I Look at the Purse

Beatles News

• The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr admits: 'I have found God' (Telegraph.co.uk)
• Paul McCartney's son hits the road (Belfast Telegraph)
• Beatle Scene (Boston Herald)
• Backbeat: what really happened with Stu Sutcliffe and The Beatles (stv.tv)
• Wu-Tang Clan meets the Fab Four in remix album -- and it's all good (Los Angeles Times)
• The Beatles or The Stones? with Warren Haynes (MusicRadar.com)
• BWW Reviews: RAINmania at the Academy of Music (Broadway World)
• Heather Mills to open up about Paul McCartney marriage for TV special (San Francisco Chronicle)