Why the Beatles are the greatest rock band ever #5: Album Covers

I came to the conclusion that it has been a year and a half since I have made a Beatles posting about why they were the greatest band ever... reason number 6 (in no particular order) is that they revolutionized album covers. Prior to the Beatles, album covers were basically boring and cheesy pictures of singers leaning over fences, smiling into the camera, or posed with other ridiculous and mind numbing images. After the Beatles, everything changed. We may look at what they did without thought of history and think that it they are not that exciting, but history shows that exciting album covers started right here with the Beatles (even some got SO out there that they had to take them off of the shelves, i.e. The Butcher Baby cover)... here are a few of the greats.

Why the Beatles are the greatest rock band ever: Reason #4 "Yesterday"

I have not made a Beatles posting in a long, long time... so here is my reason #4 that they are the greatest band ever... the song 'Yesterday'... Paul McCartney wrote this single handedly, and then had George Martin construct a string quartet to accompany it... the result? The Number #1 love song of all time... McCartney is still (40+ years later) singing it on every concert... the fans just love it...

Why are the Beatles the greatest rock band ever? #3: Feedback

Feedback has become one of the most commonly used techniques in music in many genres, but it was not always that way. Feedback nowadays is so common that it doesn't even sound strange, but it used to be a very grating sound to listen to.

Where did it start? You know it... The Beatles. They had played around with it, but had never been able to make it work... then one day at a break in rehearsal, one of the Beatles set his guitar next to an amplifier that was still turned on... as they walked away, there was a tremendous vibration off of one of the strings, and using feedback in music was born.

Even though it is simple compared to the complex uses it has today, you can see John Lennon in this video purposely causing feedback on his guitar to start the song, "I Feel Fine."

Neil Aspinall dies at age 66

Neil Aspinall, the original road manager for the Beatles, died of cancer yesterday. He became the business brains behind the Apple Corps, Ltd, the Beatles business for the last 30 plus years since the break up of the band. He was the one that originally conceived of the very successful and popular Anthology discs that were issued in 1995. Here is an article about his death.

Why are the Beatles the greatest rock band ever? #2: Stadium Concerts

On August 15, 1965 the Beatles put on the first-ever concert in a stadium. The venue was Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets. And the rest is history... SO many groups have followed in their footsteps by putting on concerts in stadiums... In the first concert 55,600 fans came. The concert took in $304,000 (which in 1965 was not a small fortune) and the Beatles themselves took in a then-record profit of $160,000. More groundbreaking things to come...

Why are the Beatles the greatest rock band ever? #1: Music Videos

For a long time, I have considered making a series of blog postings about why the Beatles have a claim to being the best rock band ever. Some of my friends scoff at this statement, but I think that there are numerous reasons to agree. This will be the first posting in a series... the reasons will not be in any particular sequence of importance... with that being said, here is the first reason...

The Beatles were the first band to make music videos... they invented the genre. Because they were not able to go to the US for a follow up appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, they created these videos and sent them off to be shown on the TV show... and so was born the genre of the music video... These are the first two... the songs "Rain" and "Paperback Writer"

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

Here is one of my favorite songs by the Beatles... You've Got To Hide Your Love Away... from the movie, "Help!"