The Beatles Rule

It's a fact. The Beatles are the perfect band, holding together the early days of rock 'n roll and modern music as we know it. The only thing better than the Beatles is the myth that surround them. Here are some random facts:

• George wrote "Here Comes the Sun" when he played hooky from work and spent the day at a friend's garden. That friend was Eric Clapton.
• George was not upset when his wife Patti left him to marry Eric Clapton. While Clapton thought they had to fight it out, George recognized that his marriage had been falling apart for years and was happy for Eric and Patti.
• Although John was the leader, Paul was always in control. He decided to make the second side of Abbey Road a medley and nixed George's proposed guitar part on "Hey Jude" that answered the verse.
• Paul wrote "Her Majesty" while waiting for the others to get to the studio. It was supposed to go between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" but didn't work. He was right.
• Ringo blames the fact that he is left-handed for the lack of drum rolls on the Beatles records (he always needed a beat to get his hands in the right place). He was very proud of his drumming on "Rain" because he finally had a good fill.
• By the time of the "early" Beatles years of "Love Me Do" and "She Loves You," the Beatles had been playing together for years, including spending most of 2 years in Hamburg, Germany. Ringo was not yet in the band and would not join until after they were signed.
• John said that by the time they went to America, their best days as a band were behind them.
• The Beatles did not get a recording contract on their first audition with Decca Records. The guy who turned them down later started an auto-biography called, "The Man Who Turned Down the Beatles," but passed away before finishing it. Following the Beatles, he later signed the Rolling Stones.
• Cynthia Lennon claims that during their 5 year relationship, they never used birth control of any kind and only had one child, Sean. I don't believe her, either.
• In their early days, Paul lived with the family of his girlfriend, Jane Asher. His relationship with Jane's family turned out to have been more important than his relationship with Jane.
• Cynthia Lennon came home from a vacation to find John and Yoko sitting in their living room together, with Yoko wearing Cynthia's bathrobe. Cynthia responded by saying, "John, would you like to come to dinner?"
• Here's a video from the "early" days, playing "Some Other Guy," a rare cover song that the Beatles were proudly one of the few bands to play. As great as this is, the most striking thing is how normal the performance is by today's standards: