Everyone knows Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles. But what if everyone was wrong? From rumors about Pete Best's firing to the meaning behind that infamous "butcher" cover, these are the Fab Four myths you need to stop believing.
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00:00Everyone knows Yoko Ono broke up the Beatles, but what if everyone was wrong?
00:05From rumors about Pete Best firing to the meaning behind that infamous Butcher cover,
00:09these are the Fab Four myths you need to stop believing.
00:13According to a story written by Fred Laborde and published in Michigan Today in October
00:171969, Paul McCartney was not only dead, he had been dead for years.
00:22The story alleged that the Beatles' bassist was killed in a 1966 car accident and replaced
00:27with a lookalike.
00:28The piece contained over two dozen clues, all of which Laborde made up.
00:32Laborde told True West magazine in 2008,
00:34"...I wanted to poke fun at overzealous critics who try to find endless meaning in every nuance
00:39of an art project.
00:40I thought then, and in fact still do, that this was funny.
00:44Almost everybody else took it seriously."
00:45But Laborde also had an ulterior motive for writing the piece.
00:49He told AL.com,
00:50"...I always thought I could have made some money off of it at Beatle conventions.
00:53But I didn't.
00:54But now it's amusing to my children."
00:56"...That was a hoax, right?"
01:02"...Yeah, I wasn't really dead."
01:05Another Beatles myth had to do with the often-believed rumor that Yoko Ono broke up the band.
01:10Lennon admitted that his relationship with Ono was the final nail in the coffin of his
01:14marriage to Cynthia Powell.
01:15But breaking up the Beatles?
01:16Not so.
01:17There's no question that John trusted Yoko's artistic judgment and relied on her support
01:22and affirmation.
01:23After all, Yoko was the only spouse allowed into recording sessions.
01:26But as CNN reports, the band was already starting to fragment when Ono appeared on John's arm.
01:31McCartney himself told David Frost in an interview,
01:34"...She certainly didn't break the group up.
01:36The group was breaking up."
01:38So why did the Beatles ultimately break up?
01:40Well, part of the reason was artistic differences, and part of it was money.
01:44Of course, another huge factor in the band's eventual demise was simple exhaustion.
01:49In 1960, Pete Best became the Beatles' permanent full-time drummer.
01:53Best joined the group for its months-long stint, performing gigs in Hamburg, Germany.
01:57However, when the Beatles signed a record deal in 1962, Best's bandmates decided that
02:02it was time for him to leave the group.
02:04After the Beatles obtained lasting global popularity, rumors about Best's exit persisted.
02:08Some theories suggested that Best wouldn't cut his hair into the standard Beatles mop
02:12top.
02:13Others said that he didn't get along with his bandmates, but according to Beatles biographer
02:17Larry Kane, Best was fired because he got more attention from women than his bandmates.
02:21Kane reported this story as fact in various books about the Beatles, as well as in Parade
02:26magazine.
02:27However, the reasons behind Best's firing likely came down to one thing — music.
02:31Early on, Beatles producer George Martin told the band's manager, Brian Epstein, that Best's
02:36drumming wasn't good enough to record.
02:37Strangely enough, Best himself agreed.
02:40The former Beatles drummer told the Irish Times in 2020,
02:43You're the Beatle who got kicked out because you were crap.
02:46Urged along by manager Brian Epstein, the Beatles approached multiple record labels
02:50in the early 1960s.
02:52All of them, including Pye, Phillips, and Decca, said no.
02:55But then, EMI signed the group by way of George Martin, who was the president of the subsidiary
03:00label Parlophone.
03:01Martin recognized and embraced the band's potential for greatness, thus beginning a
03:05long and fruitful relationship.
03:07As the Beatles' producer, George Martin managed and shaped the band's musical output.
03:11He also pushed the band to take artistic risks and adopt new recording technologies.
03:15However, while it's true that George Martin got on board with the Beatles quickly, he
03:19wasn't all that keen on the band at first.
03:21He thought their demo was terrible and recommended that they find a better drummer.
03:25And I said to Brian Epstein, if when we do the next session, I'm going to provide the
03:29drummer.
03:30Even then, Martin thought his arrangement with the Beatles would be brief.
03:33George Martin biographer Kenneth Womack told Forbes he then intended to record six record
03:38sides and then be done with them.
03:40On February 9, 1964, the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, and some 73 million
03:46viewers watched the CBS broadcast.
03:48Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles!
03:52The band's performance on the show became the most-watched TV program in the U.S., and
03:56would remain so for years.
03:57However, that first show in February 1964 was such a watershed moment that it overshadowed
04:03the band's previous appearances on American TV.
04:06According to CBS News, Brian Epstein pitched American news networks on running stories
04:10about his clients, who were the UK's hottest rising stars at the time.
04:14CBS News' London correspondent, Alexander Kendrick, was sold.
04:18Kendrick then filed a report on the band, which aired on CBS Morning News with Mike
04:22Wallace on November 22, 1963.
04:25The piece would have repeated on CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite that evening, but
04:29the breaking news of President Kennedy's assassination took precedence.
04:33CBS went on to air Kendrick's segment once again on December 10, 1963.
04:38Ed Sullivan just happened to be watching that piece, which prompted him to book the Beatles
04:42on his show.
04:43There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds being
04:47about drugs.
04:48Not only are the lyrics loaded with fantastical, psychedelic imagery about tangerine trees
04:53and marmalade skies, but the first few letters in the title spell out LSD, a popular hallucinogenic
04:59substance.
05:00The Beatles even released the song in 1967, which was a year when the band was freely
05:04experimenting with drugs.
05:06And yet, that's all a matter of interpretation.
05:08John Lennon attested that the song was inspired by a piece of artwork made at school by his
05:12four-year-old son, Julian.
05:14On The Dick Cavett Show in 1971, Lennon denied that the song's title contained a code pro-drug
05:20message, telling the host,
05:21It never was, and nobody believes me.
05:23My son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around.
05:27I said,
05:28What is it?
05:29And she said,
05:30It's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
05:31I thought,
05:32That's beautiful.
05:33I immediately wrote a song about it.
05:34The story checks out.
05:35According to the New York Times, young Julian Lennon attended school with a classmate named
05:39Lucy O'Donnell, who likely influenced the inspirational drawing.
05:43John Lennon had a sense of humor, but he also had a mean streak.
05:46One of the most famous examples of his acerbic wit is a quip he supposedly levied at a fellow
05:51Beatle.
05:52The story goes like this.
05:53Back in the 1960s, a reporter whose identity is lost to time asks Lennon if he thought Ringo
05:58Starr was the best drummer in the world.
06:00According to the Los Angeles Times, Lennon allegedly responded,
06:03He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles.
06:06While writing Tune In, The Beatles, All These Years, Beatles historian Mark Lewison tried
06:10to pinpoint the origins of the quote.
06:12According to Lewison, the London Times printed the quote and put it into circulation.
06:16However, the quote didn't actually come from Lennon or anyone remotely involved with the
06:21Beatles.
06:22It didn't even originate during the 1960s.
06:24Lewison traced the nasty comment to an October 1981 episode of Radioactive, a BBC Radio 4
06:30sketch comedy show.
06:31It was the actor Philip Pope who said it on the show.
06:34Maybe Ringo Starr wasn't the best drummer in the world.
06:37Alright, maybe he wasn't the best drummer in the Beatles, but he's a name.
06:42In 1966, The Beatles' American label, Capitol Records, released Yesterday and Today.
06:47The album was a compilation of singles and tracks that were held over from albums the
06:51band had released in the UK only.
06:54Most record buyers got a copy in a sleeve with a generic photo of the Fab Four standing
06:58around a trunk.
06:59But there's a rare and highly valuable alternate version of Yesterday and Today that also exists.
07:04In this version, the album's sleeve features a gruesome image of the Beatles.
07:07The band is covered in bloody doll parts and meat on the cover so that they resemble butchers.
07:12However, this rare edition was quickly removed from circulation.
07:15This led to a rumor that the so-called butcher cover was a message to Capitol.
07:20According to The Beatles as musicians, Revolver through Anthology, the band was telling the
07:24record label to stop butchering their UK albums for American fans.
07:28Here's what really happened.
07:29In 1966, The Beatles sat for the butcher-themed photo session with artist Robert Whittaker.
07:34When Capitol wanted a cover image for Yesterday and Today, the band sent in one of the photos
07:38that Whittaker took.
07:40Multiple high-ranking Capitol employees bought, but The Beatles held a lot of clout.
07:44Paul McCartney also claimed that the photo was a reflection of the group's opinion of
07:48the Vietnam War.
07:49Capitol printed a full run of Yesterday and Today and sent out thousands of advanced copies
07:54to record stores around the country.
07:56However, many of the stores refused to sell the LP as was.
07:59As a result, The Beatles authorized Capitol to recall, revise, and reprint the sleeves.
08:05In late 1969, John Lennon announced he was leaving The Beatles.
08:08Paul McCartney followed suit in 1970, effectively splitting up the group.
08:13But unlike many other classic rock bands who eventually reunited with their full original
08:18lineups, The Beatles never did.
08:20The inevitable question.
08:22Are they ever going to get back together?
08:24Yeah.
08:25Of course, Lennon's assassination in 1980 prevented a full Beatles reunion from ever
08:29occurring.
08:30But according to the Washington Post, the Fab Four were on good enough terms to start
08:33planning a charity concert reunion right before Lennon's murder.
08:37In the years after Lennon's death, the three surviving members of the band came together
08:41on more than one occasion.
08:42Paul McCartney contributed to multiple Ringo Starr albums, and as recently as 2019, the
08:48two performed together live.
08:50In 1981, Starr and McCartney joined George Harrison on his single, All Those Years Ago.
08:55Furthermore, The New York Times reported that in 1998, Paul, George, and Ringo sang together
09:00at the funeral of McCartney's wife, Linda.
09:03And in 1995, 25 years after splitting up, The Beatles scored their final original top
09:08ten hit in the US.
09:10With Free as a Bird, the three surviving Beatles recorded the new track to accompany a vocal
09:14demo left behind by Lennon.