• Paul McCartney Calls College Courses on The Beatles 'Ridiculous Yet Flattering,' Urges People to Listen, Not Study

    Colleges across the country offer a variety of courses that focus on specific genres of music or musicians who had an enormous impact on history. The Beatles are one of those acts that can be studied at different campuses across the world. Paul McCartney has mixed feelings about this. He revealed in a Q&A recently that John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and himself never actually studied the music they loved. They just listened and played what felt right to them."For me it's ridiculous, and yet very flattering," McCartney said when asked how he felt about Beatles courses. "Ridiculous because we [The Beatles] never studied anything, we just loved our popular music: Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, etc. And it wasn't a case of 'studying' it. I think for us, we'd have felt it would have ruined it to study it."The band members studied by listening to the music: That was all they needed."We wanted to make our own minds up just by listening to it. So our study was listening. But to be told — as I was years ago now — that The Beatles were in my kid's history books? That was like, 'What?! Unbelievable, man!' Can you imagine when we were at school, finding yourself in a history book?" he added.

  • Paul McCartney, Lenny Kravitz, Ringo Starr and More Respond to Joe Cocker's Death on Twitter

    Soulful rock icon Joe Cocker died yesterday, Dec. 22, at the age of 70. The singer had been battling lung cancer. Tributes began flooding in from Cocker's contemporaries: Paul McCartney, The Doobie Brothers and Ringo Starr all paid their respects on Twitter. Some of today's artists like Lupe Fiasco, Lady Antebellum and Lenny Kravitz also showed love for the legendary performer.McCartney recalled Cocker's brilliance on The Beatles's "With a Little Help from My Friends," which the singer recorded in the late 1960s and eventually became the theme song for "The Wonder Years":"It's really sad to hear about Joe's passing. He was a lovely northern lad who I loved a lot and like many people I loved his singing. I was especially pleased when he decided to cover 'With a Little Help from My Friends' and I remember him and Denny Cordell coming round to the studio in Saville Row and playing me what they'd recorded and it was just mind blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful to him for doing that."

  • John Lennon or Paul McCartney? Metallica, Arctic Monkeys, Fall Out Boy and More Choose in Mini Documentary [WATCH]

    On paper, it's a simple question -- John Lennon or Paul McCartney? For "Lennon or McCartney: A Beatles Documentary," Scared Goose Productions compiled answers from actors and musicians and it's actually much more complex. Aaron Bruno of AWOLNATION may have put it best when he said, "Well, that's like saying, 'Who do you like more, your mom or your dad?'" The video is jam-packed with celebrities and members of Metallica, Arctic Monkeys and Fall Out Boy, and they all weigh in on the question.

  • Paul McCartney Talks Ringo Starr's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Honor on 'The Tonight Show' While Jimmy Fallon Does Impressions [WATCH]

    Ringo Starr was recently announced as one of the members of 2015's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class. He is the last Beatle to be inducted into the institution as a solo act. Paul McCartney, who was inducted as a solo act in 1999, had the pleasure of breaking the news to his bandmate, "Rolling Stone" reports. Macca also stopped by "The Tonight Show" to talk about his pal's recent honor. Jimmy Fallon took it as a chance to try all his Beatles impressions."I was talking to a friend and he said 'Brian Epstein is getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.' I said 'That's great, because he's the Beatles manager,'" McCartney says in the video below. "He says, 'Yeah, but Ringo's not in yet.' I said, 'Whoa. Wait a minute. We can't have that ...' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you got to put Ringo in. He's very famous."Starr's 2015 classmates include Green Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Bill Withers.McCartney also told Fallon that his favorite solo tracks by his former drummer are "Back Off Boogaloo" and "It Don't Come Easy" — he seems like he is about to say "Photograph" before Fallon cuts him off. Fallon jumped at the opportunity to show off his impressions of the Fab Four, nailing Starr, McCartney and John Lennon before fumbling through George Harrison.

  • Mark Ronson Reveals Tracklist, Artwork For Upcoming Album 'Uptown Special' [PHOTO]

    Mark Ronson's latest single "Uptown Funk" featuring Bruno Mars has been one of the highlights of pop radio in 2014, and on Jan. 12, Ronson will be releasing the song along with 10 other tracks on his Uptown Special album. In anticipation of its release, Ronson has shared the album's cover and tracklist, revealing some exciting guest appearances, including Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, Mystikal, Andrew Wyatt, and Stevie Wonder, among others.

  • The Beatles Christmas Records: Ranking The Yearly Mess from John, Paul, George and Ringo 1963-1969

    Pearl Jam wasn't the first band to send out yearly Christmas exclusives to its fan club. The Beatles had jumped on that train nearly 30 years earlier. The difference of course is that Pearl Jam's fans could expect some new musical recordings, covers if nothing else, while the biggest band in history took the yearly task of crafting a Christmas album about as seriously as Stephen Colbert takes investigative reporting. The results tended to be a mess...occasionally a curious mess, but a mess nonetheless. Music Times has waded through the seven Beatles Christmas flexi-discs and made a modest attempt at ranking them.

  • Highest Paid Musicians 2014: Dr. Dre Tops The List (Duh) but Beyoncé, One Direction and Justin Bieber Make Bank as Well

    Hip-hop might be the genre that puts the most emphasis on dollars earned but we'd be kidding ourselves if big acts from every scene had their eyes on their wallets. And so do we as fans...just Google an act and see "net worth" doesn't come up as a popular search term. Forbes released its annual list of the Top 30 highest earning musicians from the previous year and you probably guessed who took the top spot: Dr. Dre.

  • John Lennon: Remembering the 'Imagine' Singer with 10 Inspiring Quotes [PHOTOS]

    John Lennon had established himself as a superb solo artist by the time 1980 rolled around. The Beatles disbanded a full decade earlier, and Lennon had found a way to captivate listeners without his writing partner Paul McCartney. He released five LPs in the '70s, including his debut, "John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band" and his masterpiece "Imagine." There was a five-year hole in his recording career from 1975-80, but in November 1980 Lennon came back with "Double Fantasy."It was the former Beatle's final album. Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman 34 years ago today, Dec. 8. It is a loss that still perplexes fans and admirers to this day. Even the singer's killer has awakened from his delusional haze, telling the parole board in July, "I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory."This year's anniversary is not a milestone. It is not a nice, rounded-off number like 30 or 35, both of which are far less important than 25 and 50. But while Lennon's death left a void in popular music, it also robbed the world of a truly beautiful mind that never hesitated to comment on the state of the world. He did not just say, "War is bad," he opted for the positive and tried to spark a movement from that: "Give peace a chance."So, yes, 34 means little. But it is difficult to look at 2014 and not think about what kind of wisdom Lennon could offer if he were still with us. What would he tell us about unrest stemming from the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases that we are missing? What insights could he offer on gay marriage rights? And do not forget the NFL. There is no shortage of moral problems and quandaries in today's social media society. Would Lennon even bother with Twitter?We will never know the specific answers to those questions. Thankfully, Lennon spoke his mind often during his 40-year stay on Earth, and those snippets of wisdom remain a guiding light for fans of peace, creativity and love.

  • Bob Geldof and Band Aid 30: Media Can't Help but Wonder Where Paul McCartney's At

    You won't hear any complaints regarding a lack of talent on Band Aid 30, the new charity all-star band assembled by Bob Geldof to record "Do They Know It's Christmas" to raise funds for combatting Ebola in Africa: One Direction, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran...plenty have shown up and plenty have downloaded the single accordingly. One question still gets posed frequently to the Band Aid honcho however: Where's Paul McCartney? The former Beatle and still massive solo performer took part in the original recording during 1984 and came back for the 20th anniversary during 2004 (albeit skipping the smaller Band Aid II during 1989).
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