{"id":153400,"date":"2025-06-03T00:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T00:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153400\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T00:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T00:07:11","slug":"john-lennons-explanation-as-the-beatles-almost-reunited-more-than-a-decade-after-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153400\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lennon’s explanation as The Beatles almost reunited more than a decade after split"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fab Four worked together in various combinations after the band’s 1970 splitDan Haygarth<\/strong><\/a> Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter<\/p>\n

18:12, 02 Jun 2025<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison in 1964(Image: Michael Ochs Archives)<\/p>\n

The Beatles’ split was famously acrimonious and left them on bad terms with one another. Factors including John Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono<\/a>, emerging creative differences and a disagreement over the appointment of Allen Klein at their label Apple Records are all cited for the break up of the world’s biggest band.<\/p>\n

However, it seems the troubles really began during the recording sessions of the band’s 1968 record ‘The White Album’, which were notoriously feisty. Ringo Starr left the band for a period, fed up with the mood<\/a>, as The Beatles<\/a> clashed.<\/p>\n

About that period of recording, Paul McCartney<\/a> said: “There was a lot of friction during that album. We were just about to break up, and that was tense in itself”. John later added: “The break-up of The Beatles<\/a> can be heard on that album.”<\/p>\n

\u200cIn September 1969, after the band had recorded the majority of what became ‘Let it Be’ (the ‘Get Back’ sessions) and ‘Abbey Road’, John told Paul, George Harrison<\/a> and Ringo that he wanted a “divorce” from The Beatles. Paul<\/a> went away to work on his first solo album ‘McCartney’, believing it was all over for the group.<\/p>\n

Paul has said he told his bandmates in advance that he would release ‘McCartney’ with a press release announcing his departure from The Beatles<\/a> in April 1970. The Beatles<\/a> had released ‘Let it Be’ as a single in March 1970<\/a>, so the new album was renamed after it and they set a May 1970 release date for that album – following the film’s premiere.<\/p>\n

But with record label Apple wanting to avoid a clash and Paul not wanting to speak to them due to his disapproval of manager Klein, Ringo<\/a> went to his home with a letter from himself, John and George<\/a> asking him to move his release date. Paul and Ringo had a huge row and he threw the drummer out of his house<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About that row, Chris Ingham wrote in ‘The Rough Guide to The Beatles<\/a>‘: “McCartney managed to retrieve his original release date but, when he heard what Spector had done to The Beatles’ music, he hit the roof<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

The release of ‘Let it Be’ was The Beatles’ final act. John had left the year before and Paul’s release of his first solo album in April 1970 showed that he also had moved on. The split was made public when Paul<\/a> released that first solo album and the world’s most famous band were no more.<\/p>\n

It continued to be an acrimonious time for The Beatles<\/a>. Paul had fallen out with the other three due to the appointment of Klein to handle their business affairs in 1969 – he wanted to appoint entertainment lawyers Lee and John Eastman instead.<\/p>\n

And, after ‘Let it Be’ and ‘McCartney’ had both been released, Paul <\/a>filed a High Court lawsuit in December 1970 to dissolve the band’s contractual agreement. The court ruled in his favour in March 1971 and Paul’s relationship with his former bandmates was very much strained.<\/p>\n

After the split, Paul, Ringo, George and John continued work on solo projects. John and Paul were involved in a bit of a feud, as the two wrote cutting songs about each<\/a> other.<\/p>\n

As such, Paul was seen to be holding an isolationist stance in the early 1970s over the Klein issue. However, when Ringo<\/a> was working on his self-titled 1973 album, the drummer approached his three former bandmates for songs and Paul obliged.<\/p>\n

In March 1973, John, George and Ringo worked in Los Angeles on the song ‘I’m The Greatest’,<\/a> which John had written in 1970 after he found out Paul was launching legal action about the band’s split. He used the self-important title to make a sarcastic comment on his past, using Muhammad Ali’s catchphrase.<\/p>\n

Paul<\/a> did not take part, but relations eased during the production of that album as George, Ringo and John chose to sever their business arrangements with Klein. John told Melody Maker<\/a> magazine that the Fab Four were “closer now than we have been for a long time”.<\/p>\n

He added there was “always a chance” of a reunion, explaining that Paul may well have joined them on ‘I’m The Greatest’ if he had been in Los Angeles at the time.<\/p>\n

As it happened, a full Beatles reunion never occurred but Paul, George and Ringo would go on to work together later. They recorded together for the first time since the split on George’s 1981 single ‘All Those Years Ago’.<\/p>\n

George had originally worked with Ringo on the song in November 1980, with the drummer singing it. However, Ringo didn’t enjoy working on it and struggled with the vocal range it required.<\/p>\n

George revisited it after John was shot dead in December 1980<\/a> and the new version paid tribute to his former bandmate. On the new recordings, Ringo played drums, George sang and Paul recorded backing vocals with his wife Linda and Wings’ Denny Laine.<\/p>\n

The song performed well commercially, peaking at two in the US Billboard top 100 chart. It was also praised by critics, with RecordWorld describing the song as a “buoyant reminiscence features George’s fluid guitar lines with help from Paul, Ringo and Linda.”<\/p>\n

Ringo, Paul and George would work together again in the 1990s on the ‘Anthology’ project, which resulted in the release of two new songs based on old demo tapes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fab Four worked together in various combinations after the band’s 1970 splitDan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,26608,8345,269,11693,20686,4162,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-153400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-george-harrison","10":"tag-john-lennon","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-paul-mccartney","13":"tag-ringo-starr","14":"tag-the-beatles","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114616523081131794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}