“Soon, complete control of the Beatles’ legacy will be mine,” I expect him to thunder from his Abbey Road office. “I shall remix and augment their hallowed catalogue as I please, until their sacred memory lies in ruins!” He doesn’t say this, of course, despite some of the more cynical commentary that earlier this month greeted “the last Beatles song”, Now and Then. (The Sydney Morning Herald Report)
He’s suffered the old guard of huffy purists grumbling about authenticity since 2006, when he became de facto successor to his father, the Beatles’ late record producer, George Martin.
“I thought my house was gonna get burnt down,” he says of his first project as his dad’s protégé, a soundtrack for a Las Vegas Cirque Du Soleil show which became the Beatles’ audacious remix album, Love.
“People at Abbey Road were disgusted by what I was doing… The idea of George Martin’s son coming in with no qualifications whatsoever, coming to destroy the Beatles’ entire catalogue was something that people didn’t like very much… I literally thought, ‘I’m gonna get fired for this’.”
Sir George, then in poor health, was initially horrified too. “You’ve gone too far,” he told his son when he emerged from hospital. Then Paul McCartney had a listen. “You should go further,” he said.
Eventually, despite the interloper’s own misgivings about tampering with the sacred texts of his elders, Love was a global smash that led to yet another renaissance for the world’s favourite band — and to an ongoing role for the young musician-turned-remix-maestro in an extremely tight family business.
At the surviving Beatles’ instigation, Giles Martin’s classic album remixes have become a regular event since the 50th Anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2017, drawing on ever-evolving sound technology to bring old tracks up to speed. You can read the full article HERE
Following its first full week of sales, ‘Now And Then’ has now climbed 41 places to Number 1 after selling more than 78,200 copies.
Paul McCartney says of the Number 1: “It’s mind boggling. It’s blown my socks off. It’s also a very emotional moment for me. I love it!”
The Beatles are now the act with the longest gap ever between Number 1 singles (54 years) as they last reached the chart summit with ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ way back in 1969.
The previous record holder was Kate Bush with 44 years between 1978’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ and 2022’s ‘Running Up That Hill’, which enjoyed a fresh wave popularity following its inclusion in Stranger Things.
The Beatles also boast the longest time span between an artist’s first and last Number 1 singles – 60 years and six months since ‘From Me to You’ in May 1963.
The Fab Four overtake Elvis Presley, who had 47 years and 6 months between ‘All Shook Up’ (1957) and a posthumous reissue of ‘It’s Now or Never’ (2005).
Additionally, The Beatles are the oldest band ever to score a UK Number 1 single with an average age of 82 between surviving members Paul McCartney (81) and Ringo Starr (83), is also the fastest-selling single of 2023 to date– 48,600 physical and download sales based on the track’s first 7 days.
‘Now And Then’ has the biggest one-week physical sales in nine years, and it’s the fastest-selling vinyl single of the century so far with 19,400 copies in a week.
