Are You the Ultimate Fab Four Fan? 10 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About The Beatles

Are you the ultimate Beatles fan? Test your knowledge with these 10 interesting facts about the Fab Four and be sure to get your tickets for The Return, a spectacular Beatles tribute group, playing at GLT January 25th-28th. Click Here for tickets!

1. The first lyrics to “Yesterday” were “Scrambled Eggs.”

The melody for the famous melancholy string setting apparently just popped into McCartney’s head when he woke up one morning. Until he could find words for it, McCartney walked around the house humming “scrambled eggs…baby, I love scrambled eggs” so that he wouldn't forget the tune.

2. The Beatles spent longer making the song “Yellow Submarine” than they took to record their entire debut album.

3. The Beatles were the first to include the “devil horns” rock hand on an album cover.

John Lenon’s cartoon figure on the “Yellow Submarine” cover is apparently the first time the symbol was on the cover of an album and is one of the earliest instances associated with a rock band ever.

4. Lennon wanted Hitler to be included in the sea of faces on the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover but was overruled at the last minute.

5. “Michelle” was inspired by Paul’s favorite technique for picking up girls at parties.

Feeling at odds at the boho-chic parties he went to as a teen with Lennon, McCartney developed a habit of dressing in black, sitting in a corner with his guitar and singing in made-up French to see if he could draw over any of the “Juliette Greco-type women.” It never worked, but one day Lennon suggested McCartney make “that French thing” into a song.

6. The Vatican’s official publication named “Revolver” as the best pop album of all time.

The announcement came in a 2010 article, despite the Vatican having condemned The Beatles for being satanic after John Lennon said the band was “more popular than Jesus.”

7. There were many different interpretations of the beloved Beatles classic “Hey Jude” within the group itself.

McCartney originally wrote a rough version of the song, called “Hey Jules,” to cheer up Lennon’s then five-year old son, Julian during his parent’s divorce and it eventually became “Hey Jude.” He said the song’s intro was “a hopeful message for Julian: ‘Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, you’ll be OK.” McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” at a tumultuous time in his own life as well while the band members were notoriously feuding during studio sessions for the White Album. Lennon apparently thought the song was written to him as a lesson on his relationship with then new girlfriend Yoko Ono, even though she was straining his and McCartney’s relationship.

8. The Beatles officially broke up in Walt Disney World.

John Lennon’s former girlfriend, May Pang, recalled the moment Lennon officially ended the Beatles: “When John hung up the phone, he looked wistfully out the window. He finally picked up his pen and in the unlikely backdrop of the Polynesian Village Hotel at Disney World, ended the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in history by simply scrawling John Lennon at the bottom of the page.” I guess it’s not the happiest place on earth is it?

9. Rumors that “Paul is dead” started when McCartney was injured in a moped accident in 1966 and grew a mustache to hide the cut on his lip.

10. The Beatles concerts were said to smell heavily of urine due to overexcited girls.

Most notably, John B. Lynn, son of the owner of a venue The Beatles played, told The Washington Post that the concert hall smelled like the pee of the over-excited girls after the show. “You couldn’t hear them for all the screaming, I remember looking down at the cinema floor and seeing these rivulets of urine in the aisles. The girls were literally peeing themselves with excitement.”