YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT THE FAB FOUR WERE UP TO IN SUMMER '69!
The Beatles were at a crossroads as they juggled new projects, personal dramas, and the surprise switch from "Get Back" to what would become their most iconic album.
John and Yoko recover from a car crash while planning a Greek holiday - with hospital bed humour intact!
The Beatles unexpectedly shelve "Get Back" album for a new rush-release LP, despite months of studio work
Inside EMI Studios: exclusive photos reveal Paul's songwriting sessions with Mary Hopkin and the band's "back to basics" recording approach
WHEN THE BEATLES SWAPPED APPLE FOR EMI AND DELAYED THEIR DOCUMENTARY SOUNDTRACK
Fifty-six years ago this month, Beatles fans eagerly flipped through issue #73 of Beatles Monthly Book, blissfully unaware they were witnessing the twilight of the greatest band in pop history. The August 1969 edition landed on doormats across Britain with its customary pink banner and the promise of exclusive studio insights - this time featuring a bearded Ringo on the cover, sporting a patterned shirt that would have sent Carnaby Street into a tizzy.
Inside those hallowed pages, the bombshell news crackled like static electricity: The Beatles had dramatically changed course on their much-anticipated "Get Back" album. After editor Johnny Dean had gone to press with his breathless preview of the LP's imminent release, the Fab Four performed their classic handbrake turn.
"A last-minute decision by the Beatles has led to the postponement of their Get Back album," screamed the late-breaking news insert. Apple executive Mal Evans spilled the beans, explaining how the lads had listened back to their recordings and collectively decided, with characteristic Liverpudlian pragmatism, that they fancied releasing something completely different instead.
The "Get Back" sessions, which had taken place in January with cameras rolling for a planned documentary, were now shelved until November. In their place, the boys had "launched themselves into a concentrated series of July recording sessions" at EMI's Abbey Road studios, with Beatles Monthly breathlessly explaining they were working Monday to Friday, "between 2.30 p.m. and about 8 p.m." (Such precise timekeeping! The mind boggles!)
What nobody realized then was that this seemingly administrative reshuffle would reshape music history. Those July sessions would produce their final masterpiece, "Abbey Road," while the delayed "Get Back" material would eventually emerge in 1970 as "Let It Be" – after the group had already split. Talk about your cosmic ironies, darlings!
LENNON'S GREEK GETAWAY (WITH A SIDE OF BANDAGES)
In the "Lennons in Greece" section (filed under "juicy gossip"), we learned that John and Yoko were planning "to leave almost immediately for a short holiday in Greece" following their famous car crash in Scotland. The accident occurred while the couple was traveling with Yoko's daughter Kyoko, and thankfully, they escaped with superficial injuries – though the incident necessitated a brief hospital stay at Golspie Hospital in Sutherland.
Beatles Monthly's breathless reports assured fans that "Yoko's superficial injuries hadn't harmed the new baby she's having" (that baby would, of course, never arrive – the pregnancy ended in miscarriage later that year). With characteristic gallows humor, John apparently didn't "take every minute of their days in bed seriously" – a cheeky reference to their famous bed-ins for peace earlier that year in Amsterdam and Montreal.
The Lennons planned "at least a fortnight's break in Greece, renting a boat to go round the islands," though Julian wouldn't join them, as he was "in the middle of a six-week stay in Italy with his mother." The image of John and Yoko sailing the Aegean – recovering rock star and avant-garde artist seeking Mediterranean solace – feels like a scene from a never-made art-house film.
INSIDE THE STUDIO SESSIONS: WITNESSING THE BEGINNING OF THE END
What makes this edition of Beatles Monthly absolutely scrumptious for music historians is the detailed access to the band's recording processes during this pivotal period. The magazine's correspondent Frederick James delivered an "in-depth preview" of the "Get Back" LP, describing it as "by far the most intimate set of records the Beatles have ever put out."
With obvious excitement, James reported how the "Get Back" approach had been an intentional stripping away of studio trickery: "Instead of aiming for technical perfection, the Beatles have taken their socks off." This raw, unpolished style meant "none of the loose ends tied up" and "just a friendly album...quite unlike the carefully prepared, expertly edited LP productions the fellows have spent so many months on in the past."
This description feels painfully poignant in hindsight – the Beatles were attempting to recapture their early spontaneity even as they were growing irretrievably apart. The photos scattered throughout the issue show the physical transformation that had occurred since their moptop days – particularly John's long hair and beard, a visual representation of his distance from the band's clean-cut origins.
While the magazine dutifully reported on the new songs, including "One After 909" (which James noted was actually written "ten years ago by John and Paul" and showcased "their big influence was the recordings of America's Rhythm & Blues giants"), there's a wistful tone underlying the enthusiasm. James even writes that the album feels like "a get-back to the recording set-up they used in 1963 and 1964. Mostly it's just three guitars and drums."
FAB FOUR'S SIDE HUSTLES: MCCARTNEY'S PRODUCER HAT AND HARRISON'S KRISHNA CHANT
Like any good teen mag, Beatles Monthly made sure to cover what each member was up to individually – because even in 1969, fans needed their Beatles fix broken down into four digestible portions.
Paul was "doubly active" as a producer, working with Apple artist Mary Hopkin on a "brand new song" that she recorded "right away with RINGO drumming and Paul playing both bass and electric guitars as accompaniment." The accompanying photos show Paul in full creative flow, entertaining Mary, Maureen Starr, stepdaughter Heather, and wife Linda in the studio.
George, meanwhile, was exploring his spiritual side with characteristic intensity. The magazine reported he "has produced an Apple record with more than a dozen of the Krishna Consciousness Society" who sang several pieces, including the "Hare Krishna chant." In a touching detail, "one of the society members has hand-carved the front of a piano for John and Yoko with a picture of Krishna in the middle and the words 'John—Yoko—Peace' beside it."
Ringo had completed filming "The Magic Christian" with Peter Sellers, while also participating in the studio sessions. His wife Maureen appeared in several candid shots, including one where she's drawing his profile – domestic bliss amid the creative chaos.
FAN CLUB FRENZY AND PEN PAL PAGES
The Beatles' global reach was vividly illustrated by the expansive "Official up-to-date List of Fan Club Secretaries" spanning countries from Ghana to Yugoslavia. This empire of devotion was coordinated by the redoubtable Freda Kelly from her Liverpool headquarters, with her August newsletter providing fans with the inside scoop on the recording sessions.
Meanwhile, the "Beatle Pen Pals" section showcased the pre-internet networking that connected fans worldwide. Listings included such gems as "Fatma Ozakat (15), c/o Mehli Ozakat, Austin Acentesi, Gazi Bulvari, Izmir, Turkey, wants boy p.p. anywhere" and "Chantal Anselme (18), 'Port Regis', Kingsgate, Broadstairs, Kent, wants boy p.p. anywhere."
These touchingly earnest requests for connection—scattered across continents in an age before instant communication—represent a kind of teenage diplomacy that The Beatles inadvertently facilitated.
THE GET BACK SESSIONS: "TAKE YOUR SOCKS OFF AND COME IN"
The most delicious tidbits from this issue come from Frederick James' sneak preview of the "Get Back" recordings. His track-by-track breakdown reads like a time capsule, particularly with his predictions about which songs would become classics.
"One After 909," which he declared "will become the new album's most played track and deservedly so," was described as Paul in "his rockin' raver role, letting his voice rip into the fast-moving lines of lyrics with typical McCartney thrust and infectious enthusiasm."
George's "For You Blue" received high praise as "George's showpiece" where he's "the composer, lyric writer, singer and main guitarist." James noted that "for George this is a total 'getting back' to the days before his sudden concentration upon Indian music," adding that "it's very much a 1969 track."
Other tracks dissected included "Dig A Pony" ("John getting most of the vocal action"), "I've Got A Feeling" ("John replies to Paul's raw, punched-out blues-shouting"), and "Teddy Boy" ("a thoroughly interesting mixture" with "a strange hoedown Square Dance setting").
The author's enthusiasm for the raw, unpolished nature of these recordings is particularly striking. He writes, "For those who thought that the Beatles' work on record has been becoming too clever, too cluttered up with freaky ideas, the Get Back bundle will come as a most pleasant surprise."
This celebration of simplicity and spontaneity—with James noting that these sessions captured "their shouted gag lines yelled up from studio floor to producer George Martin"—emphasizes how the Beatles were trying to recapture something they'd lost amid their studio experimentation.
WHAT THE READERS THOUGHT: LETTERS FROM BEATLEMANIACS
The "Letters from Beatle People" section offered a snapshot of fan opinion in mid-1969, with concerns that seem both quaint and strangely prescient from our 2025 vantage point.
One fan, Susan Chitty from Surrey, defended John against accusations of making music "just for money," writing, "I don't believe that John would do anything unless he enjoyed doing it, and surely he has made it quite clear that he wants everyone to be a part." She added, "I (and no doubt many other fans) get laughs from everything John does."
Another reader, S.C. Blake from Wembley, found himself "wholeheartedly" agreeing with John Finn of Ireland, who apparently championed the Beatles' constant evolution. Blake argued against "the simple run-of-the-mill sound of three guitars and a drum kit," asking, "Surely there are a hundred and one 'pop' groups who can give us this kind of music?"
This debate over whether the Beatles should continue experimenting or return to basics perfectly captured the artistic tension within the group itself—a tension that would contribute to their breakup less than a year later.
'MUSKETEERS' NO MORE: THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Editor Johnny Dean's opening editorial now reads like a poignant foreshadowing of the band's impending split. He noted how after 72 issues of Beatles Monthly, he could see "just how much has changed" in the band since their early days. Their once "universally described as 'long'" hair now seemed "extremely short" compared to their current styles, and there had been "many other changes, particularly in dress and so on."
More significantly, Dean observed that while the Beatles maintained a unified public "corporate image," pursuing a "Musketeers" approach of "all for one and one for all," their private dynamics were quite different. "Not that the Beatles have always agreed in private—far from it," he wrote, explaining that "modern day arguments can have more far-reaching consequences."
His eerily prophetic example: "If Paul said 'Let's go to the pictures' in 1961, and John didn't like the idea, then he stayed at home and no one cared. But if in 1969 John says 'Let's start appearing again' and Ringo says 'I don't want to,' the consequences are much greater."
This casual example of potential conflict within the group—using live performance as the hypothetical point of contention—perfectly captured one of the actual fissures that would contribute to the Beatles' breakup. McCartney would later push for a return to live shows, while the others resisted.
THE STYLE EVOLUTION: FROM MOPTOPS TO MAGNIFICENT BEARDS
The visual documentation of the Beatles' transformation is perhaps the most striking aspect of this August 1969 issue. The contrast between their early appearances and their current look was dramatic enough that the magazine explicitly invited readers to "compare this group photograph with those published in the BEATLES BOOK of six years ago."
John's beard and long hair, captured in several close-up shots, represented the most radical departure from his clean-cut image of the early '60s. George too sported a full beard, while Paul maintained a slightly more conservative look with longer hair but no beard. Ringo split the difference with his mustache.
These physical changes reflected their musical evolution—from pop idols to experimental artists pursuing their individual visions. As the Beatles Monthly pointed out, "the most far-ranging change of all has been inside their minds."
CONCLUSION FROM AUGUST '69: THE BEATLES WERE CHANGING COURSE
As Beatles Monthly went to press in August 1969, nobody—not the magazine's staff, not the fans, perhaps not even the Beatles themselves—fully understood that they were witnessing the final chapter of the band's active life. Within eight months, Paul would announce his departure, effectively ending the greatest musical collaboration in pop history.
The August issue unwittingly documented a pivotal moment: the shelving of "Get Back" and the creation of "Abbey Road," their swan song. The tensions were visible between the lines—John's immersion in his life with Yoko, George's spiritual explorations, the diverging musical interests, the practical disagreements over their future direction.
Yet amid these harbingers of dissolution, the magazine also captured what made the Beatles special: their musical brilliance, their willingness to evolve, and the passionate devotion they inspired worldwide. The Beatles Monthly staff couldn't have known they were documenting the end of an era, but their detailed reporting and photographs preserved this crucial moment in amber, allowing us to look back from 2025 and marvel at how four lads from Liverpool changed everything—right up until the very end.