John Lennon Lyrics for Beatles' 'If I Fell,' Written on Valentine's Card, Sell for $656,250 at Auction
The Glass Onion Beatles Journal
on July 21, 2026
John Lennon's handwritten lyrics for the Beatles' song "If I Fell," sold for $656,250 at auction this week.
The song was written on the Beatles' first flight to the U.S. to perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in February 1964, and were written on a Valentine's Day card, apparently written to Paul McCartney from his then-girlfriend, Jane Asher.
More info from Heritage Auctions:
John Lennon Handwritten Manuscript Lyrics for "If I Fell". One page, written on the back of an unfolded Valentine's Day card, approximately 11.5" x 6" (11.5" x 11.5" unfolded), aboard an airline bound for JFK Airport (then Idlewild), New York from London Heathrow, en route to The Beatles' historic first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.
At first glance, this Valentine's Day card looks completely ordinary-just a simple token of affection, decorated with hearts and the caption "To the One I Love". But once opened, and then fully unfolded, it reveals something far more remarkable: a hidden piece of music history tucked inside. What starts as a commonplace object becomes a deeply personal Beatles artifact, capturing a moment when one of the most important songwriting partnerships in modern music was actively at work.
The card is believed to have originally come from Paul McCartney's girlfriend at the time, actress Jane Asher. On the left-hand side interior, in a different hand believed to be Asher's, is the simple inscription, "To Paul / with love / xxx." Inside is a printed Valentine's verse. What might seem like a lighthearted romantic gesture quickly turns into something much more significant. Building on the sentiment of Asher's message, Lennon used the card to write out the lyrics to "If I Fell", turning a personal keepsake into a working draft. His handwriting begins on the inside and continues across the card's panels, unfolding line by line as the card is opened further. The song's title appears at the end, meaning the full piece is only revealed once the card is completely expanded. Lennon writes, in full:
"Intro] If I Fell in Love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
Cause I've been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands.
1. If I give my heart to you
I must be sure
From the very start that you're
Gonna love me more than her
2. If I trust in you oh please
Don't run and hide
If I love you too oh please
Don't hurt my pride like her.
'Cause I couldn't stand the pain
And I would be sad
If our new love was in vain
3. So I hope you see that I
Would love to love you
I hope that she will cry
When she learns that we are two."
These lyrics are followed by the title, in Lennon's hand: "If I Fell."
Lennon's handwriting moves across the card with striking clarity and control. Written in dark ink, the lines are compact yet highly legible, with only minor corrections-suggesting not a heavily worked draft, but a composition that came together with unusual ease. The verses are neatly structured and even-numbered, giving the layout a sense of order and intention, as though Lennon were organizing the song in real time while already confident in its form. Notably, the text closely matches the version of "If I Fell" as it appears on A Hard Day's Night, with its phrasing and structure largely intact-pointing to a near-complete draft rather than a rough sketch. The lyrics unfold across the card's panels in sequence, culminating in the title, "If I Fell", written at the end in a slightly more deliberate hand.
What makes this all the more compelling is the setting itself. Rather than a notebook or loose sheet, Lennon chose a Valentine's card-something casual, personal, and quietly playful-transforming an everyday object into a record of the creative process. In doing so, the piece offers a rare glimpse into how Lennon and McCartney worked together, shaping ideas in real time. As Joseph Wolf Shenk observes in Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, the pair operated with "a shared identity", each sharpening the other's instincts. This card captures that dynamic in tangible form, preserving a moment where composition feels fluid, immediate, and almost effortless.
According to its provenance, Lennon wrote these lyrics while the Beatles were en route to their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964-a defining moment that introduced them to American audiences and helped spark the British Invasion. Created at this precise tipping point of their global breakthrough, "If I Fell" stands as one of John's most poignant early ballads and among the most significant Beatles songs to appear at auction.
Ostensibly composed during that journey, Lennon-seated next to Paul McCartney on the plane-was suddenly struck with inspiration, sketching out what would become a standout track on 1964's A Hard Day's Night. As one of the Beatles' first truly introspective songs, it reveals Lennon exploring more vulnerable and uncertain emotions around love. The cadence and subtlety of the lyrics suggest he already had the melody in mind, shaping the words to a fully formed musical idea. Presented here in such a personal format, the lyrics become more than a draft-they reflect a real-time creative exchange between Lennon and McCartney at a pivotal moment in their partnership.
Lost Beatles 'Abbey Road' Television Special Rediscovered
BBC News
24 July 2026
The lost footage called 'The Late Night Line Up' - featuring videos for each song - will be shown in London this weekend at the British Film Institute.
lostmediawiki.com
Late Night Line-Up (partially found Beatles "Abbey Road" BBC2 special; 1969)
An article from New Musical Express covering the TV special, dated September 13, 1969.
Late Night Line-Up was a pioneering British television discussion program broadcast on BBC2 between 1964 and 1972. On Friday, September 19, 1969, the program devoted an entire 33-minute show to highlight the then-upcoming Beatles album Abbey Road. The program featured short music videos featuring abridged versions of the album's songs. The program is significant for being the earliest known example of a pop/rock album being represented as a music video and being commissioned by The Beatles themselves as a visual representation of the Abbey Road album.
Production History
The special was produced in cooperation with The Beatles' company Apple Corps to promote their album Abbey Road, which was to be released the following week of the program's air date. "The Beatles approached us", the BBC told the Daily Mirror. "It seems they often watch the program, and they like the way pop music has been covered visually." Rowan Ayers, the editor for Line-Up, said that he planned to "illustrate the music with captions, film sequences and electronic devices."
Ayers met with The Beatles at Apple Corps to discuss the project. According to Ayers's account of that meeting, although John Lennon was "laconic" and George Harrison seemed "lost in thought," it was Paul McCartney who showed enthusiasm for the show. Coming up with "plenty of suggestions and ideas" of the program. Ringo Starr, too, showed interest and asked Ayers questions about the production and its production crew. Rowan Ayers wrote a letter written to the buyer of an animation cell from the "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" animation. The letter titled "Background To The Signed Caption" detailed the making of the TV special. Ayers recalls, "We had a fortnight's notice...and we used all kinds of devices, like captions and film, and the Beatles were wild about it.” The program was directed by Granville Jenkins.
Airing
The program first aired in the U.K. on Friday, September 19, at 10:55-11:30 pm on BBC2 in colour. Colour programming, at the time, was exclusive to BBC2, until the following November when BBC1 and ITV would begin colour transmissions. Although growing, by September 1969, the uptake of colour television was still small, with only 200,000 TV sets reported in the UK by the end of 1969.
The program was repeated on Saturday, October 10, from 11:25-12:00 pm. To this date, the entire program has not surfaced, and it is believed, due to other episodes of the program being lost, that the master tapes have been wiped by the BBC.
Contemporary Reviews
On the day of the first screening, newspapers published reviews of the program. Two contemporary reports were more descriptive of the show's content than critical of the program itself. The Coventry Evening Telegraph said: "Many different kinds of visuals will be used including film, captions, studio elements and electronic color devices." The Daily Mail's description was similar.
In George Melly’s 1970 book Revolt Into Style. Melly was critical of the program:
The new puritan climate at the Television Centre (and Broadcasting House come to that) will allow pop music within limits, but seems totally against allowing any overt display of teenage revolt. Modified psychedelia is acceptable. The Late Night Line-Up show Colour Me Pop is a pretty, but rather than an empty exercise in this genre, and the film made to present the Beatles’ new LP Abbey Road was equally innocuous, but the ideas seem, for the moment at any rate, back under lock and key.
Shortly after the screening, a reader’s letter in the Beatles Monthly praising the special.
Discovered Footage
On October 20, 2019, Steve Hoffman Forum user dormouse shared an uploaded video from Dig Media that contained what is believed to be 53 seconds of silent footage from the TV special. The footage is black and white and appears to be captured from a TV monitor. The same footage with audio was uploaded to Dig Media’s Twitter account. It was revealed by Dig Media on their user account that the complete program was on that video. Footage containing audio was uploaded onto their Twitter account.
The video shows the "Come Together" segment that has the song playing over the A Day In The Life promo video. The song crossfades into a still from the Beatles' final photo session, which transitions into the "Something" segment. "Something" features a female dancer, superimposed psychedelic lighting and effects. DIG Media had the footage because they were administering the video library left by sixties’ counterculture figure Jack Henry Moore. The footage appears to be sourced from an off-air recording from one of the two BBC2 broadcasts.
On February 12, 2020, Dig Media posted another still shot from their Twitter account from the "Silver Hammer" segment.
In April 2020, DigMedia replied to a question on the recovered footage's YouTube video to a question about the video's content. DigMedia said that they were still working on recovering the footage and that the remaining footage was in need of "serious recovery". They also said that the restoration plans had been slowed down due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Discovered footage from the Late Night Lineup special uploaded to YouTube. The footage appears to have been filmed from a black-and-white monitor.
On June 23, 2022, a representative from the now rebranded Dig Media Archive posted an update about the special on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum's Beatles Abbey Road BBC2 TV special 1969 thread:
Hi guys,
Just a quick heads up that we’re continuing to work on the Late Night Line-up video.
It takes a lot of resources – repairing tape, image enhancement and lots more. As well as running a not-for-profit business and working our way through thousands of other tapes. We’ll be posting a few more clips on Socials in the coming months. Thanks for your interest in this, it’s really appreciated. Any help you can give us in boosting our profile will really help with more engagement so hopefully, we can share more material.
Thanks!
On the same day, a video was uploaded to the Dig Media Archive Facebook page, about the TV special.
Dig Media Archive tape and DVD-R
The Sony V-35 1/2-inch videotape and a DVD-R dub were catalogued on Dig Media's website.
The details of the recording state it was recorded in the CV-2000 PAL format by pointing a video camera at the TV screen. The tape box has a handwritten label with "CHANT D'AMOUR - ABBY ROAD” in black pen. "CHANT D'AMOUR" referring to the French movie Un chant d'amour (Song of Love) (1950). Un chant d'amour has a running time of 26 minutes. The maximum running time for a CV-2000 V-32 tape was 1 hour, so it's possible that both programs could exist in a complete form on the same reel.
Content and program format
Contemporary reviews reported the special as being a mixture of stock footage, arthouse films, dancers, animation and exclusive Beatles footage. The existing footage found by Dig Media in the archive of Jack Henry Moore shows the structure as being brief excerpts of songs following each other without external narration:
The Jack Henry Moore/Dig Media footage
1. Still photo of the rear of the Abbey Road album sleeve
2. Footage from the "A Day In The Life" video with the 1st verse of "Come Together" (22 secs)
3. Crossfade to the Tittenhurst Park promotional photo of The Beatles
4. Crossfade to a dancer in a studio with what appears to be coloured lights. (approx.20 secs before cutting out)
Although the footage uploaded by Dig Media shows brief excerpts of songs, recollections of people who saw the program at the time say that the whole song was used.
Turntable links
There have also been some viewer recollections that claim the program began with a copy of the Abbey Road record spinning on a turntable, and each song was linked by footage of the album playing on a turntable. Other viewers have dismissed the turntable footage claims.
Footage used
Through the research of Steve Hoffman Music Forum user dormouse, posted a rundown of the sources for footage possibly used during the program based on BBC documentation :
° NASA: 6 stills (Moon and Earth)
° APPLE: 2 stills (unknown but possibly the rear cover and the Tittenhurst Park photo from 22 August 1969 that appear between "Come Together")
There were also viewer reports of cut-away footage of the album being played on a turntable in between the songs.
The track listing of the segments
The correct order of songs is yet unknown. From the footage released by Dig Media, "Come Together" is followed by "Something", as it appears on the released Abbey Road album.
An illustration of The Beatles used during the "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" sequence.
Status: Partially Found
Additional information about song segments
Come Together
An edit collage of footage from the orchestral recording session of "A Day In The Life" on 10th February 1967. The footage was originally planned to be used in an abandoned Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band TV special planned for 1967. Although edited into what was meant to be the "A Day In The Life" segment, the completed sequence was never used and the idea of a TV special, later evolved into Magical Mystery Tour (which was released in the UK on BBC1 as a Boxing Day TV special).
The footage sat unused until the Late Night Line-Up Special. Apple Corps. sent the footage to the BBC to be used, and "Come Together" replaced the audio of "A Day In The Life" (either by the show's producers or Apple themselves). The version of Come Together used is a unique mono mix that has never been commercially released.
The footage with its original “A Day In The Life” soundtrack would later be used in the abandoned official documentary of the band’s career The Long And Winding Road in the 1970s. The documentary remained an incomplete work print until the project was rebooted in the 1990s as The Beatles Anthology.
A short clip of the footage would later appear publicly during the 3rd December 1982 edition of The Tube (Channel 4, UK). Since then, the complete "A Day In The Life" version has been featured in many documentaries on The Beatles, including the official John Lennon documentary Imagine: John Lennon (1988) and The Beatles' own The Beatles Anthology series (1995). It's also officially available in full on The Beatles 1+ (2015) promotional video compilation and on their official YouTube channel.
In 2017, the Come Together segment was released in full from a 16mm print on the TMOQ bootleg DVD The 1967 Sgt. Pepper Commemorative Issue.
Something
After a transition from a photographic still (taken from the group's final photo session), the "Something" segment featured dancer Jane London. London danced to the song with psychedelic images superimposed over her. After the program aired, a different official promotional music video would later be created to promote the song's single by Apple Corps. This video would feature The Beatles themselves.
The official promotional video for "Something". Filmed in late October after the special had aired. The video was directed by long-time Beatles Road Manager and future Apple Corps CEO Neil Aspinall.
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
The "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" segment was said to be an animated short featuring Maxwell and The Beatles. The segment also featured a shot of an illustration of The Beatles (with their mid-1969 hairstyles and beards) dressed as a barbershop quartet. The heads of the illustration moved to emulate the group signing. This effect was achieved by the director by cutting out the heads, reattaching them to a pin and using a fan off-screen to make the head wobble.
The barbershop quartet drawing
In December 2004, a signed drawing from the "Maxwell's Silver Hammer” segment of the program was put up on eBay for $2.25m. The drawing was listed again on eBay for $1 million USD in October 2019. This time it ended with no bids. It included a typed letter from the editor of Late Night Line Up, Rowan Ayres, detailing the history of the cell and the special.
In April 2020, the drawing was listed again, this time with a starting bid of $3.5 million. The description listed more information about its history:
THE LAST SIGNED ARTWORK BY THE BEATLES MAXWELLS SILVER HAMMER ONLY PIECE IN EXISTENCE
You MUST Message me before Bidding with full identification details, mobile number etc name or your bid will be immediately deleted, and you will be blocked.
This incredible piece of Historical signed Art was accepted for sale by Sotherbys but I did not agree to the terms of sale. The Beatles contacted me years ago showing an interest in buying this back even writing to me but I did not sell. This was arranged through their EMI agent Michael Heatley and the original of this letter also comes with this piece.
Sadly the split of the band has been captured uniquely and forever immortalised, John and Ringo signing in black marker and George and Paul in blue pen this incredible feature the split of the band has never been seen before or captured in such a way. The framers [sic] markings are on the back D.N 29/1 29 January 1970
The Iconic drawing of Maxwell's Silver Hammer created by John Lennon and signed by The Beatles is the only piece of actual memorabilia in existence from the launch of Abbey Road on BBC 2 show Late Night Line Up. It was signed and presented to Rowan Ayers in early February 1970 he was the Chief Editor and Producer of the show a pioneering 60s music and talk back television presentation. Argueably [sic] the last known autographs of the band quite large [sic] from 3 - 4 inches in length magnificently signed they surround the one of a kind hand drawn caricature which featured in the film clip for Maxwell's Silver Hammer. The caricature can only be described as ICONIC having been seen by millions world wide in late 1969 dancing and wobbling to the film clip created by Rock Video pioneer Phillip Jenkinson, the heads are separated from the bodies so they could wobble to Maxwell's Silver Hammer. The memento has featured in many magazines and newspaper articles since it's discovery in 1997 when I purchased it from Rowan Ayers and has been written about in books including the official biographer of The Beatles Hunter Davies and recently featured in a full colour spread by renown Beatles author Bruce Spizer. The caricature mistakingly [sic] called a cell in some internet websites is a one of a kind drawing by John Lennon and measures 26cm x 16cm. The original black framed historical piece has now been housed in a gold vintage frame and measures around 90cm x 80cm. Rowan has signed a typed story on the back on how he met The 4 Beatles for lunch to discuss the launch of Abbey Road. This is a virtually priceless piece of historical signed art of great importance and sadly is for sale though I have enjoyed owning it for many years. Should be a major draw card to any reputable museum. Buyer to pay Insurance fees or can arrange pick up from my lawyers [sic] office in Sydney.
An illustration of The Beatles used during the "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" sequence. This illustration features autographs from the members of The Beatles and was for sale on eBay in 2004.
Only 1 second of footage has so far been recovered from the Jack Henry Moore tape by DigMedia. A still of this frame was posted on their Twitter account. The frame shows a cartoon Maxwell swinging his arm that has a hammer in it. The Maxwell segment came after "Something" as it does on the Abbey Road album.
A screenshot of an off-air recording from the "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" sequence. This was posted by Did Media on their Twitter account.
Video Gallery
Partial footage of the special recovered by DigMedia with audio.
A Day In The Life promotional film (1967). Footage from this was re-edited for the "Come Together" segment.
Image Gallery
TMOQ Gazette bootleg DVD features the "Come Together" segment in colour.
A colour version of the photo used in the transition from "Come Together" and "Something".
A screenshot from the “Something” segment featuring dancer, Jane London, superimposed with psychedelic lighting. The video quality is due to the source being a black-and-white off-air recording
A letter from Late Night Line Up Editor, Rowan Ayers detailing the history of the Abbey Road special.
A viewer review of the program found in Beatles Monthly Book (issue 76) from November 1969.
The Sony V-32 tape used to record the Late-Night Line-Up special - Dig Media Archive.
Fans swarm Liverpool venue as Beatles legend arrives in city
Stephen Graham was honoured by Sir Paul at a special event in the city
by Luis Webster and Evelina Black
The Liverpool Echo
21 Jul 2026
Sir Paul McCartney arriving for the LIPA Graduation Ceremony at Liverpool Experience Campus (Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Sir Paul McCartney fans gathered outside Liverpool Experience Campus to catch a glimpse of the Beatle as he attended LIPA graduations today, Tuesday, July 21. Five leading figures from the creative arts industry were also made LIPA Companions at the ceremony.
More than a dozen fans swarmed the back entrance of the venue as Sir Paul waved at them from his car and played air guitar for the excited crowd. Brian Jackson, 65, from Allerton, has been coming down to the LIPA graduation ceremony for the last 28 years to try and get a glimpse of the music legend.
He said: "I've been a fan of him since I was five and every time you see him back in Liverpool you can see the love he has for the city and the people. It's nice to come down to show him how much we support him and it's like a pilgrimage for all of us fans.
"We meet up all over every year from all over the world and you get people travelling from places like America and Japan so it's nice to hear all of their stories."
Michelle Murtagh, from Dublin, and David Shaw, from Nantwich, first met because of the Beatle's themed podcast 'Nothing Is Real' and it is their third year in a row waiting outside the graduation ceremony to see the Beatle.
David said: "It's the most excited I ever get and I always get such a rush of energy when I see him. He's everything you expect him to be and he has such an incredible gift for song writing and melody. He can do it all."
Michelle added: "He's a musical genius and he's been part of my life since I was a child. I've been listening to him since I was 10 and he is the soundtrack to my life. It's so exciting just to see him and if I ever did get the chance to speak to him I wouldn't even ask him a question, I'd just thank him for everything he's done for me."
Originally from Nashville, Miles Frizzell, 22, moved to Liverpool in November to join The Bootleg Beatles as Sir Paul McCartney. He said: "I've been a huge fan of The Beatles since I was 12, especially Paul. I'm actually right handed but I taught myself to play guitar with my left hand when I was younger because I love him so much.
"Everyone's such a big fan of The Beatles but for me the last 10 years of my life has been consumed by the band and Paul specifically. He looked at me when he got out of the car and waved and it was just so cool."
Brian Lewis, 65, from Manchester, has been travelling to see Sir Paul "on and off" since 2011. He said: "I've seen him 16 times now and there's a buzz that comes over you when you see him. I couldn't sleep properly last night and I kept waking up just thinking about what today was going to be like.
"I love nostalgia and I've loved The Beatles ever since I heard them at 12 years old."
Paul McCartney and Stephen Graham attended LIPA's graduation at the Convention Centre today
Stephen Graham is one of the five leading figures to be awarded a LIPA Companionship by Sir Paul McCartney. The award recognises outstanding achievement in the creative industries and a significant contribution to student learning, during a ceremony at the Liverpool Experience Campus.
The 52-year-old, born and raised in Kirkby, is one of Britain's leading actors, having built an outstanding career across film and television with celebrated performances in This Is England, Boardwalk Empire, Line of Duty, Boiling Point, and Adolescence. His work as an actor, writer, and producer has earned widespread critical acclaim, along with BAFTA, Primetime Emmy, and Golden Globe awards and nominations.
Also to receive the honour were BAFTA-winning actor and writer Cathy Tyson, Paul Duhaney, Artistic Director of Africa Oyé, McFly founding member, songwriter and author Tom Fletcher, who composed the music and lyrics for Paddington: The Musical, and film producer and president of the Oscars, Lynette Howell Taylor.
The Companionships were bestowed by LIPA’s Founding Patron, Sir Paul McCartney, in a ceremony that celebrates the achievements of more than 400 graduating students from 28 countries, including Colombia, Georgia, India, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.
Beatles tour fans spot McCartney at traffic lights
Paul Burnell
BBC Merseyside
July 20 , 2026
Neil Morton
A tour guide who takes Beatles fans around Liverpool told how fans were stunned to see Sir Paul McCartney while waiting at traffic lights.
The chance encounter got even more surreal, when the Fab Four fans realised Sir Paul was at that very moment talking to fellow Beatle Ringo Starr, on a video call.
"It was surreal," said Neil Morton, who has driven the Magical Mystery Tour bus around various Beatle sights in Liverpool for the last two years.
"I had pulled up at the traffic lights on Hope Street when who should I see - Sir Paul with Ringo on Facetime", he added.
"He waved to us and everybody took photos," Morton said.
He added: "The passengers could not believe it."
Fans were able to see the pop legend while the traffic lights remained on red.
"Nobody really got chance to speak with him," said Morton.
The tour guide revealed it was not his first encounter with the star, having come across him when he used to work at the Cavern Club.
"We were told not to take photos but I managed to sneak one," he said.
www.bbc.com
Stephen Graham to be honoured by Sir Paul McCartney
Angela Ferguson
BBC Merseyside
July 20 , 2026
Sir Paul McCartney will present the honour to the award-winning Merseyside actor at a ceremony in Liverpool on Tuesday Reuters
Actor Stephen Graham is to be honoured by Sir Paul McCartney in a ceremony at his performing arts school in Liverpool.
Graham, who grew up in the Merseyside town of Kirkby, will be presented with a companionship of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) by the former Beatle and co-founder of the school.
Emmy award-winning Graham, who has previously described himself as "just a mixed-race kid from Kirkby" will be given the honour at LIPA's graduation ceremony on Tuesday.
LIPA's principal and CEO, Prof Sean McNamara, said it would be "a milestone graduation for us" as they marked their 30th anniversary.
Graham, who is also a writer and producer, cut his teeth at the Everyman Youth Theatre in Liverpool.
He went on to find widespread fame with his performance in Shane Meadows' 2006 film This Is England before starring on the big and small screen on both sides of the Atlantic.
He won an Emmy for his starring role in acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence, when he played Eddie Miller, the father of a teenage boy accused of killing a female schoolmate.
Graham is one of five leading figures from the creative industries who will be awarded a LIPA companionship during the ceremony.
McNamara said it was fitting that they celebrated the achievements of LIPA graduates alongside the "outstanding artists, producers and managers" who are to be made LIPA companions.
LIPA's principal Sean McNamara has previously said that Sir Paul attending graduation every year is "a massive, massive thing for us"
A LIPA spokesperson said the companionship was "awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement in the creative industries and a significant contribution to student learning".
Liverpool-born and BAFTA-winning actor and writer Cathy Tyson will also receive the honour, alongside the artistic director of Liverpool's Africa Oyé music and culture festival, Paul Duhaney, McFly singer songwriter Tom Fletcher and film producer and president of the Oscars, Lynette Howell Taylor, a LIPA graduate.
Howell Taylor graduated from LIPA's management degree in 2000 before moving to Los Angeles, where she has produced more than 25 feature films, including A Star Is Born.
She was elected as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - the organisation behind the Oscars - in 2025.
Howell Taylor said studying at LIPA was "the first time I felt truly seen for my passion and abilities", praising staff for their support and encouragement.
"I owe so much to LIPA's founders Mark Featherstone-Witty and Sir Paul McCartney for creating a truly creative and cross discipline environment where both artists and those that enable and work with artists can thrive," she added.
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts was officially opened by the Queen in 1996 Google
The ceremony at the school, which was founded in 1996, will also see more than 400 LIPA students graduate.
LIPA is based at the former Liverpool Institute school, attended by Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison, and is next to the neighbouring Liverpool Art College, where John Lennon studied.
16 July 1974 Paul McCartney Recorded The Only Song His Father Wrote
www.cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney Recorded the Only Song His Father Ever Wrote
Paul McCartney recorded the only song his father, Jim McCartney, ever wrote. However, McCartney Sr. had an unexpected reaction.
by HANNAH WIGANDT
CheatSheet
Published on February 26, 2023
Paul McCartney recorded the only song his father ever wrote. Jim McCartney had been in a band called Jim Mac’s Jazz Band and played tons of music for Paul and his brother Michael when they were growing up. McCartney Sr. wrote one tune during his lifetime, but he had an unexpected reaction to his son’s recording of it.
Paul McCartney’s father, Jim McCartney | Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Paul McCartney loves music because of his father
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that his father came from the music hall era. The family was “steeped” in it. The family often sang together around their piano, especially during parties.
Interestingly, Jim got the family’s upright piano from Harry Epstein’s North End Music Store (NEMS). Epstein’s son Brian later became The Beatles’ manager.
Paul’s Auntie Jin and Auntie Milly used to sing an old music hall song called “Bread and Butterflies.” Later, Jim worked as a limelight operator at the Royal Hippodrome, which helped more music creep into the McCartney household.
Paul’s father was the family pianist, but there was always someone around who could play the instrument. “It was a wonderful thing because it meant people broke into song a lot, like in musicals,” Paul wrote.
Paul, his father Jim and brother Mike (1974)
Despite being proficient in the instrument, Jim did not want to teach his son piano. He wanted Paul to learn from a professional. Jim didn’t consider himself one, even though he’d performed many times with his jazz band and had his own song.
Paul recorded the only song his father ever wrote
In The Lyrics, Paul said that his father only ever wrote one song, at least to his knowledge, called “Walking in the Park with Eloise.” Later, with his band Wings, Paul recorded the song so that he could play it to Jim. After recording the tune in Nashville, Paul and Wings released it as a single under the name The Country Hams. Paul even had friends like Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer play on it.
However, Jim had an unexpected reaction to his son’s recording. When Paul talked to his father about the single, he said, “Dad, you know that song you wrote?” Jim said, “I didn’t write a song, son.” Paul had to remind him of the song. However, Jim said, ‘No, I didn’t write it. I made it up.”
Jim had a ‘great effect’ on Paul’s life
In The Lyrics, Paul spoke many times about his father’s influence on him. Jim is the reason why Paul has added so many music hall references and sounds to his music. Paul’s father was there for the birth of many Beatles songs too, and provided a safe haven for his son when the pressures of fame became too much.
Paul wrote that it’s “good to know” that his father got to hear songs like The Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers.” Jim died seven years later. “He lived long enough, though, to know what a great effect he had on my life,” Paul said.
Paul didn’t even care about what Jim said about “Walking in the Park with Eloise.” The former Beatle never regretted recording his father’s only song. It was an honor.
Paul :The recording of the song happened when I was in Nashville. I mentioned it to Chet Atkins and he said, ‘We should record that for your dad!’ So, it was Chet’s idea. We got a couple of guys together and recorded it. Then I played it to dad, who was very happy to hear the tune he ‘didn't write’.
