Everything Fab Four is a podcast from Wonderwall Communications and Salon focused on fun and intelligent stories about the enduring cultural influence of the Be...
Episode 58 (Bonus): Paul Reiser's father "tolerated" the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
On this episode of Everything Fab Four, actor and comedian Paul Reiser joins to discuss his first memories of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and share the Beatles song that “still kills [him].”
Reiser began his career as a stand-up comedian, breaking into film with Barry Levinson’s 1982 movie Diner. Reiser starred in the sitcom My Two Dads in the late 1980s, and later co-created the television show Mad About You, one of the defining comedy series of the 1990s. For his role in Mad About You, Reiser earned nominations for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Reiser has also appeared in movies like Aliens and the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, and more recently, in the Netflix series Stranger Things and Amazon Prime’s The Boys.
Comedy Central has ranked Paul Reiser as the 77th greatest stand-up comedian of all time. He has also established himself as a bestselling author, with such books as Couplehood and Babyhood. Earlier this year, he co-authored the memoir What a Fool Believes with Michael McDonald. This month, Reiser is releasing his first comedy special in more than 30 years, called Life, Death, and Rice Pudding.
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Episode 57: Guitarist George Benson on what makes Beatles’ songs so special: “They had great stories”
On today’s episode, American jazz fusion guitarist and singer-songwriter George Benson drops by to discuss what gave the Beatles “prestige” and how the band helped Black musicians succeed.
Benson recorded his first album The New Boss Guitar, at 21, and followed it up with It’s Uptown with the George Benson Quartet. In 1969, he recorded his homage to the Beatles’ album Abbey Road, entitled The Other Side of Abbey Road.
Things really took off for Benson in the mid-1970s, beginning with the LP Bad Benson, which topped the Billboard jazz charts in 1974. Benson scored a triple-platinum hit with his 1976 album Breezin’, and in 1978, he earned a Grammy award for his live rendition of “On Broadway.”
In 1980, Benson took the pop charts by storm with his studio album Give Me the Night. Produced by Quincy Jones, the LP yielded several hit singles including the upbeat, jazz-infused title track.
Benson’s latest LP Dreams Do Come True features orchestrations that had been lost for 35 years, and were recently unearthed from his archive. The collection includes Benson’s takes on such standards as “Autumn Leaves,” “At Last,” “My Romance,” “A Song for You,” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday.”
Over the years, Benson has earned 10 Grammy Awards, while seeing his career memorialized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Episode 56 (Bonus): How the Beatles inspired these 1970s television icons
On this bonus episode of Everything Fab Four, we trace two television icons from the 1970s—both very different in terms of target audience, but united in the inspiration that they drew from the Beatles.
First is the New Zoo Revue, the children’s TV show that was broadcast from 1972 through 1977. Designed as a musical comedy, it ran for 196 episodes and imparting valuable life lessons to the program’s legions of child viewers. The show was hosted by husband and wife duo Doug and Emmy Jo. On the New Zoo Revue, they interacted with an array of loveable costumed characters, including Henrietta Hippo and Freddie the Frog.
At the other end of the TV demographic spectrum is George Schlatter, the founder of network television’s groundbreaking Laugh-In. The hilarious sketch comedy program ran for more than 140 episodes between 1968 and 1973.
With Dan Rowan and Dick Martin as Schlatter’s irreverent hosts, Laugh-In thrived on its moveable feast of guest stars, including the likes of Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis, Jr., Phyllis Diller and more. Laugh-In also launched the careers of series regulars Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin. Last year, Schlatter released his memoir, Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy.
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Episode 55: Rosanna Arquette on growing up with the Beatles: "I always loved ‘Revolver’”
On this episode of Everything Fab Four, actor and activist Rosanna Arquette shares her favorite Beatles song and recounts where she was when John Lennon died.
As part of a large show business family—including siblings Patricia and David Arquette—Rosanna began acting as a child. Her father, character actor Lewis Arquette, was well known as “J.D. Pickett” on The Waltons, while her mother Mardi was a poet, political activist, and therapist. Rosanna started working professionally as a teenager and has never stopped.
She has since appeared in over 70 films, which have earned over $450 million in domestic box office sales. In addition to such early successes as The Executioner’s Song and Baby, It’s You, Arquette has appeared in such beloved classics as After Hours and Pulp Fiction.
Arquette expanded her talent as a filmmaker by directing and producing the documentaries, 2002’s Searching for Debra Winger and 2005’s All We Are Saying. She is currently developing projects for both television and film through her company, Flower Child Productions.
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Episode 54: Jamie Bernstein says her father Leonard Bernstein was “almost as obsessed with ‘Sgt. Pepper’ as I was"
Author and filmmaker Jamie Bernstein joins Everything Fab Four to discuss growing up with a world-famous father, and why Leonard Bernstein chose Beatles songs to explain musical concepts.
Jamie Bernstein’s 2018 memoir, Famous Father Girl, traces
the story of growing up with composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, and pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre in an atmosphere bursting with music, theatre and literature. Famous Father Girl served as the inspiration for the Academy Award-nominated movie Maestro.
Over the years, Bernstein has written and narrated concerts about Mozart, Aaron Copland, and Stravinsky, as well as “The Bernstein Beat,” a family concert about her father. She performs concert narrations all over the world, including for Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” and her father’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish.” Bernstein has also produced and hosted the New York Philharmonic’s live national radio broadcasts, and recently narrated the podcast “The NY Phil Story: Made in New York.” Her other works include co-directing the award-winning documentary film Crescendo: the Power of Music, about children from struggling urban communities who participate in youth orchestra programs, and articles and poetry in Symphony, Town & Country, and Opera News.
Everything Fab Four is a podcast from Wonderwall Communications and Salon focused on fun and intelligent stories about the enduring cultural influence of the Beatles.
No other band, or popular entity for that matter, has had the world-wide impact the Beatles have. They are part of our human fabric, they created music that still brings people together, and across continents and generations there are individual Beatles stories to tell. In each episode, renowned music historian, author, and Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack hosts a special guest to share theirs.
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New Zealand