On This Date in 1962: John Lennon marries a pregnant Cynthia Powell in Liverpool.

On This Date in 1963: 'She Loves You,' by the Beatles, is released as the group's fourth U.K. single.

The Almanac Advises for August 23: "While a husband may enjoy the attention of a slavishly doting wife during the early years of marriage, there may come a time when he would prefer the company of a woman he considers of equal status."

On This Date in 1967: 'All You Need Is Love,' by the Beatles, becoms the No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Also on This Date in 1967: Jason Starkey, the second child of Maureen and Ringo Starr, is born.

The Almanac Advises for August 19: "The newest baby in the family often gets doted on more than the firstborn. Eldest children often perceive that they are not getting as much love and attention as their younger sibling."

On This Date in 1960: Pete Best joins the Beatles as drummer, replacing Norman Chapman, who was drafted into the Brirtish army.

The Almanac Advises for August 12: "The best way to insure job security is to differentiate yourself in a positive manner from your predecessor. One surefire way to make yourself indispensable is to set goals for improving your job performance and then adhere to them."

Last night Billy Joel said goodbye to New York's Shea Stadium, with a little help from his friends. The site of both the first-ever stadium concert in rock history, put on in 1965 by the Beatles, and myriad historical Mets moments, including their 1969 Miracle season, Shea Stadium is dear to many a music and sports fan's heart.

"They're gonna be tearing this place down," the Long Island native told the crowd, "but I want to thank you ... for letting me do the best job in the world." The baseball stadium will be demolished to make way for the new Citi Field. Throughout the night, Joel was joined on stage by the likes of Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey and Steven Tyler -- who each treated the sold-out crowd of more than 55,000 people to selections of their own songs. Read more.

Beatles memorabilia pulled in big bucks at Christie's auction house on Thursday, fetching nearly $1.9 million. One American fan coughed up £540,000 -- or just over $1 million U.S. – for the hand-painted bass drum skin found on the cover of the band's legendary 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album. Meanwhile, John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to 'Give Peace a Chance' pulled in a cool $830,000.

In additional Fab Four news, the Beatles' Apple and Steve Jobs' Apple have reached a deal -- just not the one music fans have been anticipating for years. Apple Records has reportedly agreed to let Bloomingdale's sell limited-edition Beatles iPods. According to Fashion Week Daily , the iPods will be stocked with every song in the Beatles catalog, but there will be only 100 made. Bloomingdales will also sell boxed Beatles CDs.

In tandem, Apple Records has given Bloomie's exclusive rights to Beatles images, which the department store will use to produce clothing and accessories. Artwork from album covers, photographs, posters and promotional materials has been interpreted by designers including Marc Jacobs, Theory, Outpost Trading Company, Met View and Converse by John Varvatos. The line will be available for the 2008 holiday season.

It took Paul McCartney more than 40 years to perform the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life' -- from the 1967's iconic 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' -- which he did last month during a concert in Liverpool. Now, Neil Young is covering the classic tune as an encore on his European summer tour. Warning: the video, shot at Malahide Castle in Dublin, Ireland, is rather shakey, but the audio is solid. Happy Canada Day, Neil!

Rare footage of the Beatles -- shot on grainy, color, 8 mm film -- has been uncovered. Shot during the Fab Four's 1967 visit to Plymouth, during the making of the 'Magical Mystery Tour,' the film finds John, Paul, George and Ringo on their infamous yellow tour bus and walking the British coastline.

It is believed the footage was captured by vacationers. It will surface as part of a new documentary on the legendary Liverpudlians, which will reportedly be called 'Mystery Tour Memories.'

"They were quite happy to relax and talk to people; the days of 'Beatlemania' were long gone," David Lambert, a film producer for Arthouse Pictures, tells music magazine Uncut. "I think it was George who said 'As long as people don't want to scream at us and pull our hair out and take our clothes off, we are quite happy to sit and talk to them."

A trailer of the film can be seen here.

On This Date in 1962: The Beatles, with Pete Best on drums, audition for EMI producer George Martin. Martin offers the band a contract but expresses concern about Best's drumming skills.

The Almanac Advises for June 6: "When interviewing for a position, it' is of great importance to present your best face. Any deficiencies in your presentation or background should be minimized."

To hype his first book, '21 Nights,' which is expected this fall, Prince gave a private concert for booksellers and personal friends last Friday night. Held in the backyard of his L.A. area home, the gig -- attended by P. Diddy, Dr. Phil, Sylvester Stallone and Olivia Newton-John -- was held in tandem with BookExpo, an annual publishing industry convention.

Free to those with invitations, Prince took the stage adjacent to his swimming pool at 1:45 a.m. Saturday morning, performing covers by the likes of the Beatles, Sly and the Family Stone and Tommy James and the Shondells. The guitar-slinging Purple One reportedly warmed his hands under a heat lamp.

The book -- slated to retail for $50 -- will drop via Atria in September. A pictorial story of the performer's 21 consecutive sold-out 2007 London gigs, the project promises onstage and backstage photos, poetry and lyrics by Prince, plus a CD of after-show jam sessions called 'Indigo Nights'.

Paul McCartney paid tribute to John Lennon and George Harrison when he rocked Liverpool this past Sunday as part of the city's 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations. The performance -- which also marked to the date the 41st anniversary of the release of the Beatles' landmark 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' -- was held before 36,000 attendees at Anfield Stadium.

Saluting Lennon, his former songwriting partner, McCartney sang 'A Day in the Life' for the first time ever live as Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono looked on. During the performance, McCartney reportedly blew a line, chuckled at his mistake and eventually segued into the Lennon's eternal anti-war missive, 'Give Peace a Chance.'

Sir Paul also paid homage to the late Harrison by performing 'Something' on ukulele, one of Harrison 's favorite instruments. Harrison 's widow, Olivia, also attended the concert.

"Thank you for coming here in the City Of Culture , at the center of the universe," McCartney told the cheering crowd. "I was born just down the road and I lived not far from here. Every time I come back to Liverpool all the memories come flooding back."

McCartney was joined by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who played guitar on 'Band on the Run,' and drums on 'Back in the USSR" and 'I Saw Her Standing There.'

See the full set list after the jump.

On This Date in 1964: Sessions drummer Jimmy Nicol is chosen to stand in for an ailing Ringo Starr on the Beatles' Australian tour, where he plays for 10 dates until Starr's return.

The Almanac Advises for June 3: "The main drawback to being a temporary worker is that temps don't receive the benefits and perks that fall to the permanent staff."

Long before he became a major Hollywood actor and an Academy Award winner, Billy Bob Thornton was once a roadie for many musical acts such as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Johnny Paycheck and Blood, Sweat and Tears. While he took part in some partying as a roadie, Thornton remembers that time as being all work.

"I was this skinny longhaired kid that can barely lift a cabinet," he tells Spinner. "But I did it anyway. It was a hard lifestyle but you can imagine being that age and being close to something that you love so much, it didn't matter."

For those who are familiar with Thornton's career know that he had already recorded several solo albums and appeared on Warren Zevon's farewell work 'The Wind.' Thornton's latest musical endeavor is the Boxmasters, a band featuring himself on drums and vocals, and J.D. Andrew and Mike Butler on guitars.

The idea of the Mod-attired group began when Thornton was listening to a British Invasion album. "I was telling J.D., 'This stuff is really just hillbilly music if you get right down to it. They just sing it like English guys.'" A fan of hillbilly music and '60s British and American rock and pop, he says, "I think really what the Boxmasters is my realization this many years later of exactly what kind of music I love to play, which is all of them put together."

If you've ever wondered what your favorite artists listen to when smoking out or how they score in foreign cities, you can now read all about it. 'Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life' features several musical contributors, from Melissa Etheridge on medicinal marijuana to Redman's 'How to Roll a Blunt,' as well as stoner tours of music by the Beatles, jam bands, Bob Marley (of course) and, arguably the stoner holy grail, the synchronization between 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Dark Side of the Moon.'

Shirley Halperin, co-author of the book with Steve Bloom, tells Spinner that Rob Thomas, who educates readers on 'The Art of Scoring,' was the first artist to sign on. "He was the first person I actually talked to about this idea. And he came up with that idea of how to bring up weed in a casual conversation without being completely obvious about it," Halperin says. "He had this in his mind already, this little tap dance of what happens if you don't have any weed, you're in a foreign country or a city that you're not from and you really want to get stoned -- how do you bring it up?"

Among the other musicians offering toking tips are the Doors' Ray Manzarek, who recalls his first time getting stoned, Fall Out Boy's Joe Trohman, who talks about 'Pot on Tour,' and 'Music to Smoke To' by both Maroon 5's Adam Levine, whose list ranges from Phish to Notorious B.I.G., and Guided by Voices' frontman Bob Pollard, who goes a little more avant-garde with albums by the likes of prog-rock bands Hawkwind and Cromagnon.

While the 7th Jammy Awards -- held at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Wednesday -- was not quite the Phish reunion that many had predicted, all four members of that band did join together onstage to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was punctuated by a lengthy speech by bandleader Trey Anastasio. The one-time king of jam guitarists thanked fans for twenty "amazing" years, and for being a part of something truly greater than any one person involved.

Indeed, that musical sense of communalism and giving significance to being "in the moment" was the overt theme of the night. Much more than the awards themselves (one of which -- Download of the Year -- yours truly was nominated for), the Jammy's was really, as producer Pete Shapiro said, "all about the music."

Anything Prince can do, Paul McCartney can do better. Well, except for wear tights. We'll leave that to the Purple One.

Nevertheless, McCartney will give away his latest album, 'Memory Almost Full', in editions of the UK newspaper, Mail on Sunday. Originally released on Starbucks' Hear Music label, the disc will be free to buyers of the May 18 edition of the paper.

In 2007, Prince gave away a copy of his most recent studio album, 'Planet Earth' through a deal with the newspaper. UB40 also gave fans a ten-song sampler of their latest studio album, 'Twentyfourseven,' as a supplement.

In related news, Beatles fans are abuzz over a rumor that Sir McCartney and Ringo Starr might reunite to perform onstage at Liverpool's upcoming Sound City music festival. Macca is set to take the stage for the event, which will celebrate the Beatles' hometown being named 2008's Capital of Culture.

The Liverpool City Council recently granted McCartney's production company $3.4 million to stage the four-day festival, which takes place between May 27-30 at city venues, including the Hard Day's Night Hotel.