In the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe,” John Lennon famously sang that “Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,” and next year a slew of the former Beatle’s words that flowed onto paper in the form of his private letters will be collected in a volume to be published by London-based Orion Books, according to the Guardian in London.

Orion bought the rights from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, to about 150 letters filling hundreds of pages that Lennon wrote over the years to friends, fans and business associates. The physical letters have been in the possession of Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, but Ono controls the intellectual property rights to them.

"These letters have never been collected in one place before, and for the most part they have never been seen before," Orion Publishing Group executive Alan Samson told the Guardian. "The other reason people have gone crazy for it is the fact that there are half a dozen icons of the 20th century –- Marilyn Monroe, Kennedy, Elvis –- and Lennon is one of them."

Orion plans to publish them in October 2012 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' first hit single, “Love Me Do.” The price Samson and Orion paid has not been specified, but is said to be between 500,000 and 1 million pounds, or between $800,000 and $1.6 million U.S. dollars.

"They are full of wonderful drawings,” Samson said. “They are funny, sad ... they are very human letters."

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of John Lennon in 1980. Credit: David Spindel/PBS

Pop & Hiss lends an ear to the tunes that play out on "American Idol" this season.

Sandwiched between the tear-jerky backstories, song butchering and Jennifer Lopez gawking, there was still time for a few songs to be belted out (for better or worse) on the highly anticipated -– and hyped -- premiere of the 10th season of “American Idol.”

With the addition of a new panel of judges, including superstars Lopez and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, more business-like hurdles for the contestants and the lowering of the age limit from 16 to 15 -– surely the result of the Justin Bieber zeitgeist –- the lingering question of what would hopefuls sing in a bid to secure the coveted golden ticket to Hollywood yielded a variety of answers.

Teenagers took center stage of the first night of auditions, which occurred in a state responsible for making Snooki and The Situation household names, New Jersey. 

“Idol” has always attracted teens full of unbridled enthusiasm ready to belt out a tune often bigger than themselves. Ten seasons later, this hasn’t changed.

Despite a year rife with ubiquitous pop melodies and hooks that could make for a standout showing –- Rihanna’s bitter chorus of “Love the Way You Lie,” the instant stickiness of Cee Lo Green's “Forget You,” Katy Perry’s surprising “Teenage Dream” and the harmony of Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are” quickly come to mind –- the teens dug deeper into the American songbook than perhaps necessary. And many leaned on the Beatles for source material.

Composer and artist David Barratt just wanted to inject a little ukulele into the Beatles catalog. And for nearly the past two years he’s been doing so — one track at a time.

For his weekly “Beatles Complete On Ukulele” series, Barratt has been tackling all of the original Beatles recordings (185 of them, in case you forgot) and pairing them with different artists and his beloved ukulele.

The idea for the project came to Barrett and music producer Roger Greenawalt after they organized a marathon benefit concert where all the Beatles' songs were performed over 24 hours. The money ("hundreds of dollars in a brown paper bag," he clarifies) was donated to Warren Buffett — the philanthropist billionaire who is the third-wealthiest person in the world according to Forbes — after he sustained a bit of a dent in his finances because of the economic crisis.

The concert business was hit in 2010 by some of the same tough economic times that have been gripping other factions in the music industry in recent years, but New Jersey rock group Bon Jovi has reason to pop the Champagne anyway.

The band posted the highest grossing concert tour of the year not only in North America, but across the globe, topping the $200-million mark worldwide, according to figures released Tuesday by Pollstar, the concert-tracking publication.

Bon Jovi posted total concert revenue of $201.1 million, a little over half that figure -- $108.2 million -- from the North American dates on its world tour.

Behind the group on Pollstar's worldwide ranking is AC/DC with gross ticket sales of $177 million, followed in the top 5 by U2 ($160.9 million), Lady Gaga ($133.6 million) and Metallica ($110.1 million).

Looking only at North American tour numbers, Roger Waters and his remounting of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" was second to Bon Jovi with a tour gross of $89.5 million, followed by the Dave Matthews Band ($72.9 million), Canadian pop crooner Michael Bublé ($65.7 million) and the Eagles ($64.5 million).

The big guns, however, couldn't bring up the entire concert business over last year's numbers. The top 50 North American tours combined for an overall take of $1.69 billion, down about 15% from $1.99 billion in 2009. The story was only marginally better throughout the world, where the top 50 total tour gross of $2.93 billion was off about 12% from $3.34 billion a year earlier.

Numbers were down almost across the board: total ticket sales dropped 12% in North America, from 29.9 million in 2009 to 26.2 million last year, and decreased 7% worldwide, from 45.3 million in 2009 to 38.3 million in 2010.

The only increase reported by Pollstar was in the average ticket price worldwide, which went up by $2.86 per ticket, or about 4%. Tickets in North America actually dropped by about $1.55 or 2%. Even Bon Jovi's field-leading $108.2 million for North America was the lowest figure in recent years for the No. 1 spot. The record high belongs to the Rolling Stones, who took in $162 million on their 2005 "A Bigger Bang" tour.

"Artists worked fewer shows in a tough business climate and those that overreached suffered the consequences," Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said in a statement that accompanied the numbers. "In general, the international concert business was stronger than in North America, where overbooked and overpriced shows at outdoor amphitheater venues made it an especially difficult year for Live Nation," a reference to the world's largest concert promoter.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has received consistent praise for his stamina, still typically delivering three-hour performances while touring at age 68. But he generally worked fewer nights for more money than most of his peers. His average gross of $3.86 million per night over 21 dates in 2010, and an average ticket price of $138.49, gave him the highest per-concert average in North America, followed by Bon Jovi ($2.85 million), Waters ($2.49 million), Alejandro Fernandez ($2.4 million) and Elton John-Billy Joel ($1.97 million).

Popularity-wise, however, Dave Matthews Band reigned, selling 1.27 million tickets in North America for the year. Bon Jovi was second with 1.18 million, Justin Bieber with 987,000, John Mayer with 894,000 and Brad Paisley with 880,000.

Rounding out the top 10 grossing North American tours were McCartney, who took in $61.8 million over 42 shows in 38 cities. Lady Gaga finished No. 7 with total ticket sales of $51 million, followed by the James Taylor-Carole King "Troubadour" reunion tour that nipped at Gaga's 6-inch spiked heels with a $50.7 million total gross, the Black Eyed Peas at $50.5 million and singer-songwriter guitarist John Mayer at No. 10 with $49.9 million.

Bublé also performed well around the world, finishing at No. 6 behind Metallica with $104.2 million, the "Walking With Dinosaurs" animatronics tour ($104.1 million), McCartney ($93 million), the Eagles (92.3 million) and Waters ($89.5 million).

"Walking With Dinosaurs" attracted more patrons than any other tour, logging almost 2.06 million visitors. But the spectacle's overall gross finished farther down the list because the average ticket price was a comparatively modest $50.56.

Billboard's concert business rankings, which cover a slightly different, non-calendar year -- Nov. 22, 2009-Nov. 20, 2010 -- and factor in worldwide tour revenues, also place Bon Jovi at the top of the heap, with a gross during that period of $146.5 million from sales of nearly 1.59 million tickets.

The rest of the magazine's top five touring acts were largely consistent with Pollstar's, with the No. 2 slot taken by U2 ($131.5 million, 1.31 million tickets), then AC/DC ($122.6 million, 1.16 million tickets), Lady Gaga ($116.2 million, 1.36 million tickets) and Black Eyed Peas ($81.6 million, 1.26 million tickets). U2 scored its penultimate finish with only 22 stadium shows, compared to 69 performances for Bon Jovi.

U2 was tops on Pollstar's list of 2009's biggest tours, posting $123 million and another 1.31 million tickets sold. The Irish quartet was the only act to top the $100-million mark last year, with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band coming in second with $94.5 million, Elton John and Billy Joel's duo tour pulling in $88 million, Britney Spears at $82.5 million and AC/DC fifth with $77.9 million.

Among Pollstar's Top 100 North American tours, the crown for highest average ticket price of 2010 goes to Waters, who charged an average of $126.14 per ticket. That's considerably less than last year's high of $173.89 for Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks Live" tour.

Pollstar will release a full Top 200 early next month in its 2010 Year End Special Edition.

 -- Randy Lewis

Top photo: Jon Bon Jovi led the concert word with over $200-million in concert revenue. Credit: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images.

Bottom photo: Michael Bublé also had a good year, including finishing at No. 6 internationally. Credit: Associated Press.

Judging the market for big-ticket music box sets continues to be at least as much art as it is science.

Record company executives I spoke to recently said that even though the Internet has given labels unprecedented ability to target fans of specific artists, there’s still a lot of hope and guesswork that goes into these ultra-expensive projects such as the $1,199 Miles Davis 43-CD box set and the $749 30-CD “The Complete Elvis Presley Masters” box.

Seattle indie music store owner Mike Batt of Silver Platters, for instance, noted that when EMI/Capitol Records last year issued CD box sets with the remastered Beatles catalog — one in stereo that list for $259 and one gathering all the Fab Four’s albums that were originally mixed in mono carrying a $299 list price — the company ultimately created a quagmire for Beatles collectors.

“It takes a smart buyer to know the store audience and also the future market value of these items,” Batt told me by e-mail. “If played right they can make a profit, but they can also be a large cash hole." The Beatles' mono box from last year is a perfect example. 

“The Beatles in Mono” box originally was touted as a limited-edition set for which only 10,000 copies would be manufactured. Those quickly sold out by way of pre-orders, sending collectors into something of a feeding frenzy to get their hands on copies.

“Most retail never actually had any to sell to someone that had not already preordered it [by] the day of release. Not even Amazon,” Batt recalled. “This made the actual marketplace demand so cloudy that Capitol/EMI decided to press more a month later, which then flooded the market.

“Today there are hundreds and hundreds of people trying to sell it online and just get something for it. What actually cost retailers $190 each has had a low market value of $110 online so far. Add to that a group of bootleggers and pirates that tried to jump on the bandwagon early and are now trying to recoup their losses by selling the bootlegs in legitimate marketplaces, bringing the value and consumer confidence in the item even lower.”

What’s that line? “I read the news today, oh, boy …”

— Randy Lewis

 
 
When Apple Inc. announced last week that the Beatles’ catalog would at long last be available for legal downloading on iTunes, many skeptics groused that the two entities had come together too late: Everyone who cares about the group’s music long ago found a way to store it on their PCs, laptops or MP3 players.

Apparently not.

Apple announced Tuesday that 450,000 Beatles albums and 2 million individual tracks were downloaded during the first week they went up online. That translates to well more than $8 million spent on Beatles downloads out of the gate, using the single album download price of $12.99 and $1.29 per song. It doesn’t take into account several double albums priced at $19.99 or the digital Beatles box set that iTunes offers for $149.

At the same time the Beatles finally joined the digital world, Amazon began discounting the remastered physical CDs that were released last year, with individual albums now selling for $7.99, double sets for $11.99 and $12.99 and the 16-CD stereo box set priced at $129.99, making the tangible versions cheaper than the virtual ones. Consequently, six Beatles titles are in the Top 100 of Amazon’s ranking of its bestselling music titles as of Tuesday.

-- Randy Lewis

So Nov. 16, 2010. Never forget. By now you've surely programmed the date as a yearly "event" into your iPhone, an annual reminder of the day your music collecting habits forever changed.

Look, no love lost for the Beatles. Pop & Hiss adores the Beatles. Yay Beatles. And it's about time Beatles songs are available on iTunes.

Now, not to be Cranky Man Cynic, but the development was treated with a wee bit more fanfare than necessary. Granted, it was not met with the same media shock as was The Beatles: Rock Band (GASP! Will future generations only know of Paul McCartney as a video game character?), but the topic dominated news and Twitter feeds, and nary a headline or story went without the phrase "finally on iTunes." Sure, finally, but Nov. 16 has come and gone without changing the world, so forgive the #kanyeshrug on behalf of this writer.

In fact, here's five reasons not to be excited.

The Beatles catalog coming to iTunes may not save anybody real money -- as one astute blogger tweeted, Amazon is selling the beautiful "Beatles Stereo Box Set" for twenty bucks cheaper than Apple's download version -- and whether a rush of Fab fan purchases will knock "Glee" and Taylor off the top of the service's charts remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain: Fab Four fans, from the original Beatlemaniacs to their "Across the Universe"-converted grandkids, can now access Beatles music more quickly than ever before.

Which says to me: Internet meme! Finally, John, Paul, George and Ringo can vie with LOLCats and that kid who went to the dentist as a source of wasted time, lifted spirits and social-media conviviality.

I never do those "15" lists my Facebook friends post -- you know the ones that ask you to not think too hard, and just list the top films-albums-books-china pattern that have shaped your identity? I hate lists! No one can reduce me to a number! And yet ... somehow today such impromptu classifications seem appropriate.

So without further "Love Me Do," you'll find my 15 Beatles songs meme after the jump.

Nearly a decade after Apple Inc. introduced iTunes, the digital downloading service has finally acquired the music of the Beatles.  Apple on Tuesday rolled out the Fab Four’s music for legal downloading for the first time, offering 17 albums encompassing all 13 of the group’s original studio albums, the two “Past Masters” collections of non-album tracks, two double-album hits compilations and a box set including everything except the hits collections.

Individual tracks are being sold for $1.29, the single albums for $12.99, double sets for $19.99, and the box set is priced at $149. The digital box set also includes an exclusive-to-iTunes concert film, "Live at Washington Coliseum, 1964," never previously released officially.

"We're really excited to bring the Beatles' music to iTunes," Paul McCartney said in a statement issued Tuesday. "It's fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around."
 
"I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes," Ringo Starr added in the same statement. "At last, if you want it -- you can get it now.”

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said, "It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we've had since we launched iTunes 10 years ago."

 “It’s great to see Apple finally joining civilization here in 2010,” said Chris Carter, host of the long-running “Breakfast With the Beatles” program on KLOS-FM (95.5) in Southern California and on Sirius XM Satellite radio.

-- Randy Lewis

 
The refrain of “Don’t Let Me Download” from the Beatles may come to end as the Fab Four’s catalog reportedly will be coming to iTunes shortly, according to the Wall Street Journal.

An agreement for legal downloading of the group’s cherished catalog of more than 200 songs recorded from 1962-1970 is about to be announced by Steve Jobs’ Apple Inc., the Beatles’ Apple Corps and EMI/Capitol Records, the Journal reports.

Representatives for EMI/Capitol, surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and Apple Corps did not respond immediately to requests for comment. A spokesman for Apple Inc. said Monday that the company had no comment on the report. The company is making what it claims will be an “exciting”  announcement on Tuesday morning.

A source close to the Beatles camp told The Times on Monday that such an agreement would not be surprising given the recent posting on iTunes of the entire Apple Records catalog of recordings, excluding the Beatles’ music. That consists of 15 albums by acts the Beatles signed and recorded in the late '60s and early 1970s after creating their own Apple Records label, among them Badfinger, James Taylor, Mary Hopkin and Jackie Lomax.

“The working relationship between Apple [Corps] and iTunes started with the remastered versions of songs by Apple recordings artists other than those named John, Paul, George and Ringo,” the source said. “What Paul has done with his own [solo] stuff, or what anyone who owns their own masters has done is not nearly as significant because these non-Beatle Apple artists are truly what Apple owns. With Apple going in that direction, it’s a significant clue as to what lies ahead” for the Beatles’ own recordings.

The Beatles have been the biggest holdout from the iTunes world, but several other major acts still have not licensed music to the downloading service, including Garth Brooks, Kid Rock, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Tool and Bob Seger.

(Update at 5:02 p.m.:) Shortly after the 2007 resolution of a long-standing dispute between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Steve Jobs' Apple Inc.,  another lawsuit was settled between Apple Corps and EMI Records dispute over royalty payments that Apple said was owed by EMI.

Last year Paul McCartney said the only hurdle to posting the group's music online was remaining differences between EMI and Apple Corps'  "principals": himself, Ringo Starr, John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison. The settlement of those issues led to the posting on iTunes in recent weeks of the non-Beatles Apple Records catalog, which led to considerable speculation that the Beatles music wouldn't be far behind.

No details were reported of whatever deal may have been reached between the Beatles, Apple Inc and EMI, but speculation immediately began as to how much Beatles downloads will cost.

“They will likely take the position that the Beatles made some of the greatest music ever recorded,” the source said. “I suspect it will be at a premium price.”

Most Beatles watchers felt it was just a matter of time until the group’s music became available for downloading following the digital remastering of the entire catalog last year. That music was released on individual CDs and in two box sets that sold strongly during the final quarter of 2009. EMI and Capitol also recently reissued two hits “best-of” compilations that originally appeared in 1973: “The Beatles/1962-1966” and “The Beatles/1967-1970,” aka the “Red” and “Blue” albums.

“It’s great to see Apple finally joining civilization here in 2010,” said Chris Carter, host of the long-running “Breakfast with the Beatles” program on KLOS-FM (95.5) in Southern California and on Sirius XM Satellite radio. “I don’t think there’s a downside to it. Where else are you going to be able to find a copy of ‘Beatles for Sale’ when you need it late on a Friday night?’”

--Randy Lewis

Photo: The Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. Credit: Associated Press

Move over Beatles, and make way for the cast of “Glee.” The hit TV show has now produced more songs that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100 than the Fab Four throughout its career.

The Beatles placed 71 titles in the Hot 100 from their first appearance in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” through “Real Love” in 1996. But it’s only taken the karaoke-minded cast members of “Glee” a bit more than 16 months to put 75 songs onto the same chart.

Because of the sheer quantity of “Glee” releases -- five or six songs are typically made available for downloading after each week’s episode -- the number of potential charting songs from the show has rapidly outstripped releases by conventional bands or solo acts.

That doesn’t, however, mean the “Glee” singers have surpassed the Beatles’ sales. In the era of eroding record sales, it often takes far lower sales figures to make the Hot 100 today than it did in decades past.  Total download sales of the “Glee” titles are at 11.5 million, according to Billboard.

John Lennon's history and legacy as a composer and lyricist will be explored starting next month in conjunction with what would have the former Beatle’s 70th birthday in “John Lennon, Songwriter,” a new exhibit coming to the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, is loaning the museum a number of items used by him, including several guitars, a pair of his signature round wire-rimmed glasses, the typewriter he wrote on early in his career, original drawings and handwritten lyrics to songs such as “Imagine” and his musical paean to their son, Sean, “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy).”

The exhibition opens to the public on Oct. 4, but Ono will attend a members-only preview a day earlier. 3, following her first-ever concert appearances in Los Angeles on Oct. 1 and 2 at the Orpheum Theater.

It also will feature rare film footage of Lennon, mementos from his pre-Beatles Liverpool band, the Quarrymen, the uniform he wore on the cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and a previously unreleased interview with Ono on the subject of his songwriting.

It’s one of myriad activities recognizing the 70th anniversary of Lennon’s birth. On Oct. 5, EMI and Capitol Records will reissue remastered editions of all of his post-Beatles recordings, on individual CDs and in an 11-CD box set with considerable bonus materials, along with a “Double Fantasy -- Stripped Down,” a newly remixed version of the final album released before Lennon was killed in 1980. A new book chronicling those recording sessions, “Starting Over -- The Making of ‘Double Fantasy’,” by musician and author Ken Sharp, is set for publication next month. Fans will gather for a birthday vigil at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Oct. 9, and in November, PBS’ “American Masters” series will air “LennoNYC,” a new documentary covering Lennon's and Ono's years in New York, although the Grammy Museum will host an advance screening on Oct. 4.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo: John Lennon in 1974. Credit: Tony Barnard / Los Angeles Times