The world of rock music is known for the bohemian lifestyle of its stars and the Beatles were no exception.Money,drugs and sex come in droves which the rock stars happily indulged on.
The women featured here by the way,were not just groupies.They were the ladies who inspired our beloved fab four...some of the famous Beatles songs were written and inspired by them.
These are the women behind the men who wrote those beautiful harmonies and eventually saved us all from boredom.The women I featured here were the serious girlfriends and wives that helped shape the Beatles' lives.Some were even labeled as destroyers of a wondergroup,some were just plain sweethearts.Not counting the groupies or other women which were heavily dubbed as one night stands wherein the Beatles as one mighty rock stars have met along the way.
Dot Rhone was said to have been Paul McCartney's first serious girlfriend. At the height of the Beatles' career which started in their hometown Liverpool,England and the band's overseas gigs in Hamburg,Germany.
Only a few can be heard about Rhone,she nearly married Paul as she was pregnant by Paul's supposed to be first child but she had a miscarriage and Paul stated later on that he fell out with her.
There has been reports that Dot now lives in Canada and is a grandmother of several children.It was said that Paul had recently met her when he performed in Canada on the North American leg of his 2005 World Tour.(photo:Dot Rhone with Paul McCartney)
I guess everybody knows Jane Asher,the British actress in the 1960s who used to be Paul McCartney's girlfriend.Several Beatles songs were said to have been written about her,one beautiful love song called "And I Love Her" from the soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night is one of the best known Beatles songs were reportedly inspired by her.Other songs Paul wrote that were inspired by Jane were "All My Loving","Im Looking Through You","You Won't See Me","For No One" and "Here,There And Everywhere".
Paul eventually wrote another song called "A World Without Love" and was given to Jane's brother Peter Asher of the pop/rock duo Peter And Gordon.
Paul and Jane's relationship lasted for five years.They got engaged in early 1967 and then broke up a year later.
3.FRANCIE SCHWARTZ
Its quite odd that Paul never mentioned her in any of his interviews nor on his autobiographies.But it was also rumoured that Francie was the reason behind Paul and Jane's breakup.
This attractive woman first crossed the Beatles' paths when she worked part-time at Apple Records in 1968,and then there she met Paul and became his live-in girlfriend for several months.It was said that when Francie came to live in Paul's house,Paul was very sad and lonely about his break up with his ex Jane Asher.Jane's clothes were still on Paul's house when Francie came to live with him.Francie eventually wrote a book about his relationship with Paul called "Body Count" and had memories of Yoko that were even kinder than others would have later stated.
Francie stated on her book that Paul broke her heart when he asked her to leave[in which Paul had reportedly been dating Linda Eastman at the time and eventually later on became his wife].She never saw Paul again after that.
Linda Eastman,who would later be known as Linda McCartney first met Paul McCartney when she flew to London to attend the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's photoshoot.The Beatles just released their new album at the time Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and had a press conference.
Linda was already an established rock photographer even before she met the Beatles,taking photos of rock bands like The Rascals,The Doors,The Grateful Dead,The Rolling Stones,Jimi Hendrix,Cream and so many others.
Danny Fields revealed on his book that the Paul and Linda meeting was indeed "love at first sight".But it took a year before they met again and had a formal dating and she eventually moved to Paul's house in London.They married on March 12,1969 and Paul adopted Linda's daughter Heather from her previous marriage.Their union produced three other children Mary(born 1969),Stella(born 1971) and their only son James(born 1977).Rumour finders sadly,also linked Linda with Yoko Ono as one of the reasons why the Beatles broke up and was the subject in the book(along with Ono) The Women Who Broke Up The Beatles.
Songs inspired by Linda were the Beatles' song "I Will" which was included on the White Album and was released in 1968.Perhaps the most beautiful love song ever written by Paul about Linda was "Maybe I'm Amazed" which was included on Paul McCartney's first solo album McCartney.His most enduring ever,"Maybe I'm Amazed" remains a regular on his concert setlist up to this day.
When Linda married Paul,the Beatles were in the brink of dissolution,bad business problems began emerging and Paul couldn't help it but watch his band die slowly from the inside.Paul couldn't keep the Beatles together and he later stated that it was Linda who literally saved him as he got too depressed and was spiraling downwards with all the Beatles issues and she tried to encourage him that he was a good songwriter and thus he got up on his stupor and wrote materials that were later recorded for his first solo album.
Another beautiful love song which was written about Linda was "My Love" which was included on the Paul McCartney And Wings album Red Rose Speedway.Linda played keyboards and even sang back up and lead vocals with Wings.
Paul and Linda's marriage was known to be a rock n'roll fairy tale and would last 29 years until Linda's death in 1998 due to breast cancer.Their union has inspired other people including the hopelessly romantics as their dream marriage.Even though Paul remarried years after Linda's death,it was always said that Linda was the love of his life.And I guess Paul knew that deep inside.
5.CYNTHIA POWELL
Cynthia was John Lennon's first wife and the mother of Julian Lennon.John had been dating her and they got married even before the Beatles came to fame.Though they had been famous locally in their town of Liverpool,John married Cynthia even before Beatlemania started to take the world over.
It was always said that Cynthia was often a casualty on the Beatles' career wherein they had to keep their marriage a secret as to not hurt John's boy next door image as the band was still trying to make it big in the States.She often rode in escort cars that followed the Beatles' but never rode with the band which was kinda sad.
One song that was said to have been inspired by Cynthia was "Norwegian Wood" from the Beatles' album Rubber Soul.The lines "I once had a girl or should I say she once had me" was said to have been John Lennon's direct reference to Cynthia as John believed that she trapped him into marriage by getting pregnant.John and Cynthia were former classmates in art school where they eventually met and thus they started dating afterwards.They were married in August 23,1962 and their union would last six years until Lennon left her for Yoko Ono and they divorced on November 8,1968.
6.MARY COX
It was weird to think that all the Beatles' wives and girlfriends who attended the Maharishi's in Rishikesh never lasted with their respective partners.Mary Cox aka Maureen Starkey is definitely one of them.
Mary was Ringo Starr's first wife,having met Ringo in the Beatles' early days in the Cavern Club in Liverpool,she was a regular at the Cavern at age 15 and wasn't noticed immediately by Ringo.
She and Ringo got married in February 1965 after finding out that she was pregnant with Ringo's first child-and that is future rocker Zak Starkey who would later join Oasis as an unofficial drummer.She and Ringo had two other children.
When the Beatles broke up in 1970,the couple's marriage started spiraling downwards as well with ill reports of Ringo's infidelity igniting the breakup.Their divorce was finalized in 1975 on the grounds of Ringo's affair with American model Nancy Lee Andrews.Their divorce said to have crushed her completely with an unsuccessful suicide attempt she made after riding her motorbike into a brick wall.Ringo later on married Bond girl Barbara Bach.
Maureen(Mary) lived with Isaac Tigrett-the founder of Hard Rock Cafe in 1976 but didn't marry him until 1989.She died of leukemia in 1994 with all of her children,husband Isaac and ex-husband Ringo Starr on his bedside."Little Willow" from Paul McCartney's 1997 album Flaming Pie was said to have been written by Paul in her memory.
7.PATTIE BOYD
Pattie was George Harrison's first wife and I guess was the subject of much controversy when she married two famous rock stars-and that is George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Harrison first met Pattie on the set of the Beatles' first movie A Hard Day's Night.Pattie had a cameo appearance on the film with a one-liner dialogue "prisoners?" on a train scene with the fab four.
George and Pattie dated briefly in the height of Beatlemania and was married in 1966.It was noted that it was Pattie who got George interested into Eastern Mysticism when the couple first went to Bombay earlier that year.
Several Beatles classics were said to have been inspired by Boyd with these beautiful George Harrison compositions such as "I Need You" "For You Blue" and "Something".The latter being the biggest George Harrison penned Beatles single which eventually went to number one on both sides of the Atlantic.
The couple never had a child as to may have the reason why George Harrison got into so much infidelity as the years went by.Their marriage went on the rocks and finally ended when Pattie was snatched by George's best friend and fellow guitar god Eric Clapton.The couple divorced in 1974 and Pattie became Mrs Clapton.
Pattie was believed to be barren that she didn't had a child with Eric Clapton either.Eric and Pattie later divorced in 1988 on grounds of Clapton's alcoholism and affairs with several women.
8.YOKO ONO
Yoko Ono オノ・ヨーコ（小野 洋子） was born in Tokyo but was raised in Scarsdale,New York.She's seven years older than John Lennon and was known by many Beatles fans as the main person who said to have been broken up the Beatles.Many fans of the fab four still couldn't stop talking about her,or perhaps hated her for drifting the band apart.Perhaps Yoko wanted to keep John away from the Beatles,or was it a coincidence that John was already tired of all these rock star madness when she came to his life?
John first met Yoko on the latter's art exhibit in London in 1966 wherein Ono was said to have been impressed by Lennon's humour.But it wasn't until 1968 when they started living together wherein John left his first wife Cynthia for her.
The Beatles by then,were slowly drifting apart from each other and everybody believed that Ono made it worse by hanging out with the band all the time,even in the studio where they work which made the other Beatles uncomfortable.
When the Beatles disbanded in 1970,she collaborated with her husband John Lennon(whom she married in 1969) on his solo albums and even sang with him onstage at the charity concert in Madison Square Garden in 1972.The couple moved to New York City in 1973 and lived there until Lennon's untimely death in 1980.
9.HEATHER MILLS
Heather Anne Mills was born in 1968 and was 26 years Paul McCartney's junior when she married him at a lavish ceremony at Castle Leslie in Ireland in 2002.
Mills was Paul McCartney's second wife,having met Sir Paul at one charity event a year after Linda McCartney's passing in 1999.Paul later claimed that he was surprised to himself looking at other women in which he said he never did during his 29 years of marriage with Linda.
Paul wrote two songs about her on his 2002 album Driving Rain,one called "Your Loving Flame" which is a song about an elder man who found love for the second time on the twilight of his life.The second song was called "Heather" in which shouldn't be confused over the 1969 song of the same title written by Paul for his eldest daughter which is unreleased up to this day and was only available in bootlegs.
Heather had an accident in 1993 when she was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street in London,she was so badly injured that her left leg was amputated 6 inches below the knee.She is currently wearing prosthetic limbs to help her compensate for the loss leg.
Their union produced a daughter,Beatrice Milly McCartney who was born in 2003.Their marriage however was marred with problems with rumours coming in and out in which Mills was reportedly angry on how the music press would treat her.In 2003,she first described her marriage to Paul on Larry King's show as a great one and even praising Paul's tidiness.But later on,she was said to have been complaining to her friends that Sir Paul was a boring old fart prompting the media to be suspicious on her,even calling her a gold digger.Their marriage had several problems with the press even digging her past wherein she modeled in full frontal nudity when she was in her 20s and there has been wild rumours circulating that she used to be a porn queen which made the couple's problems worst.
The couple separated in 2006 with Mills doing interviews pointing her feud with Sir Paul's daughter Stella as the cause of the breakdown of their marriage.There has been many speculations on why McCartney and Mills separated but nobody could point a right reason why they parted ways.Perhaps the couple had more personal problems unknown to most of us.Their divorce was granted on May 12 2008 with Heather unsuccessfully applied for the decision to be kept a secret fearing that she would be vulnerable to crazed Beatles fans.
£16.5 million was said to have been McCartney's alimony to Mills together with assets of £7.8 million which included the properties she owned at the time.Plus £35,000 per annum,a nanny and school costs for their daughter in which both of them would share custody.
10. MAY PANG
May Pang is John Lennon's girlfriend,they lived together for two years while Lennon was separated from Yoko Ono.
Pang was the daughter of Chinese immigrants and grew up in New York's Spanish Harlem.She first got into the music business by working as a receptionist at ABKCO Records managed by Allen Klein who,at the time represented Apple Records and as the Beatles' newly elected manager(which Paul McCartney strongly opposes).And then there she had crossed the Beatles' paths and later on became Yoko Ono's personal assistant.
In 1973,after the recording of Mind Games,Lennon's fourth post-Beatles solo album,John and Yoko were having marital problems and decided to separate for a while.John left New York and headed to Los Angeles with Pang(whom Yoko had suggested to be Lennon's companion),the two became lovers as John Lennon indulged into what he called "The Lost Weekend".
In later interviews,John was heard to be saying that he was attracted to Pang when he first saw her even when he was still with Yoko.The couple moved back to New York and lived together until 1975 in which Lennon moved back to Yoko Ono,and broke May's heart.
May Pang later wrote a book about her relationship with John Lennon called Loving John.She married record producer Tony Visconti and would later divorce in 2000.
11.BARBARA BACH
Barbara Bach is the second and current wife of Ringo Starr,they met at the set of their 1980 film Caveman in which both of them had a starring role.They were married in 1981 shortly after the film's release.
Bach became an international sex symbol for her role as Bond girl opposite Roger Moore on 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me and has appeared on several issues of Playboy magazine.
Olivia Arias,later to be known as Olivia Harrison is George Harrison's second wife.She and George met at Harrison's 1974 North American tour shortly after his divorce with first wife Pattie Boyd.Arias was then working as a secretary at A&M Records.
Their union produced a son Dhani,who was born in 1978 and would later become a famous musician just like his father.
George and Olivia's marriage[they exchanged vows on September 2,1978] would last until George's untimely death due to lung cancer.
She produced the Concert For George a tribute concert in her husband's memory which featured artists such as Eric Clapton,former Beatle bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr,Gary Brooker.Jeff Lynne,Joe Brown,Billy Preston and other musician friends of George.The tribute concert is said to be a solemn one with profits from the events went to a charitable institution organized by Harrison.It remains one of the most beautiful and enduring concert tributes ever.
She is the heiress to the Guinness family and was rumoured to be dating Paul McCartney shortly after his separation from second wife Heather Mills. The two has been spotted several times together by the British papparazzi and was the subject of what her role might be to the future of Sir Paul McCartney,who was knighted in 1997.
Guinness,who had dated Mick Jagger and Prince Charles was denied by Paul himself as anything but an old friend.But despite the cute Beatle's denials of the said relationship,the press still followed their "rumoured relationship",with the papparazzi even taking stolen shots of the two going out having dinner and even their most intimate time together.
Perhaps Sir Paul's relationship with her fell too short for him to admit it?
14.NANCY SHEVELL
Nancy Shevell became Paul McCartney's third wife at a wedding ceremony held at Marylebone Town Hall on October 9,2011 which ironically is also John Lennon's birthday.
The couple married at the same venue where Paul married his first wife Linda in 1969.Nancy is a member of the board of New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and is the vice president of the family owned New England Motor Freight.
At first,fans were so eager and excited to see the new couple wed as the news of their wedding registry made on early September where everybody's wondering when the exact date the couple would exchange vows.The world was finally surprised when they did on what would be John Lennon's 71st birthday.
There were rumours spreading and with other journalists having mixed comments and some would say that Sir Paul never learned from his past marriage with second wife Heather Mills and with a rumour that has spread over the rock press that Paul and Nancy signed a pre-nup agreement.
Well whatever lies ahead,we wish them all the best and it may not be right to compare Nancy to Linda,but we all wish Sir Paul to have a happy and lasting marriage.
Lord knows what lies ahead,but we wish them all the best.
(c) Keith Vernon Adagio
