Beatles star John Lennon 'was almost killed' making sound effects for iconic album

Its 60 years since the Beatles album Revolver was released, giving us hit songs like Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine.

Amazingly, the Fab Fours Paul McCartney is still making music headlines the 84-year-old has received his first ever Mercury Prize nomination for his recent album The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Now, to mark the anniversary of the legendary 1966 record, here are 15 fascinating facts about the record.

1. Before naming their seventh studio album Revolver, after a revolving turntable, the band considered titles like Abracadabra, Beatles on Safari and After Geography, a pun on Rolling Stones LP Aftermath.

2. The record featured 14 tracks, with lots of technical innovation and 300 hours studio time. It marked the start of the Beatles psychedelic period.

3. The song Tomorrow Never Knows was inspired by John Lennons experiences with the drug LSD and a book called The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead .

4. The seagull sound on the track was actually McCartneys laugh sped up and distorted.

5. She Said She Said comes from an acid trip Lennon had with actor Peter Fonda, who provided the lyric I know what it's like to be dead, recalling accidentally shooting himself aged 11.

6. McCartney has admitted that the song Got to Get You into My Life was an ode to pot while some think Doctor Robert was based on a US celeb doctor who gave out vitamin shots laced with speed.

7. The name of Yellow Submarine, which inspired the 1968 movie, came from a Greek dessert. Ringo Starr was the singer, with backing from stars like model Pattie Boyd and Marianne Faithfull.

8. For extra vocals, Lennon tried to get an underwater effect by singing into a mic inside a condom placed in a carton of water. Years later the engineer realised the star could have been electrocuted.

9. The orchestral number Eleanor Rigby was the first Beatles song where they didnt play their instruments.

10. The lonely woman in the song was originally going to be called Daisy Hawkins. Eleanor came from actress Eleanor Bron and Rigby from a wine merchant.

11. Coincidentally theres a grave of a real Eleanor Rigby, who died in 1939, near where the Beatles grew up in Liverpool.

12. I'm Only Sleeping includes George Harrison in the first-ever use of a reversed guitar solo on a pop record.

13. McCartney wrote Here, There and Everywhere by the pool of John Lennons house while waiting for him to get out of bed.

14. The iconic black and white collage cover was designed by Manfred Mann bassist Klaus Voormann for 50.

15. Revolver sold over seven million copies and went to No1 in the UK for seven weeks, but the Beatles never played it live.

Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here.Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter.

[Google Preferred Source Badge]Follow Daily Star: