Yesterday, today was tomorrow

In December 1974, four years after the breakup, the Beatles were still all over the Billboard Hot 100.

There were other weeks when two or three members had solo records in the Top 40, but for the week ending December 14, each Beatle had a solo record in the top 40: Paul (Junior’s Farm, #10), Ringo (Only You, #18), George (Dark Horse, #32) and John (Whatever Gets You Through the Night, #40).

(The feat was repeated one month later for the week ending January 11, 1975, with the same songs but swapping out John’s Whatever Gets You Through the Night for #9 Dream).

George’s attempt at a New Year’s Day anthem, Ding Dong, Ding Dong, was also released in December 1974, climbing to #36 in January.

As a footnote, several records with Beatles connections also made the Hot 100 that month.

Elton John’s cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was moving up the charts; John Lennon sang backing vocals and played guitar on the cut. It would go to #1 for two weeks in January 1975. Less than a month earlier, on November 28, 1974, Lennon joined Elton John onstage at Madison Square Garden to sing Lucy, Whatever Gets You Through the Night (which the two co-wrote) and I Saw Her Standing There.

Day Tripper by Anne Murray was on the lower rungs of the chart, peaking at #59. Murray had a mini-career covering Beatles’ songs. In 1973 she took You Won’t See Me to the top ten and her 1980 cover of I’m Happy Just to Dance with You went to #13 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Following the Beatles break up, George Martin moved on to produce seven albums for America, including the hits Tin Man (on which he played piano) and Lonely People, both records making Top 100 appearances that December.

Four years after scoring a #3 hit with Green-Eyed Lady, Sugarloaf’s Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You debuted this month, eventually moving into the Top Ten. The song lifts the riff from I Feel Fine, and alludes to a song that "sounds like John, Paul and George")

If you’re looking for something Beatlesque, there was the Hudson Brothers’ So You Are A Star, which peaked at #21. Mark Hudson later worked with Ringo as a producer and composer.

The Electric Light Orchestra, a band whose mission was, as founder member Roy Wood said, to "pick up where the Beatles left off,” had Can’t Get It Out of My Head on the charts where it would peak at #9.

Lastly, also debuting in December 1974 was Billy Preston’s instrumental Struttin’, which would enter the Top 40 in January 1975.