Today would have marked the 70th birthday of the late George Harrison, who made up one-fourth of one of the most famous musical quartets in music history, The Beatles.

Shrouded in a kind of misunderstood guise while in The Beatles and somewhat to this day as what his actual role was in the band, the contributions of George Harrison to that Liverpudlian unit and to his solo career, which saw arching highs and aching lows, were monumental and immeasurable. His work was bright and necessary, adding just the right touches and facets to the crown jewels in The Beatles. Harrison’s lead guitar playing and background and sometimes frontman singing gave immense color to the sometimes suffocating for him log jam of the tunes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, songs that also were churned out with a breathless standard and a high one at that, on an endless assembly line of quality, but ones which still seemingly pushed Harrison’s back against the wall when it came to those two men helping and bringing to fruition the true talent that nested inside of him. He became rather vocal about it through the years; he wasn’t comfortable being a somewhat sitting duck, a placid, go with the flow team player as Richard Starkey had been in the group (drummer Ringo Starr), where Starkey knew his deficiencies songwise and vocal wise, and thus, rested on his drum laurels, where he marveled flawlessly and often.

“Love Me Do”, the first number one single released by The Beatles, has entered the public domain in Europe due to the contemporary copyright laws, reports Rolling Stone.

Released 50 years ago last year (and backed with the B-side of “P.S. I Love You”), the tune, which launched The Fab Four into the musical stratosphere, can now be used free of charge in any forms of media one desires in Europe. The copyright law on the other side of the pond states that all recorded music has an expiration date after 50 years. On December 31st of last year, it took effect.

All week, Amazon has been offering up Lightning Deals, limited quantities of various products for a discounted price for a 4-hour window of time, as a prelude to the biggest shopping day of the year — Black Friday. You have to be on the lookout for these deals and once the item runs out, the sale is over. Meaning, if you see something on sale that you want, buy it immediately before it’s gone.

Amazon has released the Lightning Deal schedule and prices for Music CDs and Box Sets for Friday, November 25, starting at 5AM PST (that’s 8AM EST) and running through 9pm PST. See a sample of some of the Black Friday deals here below, along with more information on how these special deals work. You can visit the main Sale calendar page to see ALL the deals and the exact times they’ll be going up.

Here’s some of the items coming up on sale:

Nirvana – Nevermind [4 LP Deluxe Edition]
35.99

Queen 40 Limited Edition Collector’s Box Set
$35.99

Magical Mystery Tour
Blu-ray
Directed by The Beatles
Written by The Beatles
Starring: Paul McCartney, John Lennon,
George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Mal Evans
Apple Corps
Not Rated | 52 Minutes
Release Date: October 9th

Magical Mystery Tour, the colorfully wild mess of a film by The Beatles, has been released on Blu-ray and it’s one of the few times in the bands illustrious and innovative career that the term “mixed bag” can be applied when summing up one of their projects.

But suffice to say, Magical Mystery Tour, while an absolutely charming and irresistible piece of delectable eye candy to gaze upon, and even more so now with the spit and polish of the Blu-ray remastering, still ultimately remains nothing more than a curio of The Moptops at their psychedelic peaks, still in the cosmic high of their Sgt. Pepper period, the idyllic peace, love carefree metaphoric lounging on eiderdowns in their native England. It’s a hollow and disjointed piece that has it’s only reliable saving grace in the wonderful soundtrack, which is remastered as well, with the memorable musical strains of The Beatles in all their sonic glory at peak levels.

In honor of Paul McCartney‘s 70th birthday today, Amazon is currently selling the MP3 version of The Beatles song “Birthday” as performed by Paul Weller of The Jam for only $.70.

This deal is valid only for today, June 18, 2012, until 11:59pm PST. All proceeds from the sale of the song will go the War Child organization, a charity that helps children whose families, communities, and schools have been torn apart by war.

Weller and McCartney worked together in 1995 when they recorded a cover of The Beatles song “Come Together” under the name Smokin Mojo Filters. Weller also recently joined McCartney on stage, along with Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones) and Roger Daltrey (The Who), at the Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall for another Beatles classic, “Get Back.”