Music Friday: Paul McCartney Looks to Spring for Diamond Ring in ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you sensational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, we hop in our time machine to join up with a 22-year-old Paul McCartney, who is looking to spring for a diamond ring in The Beatles' 1964 smash hit, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

The fresh-faced frontman sings, "I’ll buy you a diamond ring, my friend / If it makes you feel all right / I’ll get you anything, my friend / If it makes you feel all right / 'Cause I don’t care too much for money / Money can’t buy me love."

In a 1994 interview, McCartney revealed the "true" meaning of the song he penned with John Lennon.

"The idea behind the song," he said, "was that all these material possessions are all very well, but they won't buy me what I really want." And, clearly, what he really wanted was love.

Years later, when reflecting on his stellar career and all the perks that wealth had brought him, McCartney admitted that the song might have been called "Can Buy Me Love." Today, McCartney and fellow Brit Andrew Lloyd Webber vie for title of "The Richest Musician in the World." Both are estimated to be worth about $1.2 billion.

Interestingly, "Can’t Buy Me Love" is one of the few songs that actually begins with the chorus. The idea is credited to producer George Martin, who felt the song needed a stronger intro.

"Can’t Buy Me Love" appeared as the 11th track from The Beatles’ third studio album, A Hard Day’s Night, and immediately started its climb up the U.S. Billboard Top 100 chart. When the song hit #1 on April 4, 1964, the entire Top 5 that day was filled with Beatles’ songs, which included “Twist and Shout,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me.” This amazing accomplishment has never been repeated. Rolling Stone editors rated "Can't Buy Me Love" at #295 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

Despite their humble beginnings — "I may not have a lot to give / But what I've got I'll give to you" — The Beatles went on to become the best-selling band in history, with more than 800 million albums sold worldwide.

We invite you to watch McCartney and The Beatles performing “Can’t Buy Me Love.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along...

“Can’t Buy Me Love”
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Performed by The Beatles.

Can’t buy me love, oh
Love, oh
Can’t buy me love, oh

I’ll buy you a diamond ring, my friend
If it makes you feel all right
I’ll get you anything my friend
If it makes you feel all right

'Cause I don’t care too much for money
Money can’t buy me love

I’ll give you all I’ve got to give
If you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give
But what I’ve got I’ll give to you

I don’t care too much for money
For money can’t buy me love

Can’t buy me love, oh
Everybody tells me so
Can’t buy me love, oh
No, no, no, no

Say you don’t need no diamond rings
And I’ll be satisfied
Tell me that you want the kind of things
That money just can’t buy

I don’t care too much for money
Money can’t buy me love

Buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can’t buy me love, oh
No, no, no, no

Say you don’t need no diamond rings
And I’ll be satisfied
Tell me that you want the kind of things
That money just can’t buy

I don’t care too much for money
Money can’t buy me love

Can’t buy me love, oh
Love, oh
Buy me love, oh

Credit: Image by Omroepvereniging VARA [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl], via Wikimedia Commons

Record-Breaking Rainstorm Brings 2.12-Carat Diamond to the Surface at Arkansas Park

On July 16th, a record-breaking storm pummeled Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Ark., with more than a foot of rain. Eight days later, Josh Lanik, a 36-year-old schoolteacher from Hebron, Neb., discovered a 2.12-carat brandy-colored diamond near the southwest edge of the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area. About the size of a jelly bean, it stands as the largest diamond discovered at the park in 2019.

Park Interpreter Waymon Cox said that it was not a coincidence that the year's biggest find connected so closely with the monster storm.

“About 14 inches of rain fell at the park on July 16," he said. "In the days after the rainfall, park staff registered numerous diamonds found right on the surface of the search area, including two weighing over one carat.”

Cox explained that park personnel plow the diamond search area — the eroded surface of an ancient, diamond-bearing volcanic crater — periodically to loosen soil and assist with natural erosion. Diamonds are a bit heavy for their size and lack static electricity, so dirt doesn’t stick to them. When rainfall uncovers larger diamonds and the sun comes out, they sparkle and are often easy to see.

“About one out of every 10 diamonds registered by park visitors is found on top of the ground, including many of the largest ever found at the Crater of Diamonds,” he said.

Lanik noted that he and his family were searching for amethysts near a section of the park called Canary Hill when something unusual caught his eye.

“It was blatantly obvious there was something different about it," he said. "I saw the shine, and when I picked it up and rolled it in my hand, I noticed there weren’t any sharp edges.”

Lanik showed the gem to his wife, who was searching nearby, and dropped it into a brown paper sack with several other rocks and minerals.

Before leaving the park, the family stopped by the Diamond Discovery Center to have their finds identified. Lanik said that when he poured the contents of the paper sack onto the counter, a park employee put his brown gem into a pill bottle and took it into the office for a closer look.

He noted, “She wouldn’t tell us whether it was a diamond, but we were pretty sure from her reaction that it was.”

After identifying and weighing the gem, park staff brought Lanik into the office and informed him that he had discovered the park's largest diamond of 2019. Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only diamond source in the world where amateur prospectors get to keep what they find. Lanik's diamond was the 296th registered at the park this year.

Lanik named his gem the Lanik Family Diamond and told The Washington Post that he plans to put the diamond into a ring for his wife to wear and eventually pass down to their sons, now 6 and 8 years old. To show the relative size of Lanik's find, the park staff took a snapshot of it next to an Arkansas state quarter — which prominently features a diamond in its design.

In total, more than 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972. The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was unearthed here in 1924 during an early mining operation. Named the Uncle Sam, this white diamond with a pink cast weighed 40.23 carats.

Credits: Images courtesy of Crater of Diamonds State Park. Arkansas quarter, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

See the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Medals Created From Recycled Mobile Phones

Gold, silver and bronze medals created entirely from recycled mobile phones and other electronic devices were unveiled by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games organizers. This is the first Olympic committee to create medals from 100% recycled material. By contrast, less than one-third of the material used to create the medals of the 2016 Rio Games were recycled.

The gold and silver medals will be the heaviest ever used at the Summer Games, weighing in at 556 and 550 grams, with a diameter of 85 millimeters – 7.7mm at their thinnest part and 12.1mm at their thickest.

The front depicts Nike, the mythical Greek goddess of victory, standing in front of the Panathinaikos Stadium. The back features a raised, pebble-like center, reflective Olympic rings, and a checkered Tokyo 2020 "ichimatsu moyo" emblem inside a swirl design. The side of each medal will be inscribed with the name of the event for which it is presented.

Junichi Kawanishi designed the medals to resemble rough stones that have been newly polished, and now "shine with light and brilliance." Set at varied angles, each layer reflects light differently to symbolize the energy and commitment of the athletes and their supporters.

Kawanishi also wanted the medals to symbolize diversity and convey the concept that to achieve glory, athletes have to strive for victory on a daily basis.

"With their shining rings, I hope the medals will be seen as paying tribute to the athletes' efforts, reflecting their glory and symbolizing their friendship," said Kawanishi.

The Olympic gold medals are made mostly of silver, containing just six grams of pure gold. The silver medals are pure silver. The bronze medals are made from gunmetal, a corrosion-resistant form of bronze that contains zinc. Olympic gold medals were once made of solid gold, with the last ones awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, back in 1912.

Approximately 5,000 medals will be manufactured from the precious metals extracted from small used devices donated by the Japanese public in a campaign that ran from April 2017 through March 2019.

The Tokyo 2020 Medal Project encouraged Japanese citizens to donate their used mobile phones, digital cameras, laptops and games units so small amounts of precious metal could be harvested. By the end of March 2019, the collection goal had been achieved – nearly 80,000 tons of devices were collected yielding 32kg of gold, 3,500kg of silver and 2,200kg of bronze.

Despite being a country with virtually no precious metal mining, Japan’s discarded small consumer electronics is believed to contain the equivalent of 16% of the world’s gold reserves and 22% of the world’s silver reserves.

The Olympic medals are hung from ribbons made from recycled polyester and feature traditional Japanese designs with the checked pattern of the Tokyo 2020 logo.

The medal cases, manufactured from dyed Japanese ash wood, were handmade by Japanese craftsmen.

"Like the athletes who will receive the medals, each one is unique," said the organizers.

The 2020 Paralympic medal designs will be revealed in August.

Credits: Images courtesy of Tokyo 2020.