Fab Four
During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll and skiffle, the group worked with different musical genres, ranging from Tin Pan Alley to psychedelic rock.
Their clothes, style and statements made them trend-setters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s. After the band broke up in 1970, all four members embarked upon successful solo careers.
The Beatles are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music, selling over one billion records internationally. In the United Kingdom, The Beatles released more than 40 different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one, earning more number one albums (15) than any other group in UK chart history.
This commercial success was repeated in many other countries; their record company, EMI, estimated that by 1985 they had sold over one billion records worldwide. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles have sold more albums in the United States than any other band. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Beatles number one on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to that same magazine, The Beatles' innovative music and cultural impact helped define the 1960s, and their influence on pop culture is still evident today. After original Quarrymen drummer Colin Hanton left the band in 1959, the band had a high turnover of drummers.
Lennon's friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass in January 1960.
The Quarrymen went through a progression of names, including "Johnny and the Moondogs" and "Long John and The Beatles". The Beatles began a 48-night residency in Hamburg at Bruno Koschmider's Indra Club, and moved to the Kaiserkeller in October 1960, although they then accepted an offer to play at the Top Ten Club. Koschmider was furious that they had broken his contract, so on 21 November 1960 Harrison was deported for having lied to the German authorities about his age. McCartney and Best were arrested for arson a week later, after setting fire to a condom, and subsequently deported. Lennon returned to Liverpool in mid-December while Sutcliffe stayed behind in Hamburg with his new German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr.
They were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan (who also had a residency at the club) to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session on 22 June 1961. From 1961 to 1962 The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club, culminating in a final appearance there on 3 August 1963. On 9 November 1961, Brian Epstein saw The Beatles for the first time in the club. Epstein's version of the story was that a customer, Raymond Jones, walked into the NEMS shop and asked Epstein for the "My Bonnie" single the group had recorded with Sheridan.
The Beatles signed a five-year contract with Brian Epstein on 24 January 1962. He then formed the management company NEMS Enterprises.
Decca Records A&R executive Dick Rowe turned Epstein down flat, informing him that "guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein." (See The Decca audition.) While Epstein was negotiating with Decca, he approached EMI marketing executive Ron White. White contacted EMI producers Norrie Paramor, Walter Ridley, and Norman Newell; all of them declined to record The Beatles.
There, he was referred to Sid Coleman, who ran EMI's publishing arm. Epstein eventually met with Martin, who signed the group to EMI's Parlophone label on a one-year renewable contract.
Martin had a problem with Pete Best. Martin privately suggested to Epstein that the band use another drummer in the studio. In addition, Epstein became exasperated with his refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of the band's unified look.
Epstein dismissed Best on 16 August 1962. They asked Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr, to join the band; Starr was the drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and had performed occasionally with The Beatles in Hamburg. Starr played on The Beatles' second EMI recording session on 4 September 1962, but Martin hired session drummer Andy White for their next session on 11 September. White's only released performances were recordings of "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You", found on The Beatles' first album.
The Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June 1962 did not yield any recordings considered worthy of release, but the September sessions produced a minor UK hit "Love Me Do", which peaked on the charts at number seventeen. "Love Me Do" would reach the top of the U.S.
singles chart in May 1964.
The "drop-T" logo
On 26 November 1962 the band recorded their second single "Please Please Me", which reached number two on the official UK charts and number one on the NME chart. Three months later, they recorded their first album, also titled Please Please Me.
In 1963, The Beatles' iconic logo (referred to as the "drop-T" logo) made its debut.
American releases
EMI's American operation, Capitol Records, declined to issue the singles "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You". Vee-Jay Records issued the singles. Vee-Jay's rights to The Beatles were later cancelled for non-payment of royalties.
In August 1963, Swan Records released "She Loves You", which also failed to receive airplay.
A testing of the song on Dick Clark's TV show American Bandstand produced laughter from American teenagers when they saw the group's distinctive hairstyles. In early November 1963, Brian Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to present The Beatles on three editions of his show in February, and parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with Capitol Records. The segment first aired on the CBS Morning News on 22 November and had originally been scheduled to be repeated on that day's Evening News, but regular programming was cancelled following the assassination of John F.
Carroll James had seen the same news story and arranged through a friend to have a copy of The Beatles' new single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sent over to him in Washington DC. Immediately after debuting the record on December 17, the station received overwhelming positive audience reaction, with the station escalating airplay of the record.
Made aware of the overwhelming listener response, Capitol Records president Alan Livingston decided a few days later to take advantage of the response and rush-release the already-prepared single three weeks ahead of schedule on 26 December 1963.
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Several New York radio stations began playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on its release day. The positive response to the record that had started in Washington was duplicated in New York and quickly spread to other markets.
The record sold one million copies in just ten days, and by 16 January 1964, Cashbox magazine had certified the record number one, in the edition datelined 23 January.
It was around this time that Brian Epstein was besieged by offers of merchandising and, completely underestimating this relatively new market within the pop industry, chose to effectively give it away. Seltaeb was a company set up in 1963 by Nicky Byrne exclusively to look after The Beatles merchandising rights on a 90 /10 basis in Byrne’s favour.
The airport had never experienced such a crowd, estimated at about 3,000 fans.
The Beatles as they arrive at JFK Airport, New York City on 7 February 1964
After a press conference, The Beatles were driven to New York City. On the way, McCartney turned on a radio and listened to a running commentary: " have just left the airport and are coming to New York City..." After reaching the Plaza Hotel, they were besieged by fans and reporters.
Approximately 74 million viewers — about half of the American population — watched the group perform on the show. The next morning, many newspapers wrote that The Beatles were nothing more than a "fad", and "could not carry a tune across the Atlantic". The band's first American concert appearance was at Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. on 11 February 1964.
After The Beatles' success in 1964, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records took advantage of their previously secured rights to the group's early recordings and reissued the songs; all the songs reached the top ten this time.
(MGM and Atco also secured rights to The Beatles' early Tony Sheridan-era recordings and had minor hits with "My Bonnie" and "Ain't She Sweet", the latter featuring John Lennon on lead vocal.) In addition to Introducing... The Beatles (1964), Vee-Jay also issued an unusual LP called The Beatles Vs The Four Seasons.
The Beatles and The Golden Hits Of The Four Seasons, another successful act that Vee-Jay had under contract, in a 'contest' (the back cover featured a 'score card'). Another unusual release was the Hear The Beatles Tell All album, which consisted of two lengthy interviews with Los Angeles radio disc jockeys (side one was titled "Dave Hull interviews John Lennon", while side two was titled "Jim Steck interviews John, Paul, George, Ringo").
The band members were nominated by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who also was the M.P. On 15 August 1965, The Beatles performed the first major stadium concert in the history of rock 'n' roll at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd of 55,600.
On 27 August 1965, the group arrived at a Bel Air mansion to meet Elvis Presley. Biographer Peter Guralnick maintains that Presley was at best "lukewarm" about playing host to people he did not really know. Paul McCartney later said: "It was one of the great meetings of my life ...
The five of them had an impromptu jam session. "They all went to the piano," says Lacker, "and Elvis handed out a couple of guitars. Elvis played Paul's bass part on "I Feel Fine", and Paul said something like, 'You're coming along quite promising on the bass there, Elvis.' I remember thinking later, 'Man, if we'd only had a tape recorder.'"
Their sixth album, Rubber Soul, was released in early December 1965.
It was hailed as a major leap forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music.
Backlash and controversy
In July 1966, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected the group to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Brian Epstein politely declined on behalf of the group, as it had never been the group's policy to accept such "official" invitations. The group soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an answer. The group and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own.
At the airport, road manager Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans said, "Tell my wife that I love her." Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the band had earned while they were there before being allowed back on the plane.
Almost as soon as they returned from the Philippines, an earlier comment by Lennon made in March that year launched a backlash against The Beatles from religious and social conservatives in the United States. Attempting to make light of the incident, Harrison said, "They've got to buy them before they can burn them." Under tremendous pressure from the American media, Lennon apologised for his remarks at a press conference in Chicago on 11 August 1966, the eve of the first performance of what turned out to be their final tour. In November, 2008, The Vatican publicly announced that it had forgiven John Lennon for his remarks, saying it was a "boast" by a young man grappling with sudden fame.
The group's two-year series of Capitol compilations also took a strange twist in the United States when one of their publicity shots, used for a Yesterday and Today album and a poster promoting the UK release of "Paperback Writer", created an uproar, as it featured the band dressed in butchers' overalls, draped in meat and mutilated plastic dolls.
Peter Guralnick writes, "The Beatles, Elvis said, had been a focal point for anti-Americanism. The great joke was that we were taking drugs, and look what happened to .
They helped give this country's pride back to it."
Studio years
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During the recording sessions for Revolver, tape looping and early sampling were introduced in a complex mix of ballad, R&B, soul, and world music. The Magical Mystery Tour film soundtrack was released in the United Kingdom as a double EP, and in the United States as a full LP (the LP is now the official version).
The group spent the early part of 1968 in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their time at the Maharishi's ashram was highly productive from a musical standpoint, as many of the songs that would later be recorded for their next two albums were composed there by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. Upon their return, Lennon and McCartney went to New York to announce the formation of Apple Corps. The middle of 1968 saw the band busy recording the double album The Beatles, popularly known as The White Album because of its plain white cover.
Among the other causes of dissension were that Lennon's new girlfriend, Yoko Ono, was at his side through almost all of the sessions, and that the others felt that McCartney was becoming too dominant. Internal divisions had been a small but growing problem in the band; most notably, this was reflected in the difficulty that Harrison experienced in getting his songs onto The Beatles albums.
On the business side, Lennon, Harrison and Starr wanted New York manager Allen Klein to manage The Beatles; however, McCartney wanted businessman Lee Eastman (the father of McCartney's then-girlfriend Linda). All past Beatles decisions had been unanimous, but this time the four could not agree.
The other three members felt Eastman would put McCartney's interests before those of the group (during the Anthology interviews, McCartney said, "Looking back, I can understand why they would feel that (Eastman) was biased for me and against them"). The Beatles' partnership was not dissolved until 1975, though McCartney filed a suit for the dissolution on 31 December 1970, effectively ending the band's career together.
Post-breakup
Apple Building at 3 Savile Row, site of the Let It Be rooftop concert
Shortly before and after the official dissolution of the group, all four Beatles released solo albums.
Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974 (later bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74), Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again.
In the wake of the expiration in 1975 of The Beatles' contract with EMI-Capitol, the American Capitol label, rushing to cash in on its vast Beatles holdings and freed from the group's creative control, released five LPs: Rock 'n' Roll Music (a compilation of their more uptempo numbers), The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (containing portions of two unreleased shows at the Hollywood Bowl), Love Songs (a compilation of their slower numbers), Rarities (a compilation of tracks that either had never been released in the U.S. or had gone out of print), and Reel Music (a compilation of songs from their films).
Of all these post-breakup LPs, only the Hollywood Bowl LP had the approval of the group members. Paul and Linda McCartney later contributed backing vocals to the track. In April 1982, Paul McCartney released his Tug of War album, containing his tribute song to John Lennon, titled "Here Today".
In 1988, The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during their first year of eligibility. On the night of their induction, Harrison and Starr appeared to accept their award along with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and his two sons.
It would be credited as a "Lennon/McCartney composition" by writing new verses, and reworked by laying down a new drum track recorded by Starr and utilising archival recordings of Harrison's guitar work.
Lawyers for The Beatles sued on 21 March 2008 to prevent the distribution of unreleased recordings purportedly made during Ringo Starr's first performance with the group in 1962. Other contemporary influences included the Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose album Pet Sounds was a favourite of McCartney's. Beatles producer George Martin stated that "Without Pet Sounds, Sgt.
These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" and the swarmandel in "Strawberry Fields Forever". They also used early electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the intro to "Strawberry Fields Forever", and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby You're a Rich Man".
Beginning with the use of a string quartet (arranged by George Martin with input from McCartney) on "Yesterday" in 1965, The Beatles pioneered a modern form of art song, exemplified by the double-quartet string arrangement on "Eleanor Rigby" (1966), "Here, There and Everywhere" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Their final film, the documentary Let It Be, released in 1970, followed the rehearsals and recording sessions for the early 1969 Get Back project and won the Academy Award in 1971 for Best Original Song Score.
During 1965-1969, The Beatles were the subject of their own Saturday morning cartoon series, which loosely continued the kind of slapstick antics of A Hard Day's Night.
Some of the song performances, such as those from A Hard Day's Night, appeared to have been rotoscoped. Program Directors like Rick Sklar of WABC in New York went as far as forbidding DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music.
Recreational drug use
In Hamburg, The Beatles used "prellies" (Preludin) both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. McCartney would usually take one, but Lennon would often take four or five. Bob Dylan introduced them to cannabis during a 1964 visit to New York. McCartney remembered them all getting "very high" and giggling. The Beatles occasionally smoked a joint in the car on the way to the studio during the filming of Help!, which often made them forget their lines.
In April 1965, Lennon and Harrison were introduced to LSD by an acquaintance, dentist John Riley, who slipped some into their coffees. McCartney was more reluctant to try the drug, but finally did so in 1966 and was the first Beatle to talk about it in the press, saying in June 1967 that he took it four times.
The Beatles added their names to an advertisement in The Times, on 24 July 1967, which asked for the legalisation of cannabis, the release of all prisoners imprisoned because of possession, and research into marijuana's medical uses.
album, which had been released as a shorter Double EP in the UK. http:web.archive.org/web/20070308161210/http:enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/article1431116.ece.