So much has been said and written about the Beatles -- and their story is so mythic in its sweep -- that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did.
Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed a hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and never let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity but never losing their ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.
Even when couching praise in specific terms, it's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two.
They synthesized all that was good about early rock roll, and changed it into something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for the self-contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none, and key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R B-based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral.
As singers, both and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock; the group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As performers, they were (at least until touring had ground them down) exciting and photogenic; when they retreated into the studio, they were instrumental in pioneering advanced techniques and multi-layered arrangements. They were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an international phenomenon.
More than any other top group, the Beatles' success was very much a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Their phenomenal cohesion was due in large degree to most of the group having known each other and played together in Liverpool for about five years before they began to have hit records. Guitarist and teenage rebel got hooked on rock roll in the mid-'50s, and formed a band, , at his high school.
Around mid-1957, were joined by another guitarist, Paul McCartney, nearly two years 's junior. A bit later they were joined by another guitarist, , a friend of McCartney. The Quarrymen would change lineups constantly in the late '50s, eventually reducing to the core trio of guitarists, who'd proven themselves to be the best musicians and most personally compatible individuals within the band.
The Quarrymen changed their name to the Silver Beatles in 1960, quickly dropping the "Silver" to become just the Beatles. 's art college friend joined on bass, but finding a permanent drummer was a vexing problem until joined in the summer of 1960. He successfully auditioned for the combo just before they left for a several-month stint in Hamburg, Germany.
Hamburg was the Beatles' baptism by fire. Playing grueling sessions for hours on end in one of the most notorious red-light districts in the world, the group was forced to expand its repertoire, tighten up its chops, and invest its show with enough manic energy to keep the rowdy crowds satisfied. When they returned to Liverpool at the end of 1960, the band -- formerly also-rans on the exploding Liverpudlian "beat" scene -- were suddenly the most exciting act on the local circuit.
They consolidated their following in 1961 with constant gigging in the Merseyside area, most often at the legendary Cavern Club, the incubator of the Merseybeat sound.
They also returned for engagements in Hamburg during 1961, although dropped out of the band that year to concentrate on his art school studies there. McCartney took over on bass, settled in as lead guitarist, and had rhythm guitar; everyone sang.
In mid-1961, the Beatles (minus ) made their first recordings in Germany, as a backup group to a British rock guitarist/singer based in Hamburg, . The Beatles hadn't fully developed at this point, and these recordings -- many of which (including a couple of -less tracks) were issued only after the band's rise to fame -- found their talents in a most embryonic state. The Hamburg stint was also notable for gaining the Beatles sophisticated, artistic fans such as 's girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr, who influenced all of them (except ) to restyle their quiffs in the moptops that gave the musicians their most distinctive visual trademark.
( , tragically, would die of a brain hemorrhage in April 1962).
Near the end of 1961, the Beatles' exploding local popularity caught the attention of local record store manager , who was soon managing the band as well. He used his contacts to swiftly acquire a January 1, 1962, audition at Decca Records that has been heavily bootlegged (some tracks were officially released in 1995).
After weeks of deliberation, Decca turned them down as did several other British labels. 's perseverance was finally rewarded with an audition for producer at Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary; signed the Beatles in mid-1962. By this time, was assiduously grooming his charges for national success by influencing them to smarten up their appearance, dispensing with their leather jackets and trousers in favor of tailored suits and ties.
One more major change was in the offing before the Beatles made their Parlophone debut. In August 1962, drummer was kicked out of the group, a controversial decision that has been the cause of much speculation since. There is still no solid consensus as to whether it was because of his solitary, moody nature; the other Beatles' jealousy of his popularity with the fans; his musical shortcomings ( had already told that wasn't good enough to drum on recordings); or his refusal to wear his hair in bangs.
What seems most likely was that the Beatles simply found his personality incompatible, preferring to enlist (born ), a drummer with another popular Merseyside outfit, . had been in the Beatles for a few weeks when they recorded their first single, "Love Me Do"/"P.S.
I Love You," in September 1962. Both sides of the 45 were -McCartney originals, and the songwriting team would be credited with most of the group's material throughout the Beatles' career.
The single, a promising but fairly rudimentary effort, hovered around the lower reaches of the British Top 20.
The Beatles phenomenon didn't truly kick in until "Please Please Me," which topped the British charts in early 1963. This was the prototype British Invasion single: an infectious melody, charging guitars, and positively exuberant harmonies. The same traits were evident on their third 45, "From Me to You" (a British number one), and their debut LP, .
Although it was mostly recorded in a single day, topped the British charts for an astonishing 30 weeks, establishing the group as the most popular rock roll act ever seen in the U.K.
What the Beatles had done was take the best elements of the rock and pop they loved and make them their own.
Since the days, they had been steeped in the classic early rock of , , , , , and the Everly Brothers; they'd also kept an ear open to the early '60s sounds of Motown, , and the girl groups. What they added was an unmatched songwriting savvy (inspired by Brill Building teams such as and ), a brash guitar-oriented attack, wildly enthusiastic vocals, and the embodiment of the youthful flair of their generation, ready to dispense with postwar austerity and claim a culture of their own. They were also unsurpassed in their eclecticism, willing to borrow from blues, popular standards, gospel, folk, or whatever seemed suitable for their musical vision.
Producer was the perfect foil for the group, refining their ideas without tinkering with their cores; during the last half of their career, he was indispensable for his ability to translate their concepts into arrangements that required complex orchestration, innovative applications of recording technology, and an ever-widening array of instruments.
Just as crucially, the Beatles were never ones to stand still and milk formulas. All of their subsequent albums and singles would show remarkable artistic progression (though never at the expense of a damn catchy tune).
Even on their second LP, With the Beatles (1963), it was evident that their talents as composers and instrumentalists were expanding furiously, as they devised ever more inventive melodies and harmonies, and boosted the fullness of their arrangements. "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" established the group not just as a popular music act, but as a phenomenon never before seen in the British entertainment business, as each single sold over a million copies in the U.K.
After some celebrated national TV appearances, Beatlemania broke out across the British Isles in late 1963, and the group generating screams and hysteria at all of their public appearances, musical or otherwise.
Capitol, which had first refusal of the Beatles' recordings in the United States, had declined to issue the group's first few singles, which ended up appearing on relatively small American independents. Capitol took up its option on "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which stormed to the top of the U.
S. charts within weeks of its release on December 26, 1963. The Beatles' television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 launched Beatlemania (and the entire British Invasion) on an even bigger scale than it had reached in Britain.
In the first week of April 1964, the Beatles had the Top Five best-selling singles in the U.S.; they also had the first two slots on the album charts, as well as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 100.
No one had ever dominated the market for popular music so heavily; it's doubtful that anyone ever will again. The Beatles themselves would continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albums until their 1970 breakup.
Hard as it may be to believe today, the Beatles were often dismissed by cultural commentators of the time as nothing more than a fad that would vanish within months as the novelty wore off.
The group ensured this wouldn't happen by making A Hard Day's Night in early 1964, a cinéma vérité-style motion picture comedy/musical that cemented their image as "the Fab Four": happy-go-lucky, individualistic, cheeky, funny lads with nonstop energy. The soundtrack was also a triumph, consisting entirely of -McCartney tunes, including such standards as the title tune, "And I Love Her," "If I Fell," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Things We Said Today." 's resonant 12-string electric guitar leads were hugely influential; the movie helped persuade the Byrds, then folksingers, to plunge all out into rock roll, and the Beatles (along with ) would be hugely influential on the folk-rock explosion of 1965.
The Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the U.S. market for fellow Brits like the Rolling Stones, , and , and inspired young American groups like the Beau Brummels, , and others to mount a challenge of their own with self-penned material that owed a great debt to -McCartney.
Between riotous international tours in 1964 and 1965, the Beatles continued to squeeze out more chart-topping albums and singles. (Until 1967, the group's British albums were often truncated for release in the States; when their catalog was transferred to CD, the albums were released worldwide in their British configurations.) In retrospect, critics have judged Beatles for Sale (late 1964) and (mid-1965) as the band's least impressive efforts.
To some degree, that's true. Touring and an insatiable market placed heavy demands upon their songwriting, and some of the originals and covers on these records, while brilliant by many group's standards, were filler in the context of the Beatles' best work.
But when at the top of their game, the group was continuing to push forward.
"I Feel Fine" had feedback and brilliant guitar leads; "Ticket to Ride" showed the band beginning to incorporate the ringing, metallic, circular guitar lines that would be appropriated by bands like the Byrds; "Help!" was their first burst of confessional lyricism; "Yesterday" employed a string quartet. in particular was beginning to exhibit a influence in his songwriting on such folky, downbeat numbers as "I'm a Loser" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away.
" And tracks like "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and "I've Just Seen a Face" had a strong country flavor.
Although the Beatles' second film, Help!, was a much sillier and less sophisticated affair than their first feature, it too was a huge commercial success.
By this time, though, the Beatles had nothing to prove in commercial terms; the remaining frontiers were artistic challenges that could only be met in the studio. They rose to the occasion at the end of 1965 with , one of the classic folk-rock records. Lyrically, , McCartney, and even (who was now writing some tunes on his own) were evolving beyond boy-girl scenarios into complex, personal feelings.
They were also pushing the limits of studio rock by devising new guitar and bass textures, experimenting with distortion and multi-tracking, and using unconventional (for rock) instruments like the sitar.
As much of a progression as was relative to their previous records, it was but a taster for the boundary-shattering outings of the next few years. The "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" single found the group abandoning romantic themes entirely, boosting the bass to previously unknown levels, and fooling around with psychedelic imagery and backward tapes on the B-side.
Drugs (psychedelic and otherwise) were fueling their already fertile imaginations, but they felt creatively hindered by their touring obligations. , released in the summer of 1966, proved what the group could be capable of when allotted months of time in the studio. Hazy hard guitars and thicker vocal arrangements formed the bed of these increasingly imagistic, ambitious lyrics; the group's eclecticism now encompassed everything from singalong novelties ("Yellow Submarine") and string quartet-backed character sketches ("Eleanor Rigby") to Indian-influenced swirls of echo and backward tapes ("Tomorrow Never Knows").
Some would complain that the Beatles had abandoned the earthy rock of their roots for clever mannerism. But , like virtually all of the group's singles and albums from "She Loves You" on, would be a worldwide chart-topper.
For the past couple of years, live performance had become a rote exercise for the group, tired of competing with thousands of screaming fans that drowned out most of their voices and instruments.
A 1966 summer worldwide tour was particularly grueling: the group's entourage was physically attacked in the Philippines after a perceived snub of the country's queen, and a casual remark by about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ was picked up in the States, resulting in the burning of Beatle records in the Bible belt and demands for a repentant apology. Their final concert of that American tour (in San Francisco on August 29, 1966) would be their last in front of a paying audience, as the group decided to stop playing live in order to concentrate on their studio recordings.
This was a radical (indeed, unprecedented) step in 1966, and the media was rife with speculation that the act was breaking up, especially after all four spent late 1966 engaged in separate personal and artistic pursuits.
The appearance of the "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" single in February 1967 squelched these concerns. Frequently cited as the strongest double A-side ever, the Beatles were now pushing forward into unabashedly psychedelic territory in their use of orchestral arrangements and Mellotron, without abandoning their grasp of memorable melody and immediately accessible lyrical messages.
, released in June 1967 as the Summer of Love dawned, was the definitive psychedelic soundtrack.
Or, at least, so it was perceived at the time: subsequent critics have painted the album as an uneven affair, given a conceptual unity via its brilliant multi-tracked overdubs, singalong melodies, and fairy tale-ish lyrics. Others remain convinced, as millions did at the time, that it represented pop's greatest triumph, or indeed an evolution of pop into art with a capital A. In addition to mining all manner of roots influences, the musicians were also picking up vibes from Indian music, avant-garde electronics, classical, music hall, and more.
When the Beatles premiered their hippie anthem "All You Need Is Love" as part of a worldwide TV broadcast, they had been truly anointed as spokespersons for their generation (a role they had not actively sought), and it seemed they could do no wrong.
Musically, that would usually continue to be the case, but the group's strength began to unravel at a surprisingly quick pace. In August 1967, -- prone to suicidal depression over the past year -- died of a drug overdose, leaving them without a manager.
They pressed on with their next film project, Magical Mystery Tour, directed by themselves; lacking focus or even basic professionalism, the picture bombed when it was premiered on BBC television in December 1967, giving the media the first real chance they'd ever had to roast the Beatles over a flame. (Another film, the animated feature Yellow Submarine, would appear in 1968, although the Beatles had little involvement with the project, either in terms of the movie or the soundtrack.) In early 1968, the Beatles decamped to India for a course in transcendental meditation with the Maharishi; this too became something of a media embarrassment as each of the four would eventually depart the course before its completion.
The Beatles did use their unaccustomed peace in India to compose a wealth of new material. Judged solely on musical merit, , a double LP released in late 1968, was a triumph. While largely abandoning their psychedelic instruments to return to guitar-based rock, they maintained their whimsical eclecticism, proving themselves masters of everything from blues-rock to vaudeville.
As individual songwriters, too, it contains some of their finest work (as does the brilliant non-LP single from this era, "Hey Jude"/"Revolution").
The problem, at least in terms of the group's long-term health, was that these were very much individual songs, as opposed to collective ones. and McCartney had long composed most of their tunes separately (you can almost always tell the composer by the lead vocalist).
But they had always fed off of each other not only to supply missing bits and pieces that would bring a song to completion, but to provide a competitive edge that would bring out the best in the other. McCartney's romantic melodicism and 's more acidic, gritty wit were perfect complements for one another. By , it was clear (if only in retrospect) that each member was more concerned with his own expression than that of the collective group: a natural impulse, but one that was bound to lead to difficulties.
In addition, was becoming a more prolific and skilled composer as well, imbuing his own melodies (which were nearly the equal of those of his more celebrated colleagues) with a cosmic lightness. was beginning to resent his junior status, and the group began to bicker more openly in the studio. , whose solid drumming and good nature could usually be counted upon (as was evident in his infrequent lead vocals), actually quit for a couple of weeks in the midst of the sessions (though the media was unaware of this at the time).
Personal interests were coming into play as well: 's devotion to romantic and artistic pursuits with his new girlfriend (and soon-to-be wife) was diverting his attentions from the Beatles. Apple Records, started by the group earlier in 1968 as a sort of utopian commercial enterprise, was becoming a financial and organizational nightmare.
These weren't the ideal conditions under which to record a new album in January 1969, especially when McCartney was pushing the group to return to live performing, although none of the others seemed especially keen on the idea.
They did agree to try and record a "back-to-basics," live-in-the-studio-type LP, the sessions being filmed for a television special. That plan almost blew up when , in the midst of tense arguments, left the group for a few days. Although he returned, the idea of playing live concerts was put on the back burner; enlisted American soul keyboardist as kind of a fifth member on the sessions, both to beef up the arrangements and to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere.
Exacerbating the problem was that the Beatles didn't have a great deal of first-class new songs to work with, although some were excellent. In order to provide a suitable concert-like experience for the film, the group did climb the roof of their Apple headquarters in London to deliver an impromptu performance on January 30, 1969, before the police stopped it; this was their last live concert of any sort.
Generally dissatisfied with these early-1969 sessions, the album and film -- at first titled Get Back, and later to emerge as -- remained in the can as the group tried to figure out how the projects should be mixed, packaged, and distributed.
A couple of the best tracks, "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down," were issued as a single in the spring of 1969. By this time, the Beatles' quarrels were intensifying in a dispute over management: McCartney wanted their affairs to be handled by his new father-in-law, Lee Eastman, while the other members of the group favored a tough American businessman, Allen Klein.
It was something of a miracle, then, that the final album recorded by the group, , was one of their most unified efforts (even if, by this time, the musicians were recording many of their parts separately).
It certainly boasted some of their most intricate melodies, harmonies, and instrumental arrangements; it also heralded the arrival of as a composer of equal talent to and McCartney, as wrote the album's two most popular tunes, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." The Beatles were still progressing, but it turned out to be the end of the road, as their business disputes continued to magnify. , who had begun releasing solo singles and performing with friends as the Plastic Ono Band, threatened to resign in late 1969, although he was dissuaded from making a public announcement.
Most of the early-1969 tapes remained unreleased, partially because the footage for the planned television broadcast of these sessions was now going to be produced as a documentary movie. The accompanying soundtrack album, , was delayed so that its release could coincide with that of the film. , , and Allen Klein decided to have celebrated American producer record some additional instrumentation and do some mixing.
Thus the confusion that persists among most rock listeners to this day: , although the last Beatles album to be released, was not the last one to be recorded. should actually be considered as the Beatles' last album; most of the material on , including the title track (which would be the last single released while the group was still together), was recorded several months before the sessions began in earnest, and a good 15 months or so before its May 1970 release.
By that time, the Beatles were no more.
In fact, there had been no recording done by the group as a unit since August 1969, and each member of the band had begun to pursue serious outside professional interests independently via the Plastic Ono Band, 's tour with , 's starring role in the Magic Christian film, or McCartney's first solo album. The outside world for the most part remained almost wholly unaware of the seriousness of the group's friction, making it a devastating shock for much of the world's youth when McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles on April 10, 1970. (The "announcement" was actually contained in a press release for his new album, in which his declaration of his intention to work on his own effectively served as a notice of his departure.
)
The final blow, apparently, was the conflict between the release dates of and McCartney's debut solo album. The rest of the group asked McCartney to delay his release until after ; McCartney refused and, for good measure, was distressed by 's post-production work on , particularly the string overdubs on "The Long and Winding Road," which became a posthumous Beatles single that spring. Although McCartney received much of the blame for the split, it should be remembered that he had done more than any other member to keep the group going since 's death, and that each of the other Beatles had threatened to leave well before McCartney's departure.
With hindsight, the breakup seemed inevitable in view of their serious business disagreements and the growth of their individual interests.
As bitter as the initial headlines were to swallow, the feuding would grow much worse over the next few years. At the end of 1970, McCartney sued the rest of the Beatles in order to dissolve their partnership; the battle dragged through the courts for years, scotching any prospects of a group reunion.
In any case, each member of the band quickly established a viable solo career. In fact, at the outset it could have been argued that the artistic effects of the split were in some ways beneficial, freeing and to make their most uncompromising artistic statements ( and ). 's individual talents in particular received acclaim that had always eluded him when he was overshadowed by -McCartney.
had a much rougher time with the critics, but continued to issue a stream of hit singles, hitting a commercial and critical jackpot at the end of 1973 with the massively successful Band on the Run. did not have the songwriting acumen to compete on the same level as the others, yet he too had quite a few big hit singles in the early '70s, often benefiting from the assistance of his former bandmates.
Yet within a short time, it became apparent both that the Beatles were not going to settle their differences and reunite, and that their solo work could not compare with what they were capable of creating together.
The stereotype has it that the split allowed each of them to indulge in their worst tendencies to their extremes: in agitprop, in holier-than-thou mysticism, McCartney in cutesy pop, in easy listening rock. There's a good deal of truth in this, but it's also important to bear in mind that what was most missing was a sense of group interaction. The critical party line often champions as the angry, realist rocker, and McCartney as the melodic balladeer, but this is a fallacy: each of them was capable, in roughly equal measures, of ballsy all-out rock and sweet romanticism.
What is not in dispute is that they sparked each other to reach heights that they could not attain on their own.
Despite periodic rumors of reunions throughout the 1970s, no group projects came close to materializing. It should be added that the Beatles themselves continued to feud to some degree, and from all evidence weren't seriously interested in working together as a unit.
Any hopes of a reunion vanished when was assassinated in New York City in December 1980. The Beatles continued their solo careers throughout the 1980s, but their releases became less frequent, and their commercial success gradually diminished as listeners without first-hand memories of the combo created their own idols.
The popularity of the Beatles-as-unit, however, proved eternal.
In part, this is because the group's 1970 split effectively short-circuited the prospects of artistic decline; the body of work that was preserved was uniformly strong. However, it's also because, like any great works of art, the Beatles' records carried an ageless magnificence that continues to captivate new generations of listeners. So it is that Beatles records continue to be heard on radio in heavy rotation, continue to sell in massive quantities, and continue to be covered and quoted by rock and pop artists through the present day.
Legal wrangles at Apple prevented the official issue of previously unreleased Beatle material for over two decades (although much of it was frequently bootlegged). The situation finally changed in the 1990s, after McCartney, , , and 's widow, , settled their principal business disagreements. In 1994, this resulted in a double CD of BBC sessions from the early and mid-'60s.
The following year, a much more ambitious project was undertaken: a multi-part film documentary, broadcast on network television in 1995, and then released (with double the length) for the home video market in 1996, with the active participation of the surviving Beatles.
To coincide with the Anthology documentary, three double CDs of previously unreleased/rare material were issued in 1995 and 1996. Additionally, McCartney, , and (with some assistance from ) embellished a couple of demos from the 1970s with overdubs to create two new tracks ("Free as a Bird" and "Real Love") that were billed as actual Beatles recordings.
Whether this constitutes the actual long-awaited "reunion" is the subject of much debate. Certainly these cuts were hardly classics on par with the music the group made in the 1960s. Some fans, even diehards, were inclined to view the whole project as a distinctly 1990s marketing exercise that maximized the mileage of whatever could be squeezed from the Beatles' vaults.
If nothing else, though, the massive commercial success of outtakes that had, after all, been recorded 25 to 30 years ago, spoke volumes about the unabated appeal and fascination the Beatles continue to exert worldwide. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Founded in Liverpool during the late '50s by guitarists , , and , with drummer Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe on bass, the Beatles were initially a skiffle band, playing a British variation of American folk music. The band -- which went under several names before arriving at the Beatles -- incorporated numerous American rock roll, rhythm blues, and pop music influences in their playing and songwriting, most notably the sounds of Buddy Holly, , , and .
By the early '60s, they had developed significant popularity in Hamburg, Germany, where dozens of Liverpool bands were booked into local clubs, and this soon translated into success in their hometown, where the band's mixture of solid American rock roll and careful music articulation made them stand out from the rest of the city's music scene. Sutcliffe left the band in 1961 and took over on bass. After finding their manager Brian Epstein -- who got them an audition with George Martin, the head of EMI Records' tiny Parlophone label -- the band was signed to a recording contract in 1962.
replaced Best on drums soon thereafter, and the group's lineup was set.
By the spring of 1963, the Beatles' singles and albums were breaking sales records in England, and they were officially introduced to America in February 1964 with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show followed by a whirlwind tour. The group had been signed the year before to do a movie, and, through a stroke of good luck, they were turned over to producer , director , and screenwriter , who together created , probably the best rock roll movie ever made.
This film, a black-and-white, documentary-style, fictionalized account of the fishbowl lives that the Beatles were leading during the first wave of Beatlemania, was popular with parents as well as their teenage children, and critics loved it, too. ( called it "the of jukebox movies.") The mix of the four personalities -- 's honest, earthy, clownish presence; 's cutting, funny personality; 's pleasant, engaging presence; and 's snide, sarcastic wit -- won over audiences around the world.
The band's follow-up movie, was made on a much bigger budget and in color, but it failed to repeat 's success, suffering from an unfocused script and a good, but not great, selection of songs. The group was generally as unhappy with the results as everyone else, although the film did make money and have some entertaining moments. The Beatles tried directing and producing their own television film, 1967's , but the result -- outside of a couple of scenes and a handful of good songs -- were amateurish.
In 1968, they provided the songs for the psychedelic animated feature , and made a brief onscreen appearance at the movie's conclusion. The divisions that would eventually lead to the group's break-up were chronicled in the 1969 documentary , directed by , with impressive results.
The Beatles' exposure to movie-making whetted their appetites for filmmaking on a variety of levels.
had an acting role in 's anti-war satire How I Won the War, while wrote the score for the and comedy . Meanwhile, acted in the film , while produced the soundtrack to the Indian movie . During the late '60s and early '70s, the Beatles' corporate entity, Apple, acquired the distribution rights to various movies, including and , and made a number of films, most notably Born to Boogie, directed and produced by , and The Concert for Bangladesh, co-produced by .
also took an occasional acting role, most notably in the -produced period drama That'll Be the Day. also composed and performed the title song for the 1973 movie Live and Let Die, but it was ultimately who became the most active of the Beatles in filmmaking. Through his company Handmade Films, he helped produce such hit pictures as and the fantasy .
The end of the '70s also saw the lingering mystique of the Beatles parodied by alumnus and Bonzo Dog Band-founder Neil Innes in the film , in which made a cameo. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide Beatles, The, English rock music group formed in the late 1950s and disbanded in 1970. The members were John Lennon, 1940–80, guitar and harmonica; (James) Paul McCartney, 1942–, guitar and piano; George Harrison, 1943–2001, guitar and sitar; and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), 1940–, drums.
All were born in , England. Influenced by such American performers as , , and , The Beatles dominated in the 1960s, eventually disbanding when they felt their possibilities as a group were exhausted. The lyrics and music for most of their songs were written by and McCartney.
The group burst on the international rock music scene in 1961. Their initial appeal derived as much from their wit, clothes, and moplike haircuts as from their music. By 1963 they were the objects of wild adoration and were constantly followed by crowds of shrieking adolescent girls.
By the late 1960s, “Beatlemania” had abated somewhat, and The Beatles were highly regarded by a broad spectrum of music lovers.
From 1963 to 1970 the group released 18 record albums that clearly document its musical development. The early recordings, such as Meet The Beatles (1964), are remarkable for their solid rhythms and excitingly rich, tight harmony.
The middle albums, like Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966), evolved toward social commentary in their lyrics (“Eleanor Rigby,” “Taxman”) and introduced such instruments as the cello, trumpet, and sitar. In 1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band marked the beginning of The Beatles' final period, which is characterized by electronic techniques and allusive, drug-inspired lyrics.
The group acted and sang in four films: A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help! (1965), Magical Mystery Tour (1968), and Let It Be (1970); all of these are outstanding for their exuberance, slapstick, and satire. They also were animated characters in the full-length cartoon, Yellow Submarine (1968).
After they disbanded, all The Beatles continued to compose and record songs. In 1980, Lennon was shot to death by a fan, Mark Chapman. McCartney was knighted in 1997.
See John Lennon, In His Own Write (1964, repr. 2000); H. Davies, The Beatles (1968, repr.
1996); W. Mellers, Twilight of the Gods (1974); P. Norman, Shout!
(1981); R. DiLello, The Longest Cocktail Party (1972, repr. 1983); T.
Riley, Tell Me Why (1988); M. Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), The Beatles Day by Day (1990), and The Complete Beatles Chronicles (1992); I. MacDonald, Revolution in the Head (1994); M.
Hertsgaard, A Day in the Life (1995); The Beatles Anthology (video, 1995; book, 2000); J. S. Wenner, ed.
, Lennon Remembers: The Rolling Stone Interviews (2000); B. Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography (2005).
In the 1960s a new band known as the Beatles burst on the pop music scene and changed it forever.Band members included George Harrison (1943-), John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney (1942-), and Ringo Starr (1940-). With the release of three anthologies in the mid-1990s, the group remained one of the best-selling of all time.
On February 7, 1964, the Beatles arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York City, met by 110 police officers and a mob of more than 10, 000 screaming fans.
The British Invasion - and in particular, "Beatlemania" - had begun, and the "mop-topped" Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr - wasted no time in endearing themselves to American fans and the media, though many adults remained skeptical. According to the February 24, 1964, Newsweek cover story, the Beatles' music, already topping the charts, was "a near disaster" that did away with "secondary rhythms, harmony, and melody." Despite such early criticism, the Beatles garnered two in 1964, foreshadowing the influence they would have on the future of pop culture.
Inspired by the simple guitar-and-washboard "skiffle" music of Lonnie Donegan and later by U.S. pop artists such as , Buddy Holly, and , John Lennon formed his own group, the Quarrymen, in 1956 with Pete Shotton and other friends.
Expertise helped guitarist Paul McCartney, whom Shotton introduced to in 1957 at a church function, find a place in the band, and he in turn introduced Lennon to George Harrison. Only fourteen, Harrison, though a skilled guitarist, did not impress seventeen-year-old Lennon overmuch, but his perseverence finally won him a permanent niche in the developing ensemble. Stuart Sutcliffe, an artist friend of Lennon's, brought a bass guitar into the group a year later.
Calling themselves Johnny and the Moondogs, the band eventually won a chance to tour Scotland, backing a little-known singer, Johnny Gentle. Renamed the Silver Beatles, they were well-received, but the pay was poor, and the end of the tour saw the exit of a disgusted drummer and the arrival of Pete Best.
With the help of Welshman Allan Williams, club owner and sometime-manager for many promising bands playing around in 1960, the Beatles found themselves polishing their act at seedy clubs in Hamburg, West Germany.
Living quarters were squalid, working conditions demanding, but instead of splintering the group, the experience strengthened them. Encouraged by their audiences' demands to "make show, " they became confident, outrageous performers. Lennon in particular was reported to have played in his underwear with a toilet seat around his neck, and the whole band romped madly on the stage.
Such spectacles by the Beatles and another English band, Rory Storme and the , ultimately caved in the stage at one club. The Beatles' second trip to Hamburg, in 1961, was distinguished by a better club and a series of recordings for which they backed singer Tony Sheridan - recordings that proved critical in gaining them a full-time manager. At the end of that stay, Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg to marry, having ceded bass duties to McCartney.
He died tragically the following spring, shortly after the Beatles joined up with Brian Epstein.
Intrigued by requests for Tony Sheridan's "My Bonnie" single, featuring the Beatles, record shop manager Brain Epstein sought the band at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Within a year of signing a managerial agreement with , the Beatles gained a recording contract from E.
M.I. Records producer George Martin, and on the eve of success shuffled yet another drummer out, causing riots among Pete Best's loyal following.
The last in a long line of percussionists came in the form of the Hurricanes' sad-eyed former drummer, Ritchie Starkey - Ringo Starr.
Despite initial doubts, Martin agreed to use Lennon and McCartney originals on both sides of the Beatles' first single. "Love Me Do, " released on October 5, 1962, did well enough to convince Martin that, with the right material, the Beatles could achieve a number one record.
He was proved correct. "Please Please Me, " released in Britain on January 12, 1963, was an immediate hit. The biweekly newspaper Mersey Beat quoted Keith Fordyce of New Musical Express, who called the song "a really enjoyable platter, full of vigour and vitality, " as well as Brian Matthew, then Britain's most influential commentator on pop music, who proclaimed the Beatles "musically and visually the most accomplished group to emerge since the Shadows.
" The Beatles' first British album, recorded in one thirteen-hour session, remained number one on the charts for six months.
The United States remained indifferent until, one month before the Beatles' arrival, E.M.
I.'s U.S.
subsidiary, Capitol Records, launched an unprecedented $50, 000 promotional campaign. It and the Beatles' performances on The Ed Sullivan Show, which opened their first American tour, paid off handsomely. "I Want to Hold Your Hand, " released in the United States in January of 1964, hit number one within three weeks.
After seven weeks at the top of the charts, it dropped to number two to make room for "She Loves You, " which gave way to "Can't Buy Me Love." As many as three new songs a week were released, until on April 4, 1964, the Beatles held the top five slots on the Billboard list of top sellers, another seven in the top one hundred, and four albums positions including the top two. One week later, fourteen of the top one hundred songs were the Beatles' - a feat unmatched before or since.
Also in 1964, long before music videos had become commonplace, the Beatles appeared in the first of several innovative full-length feature films. Shot in black-and-white and well-received by critics, A Hard Day's Night represented a day in the life of the group. Its release one month before the Beatles began their second U.
S. tour was timely. Help, released in July of 1965, was a madcap fantasy filmed in color.
Exotic locations made Help visually more interesting than the first film, but critics were less impressed. Both albums sold well, though the U.S.
versions contained fewer original songs, and Help was padded with pseudo-Eastern accompanying tracks.
The 1965 and 1966 albums Rubber Soul and Revolver marked a turning point in the Beatles' recording history. The most original of their collections to date, both combined Eastern, country-western, soul, and classical motifs with trend-setting covers, breaking any mold that seemed to contain "rock and roll.
" In both albums, balladry, classical instrumentation, and new structure resulted in brilliant new concepts just hinted at in earlier works like "Yesterday" and "Rain." Songs such as "Tomorrow Never Knows, " "Eleanor Rigby, " and the lyrically surreal "Norwegian Wood" made use of sophisticated recording techniques - marking the beginning of the end of the group's touring, since live performances of such songs was technically impossible at the time. The Beatles became further distanced from their fans by Lennon's comments to a London Evening Standard writer: "Christianity will go.
It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that, I'm right and will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus Christ now.
I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
" While the British dismissed the statement as another "Lennonism, " American teens in the took Lennon's words literally, ceremoniously burning Beatle albums as the group finished their last U.S. tour amid riots and death threats.
Acclaimed by critics, with advance sales of more than one million, the tightly produced "conceptual" album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was perhaps the high point of the Beatles' recording career. No longer a "collection" of Lennon-McCartney and Harrison originals, the four-Grammy album was, in a stunning and evocative cover package, a thematic whole so aesthetically pleasing as to remain remarkably timeless.
Imaginative melodies carried songs about many life experiences, self-conscious philosophy, and bizarre imagery, as in "A Day in the Life" - a quintessential sixties studio production. The Beatles' music had evolved from catchy love songs to profound ballads, social commentary, and work clearly affected by their growing awareness of and experimentation with Eastern mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs. Song like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" were pegged as drug-induced ( ), and even Starr's seemingly harmless rendition of "A Little Help From My Friends" included references to getting "high.
" Broadening their horizons seemed an essential part of the Beatles' lives and, influenced greatly by Harrison's interest in Indian religion, the Beatles visited the in Bangor, Wales, in 1967. It was there that news of Brian Epstein's death reached them.
The group's next cooperative project was the scripting and directing of another film, Magical Mystery Tour, an unrehearsed, unorganized failure.
Intended to be fresh, it drew criticism as a compilation of adolescent humor, gag bits, and undisciplined boredom. The resulting album, however, featured polished studio numbers such as McCartney's " on the Hill" and a curiosity of Lennon's, "I Am the Walrus." The American LP added tracks including "Penny Lane, " "Hello Goodbye, " and "Strawberry Fields Forever, " which were immortalized on short films broadcast by Ed Sullivan.
Solo projects in 1967 and 1968 included the acting debuts of Lennon in How I Won the War and Starr in Candy, Harrison's soundtrack to the film "Wonderwall, " and Lennon's eventual release of his and Yoko Ono's controversial Two Virgins albums.
Growing diversity pointed to disintegration, the early throes of which were evident in 1968 on the two-record set, The Beatles, the first album released by the group's new record company, Apple. The White Album, as it was commonly known, showcased a variety of songs, mostly disjointed, often incomprehensible.
According to George Martin, as quoted in The Beatles Forever, "I tried to plead with them to be selective and make it a really good single album, but they wouldn't have it." The unity seen in earlier projects was nudged aside by individuality and what appeared to be a growing rift between Lennon and McCartney. Whereas the latter contributed ballads like " , " the former ground out antiwar statements, parodied the Maharishi, and continued to experiment with obscure production.
Harrison, on the other hand, shone in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps, " aided by Eric Clapton's tasteful guitar solo. Starr, for the first time, was allotted the space for an original, the country-western "Don't Pass Me By, " which became a number-one hit in where it was released as a single. Overall, critics found the White Album a letdown after the mastery of Sgt.
Pepper, though Capitol claimed it was the fastest-selling album in the history of the record industry.
Despite having little to do with its making, the Beatles regained some of their lost status with Yellow Submarine, an animated feature film released in July 1968. A fantasy pitting the big-eyed, colorfully clothed Beatles against the squattish Blue Meanies, the film was visually pleasing if not initially a big money-maker.
The group spent minimal time on the music, padding it with studio-session throwaways and re-releases of "All You Need Is Love" and "Yellow Submarine" itself. The remainder of 1968 and 1969 showed the individual Beatles continuing to work apart. Starr appeared in the film The Magic Christian, and Lennon performed live outside the group with Yoko Ono, whom he had married, and the Plastic Ono Band.
After spending months filming and recording the documentary that would later emerge as the Let It Be film and album, the Beatles abandoned thirty hours of tape and film to producer George Martin. Since editing it down would make release before 1970 impossible, the album was put on hold. Instead, for the final time, the Beatles gathered to produce an album "the way we used to do it, " as McCartney was quoted in Philip Norman's book, Shout!
The result was as stunning in its internal integrity as Sgt. Pepper had been. Schisms seemed to vanish on Abbey Road, with all Beatles at their best.
Lennon showed himself sardonic but controlled in "Come Together" and "I Want You - She's So Heavy, " McCartney crooned ballads and doo-wop rockers alike in "Golden Slumbers" and "Oh! Darling!"; and Harrison surpassed both of them with "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something, " hailed by Lennon as the best track on the album.
Starr, always in the background, provided vocals for "Octopus's Garden" and uncompromising and creative drumming throughout. Wrote Schaffner, "The musicianship is always tasteful, unobtrusive, and supportive of the songs themselves…. The Beatles never sounded more together.
" Yet another Grammy winner, it was a triumphal exit from the 1960s, and its declaration, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make, " read like an epitaph until the "post mortem" release of the heavily edited Let It Be.
American producer Phil Spector took over the Let It Be clean-up project from George Martin in 1970. The resulting album, brought out after fifteen months of apathy, bickering, and legal battles, was a mixture of raw recordings, glimpses of the Beatles in an earlier era, and heavily dubbed strings and vocals - as on McCartney's "Long and Winding Road.
" Though most tracks were tightly and effectively edited, critics said the album lacked the harmony of earlier endeavors. According to Schaffner, Lennon later told Rolling Stone, "We couldn't get into it…. I don't know, it was just a dreadful, dreadful feeling … you couldn't make music … in a strange place with people filming you and colored lights.
" The film, which strove to show the Beatles as honestly and naturally as possible, gave further evidence of disintegration. Band members were shown quarreling, unresponsive to McCartney's attempts to raise morale. Said Alan Smith of the New Musical Express, quoted by Roy Carr and Tony Tyler in The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, "If the Beatles soundtrack album 'Let It Be' is to be their last, then it will stand as a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop music.
"
By the end of 1970, all four Beatles had recorded solo albums, and, in 1971, McCartney sued for the dissolution of the group. Throughout the seventies, promoters attempted to reunite them without success. The Beatles did perform on Starr's Ringo album in 1973 - though not together in the studio, Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney contributed music, vocals, and backing.
The tragic murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980, quashed any hopes of a reunion among all of the Beatles. In the mid-1990s, however, the Beatles did release new music under the original band name. The living Beatles played over taped instrumentation and vocals left by Lennon.
The singles "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" were released as parts of anthologies featuring rare material and outtakes from Beatles recording sessions. "Free as a Bird" debuted with a music video in the United States as part of a television anthology presented on ABC-TV in 1995.
Selected recordings include Introducing the Beatles, Vee Jay, 1963; Meet the Beatles, Capitol, 1964; The Beatles Second Album, Capitol, 1964; A Hard Day's Night, United Artists, 1964; Something New, Capitol, 1964; The Beatles Story, Capitol, 1964; Beatles '65, Capitol, 1964; The Early Beatles, Capitol, 1965; Beatles VI, Capitol, 1965; Help, Capitol, 1965; Rubber Soul, Capitol, 1965; Yesterday ….
and Today; , Capitol, 1966; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Capitol, 1967; Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol, 1967; The Beatles (White Album), Apple, 1968; Yellow Submarine, Apple, 1969; Abbey Road, Apple, 1969; Hey Jude, Apple, 1970; Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, Polydor, 1970; Let It Be, Apple, 1970; The Beatles 1962-1966, Apple, 1973; The Beatles 1967-1970, Apple, 1973; Rock 'N' Roll Music, Capitol, 1976; The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, Capitol, 1976; The Beatles Live! At the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany: 1962, Lingasong, 1977; Love Songs, Capitol, 1977; Rarities, Capitol, 1979; Anthology I; Anthology II, Apple, 1996; Anthology III, Apple, 1996.
Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music, Gale Research, Detroit, Michigan.
Carr, Roy and Tony Tyler, The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Harmony Books, 1978.
Norman, Philip, Shout!
The Beatles in Their Generation, Simon and Schuster, 1981.
Schaffner, Nicholas, The Beatles Forever, McGraw, 1978.
Schaumburg, Ron, Growing up With the Beatles, Harcourt, 1976.
Evening Standard, (London), March 4, 1966.
Mersey Beat, January 31-February 14, 1963.
Newsweek, February 24, 1964.
Oakland Press Sunday Magazine, February 4, 1979.
Time, December 22, 1980.
high regard for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, their role in the history of popular music, and their alone, they released more than 40 different , , and that reached .
This commercial success band had sold over one billion discs or tapes worldwide. of all time in based on U.S.
sales of singles and albums. Their clothes, hairstyles, and statements made them trend-setters from the 1960s to this day, while their growing social awareness — reflected in the development of their music — saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (then playing under a variety of names) perform at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool and he was soon a regular player. Paul had become acquainted with George (a year younger) at school, the Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison from that era have survived. During this period, members continually joined and left the lineup; Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison emerged as the only constant members. In her book John, suggests that John came up with the name Beatles at a "... brainstorming session over a addition to being a fan of the Crickets, Lennon is paraphrased as having said: "If you turn it round it was 'les beat', which sounded French and cool." Lennon, who became famous for giving multiple versions of the same story, also joked in a 1961 article and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'." . (This story was later the inspiration for the title of one of McCartney's solo albums, In May of 1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle , who was signed to the agency. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to that short tour as a great Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. The band's van (driven by Gentle) had a head-on crash with another vehicle on their way back from Scotland; Moore lost some teeth and had stitches after being hit in the mouth by a guitar. citation needed] Nobody else was seriously injured. (Shortly afterwards, feeling the age Norman Chapman was their next drummer, but only for a few weeks, as he was called up for . This was a real problem as their unofficial manager, , had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the in , . They went back a second time and played the Top Ten club for three months (April until June, 1961.) While they were playing at the Top Ten they were recruited by singer to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German label, produced by famed bandleader . Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961. On Polydor released the recording " (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which "brokenlink">citation needed] In one now-famous exchange, an executive at turned Epstein down flat and informed him that "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein." Martin expressed an interest in hearing the band in the not been particularly impressed by the band's demo recordings, but he instantly liked them as people when he met them.citation needed] He concluded that they had raw musical talent, but said (in later interviews) that what made the difference for him that day was their wit and humour in the studio.citation needed] They were very likeable, and slightly cheeky, young men. When he asked them if there was anything they did not like, Harrison replied, "For a start, I don't like your tie."citation needed] Fortunately for the band, Martin, whose background was in comedy and novelty records, appreciated the joke. citation needed] Best had some popularity and was considered good-looking by many fans, but the three founding members had become increasingly unhappy with his popularity and his personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. citation needed] Epstein sacked Best on 16 August 1962.citation needed] In fact, the first recordings of John, Paul, George, and Ringo together were as early as 15 October 1960, in a series of demonstration records privately recorded in Hamburg as backing group for singer 1962, but Martin hired session drummer Andy White for their next session on . [citation needed] This amounted to one per group member. writer received the statutory minimum of 50% of the gross monies received, with the publisher retaining the other 50%.citation needed] ("Love Me Do" reached the top of the U. S. singles chart over 18 months later in May 1964.) This was swiftly followed by their second single " ". Three months later they recorded their first album (also titled ). The band's first televised performance was on a program called People and Places transmitted Although the band experienced huge popularity in the record charts in the UK from early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, (owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles "Love Me Do", "wp-_ref-17" class="reference"> It has been claimed that both Vee-Jay and Swan attempted legal fights with Capitol/EMI to secure full American contractual rights to The Beatles, which may have contributed to the eventual demise of both labels. It has also been said this fight to secure The Beatles took attention away from each label's most successful artists, The Four Seasons (Vee-Jay) and Freddy Cannon (Swan), who decided to move to more-established labels.
In March of 1957, John Lennon formed a group called (fleetingly known as The Blackjacks). On of that year, Lennon met Paul McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Fete.
The Quarrymen went through a progression of names — Johnny and The Moondogs, Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles Beatles". There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling; it is usually credited to John Lennon, "beat". He also later said that it was a joke, meaning a pun on "Beat-less".
Epstein eventually met with producer of 's label.
After The Beatles' huge success in 1964, and took advantage of their previously secured rights to The Beatles' early recordings and reissued the songs that they had rights to, which all reached the top ten of the charts the second time around. (Atco and Decca some minor alterations, Vee-Jay also issued an unusual LP called The Beatles Vs The Four Seasons which put together songs featured a 'score card'. Another unusual release was the Hear The Beatles Tell All album, which mixed interviews with the same early Beatles' material.
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