An English musical group from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They were the most commercially successful and influential act of the rock era, releasing more than 40 different singles, albums and EPs that reached number one. Their innovative music and cultural impact helped define the 1960s and their influence on pop culture is still evident today. Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll and homegrown skiffle, the group explored genres ranging from Tin Pan Alley to psychedelic rock. Their clothes, styles and statements made them trendsetters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
In March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon met guitarist Paul McCartney in July 1957 and, in February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison (who had become acquainted with McCartney) was invited to watch the group. At McCartney's insistence, Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958, overcoming Lennon's initial reluctance because of Harrison's young age.
Members continually joined and left the lineup during that period and in January 1960 Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar and the group had a high turnover of drummers. The Quarrymen went through a progression of names before settling on The Beatles. There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling. It is usually credited to Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insect beetles (as a reference to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets) and the word beat.
In May 1960, The Beatles toured northeast Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle. For the tour, the often drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others and left shortly after the tour. Norman Chapman was the band's next drummer, but was called up for National Service a few weeks later. His departure posed a significant problem as the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.
In August 1960, the group invited Pete Best to become their permanent drummer. Four days after hiring Best, the group left for Hamburg, where they played for 6 or 7 hours a night, 7 nights a week. In November, Harrison was deported for having lied to the German authorities about his age. A week later, having started a small fire at their living quarters, McCartney and Best were arrested, charged with arson and also deported. Lennon followed the others to Liverpool in mid-December, but Sutcliffe stayed behind in Hamburg.
The reunited group played their first engagement in December 1960 with Chas Newby substituting for Sutcliffe. The Beatles returned to Hamburg in April 1961, where they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label. The group was signed to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961.
When the group returned to Liverpool, Sutcliffe again stayed on in Hamburg. By then McCartney had taken over on bass.
Their third stay in Hamburg was from April to May 1962. Upon their arrival, they were informed of Sutcliffe's death from a brain haemorrhage.
Brian Epstein took over as the group's manager in January 1962 and led the quest for a British recording contract. Epstein had been manager of the record department at North End Music Store (NEMS), an offshoot of his family's furniture store. He played on the status of NEMS as a major record dealer to gain access to producers and recording company executives. While Epstein was negotiating with Decca, he also approached EMI marketing executive Ron White. White (who was not himself a record producer) in turn contacted EMI producers Norrie Paramor, Walter Ridley and Norman Newell, all of whom declined to record the Beatles. White did not approach EMI's fourth staff producer, George Martin, who was on holiday at the time.
After failing to impress Decca, Epstein went to the HMV store on Oxford Street in London to transfer the Decca tapes to disc. There, recording engineer Jim Foy referred him to Sid Coleman, who ran EMI's publishing arm. When Coleman heard the demo tapes he suggested taking the tapes to George Martin, who headed the Parlophone label at EMI. Epstein eventually met with Martin, who signed the group to EMI on a one-year renewable contract and scheduled their first recording session on 6th June 1962 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in north London.
Martin had not been particularly impressed by the band's demo recordings, but he instantly liked them when he met them. However, he did have a problem with Pete Best, who he felt could not keep time, and suggested to Epstein that the band use another drummer in the studio. In addition, Epstein had become exasperated with Best's refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look and Best also had missed a number of engagements because of illness. The three founding members asked Epstein to dismiss Best – which he did in August 1962. They asked Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey), the drummer for one of the top Merseybeat groups, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, to join the band. Starr had performed occasionally with the Beatles in Hamburg.
The Beatles' first EMI session in June 1962 did not yield any recordings considered worthy of release, but the September sessions produced a minor UK hit, Love Me Do. In November 1962, they 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).
As The Beatles' fame spread, the frenzied adulation of the group, predominantly from teenage female fans, was dubbed Beatlemania. The band also began to be noticed by serious music critics. Although the band experienced huge popularity on the UK record charts in early 1963, EMI's American operation, Capitol Records, declined to issue the singles Please Please Me and From Me to You (their first official number one hit in the UK). Vee-Jay Records, a small Chicago label, issued the singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Vee-Jay's rights to The Beatles were later cancelled for non-payment of royalties.
In August 1963, Philadelphia-based Swan Records released She Loves You, which also failed to receive airplay.
In early November 1963, Brian Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to present the Beatles on three editions of his show in February and used this guaranteed exposure to get a record deal with Capitol Records. Capitol committed to a mid-January release for I Wanna Hold Your Hand, but was forced to release the song ahead of schedule in December 1963. Beatlemania quickly spread to New York and other markets. The record sold one million copies in just 10 days and was certified number one.
On 7th February 1964, the Beatles left for their first trip to the US as a group. They were greeted by thousands of fans and driven to New York. Their first live American television appearance was on the The Ed Sullivan Show on 9th February 1964. Their first American concert appearance was at Washington Coliseum in Washington, DC on 11th February 1964. After The Beatles' huge success in 1964, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records took advantage of their previously secured rights to the Beatles' early recordings and reissued the songs, all of which reached the top ten the second time around. In addition, they released Introducing... The Beatles, which was essentially The Beatles' debut British album with some minor alterations.
In mid-1964, the band undertook their first appearances outside of Europe and North America, touring Australia and New Zealand.
In June 1965, all four Beatles were awarded MBEs. On 15th August 1965, the Beatles performed the first major stadium concert in the history of rock at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd of 55,600. Their sixth album, Rubber Soul, was released in early December 1965 and was hailed as a major leap forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music.
In April 1966, the group began recording what would be their most ambitious album to date, Revolver. During the recording sessions for the album, tape looping and early sampling were introduced in a complex mix of ballad, R&B, soul and world music.
The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29th August 1966 and from then on concentrated on recording.
Less than 7 months after recording Revolver, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road Studios in November 1966 to begin the 129-day recording sessions for their eighth album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June 1967.
On 25th June 1967, The Beatles became the first band globally transmitted on television, before an estimated 400 million people worldwide. The Beatles were transmitted live from Abbey Road Studios and their new song All You Need Is Love was recorded live during the show.
The band's business affairs began to unravel after manager Brian Epstein died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in August 1967 at the age of 32.
At the end of 1967, they received their first major negative press in the UK with disparaging reviews of their surrealistic TV film Magical Mystery Tour.
The group spent the early part of 1968 in India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 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. These sessions saw deep divisions opening within the band, with Starr temporarily walking out and McCartney recording the drums on some songs. 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 domineering. Internal divisions within the band had been a small but growing problem during their early years; most notably, this was reflected in the difficulty that Harrison experienced in getting his own songs onto Beatles albums.
On the business side, McCartney wanted Lee Eastman, the father of his then-girlfriend Linda Eastman, to manage the Beatles, but the other members wanted New York manager Allen Klein. All past Beatles decisions had been unanimous, but this time the four could not agree. Lennon, Harrison and Starr felt the Eastmans would put McCartney's interests before those of the group. In 1971, it was discovered that Klein, who had been appointed manager, had stolen £5 million from The Beatles' holdings.
Their final live performance was on the rooftop of the Apple building in Saville Row, London, on 30th January 1969. Most of the performance was filmed and later included in the film Let It Be.
The Beatles recorded their final album, Abbey Road, in the summer of 1969. The completion of the song I Want You (She's So Heavy) for the album on 20th August 1969 was the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio. Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group on 20th September 1969, but agreed that no announcement was to be publicly made until a number of legal matters were resolved. McCartney publicly announced the break-up on 10th April 1970, a week before releasing his first solo album. The Beatles' partnership was finally dissolved in 1975.