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History of the Beatles
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The Quarrymen In Hamburg At the Cavern Club Decca audition Beatlemania North American releases "More popular than Jesus" In Bangor In India Break-up The Beatles Anthology Timeline
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The Beatles were an English rock and pop group formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music. During their years of stardom, the group 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.

Returning to Liverpool following periods of Hamburg residency during 1960, 1961 and 1962, the group appointed Brian Epstein manager, and he negotiated a record contract with EMI's George Martin; Epstein would manage the band until his death in 1967, and Martin produced all but one of the group's studio albums. The single "Love Me Do" achieved UK chart success in late 1962. The group attracted fervent interest, termed "Beatlemania", during tours of the UK and Europe throughout the next year. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" found U.S. chart success at the close of 1963, spearheading the group's international popularity, and they toured the U.S. and other countries over the next three years. During this period, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr were each honoured with an MBE. In 1966 the group found themselves mired in controversy, including widespread antipathy in the U.S. after a magazine published a quote from Lennon's remarks on Christianity. They ceased to perform commercial concerts after the 1966 U.S. tour, concentrating instead on studio work and enjoying continued international chart success, which also earned them considerable acclaim as artists. In 1967 the group met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced them to Transcendental Meditation. The same year, Epstein died from an overdose of a prescription drug. The group spent time in India, treating the Maharishi as their guru for a short time, but became disillusioned with him. Increasingly dominated by conflict, and further alienated from one another by a disagreement about the appointment of a new financial adviser, the group disintegrated in 1970. All four members embarked upon successful solo careers. Nearly four decades after the breakup, Beatles music continues to be popular, and September 2009 saw the release of a newly remastered discography as well as the video game The Beatles: Rock Band.

The Beatles sold between 600 million and one billion records internationally. In the United Kingdom they 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. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, they have sold more albums in the United States than any other artist. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number one in its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and four of their albums appeared in the top ten of the magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. 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. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of top-selling Hot 100 artists to celebrate the chart's fiftieth anniversary, with The Beatles at number one. The Beatles were collectively included in Time magazine's list of The Most Important People of the 20th Century

History

Formation and early years (1957–1962)

In March 1957, aged sixteen, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. The fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a guitarist after he and Lennon met that July, and when McCartney in turn invited George Harrison to watch the group the following February, the fourteen-year-old Harrison joined as lead guitarist. The group's drummer, Colin Hanton, left the next year, after which they had difficulty finding a permanent replacement. Stuart Sutcliffe, a fellow student of Lennon's at the Liverpool College of Art and some four months older than him, joined on bass in January 1960, and during the year the band went through a succession of name-changes; Sutcliffe suggested "The Beetles" as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets, and for the first few months of 1960 they were known as "The Beatals". After trying other names, among them "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and The Beetles" and "The Silver Beatles", the band finally became "The Beatles" in August. The lack of a permanent drummer soon posed a problem when the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, booked them to perform as resident band for a period in Hamburg, Germany. Before the end of August the group auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best, and left for Hamburg four days later, contracted to fairground showman Bruno Koschmider for a 48-night residency. "Hamburg in those days did not have rock'n'roll music clubs. It had strip clubs," says biographer Philip Norman;

Bruno had the idea of bringing in rock groups to play in various clubs. They had this formula. It was a huge nonstop show, hour after hour, with a lot of people lurching in and the other lot lurching out. And the bands would play all the time to catch the passing traffic. In an American red-light district, they would call it nonstop striptease. Many of the bands that played in Hamburg were from Liverpool...It was an accident. Bruno went to London to look for bands. But he happened to meet a Liverpool entrepreneur in Soho, who was down in London by pure chance. And he arranged to send some bands over. That's how the connection was established. And eventually the Beatles made a connection not just with Bruno, but with other club owners as well. They kept going back, because they got a lot of alcohol and a lot of sex.

Initially placing them at the Indra Club, Koschmider moved the band to the Kaiserkeller in October after the Indra was closed because of complaints about the noise. When they violated their contract. by performing at the rival Top Ten Club, Koschmider reported the under-age Harrison to the German authorities, leading to his deportation on 21 November. McCartney and Best were arrested for arson a week later when they set fire to a condom hung on a nail in their room; they too were deported. Lennon returned to Liverpool in mid-December. Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg with his new German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr, and the rest of the group played an engagement on 17 December at Liverpool's Casbah Coffee Club, with Chas Newby substituting for Sutcliffe. During 1961 and 1962 the group were engaged for further periods in Hamburg, and at the same time became increasingly popular in Liverpool, making frequent appearances at The Cavern Club, where Epstein first saw them perform. Returning to Hamburg's Top Ten club in April 1961, they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan, also resident at the club, to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label. Bert Kaempfert, acting as producer, contracted the group to Polydor at the first session in June, and the single "My Bonnie", released in October, entered the German charts. When the group returned to Liverpool, Sutcliffe stayed in Hamburg with Kirchherr, so of necessity McCartney switched from guitar to bass. The band signed a five-year contract with Epstein in January 1962. Kaempfert agreed to release them from their Polydor contract, and after Decca Records rejected the band with the comment "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein.", Epstein approached EMI and was eventually put in touch with George Martin who signed the group to EMI's Parlophone label on a one-year renewable contract. News of a tragedy greeted the group on their return to Hamburg in April for a seven-week residency at the Star-Club. Meeting them at the airport, a stricken Kirchherr told them of Sutcliffe's death from a brain haemorrhage.

After the first recordings, Martin complained to Epstein about Best's drumming, and suggested that the band use a session drummer in the studio. Epstein was already exasperated with Best's refusal to adopt the group's unified look onstage, and when the group heard about Martin's feelings they asked Epstein to dismiss Best, which he did, replacing him with Ringo Starr. As drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes Starr had performed occasionally with The Beatles when Best was ill. After joining the band he played during the second EMI recording session, on 4 September 1962. Martin then hired session drummer Andy White for the 11 September session, although White's only released performances were recordings of "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You". "Love Me Do" would reach the top of the U.S. singles chart in May 1964, and in 1962 gave the group their first UK top twenty hit, peaking at number seventeen on the chart. The band recorded their second single, "Please Please Me", in November before making their TV debut the following month with a performance on the regional news programme People and Places, transmitted live from Manchester by Granada Television. As their popularity spread, the frenzied adulation of the group was dubbed "Beatlemania". The last two Hamburg stints, in November and December 1962, involved another 90 hours of performing. All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half, performing live an estimated 1,200 times.

Beatlemania and touring years (1963–1966)

Released in the wake of the moderate UK chart success of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" met with a more emphatic reception, reaching number two in the UK. The follow-up, "From Me to You", began an almost unbroken run of seventeen UK number one singles, including all but one of those released for the next six years. 1963 also saw the band's first two studio albums, and the start of an equally emphatic UK album chart run from 1963 to 1970, during which eleven of the band's total of thirteen studio albums achieved the UK number one position. Originally intending to record Please Please Me (1963) live at The Cavern Club, but finding "the acoustic ambience of an oil tank", Martin elected to create a "live" album in one session at Abbey Road Studios. Ten songs exemplifying the band's current repertoire were recorded, and were accompanied on the album by the four tracks already released on the two singles. Please Please Me stayed at number one for thirty weeks, only to be displaced by With The Beatles (1963) which itself remained at the top of the album chart for twenty-one weeks. Comprising a similar mix of new recordings and singles tracks, but seeing significantly greater use of studio production techniques than its "live" predecessor, With The Beatles was recorded in stages from July to November 1963. In a reversal of what had until then been standard practice, the album was released ahead of the imminent single I Want To Hold Your Hand, with the song excluded from its track listing in order to maximize the single's sales. The band toured the UK four times during 1963. February's four-week tour was followed by three-week tours in March and May and a six-week tour in November. As well as the four tours, the group gave numerous one-off shows across the UK. Performances everywhere were attended with riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans. Police found it necessary to use high-pressure water hoses to control the crowds, and there were debates in Parliament over the thousands of police officers putting themselves at risk to protect the group. Although not billed as tour leaders, The Beatles overshadowed the other acts, including Tommy Roe, Chris Montez and Roy Orbison, U.S. artists who had established great popularity in the UK. The Beatles' iconic "drop-T" logo made its appearance during the year. Based on an impromptu design sketched by Ivor Arbiter, the logo was first used on the front of Starr's bass drum, which Epstein and Starr purchased from Arbiter's London shop.

Beatles releases in the United States were initially delayed for nearly a year when Capitol Records, though owned by EMI, declined to issue either "Please Please Me" or "From Me to You". Negotiations with independent record labels produced some single releases, but there were other obstacles to commercial success including issues with royalties and derision of the Beatle haircut. U.S. chart success came suddenly, after a news broadcast about Beatlemania in the UK triggered great demand, leading Capitol to rush-release "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in December 1963. The band's U.S. debut was already scheduled to take place a few weeks later. On their departure from the UK, an estimated four thousand fans congregated at Heathrow Airport, waving and screaming as the aircraft left the ground. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had sold 2.6 million copies in the U.S. over the previous two weeks, but the group were still nervous about how they would be received. Their arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport was greeted by another large, vociferous crowd, estimated at about three thousand in number. The band gave their first live U.S. television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately seventy-four million viewers—a number representing about half the population at the time. The morning after the show, one newspaper wrote that The Beatles "could not carry a tune across the Atlantic", but their first U.S. concert, staged a day later at Washington Coliseum, Washington, D.C., saw Beatlemania start in the United States too. After performing at Carnegie Hall, New York the following day, the band appeared on the weekly Ed Sullivan Show for the second time, returning to the UK on 22 February 1964. During the week of 4 April 1964, The Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five positions. Their popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and a number of other UK acts subsequently made their own U.S. debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion.

The Beatles toured internationally during June 1964, performing in Denmark, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. In August they returned to the United States, building on February's shows with a thirty-concert tour of twenty-three cities. Before returning to the UK they were introduced to Bob Dylan at the instigation of New York journalist Al Aronowitz. Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which "their respective musical constituencies were indeed perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's core audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with The Beatles' core audience of "veritable 'teenyboppers'—kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialized popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. They were seen as idolaters, not idealists". Within six months of the meeting, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona". Within a year, Dylan would "proceed, with the help of a five-piece group and a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, to shake the monkey of folk authenticity permanently off his back", "the distinction between the folk and rock audiences would have nearly evaporated" and The Beatles' audience would be "showing signs of growing up".

United Artists Records, noticing Capitol's lack of interest in U.S. record releases in 1963, encouraged United Artists' film division to offer The Beatles a motion picture deal in the hope that it would lead to a record deal. The first film, A Hard Day's Night, premiered in London and New York in July and August 1964 and was an international success. Directed by Richard Lester, who "came up with the idea of having the Beatles portray themselves in a mock-documentary about life at the center of their pop phenomenon", the film had the group's involvement for six weeks. Its soundtrack album, A Hard Day's Night (1964), was also released in July. Recording was completed the previous month, although the main tracks around which the film was based were finalized in February during the week after the band's return from the United States. From 1965 until 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. Two Beatles songs were played in each half-hour show, with The Beatles' cartoon counterparts lip-synching the actual Beatles recordings. Some of the song performances, such as those from A Hard Day's Night, appeared to have been rotoscoped. The regular speaking voices of the characters were not supplied by The Beatles themselves but by voice artists Paul Frees and Lance Percival. Beatles for Sale (1964), the fourth studio album, saw the beginnings of what would become a growing conflict between commercialism and creativity: "The weary expressions on the Beatles' faces in the cover photograph betrayed the effort it took to record the album within. Beatles for Sale marked the point where the intense commercial pressures generated by the magnitude of the Beatles' success began to conflict with the group's creative aspirations in a serious way". Recorded over a period of six months from January to June 1964, its eight self-penned numbers complemented by six covers, the album had "a split personality. On almost every level of singing, playing, songwriting, and arrangement, the eight new Lennon-McCartney songs far surpass any collection of album tracks the Beatles had recorded to date. The improvement in the quality of the arranging was particularly noticeable".

Queen Elizabeth II appointed the four Beatles "Members of the Order of the British Empire", MBE, in June 1965. They were nominated by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. The appointment—at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders—sparked controversy and some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia in protest. The first major stadium concert in history marked the start of The Beatles' third U.S. visit: Shea Stadium in New York saw a crowd of 55,600 for the August 1965 performance. A further nine successful concerts followed in other U.S. cities. Towards the end of the tour the group were introduced to Elvis Presley, a fundamental musical influence on the band from their earliest days, who invited them to meet him at his home. At Presley's suggestion, guitars were set up in his living room and the gathering played music for an hour, following which they discussed the music business and exchanged anecdotes.

On-stage amplification in the early 1960s was modest compared to modern day equipment. The Beatles used only small Vox amplifiers which struggled to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans. By 1965 the band, forced to accept that neither they nor their audiences could hear the details of their performance, were experiencing boredom during concerts. While boredom was not a problem during the making of their second film, Help!, both the group and their critics were ultimately left with mixed feelings about what Gould calls "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond", noting that "Audiences in Britain and America found a second cinematic installment of the Beatles' music and drollery to be highly entertaining, and the film matched the commercial success of A Hard Day's Night. Yet this time around, the consensus among the critics was that Help! was a bit of a mess"; in McCartney's words, "Help! was great but it wasn't our film—we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong". The soundtrack and fifth studio album, Help! (1965), again contained a mix of original material and covers, but Lennon's contribution now "marked the furthest extension of his musical domination of the Beatles as a group. Of the seven songs in the film, John was the lead singer and principal songwriter on four of them, including both of the singles, 'Help!' and 'Ticket to Ride'". The sixth album, Rubber Soul (1965), released in early December, was critically hailed as a major leap forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music. According to Gould, however, this view was not shared by the band: "Over the years, many Beatles fans have come to consider this record a culmination of sorts. The Beatles felt no sense of culmination, however; both Lennon and McCartney expressed the feeling that it was 'just another album' to them". In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" ranked Rubber Soul at number five, and the album is today described by Allmusic as "one of the classic folk rock records".

Controversy, studio years and breakup (1966–1970)

There was uproar in June 1966 when shocking cover art adorned Yesterday and Today, Capitol's U.S. compilation of singles and tracks from the UK versions of Help!, Rubber Soul and the upcoming Revolver (1966). The cover portrayed the smiling group dressed in butcher's overalls, with raw meat and mutilated plastic dolls. A popular, though apocryphal, rumour was that this was meant as a response to the way Capitol had "butchered" their albums. Thousands of copies of the album had a new cover pasted over the original. An uncensored copy fetched $10,500 at a December 2005 auction. During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and Today furore, The Beatles 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, Epstein politely declined on behalf of the group, as it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations. The group soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they escaped the country with difficulty. Almost as soon as they arrived back in the UK, they faced a wave of antipathy from U.S. religious and social conservatives over a comment made by Lennon earlier in the year. In a March interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now". When U.S. teenage fan magazine Datebook quoted his comment five months later in August, on the eve of the group's final U.S. tour, a backlash developed in the American South's "Bible belt" and South Africa banned airplay of Beatles records in a prohibition that would last until 1971. Epstein publicly criticised Datebook, saying they had taken Lennon's words out of context, and at a press conference Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it". Lennon said he had only been referring to how other people saw The Beatles, but "if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry".

Released in August 1966, and "woven with motifs of circularity, reversal, and inversion, Revolver was the first record on which the Beatles consciously made the interplay of their individual personalities a theme of the music itself. Every aspect of the new album was designed to signal a break with the past". Its cover—designed by Klaus Voorman, known by the band from their Hamburg days and by now bassist with Manfred Mann—"consisted for the first time of something besides a flattering photograph of the group. Here instead was a stark, arty, black-and-white collage that caricatured the Beatles in a pen-and-ink style beholden to Aubrey Beardsley." Revolver demonstrated a growing repertoire of musical styles, from prominent use of classical strings to psychedelic rock. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time would rank Revolver at number three. During the month that Revolver was released, The Beatles performed their final commercial concert. Staged at Candlestick Park, San Francisco at the close of the 1966 U.S. tour, the performance marked the end of a four-year period dominated by touring and concerts including nearly sixty U.S. appearances and over one thousand four hundred internationally. Moving into the phase of their career that would later be known as their studio years, they began recording in earnest.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was released in June following February's double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" recorded during the same sessions. Nearly seven hundred hours of studio time had been devoted to the album. The elaborate musical complexity of the result, created using only four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists seeking to outdo The Beatles. After hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever", Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson abandoned all attempts to compete with the band. Among critics, "the overwhelming consensus was that the Beatles had created a popular masterpiece":

a rich, sustained, and overflowing work of collaborative genius whose bold ambition and startling originality dramatically enlarged the possibilities and raised the expectations of what the experience of listening to popular music on record could be. On the basis of this perception, Sgt. Pepper became the catalyst for an explosion of mass enthusiasm for album-formatted rock that would revolutionize both the aesthetics and the economics of the record business in ways that far outstripped the earlier pop explosions triggered by the Elvis phenomenon of 1956 and the Beatlemania phenomenon of 1963.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ranked Sgt. Pepper at number one. The month it was released the band performed "All You Need Is Love" to TV viewers worldwide on Our World, the first live global television link. The group suffered a personal tragedy while at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's August Transcendental Meditation retreat in Bangor, when Epstein's assistant Peter Brown called to tell them that Epstein had died. The coroner ruled Epstein's death an accidental overdose, but the press speculated it was a suicide at least in part because of a rumour that a suicide note was discovered among Epstein's possessions. Lennon said that Epstein's death marked the beginning of the end for the group: "I knew that we were in trouble then ... I thought, We've fuckin' had it now." Epstein had been in a fragile emotional state due to issues surrounding his personal life, and stress related to his business relationship with The Beatles, as his management contract with them was due to expire in the fall of 1967. He worried that The Beatles might not renew his contract based on their discontent with his handling of business matters, including Seltaeb, the company that handled Beatles merchandising rights in the United States. Epstein's death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future. Lennon said later, "I didn't have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music and I was scared."

The Beatles received their first major negative press in the UK in the beginning of 1968 when there were disparaging reviews of the Magical Mystery Tour film. It fared so dismally that it was withheld from the U.S. at the time, although its soundtrack album, Magical Mystery Tour (1967), set a new U.S. record in its first three weeks for highest initial sales of any Capitol album. Combining songs from the film with the band's recent singles, Magical Mystery Tour had made an earlier and partial UK appearance in the form of a six-track extended play disk (EP) because the band wanted it to be received as a film soundtrack rather than "the next Beatles album after Sgt. Pepper". Allmusic says of the U.S. Magical Mystery Tour, now adopted in the worldwide discography, "The psychedelic sound is very much in the vein of Sgt. Pepper, and even spacier in parts (especially the sound collages of 'I Am the Walrus')", calling the band's five 1967 singles present on the album "huge, glorious, and innovative". A cartoon version of the band appeared in the animated film Yellow Submarine, released in 1968 with little involvement from the group beyond a cameo in the closing scene. It was well received for its innovative visual style and humour in addition to its music. However, its soundtrack album, Yellow Submarine (1969), is described by Allmusic as "The only Beatles album that could really be classified as inessential, mostly because it wasn't really a proper album at all, but a soundtrack that only utilized four new Beatles songs", nevertheless identifying "It's All Too Much" as "the jewel of the new songs resplendent in swirling Mellotron, larger-than-life percussion, and tidal waves of feedback guitar a virtuoso excursion into otherwise hazy psychedelia", making the track "a good enough reason for owning the record".

Creative inspiration for The Beatles (1968), popularly known as The White Album, came from an unexpected quarter when, having relied on Epstein's guiding presence since the start of their success, the group turned to the Maharishi as their guru. At his ashram in Rishikesh, India, a three-month "Guide Course" became one of their most creative periods, yielding a large number of songs including most of the thirty recorded for The Beatles. Starr left after ten days, likening it to Butlins, and McCartney eventually grew bored with the procedure and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to questioning when Yanni Alexis Mardas, the electronics technician dubbed Magic Alex, expressed the view that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate the group. After Mardas alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, Lennon was persuaded and left abruptly, taking the unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In his anger Lennon wrote a song called "Maharishi" to make his opinion known, but later modified it to avoid a legal suit, resulting in "Sexy Sadie". McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was." During recording sessions for the album, divisions and dissent started to drive the group apart, and Starr quit the band for a period, leaving McCartney to perform drums on several tracks. The Beatles became the first Apple Records album release from Apple Corps, newly formed by the group on their return from India to create a tax-effective company structure as Epstein had been planning to do. The album attracted more than two million advance orders, selling nearly four million copies in the U.S. in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of U.S. radio stations. Despite its popularity and commercial success, it did not receive flattering reviews at the time:

The critical response ranged from mixed to flat. In marked contrast to Sgt. Pepper, which had helped to establish an entire genre of literate rock criticism, the White Album inspired no critical writing of any note. Even the most sympathetic reviewers clearly didn't know what to make of this shapeless outpouring of songs. Newsweek's Hubert Saal, citing the high proportion of parodies, accused the group of getting their tongues caught in their cheeks.

Allmusic calls it a "sprawling" album on which each song "is an entity to itself This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view Clearly, the Beatles' two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were George and Ringo"; yet "Lennon turns in two of his best ballads", McCartney's songs are "stunning", Harrison is seen to have become "a songwriter who deserved wider exposure" and Starr's composition is "a delight".

To document the making of Let It Be (1970), originally to have been titled Get Back, the band began their last film project in January 1969. During the sessions they gave their final live performance on the rooftop of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969. Much of the performance was captured for the film Let It Be. The project was put aside, later to be mixed and orchestrated by the American producer Phil Spector, who had produced Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!". Conflict arose within the band regarding the appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon favoured Allen Klein, who had negotiated contracts for several UK bands including The Rolling Stones during the British Invasion, but McCartney's choice was John Eastman. Agreement could not be reached, so both were appointed, but further conflict ensued and financial opportunities were lost.

Abbey Road (1969), though released before Let It Be, was recorded after it in sessions between February and August 1969. The completion of the track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20 August was the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio. Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group on 20 September, but agreed that no public announcement would be made until a number of legal matters were resolved. Reviews of Abbey Road were "mixed—more so than those of any preceding Beatles album" but "the medley on the second side was widely praised" and sales were "nothing short of spectacular". Allmusic considers the "tightly constructed" album" a fitting swan song for the group, echoing some of the faux-conceptual forms of Sgt. Pepper, but featuring stronger compositions and more rock-oriented ensemble work" as well as "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record (especially on 'Because') and "furious guitar-heavy rock".

The final new song was Harrison's "I Me Mine", recorded 3 January 1970 and released on Let It Be. It was recorded without Lennon, who was in Denmark at the time. To complete the Let It Be album, Klein gave the Get Back session tapes to Spector in March 1970, resulting in a Wall of Sound production that went against McCartney's original intent. McCartney was deeply dissatisfied with Spector's addition of fifty musicians to "The Long and Winding Road", and attempted to halt the release of Spector's version, but was unable to do so. He gave this as one of the three reasons he left the group. McCartney publicly announced his departure on 10 April 1970, a week before releasing his first solo album, McCartney. Pre-release copies of McCartney's album included a press release with a self-written interview, explaining the end of his involvement with The Beatles and his hopes for the future. On 8 May 1970, the Spector-produced Let It Be was released. The documentary film of the same name, which would go on to win the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, followed on 20 May.. McCartney filed a suit for the dissolution of The Beatles on 31 December 1970. Legal disputes continued long after the band's breakup, and the dissolution of the partnership finally took effect in 1975.

Post-breakup (1970–present)

1970s

Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970, and further albums followed from each—sometimes with the involvement of one or more of the others—as their individual careers developed. Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only album to include compositions and performances by all four, albeit on separate songs. With Starr's collaboration, but not that of Lennon or McCartney, Harrison staged the Concert For Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971 with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. 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 1975 expiration 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 up-tempo numbers) The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (containing previously unreleased portions of two shows at the Hollywood Bowl during their 1964 and 1965 U.S. tours), 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). There was also a non-Capitol-EMI release entitled Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962, a compilation of recordings made during the group's Hamburg residency, taped on a basic recording machine with one microphone. Of all these post-breakup LPs, only the Hollywood Bowl LP had the approval of the group members. Upon the American release of the original British CDs in 1986, Capitol deleted the post-breakup American compilation LPs from its catalogue.

1980s

Lennon was shot and killed on 8 December 1980, in New York City. In a personal tribute Harrison wrote new lyrics for "All Those Years Ago", a song about his time with The Beatles recorded the month before Lennon's death. With McCartney and his wife Linda contributing backing vocals, and Starr on drums, the song was overdubbed with the new lyrics before being released as a single in May 1981. McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War album in April 1982. The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the ceremony along with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and Sean. McCartney declined to attend, issuing a press release saying, "After 20 years, the Beatles still have some business differences which I had hoped would have been settled by now. Unfortunately, they haven't been, so I would feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion." The following year, EMI-Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit by The Beatles concerning royalties, clearing the way to commercially package previously unreleased material and thereby leading to the Live at the BBC album and the Anthology project.

1990s

In 1994 McCartney, Harrison and Starr reunited for the Anthology project, the culmination of a work begun in the late 1960s by Neil Aspinall. Initially The Beatles' road manager, and then their personal assistant, Aspinall began to gather material for a documentary after he became director of Apple Corps in 1968. The Long and Winding Road, as Aspinall provisionally titled his Beatles history, was shelved, but as executive producer for the Anthology project Aspinall was able to complete his work. Documenting the history of The Beatles in the band's own words, the project saw the issue of previously unreleased Beatles recordings, and McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to two demo songs recorded by Lennon in the late 1970s. During 1995 and 1996 the project yielded a five-part television series, an eight-volume video set, three two-CD box sets and two singles. The CD box sets featured artwork by Klaus Voorman, known by The Beatles since their Hamburg days and creator of the Revolver album cover in 1966. The releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400 million people worldwide.

2000s

1, a compilation album of virtually every Beatles number one British and American hit, was released on 13 November 2000. Its reception surpassed all critical and commercial expectations. It broke a considerable number of sales and chart records. It sold 3.6 million units in its first week and more than 12 million in three weeks worldwide, reaching number one in over 35 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. It became the fastest-selling album of all time and the highest-selling of 2000 and of the decade so far.

Harrison died from lung cancer on 29 November 2001.

Between 2004 and 2006, Martin and his son Giles Martin remixed 130 original Beatles recordings to create "a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period" as a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's theatrical production Love. The soundtrack was released as the album Love in 2006. McCartney and Starr gave their thoughts on the show in a 2007 interview on Larry King Live. and Beatle widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison appeared with McCartney and Starr in Las Vegas for the one-year anniversary of Love. Also in 2007, reports circulated that McCartney was hoping to complete "Now and Then", a third Lennon track worked on during the Anthology sessions, which 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 Starr's first performance with the group in 1962. The dispute between Apple Corps Ltd. and Fuego Entertainment Inc. of Miami Lakes stemmed from recordings apparently made during a performance at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany. In November 2008, McCartney revealed the existence of a 14-minute experimental recording The Beatles made at Abbey Road Studios in 1967 called "Carnival of Light", saying he would like to see it released but it would require approval from Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. McCartney headlined a charity concert on 4 April 2009 at Radio City Music Hall for the David Lynch Foundation with special guest performers including Starr. Harrison's Hollywood Walk of Fame star dedication in Los Angeles on 14 April 2009 saw Harrison's widow, Olivia, and his son, Dhani, joined by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Eric Idle, Jim Keltner, McCartney, and Joe Walsh. The Beatles: Rock Band, a video game in the style of Rock Band and based solely on The Beatles, was released on 9 September 2009. On the same day, remastered CDs of the twelve original albums (from Please Please Me to Abbey Road) plus Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters were issued. Stereo versions were made available both individually and as a box set, while a second collection contained all mono titles along with the original stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul.

Musical style

Influences

In the band's earliest days as the skiffle group The Quarrymen, among the rock and roll songs they began to incorporate into their act were those of Elvis Presley and Little Richard, while from 1957 until their last commercial concert in 1966, the group performed more covers by Chuck Berry than by any other artist. During their co-residency with Little Richard at the Star Club in Hamburg from April to May 1962, friendships were formed and the singer gave advice regarding techniques for performing his songs. Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been The Beatles": Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison. The Beatles continued to absorb influences long after their initial success, often finding new musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their contemporaries, including Bob Dylan. Frank Zappa (Freak Out!)., the Byrds. and the Beach Boys, whose album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney. Martin stated that "Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened... Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds".

Musical evolution

In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever, Schinder and Schwartz sum up The Beatles' musical evolution in these words:

In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionized the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work.

Genres

Originating as a skiffle group, the band evolved to embrace 1950s rock and roll. As rock and roll faded and Tin Pan Alley's influence resurfaced in the 1960s, the band's repertoire expanded to include pop. Demonstrating other styles explored by the group, Lennon said of the 1964 album Beatles for Sale, "You could call our new one a Beatles country-and-western LP", while Allmusic cite The Beatles as a major influence on The Byrds and the folk rock movement, calling the 1965 Rubber Soul "one of the classic folk-rock records". Beginning with the use of a string quartet in the 1965 romantic ballad "Yesterday", they started to incorporate elements of classical music into their songs. As Gould points out, however,

It was obviously not the first romantic ballad the Beatles ever recorded; McCartney had made a subspecialty of this genre from "A Taste of Honey" on. Neither was "Yesterday" even remotely the first pop record to make prominent use of strings—although it was the first Beatles recording to do so. There were violins in popular music long before there were electric guitars, and "sweetened", string-heavy pop arrangements had become a musical status symbol in the decade before the Beatles Finally, for all its musical integrity and tunefulness (the musicologist Wilfred Mellers characterized the song as a "small miracle"), "Yesterday" did not represent some sort of a compositional quantum leap on the part of the Beatles; it was rather that the more traditional sound of strings allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as composers by listeners who were otherwise allergic to the din of drums and electric guitars.

Nor can Beatles songs featuring strings be grouped into a single musical genre. Gould says that "The significant musical difference between 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'She's Leaving Home' involves the fact that whereas the earlier track was a true hybrid, conforming to no recognizable style or genre of song, 'She's Leaving Home' is cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad, its words and music filled with the clichés of musical melodrama". The band's stylistic range began to include psychedelic rock in 1966 with "Rain", described by Martin Strong in The Great Rock Discography as "the first overtly psychedelic Beatles record". and later followed by "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus". The influence of Indian classical music was also evident in the band's raga rock numbers such as "Love You To" (1966) and "Within You Without You" (1967), the intent of which was, according to Gould, "to replicate the raga form in miniature". As the relationship of the band waned, their individual influences became more apparent. The minimalistic cover artwork for the 1968 The Beatles contrasted with the complexity and diversity of the album's music, ranging from Lennon's musique concrète composition "Revolution 9" from the influence of his wife Yoko Ono, to the "roaring proto-metal" of McCartney's "Helter Skelter".

Contribution of George Martin

George Martin's close involvement with The Beatles in his role as producer earned him the moniker "the fifth Beatle". He realized the significance of the band's sessions in the recording studio in between other demands on their time, later saying, "Coming into the studio was a refuge for them. It was the time and place when nobody could get at them. The strange hours for their sessions were really necessary because of the frenetic life they were forced into. Recording was important but it had to be squeezed in between everything else". As he worked with the band, Martin brought his classical musical training to bear. They were initially unenthusiastic when he suggested adding a string quartet accompaniment to "Yesterday", but the result was a revelation to them. Martin began to use the sessions to act as their music teacher and this, coupled with his willingness to experiment with suggestions they started to make such as adding "something baroque", enabled their creativity to develop in new directions.

In the studio

The Beatles took innovative approaches to the use of technology, treating the studio as an instrument in itself and working closely with recording engineers, urging experimentation and regularly demanding, "Just try it it might just sound good." At the same time they constantly sought ways to put chance occurrences to creative use, examples being accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle or a tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards, and incorporated the resulting sounds into their music. The Beatles' desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers such as Norman Smith, Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all played significant parts in the innovative sounds of the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Along with studio tricks such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops, double tracking and vari-speed recording, The Beatles began to augment their recordings with instruments that were unconventional for rock music at the time. 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".

Legacy

Influence on popular culture

The Beatles' influence on popular culture was—and remains—immense. Former Rolling Stone associate editor Robert Greenfield said, "People are still looking at Picasso. People are still looking at artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original. In the form that they worked in, in the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive than The Beatles were." From the 1920s, the United States had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout the world, with the show business and superstars of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood and the music of Memphis, Tennessee. Known as the "Birthplace of the Blues", the city of Memphis had led a musical evolution from blues in the 1920s, through rock and roll in the 1950s to, in the early 1960s, soul. British bands in the 1960s, among them The Beatles, aspired to emulate the sounds of Memphis musicians including Elvis Presley—without whom, according to Lennon, "there would not have been the Beatles". But The Beatles, triggering the British Invasion, became a major new influence in the United States and internationally, establishing the popularity of British bands and inspiring the music of other bands worldwide — including those subsequently formed in Memphis. The Beatles redefined the album as something more than just a small number of hits padded out with "filler" tracks, and they were the originators in the United Kingdom of the now common practice of releasing video clips to accompany singles. They became the first entertainment act to stage a large stadium concert when they opened their 1965 North American tour at Shea Stadium. A large number of artists have acknowledged The Beatles as a musical influence or have had chart successes with covers of Beatles songs. The band also affected attitudes to fashion worldwide when in the 1960s there was widespread imitation of their haircuts and clothing. The arrival of The Beatles is seen in radio as a touchstone in music signalling an end to the rock-and-roll era of the 1950s. 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

During their periods of Hamburg residency between 1960 and 1962, The Beatles used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. Bob Dylan introduced them to cannabis during a 1964 visit to New York. In April 1965, Lennon and Harrison's dentist spiked their coffee with LSD while they were his guests for dinner. The two later experimented with the drug voluntarily, joined by Starr on one occasion. McCartney was reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in 1966, and was the first Beatle to talk about it in the press, saying in June 1967 that he had taken it four times. Later in 1967, all four Beatles and Epstein added their names to a petition published as a full-page advertisement in The Times calling for the legalisation of cannabis, the release of all imprisoned because of possession, and research into the drug's medical uses. The published petition had been signed by sixty-five people including "one Nobel laureate, two Members of Parliament, a dozen prominent physicians and clergymen, numerous writers and artists, and the four celebrated MBEs who, along with their manager, Epstein, had put up the money for the ad".

Discography

Song catalogue

In 1963 Lennon and McCartney agreed to assign their song publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by music publisher Dick James. Administered by James' company Dick James Music, Northern Songs went public in 1965 with Lennon and McCartney each holding 15% of the company's shares and James and the company's chairman, Charles Silver, holding a controlling 37.5%. After a failed attempt by Lennon and McCartney to buy the company, James and Silver sold Northern Songs in 1969 to British TV company Associated TeleVision (ATV), from which Lennon and McCartney received stock. Briefly owned by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court, ATV Music was sold in 1985 to Michael Jackson for a reported $47 million (trumping a joint bid by McCartney and Yoko Ono), including the publishing rights to over 200 songs composed by Lennon and McCartney. Jackson and Sony merged their music publishing businesses in 1995, becoming joint owners of most of the Lennon-McCartney songs recorded by The Beatles, although Lennon's estate and McCartney still receive their respective shares of the royalties. Despite his ownership of most of the Lennon-McCartney publishing, Jackson only recorded one Lennon-McCartney composition, "Come Together", which was featured in his film Moonwalker (1988) and album HIStory (1995). Although the Jackson-Sony catalogue includes most of The Beatles' greatest hits, four of their earliest songs were published by one of EMI's publishing companies Ardmore and Beechwood before Lennon and McCartney signed with James, and McCartney succeeded in personally acquiring the publishing rights to "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "P.S. I Love You", and "Ask Me Why". Harrison and Starr allowed their songwriting contracts with Northern Songs to lapse in 1968, signing with Apple Publishing instead. Harrison created Harrisongs, which still owns the rights to his post-1967 songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something", while Starr's Startling Music holds the rights to his own post-1967 songs recorded by The Beatles, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".

Studio albums

• Please Please Me (Parlophone, 1963)
• With The Beatles (Parlophone, 1963)
• A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone, 1964)
• Beatles for Sale (Parlophone, 1964)
• Help! (Parlophone, 1965)
• Rubber Soul (Parlophone, 1965)
• Revolver (Parlophone, 1966)
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Parlophone, 1967)
• Magical Mystery Tour (U.S./Canada only. Released as a Double EP in the UK) (Capitol, 1967)
• The Beatles ("The White Album") (Apple, 1968)
• Yellow Submarine (Apple, 1969)
• Abbey Road (Apple, 1969)
• Let It Be (Apple, 1970)

US charting singles

CD releases

In 1987, EMI released all of The Beatles' studio albums on CD worldwide, and Apple Corps decided to standardise The Beatles catalogue throughout the world, choosing to release the twelve original studio albums as released in the United Kingdom, as well as the Magical Mystery Tour U.S. album, which had been released as a shorter Double EP in the UK. All the remaining Beatles material from the singles and EPs from 1962–1970 which had not been issued on the original British studio albums were gathered on the Past Masters double album compilation:

• Past Masters, Volume One (1988)
• Past Masters, Volume Two (1988)

The U.S. album configurations from 1964-65 were released as box sets in 2004 and 2006 (The Capitol Albums Volume 1 and Volume 2 respectively); these included both stereo and mono versions based on the mixes that were prepared for vinyl at the time of their original 1960s releases in the United States.

2009 CD remasters

On 9 September 2009, The Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four years. Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with Magical Mystery Tour and a combined two-CD set of Past Masters, were released on compact disc both individually and as a box set. A second collection included all mono tracks. In Mojo magazine's review, Danny Eccleston writes, "Ever since The Beatles first emerged on CD in 1987, there have been complaints about the sound", saying that the original vinyl has had significant advantages over the CDs in clarity and dynamism. "Compare Paperback Writer/Rain on crackly 45, with its weedy Past Masters CD version, and the case is closed." Prior to the release of the 2009 remasters, Abbey Road Studios had invited Mojo reviewers to hear a sample of the four-year work's achievement, telling the magazine, "You're in for a shock." In his release-day review of the full product, Eccleston reported that "brilliantly, that's still how it feels a month later". For a limited time after the release date, a brief documentary was included on each CD album.

Digital music licensing

The Beatles are one of the few major artists whose recorded catalogue is not available through online music services such as iTunes and Napster. Apple Corps' dispute with Apple, Inc. (the owners of iTunes) over the use of the name "Apple" has played a particular part in this, although in November 2008 McCartney said the main obstacle was that EMI, in their negotiations with Apple Corps, "want something we're not prepared to give them". In March 2009 The Guardian reported that "the prospect of an independent, Beatles-specific digital music store" has been raised by Dhani Harrison, quoted by the newspaper as recently saying, "We're losing money every day. So what do you do? You have to have your own delivery system, or you have to do a good deal with Steve Jobs. says that a download is worth 99 cents, and we disagree." The Beatles' own website has also reported ongoing discussions regarding digital distribution of the catalogue.

See also

This The Beatles timeline is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this The Beatles timeline, if appropriate. Editing help is available.

Template:The Beatles portal

• The Beatles' line-ups
• Lennon/McCartney
• The Beatles' instrumentation
• List of best-selling music artists
• List of artists who have covered the Beatles
• Lists of solo albums by The Beatles
• Abbey Road on the River – largest Beatles festival in the United States
• The Beatles: Rock Band – video game

Notes

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2. ^ Gross, Doug (4 September 2009). "Still relevant after decades, the Beatles set to rock 9/9/09". CNN. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
3. "MTV Games and Harmonix Unveil Next 15 Songs Featured in The Beatles(TM): Rock Band(TM)" (Press release). Reuters. 21 July 2009..
4. "History 1960-1969". EMI Group Ltd. 2005. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
5. "The American Recording Industry Announces its Artists of the Century" (Press release). Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). 10 November 1999. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
6. "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. 24 March 2004. Retrieved 8 July 2008.
7. "The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists (20-01)". 11 September 2008. Retrieved 13 September 2008.
8. Loder, Kurt (8 June 1998). "The Time 100". Time.com. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
9. Unterberger, Richard. "The Beatles Overview". Macrovision Corp. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
10. Spitz (2005) p93.
11. O'Brien (2001) p.12.
12. Miles (1997) p.47.
13. Coleman (1984) p.212.
14. Harry (2000) p.103.
15. Harry (2000) p.104.
16. Lewisohn (1992) p.215.
17. Harry (2000) pp.146-7
18. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). Outliers. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 47–49. ISBN 9780316017923.
19. Harry (2000) p475.
20. Lennon (2006) p93.
21. Lewisohn (1992) p24.
22. Spitz (2005) pp4–5.
23. Coleman (1984) p720.
24. ^ Miles (1997) p88.
25. Lennon (2006) p97.
26. Lewisohn (1996) p42.
27. Spitz (2005) p250.
28. Lewisohn (1992) p25.
29. Miles (1997) p74 (Kirchherr took the first professional photos of the group, and cut Sutcliffe's hair in the German style of the time).
30. The Beatles (2000) p68.
31. Miles (1997) p90.
32. Lewisohn (1996) p69.
33. Lennon (2006) p.109.
34. Spitz (2005) p318.
35. Spitz (2005) p322.
36. Spitz (2005) p330.
37. Spitz (2005) p328.
38. Spitz (2005) p353.
39. Fontenot, Robert. "Love Me Do: The history of this classic Beatles song". About.com: Oldies Music. Retrieved 29 January 2007.
40. Harry (2000) p854.
41. ^ Gould (2008) p. 147
42. ^ Gould (2008) p. 187
43. Pawlowski (1990) pp.117-185.
44. Pawlowski (1990) p.153.
45. Pawlowski (1990) pp.125-32.
46. Thompson, Gordon (2008). Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out. OUP USA. p. 270. ISBN 978-0195333183.
47. Harry (2000) p225.
48. Harry (2000) p.1119
49. Spitz (2005) p461.
50. Fontenot, Robert. "I Want To Hold Your Hand: The history of this classic Beatles song". About.com Oldies Music. Retrieved 29 January 2007.
51. Spitz (2005) p457.
52. Spitz (2005) pp457–459.
53. Spitz (2005) p459.
54. Gould (2008) p. 3
55. Spitz (2005) p473.
56. Harry (2000) pp.1134–1135.
57. Gould (2008) pp5-6.
58. DiMartino, Dave. "Hitsville USA". Paul Trynka (ed.), ed. (2004). The Beatles: 10 Years That Shook the World. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-4053-0691-1. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |editor= has generic name (help) Originally printed in Mojo magazine.
59. Gould (2008) pp. 9,250,285
60. Harry (2000) p.1090.
61. Gould (2008) p249.
62. Gould (2008) pp252-3.
63. Harry (2000) pp483-4.
64. Harry (2000) pp489-90.
65. Gould (2008) p. 231
66. Gould (2008) p. 234
67. McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television. London: Penguin Books. p. 82. ISBN 0140157360.
68. Gould (2008) pp. 255-6
69. Gould (2008) p. 256
70. Spitz (2005), p.556.
71. Spitz (2005) p557.
72. Badman, Keith. The Beatles Off The Record. London: Omnibus Press, p.193. ISBN 978-0-7119-7985-7 .
73. Guralnick (1999) p211.
74. Harry (2000) pp882-3.
75. Harry (2000) p.1093.
76. Gould (2008) p. 274-6
77. Gould (2008) pp. 276-7
78. Unterberger, Richie. "Allmusic Rubber Soul review". allmusic.com. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
79. Gould (2008) p. 296
80. ^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. New York. 18 November 2003. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
81. ^ Unterberger, Richie. "allmusic ((( The Beatles > Biography )))". Allmusicguide.com. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
82. Harry (2000) p.1187
83. Gaffney, Dennis. "The Beatles' "Butcher" Cover". Retrieved 14 September 2007.
84. Spitz (2005) p619.
85. Spitz (2005) p620.
86. Spitz (2005) p623.
87. Cleave, Maureen (5 October 2005). "The John Lennon I Knew". The Daily Telegraph. London.
88. Cleave, Maureen (4 March 1966). "How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This"". Evening Standard. London.
89. Gould (2008) pp306-9.
90. Blecha, Peter (2004). Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 181. ISBN 9780879307929.
91. "Beatles Browser Three". Mersey Beat Ltd. p. 3. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
92. ^ Gould (2008) p346.
93. ^ Gould (2008) p348.
94. Miles (1997) pp293–295.
95. Gould (2008) pp5-6,249,281,347.
96. Harry (2000) p970.
97. Gaines, Steven (1986). Heroes and Villains. New American Library. p. 177. ISBN 978-0453005197.
98. Gould (2008) p. 418
99. Miles (1997) p54.
100. Spitz (2005) pp713–719.
101. ^ Brown (2002) p249.
102. The Beatles (2000) p268.
103. Brown (2002) p227.
104. ^ Gould (2008) p437.
105. "Magical Mystery Tour". Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
106. Harry (2000) p699.
107. Gould (2008) p. 452
108. Unterberger, Richie. "Magical Mystery Tour". Allmusicguide.com. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
109. Unterberger, Richie. "Magical Mystery Tour". Allmusicguide.com. Retrieved 26 September 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
110. ^ Harry (2000) pp.705-706.
111. Harry (2000) pp. 108-9
112. ^ Gould (2008) pp. 463–8
113. Lewisohn(1988) p.151.
114. Gould (2008) p470.
115. ^ Gould (2008) p. 528
116. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Beatles [White Album]". Allmusicguide.com. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
117. ^ Harry (2000) p612.
118. Gould (2008) p. 593
119. Unterberger, Richie. "Abbey Road". Allmusicguide.com. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
120. Mark Lewisohn. The Beatles Box Set booklet.
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124. Harry (2002) p.139
125. Harry (2002) p. 150
126. Sandford (2006) pp227–229.
127. Harry (2000) p. 124
128. Ingham (2006) p71.
129. Badman, Keith (1999). The Beatles After the Breakup 1970-2000: A day-by-day diary. London: Omnibus Press. p. 284. ISBN 0-7119-7520-5.
130. "Inductee List". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 29 January 2007.
131. Harry (2002) p. 753
132. Harry (2002) p. 192
133. ^ Harry (2000) pp.111-112.
134. Harry (2000) pp428-429.
135. ^ "Beatles '1' is fastest selling album ever". CNN. 6 December 2000. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
136. Harry (2003) p. 119
137. "Beatles to release new album". NME. London. 2 October 2006. Retrieved 3 October 2006.
138. "Larry King Live: The Beatles (Aired 26 June 2007 - 21:00 ET)". CNN. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
139. Goodman, Chris (29 April 2007). "Beatles Back To Where They Once Belonged". Daily Express. London. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
140. "Apple Corps Limited et al v. Fuego Entertainment, Inc. et al.: Justia News". Justia. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
141. Collett-White, Mike (17 November 2008). "McCartney hints at mythical Beatles track release". Reuters. London. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
142. "Concert Review: Change Begins Within at Radio City Music Hall". The Hollywood Reporter. 5 April 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
143. "George Harrison receives Walk of Fame star". MSNBC. Associated Press. 19 April 2009.
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References

• The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-2684-6.
• Brown, Peter; Gaines, Steven (2002). The Love You Make: An insider's story of The Beatles. New York: New American Library. ISBN 978-0-451-20735-7.
• Coleman, Ray (1989). Brian Epstein: The Man Who Made the Beatles. London: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-81474-9.
• Coleman, Ray (1992). Lennon: The Definitive Biography. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-098608-7.
• Emerick, Geoff; Massey, Howard (2006). Here, There and Everywhere: My life recording the music of The Beatles. New York: Gotham. ISBN 978-1-59240-179-6.
• Guest, Lynton (2006). The Trials of Michael Jackson. Glamorgan, Wales: Aureus. ISBN 978-1-899750-40-5.
• Godley, Kevin (director) (1995). The Beatles Anthology (DVD). Apple Records.
• Gould, Jonathan (2008). Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America. London: Piatkus. ISBN 978-0-7499-2988-6.
• Harry, Bill (2000). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated. London: Virgin Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7535-0481-9.
• Harry, Bill (2003). The George Harrison Encyclopedia. Virgin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-7535-0822-2.
• Harry, Bill (2002). The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0716-1.
• Ingham, Chris (2006). The Rough Guide to The Beatles. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-720-5.
• Jovanovic, Rob (2004). Big Star: The Story of Rock's Forgotten Band. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-714908-7.
• Lennon, Cynthia (2006). John. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-92091-6.
• Lewisohn, Mark (2004). The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The official story of the Abbey Road years 1962-1970. London: EMI Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0-681-03189-0.
• Lewisohn, Mark (1996). The Complete Beatles Chronicle. London: Bounty Books. ISBN 978-1-85152-975-9.
• MacDonald, Ian (1998). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' records and the sixties. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-6697-8.
• Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years from Now. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-7493-8658-0.
• O'Brien, Ray (2001). The Beatles early venues in and around Merseyside. There are places I'll remember. Vol. 1. Wallasey, Merseyside: Ray O'Brien. ISBN 978-0-9544473-0-4.
• Pawlowski, Gareth L. (1990). How They Became The Beatles: A definitive history of the early years, 1960-1964. London: McDonald. ISBN 978-0-356-19052-5.
• Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
• Sandford, Christopher (2006). McCartney. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0786716142.
• Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles: The Biography. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-80352-6.

Further reading

• Astley, John (2006). Why Don't We Do It In The Road? The Beatles Phenomenon. The Company of Writers. ISBN 0-9551834-7-2.
• Bramwell, Tony; Kingsland, Rosemary (2006). Magical mystery tours: my life with the Beatles. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-33044-6.
• Braun, Michael (1964). Love Me Do: The Beatles' Progress (1995 Reprint ed.). London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-002278-3.
• Carr, Roy; Tyler, Tony (1975). The Beatles: An illustrated record. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-52045-1.
• Cross, Craig (2005). The Beatles: day-by-day, song-by-song, record-by-record. New York: iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-34663-4.
• Dimery, Martin (2002). Being John Lennon: Days in the life of Sgt. Pepper's Only Dart Board Band. London: PopTomes. ISBN 0-946719-43-8.
• Harry, Bill (1985). The Book Of Beatle Lists. Poole, Dorset: Javelin. ISBN 0-7137-1521-9.
• Kirchherr, Astrid (1999). Hamburg Days. Guildford, Surrey: Genesis Publications. ISBN 978-0-904351-73-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Chronicles The Beatles early years spent performing at Hamburg's Kaiserkeller, Top Ten Club, and the Star Club, 1960-1962. With Foreword by George Harrison and Afterword by Paul McCartney.
• Mansfield, Ken (2007). The White Book. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-59555-101-6.
• Martin, George; Pearson, William (1994). Summer of love: The making of Sgt. Pepper. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-60398-2.
• Norman, Philip (1997). Shout!: The Beatles in their generation. New York: MJF Books. ISBN 1-56731-087-7.
• Porter, Alan J (2003). Before They Were Beatles: The Early Years 1956–1960. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris. ISBN 1-4134-3056-2.
• Ryan, Kevin; Kehew, Brian (2006). Recording The Beatles. Houston: Curvebender Publishing. ISBN 0-9785200-0-9.
• Schaffner, Nicholas (1977). The Beatles Forever. Harrisburg, PA: Cameron House. ISBN 0-8117-0225-1.
• Trynka, Paul (2004). The Beatles: 10 Years That Shook The World. London: Dorling Kindersley/Mojo. ISBN 0-7566-0670-5.
• Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0-06-084409-4. Discusses the inspiration for or interprets every Beatles song.

External links

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• Official website

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• Articles with dead external links from October 2008
• The Beatles
• 1960s music groups
• 1950s music groups
• English musical groups
• Apple Corps
• Apple Records artists
• Beat groups
• BRIT Award winners
• Capitol Records artists
• English rock music groups
• George Harrison
• Grammy Award winners
• Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
• John Lennon
• Music from Liverpool
• Musical groups established in 1960
• Musical groups disestablished in 1970
• Parlophone artists
• Paul McCartney
• Musical quartets
• Ringo Starr
• People associated with the hippie movement
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
• MTV Video Vanguard Award winners
• Vee-Jay Records artists