The Beatles

The Beatles were a British pop and rock group from Liverpool. They are widely regarded as the most important pop group of all time, having achieved broad popular success, critical acclaim and cultural influence. The group shattered many sales records and charted more than 50 top 40 hit singles, including 20 #1's in the USA alone.

History

Main article: History of the Beatles

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John Lennon formed a skiffle group, The Quarry Men, in March 1957. On July 6 that year, he met Paul McCartney whilst playing at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete and the two were soon playing music together. In 1958 the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which played under a variety of names.

Related Topics:
Skiffle - The Quarry Men - 1957 - July 6 - 1958

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The first regular gigs for the group were at a club created by Mona Best in the basement of her family's home, a large Victorian House with a large complex of cellars at 8 Haymans Green in the West Derby area of Liverpool. She had noticed the number of young friends visiting her son, Pete, at the house and decided to turn part of the cellar into a private club. A more ambitious plan, a club for young people with live groups developed. It was one of the first cellar clubs in Liverpool to present rock 'n' roll groups exclusively, as opposed to the strict policy of jazz for venues such as the Cavern and the Cat A Coombs. The Casbah Coffee Club opened in August 1959 and the resident group was the Quarry Men - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown, who would soon be cast off.

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The Quarry Men changed their name to The Beatles and in 1960 their manager, Allan Williams, arranged for them to perform in strip clubs on the Reeperbaan in Hamburg, Germany. In August, 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's drummer. In Hamburg (particularly at the infamous "Kaiserkeller" club) they honed their skills as performers and broadened their reputation. Stuart Sutcliffe was part of the group in 1960-61 and influenced their appearance and sense of style.

Related Topics:
Allan Williams - Kaiserkeller - Stuart Sutcliffe

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Upon their return from Hamburg the group was enthusiastically promoted by Sam Leach who presented them over the next year and a half on various stages in Liverpool 49 times, including the famed ?Operation Big Beat in 1961?, at which 3000 people paid to see the Beatles perform along with other bands including Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, Gerry and the Pacemakers and others at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton.

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Brian Epstein, manager of the record department at NEMS, his family's furniture store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and renewed The Beatles quest for a recording contract. Having been rejected by every other record company in England, he secured them a contract with EMI's Parlophone label. Pete Best was fired in favour of the more experienced Ringo Starr. The new line-up recorded their first broadcast interview on the hospital station Radio Clatterbridge. The Beatles' first sessions in September 1962 produced a minor UK hit, "Love Me Do", which likely charted partly because Epstein ordered a large quantity of the singles from EMI for his family's record stores. ("Love Me Do" subsequently reached the top of the US singles chart in May 1964.) This was quickly followed by the recording of their first album, Please Please Me, a mix of original songs by Lennon and McCartney along with some covers. The band's first televised performance was on a programme called People and Places broadcast live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October 1962.

Related Topics:
Brian Epstein - EMI - Parlophone - Radio Clatterbridge - 1962 - Love Me Do - Manchester - Granada Television - 17 October

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Beatlemania began in Britain on 13 October 1963 with a televised appearance at the London Palladium. Although the band was experiencing great popularity in the record charts in England by early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol Records (which was owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles Love Me Do, Please Please Me and From Me To You in the United States, the reason being that no British act had ever made any impact on an American audience.

Related Topics:
13 October - 1963 - London Palladium

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VeeJay Records, a small Chicago label, is said to have been pressured into issuing these singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please Please Me" into rotation in late February 1963, making it the first and last time a Beatles' record was heard on American radio until December 1963 (it lasted a few weeks at the bottom of the charts this first time around). Veejay issued a corresponding album that summer in America, which also went nowhere.

Related Topics:
WLS - Please Please Me

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In August 1963 the Swan label (partly owned by Dick Clark) tried again with the Beatles' "She Loves You", which again failed to receive airplay. A testing of the song on his TV show American Bandstand resulted in laughter and scorn from American teenagers when they saw the group's unusual haircuts. Meanwhile, it is said that British airline stewardesses and others were bringing single copies of Beatles records into major US cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to share with friends. In December 1963, during the weeks immediately following the Kennedy assassination, their music began slowly filling the American airwaves.

Related Topics:
Dick Clark - She Loves You - American Bandstand

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Beatlemania exploded in the United States with three national television appearances by the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February, 16 February and 23 February,1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans and angry denunciations by cultural observers and established performers such as Frank Sinatra, sometimes on grounds of the music (which was thought crude and unmusical) or their appearance (their hair was considered 'scandalously long').

Related Topics:
The Ed Sullivan Show - 9 February - 16 February - 23 February - 1964 - Frank Sinatra

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Some commentators have speculated that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy a depressed America was searching for a way out of gloom and despair. So in effect, the Beatles were in the right place at the right time (with a unique combination of talent and stage presence) to provide an enthusiastic jolt to a saddened nation.

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During the week of April 4, 1964, they held the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat that has never been repeated.

Related Topics:
April 4 - 1964 - Top five places - Billboard Hot 100

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In mid-1964 the band undertook their first world tour, which included Australia and New Zealand. Just before the tour began, Ringo was briefly hospitalised with a severe attack of pharyngitis, so drummer Jimmy Nicol was drafted in for several concerts on the Australian leg. When they arrived in Adelaide, The Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the largest crowd of their touring career, when over 300,000 people --about one-third of the entire population of the city at that time -- turned out to see them.

Related Topics:
Australia - New Zealand - Pharyngitis - Jimmy Nicol - Adelaide

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In 1965 they were instated as Members of the Order of the British Empire, sparking some conservative MBE recipients to return their awards in protest. Lennon and Harrison began experimenting with LSD that year (they were given their first dose unknowingly at a party, when their dentist 'spiked' their drinks) and McCartney followed suit the end of 1966.

Related Topics:
1965 - Members of the Order of the British Empire - LSD - 1966

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In July 1966 Lennon caused a backlash against The Beatles when he claimed during an interview that Christianity was dying, quipping that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." Eventually he apologised at a Chicago press conference, acquiescing to objections by many religious groups including the Holy See as Beatles' records were banned or burned across the American South along with threats from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. He tried to point out that he was commenting on the Beatlemania phenomenon, not trying to literally equate the group to Jesus, saying about his own comment that, "It was wrong, or it was taken wrong."

Related Topics:
1966 - Christianity - Holy See - Ku Klux Klan

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The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans in Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August, 1966. From this time until the group dissolved in early 1970, the Beatles concentrated on making some of the most remarkable recorded pop music of the 20th century. The group's compositions and musical experiments raised their artistic reputations while they retained their tremendous popularity. The Beatles' financial situation took a turn for the worse however, when their manager Brian Epstein died in 1967 and the band's affairs began to unravel. That same year, The Beatles became the first band ever globally broadcast on television but the members were drifting apart. Their final live performance was on the roof at the Apple studios in London in January 1969 during the difficult "Get Back" sessions (later used as a basis for the Let It Be album). Also in 1969, largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded their final album, Abbey Road. The band officially broke up in 1970 and a few months later Let It Be followed as their last commercial album release. Any hopes of a reunion were crushed when Lennon was assassinated in 1980.

Related Topics:
Candlestick Park - San Francisco - 29 August - 1966 - 1970 - Brian Epstein - 1967 - Let It Be - 1969 - Abbey Road - 1980

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However, a virtual reunion occurred in 1995 with the release of two original Lennon recordings which had the additional contributions of the remaining Beatles mixed in to create two hit singles: "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". Three volumes (six CDs in total) of unreleased material and studio out-takes were also released, as well as a documentary and television miniseries, in a project known as The Beatles Anthology.

Related Topics:
1995 - Free as a Bird - Real Love - The Beatles Anthology

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