The Beatles

The Beatles were a quartet of musicians from Liverpool - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They sang songs written mainly by Lennon and McCartney. Their infectious music and witty lyrics made them two of the finest 20th-century songwriters.

FORMATION 

The three guitarists in the group--John Lennon (October 9, 1940-December 8, 1980), Paul McCartney (born June 18, 1942), and George Harrison (born February 25, 1943)--first played together as schoolboys with the Quarrymen. They had been performing in small clubs in Liverpool and in Hamburg, West Germany, when the original drummer was replaced on August 16, 1962 by Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey, July 7, 1940).

George Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove,  a house near Picton Clock Tower in the Liverpool suburb of Wavertree.

On July 6, 1957, 16-year-old John Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at a St Peter’s Parish Church Fête in Woolton, Liverpool. Lennon's band, The Quarrymen, were performing at the do whilst McCartney, who was baptized a Roman Catholic but was being raised inter-denominationally attended the function. As The Quarrymen were setting up for their performance, McCartney eager to impress Lennon picked up a guitar and played "Twenty Flight Rock." Impressed by Paul's ability to tune a guitar and by his knowledge of song lyrics, John asked him to join his band as lead guitarist.

Originally calling themselves the Quarrymen, in the late 1950s the group was renamed Johnny and the Moondogs, the Moonshiners, then the Silver Beatles (a wordplay on the musical term beat that also paid tribute to rocker Buddy Holly's Crickets). By the middle of August 1960 they had shortened the name to The Beatles.

EARLY YEARS

The Beatles played their first proper evening gig at Liverpool’s Cavern Club on March 21, 1961. They played there 292 times between 1961 and 1963, sharing just £5 a gig between them.

A customer asked London record store owner Brian Epstein for "My Bonnie" by the The Silver Beatles. Epstein didn’t have it, but he went to a lunchtime gig at the Cavern Club to check out the group and signed them a few days later. The date The Beatles first met their future manager was November 9, 1961.

The Beatles auditioned unsuccessfully for Decca Records on January 1, 1962. They were rejected on the grounds that "groups with guitars are on the way out." It was a bad day for The Liverpudlians, who got lost on the ten- hour journey to London for their audition.

The Beatles appeared on the BBC for the first time on March 7, 1962, recording for the radio show Here We Go. This also marked the group's first full live performance caught on tape, and the first performance in what would become their trademark collarless suits designed by Beno Dorn.

The first Beatles recording session took place at Abbey Road studios on June 6, 1962. The group recorded four tracks, one of which was "Love Me Do." The four musicians received payments for the session of £7.10 ($12.07) each.

After the Beatles fired drummer Pete Best in favor of Ringo Starr in August 1962,  he formed a new band and released the album: Best of the Beatles, a play on his own name. This led to disappointment from fans who bought the album without reading the track listing.

The Beatles' first record "Love Me Do", written by Lennon and McCartney in 1958, was released in the United Kingdom on October 5, 1962.

In between their October 17, 1962 lunchtime and night shows at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, The Beatles traveled to Granada TV Centre in Manchester to make their television debut. They appeared live on the local magazine program People and Places.

The Beatles began their first British tour in Bradford, England on February 2, 1963 supporting Helen Shapiro.

On February 8 1963, The Beatles were asked to leave the Carlisle Golf Club dance because they were wearing leather jackets.

BEATLEMANIA

Please Please Me,  The Beatles' debut studio album was released on March 22, 1963. Parlophone rush-released the LP in the United Kingdom to capitalize on the success of the singles "Please Please Me" and "Love Me Do."

Wikipedia Commons

The term 'Beatlemania' was used by the Daily Mirror in the aftermath of a successful appearance by The Beatles on Sunday Night At The London Palladium on October 13, 1963, which was seen by an estimated 15 million television viewers in the United Kingdom.

The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" were released in the United States on December 26, 1963, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
"I Want to Hold Your Hand." became their first US number one hit on February 1, 1964.

By the time they led the so-called British invasion of the United States in 1964, the Beatles held the top five spots on the singles recording charts. On March 14, 1964 Billboard Magazine reported that Beatles records made up 60% of all singles sold.

Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 drew what was at the time the largest audience in the history of American television of 73 million viewers. Crime in America dropped noticeably that night, especially juvenile offenses.

It was The Beatles that popularized longer hair for the first time in many decades with their bowl haircuts.

The Beatles began their first full concert tour of North America on August 19, 1964 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in San Francisco. The show was sold out, and the crowd was estimated to be around 4,200 people. The Beatles opened the show at 9pm with "Twist and Shout," and they played a total of 12 songs. 

The Beatles and Elvis Presley only crossed paths once on August 27, 1965 at Presley 's home in Bel Air, California. The NME reported that Elvis, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison jammed together, but without The Beatles' drummer. "Too bad we left the drums in Memphis," Elvis told Ringo.

When John Lennon commented in an interview with a London newspaper, “I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me," it barely caused a ripple. However, when five months later a magazine got hold of it in the United States and in the Bible Belt area many Christians started protesting, burning Beatles records and even causing concerts to be cancelled. The Vatican also made a public denunciation of Lennon's comments.

In 2008 a Vatican newspaper belatedly forgave Lennon for his comments explaining that he had simply been “showing off.”

At one point, the Revolver album was going to be called After Geography, Ringo Starr's terrible pun on the Rolling Stones' Aftermath,

The Beatles almost had roles in a Disney movie. They were meant to be the voices of the vultures in The Jungle Book.

For several years in the late 60s the four Beatles had an interest in Eastern religion and for a period they were students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation movement. Their attraction towards this belief has helped make adoption of an Eastern religion a trendy thing among the young.

Under the Soviet Union, the distribution of Beatles albums was forbidden by the government, so some medical students would burn Beatles songs onto old X-rays.

The screaming at Beatles concerts was so loud that no one could hear them play—not even the Fab Four themselves. It led them to stop playing live performances entirely, retreat to the studio, and ultimately create albums like Sgt. Pepper with no concern for performing any of the songs live.

The Beatles played their last live concert in the UK on May 1, 1966 at the NME Poll Winners' Concert at Wembley Empire Pool in London. The concert was attended by over 10,000 fans and featured performances by other popular British bands of the time, including The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks. The concert was a huge success and marked the end of an era for The Beatles. After the concert, the band decided to stop touring and focus on their recording career.

The Beatles' last concert appearance before paying fans was on August 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. The concert was part of their 1966 North American tour. The Beatles were tired of touring and the constant screaming from fans, and they decided to stop giving live performances after this concert.

The concert was not a sell-out, with only 25,000 of the 42,500 tickets available being sold. There were several reasons for this, including the fact that the concert was held on a Monday night, and the fact that the Beatles had been making headlines for their controversial comments about religion.

The Beatles - Nowhere Man [Live In Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 1966]

Ringo Starr temporarily left the Beatles in 1968 because he felt side-lined. In response his fellow Beatles sent him a telegram telling him that he was the best drummer in the world and that they loved him. He returned, and found his drum kit covered in flowers, spelling out "Welcome Back, Ringo."

Their last public performance was on the roof of Apple Records in London on January 30, 1969. During the 42-minute set, the Beatles were heard playing nine takes of five songs before the Metropolitan Police Service asked them to reduce the volume. The concert came to an end with the conclusion of "Get Back", with John Lennon saying, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition." Amid public quarrels and lawsuits, The Beatles officially broke up the following year.

"The Beatles rooftop concert" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - 

"Come Together" was the last song all four of The Beatles made together.

"The Long and Winding Road" became The Beatles' last U.S. #1 song on June 13, 1970.

The last recorded songs with all four Beatles members contributing their voices were "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" released in 1995. They used previously recorded vocal tapes by John Lennon, who tragically passed away in 1980.

"Now and Then", released in 2023, was a previously unfinished John Lennon demo completed by the surviving Beatles (Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr) using technology to separate Lennon's voice and guitar from the original recording.

BEATLES FACTS AND TRIVIA

The Beatles used the word “love” 613 times in their songs.

Despite their huge international success, the Beatles never learnt to read or write music using traditional notation.

The Beatles refused to play in front of segregated audiences, and made sure their contract stated that they would not be forced to do so.

McCartney's first wife, Linda, and Lennon's second, Yoko, both went to Sarah Lawrence College.

The Beatles are the best-selling group of all time, estimated to have sold over one billion records worldwide. They have had more #1 singles and albums than any other musical group and are the only band with 6 diamond albums, meaning sales of 10 million each: Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, The Beatles 1962-1966, The Beatles 1967-1970, The White Album, The Beatles 1.

George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass is the best selling solo Beatles album. It has sold more than John Lennon’s Imagine and Paul McCartney and Wings' Band on the Run combined.

Sources Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc, Artistfacts