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The Beatles, an English rock band from Liverpool, composed of
John Lennon (vocals and rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (vocals and
bass), Georges Harrison (lead guitar and vocals) and Ringo Starr
(on drums), are the most important band that rock’n’roll
ever produced. They gave rhythm’n’blues an injection
of pure fun and energy we have not seen before.
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FORMATION
John Lennon, a student at Quarry Bank School in Liverpool, decided
to form a group in March 1957 called “The Quarrymen” with
McCartney, by introducing songs by Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Jerry
Lee Lewis into their repertoire. Harrison joined later that year.
After Colin Hanton(drums), Eric Griffiths(guitar), Pete Shotton(washboard),
Rod Davis(banjo), Ivan Vaughan(bass) leaved The Quarrymen, John, Paul
and Georges continued as a trio with Paul on drums, from 1959 to 1960.
They were also “Johnny and the Moondogs” and ‘The
Silver Beetles”, joined at times by bandmates such as bassist
Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. The group had finally settled
on “The Beatles” ,a combination wordplay on the insects
‘beetles” as a reference to The Crickets and the word
“beat”, before their first trip to Hamburg in August 1960.
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EMERGENCE IN HAMBURG’S CLUBS
They firstly played in the Indra Club where they learnt to make
the show. In October, they played every night in the Kaiserkeller
Club, where they met Ringo Starr, who was the drummer of another
group from Liverpool called “Rory Storm and The Hurricanes”.
Thanks to that, their music became better and better and they were
mostly appreciated by girls. Shortly after, they began performing
at the Top Ten Club. In June 1961, they made their first recordings
in Germany as a backup group to Tony Sheridan. In 1962, they played
in the Star Club where they had the opportunity to play with two
of their favourite artists: Little Richard and Gene Vincent. In
August 1962, their manager Brian Epstein replaced Pete Best by Ringo
Starr and Sutcliffe stayed in Hamburg. The Beatles performed shows
in Hamburg and Liverpool and the great adventure of John, Paul,
Georges and Ringo began…
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RECORD CONTRACT
After failing to impress Decca Records, Epstein met the producer
Georges Martin, who signed The Beatles to EMI, declaring that what
made the difference for him was their humour.
Their 1962 release of “Love Me Do” charted in the UK.
However, in November, they recorded their second single “Please
Please Me” which was first number-one hit, moreover, their
debute album of the same name established them as the most popular
rock’n’roll act ever seen in the UK. Musically, the
Beatles had taken the best elements of 1950s Rock’n’roll
and pop they loved, such as doo-wop, country, Chuck Berry, Little
Richard, Buddy Holly, Tin pan Alley, and explored psychedelic rock
to made them their own. The band’s first televised performance
was on the “People and Places” programme transmitted
live from Manchester. Their fame spread and their personal charism
helped boost “Beatlemania”: the group generated screams
and hysteria at all of their public appearances.
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THE BEATLES: AN INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON
The biggest year was 1964 when they conquered America. In the USA,
the Beatles’ television appearances on the “Ed Sullivan
Show” on the 9th of February in 1964, watched by 73 million
people, launched Beatlemania on an even bigger scale than it had
reached in the UK. Georges Harrison later joked: “Afterwards,
they told us that there was no reported crime. Even the criminals
had a rest for ten minutes while we were on”. EMI’s
American operation, “Capitol Records”, commited to a
January release for “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, which
became to be played by New York radio stations. America was mourning
the death of President Kennedy and the Beatles appeared with surprise
on the scene to bring them fun.
In April 1964, the Beatles held the top five spots in the US singles
chart. The songs in order were: “Can’t Buy Me Love”,
“Twist And Shout”, “She Loves You”, “I
Want To Hold Your Hand”, and “Please Please me”.
So being competitive with them was really impossible.
In June 1965, her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed the four
Beatles Members of the British Empire Order. On August that year,
the Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of
rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd of 55,000 fans.
The same year, they starred in their first motion picture “A
Hard Day’s Night” and their second motion picture “Help!”
premiered. Their movies really showed their humour and youthful
exuberance. The Beatles began to develop their recordings with instruments
that were unconventional for rock music at the time: Georges Harrison,
interested in Indian Music, purchased a sitar, which he played on
the song “Norwegian Wood”. This is the first example
of such an instrument being used on a rock record. McCartney also
used flute voices on the intro of “Strawberry Fields Forever”.
When they returned from a tour in Philippines in 1966, Lennon’s
comment in a British interview: “we are more popular that
Jesus now” choked people from America and South Africa. Under
pressure from the American media, Lennon apologized for his remarks
at a press conference in Chicago.
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The Beatles at the Ed Sullivan
Show 
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THE STUDIO YEARS
In early 1966, the group released their most ambitious album: “Revolver”
and made their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in
August 1966. Late 1966, they returned to Abbey Studios in November
to record their 8th album “Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band”.
In 1988, Lennon and McCartney went to New York to announce the formation
of Apple Corps, their new production society. Afterwards, the band
recorded the double album “White Album”.
Their last public performance, included in their movie “Let
It Be”, was given on the top of the Apple Building in London
in January 1969.
The Beatles decided to get together to make one final album “Abbey
Road” in the summer of 1969. The “Let It Be” album
finally released in May 1970.
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THE BAND’S BREAK-UP
In 1969, divisions opened within the band: Ringo was sometimes leaving,
Harrison got his own songs onto Beatles’ album (like “I
me Mine” in Let It be album), Lennon’s girlfriend Yoko
Ono was at his side through almost of the sessions, thus the others
felt that McCartney began to “dominate”.
The Fab Four’s decisions had formely been unanimous but after
Epstein’s death, the four could not agree on the business side:
McCartney wanted his girlfriend’s father as manager, but the
others, thinking that McCartney’s interests would be put before
those of the group, took an American manager Allen Klein, but this
one stole millions from the Beatles’ holding.
John Lennon declared his departure to the rest of the group in September
1969, and McCartney publicly announced the break-up on the 10th of
April in 1970. So The Beatles released 12 original albums in Great
Britain during their recording from 1962 to 1970.
In the end, The Beatles became true legends. Their clothes, hairstyles
and statement made them trend-setters from the 1960s to this day,
and their innovative music had an impact in the 1960s.
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