The Beatles group: a brief biography, the composition of The Beatles, history. The legendary "THE BEATLES The Beatles whose group

01.07.2019

Bruno Ceriotti (historian): “Today Rory Storm And The Hurricanes are performing at Cambridge Hall, Southport. Lineup: Al Caldwell (aka Rory Storm), Johnny Byrne (aka Johnny "Guitar"), Ty Brien, Walter "Wally" Eymond (aka Lou Walters), Richard Starkey (aka Ringo Starr).

From the diary of Johnny "Guitars" (Rory Storm and the Hurricanes band): "Southport. They played badly."

(conditional date)

Peter Frame: "When Stu Sutcliffe joined the band in January 1960, the first thing he did was to suggest changing the band's name to The Beatals, which would soon (April) be changed a bit."

approx. - it is believed that the name of the group "Beatles" appeared in April 1960. Most likely, from the words of Paul McCartney (Paul: "One April evening in 1960 ..."). According to thebeatleschronology.com, the name "The Beatals" was proposed by Stu Sutcliffe in January 1960 and was the original name of the group. He is mentioned by Paul McCartney in his letter to the Butlins summer camp. It is possible that, speaking at the art college on Fridays in the first months of 1960, they did not have any official name at all.

From Paul McCartney's Flaming Pie interview:

Floor: For many years there was confusion about who came up with the name "The Beatles". George and I clearly remember that it was like this. John and some art school buddies rented an apartment. We were all clustered there on old mattresses - it was so great. Listened to Johnny Barnett's records, raged until the morning, as teenagers do. And then one day John, Stu, George and I were walking down the street, suddenly John and Stu say: “Hey, we have an idea how to name the group - the Beatles, through the letter “a” (if you follow the rules of grammar, "The Beetles" was supposed to be written.) George and I are surprised, and John says, "Yeah, Stu and I figured that out."

So this story is remembered to me and George. But over the years, some have begun to think that John himself came up with the idea for the name of the group, and as evidence they refer to the article "A Brief Digression on the Questionable Origins of the Beatles", which John wrote in the early 60s for the Mercybit newspaper. . There were such lines: “Once upon a time there were three little boys, their names were John, George and Paul ... Many people ask: what is the Beatles, why the Beatles, how did this name come about? It came from a vision. A man appeared on a flaming pie and told them: “From now on you are the Beatles with the letter “a”. Of course, there was no vision. John joked, in a goofy manner typical of the time. But some people didn't get the humor. Although, like, everything is so obvious.

George: “Where the name came from is debatable. John claims he made it up, but I remember talking to Stuart the night before. The Crickets, who played Buddy Holly, had a similar name, but in fact Stewart adored Marlon Brando, and in the movie The Wild One there is a scene in which Lee Marvin says: "Johnny, we were looking for you," bugs "miss for you, all the "bugs" miss you. Perhaps both John and Stu remembered it at the same time, and we left this name. We attribute it equally to Sutcliffe and Lennon."




Bill Harry: “I witnessed how John and Stuart [Sutcliffe] came up with the name The Beatles. I called them the college band because they didn't use the Quarryman name anymore and couldn't come up with a new one. They sat in the house where Lennon and Sutcliffe rented an apartment and tried to come up with a name, it turned out stupid names like "Moondogs". Stewart said, "We play a lot of Buddy Holly songs, why don't we name our band after Buddy Holly's Crickets." John replied: "Yes, let's remember the names of insects." Then the name "Beetles" appeared. And the name has become permanent since August 1960.

PAUL: John and Stewart came up with the name. They went to art school, and while George and I were still being forced to sleep by our parents, Stuart and John could do what we only dreamed of: stay up all night. Then they came up with the name.

One April evening in 1960, walking along Gambier Terrace near Liverpool Cathedral, John and Stewart announced: “We want to call the group The Beatles. We thought, “Hmm, sounds creepy, right? Something nasty and creepy, huh?” And then they explained that in this case the word has a double meaning, and it was wonderful ... - "It's okay, this word has two meanings." The name of one of our favorite bands, The Crickets, also has two meanings: playing cricket and also called little grasshoppers. This is great, we thought, this is a truly literary name. (We later talked to the Crickets and found out that they had no idea at all about the double meaning of their name).

Pauline Sutcliffe: "Stewart didn't like the band name Johnny and the Moondogs, which he thought was unoriginal. It seemed to him a kind of echo of such famous groups as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Johnny and the Pirates.

Bill Harry: Stewart came up with the name Beetles because it was an insect, and he wanted to connect it with Buddy Holly's Crickets, because the Quarrymen ( approx. - or Johnny and the Moondogs, or both?) used many Holly numbers in her repertoire. That's what they told me at the time."

Paul: “I think Buddy Holly was my first idol. It's not that we just loved him. Many people loved him. Buddy has been a huge influence on us because of his chords. Because when we were learning to play the guitar, many of his songs were based on three chords, and we had learned these chords by that time. It's a big deal to hear a record and be like, "Hey, I can play that!" It was so inspiring. In addition, on the announced tour of Britain, Gene Vincent was supposed to perform with The Beat Boys. How about "The Beetles" (Beetles)?.

Pauline Sutcliffe: Stewart suggested a new name for the band. Buddy Holly had a band called the Crickets, and in the coming months Gene Vincent and the Beat Boys were due to arrive on a UK tour. Why don't they become Beetles? One of the biker gangs in [the movie] The Wild One was also called that. Stu was a big fan of Marlon Brando, a popular movie actor at the time. He watched films with his participation several times, but one film, “Wild”, especially sunk into his soul. The film, shown in Britain, was a resounding success, many wanted to be like the hero Brando, dressed in the skin of the leader of the motorbikers. They rode their motorcycles with a group of chicks and were known as The Beetles.

PAUL: "In the movie 'The Savage', when the character says, 'Even the Bugs miss you!' he points to the girls on the motorcycles. A friend once looked into the dictionary of American slang and found out that "bugs" are motorcyclists' girlfriends. Now think for yourself!"





Albert Goldman: "New band member Stu Sutcliffe suggested the band's new name "Beetles" (Beetles) - that was the name of Marlon Brando's rivals in the romantic film about motorcyclists The Savage.






Dave Persails: In the second edition of The Beatles' autobiography, Hunter Davis said that Derek Taylor told him that the title was inspired by the movie Wild. The black leather motorcycle gang was called the Beetles. As Davis writes, “Stu Sutcliffe saw this movie, heard this remark, and when he got home, he suggested it to John as the new name for their band. John agreed, but said that the name would be spelled "Beatles" to emphasize that this is a beat group. Taylor repeated this story in his book.

Derek Taylor: "Stu Sutcliffe saw the then-famous movie" Wild "( approx. - the film premiered on December 30, 1953) and suggested the title immediately after the film. In the plot of the film there is a motorized gang of teenagers "Beetles". At the time, Stewart was imitating Marlon Brando. There has always been a lot of discussion about who came up with the name The Beatles. John claimed he came up with it. But if you watch the movie Wild, you'll see the scene with the motorcycle gang where Johnny's gang (played by Brando) is in the coffee bar and another gang led by Chino (Lee Marvin) rides into town, getting into a fight."

Dave Persails: "Indeed, in the film, Chino's character refers to his gang as the Bugs. In a 1975 radio interview, George Harrison agrees with this version of the origin of the name, and it is more than likely that he was the source of this version for Derek Taylor, who simply retold it.

George: "John would say in an American accent, 'Where are we headed, boys?' and we would say, 'To the top, Johnny! We said it for laughs, but it was actually Johnny, I guess, from the Wild One. Because when Lee Marvin pulls up with his biker gang, if I heard right, I could swear that when Marlon Brando talks to Lee Mervin, Lee Marvin talks to him, "Listen, Johnny, I think so-and-so," Beetles "think you're so-and-so..." as if his biker gang were called the Bugs.

Dave Persails: 'Bill Harry denies the 'Wild' version because he claims the film was banned in England until the late 1960s and none of the Beatles likely saw it at the time the name was coined.

Bill Harry: “The story of the film “Wild” is not credible. It was banned until the late 1960s and they couldn't see it. Their comments were made retroactively."

Dave Persails: "If that's the case, the Beatles must have at least heard of the movie (it was banned after all) and the storyline of the movie may have been known." , including the name of the biker gang. That possibility, in addition to what George said, makes it plausible."

Bill Harry: “They were also not familiar with the plot of the picture to such details as small dialogues or a vague title. Otherwise, I would have heard about it during my many conversations with them.

Dusty Springfield: John, a question that you have most likely been asked a thousand times already, but to which you always ... you all give different versions, answer in different ways, therefore, you will now answer it for me. How did the name "The Beatles" come about?

John A: I just made it up.

Dusty Springfield: Did you just make it up? Another brilliant Beatle!

John A: No, no, really.

Dusty Springfield: Did you have any other name before that?

John: They were called, uh, "Quorrimen" ( approx. - John says the name "The Stonecutters" but not "Johnny and the Moondogs". Again, to the fact that both names were used at that time?).

Dusty Springfield: Ltd. You have a harsh personality.

From an interview with the Beatles:

John: When I was twelve years old, I had a vision. I saw a man on a flaming pie, and he said, “You are the Beatles with an [letter] “a”, and it happened.

From an interview in 1964:

George: John got the name "The Beatles" ...

John: In a vision when I was...

George A: A long time ago, you see, when we were looking, when we needed a name, and everyone came up with a name, and he came up with The Beatles.

From an interview with Bob Costas in November 1991:

Floor: We were asked, uh, someone asked, "How did the band come about?" And instead of saying, “The band started when these guys got together in Woolton City Hall at 19…”, John mumbled something along the lines of, “We had a vision. One person appeared before us on a bun, and we had a vision.

From an interview with Peter McCabe in August 1971:

John: I used to write so-called Beatcomber notes. I used to admire the Beachcomber approx. — Beachcomber is in the [Daily] Express, and every week I wrote a column called Beatcomber. And when I was asked to write a story about the Beatles, it was when I was at Alan Williams' Jacaranda club. I wrote with George "the man who appeared on the flaming pie ...", because even then they were asking: "Where did the name "Beatles" come from"? Bill Harry said, "Look, they ask you about it all the time, so why don't you tell them how the name came about?" So I wrote: "There was one person, and he appeared ...". I used to do this back in school, all this imitation of the Bible: “And he appeared and said:“ You are the Beatles with [letter] “a” ... and a man appeared from the sky on a flaming cake, and said, you are the Beatles. with "a".

Bill Harry: “I asked John to write a story about the Beatles for Mercy Beat, and I printed it in early 1961, which is where this flaming pie story came from. John had nothing to do with the title of the column. I liked "Beechcomber" in the Daily Express and I gave it the name "Beatcomber" for his column. I also came up with the title "The Dubious Origins of the Beatles as Recited by John Lennon" for this article in the first issue.

From an interview in The New York Times, May 1997, regarding the title of the album's title track "Flaming Pie":

Floor: Anyone who hears the words "flaming cake" or "to me" (unto me) knows that this is a joke. There is much more that remains fiction due to compromise. If not everyone agrees with the story, someone has to give up. Yoko kind of insists that John has every right to the title. She believes that he had a vision. And it still leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths. Therefore, when I was choosing a rhyme for the words “cry” (cry) and “sky” (sky), [the word] “pie” (pie) came to mind. "Flaming Pie" Blimey!

Pauline Sutcliffe: “Stu's offer was accepted by John, but since he was the founder and leader of the group, he had to contribute to this cause. And although John loved and respected Stu, it was fundamental for him that the final word was his. John suggested replacing one of the letters. Ultimately, brainstorming with John led to a modified Beatles (The Beatles, you know, like in beat music).

Cynthia: “To match their changing stage persona, they decided to change the name of the band as well. We had a stormy brainstorm around a beer-stained table in a bar called Renshaw Hall, where we often popped in for a drink.”

PAUL: "Thinking about the name 'Crickets', John wondered if there were any other insects to take advantage of their name and play with it. Stew suggested first "The Beetles" ("Beetles"), and then "Beatals" (from the word "beat" - rhythm, beat). At that time, the term "beat" meant not just a rhythm, but a certain trend in the late fifties, a musical style based on rhythmic, hard rock and roll. Also, the term was a reminiscence to the then thundering movement of the “beatniks”, which eventually led to the emergence of such terms as “big beat” and “mercy beat”. Lennon, who was always averse to punning, turned it into "Beatles" (a combination of those words) "just for fun, so that the word would be related to beat music."

Floor: John came up with it [name] mostly just as a name, just for the band, you know. We just didn't have a name. Er, well, yes, we had a name, but we had about a dozen a week, you see, and we didn't like it, so we had to settle for one particular name. And one night John came over with the Beatles and he kind of explained that it should be spelled with an 'e-a' and we said, 'Oh yeah, that's hilarious!'

From an interview in 1964:

Interviewer: Why "Bee" (B-e-a), instead of "Bee" (B-e-e)?

George: Well, of course, you see ...

John: Well, you know, if you leave it with a "B", a double "ee"... It was hard enough to get people to understand why it was a "B", never mind, you know.

Ringo: John came up with the name "The Beatles" and he's going to tell you about it now.

John: It just means The Beatles, doesn't it? Do you understand? It's just a name, like "shoe," for example.

Floor: "Shoe". You see, we could not be called "Shoe".

From a telephone interview in February 1964:

George: We've been thinking about a name for a long time, and we just brainwashed ourselves with different names, and then John came along with this name "The Beatles", which was great, because in a way it was about an insect, and also a pun, you know , "b-and-t" to "bit". We just liked the name and we accepted it.

John: Well, I remember, the other day someone at a press conference mentioned the [group] "Crickets" (Crickets). It slipped from my mind. I was looking for a name similar to "Crickets", which has two meanings ( approx. - the word "rickets" has two meanings, "crickets" and the game "Crocket"), and from "crickets" I came to "beaters" (Beatles). I changed it to "B-e-a" because it [word] didn't have a double meaning - [word] "beetles" - "B-double i-t-l-z" doesn't have a double meaning. So I changed to "a", added "e" to "a", and then it began to have a double meaning.

Jim Stack: What are the two meanings, to be specific.

John: I mean, it doesn't mean two things, but it indicates... It's "beat" (beat) and "beetles" (beetles - bugs), and when you say it, something creepy comes to mind, and when you read it, it's beat music.

From an interview with Red Beard, KT-Ex-Q, Dallas, April 1990:

Floor: When we first heard [the band] Crickets... Going back to England, there's a cricket game there, and we knew about the cheerful, returning cricket Hoppity ( approx. - 1941 cartoon). So we thought it was going to be brilliant, a really amazing title with double meanings, like the style of the game and the bug. We thought it would be brilliant, we decided, well, we'll take it. So John and Stewart came up with this name that the rest of us hated, with the Beatles, which is spelled with an "a". We asked: "Why?" They said, "Well, you know, it's bugs, and it's double meaning, like Crickets." Many things influenced us, different spheres.

Cynthia: "John loved Buddy Holly and the Crickets, so he suggested playing with insect names. It was John who came up with the Beetles. He made “Beatles” out of them, drawing attention to the fact that if you swap the syllables, you get “les beat”, and this sounds in the French manner - elegant and witty. In the end, they settled on the name "Silver Beatles" (Silver Beatles).

John: “And so I came up with: beetles (beetles), only we will write differently: “beatles” (Beatles is a “hybrid” of two words: beetle- beetle and to beat- hit) to hint at a connection with beat music - such a playful play on words.

Pauline Sutcliffe: “And after brainstorming with John, The Beatles were born – you know, like in beat (beat) music?”

Hunter Davis: "So while John came up with the final name, it was Stu who gave birth to the sound combination of the band's name that became the basis of the band's name."

Pauline Sutcliffe: “Without a doubt, if Stu and John had not met one day, the group would not have had the name The Beatles.

Royston Ellis (British poet and novelist): “When I suggested to John that they come to London in July, I asked what the name of their group was. When he said it, I asked him to write the title. He explained that they got the idea from the name of the car "Volswagen" (beetle). I said that they have a “Beat” [Beat] lifestyle, “Beat” music, that they support me as a beat poet, and I wondered why they don’t write their name with an “A”? I don't know why John is considered to have adopted this spelling, but it was I who inspired him to stop there. His oft-quoted story about the title mentions "a man on a flaming pie". This is a playful reference to the night I made a frozen chicken and mushroom pie for dinner for the guys (and girls) in that apartment. And I managed to burn it."

Pete Shotton: “Having completed my training, I finally, for a plausible alternative, allowed myself to be persuaded to join the police. To my dismay, I was immediately sent on patrol (where do you think?!) in Garston, the site of the "Bloodbaths"! Moreover, I was also assigned to the night shift, while my weapon was a traditional whistle, and a flashlight - and with this I had to defend myself from the wild animals of those infamous vile streets! I was not even twenty at the time, and walking around my precinct, I experienced incredible fear, so it is not surprising that after a year and a half I quit the police.

During this period, I had relatively little contact with John, who in turn was absorbed in his new life with Stuart and Cynthia. Our meetings became more frequent after I became a partner in the owner of the Old Dutch Café, a more or less respectable hangout near Penny Lane. The Old Woman was one of the few establishments in Liverpool that didn't close until late at night, and for a long time served as a convenient meeting place for John, Paul, and all our old friends.

John and Paul often stayed there at night after the band played, and then boarded their buses at the Penny Lane terminus. By the time I started working at the Old Woman on the night shift, they had already adopted black leather jackets and pants as their uniform (? approx. — most likely, Pete eventually forgot that the "skin" appeared after Hamburg) and baptized himself into the Beatles.

When I asked about the origin of this strange name, John said that he and Stuart were looking for something zoological, like Phil Spector's Cubs and Buddy Holly's Crickets. Having tried and discarded options like "Lions", "Tigers", etc. they chose the Beetles. The idea of ​​naming his band such a low form of life appealed to John's twisted sense of humor.

But despite the new name and clothing, the prospects for the Beatles, and John in particular, looked bleak to say the least. By 1960, Merseyside was literally teeming with hundreds of rock 'n' roll bands, and some of them, like Rory Storm and the Hurricanes or Jerry and the Pacemakers, had far more fans than the Beatles, who didn't yet have permanent drummer. In addition, in Liverpool, which occupied a rather modest place among other cities, even Rory and Jerry did not have the desire to achieve primacy in rock and roll as an end in itself. However, John had already convinced himself that sooner or later the whole country, if not the whole world, would learn to pronounce the word "beetles" with the letter "a".

Len Harry: “One day they were talking about renaming the band to The Beatles, and I thought what a strange name. You immediately remember some crawling creatures. It had nothing to do with music for me."

Peter Frame: Since January, the band has been performing under the name Beatals. From May to June under the name Silver Beetles, from June to July under the name Silver Beatles. Since August, the band has been called simply The Beatles.

The magnificent Liverpool Four in the early 60s raised the whole world to the ears, but no noisy fame can be compared with the real test of time: at first the Beatles showed that their success was not a short-term phenomenon at all, and then ... they simply changed the world of music and rock culture, becoming one of the most significant and influential groups of the 20th century.

History of creation

In 1956, a simple Liverpool guy named John Lennon heard the song "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley and instantly fell ill with modern music. Along with the king of rock and roll, other pioneers of the genre, American singers of the 50s Bill Haley and Buddy Holly, also got into his favorites. The 16-year-old energetic young man simply needed to throw out his energy somewhere - in the same year, with his school friends, he organized the skiffle group "The Quarrymen" (that is, "the guys from the Quarry Bank school").


In the images of the then popular teddy fights, they performed at parties for a year, and in July 1957, at one of the concerts, Lennon met Paul McCartney. The skinny, shy guy just amazed John with his knowledge of guitar skills - he not only played well, but knew the chords and could tune the guitar! For the self-taught Lennon, who played the banjo, harmonica and guitar rather weakly, it was almost like the art of the gods. He even doubted whether such a strong musician would take away his leadership, but two weeks later he invited Paul to the role of rhythm guitarist in The Quarrymen.


By nature, Paul and John were like mirror images of each other: the first is an excellent student and a good boy from a prosperous family, the second is a local bully and truant, who was abandoned by his mother in early childhood and then raised by his aunt.

Perhaps largely due to their dissimilarity, the guys were able to make one of the most successful musical duets in the world. From the very beginning of cooperation, they became both partners and rivals. And if Paul began to compose music from the moment he took up the guitar, then for John this activity initially became a challenge from his talented partner.

In 1958, guitarist George Harrison, who at that time was only 15 years old, joined the band. Later, Lennon's classmate Stuart Sutcliffe also entered the group - initially this quartet was the main line-up of the group, while John's school friends soon forgot about their musical passion.


After changing from a dozen different names, in the end, the Liverpool people settled on The Beatles - John Lennon wanted the word to be ambiguous and contain some game. And if in Russia it was first of all translated as “Beetles” (although another spelling is correct in English - “beetles”), then for the band members the name also referred to the Buddy Holly group The Crickets (“Crickets”) that influenced them and the word “the beat", that is, "rhythm".

The main stages of creativity

For a while, the Beatles imitated their American idols, increasingly acquiring an international sound. Having written more than 100 compositions in two years, they have accumulated material for several years to come. It was then that McCartney and Lennon agreed to indicate the dual authorship of songs, regardless of who contributed what to the work.


It's funny that until the summer of 1960, the Beatles did not have a permanent drummer - and sometimes there were problems with the equipment and installations for performances. Everything was decided by an invitation to perform in Hamburg, which the guys received, one might say, by a lucky chance. Then they urgently invited drummer Paul Best, who plays in another band. After an exhausting tour, where the Beatles played so far only covers or improvised right on stage, they returned to England as more experienced, “mature” musicians.

Meeting with Brian Epstein and George Martin

The success of The Beatles was made up of all the main components necessary for popularity, where, in addition to talent, perseverance and charisma, one cannot do without competent production and promotion. It can even be said that at the beginning of their career, the Beatles became the first pop group on a global scale, although the principles of promotion at that time were in many respects different from modern ones.


The fate of the Beatles' popularity was decided by the owner of the record store, a true enthusiast of his business, Brian Epstein, who in 1962 became the official manager of the group. If before Epstein the Beatles performed on stage shaggy and even, as he said, “dirty”, then under the leadership of Brian they changed into their famous suits, put on ties and made trendy haircuts “under the pot”. After working on the image, quite a natural work on the musical material followed.


Epstein sent a demo of their first songs to George Martin of the recording studio Parlophone - at a meeting with the Beatles that followed soon after, Martin praised them but advised them to change drummers. Soon everyone unanimously (Epstein and Martin always consulted with the group) chose the charming and energetic Ringo Starr from the then popular band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes for this role.

Crazy Success: The Beatles World Tour

In September 1962, the "seizure of the world" began: the Beatles released their first single "Love me Do", which instantly became the leader of the British charts. Soon all the members of the group moved to London and in February 1963 in one day (!) Completely recorded their first album Please, Please me with groovy hits She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and Twist and Shout.

The Beatles

The record was overflowing with joy, lyricism and, of course, rhythmic rock and roll, and the charming members of the Beatles became the personification of youth and sincerity for fans around the world. Success was cemented by the album With the Beatles that followed the same year. "Beetles" were one of the first musicians to simply and a little naively sing about love, relationships and true romance.


It was then that the concept of "Beatlemania" arose - first it swept the UK, and then stepped into other countries and across the ocean. At Beatles concerts, fans went into a frenzy just seeing their pretty idols. The girls squealed so that the musicians sometimes did not even hear what they were singing. Their success in America in 1963-1966 could be compared to a triumphal procession. Footage of The Beatles performing on the then-popular Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 became legendary: frenzied screams, imperturbable musicians, voiceovers.

The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show (1964)

The albums A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965) not only contained wonderful and already truly "Beatle" songs, but were also presented to the audience with parallel musical films that became gifts for real fans. And if in the first picture the band members played the role of guest stars , then to "Help!" an artistic plot was already invented, and the Beatles tried on new comical images.


The legendary song “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney from the album “Help!”, according to the official version, was first recorded without the participation of other Beatles, but with the help of a string quartet. This composition, along with "Michelle" and "Girl", entered the collection of the group's best lyrical songs and is known to everyone who has never even closely acquainted with the work of the Liverpool Four.


After exhausting world tours (sometimes concerts were given every day), the musicians moved on to studio work in the famous Abbey Road Studios. At the same time, the sound of The Beatles began to change more and more. For example, the album Rubber Soul (1965) featured the first sitar, played by George Harrison for the song "Norwegian Wood". By the way, by this time the band members had already become virtuoso multi-instrumentalists.


The Revolver (1966) and Magical Mystery Tour (1967) records, with the songs "Eleanor Rigby", "Yellow Submarine" and "All You Need Is Love", provided an exquisite bridge to the grandiose "Sgt. Pepper "s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967), which finally lifted the group to a new level. The Beatles not only became the standard in the world of music, but "sneaked" into the just emerging world of psychedelic and progressive rock, once again reflecting and simultaneously creating In fact, the Beatles became a symbol of the hippie era with their anti-war protests, experiments with drugs and propaganda of free love to some extent.

The Beatles

At that time, the Beatles had already completely transformed from a group that collects stadiums into a chamber group recording half experimental, half acoustic albums. At Wembley Stadium in 1966, the Beatles said goodbye to their past: loud fans included. This decision helped to continue developing musically, without being distracted by any hype or promotions.


Breakup of the Beatles

At the same time, contradictions within the team were growing more and more - George Harrison and Ringo Starr literally had to write to the table: most of their compositions, according to them, were simply not accepted for consideration by Paul and John. In August 1967, 32-year-old Brian Epstein, who, along with George Martin, was the “fifth Beatle” in the group, died suddenly from an overdose of sleeping pills.


More and more factors separating musicians appeared. At the beginning of 1968, they decided to spend time together in India with the Maharishi meditation teacher - this experience affected everyone in different ways, but the Beatles returned to England without having established mutual understanding with each other.


Having released the double-sided disc “The White Album” in 1968, the group continued their experiments - the record contained diverse compositions, in some of them the musicians continued to work on the sound. At that time, in the Abbey Road studio, the Beatles were always accompanied by the future wife of John Lennon, the artist Yoko Ono, who terribly annoyed all the musicians with her antics - the atmosphere was getting more and more tense.


Despite all the controversy, the group was able to get together in the studio to release three more albums - "Yellow Submarine" (1968) with music for a psychedelic cartoon, "Abbey Road" and "Let it Be" (1970). "Abbey Road" with the legendary cover, where the four cross the street of the same name, was recognized by critics as one of the quartet's most perfect records. At that time, George and John had already recorded their first albums, and the recording of some songs was not carried out by the group in full force. In 1970, Paul McCartney, without waiting for the release of "Let it Be", released his debut disc and published an official letter about the breakup of the group, which caused a flurry of indignation among fans.

Scandals

On June 12, 1965, many members of the Order of the British Empire were dissatisfied with the presentation of an honorary award to The Beatles "for their contribution to the development of British culture and its popularization around the world." Prior to this, no pop musician had received an award from the Queen. True, four years later, John Lennon refused the award - thus he opposed British intervention in the outcome of the Civil War in Nigeria.

The Beatles are more popular than Jesus

After the scandal on tour in the Philippines in 1966 (the group came into conflict with the very first lady), America was outraged by John Lennon's words that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" and the recognition that the musician had become disillusioned with Christianity because his "stupid and ordinary" followers. None of the band members could have expected that these words would cause mass burning of Beatles records in the southern states and even protests by the Ku Klux Klan. Then Brian Epstein had to cancel the planned tour in the United States, and Lennon had to make a public apology.


Discography

  • "Please Please Me" (1963)
  • "With The Beatles" (1963)
  • "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)
  • Beatles For Sale (1964)
  • Help! (1965)
  • "Rubber Soul" (1965)
  • "Revolver" (1966)
  • "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967)
  • "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967)
  • The Beatles (also known as the White Album) (1968)
  • "Yellow Submarine" (1968)
  • Abbey Road (1969)
  • "Let It Be" (1970)

Films about the Beatles

  • "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)
  • Help! (1965)
  • "Yellow Submarine" (1968)
  • "Let It Be" (1970)
  • "Imagine: John Lennon" (1988)
  • "Becoming John Lennon" (2009)
  • "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" (2011)
  • "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week" (2016)

Solo projects of The Beatles members

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney released his first solo album before the breakup of The Beatles, modestly calling it "McCartney" (1970). Despite the fact that the gap between the members of the legendary group at that time was already obvious, for McCartney this became a source of serious feelings. After some seclusion, the musician released the album "Ram" (1971), the composition of which was awarded the Grammy. At the same time, Paul's early creations were smashed by both critics and his former partner, John Lennon.


Feeling insecure about being a soloist, McCartney created The Wings, with whom he released 7 albums from 1971 to 1979. Solo Sir Paul recorded 16 studio albums, many of which went platinum. The last record of the ex-Beatle at the moment is “New” in 2013. World stars, such as Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp, have repeatedly starred in McCartney's videos.

John Lennon

Perhaps the most striking and at the same time transient among the former members of the Beatles was the solo career of John Lennon. It seems that it could not be otherwise - John has always been distinguished not only by a complex character, but also by the desire to create something categorically new and sometimes avant-garde. No less significant for him was the expression of a political position through creativity. Together with his second wife, Yoko Ono, he staged various performances, the most famous of which was the "bed interview" Give Peace a Chance (Give this world a chance) in 1969.


For a conditional 10 years of a solo career (Lennon was shot dead on December 8, 1980 at the entrance to his house), the legendary Beatle released 9 studio albums, many of which were recorded in collaboration with Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Phil Spector and Yoko Ono. After the tragic death of the musician, through the efforts of his relatives, several more discs with previously unreleased songs were published.

John Lennon – Imagine

Lennon's work had a huge impact on culture, music, people's views both during his lifetime and after the death of the musician. His most successful records are Imagine (1971) and Double Fantasy (1980).

Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr, like George Harrison, during the existence of the Beatles, of course, was in the shadow of Paul and John. Although he, like the rest of the members, composed a lot of music, his compositions were practically not involved in the group's repertoire. Not everyone also knew that it was Ringo who sang the most popular song Yellow Submarine. However, after the breakup of the group, Starr immediately continued his solo career.


By 2018, Ringo had already released 19 records, many of which went platinum. Throughout his career, Starr has continued to collaborate with ex-Beatles, for example, Paul McCartney took part in the recording of his latest album “Give More Love” (2017).

In 2012, Ringo Starr was named the richest drummer in the world - his fortune at that time was already about $ 300 million.

George Harrison

Low-profile guitarist George Harrison didn't often get the green light to use his compositions in the band either, but he was credited with some of the best songs of their late work "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" .


In Harrison's solo work, no one could slow down: for example, he recorded 10 studio albums in total, the best of which is the triple disc "All Things Must Pass" (1970), among the compositions of which the song of the same name and the song "My Sweet Lord" are especially noted. Harrison, who converted to Hinduism in the late 60s, was strongly influenced by Indian sacred music and religious texts in his work. The musician died of lung cancer in November 2001.



The Beatles are a symbol of modern pop culture and the music industry, perhaps even more significant than such musical "monsters" as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Michael Jackson. And The Beatles - the best-selling music brand in history (more than 1 billion records sold worldwide) - forever changed the music world.

1. John Lennon originally named the group differently


John Lennon founded the group in 1957 and named it the Quarry Men. Later, he invited Paul McCartney to the group, who brought in George Harrison. Ringo Starr became the last of the "big four" after he replaced Peter Best as drummer.

2. Quarry Men, Johnny and the Moondogs...


The band changed its name many times before settling on the name
The Beatles. In addition to the Quarry Men, the group also went by the names Johnny and the Moondogs, Rainbows and British Everly Brothers.

3. "Beetles" (beetlles) and "Rhythm" (beat)


Although no one can say exactly where the group's final name came from, most fans believe that John Lennon suggested the name after Buddy Holly's American Crickets. Other sources emphasize that the name deliberately combined 2 words - "bugs" (beetlles) and "rhythm" (beat).

4. "From Me To You"


The Beatles called their first UK single "From Me To You", taking the idea from the letters section of the British magazine NME, then called "From You to Us". They wrote this song on a bus while on tour supporting Helen Shapiro.

5. There was nothing before Elvis


John Lennon was very fond of cats. He had ten pets when he lived in Weybridge with his first wife, Cynthia. His mother had a cat named Elvis as the woman was a big fan of Elvis Presley. Not surprisingly, Lennon later claimed that "there was nothing before Elvis."

6 Abbey Road


The band originally wanted to name the song "Abbey Road" "Everest". But when their record company invited the band to visit the Himalayas to shoot a video there, the Beatles decided to rename the song after the street where the recording studio was located.

7. Hit for the main competitors


Very few people know the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the first hit for their main rivals, the Rolling Stones. "I Wanna Be Your Man" was released in 1963 and peaked at number twelfth on the UK Singles Chart.

8. Good Morning Good Morning


John Lennon wrote "Good Morning Good Morning" after being infuriated by a Kellogg cereal commercial.

9 Billboard Hot Record Breakers


During the week of April 4, 1964, as many as twelve Beatles songs were included in the top 100 Billboard Hot singles, including the compositions of this group occupied the first five lines. This record has not been broken so far, for fifty-two years.

10. The Beatles sold 178 million records.


According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Beatles have sold 178 million records in the United States. That's more than any other artist in US music history.

11. "Got to Get You into My Life"


1966 the song "Got to Get You into My Life" appeared. It was originally thought to be about a girl, but McCartney later claimed in an interview that the song was actually about marijuana.

12. Hey Jude


If you listen carefully to the words of the legendary song "Hey Jude", you can hear how Paul swore dirty, making a mistake during the recording of the song.

13. "New Disease"


Many people mistakenly believe that the term "Beatlemania" first appeared in 1963 after a review in the Daily Mirror. However, the term was actually invented by Canadian Sandy Gardiner and first appeared in the Ottawa Journal in November 1963, where the word was used to describe a "new disease" that was sweeping the globe.

14. ... well, if they themselves ask


Mae West initially turned down an offer to have her picture on the album cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but she changed her mind after receiving a private letter from the band. Other famous women on the cover are Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple.

15. "Something" is the greatest love song


Frank Sinatra has often publicly expressed his admiration for the band, and once said that "Something" is the greatest love song ever written.

16. Help! and "Strawberry Fields Forever"


John Lennon said that the only real songs he ever wrote were "Help!" and "Strawberry Fields Forever". He claimed that these were the only songs he wrote based on his own experiences and not just imagining himself in certain situations.

17. Beatles Records Publicly Burned in the South


In March 1966, John Lennon noticed that Christianity was in decline and that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus. His remarks led to protests in the American South, where the band's records were publicly burned. The protests have even spread to other countries such as Mexico, South Africa and Spain.

18. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame


The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. All four of its members were also inducted into the hall of fame individually from 1994 to 2015.

19. The Beatles hold the record for hits...


As of 2016, the Beatles still hold the record for most hits (20) to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis Presley and Mariah Carey are tied for second with 18 songs each. The Beatles also hold the record for the most number one albums in the US and UK.

20. Unfulfilled dream


The members of The Beatles were so passionate about Tolkien's work that they wanted to star in the film "The Lord of the Rings", where the director was supposed to be Stanley Kubrick. Fortunately, Kubrick and his record company did not find this idea attractive, and a few decades later, Peter Jackson created his famous cinematic masterpieces.

21. The Beatles broke up because of...


No one knows 100 percent why the Beatles broke up. When Paul McCartney was asked why the band broke up, he claimed it was due to "personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all, he enjoys spending time with his family much more".

22. Missed Opportunity


The closest the band came to a reunion after their split in 1970 was at Eric Clapton's wedding when he married Patti Boyd in 1979. George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr played together at the wedding, but John Lennon did not come.

23. Bands with guitars are out of fashion.


The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records on January 1, 1962, but were turned down because "groups with guitars are out of style" and also because "the band members lack talent". The Decca label instead chose a band called the Tremeloes, who no one remembers today. This is widely considered to be the biggest mistake in twentieth century music history.

24. The Beatles bought an island...


In 1967, when the Beatles were at the height of their drug addiction, they decided to buy their own island. Throwing in cash, the band members bought a beautiful private island in Greece where they wanted to live together, away from screaming fans. Unfortunately, when the group broke up, the island was also sold.

25. Beatles songs heal


Some scientists have suggested that several Beatles songs could help children with autism and other disabilities. In particular, they refer to the songs "Here Comes The Sun", "Octopus's Garden", "Yellow Submarine", "Hello Goodbye", "Blackbird" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Sourced from list25.com

Not so long ago, it appeared on the Web, which, of course, will be of interest to all fans of this group.

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2016-08-17
by: showbizby
Published in:

On the International Day of The Beatles, it is customary not only to sing the ageless hits of the Liverpool quartet, but also to recall the unusual facts and stories of the legendary band, especially since there were many of them for the rich creative history of the band.

None of the band members knew musical notation.

Exactly half of the quartet members are left-handed: Paul and Ringo.

John's aunt, Mimi, always repeated the phrase: “The guitar is a good instrument. However, it is unsuitable for making money.” After becoming rich, John bought his aunt a villa that had a marble wall with this saying.

John Lynn, the son of the owner of one of the venues where the Liverpool Four performed, told the Washington Post about the persistent smell of urine in concert halls after every Beatles concert. Bob Geldof, known to us as the lead actor in Alan Parker's film The Wall, based on the music of Pink Floyd, recalled: streams of urine ran - the girls literally pissed with delight. Therefore, I personally associate The Beatles, first of all, with the smell of urine.

Harrison himself recalled: “My first intercourse took place in Hamburg in the presence of Paul, John and Pete Best. We slept in bunk beds and covered ourselves with sheets, but after I came, there was loud applause. Well, at least they didn’t interfere with the process!

In 1967, the musicians almost bought an island near Athens, where they planned to live with friends and relatives. John Lennon said about the Greeks: "They tried everything - wars, nationalism, fascism, communism, capitalism, hatred, religion ... Why are we worse?" Paul McCartney later recalled: “Thank God we didn’t do it then. After all, then in any case, someone would have to wash the dishes - and this would no longer be a utopia.

The group members were introduced to LSD at a dentist's appointment. "Mad Dentist" John Riley slipped LSD into Lennon's coffee, Harrison, their wives, and Patty Boyd. It is not known exactly how much the musicians themselves wanted this, but George claimed that they tried LSD by accident. After the musicians had coffee and wanted to go home, Riley convinced them to stay. He said something in John's ear, Lennon turned to Harrison and said: "We're on LSD." George did not understand at first and reacted: “So what? Let's go already!" But that day the musicians returned home very late.

In Hamburg, the musicians lived in the back room of the Bambi Kino cinema located near the toilets. The smell of urine was terrible. In the end, George Harrison was deported due to his minority. Moving from Bambi Kino, Paul McCartney and Pete Best decided to give themselves a decent send-off and set fire to a condom. The fire flared up quite strongly and the patience of the owner of the premises overflowed - he turned to the police. The Beatles were arrested. In the end, McCartney and Best were deported after Harrison.

In America, Beatlemania began with 15-year-old teenager Marsh Albert from Maryland. After watching a news release about the band, Albert called Washington radio and asked, "Why don't they play this kind of music in America?" The DJ turned on the song "I Want To Hold Your Hand", after which other radio stations immediately included the Beatles in their repertoire.

The fateful acquaintance of Paul McCartney and John Lennon took place on July 6, 1957 at a concert by Lennon's The Quarrymen. Paul was 15 years old, and John was 16. At the same time, John was pretty drunk.

The Beatles were the first group to place a drum kit at the forefront of the stage. The debut took place in his native Liverpool. After Pete Best was almost trampled by female fans who rushed onto the stage, such a move was canceled.

The band became the first in history to have the lyrics of all the songs printed on the back of an album cover. Album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The harmonica used in the song "Love Me Do" was stolen by John in the summer of 1960 from a music store in the Dutch town of Arnhem.

After the release of the track "Penny Lane" in 1967, the authorities of Liverpool suffered serious losses due to the constant theft of signs on houses. As a result, it was decided to write the name of the street and the number of the house directly on the walls of the buildings.

He is not only the godfather of Sean Lennon. He is also the author of one of John Lennon's favorite cover versions of the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Moreover, so beloved that the track contains backing vocals and John's guitar.

To sit at Ringo Star's school desk, you need to pay five pounds sterling.

John Lennon was very fond of cats. He had ten pets when he lived in Weybridge with his first wife, Cynthia. His mother had a cat named Elvis as the woman was a big fan. Not surprisingly, Lennon later claimed that "there was nothing before Elvis."

During the week of April 4, 1964, as many as twelve Beatles songs entered the top 100 of the Billboard charts, while the group's compositions occupied the first five lines. This record has not been broken so far, although more than 50 years have passed.

In 1966, the Beatles wrote the song "Got to Get You into My Life". It was originally thought to be about a girl, but McCartney later claimed in an interview that the song was actually written about marijuana.

Film actress Mae West initially turned down an offer to have her image featured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" but changed her mind after receiving a private letter from the band. Other famous women on the cover are Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple.

Frank Sinatra has often publicly expressed his admiration for the band, and once said that "Something" is the greatest love song ever written.

John Lennon said that the only real songs he ever wrote were "Help!" and Strawberry Fields Forever. He claimed that these were the only songs he wrote based on his own experiences and not just imagining himself in certain situations.

The closest the band came to a reunion after their breakup was at a wedding when he married Patti Boyd in 1979. George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr played together at the wedding - but John Lennon did not come.

The Vatican accused The Beatles of Satanism after John Lennon said the group was "more popular than Jesus." The Papacy "forgave" the Beatles only in 2010, which - as Ringo Starr said, was not at all necessary.

In the mid-sixties, John had a molar tooth removed and gave it to a housekeeper with instructions to throw it away somewhere. Instead, she kept the tooth as a souvenir for her Beatleman daughter. For many years, the tooth was kept in the house until it was put up for auction in 2011 and sold for a fabulous sum of $31,000. The buyers claim that the purpose of the acquisition is to clone Lennon.

During the Beatles' legendary tour of India, Ringo Star carried a suitcase full of roasted beans. The fact is that his stomach, after diseases suffered in childhood, could not digest spicy and spicy local food.

Lennon was a terrible driver. Having received a car license at the age of 24 (the last of the Beatles), John never learned to drive well. Lennon last drove in 1969 during a family trip to Scotland, which ended in an accident - the star received 17 stitches. After that, Lennon always used the services of a taxi or a personal driver.

Lennon is the only Beatle who didn't go vegan. George and Paul were forced to remove meat from the diet for religious reasons, Ringo - for poor health, but John, until the very last days, did not deny himself the pleasure of eating meat, for which he even received the insulting nickname "fat Beatle" from one of the journalists. Lennon's second gastronomic love was caffeine.

John Lennon was on the cover of the very first issue of Rolling Stone magazine. It happened November 9, 1969.

Lennon was unhappy with all of the Beatles' records. Even after the group broke up, John made a shocking statement to his former producer George Martin that he would like to re-record every single Beatles song. Martin asked, "Even Strawberry Fields?" "Especially Strawberry Fields," was Lennon's response.

It is not known where Lennon's remains are located. On December 9, the day after the assassination, John Lennon's body was cremated and his ashes handed over to his widow. What she did with the ashes, how she disposed of them - the Japanese devil Yoko Ono has not yet confessed.

About

Biography

The story of the British group The Beatles, which had the strongest influence on the development of popular music in the twentieth century and continues to have this influence to this day, has been told many times in great detail. The most meticulous biographers start in the spring of 1956, when 15-year-old John Lennon organized The Quarrymen (The Quarry Boys) in the working-class quarter of Liverpool, ...

Biography

The story of the British group The Beatles, which had the strongest influence on the development of popular music in the twentieth century and continues to have this influence to this day, has been told many times in great detail. The most meticulous biographers start in the spring of 1956, when 15-year-old John Lennon organized The Quarrymen (The Quarry Boys) in the working-class quarter of Liverpool, which performed compositions in country and rock and roll styles.

The second important date was July 6, 1957, when Paul McCartney heard The Quarrymen for the first time in the square near St. Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool. Then Paul and John met and Paul was able to impress John by knowing guitar chords that were unknown to John. For this convincing reason, Paul received an invitation to become a member of the group.

A year later, in 1958, Paul brought his high school friend, George Harrison, into the ensemble. George was only 15 years old, but he played the guitar quite well. Paul, John and George became the core of the band, which John renamed Johnny and the Moondogs. In 1959 John's art college classmate, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined the group.

In the same 1959, John Lennon changed its name several times: first it was "Long John And The Silver Beatles", then the abbreviated "The Silver Beatles" appeared, and finally, simply "The Beatles". The word "beatles" liked John, a great lover of word play - it contained two meanings: "beat" as "blow", "pulsation" and "beetles" - "Beetles". It also echoed the very popular Cricket group at that time.

By this time, the ensemble began performing at the Liverpool club "Jacaranda". There they were noticed by a certain Koschmider, the owner of a club in Hamburg - he invited the musicians on tour to his place in Germany. At that moment, the Beatles were once again looking for a drummer. The choice was stopped at Pete Best. The main argument was the fact that Pete had his own drum kit. As soon as the line-up was completed, the young artists immediately hit the road and on August 17, 1960, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe and Best took to the stage of the Hamburg Indra club. Later they moved to the more popular Kaiserkeller.

The musicians stayed in Hamburg for four and a half months - during this time they gained experience and significantly expanded their repertoire. Back in their native Liverpool, they were already considered one of the best local bands. Despite the fact that they performed almost daily, invariably gathering crowds of listeners, this did not give anything in terms of development. In February 1961, they again went to Hamburg, where they already had fans.

In Hamburg, they had to urgently reshape their entire repertoire, because Stuart Sutcliffe, who was predicted to have a great artistic career (he drew beautifully), decided to leave the ensemble. Leaving, Stu gave his bass guitar to Paul McCartney and he had to learn a new instrument. George Harrison instead of Paul was forced to become a solo guitarist. Stewart's German girlfriend, Astrid Kirkcher, provided the band with important assistance in establishing their own visual style. She designed for them special jackets without lapels and offered to cut their bangs and lengthen their hair so that the back of the musicians' heads looked like the backs of beetles.

In Hamburg, the Beatles entered the recording studio for the first time. Initially - as an accompaniment to the British guitarist and singer Tony Sheridan (Tony Sheridan). Before returning to Liverpool they recorded their own first single with two songs, "My Bonnie" and "The Saints". It was this record that a guy named Kurt Raymond Jones asked for on Saturday, October 28, 1961, at the record store of the Liverpool company NEMS Ltd., which was owned by 27-year-old Brian Epstein. Meticulous Brian did not have such a record in the store, but when he found it in the import catalog, he was very surprised to find out that the performers performed at the Cavern club, which was located next to the store. Epstein became curious and was not too lazy to stop by and listen to the band, since he was engaged not only in selling records, but also in promoting several local artists. After the concert, the Beatles received an offer of cooperation from him and signed a contract on November 13, according to which Brian Epstein became their official manager.

Being an active person, Epstein immediately attended to the release of the disc. It took him about six months to visit London, where he visited recording studios. Rejection followed rejection. Finally, in July 1962, the head of the Parlaphone company, George Martin, agreed to conclude a one-year contract with the Beatles, under which he undertook to release 4 singles. There was only one condition - to replace the drummer. Pete Best, although he had his fans, really lagged musically behind the other members of the Beatles. The offer to join the group was received by Ringo Starr, with whom the musicians were familiar from the Hamburg tour.

In early September 1962, the Beatles recorded their debut single "Love Me Do" / "P.S. I love you". Immediately after the release, he took the 17th place in the British national charts - it was a success that no one expected. Released in November, the second single "Please Please Me" / "Ask Me Why" has already topped the charts.

Catching the wind of success, the Beatles went on tour. They again visited Hamburg, gave a series of concerts in Sweden and traveled a lot to small towns in Britain. Having interrupted their tour for just one day, on February 11, 1963, the group in one go, in 585 minutes, completely recorded their debut album Please Please Me, which immediately jumped to first place in the charts and remained there for 6 months, giving way to only the next Beatles album.

Beatlemania was born on October 13, 1963, when the Beatles gave a concert at the London Palladium. Due to the mass hysteria of the audience, the musicians had to be evacuated from the hall with the help of the police.

The group's second disc, "With The Beatles", set a world record for the number of pre-orders - there were more than 300,000 of them. Over a million copies were sold in a year. All subsequent singles by the Beatles sold a million copies immediately after release - this amazing record has not yet been broken by any performer.

In the United States, the Beatles were not accepted for a long time. The single "I Want To Hold You Hand" did not reach the first place of the charts until the beginning of 1964. However, when the musicians arrived on tour on February 7, about four thousand fans came to meet them at Kennedy Airport. And in April, when the film “A Hard Days Night” and the new album of the same name were released, the songs of the Beatles occupied the first 5 lines of the American hit parade - this record also remains unbeaten.

The popularity and influence of the Beatles was growing: the new album "Beatles For Sale", which went on sale on December 4, 1964, sold 700,000 copies within a day. With a very busy touring schedule, the musicians managed to compose new songs and star in the next musical film. At the beginning of August 1965, the film and the disc "Help!" were released almost simultaneously, which, among other wonderful songs, contained the composition "Yesterday", which became the most performed melody of the 20th century.

The next two discs became a turning point not only for the work of the Beatles, but also for the development of world pop music in general. The compositions of the albums "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver", which was released on August 5, 1966, were so complex that they did not involve stage performance - there were so many studio effects. From that moment, the Beatles abandoned concert performances and switched to purely studio work.

Another reason for the refusal of concerts was a very big fatigue from continuous tours. The Beatles wanted and waited on all continents, they were lured by any means, but at the same time they became victims of provocations and speculation. Each concert performance turned into a battle with an army of temperamental fans who screamed so much that they drowned out the instruments. At the same time, in Japan, armed students in the city of Badokan threatened physical violence, the Beatles had to literally flee from Manila after they aroused the wrath of the authorities by not appearing at an appointment with dictator Ferdinand Marcos Because of John Lennon's accidental remark that The Beatles became more popular than Jesus, the Ku Klux Klans in the southern United States began to publicly burn the Beatles' discs, demanding repentance from them. Thus, having played the last concert of the American tour in San Francisco on August 29, 1966, the musicians never again appeared on the concert stage.

In the next compositions, many innovative techniques were used, the quintessence of which was the album “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club) is the first concept album in history where everything, from the cover to the order of the songs, was repaired by a single plan.

Album Sgt. Pepper "s ..." was the last major work for the Beatles. In the summer of 1967, a tragedy occurred - on August 27, Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose. Tensions arose within the group due to an unresolved problem - who would replace the manager, who, in fact, created success groups.

At the same time, creativity continued: a full-length animated film “Yellow Submarine” was released, and on November 22, 1968, a new double album appeared, simply called “The Beatles”. Soon the group took on a new unusual project. This time the idea was that complex compositions should be written in the studio as live ones, without stops and studio overdubs. And this whole process was to be shot on film and become the basis of the film. However, the task proved too difficult even for the Beatles. The camera blankly recorded endless stops and quarrels, about a hundred songs were recorded, even a concert was made on the roof of the Abbey Road studio, but in the end all the material was put aside "until better times."

In the summer of 1969, the musicians recorded the Abbey Road disc. This was their last collaboration in the studio. On the eve of July 4, 1969, John Lennon announced that, together with his wife Yoko Ono, he had organized a new group, the Plastic Ono Band. In addition, serious financial problems began - the creative company Apple Records, which was founded by the Beatles musicians in early 1968, having invested in it earned money, turned into an organizational nightmare, a black hole into which a lot of money fell.

Having not reached an agreement on the question of who would become the new manager of the group, the musicians stopped communicating with each other and Paul McCartney, having released a solo album on April 10, 1970, placed an interview with himself in an envelope in which he stated that he no longer plans to work in a group The Beatles. This message shocked millions of fans, although by that time George Harrison was already on a concert tour with a duet with Delaney and Bonnie, and Ringo Starr was playing in the movie - he had a major role in the film "Magic Christian".

In January 1970, EMI, which had by then acquired Parlaphone, invited American producer Phil Spector, who was then considered the best, to deal with the musical and film material abandoned in the studio. Spector listened to the recordings and prepared the Let It Be album for release. Thus, this disc came out when the Beatles were practically non-existent.

The Beatles practically created a new musical era. They turned light music into a voluminous subculture, influencing lyrics, arrangements, behavior, hair and clothing design - almost every aspect of modern life. They became not just the voice of their generation, but its symbol.

The collapse of the Beatles paradoxically allowed each of the quartet to be realized more fully. Each released records and performed at concerts. After the tragic death of John Lennon in December 1980, all hopes of a Beatles reunion collapsed. However, the popularity of the songs created by the group during the decade has never waned.

In the early 1990s, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Lennon's widow Yoko Ono were finally able to sign a copyright agreement that allowed them to re-release material under the Beatles label. Thanks to this, in 1994 a double CD was released with BBC recordings made back in the early 60s. Then a multi-part documentary film "Anthology" was made about the history of the Beatles with musical material on six discs. This story was later published in the form of an illustrated book.

The death of George Harrison from throat cancer in 2001 caused the deepest grief of fans around the world. As blasphemous as it sounds, but in the words of Lennon "The Beatles are now more popular than Jesus" there is some truth.

Today, the University of Liverpool has introduced Beatles to its curriculum. Upon graduation, graduates receive a master's degree in this subject. There are films and musicals based on the tunes of the Beatles, exhibitions are held, artifacts related to the history of the Beatles are sold at auctions for a lot of money. More than 8,000 books have been written about the group, and numerous

The post about the Beatles will briefly talk about the popular British rock band, which has made a huge contribution to the popularization of rock culture in general. Also, a message about the Beatles can be used during preparation for classes.

Message about the Beatles

The Beatles- British rock band, was the most striking phenomenon of world culture of the 60s of the XX century. It was founded in the spring of 1956 by 15-year-old John Lennon. At first it was called "The Quarrymen".

Members of the Beatles

The "gold" composition of the British rock band included:

  • John Lennon(piano, rhythm guitar, vocals)
  • Paul McCartney(bass guitar, vocals, piano)
  • Ringo Starr(drums and vocals)
  • George Harrison(vocals and lead guitar).

Brief information about the Beatles

The Beatle, or as it was first called "The Quarrymen", consisted entirely of amateur musicians. None of them professionally owned the instrument. The founder of the group, John Lennon, sang in the church choir from childhood and knew how to play several tunes on the harmonica.

In 1957, Paul McCartney in the garden of St. Petra meets John Lennon in Liverpool. A week later, he was already in the group, playing the guitar. On McCartney's advice, 15-year-old guitarist George Harrison joined in 1958. The musical ensemble was renamed "Jonny and The Moondogs". For the most part, they played rock and roll, playing songs composed by Lennon and McCartney, as well as American hits.

The line-up changed frequently, except for Paul, John and George. Soon they were joined by Stuart Sutcliffe, standing behind the bass guitar. In November 1959, the ensemble was again renamed The Silver Beatles, after simply The Beatles. A year later, the Beatles began looking for a new drummer, and Pete Best joined the band. This composition was more or less stable for some time. After a successful tour in Hamburg, in 1961 the band recorded their first studio recording.

In May 1962, the team finds a producer in the person of George Martin, with whom they sign a contract. For unknown reasons, Pete Best leaves this year, and Ringo Starr takes his place.

The first successful and standing record of the British rock band was the record "Love me do". After its release, the Beatles were recognized as the best Liverpool group. After the disc "Please, please me", in October 1963, a real mania began - "Beatlemania". But the ensemble began its conquest of the musical pinnacle from Sweden. In January 1964, the Beatles went on tour in Paris. The world was conquered and "Beatlemania" often developed into popular hysteria.

The band performed for the last time on August 29, 1966. In the future, there was only studio work. The last record was the record "Let it be". The Beatles disbanded in 1970. Each member of the musical project began his solo career. The death of John Lennon in 1980, or rather his murder, finally destroyed all hopes for the reunion of the legendary four. But, despite all this, the group does not lose its popularity and love of the audience.

Albums of the Beatles

During the existence of the Beatles, they sold more than 1 billion discs and cassettes, they were the authors 18 albums(13 official studio albums). The most popular of them: "Revolver", "Magical Mystery Tour", "Let It Be", "Help!" "," With The Beatles", "Yellow Submarine", "Beatles for Sale".

  • John Lennon's father worked as a merchant ship, Paul McCartney as an employee, Ringo Starr as a baker, and George Harrison as a sailor.
  • The phrase "The Beatles" is a mixture of the words "beat" (beat) and "beetles" (beetle).
  • The Beatles were awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1965. However, John Lennon in 1969, in protest (he opposed the support of England in the US aggression in Vietnam), returned his order.
  • The Beatles were the first group to have their performance on June 25, 1967 broadcast worldwide via satellite by the BBC.
  • While on tour in 1961 in Hamburg, band member Stuart Sutcliffe fell in love with photographer and artist Astrid Kirchherr. She owns the idea of ​​​​creating the legendary Beatle haircuts. She also suggested that the guys wear jackets without collars instead of frayed leather jackets. Astrid Kirchherr held a professional photo shoot of the Beatles in a new image. For her sake, Stuart Sutcliffe leaves the group and stays with her in Hamburg.
  • Even before the birth of the popular offspring


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