The Beatles
John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Is there a better foursome in music history? I don't think so. Let's face it, The Beatles are and will always be the greatest band to ever live. I could go on for days, even weeks talking about The Beatles, so I will try to keep it short and simple here. The band was from Liverpool, England and its first member was John Lennon. John was a member of a group called The Quarrymen. One day outside a local Church a young lad named Paul McCartney watched The Quarrymen perform. Paul was impressed with the way John was making up his own words to popular songs. Afterwards Paul met up with John and played a song on guitar. John was impressed with Paul with the way he played guitar, which Paul had to play upside down since it was a right handed guitar and he is left handed. A few days later Paul joined the band as well as well as Paul's school buddy George Harrison. John and Paul were on rhythm guitar and George was on lead. The band would go through many drummers, but still needed a bass player. John's friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who was more interested in painting, joined the band as the bass player. The Quarrymen went through several different band names such as Johnny and the Moondogs, The Silver Beatles, and eventually suggested by Stuart, The Beatles. The group then headed for Hamburg with their new full-time drummer Pete Best. The boys were exhausted from touring and were getting into lots of trouble in Hamburg. In Hamburg The Beatles became a backup band for musician Tony Sheridan, they recorded the hit "My Bonnie" and "Ain't she sweet" together. Almost 8 months later they returned back to Liverpool and began to play in a local tavern called The Cavern Club. Over their span of playing here the band made 292 performances. It was at The Cavern Club where The Beatles began to earn their fame. Brian Epstein, the bands future manager first heard of the group while working at his record store when a customer asked about the track they recorded with Sheridan, "My Bonnie". Epstein went out to seek the boys and became their manager until he died. While still being the headline act at The Cavern Club, Epstein was desperately trying to land the band a record contract but was constantly being turned down. Shortly before Epstein was able to land a one year contract with producer George Martin at EMI, bassist and good friend of John's, had died. This now meant that someone had to move over to bass. No one wanted to do it, but eventually Paul became the bass player. The band was ready to record with George Martin with the exception one thing. Martin was not thrilled with Pete Best's drumming. It was at this time Martin suggested to Epstein to find another drummer for the session. The lucky man was the drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo Starr. Ringo had filled in for the group from time to time when Pete could not play. Ringo didn't play for the entire session however, studio drummer Andy White played on a few tracks and Whites playing can be heard on the versions of "Love me do" and "Please please me". Those two tracks would be the bands first two singles which led to the recording of their debut album Please Please me, which the band recorded the other 12 tracks in one 13 hour session. It took a while for America to catch on to The Beatles. They would send singles over but were not taken seriously because of their long hair. Eventually when the band signed to Capital Records in America and released "I want to hold you hand", America had no choice but to fall in love them which they did. In February of 1964, with a couple albums under there belt and several singles, The Beatles were ready to head to America. There was a huge crowd of screaming teenage girls waiting for them at the airport. Beatlemania had officially began in America. Two days later the band performed on The Ed Sullivan show, where close to half of America watched. After making several performances the band headed back to the England to record their third album and their first film, A Hard Days Night. Capital Records version of the bands American albums were quite different from the original British versions. A Hard Days night was the bands fourth album in America and did not include all the tracks that the British version had. This is something that would continue for a few years until the release of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles were so huge right now and were constantly touring. They recorded another album, then followed that up by doing another album/film. This time there were seen in color with the film Help. After the release of Help the boys went on another American tour, this time selling out at New York's Shea Stadium, at the time being the biggest concert in history. It may not have been well known at the time, but The Beatles were big on drugs at this point. It has been said that singer/songwriter Bob Dylan got the band hooked on marijuana. After Help the band recorded two similar albums that were more mature than their previous releases and had much more experimentation. George was becoming influenced by Indian music and wrote a few songs that featured a sitar. The band was also now involved in a few controversies, such as offending people in the Philippines by not attending a dinner. The big one though was when a statement John Lennon made was taken the wrong way. He stated the band was "More popular than Jesus", which was taken as they were better than Jesus, which is not what he meant. This led to many sessions in which people would burn Beatles albums and memorabilia. Which is a bit silly since I'm sure most of these people purchased everything they burned again. At this point the band was tired of touring and just wanted to record in the studio. On August 29th 1966 the band performed live for the last time. (besides the roof top performance on Abbey Road Studios) The concert was at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, the band was quite sure this was their last live performance going into it, and it was. For now on they wanted to concentrate on recording, and what came next would be according to most people their Masterpiece, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album included many studio tricks, aimed towards the fact that the songs could not be performed live. After its release the band went away on a Holiday to meet an influence of George's, Maharishi. It was during this time that their manager and good friend Brian Epstein had died. The band was lost and did not know what to do. Their first project after his death was a flop, which was unlike The Beatles. It was a film to their new album, Magical Mystery Tour. They directed it themselves and most people consider it to be quite awful. With Brian gone now and drugs being a part of their daily lives the band was splitting more and more apart. John was seeing a new girl, Yoko Ono, and the two of them would go everywhere together, even the recording studio. The band worked on their next album simply called The Beatles, for quite a long time. The recording of the album was nothing like how it use to be. There would be several studio sessions going at once with none of them hardly working together. It was even at this time that Ringo quit the band, but shortly returned. After the release of the double album the band started a new project having cameras filming them while recording a new album. They were going to rehearse a bunch of songs and perform them live on the roof of the studio, which they partially did. The film and the album ended up being called Let it Be, which would be released after the band had broken up. If you have ever watched the documentary then you know how great it is, and yet you can tell the band was heading in the wrong direction. After the frustrations of Let it Be Paul approached George Martin, their producer and told him they wanted to record another album. George was hesitant about it because of how things were during the Let it Be session, but agreed to it, only if they do things how the use to, meaning everyone being together in the same studio. They agreed and in my opinion, saved the best for last and recorded my personal favorite Beatles album, Abbey Road, named after the studio. The last track recorded for the album, and the last track recorded as a foursome was the longest track on a Beatles album, "I want you (she's so heavy)". A month after the album had been recorded John announced to everyone that he was quitting, although this did not become official for a while. Paul and George had already had solo albums made at this time, and John and Ringo were working on their solo debuts as well. All four of them went on to successful solo careers. Though the band had been broken up for years and feuds were going around tragedy struck them on December 8th 1980 in New York city when John Lennon was shot and killed. There would never be a reunion of the fab 4. Fourteen years later the remaining three Beatles did reunite, along with producer George Martin to release a fantastic documentary on the band and released a three CD set of demos and rarities, including two new songs with John on vocals from some old demos. On November 29th, 2001 lead guitarist George Harrison died from lung cancer. To his tribute there was a concert held for him in which the two remaining Beatles, Paul and Ringo performed a few Beatles songs written by George. There are many things that I did not discuss with many details, or discuss at all such as their use of drugs, performances on the Ed Sullivan Show, Apple Records (their record company), films, singles, influences on the music industry and pop culture, and their personal lives. A lot of this information will be discussed on their own solo websites, and through album websites. As I stated earlier, you can go on for days discussing the greatest band of all time. One disappointing thing about The Beatles is their collection on CD. I have been saying for years that their collection should be remastered, which it has been rumored that there will be remastered releases of their albums in 2009, which would be amazing.
Please Please me - 1963 With The Beatles - 1963 A hard days night - 1964
Beatles for sale - 1964 Help! - 1965 Rubber soul - 1965 Past Masters volume 1 - 1962-1965
Revolver - 1966 Sgt. Peppers lonely hearts club band - 1967 Magical Mystery tour - 1967
The Beatles - 1968 Yellow Submarine - 1969 Abbey Road - 1969 Let it be - 1970
Past Masters volume 2 - 1965-1970 Live at the BBC - 1994 Anthology 1 - 1995
Anthology 2 - 1996 Anthology 3 - 1996 Let it be... Naked - 2003
Love - 2006 Ideal compilation - SG
*When converting their albums to CD it was decided that the American versions would not be in CD format and that any singles not released on British albums would be released on two CD's titled Past Masters. In addition to these releases are compilations of rarities and demos on their Anthology set, Let it Be... Naked and a mix CD titled Love. With owning these discs everything that The Beatles have released on record should be covered.*
Scott's Music Library