The Beatles
File:Beatles retouched.jpg John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in 1964.
Background information
Origin	Liverpool
Years active	1960–1970 1994–1996 (only Harrison, McCartney, and Starr)
Members	John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr
Past members	Pete Best (1960–1962) Stuart Sutcliffe (1960–1961)
Website	http://www.beatles.com/

The Beatles were an English music group from Liverpool who continue to be held in the highest esteem for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, their groundbreaking role in the history of popular music, and their contributions to popular culture. Although their initial musical style was rooted in the sounds of 1950's Rock & Roll, the group explored many different musical styles, such as Ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, Classical, Indian, Hard Rock, experimental, Psychedelic, and abstract art pieces. The innovative music and style of John Lennon (1940–1980), Paul McCartney (1942—), George Harrison (1943–2001), and Ringo Starr (1940—) helped to define the 1960s.

The Beatles were the best-selling popular musical act of the 20th century. In the United Kingdom alone, they released more than 40 different singles, albums and EPs that reached number one. This commercial success was repeated in many other countries: EMI estimated that by 1985, the band had sold over one billion records worldwide.^[1] The RIAA has certified The Beatles as the top selling artist of all time based on U.S. sales. ^[2]

Their early material fused elements of American rock 'n' roll and R&B into a new and influential strain of popular rock 'n roll. With Lennon and McCartney penning most of the band's songs, they established a prototype for the "self-contained" rock group, which departed from the long-established practice of producers, composers and arrangers writing the songs for popular music acts. The Beatles were a major force behind the so-called "British Invasion" of U.K.-based rock 'n' roll bands in the United States in the mid-1960s, inspiring what the media was to term "Beatlemania" (see below). They helped to pioneer more advanced, multi-layered arrangements in both rock and pop, and were instrumental in the development of some of the dominant musical styles of the 1960s, notably folk rock, hard rock and psychedelia.

The Beatles' impact extended well beyond their music. Their clothes, hairstyles, statements, and even their choice of instruments made them trend-setters throughout the 1960s (see The Beatles' influence on popular culture), while their growing social awareness — reflected in the development of their music — saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

History

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Formation and early years

In March of 1957, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen (fleetingly known as The Blackjacks^[3]). On 6 July of that year, Lennon met Paul McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Fete. In February of 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which was then playing under a variety of names. A few primitive recordings of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison from that era have survived. During this period, members continually joined and left the lineup; Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison emerged as the only constant members.

The Quarrymen went through a progression of names -- Johnny and The Moondogs, Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles, The Beat Brothers -- and somehow eventually decided on "The Beatles." There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling; it is usually credited to John Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insects "beetles" (as a nod/compliment to Buddy Holly's band The Crickets) and the word "beat"^[4]. He also later said that it was a joke, meaning a pun on "Beat-less". In Cynthia Lennon's book "John" she suggests that John came up with the name Beatles at a "...brainstorming session over a beer soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar...". In addition to being a fan of the Crickets, Lennon is paraphrased as having said: "if you turn it round it was "les beat," which sounded French and cool".^[5] Lennon, who became famous for giving multiple versions of the same story, also once claimed in Mersey Beat magazine, with tongue in cheek, that a man appeared to him on a "flaming pie" and instructed him to "call the band, The Beatles -- with an 'a'".

In May of 1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle,^[6] who was signed to the Larry Parnes agency. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to that short tour as a great experience for the band. For this tour the chronically drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others.^[7] The band’s van (driven by Gentle) had a head-on crash with another vehicle on their way back from Scotland and Moore lost some teeth and had stitches after being hit in the mouth by a guitar. Nobody else was seriously injured.^[8] He left the band shortly after, feeling the age gap was too great and went back to work in a bottling factory as a fork-lift truck driver, on the advice of his girlfriend.^[8]

Hamburg

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Norman Chapman was their next drummer, but only for a few weeks, as he was called up for National Service. This was a real problem as their unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany. (Paul McCartney has often said that if any of The Beatles had been individually called-up for National Service - had it been extended for just a few more weeks - the band would never have come into existence, because of the different ages of the key members at this crucial period. ^[9])

In August of 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's drummer, after watching Best playing with The Blackjacks ^[10] in the Casbah Club. This was a cellar club operated by Best's mother Mona, in Hayman's Green, Liverpool, where The Beatles had played and often used to visit^[11].

They started in Hamburg by playing in the The Indra and The Kaiserkeller bars. They were told to play six or seven hours a night, seven nights a week. They went a second time and played the Top Ten club for three months (April until June, 1961.) While they were playing at the Top Ten they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961. On 23 October Polydor released the recording "My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which made it into the German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers".

Their third trip to Hamburg was when they opened The Star Club (April, 1962) and were there for two months.

Upon their return from Hamburg, the group was enthusiastically promoted by Sam Leach, who presented them for the next year and a half on various stages in Liverpool forty-nine times^[12]. Brian Epstein, manager of the record department at NEMS, his family's furniture store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and led The Beatles' quest for a British recording contract. In one now-famous exchange, an executive at Decca Records turned Epstein down flat and informed him that guitar groups were on the way out^[13].

Record contract

Epstein eventually met with producer George Martin of EMI's Parlophone label. Martin expressed an interest in hearing the band in the studio; he invited the quartet to London's Abbey Road studios for an audition on 6 June. Martin had not been particularly impressed by the band's demo recordings, but he instantly liked them as people when he met them. He concluded that they had raw musical talent, but said (in later interviews) that what made the difference for him that day was their wit and humour in the studio: They were very likeable, and slightly cheeky, young men. When he asked them if there was anything they did not like, Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie". The remark typified the slightly surreal blend of wry humour and irreverence toward authority that eventually became the band's in-joke with a global audience. That day, however, their audience was a single person: a detail-oriented, slightly stuffy-looking Parlophone executive who had never before worked with a rock 'n' roll band. Fortunately for the band, Martin, whose background was in comedy and novelty records, appreciated the joke. He offered the band a contract.

Martin did have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised for not being able to keep time; he privately suggested to Brian Epstein that the band use another drummer in the studio. Best had some popularity and was considered good-looking by many female fans, but the three founding members had become increasingly unhappy with his drumming and his personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. The Beatles let Best go on 16 August 1962, leaving it to Brian Epstein to tell him. They immediately asked Ringo Starr (real name: Richard Starkey), the drummer for one of the top Merseybeat groups Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, to join the band. The Beatles had met and performed with Starr previously in Hamburg. (In fact the first recordings of John, Paul, George and Ringo together were as early as 15 October 1960, in a series of demonstration records privately recorded in Hamburg as backing group for singer Lu Walters.) Starr played on The Beatles' second EMI recording session on 4 September 1962, but Martin hired session drummer Andy White for their next session on 11 September.

Their recording contract was probably one of the worst at the time, as they were paid one pence for every single sold, which was split among the four Beatles. This amounted to less than one farthing per Beatle. They were paid half of one penny (split between the whole band) for sales outside of the UK. Even George Martin said later that it was "pretty awful".^[14] Their publishing contract with Dick James Music (DJM) was not much better; they only got 50% of the money received, while James took the other 50%. Epstein also took a percentage of Lennon and McCartney´s share.

The Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June did not yield any releasable recordings but the September sessions produced a minor UK hit, "Love Me Do", which peaked on the charts at number 17. ("Love Me Do" reached the top of the U.S. singles chart over 18 months later in May 1964.) This was swiftly followed by their second single "Please Please Me". Three months later they recorded their first album (also titled Please Please Me), a mix of original songs by Lennon and McCartney with some covers of their favourite songs. The band's first televised performance was on a program called People and Places transmitted live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October 1962.

America

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Although the band experienced huge popularity in the record charts in Britain from early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol Records (owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You"^[15] in the United States, partly because no British act had ever yet had a sustained commercial impact on American audiences.

Vee-Jay Records, a small Chicago label, is said by some to have been pressured into issuing these singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please Please Me" into rotation in late February 1963, making it possibly the first time a Beatles' record was heard on American radio. Vee-Jay's rights to The Beatles were cancelled for non-payment of royalties.^[16]

In August 1963 the Philadelphia-based Swan label tried again with The Beatles' "She Loves You", which also failed to receive airplay. A testing of the song on Dick Clark's TV show American Bandstand resulted only in laughter and scorn from American teenagers when they saw the group's Beatle haircuts. The famous radio DJ, Murray the K (Kaufman) featured "She Loves You" on his 1010 WINS record revue in October, to an underwhelming response.

Beatlemania

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In November 1963, The Beatles appeared on the Royal Variety Performance and were photographed with Marlene Dietrich who also appeared on the show. In early November 1963 Brian Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to commit to presenting The Beatles on three editions of his show in February, and parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with Capitol Records. Capitol committed to a mid-January release for "I Want to Hold Your Hand",^[17] but a series of unplanned circumstances triggered premature airplay of an imported copy of the single on a Washington DC radio station in mid-December. Capitol brought forward release of the record to December 26 1963.

Several New York radio stations — first WMCA, then WINS and WABC — began playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on its release day, and the Beatlemania that had started in Washington was duplicated in New York and quickly spread to other markets. The record sold one million copies in just ten days, and by January 16, Cashbox Magazine had certified The Beatles record number one (in the edition published with the cover-date January 23).

This contributed to the hysterical fan reaction at JFK Airport on February 7 1964. A record-breaking seventy-three million viewers — approximately 40% of the U.S. population at the time — tuned in to the first Sullivan appearance on February 9. During the week of April 4, The Beatles held the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100 (see The Beatles record sales, worldwide charts), a feat that has never been repeated.

In mid-1964 the band undertook their first appearances outside of Europe and North America, touring Australia and New Zealand (notably without Ringo Starr who was ill and was temporarily replaced by session drummer Jimmy Nicol). When they arrived in Adelaide, The Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the largest crowd of their touring career, when over 300,000 people — about one-third of the population of the city — turned out to see them. In September that year baseball owner Charles O. Finley paid the band the then unheard of sum of $150,000 to play in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1965 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon them the MBE, a civil honour nominated by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The award, at that time primarily given to military veterans and civic leaders, sparked some conservative MBE recipients to return their awards in protest, which was widely reported in the British press and was even the lead item on the BBC television news. The first two were returned in June, before The Beatles received theirs in October 1965.^[18]

On August 15 that year, The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in modern rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd of 55,600.^[19] The band later admitted that they had been totally unable to hear themselves play or sing, due to the screaming and cheering. This concert is generally considered the point at which began their disenchantment with performing live.

Backlash and controversy

In July 1966, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected the group to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Brian Epstein politely declined on behalf of the group, as it had never been the group's policy to accept such "official" invitations. Unfortunately for the group, this apology was never printed. After the snubbing was widely-broadcast on Philippine television, and radio, all The Beatles' police protection disappeared, and they and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own, with the authorities throwing up every road block they could to harass them as much as possible. At the airport, roadie Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and The Beatles themselves were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Brian Epstein and Mal Evans were ordered off, and Mal Evans said, "Tell my wife that I love her..." (showing how seriously he thought the danger was of them both being shot). Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the band had earned while they were there, before being allowed back on the plane (Anthology).

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On July 31 that year, a comment from an interview with John back in March^[20] launched a backlash against The Beatles from religious and social conservatives in the Bible Belt of the US. Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying when interviewed by a British magazine on the decline of Christianity and that the group was "bigger than Jesus" (by which he meant that the group was more popular with youngsters), something that he referred to as a topic that caused concern and consideration. Beatles records were banned and burned in many cities and towns across the United States (primarily in the South) and from countries such as South Africa. Under pressure from American media, Lennon apologised for his remarks at a press conference in Chicago, on the eve of their first performance of what would turn out to be their final tour.

The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. From then on, they concentrated on recording music.

The Beatles' situation worsened when manager Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose on 27 August 1967, at the age of 32, and the band's business affairs began to unravel.

Just two months earlier, on 25 June 1967, The Beatles became the first band globally transmitted on television, in front of an estimated 400 million people worldwide. The Beatles were a segment within the first-ever worldwide TV satellite hook-up — a show titled Our World. The Beatles were transmitted live from Abbey Road Studios, and their new song "All You Need Is Love" was recorded live during the show.

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At the end of 1967, they received their first major negative press criticism in the UK [1] with disparaging reviews of their surrealistic TV film Magical Mystery Tour. The film was also panned by the public, although the vast majority of viewers saw the film in black-and-white, when colour was such an integral part of the film. Moreover, even if the film had been shown in colour, relatively poor picture quality and even poorer sound reproduction would have negatively affected it. The film's soundtrack is notable, since the song "Flying", written especially for the film, is one of The Beatles' only instrumental tracks.

In 1968 the group spent the early part of the year in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Upon their return, Lennon and McCartney took a trip to New York to announce the formation of Apple Corps; an initially altruistic business venture which they described at the time as an attempt at "western communism." The latter part of 1968 saw the band busy recording the double album The Beatles, popularly known as The White Album due to its stark white cover. These sessions saw deep divisions opening within the band.

McCartney gradually took greater charge of their own production, growing dominant in that role. Internal divisions within the band had been a small but growing problem during their earlier career; most notably, this was reflected in the difficulty that George Harrison experienced in getting his own songs onto Beatles' albums, and in the growing artistic and personal estrangement between Lennon and McCartney. Lennon also had problems getting songs onto albums, as he once complained; "Give me my three tracks on an album, and I'll be satisfied; that's all I want..."^{[citation needed]}

On the business side McCartney wanted wife Linda Eastman's father Lee Eastman to manage The Beatles, but the remaining Beatles wanted New York manager Allen Klein to represent them. All Beatles decisions in the past were unanimous but the four could not, and would not unanimously agree on a manager. Lennon, Harrison and Starr felt the Eastmans would look after McCartney's well-being before that of the group.

Their final live performance was on the rooftop of the Apple building in Savile Row, London on 30 January 1969, during the difficult Get Back sessions (later used as a basis for the Let It Be album). Largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded their final album, Abbey Road in summer 1969.

Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group in mid-September 1969, but the breakup was not made public until the release of McCartney's first solo album in April 1970. One month later, Let It Be followed as their last commercial album release.

Studio band

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The role of producer George Martin is often cited as a crucial element in their success. He used his experience to bring out the potential in the group, recognising and nurturing their creativity rather than imposing his views. After The Beatles stopped touring, they would increasingly come under pressure, and it was decided for the group to vent their artistic energy solely into recording.

Their constant demands to create new sounds on every new recording, and the imaginative - and ground-breaking - studio expertise of EMI staff engineers, including Norman Smith, Ken Townshend and Geoff Emerick all played significant parts in the innovative sounds of the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).

While most recording artists of the time were using two, three or four tracks in the studio, The Beatles had to use linked pairs of four-track decks, and ping-ponging tracks two, and even three times, became common. EMI delayed the introduction of eight-track recording - already becoming common in American studios - until 1968, when American studios were already upgrading to 16-tracks. EMI were loath to spend any money on new equipment - even though The Beatles were earning vast amounts - and so Abbey Road was always (technically) one step behind every other studio.

When Magic Alex proposed building a 72-track studio in the basement of the Saville Row office, everybody encouraged him, but this was later proven to be a complete disaster, as Alex had no idea about studios at all, but nevertheless convinced all of The Beatles that he could do it.

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Along with studio tricks such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, automatic double tracking and vari-speed recording, The Beatles (mostly McCartney and Lennon) began augmenting their recordings using instruments considered unconventional for rock music at the time, including string and brass ensembles, Indian instruments such as the sitar and the swarmandel, tape loops and early electronic instruments, including Paul McCartney´s Mellotron, which was unforgettably used (with flute voices) on the intro to "Strawberry Fields Forever". McCartney once asked Martin what a guitar would sound like if it was played underwater, and was serious about trying it. Lennon also wondered what his vocals would sound like if he was hanging upside down from the ceiling. It was quite obvious that their ideas were out-stripping the technology that was available at the time.

By the time of the sessions for The White Album - released in November of 1968 - they often had two or three studios booked at the same time, where the four members would work alone or in pairs. Several tracks were cut at other studios. They often used Trident studio^[21] in Soho (central London) because it was an independent studio - not connected to a record company - and it had an 8-track machine. Its layout was very similar to Abbey Road Studio Two, because it had a large room, and the window of the mixing room was high up on the wall. Olympic Studios in Barnes (south-west London), which was used extensively by The Rolling Stones, was another favoured place to record. Olympic was the scene of the famous argument between The Beatles, when Paul refused to sign the management contract proposed by Klein. The other three Beatles left, and McCartney released his frustration by drumming on "My Dark Hour" with Steve Miller, who happened to be there at the time.

Another significant factor had emerged — Lennon's passionate affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono. The couple quickly became inseparable and Lennon further alienated the other Beatles by bringing Ono to almost every recording session; breaking the band's long-standing rule against outsiders at sessions. Lennon even ordered a bed to be installed in the studio so Yoko could recuperate (after their car crash in Scotland).

This isolation was compounded by "Revolution 9": a wildly experimental John Lennon/Yoko Ono concoction of tape loops, and "found sounds", that the three other Beatles did not think was really 'them' and tried (but failed) to keep off the album. This broke the rule that if just one of The Beatles objected to anything, it would not be accepted. It was McCartney, however, who had a stronger interest in the experimental music of Karlheinz Stockhausen ("Revolution 9" was similar to Stockhausen's Hymnen) and had composed and recorded his own experimental 'symphony' as early as 1965 ("Carnival of Light"). The earlier use by The Beatles of "tape loops", on "Tomorrow Never Knows" was driven (and the loops assembled) primarily by McCartney and the engineers.

Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" featured an 'outside' musician (his friend Eric Clapton) who played the guitar solo. Clapton was reportedly brought in as the result of a bitter dispute between Harrison and Lennon that drove Starr to take a two-week hiatus. During this time McCartney played drums on some of the tracks on the album, including "Back in the USSR", on which he also overdubbed most of the lead guitar parts. McCartney had played occasional lead guitar solos on selected songs as far back as 1966's "Taxman".

The stress of controlling everything (without Epstein) marred the troubled Get Back sessions in January of 1969 — Lennon later denounced them as being the worst recordings of their career^[22] — and the project was made even more stressful by having to get up extremely early in the morning and having the presence of a film crew to capture the rehearsals for a planned movie (which eventually became the Let It Be documentary).

The band's differences were - more or less - put aside later in the year for the recording of what became their valedictory album, Abbey Road. While parts of The White Album and the complete original Get Back sessions emphasised a return to basic pop-rock song structures, Abbey Road took a step back in the direction of more complicated production, with (at George Martin's suggestion) the moulding of songs and song fragments on Side Two into a unified whole. Abbey Road also featured the introduction of the synthesiser to the group's sound. It was mostly employed sparingly, but was also used as a source of white noise at the end of "I Want You (She's so Heavy)." The last track - "Her Majesty" - was an accident. Having been removed from the medley on Side Two, an engineer tagged it on to the end rather than throw it away. When the band heard it again it was decided to use it (copies of Abbey Road were then sent to Buckingham Palace).

By the end of 1969, the band had effectively broken up and the only piece of unfinished business was the as-yet unreleased Get Back project. The Beatles had been unhappy with the results from the Get Back sessions (produced originally by Glyn Johns of Olympic Studios with only minor participation by George Martin), and for some time it looked as if the material would be scrapped altogether. After a delay of over a year, American producer Phil Spector was brought in by Lennon and Harrison to edit, remix and overdub the tapes. His heavily-orchestrated "Wall of Sound" production style is evident on the Let It Be album, finally released in April 1970. McCartney was particularly angered by Spector´s grandiose treatment on the likes of "The Long and Winding Road."

Breakup and aftermath

In 1971 it was discovered that Allen Klein had stolen £5m from The Beatles holdings. McCartney could not dissolve his business with The Beatles easily, so this led to him suing the others so as to cut off all of his business interests with the group. Not speaking with the other band members until 1973, Lennon admitted to McCartney that they should have gone with the Eastmans' management, and this helped mend the personal relationship between the two.

Following the breakup, the only album to feature all four Beatles (although not on the same song) was Ringo, a 1973 Starr solo album. A jam session between John Lennon and Paul McCartney was recorded on March 31, 1974, when McCartney visited Lennon in Los Angeles, California. They played with a number of other musicians, including Stevie Wonder. Believed to be the last time the pair recorded together, this tape has been released on bootleg as A Toot and a Snore in '74.

Any hopes of a reunion were dashed when Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman, on December 8 1980. However, in 1981 the three remaining Beatles (with Linda McCartney and Denny Laine doing backing vocals) recorded the song "All Those Years Ago"; a tribute to John Lennon written by George Harrison and released on his album Somewhere in England. Another virtual reunion occurred in 1995 with the release of two original Lennon recordings which had the additional contributions of the remaining Beatles mixed in to create two hit singles, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love".

Three volumes (six CDs in total) of unreleased material and studio outtakes were also released, as well as a documentary and television miniseries, in a project known as The Beatles Anthology. On December 15 2005, McCartney and Starr, along with the families of Lennon and Harrison (who died 29 November 2001) sued EMI in a royalties dispute in which Apple Corps claimed EMI owes The Beatles £30 million.

They still remain enormously popular. In 1995, and 1996, five Anthology collections of CDs were released - each containing two CDs of never-before-released Beatles material - based on the Anthology documentary series. 450,000 copies of Anthology 1 were sold on its first day of release, reaching the highest volume of single-day sales ever, for an album. In 2000, a compilation album named 1 was released, containing almost every number-one single released by the band from 1962, to 1970. The collection sold 3.6 million copies in its first week and more than 12 million in three weeks worldwide, becoming the fastest-selling album of all time and the biggest-selling album of the year 2000. The collection also reached number one in the United States and 33 other countries.

The BBC have a large collection of Beatles recordings, mostly comprising original studio sessions from 1963 - 1968. Much of this material formed the basis for a 1988 radio documentary series The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes. Later, in 1994, the best of these sessions were given an official EMI release on Live at the BBC.

On June 30, 2006, Cirque de Soleil opened their show LOVE, a tribute to The Beatles, at the The Mirage in Las Vegas. It featured Beatles music remixed, recombined, and re-mastered by George Martin and his son Giles Martin.

Changes in their music

The Beatles were fans of almost every kind of music that they heard on the radio, or heard on imported records from America. These early records were not officially imported to the UK, but were taken to Liverpool by sailors who had bought them in America.

The Beatles were, in the beginning, heavily influenced by Rock and Roll. This later graduated into Beat Music, which is the reason why they chose The Beatles name. Mid-sixties Beatles material shifted away from dance music, and the tempo of their songs was varied from the back-beat rhythm of their beginnings. Lennon and McCartney never lost their affection for the driving R&B of Little Richard, and Chuck Berry, and this was reflected in many songs, from "I Saw Her Standing There" to "Revolution", "Birthday", and "Helter Skelter".

Lennon is conventionally portrayed as having played the major role in steering The Beatles towards psychedelia ("Rain" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" from 1966, and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus" from 1967), but McCartney was also influential being involved in the London avant garde scene, which was itself moving towards psychedelia during the same period.

John Lennon once said: "Avant-garde is French for bullshit", which was Lennon being humorous, once again. [2]In 1967, while Lennon retreated to his house in Weybridge, McCartney looked for musical inspiration in the experimental works of Stockhausen, John Cage and Cornelius Cardew. 'It was a very free, formless time for me'.

McCartney (who still lived in London) would often tell John about any new "happening" or "movement", and Lennon was always keen to hear about it, and to endorse it. They created many of the tape loops used on "Tomorrow Never Knows" and experimented with musique concrete techniques and electronic instruments, as well as creating many experimental audio-visual works.

In 1965, having recently become interested in Indian music, George Harrison purchased a sitar, which he played on the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", the first incident of such an instrument being used on a rock n'roll record. He later took sitar lessons from maestro Ravi Shankar, and implemented further elements of Eastern music and spirituality into his songs, notably "Love You To" and "Within You Without You". These musical decisions greatly increased the influence of Indian music on popular culture in the late 1960s.

Beginning with the use of a string quartet (arranged by George Martin) on "Yesterday" in 1965, The Beatles pioneered a modern form of art song, exemplified by the double-quartet string arrangement on "Eleanor Rigby" (1966), "Here, There and Everywhere" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Lennon and McCartney´s interest in the music of Bach led them to use a piccolo trumpet on the arrangement of "Penny Lane", and the use of a Mellotron at the start of "Strawberry Fields Forever".

The decision to stop touring - in 1966 - caused an abrupt change in their musical direction. They had already shown a clear trend towards progressively greater complexity in technique and style but this accelerated noticeably on their Revolver album. The subject matter of their post-touring songs branched out as well, as all manner of subjects were written about.

The extreme complexity of Sgt. Pepper reached its height on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album, parts of which (for example "It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song") were left over from 1967, and were used because The Beatles themselves were not interested in the animated film as a project and did not want to record new material for it.

Lennon and McCartney renewed their interest in rootsy forms towards the close of The Beatles' career, e.g. "Yer Blues" and "Birthday" from 1968 to "Don't Let Me Down" the following year.

On film

A Hard Day's Night and Help!

The Beatles had a largely successful film career, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964), a loosely scripted comic farce, sometimes compared to the Marx Brothers in style. It focused on Beatlemania and their hectic touring lifestyle, and was directed in a quasi-documentary style in black-and-white by the up-and-coming Richard Lester, who was known for having directed a television version of the successful BBC radio series The Goon Show as well as the off-beat short film The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film.

In 1965 came Help!; an Eastmancolour extravaganza, which was also directed by Lester, and was shot in exotic locations (such as Salisbury Plain, with Stonehenge visible in the background; the Bahamas; and Salzburg and the Tyrol region of the Austrian Alps) in the style of a James Bond spoof along with even more Marx Brothers-style zaniness: For example, the film is dedicated "to Elias Howe, who, in 1846, invented the sewing machine."

In 1966 Lennon took time off to play a supporting character in the film called How I Won the War, again directed by Lester. It was a satire of World War II films, and its dry, ironic British humour was not well received by American audiences.

Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine

The Magical Mystery Tour film was essentially Paul McCartney's idea, which was thought up as he returned from a trip to the U.S. in the late spring of 1967, and was loosely inspired by press coverage McCartney had read about Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters' LSD-fuelled American bus odyssey. McCartney envisaged taking this idea and blending it with the peculiarly English working class tradition of charabanc mystery tours. The film was critically dismissed when it was aired on the BBC's premier television network, BBC-1, on Boxing Day — a day primarily for traditional "cosy, family entertainment". The film appeared radical avant-garde by those standards, and instead of showcasing the lovable "moptops"/Beatles as they had been up until then, it showed them as part of the hippie counter-culture of 1967, which was at odds with the British establishment of that era. Compounding this culture clash was the fact that BBC-1, at that time, still only transmitted programmes in black & white, while Tour was in colour. The film was repeated a few days later on the BBC's second channel (BBC-2) in colour — receiving more appreciation, but the initial negative media reaction is what is most remembered.

The animated Yellow Submarine followed in 1968, but had little direct input from The Beatles, save for a live-action epilogue and the contribution of four new songs (including "Only a Northern Song", an unreleased track from the Sgt. Pepper sessions). It was acclaimed for its boldly innovative graphic style and clever humour, along with the soundtrack. The Beatles are said to have been pleased with the result and attended its highly publicised London premiere, every one of The Beatles thought their own voices (narrated by actors) were not quite right, whilst saying that the other three were perfect.

In 1969, Ringo Starr took second billing to Peter Sellers in the satirical comedy The Magic Christian; in a part which had been written especially for him. Starr later embarked on an irregular career in comedy films through the early 1980s, and his interest in the subject led him to be the most active of the group in the film division of Apple Corp, although it was Harrison who would achieve the most success as a film producer.

Let It Be

File:Getback roof.jpg

Let It Be was an ill-fated documentary of the band that was shot over a four-week period in January 1969. The documentary — which was originally intended to be simply a chronicle of the evolution of an album and the band's possible return to live performance — captured the prevailing tensions between the band members, and in this respect it unwittingly became a document of the beginning of their break-up. The band initially shelved both the film and the album, instead recording and issuing Abbey Road. But with so much money having been spent on the project, it was decided to finish and release the film and album (the latter with considerable post-production by Phil Spector) in spring 1970. When the film finally appeared, it was after the break-up had been announced, and it was viewed by shocked fans as the last - but not the best - tribute to the band.

Influences

Major influences included:

• Elvis Presley. They recorded a number of Presley covers at the Abbey Road studio, and bootleg copies have existed since the late 1960s. Interviews for the documentary Anthology has all four band members speaking very highly of Presley, with Paul McCartney referring to him as "The guru". In other interviews McCartney has credited Presley as the rocker who influenced him the most. Ironically, the band and Presley met only once, on a tour in 1965, and Presley, five years later, joined President Richard Nixon in publicly denouncing the band as "a real force for anti-American spirit".[3]
• Chuck Berry. They recorded covers of Berry songs: "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock and Roll Music" on their early albums, and also performed many other of his classics in their live repertoire. When Lennon first met Berry (as Berry walked in the dressing room door) Lennon shouted out, "Chuck Berry, my hero!".
• Buddy Holly was an early influence. The group played many of his songs on stage in their early days. They also recorded "Words of Love". It is accepted that their name was inspired by Holly’s backing group, The Crickets. Stuart Sutcliffe suggested "Beetles" which John Lennon altered to Beatles, but his version was a joke, meaning "Beat-less".
• In their early days as performers the band took some cues from local Liverpool favourites Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, with whom Starr had played prior to joining The Beatles.
• American rockabilly music; particularly that of Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. The band's early stage shows featured several Perkins tunes; some of these (notably "Honey Don't", featuring an early Starr vocal) that they eventually recorded on their albums.
• Early Motown artists. Early Beatles covers included exact copies of Barrett Strong's Motown recording of "Money (That's What I Want)" and The Marvelettes' hit "Please Mr. Postman".
• Little Richard. Some of their songs (especially in their early repertoire) featured falsetto screams similar to his, most notably on McCartney's rendition of Richard's song, "Long Tall Sally". In 1962, Richard socialised with The Beatles in Hamburg and they performed together at the Star-Club. "Long Tall Sally" became a permanent fixture in early Beatles' concert performances.
• Ragtime and music hall; owing much to the musical interests of McCartney's father. This is apparent in songs like "When I'm Sixty-Four" (composed during The Quarrymen period), "Honey Pie", and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". About their early single, "From Me to You", McCartney said, "It could be done as an old rag-time tune... especially the middle-eight, but we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom."
• The Everly Brothers. Lennon and McCartney copied Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies. Their vocals on "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" were inspired by the Everlys' vocals on "Cathy's Clown" (1960), the first recording to ever reach number one simultaneously in the USA and England. "Two of Us", the opening track on Let It Be was overtly composed in the Everlys' style and McCartney acknowledged this in the recording, with a spoken "Take it Phil". McCartney later name-checked 'Phil and Don' in his solo track, "Let Em In".
• Bob Dylan, particularly from 1965, with "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (Help!) and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" (Rubber Soul). Dylan introduced The Beatles to marijuana (1964) in a New York hotel room when he offered the Fab Four pot as a consequence of his misconception that the lyrics in their hit song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (Meet the Beatles!) were "I get high" instead of "I can't hide". This initial partaking in drugs grew into heavier experimentation with LSD, heroin, and various other substances whose psychedelic effects were commonly thought to have manifested themselves in the band's music. The Beatles, in turn, would influence Dylan's move into an electrified rock sound in his music.
• Country Music. All four band members have talked about their influences from American country music. The group covered Buck Owens "Act Naturally" and also recorded an original country number "What Goes On?", both sung by Starr. Starr's first original Beatles composition, "Don't Pass Me By" for The White Album, had a distinct country sound. Both Starr and McCartney would continue to record country material in their solo careers. McCartney was once asked to record a duet with Kenny Rogers, which he accepted but nothing was ever recorded.
• Ravi Shankar. Although not a major influence on Lennon, McCartney, or Starr, the impact of Shankar's lessons in both Indian music and spirituality to George Harrison made a permanent impact on Harrison's musical style, provoking greater use of spiritual themes in the band's music, and more intense musical experimentation, climaxing with "Within You Without You" on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which features solely Indian instrumentation.

The Beatles line-ups

Instrumentation

• Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Epiphone, Gibson, and Fender guitars
• Ludwig drums
• Steinway, and Blüthner pianos
• Höfner, Fender and Rickenbacker basses
• Hammond, Vox and Lowrey electric organs
• Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hohner Pianet electric pianos

Microphones

Although microphone usage varied somewhat according to the requirements of each song, the group's recordings at Abbey Road most often employed Neumann U47 or U67 microphones for electric guitars and one or more Neumann U48s for vocals. Early in their recording career the drums usually were recorded with only two microphones: one overhead (an AKG D19 or STC 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20). Later, more microphones were used on the drums.

With the group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with microphone placement and equalization. Many of his techniques were unusual for the time but have since become commonplace, such as "close miking" (physically placing the microphone in very close proximity of a sound source) of acoustic instruments or deliberately overloading the signal to produce distortion. For example, he obtained the biting string sound that characterizes Eleanor Rigby by miking the instruments extremely closely -- Emerick has related that the string players would instinctively back away from the microphones at the start of each take, and he would go back into the studio and move the microphones closer again.^[23]

The AKG C28 is visible in the Let It Be film. Available studio documentation and interviews with their former recording engineers indicate that this microphone was not used for recording in the studio.^[24]

Discography

Studio albums

The original studio albums by The Beatles in their home market (the UK) are as follows:

• 
  1. Please Please Me
  (March 22 1963)
  
• 2. With the Beatles (November 22 1963)
  2. With the Beatles
  (November 22 1963)
  
• 
  3. A Hard Day's Night
  (July 10 1964)
  
• 
  4. Beatles for Sale
  (December 4 1964)
  
• 5. Help! (August 6 1965)
  5. Help!
  (August 6 1965)
• 6. Rubber Soul (December 3 1965)
  6. Rubber Soul
  (December 3 1965)
• 
  7. Revolver
  (August 5 1966)
• 8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (June 1 1967)
  8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  (June 1 1967)
• 9. The Beatles (The White Album) (November 22 1968)
  9. The Beatles (The White Album)
  (November 22 1968)
• 10. Yellow Submarine (January 17 1969)
  10. Yellow Submarine
  (January 17 1969)
• 
  11. Abbey Road
  (September 26 1969)
• 
  12. Let It Be
  (May 8 1970)

Official CD catalogue

In 1987, EMI released The Beatles' original albums on CD. To allow the catalogue to be truly complete, EMI released an American compiled album on CD in 1987 and two compilation CDs in 1988:

• Magical Mystery Tour (August 8 1987)
  Magical Mystery Tour
  (August 8 1987)
• Past Masters, Volume One (March 7 1988)
  Past Masters, Volume One
  (March 7 1988)
• Past Masters, Volume Two (March 7 1988)
  Past Masters, Volume Two
  (March 7 1988)

According to EMI and the Guinness Book of Records, The Beatles have sold in excess of 1,010,000,000 units (including cassettes, records, CDs, bootlegs). The only other artist to come close is Elvis Presley, with a similar number.

Song catalogue

In 1963 The Beatles gave their song publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by Brian Epstein and music publisher Dick James. Northern Songs went public in 1965 with Lennon and McCartney each holding 15% of the company's shares while Dick James and the company's chairman, Charles Silver, held a controlling 37.5%. In 1969, following a failed attempt by Lennon and McCartney to buy back the company, James and Silver sold Northern Songs to British TV company Associated TeleVision (ATV), in which Lennon and McCartney received stock.

File:Atv-sm.gif

In 1985 ATV's music catalogue was sold to Michael Jackson for a reported $47 million (beating McCartney's bid), including the publishing rights to over 200 Beatles songs. A decade later Jackson and Sony merged their music publishing businesses. Since 1995 Jackson and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have jointly owned most of The Beatles' songs. Sony later reported that Jackson had used his share of their co-owned Beatles' catalogue as collateral for a loan from the music company. Meanwhile, Lennon's estate and McCartney still receive their standard songwriter shares of the royalties.

Although the Jackson-Sony catalogue includes most of The Beatles' greatest hits, a few of the early songs were not included in the original ATV deal and McCartney later succeeded in personally acquiring the publishing rights to "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "P.S. I Love You" and "Ask Me Why".

Harrison and Starr did not renew their songwriting contracts with Northern Songs in 1968, signing with Apple Publishing instead. Harrison later created Harrisongs, his own company which still owns the rights to his songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". Starr also created his own company, called Startling Music. It holds the rights to his two Beatle-composed songs, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".

Song samples

The following samples are organised as per the year the song was originally released.

1965

• Audio file "Beatles help.ogg" not found
• Audio file "Beatles yesterday.ogg" not found
• "Drive My Car"^ⓘ
• "Nowhere Man"^ⓘ
• "In My Life"^ⓘ

1966

• "Taxman"^ⓘ
• "Eleanor Rigby"^ⓘ
• "I'm Only Sleeping"^ⓘ
• "Got to Get You into My Life"^ⓘ

1967

• "Strawberry Fields Forever"^ⓘ
• "Penny Lane"^ⓘ
• "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"^ⓘ
• "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"^ⓘ
• Audio file "Beatles sixty-four.ogg" not found
• Audio file "Beatles day life.ogg" not found
• "Magical Mystery Tour"^ⓘ
• Audio file "Iamthewalrus.ogg" not found

1968

• "Blackbird"^ⓘ
• "Mother Nature's Son"^ⓘ
• "Helter Skelter"^ⓘ
• "Revolution 1"^ⓘ

1969

• "Come Together"^ⓘ
• Audio file "Beatles something.ogg" not found
• "Here Comes the Sun"^ⓘ
• "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"^ⓘ

See also

• The Beatles' London
• The Beatles trivia

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• The Beatles (Apple Corps) Official site
• The Beatles at Rolling Stone
• The Beatles discography at MusicBrainz
• The Beatle Timeline
• Beatles Photo Sessions
• Notes on... Series by Alan Pollack An analysis of The Beatles canon by musicologist Alan W. Pollack

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