The Beatles are by far the most popular Band in Rock
History. The original Beatles was formed in 1958
when John Lennon and Paul McCartney asked
George Harrison to join. John talked his friend Stuart
Sutclift into buying a Bass guitar and joining the band.
Pete Best filled in on Drums. The original name for
the group was Long John, and the Silver Beatles,
later shortened to the Silver Beatles.
The band amassed quite a following in their working
class home town of Liverpool, England. They often
played the lunch hour show at a club called the
Cavern. It was at one of these shows that Brian
Epstein heard them, and convinced the band to sign
him up as their manager.
Epstein quickly arranged for the Beatles to go to
Hamburg Germany to play the local music clubs.
While in Germany the band met Ringo Star, who later
officially joined the band after filling in for an often
absent Pete Best. When the band was to return to
England, Stuart decide that he wanted to stay in
Germany with the girl he had met and fallen in love
with there. So Paul picked up the Bass guitar, and the
Fab Four, as we came to know them, was ready for
success.
The first recording the band did was as the back up
musicians on Tony Sheridan's My Bounty. Brian
Epstein played some demos of their work for
Producer George Martin who went on to produce all
but one of the Beatles records.
Love me Do was their first record, released in
October 1962. It did jump into the British Top 20
briefly but never really succeeded. It was the second
song Please Please me released in early 1963 which
made them #1. The single topped the British charts
for 30 weeks, an unheard of feat in the UK music
market.
In 1963 with the release of their Second LP With the
Beatles, that the band found success in the US, with
the single I wanna hold your hand. In February the
Band visited the US to play on the Ed Sullivan show,
Thus Beatlemania was born and the British invasion
commenced. Just how popular were the boys from
Liverpool? In the first week of April 1964, the Beatles
had the top five best-selling singles in the US; they
also had the two top Lp's on the album charts, as well
as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 100. 1
Riding the crest of super stardom, the Beatles made
their first movie, A Hard Days Night. Followed by
extensive touring, and unparalleled dominance of the
charts. Then their second movie Help was released to
sell out box offices across the world.
The evolution of the Beatles musically began with the
record Help, it showed a deeper side of the Beatles,
not just the happy go lucky pop stars singing about
holding hands. With the Bands 1965 LP Rubber Soul
the evolution launched into full swing.
The band at this point decided to no longer deal with
the rigors of touring and put all of their efforts into
their studio records. Revolver was the result.
Considered by many a masterpiece, this record
opened the flood gates to the late sixties music scene,
with it mix of eastern music, rock, and drug induced
lyrics. These changes crystallized with the 2 follow up
singles to Revolver: Strawberry Fields, and Penny
Lane.
Then came Sgt. Pepper in June of 1967. The album
that forever will mark the brilliance which is the
Beatles. The concept of Sgt. Pepper was dreamed up
by Paul. Although many concidered it a concept
album, the only inter related story line is the opening
track Sgt. Peppers lonely hearts club band, and it's
reprise at the end. The imagery of this Album, is one
of its most endearing features, from the melancholy
Day in life, MR. Kite, Love Rita the Meter maid, to
when I'm 64 and She's leaving home. Sgt. Pepper is
about as far removed from the earliest Beatles as you
can get.
Later that year the band released a third movie, and a
corresponding LP titled The Magical Mystery Tour.
In 1968 the double album The Beatles (the White
album) was released. This LP seemed to take off
where Sgt. Pepper left off, with the psychedelic tracks
like revolution 9, the anti establishment Piggies, the
adventures of Bungalow Bill, John pealing away the
layers of the glass onion and Pauls tragic Rocky
Racoon.. Many claim this to be their favorite Beatles
Album. By this time, John had married Yoko Ono, and
the band has started splintering.
Paul the eternal promoter came to the band with the
idea of making a film in which they were filmed
rehearsing, recording, and finally performing new
songs. This project was called Let it be. It was during
the filming of Let it Be that the Beatles started free
falling to their inevitable break up. Seen on film, are
the personality conflicts, creative differences of the
most talented band in rock history. The Let it Be
experience ended with the band playing a live show
on the roof of Apple records, in which the police
raided half way through their set, promptly ending the
concert. Let it be was then put on the back shelf.
From there The four went into the studio and
recorded their last record together Abby Road,
released in 1969. Paul left the group in late 69, and
the Beatles were never to play together again.
Producer Phil Spector sorted through hundreds of
hours of tapes, and put together what would be the
last Beatles album Let It Be in 1970. Ironically it was a
song from this album that gave the Beatles their first
Grammy. The long and winding road won the the
Grammy for the best song for a motion picture.
All four Beatles went on to have solo careers, but
never again were they to know the success that they
enjoyed as the Fab Four.
Written by Keavin Wiggins - (Managing Editor
