John Lennon: rhythm guitar,
vocals
Birth name: John Winston
Lennon
Born: October 9, 1940
Liverpool,
England
Died: December 8,
1980
New York
(aged 40)
-------------------
Paul McCartney: (bass guitar, vocals)
Birth name: James Paul
McCartney
Born: June 18, 1942 Liverpool, Eng
(Merseyside)
------------------- George Harrison: lead guitar,
vocals
Birth name: George
Harrison
Born: February 25,
1943 Liverpool, Eng
Died: November 29,
2001
Los Angeles, Ca
Age 58
------------------
Ringo Starr: (drums, vocals)
Birth name: Richard Starkey
Also known as: Ringo Starr
Born: July 7, 1940 (age 68)
Liverpool, Eng
The Beatles were a pop and rock group from Liverpool, England formed in 1960.
In the history of popular music, "The Beatles" are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands, selling over a billion records internationally. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles have sold more albums in the United States than any other band.
If not for "The Beatles," Rock 'n' Roll may not have survived in America. By the time "Elvis" had discharged from the Army, He had lost much of his rebelliousness. "Jerry Lee Lewis" and "Chuck Berry" were rocked by scandals and their careers suffered. The Death of "Buddy Holly," "The Big Bopper" and "Ritchie Valens," who were killed in an plane crash, leaving Americas Rock 'n' Roll in a dormant stage. The American media was promoting what The Beatles called "One-Hit-Wonders" such as Frankie Avalon, Tab Hunter, James Darren, etc.
Then the British came to America, and the rest is history.
It all began......
In 1957, with a guitarist and teenage rebel student at "Quarry Bank School" in Liverpool, named "John Lennon." Inspired by a musical style rooted in 1950s rock and roll and homegrown "skiffle boom", decided to form a group. Originally named, "The Blackjacks", only to be renamed a week later, they became "The Quarry Men." The band consisted of John (guitar and vocals), Colin Hanton (drums), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Pete Shotton (washboard), Rod Davis, (banjo) and Bill Smith (tea-chest bass). Smith was replaced by Ivan Vaughan
After hearing "Heartbreak Hotel" John became a fan of American rock 'n' roll music. He began introducing songs by Buddy Holly , Carl Perkins, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent into their repertoire.
Then on July 6, 1957, The fifteen-year-old McCartney was introduce to sixteen-year-old Lennon, after Ivan Vaughan invited "Paul McCartney" to see their gig at The Woolton Parish Church Fete. Thus began a unique and historical song writing partnership.
Paul joined "The Quarry Men" (guitar and vocals) as did John Lowe (piano), and George Harrison (guitar and vocals). Griffiths and another member soon left the band. The five-piece band had very few gigs, appearing in some local talent contest. By January 1959 the band was non-operational. George had joined the Les Stewart Quartet. John and Paul kept in touch.
In 1960 Lennon's friend "Stuart Sutcliffe" joined on bass. Finally solving the vexing drummer problem, "Pete Best" successfully auditioned for the combo just before they left for a several-month stint in Hamburg, Germany. They changed the bands name to the "Silver Beatles" for a minute, they quickly dropped the "Silver" and became "The Beatles". Just before their first trip to Hamburg in August, 1960.
After Hamburg, Stuart Sutcliffe had left the band. Now The Beatles were a four-piece band. John, Paul and George were the three front-line guitarists and they alternated as lead singers and also performed vocal harmony with either John and Paul or all three. Pete Best played drums and occasionally sang. He had developed a distinctive drum sound called "the atom beat" which many other drummers tried to copy.
The Beatles had hired "Brian Epstein" as their manager. He used his contacts to swiftly acquire an audition at "Decca Records." After weeks of deliberation, Decca turned them down, as did several other British labels.
The head of Decca Records told The Beatles manager, "Guitar groups are on their way out Mr. Epstein." In August 1962, drummer Pete Best was replaced by "Ringo Starr." Epstein secured an audition for producer George Martin at Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary. Martin signed the Beatles in mid-1962.
Ringo Starr had only been in the Beatles for a few weeks when they recorded their first single, "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You," in September 1962. By 1963 the "Beatlemania" craze had started in Britain and The Beatles were no longer second billed at concerts. Now they were starring in the "Royal Variety Show" and the highest rating TV show "Sunday Night At The London Palladium". "Please, Please Me" topped the British charts for an astonishing 30 weeks, establishing the group as the most popular rock & roll act ever seen in the U.K.
"She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold over a million copies each, in the U.K. They were no longer a popular music act, they were a phenomenon, never before seen in the British entertainment business. In late 1963, After some national TV appearances, Beatlemania broke out across the British Isles, generating screams and hysteria at all of their public appearances.
On February 7, 1964, The "British invasion" began. The Beatles arrived at New York's newly renamed "John F. Kennedy Airport" an estimated 3,000 fans greeted them as they landed.
The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on February 9, 1964 to Approximately 74 million viewers. Harrison developed a fever of 102 F and was ordered to stay in bed. Neil Aspinall replaced Harrison for the band's first rehearsal for their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Beatles' television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 launched "Beatlemania," and the entire British Invasion, in America. Only on a much much larger scale than it had reached in Britain. In the first week of April 1964, the Beatles had the Top Five best-selling singles in the U.S.; they also had the first two slots on the album charts, as well as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 100. They heavily dominated the market for popular music on a scale never seen before, or since. The Beatles themselves would continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albums until their 1970 breakup
The Beatles first American concert appearance was at Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. on February 11, 1964.
On June 6, 1964, "A Hard Day's Night", the first movie starring "The Beatles", was released in the United States.
In June 1965, "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" appointed the four Beatles Members of the "Order of the British Empire, MBE."
In July 1965, The Beatles's second feature film, "Help!", was released. The film was accompanied by the band's fifth British studio album "Help!"
On August 15, 1965, The Beatles performed "the first" major stadium concert in the history of rock 'n' roll at "Shea Stadium" in New York to a crowd of 55,600.
Due to outside interests the group focused less and less on the band. In late 1964 they were introduced to marijuana and would experiment with more drugs such as LSD which they were first introduced to in late 1965.
In 1966, John made a remark that "The Beatles were more popular than Jesus." The Beatles were under heavy pressure from the press, finally John had to apologize and explain himself several times, before they would let it go.
Their tour of America was plagued with mishaps. On August 19, 1966 in Memphis they receive a death threat, and during the show a firecracker went off, terrifying The Beatles. The next day in Cincinnati a concert promoter failed to provide a stage canopy and could not understand why The Beatles were unwilling to play electric guitars in a rainstorm. Paul became so agitated he became ill. To top it all off, in thier usual L.A. cop style, On August 28, 1966 at Dodger Stadium, L.A. cops were seen beating teenage girls. Dozens were trampled in the chaos.
And so it goes...
The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans at "Candlestick Park" in San Francisco on August 29, 1966.
cont... |     cont.... The Beatles enter the Studio Years: (1966-1970)
After recording "Revolver," The Beatles returned to "Abbey Road Studios" on November 24, 1966 to begin the 129-day recording sessions for their eighth album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," released on June 1, 1967. The first loosely termed, "concept album" ever produced. (Concept albums are song based but thematic in approach, as a result no singles were produced. Since singles were, the basic programming format for "AM Radio stations." This excluded them from being able to play the album. "FM Radio" disc jockeys were prompted to play selected tracks from the Beatles album in order to retain listeners. This in turn created what was called "Progressive Rock Radio" or "Free Form Radio" in which disc jockeys controlled more of the music that was aired, in the late 1960's and 1970's. This evolved into a more commercially oriented variant, which was called "Album Rock," on most FM radio stations, this then evolved finally into "Classic Rock Radio." Based mostly on music from the past similar to "oldies" but concentrating on music from the "Classic Rock Era" from which play lists are developed.)
On August 24, 1967, at the London Hilton. The Beatles met the "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi." A few days later they went to Bangor. While in Bangor, The Beatles learned of the death of thier manager Brian Epstein, who died from an accidental prescription drug overdose. He was 32 years old.
The group spent the early part of 1968 with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, studying "transcendental meditation," in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India.
The middle of 1968 the band was busy recording the double album "The Beatles", popularly known as "The White Album" because of its plain white cover. During these sessions deep divisions began opening within the band, Ringo Starr temporarily left the band. McCartney took over the drums on the tracks "Martha My Dear," "Wild Honey Pie," "Dear Prudence," and "Back in the USSR." Among the other causes of dissension, "Yoko Ono," Lennon's new girlfriend, was at his side through almost all of the sessions. and some of the members of the band felt that McCartney was becoming too dominant.
The Beatles last public appearance was on top of the "Apple building" on January 30, 1969.
The idea of the "Let It Be" project. Was to let the fans see The Beatles jam, rehearse and record a whole new album of songs. As they started recording at "Twickenham Film Studios" tensions were high between Paul and George . John was completely pre-occupied and in love with Yoko. Ringo was left in the background. One day George walked out on a session after a disagreement with Paul. George came back to finish up the album. John would later explain, "We couldn't play the game anymore, we just couldn't do it."
Deemed un-releasable their "Let It Be" album was handed over to "Phil Spector" who added lush orchestrations to such songs as "The Long and Winding Road", which infuriated Paul.
The Beatles decided to get together to make one final album "Abbey Road" which went on to become their biggest selling album in history. The "Let It Be" album was finally released on May 8, 1970. Soon after it's release Paul publicly announced he was no longer a member of the group.
At the end of 1970, McCartney sued the rest of the Beatles in order to dissolve their partnership; the battle dragged through the courts for years, dashing any prospects of a group reunion. Despite periodic rumors of reunions throughout the 1970s, no group projects came close to materializing.
New York City in December 1980, Any hopes of a reunion vanished when "Lennon was assassinated."
The Beatles transformed the record industry. They brought about royalties for artists and producers, revolutionized music tours, and started the Pop promo film or what we know today as "The Music Video." The Beatles not only became a musical phenomenon, they affected the styles and fashions of the 1960's. Everyone of their albums, from "Please, Please Me" to "Abbey Road" were all popular and unique in their own way.
In the end, The Beatles became true legends. Their music touching the lives of people around the world. They struggled in the end to regain the happiness that they once had back when they first became successful. They realized that they could not go back, and had to move forward with thier lives, even if they had to do it separately.
John found happiness with his one true love Yoko, his "Plastic Ono Band," and son Sean; Paul found happiness with Linda, his children, and "Wings"; George found happiness with his solo career, Olivia, and his son Dhani; and Ringo found happiness with his solo career, acting career, Barbara, and his sons. They remain, still to this day, the greatest rock 'n' roll band in history.
For over two decades Legal wrangles at Apple prevented the official issue of previously unreleased Beatle material. The situation finally changed in the 1990s, after McCartney, Harrison, Starr, and Lennon's widow Yoko Ono settled their principal business disagreements. This resulted in a double CD of "BBC sessions" in 1994, from the early and mid-'60s.
Three double CDs of previously unreleased/rare material were issued in 1995 and 1996. To coincide with the "Anthology" documentary.
So it is, that Beatles records continue to be heard on radio in heavy rotation, continue to sell in massive quantities, and continue to be covered and quoted by rock and pop artists through the present day.
George Harrison Died: November 29, 2001 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. He was 58 years old.
Paul and Ringo have went on with thier own solo careers.
Paul McCartney will be performing in Tel Aviv, Israel Sept. 25, 2008.
The upcoming concert by Paul McCartney has revived memories of the 1960s, when an Israeli official called off a Beatles concert for fear it would "corrupt the youth." The official's son is taking the opportunity to try to clear his father's name, for canceling the concert 43 years ago. Earlier this year Israel's ambassador in London wrote a letter expressing regret over the matter to the surviving members of the band. The letter said Israel would like to make it up to them by inviting them now.
McCartney finally confirmed the Sept. 25th concert in Tel Aviv, which had been rumored for days. In a news release, McCartney acknowledged the brouhaha he and his band once caused.
 And their music lives on...... |
