The Beatles

The Beatles
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in 1964. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in 1964.
Background information
Origin	Liverpool, England
Genre(s)	Rock 'n' roll Rock Psychedelic rock Pop
Years active	1960—1970 1994—1996 (Partial Reunion)
Label(s)	Parlophone, Capitol, Apple, Odeon, Vee-Jay, United Artists, Atco, Swan, Tollie, Polydor
Website	Beatles.com
Members
John Lennon (1960-1970) Paul McCartney (1960-1970), (1994-1996) George Harrison (1960-1970), (1994-1996) Ringo Starr (1962–1970), (1994-1996)
Former members
Pete Best (1960–1962) Stuart Sutcliffe (1960–1961)

The Beatles were a highly influential English rock 'n' roll band from Liverpool. They are the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful popular music band in history. The innovative music and style of John Lennon (1940–1980), Paul McCartney (b. 1942), George Harrison (1943–2001), and Ringo Starr (b. 1940) helped to define the 1960s, and they continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, their role in the history of popular music, and their contributions to popular culture. Although their initial musical style was rooted in the sounds of 1950s rock and roll, the group explored a great variety of genres, ranging from Tin Pan Alley to psychedelic rock.

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 discs or tapes worldwide. The RIAA has certified The Beatles as the top selling artists of all time in America based on U.S. sales of singles and albums.

The Beatles were a major force behind the "British Invasion" of UK-based popular bands in the United States in the mid-1960s and they helped to pioneer more advanced, multi-layered arrangements in pop music. The Beatles' impact extended well beyond their music. Their clothes, hairstyles, and statements made them trend-setters from the 1960s to this day, 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

John Lennon, vocals and rhythm guitar

Formation and early years

In March of 1957, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen (fleetingly known as The Blackjacks). On July 6 of that year, Lennon met Paul McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Fete. On February 6 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (then playing under a variety of names) perform at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool and he was soon a regular player. Paul had become acquainted with George (a year younger) at school, the Liverpool Institute, and on the morning school bus-ride; they had also grown up in a common neighbourhood (Speke). 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, Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe (a classmate of Lennon at Liverpool Art College) emerged as the only constant members. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar, Harrison played lead guitar and Sutcliffe played bass. The group had a high turnover of drummers and McCartney played drums at gigs when they were drummerless.

The Quarrymen went through a progression of names — Johnny and The Moondogs, Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles (derived from Larry Williams's suggestion "Long John and the Silver Beetles") — and eventually decided on 17 August, 1960 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". He also later said that it was a joke, meaning a pun on "Beat-less". Cynthia Lennon 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." Lennon, who became famous for giving multiple versions of the same story, also joked in a tongue-in-cheek 1961 article in Mersey Beat magazine that "It came in a vision — a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'.". (This story was later the inspiration for the title of one of McCartney's solo albums, Flaming Pie.)

In May of 1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle, 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.^{[citation needed]} For this tour the chronically drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. The band's van (driven by Gentle) had a rear-end crash with a stationary vehicle on their way back from Scotland; Moore lost some teeth and had stitches after being hit in the mouth by a guitar. Nobody else was seriously injured. (Shortly afterwards, feeling the age gap was too great — and following his girlfriend's advice — Moore left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as a fork-lift truck driver.)

Hamburg

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Paul McCartney, vocals and bass guitar

Norman Chapman was their next drummer, but it lasted 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.

On August 16 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's permanent drummer after watching Best playing with The Blackjacks in the Casbah Club. This was a cellar club operated by Best's mother Mona, in West Derby, Liverpool, where The Beatles had played and often used to visit. In the documentary The Compleat Beatles, Williams described Best's drumming as "not too cleverly, but passable."

They started in Hamburg by playing in the Indra and Kaiserkeller bars. They were told to play six or seven hours a night, seven nights a week. Shortly after they began performing at a new venue, the Top Ten, Harrison was deported for having lied to the German authorities about his age. Finally, McCartney and Best managed to start a small fire at their living quarters while vacating it for more luxurious rooms. Arrested and charged for arson, the two were then deported. Lennon and Sutcliffe followed suit in returning to Liverpool in December.

They went back a second time and played the Top Ten club for three months (April until June 1961). During this time period, Stuart Sutcliffe decided to remain in Germany to concentrate on painting and left the group. Sutcliffe's departure led McCartney to switch from playing rhythm guitar to bass guitar. 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 on June 22,1961. On October 31 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", a collective name used for whomever were in Sheridan's backup band. In addition to the legend that this record led to their eventual meeting with Brian Epstein, it also resulted in their first mention in the American press. Around the turn of 1962, My Bonnie was mentioned in Cashbox as the debut of a "new rock and roll team, Tony Sheridan and the Beatles", and a few copies were also pressed, ironically under the Decca label, for U.S. disc jockeys as American Decca had a distribution deal with Polydor parent Deutsche Grammophon. Their third stay in Hamburg was April 13 – May 31 1962, when they opened The Star Club. That stay was dampened when they were informed upon their arrival of Sutcliffe's death from a brain hemorrhage.

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. 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, a senior Decca Records A&R executive named Dick Rowe turned Epstein down flat and informed him that "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein."

Record contract

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George Harrison, lead guitar and vocals

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.

Martin did have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised in The Compleat Beatles 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 fans, but the three founding members had become increasingly unhappy with his popularity and his personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. Epstein sacked Best on 16 August 1962. 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 — in common with how shabbily new artists were treated in that era — paid them only one penny for every single sold, which was split among the four Beatles.^{[citation needed]} This amounted to one farthing per group member. This royalty rate was further reduced for overseas sales, on which they received half of one penny (split between the whole band) for singles sales outside of the UK. George Martin said later that it was a "pretty awful" contract. Their publishing contract with Dick James Music (DJM) was also standard for the time; each writer received the statutory minimum of 50% of the gross monies received, with the publisher retaining the other 50%.^{[citation needed]}

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. [1] ("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). The band's first televised performance was on a programme called People and Places transmitted live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October 1962.

In August 1963 The Beatles Book, a monthly magazine devoted to the group began publication. It continued for 77 issues until the end of 1969.

America

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Ringo Starr, drums and vocals

Although the band experienced huge popularity in the record charts in the UK 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" in the United States, partly because no British act had ever yet had a sustained commercial impact on American audiences.^{[citation needed]}

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 radio 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.

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.^{[citation needed]}

After The Beatles' huge success in 1964, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records took advantage of their previously secured rights to The Beatles' early recordings and reissued the songs that they had rights to, which all reached the top ten of the charts the second time around. (MGM and Atco also secured rights to The Beatles' early Tony Sheridan-era recordings and had minor hits with "My Bonnie" and "Ain't She Sweet".) Vee-Jay ended up issuing some odd LP repackagings of the limited Beatles' material they had: as well as Introducing... The Beatles, which was essentially The Beatles' debut British album with some minor alterations, Vee-Jay also issued an unusual LP called The Beatles Vs The Four Seasons which put together songs from The Beatles and The Four Seasons (another successful act that Vee-Jay had under contract) in a 'contest': the back cover featured a 'score card'. Another unusual release was the Hear The Beatles Tell All album, which mixed interviews with the same early Beatles' material. It has been claimed that both Vee-Jay and Swan attempted legal fights with Capitol/EMI to secure full American contractual rights to The Beatles, which may have contributed to the eventual demise of both labels. It has also been said this fight to secure The Beatles took attention away from each label's most successful artists, The Four Seasons (Vee-Jay) and Freddy Cannon (Swan), who decided to move to more-established labels. The Vee-Jay/Swan-issued recordings eventually ended up with Capitol, who promptly issued most of the Vee-Jay material on the American-only Capitol release The Early Beatles. Many of the early Vee-Jay and Swan Beatles' records command a high price on the record collectors' market.[2] The Swan material was issued on the Capitol LP The Beatles' Second Album.

Beatlemania

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The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show

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", 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 26 December 1963.[3]

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 16 January, Cashbox Magazine had certified The Beatles record number one (in the edition published with the cover-date 23 January).^{[citation needed]}

This contributed to the hysterical fan reaction at JFK Airport on 7 February 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 9 February. During the week of 4 April, 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. They had an additional 7 songs at lower positions: 12% of the chart consisted of Beatles songs.[4] However, they were so unaware of their popularity in America that, on their arrival at JFK, they initially thought the crowds were there to greet someone else.

In the summer of 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 turned out to see them at Adelaide Town Hall; at the time Adelaide's population was roughly 200,000.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 on 14 June, before The Beatles received theirs on 26 October 1965.

On 15 August that year, The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd of 55,600. The band later admitted that they had been largely 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.^{[citation needed]}

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^{[citation needed]}. 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. The group soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an answer. After the snubbing was widely broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all The Beatles' police protection disappeared. The group 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, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and 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).

Almost as soon as they returned from the Philippines, an earlier comment by John back in March of that year launched a backlash against The Beatles from religious and social conservatives in the Bible Belt of the United States. In an interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now."

Afterwards, a radio station in Birmingham, Alabama, ran a story on burning Beatles records, as what they considered to be a joke. However, many people affiliated with rural churches in the American South started taking the suggestion seriously. Towns across the United States and South Africa started to burn Beatles records in protest.

However, The Beatles observed wryly, "Hey, they've gotta buy 'em before they can burn 'em."^{[citation needed]} Under tremendous pressure from American media, Lennon apologised for his remarks at a press conference in Chicago on August 11, the eve of the first performance of what turned out to be their final tour.^{[citation needed]}

The studio years

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The Beatles at their last concert in Candlestick Park.

The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. Tony Barrow was asked by Paul McCartney to tape the event, but it was a 30-minute tape and it cut halfway through the last song. The concert lasted a little under 35 minutes.

From then on, they concentrated on recording music. After three months away from each other, they returned to Abbey Road Studios on November 24, 1966, to begin their 129-day recording period in making their eighth album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released on June 1, 1967.

On 25 June 1967, The Beatles became the first band globally transmitted on television, in front of an estimated 400 million people worldwide. The band appeared in a segment within the first-ever worldwide TV satellite hook-up — a show entitled 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.^{[citation needed]}

Soon after the triumphs of the Sgt. Pepper album and the global broadcast, The Beatles' situation worsened. First, their manager Brian Epstein died of an overdose of sleeping pills on 27 August 1967, at the age of 32, and the band's business affairs began to unravel. Next, at the end of 1967, they received their first major negative press criticism in the UK with disparaging reviews of their surrealistic TV film Magical Mystery Tour. The film was also panned by the public. Part of the public's difficulty lay in the fact that colour was an integral part of the film but in December 1967 very few viewers in the UK had colour receivers (the colour service having only started in July) and the film appeared largely plotless and confusing. The film's soundtrack, which features one of The Beatles' few instrumental tracks ("Flying"), was released in the United Kingdom as a double EP, and in the United States as a full LP.^{[citation needed]}

The group spent the early part of 1968 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, initially an altruistic business venture which they described as an attempt at "western communism." The middle 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, some of which included Lennon's new girlfriend, Yoko Ono, being at his side through much of the sessions and the feeling that McCartney was becoming too dominating.

McCartney gradually took greater charge of the group's 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.^{[citation needed]}

On the business side McCartney wanted Lee Eastman — the father of his wife Linda 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 this time the four could 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. Paul was quoted years later during the Anthology interviews, saying that "Looking back, I can understand why they would feel that was biased against them."^{[citation needed]}

Their final live performance was on the rooftop of the Apple building in Savile Row, London on 30 January 1969, the next-to-last day of the difficult Get Back sessions. Largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded their final album, Abbey Road in summer 1969.

Breakup

Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group on 20 September 1969 but was talked out of saying anything publicly. In March 1970 the Get Back session tapes were given to American producer Phil Spector, who had produced Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!". Spector's signature "Wall of Sound" production was in direct opposition to the original intent of the record, which had been to record a stripped-down live studio performance. McCartney was deeply dissatisfied with Spector's treatment of some songs, particularly "The Long and Winding Road", and unsuccessfully attempted to halt release of Spector's version of the song. McCartney publicly announced the break-up on 10 April 1970, a week before releasing his first solo album, McCartney, pre-release copies of which included a press-release with a self-written interview explaining the end of The Beatles and his hopes about the future. On 8 May 1970, the Spector-produced version of Get Back was released as Let It Be, followed by the documentary film of the same name. The Beatles' partnership was legally dissolved after McCartney filed a lawsuit on 31 December 1970.^{[citation needed]}

After the break-up

Following the dissolution of the group, all four Beatles released solo albums in the early 1970s, including Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), McCartney's Ram (1971) and Harrison's All Things Must Pass (1970). Some of their albums featured contributions by other former Beatles; Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only one to include compositions and performances by all four, albeit on separate songs.^{[citation needed]}

In 1971, it was discovered that Allen Klein had stolen £5m from The Beatles holdings, and, in 1973, Lennon admitted to McCartney that they should have gone with the Eastmans' management. This helped to mend the personal relationship between the two, although not entirely.^{[citation needed]} Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974 (later bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74), they never recorded together again. Lennon was shot and killed by a crazed fan, Mark David Chapman, on December 8, 1980 in New York City.

The BBC has a large collection of Beatles recordings, mostly comprising original studio sessions from 1963 to 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.

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Collage of the various covers of the Anthology series

In February 1994, the then-three surviving Beatles reunited to produce and record additional music for a few of Lennon's old unfinished demos, almost as if reuniting the Beatles. "Free As A Bird" premiered as part of The Beatles Anthology series of television documentaries and was released as a single in December 1995, with "Real Love" following in March 1996. These songs were also included in the three Anthology collections of CDs released in 1995 and 1996, each of which consisted of two CDs of never-before-released Beatles material. Klaus Voormann, who had known The Beatles since their Hamburg days and had previously illustrated the Revolver album cover, directed the Anthology cover concept.^{[citation needed]}

The Beatles remain enormously popular. 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} The collection also reached number one in the United States and 33 other countries.^{[citation needed]}. In 1988, every member of the Beatles (including Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^{[citation needed]}.

Musical evolution

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. Early influences included Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Lonnie Donegan, ragtime, and English music hall. Country music artists such as Hank Williams, Buck Owens and Jimmie Rodgers were also a strong influence as were American soul and rhythm and blues artists such as Ray Charles, Arthur Alexander, and Little Richard, as reflected in the numerous cover versions recorded on their early albums.

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). (In 1973, Smith had a hit as a singer under the performing name Hurricane Smith with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say".) 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 increasingly came under pressure, and it was decided for the group to vent their artistic energy solely into recording. 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 a diverse range of subjects were written about.^{[citation needed]}

The Beatles also continued to absorb influences throughout their career — long after their initial success — often finding new musical and lyrical avenues to explore from listening to the work of some of their contemporaries. Among those influences were Bob Dylan, on songs such as "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (Help!) and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" (Rubber Soul).[5] Dylan introduced The Beatles to cannabis (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 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 instance of such an instrument being used on a rock 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.^{[citation needed]}

Along with studio tricks such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, automatic double tracking and vari-speed recording, The Beatles began to augment their recordings with instruments that were 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 the Mellotron, which was 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. Clearly their ideas were out-stripping the technology that was available at the time.^{[citation needed]}

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The Abbey Road album cover

Lennon is 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.^{[citation needed]}

Moreover, with his customary humourous irreverence, Lennon once quipped: "Avant-garde is French for bullshit."

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

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 many other studios.^{[citation needed]}

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 a Mellotron at the start of "Strawberry Fields Forever".^{[citation needed]}

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 disinterested in the animated film as a project.^{[citation needed]}

Lennon and McCartney renewed their interest in rootsy forms towards the close of The Beatles' career — for example, "Yer Blues" and "Birthday" in 1968, and "Don't Let Me Down" in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

Influence

The Beatles' influence on rock music and popular culture was — and remains — immense. Their commercial success started an almost immediate wave of changes — including a move from U.S. global dominance of rock and roll to UK acts, from soloists to groups, from professional songwriters to self-penned songs and to changes in fashion. The Beatles were also influenced by many artists themselves, including the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. They were also influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach, and an example of this can be found in their song "Penny Lane". The famous trumpet part is done by a piccolo trumpet, and this part was inspired by Bach's 2nd Brandenburg Concerto, which Paul McCartney heard on the radio one day and decided to incorporate it into one of his songs.

Various artists of the last 4 decades have listed The Beatles as major influences on their career. Their influence has been especially prevalent over the last 20 years, helping in part to create new genres and styles along the way, possibly the most well-known of which was the birth of grunge, largely thanks to Seattle's Nirvana, whose frontman Kurt Cobain always listed Lennon as a major inspiration to him. The revolutionary automatic double tracking system, which was first used by Lennon while working on Revolver, was used to great effect on Nevermind, Nirvana's most popular album.

ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra, which was formed 1971, was heavily influenced by The Beatles. Jeff Lynne, the lead singer and song writer of the group, often mimicked McCartney and Lennon's style of vocals and melodies in early songs such as "Mr. Radio" (their eponymous debut, mistakenly titled No Answer in the US) and "Mister Kingdom" (Eldorado). The group even recorded a song called "Beatles Forever" for their LP Secret Messages, in which Lynne expressed how he idolised the group and admired their talent and success. The song, however, was kept off the album and remains unreleased.

Amongst other relatively recent bands who have cited The Beatles as a major influence are Pearl Jam, U2, Coldplay, Oasis, The Chemical Brothers and Radiohead.

Critically The Beatles are perhaps the most successful artists in history. The group is typically ranked very high on many "best ever" music lists. Below is a small list of The Beatles recognition.

On Rolling Stone Magazine's "500 greatest albums of all time list" The Beatles had a total of 11 albums on the list, 4 of them in the top 10 (more than any other artist on the list). They were: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at #1, Revolver at #3, Rubber Soul at #5, The Beatles (The White Album) at #10, Abbey Road at #14, Please Please Me at #39, Meet The Beatles! at #59, Let It Be at #86, Help! at #332, A Hard Day's Night at #388 and With The Beatles at #420.

On VH1's "100 Greatest Albums" list The Beatles had 5 albums on the list, 4 in the top 10 and one in the top 20. They were: Revolver at #1, Rubber Soul at #6, Abbey Road at #8, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at #10 and The Beatles (The White Album)at #11.

In 2004, The Beatles came in at the very top of Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list. .

The Beatles were ranked #1 on VH1's "100 greatest artists of Rock N' Roll" (they were also ranked #1 on the net's poll).

VH1's "100 Greatest Rock Songs" included: Hey Jude at #8, Yesterday at #12, A Day In The Life At #20, I Want To Hold Your Hand at #23, Let It Be at #32, Twist And Shout at #57, She Loves You at #59, Strawberry Fields Forever at #61 and A Hard Day's Night at #79.

Rolling Stone and MTV's "100 Greatest Pop Songs" included: Yesterday at #1, I Want To Hold Your Hand at #6 and In My Life at #63.

The Beatles were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988, their first year of eligibility.

The Beatles are widely seen to be the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. They introduced more innovations into popular music than any other artist of the 20th century. Arguably they were not only the best at what they did, but also the most popular at what they did. Among their many achievements they were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British invasion that made rock a truly international phenomenon. Even after their breakup in 1970 the groups popularity has proved eternal. The Beatles continue to be heard on radio in heavy rotation, continue to sell records in massive quantities and continue to be quoted by countless pop and rock artists to this day; in January 2007, the British Post Office is to release stamps with images of six Beatles album covers. The Beatles supremecy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, nearly four decades after their break up.[6],

Instrumentation

• Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Epiphone, Gibson, and Fender guitars
• Premier and 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
• Moog Modular synthesiser
• Mellotron Polyphonic Keyboard

Microphones

File:Neumann U87.jpg

A Neumann U87

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.

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.

With the group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with microphone placement and equalization.^{[citation needed]} 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 characterises "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.

Studio albums

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

• PleasePleaseMe.jpg

  1. Please Please Me
  (22 March 1963)
  
• WiththeBeatles.jpg

  2. With the Beatles
  (22 November 1963)
  
• HardDayUK.jpg

  3. A Hard Day's Night
  (10 July 1964)
  
• Beatlesforsale.jpg

  4. Beatles for Sale
  (4 December 1964)
  
• HelpUK.jpg

  5. Help!
  (6 August 1965)
• RubberSoulUK.jpg

  6. Rubber Soul
  (3 December 1965)
• Revolver.jpg

  7. Revolver
  (5 August 1966)
• Pepper's.jpg

  8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  (1 June 1967)
• Whitealbum.jpg

  9. The Beatles (The White Album)
  (22 November 1968)
• TheBeatlesYellowSubmarinealbumcover.jpg

  10. Yellow Submarine
  (17 January 1969)
• Beatles - Abbey Road.jpg

  11. Abbey Road
  (26 September 1969)
• LetItBe.jpg

  12. Let It Be
  (8 May 1970)

Official CD catalogue

In 1986-1987, EMI released all 12 of The Beatles' studio albums - as originally released in the UK - on CD worldwide. (North American releases were on EMI's American subsidiary Capitol Records). It was a considered decision by Apple Corps. to standardize the Beatles catalogue throughout the world. Because there were tracks that had been released in the UK on singles and EPs that had not been released on the original UK albums - in order for all their recordings to be available on CD, it was necessary to create three further CDs that would contain the missing tracks.

One CD was of a 1967 US compilation album that featured the 6-track 1967 UK EP Magical Mystery Tour and the various singles released in that year. The other two CDs were new compilations that gathered together all the other singles, EP tracks and recordings from 1962-1970 that had not been issued on the original British studio albums.

• TheBeatlesMagicalMysteryTouralbumcover.jpg

  Magical Mystery Tour
  (8 August 1987)
• PastMastersV1cover.jpg

  Past Masters, Volume One
  (7 March 1988)
• PastMastersV2cover.jpg

  Past Masters, Volume Two
  (7 March 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 John Lennon and Paul McCartney agreed to assign their song publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by music publisher Dick James in conjunction with Brian Epstein. The company was administered by James' own company Dick James Music. 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 the company, James and Silver sold Northern Songs to British TV company Associated TeleVision (ATV), in which Lennon and McCartney received stock.

In 1985, after a short duration in which the parent company was owned by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court, ATV Music was sold to Michael Jackson for a reported $47 million (trumping a joint bid by McCartney and Yoko Ono), including the publishing rights to over 200 songs composed by Lennon and McCartney. (McCartney, who had two hit duets with Jackson, "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say Say Say", later told Rolling Stone that while he and Jackson were working together on the video for "Say, Say, Say", he told Jackson that there was money to be made in owning song publishing, referring to his ownership of the Buddy Holly song catalogue, and Jackson reportedly told McCartney, "One day I'm going to buy your songs." The purchase later caused a rift between McCartney and Jackson.) 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 Lennon-McCartney songs recorded by The Beatles. 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 respective songwriter shares of the royalties. (Despite his ownership of most of the Lennon-McCartney publishing, Jackson has only recorded one Lennon-McCartney composition himself, "Come Together" which was featured in his film Moonwalker.)

Although the Jackson-Sony catalogue includes most of The Beatles' greatest hits, four of their earliest songs had been published by one of EMI's publishing companies prior to Lennon & McCartney signing with Dick James — 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" from EMI.

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 post-1967 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 post-1967 songs recorded by The Beatles, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".

Number one singles

Year	Single	Countries
1962	"Love Me Do"	U.S. (once Beatlemania hit in 1964)
1963	"Please Please Me"	Italy and also UK in most recognised charts
1963	"From Me to You"	United Kingdom, Ireland
1963	"Twist and Shout"	Finland
1963	"She Loves You"	UK, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, U.S.
1963	"I Want to Hold Your Hand"	UK, Australia (NS Wales), Sweden, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, U.S., Canada
1964	"I Saw Her Standing There"	Australia (NS Wales)
1964	"All My Loving"	Sweden, Canada, Australia (NS Wales) (EP), Finland
1964	"Can't Buy Me Love"	Sweden, UK, Holland, U.S., Ireland, Australia (NS Wales)
1964	"Ain't She Sweet"	Sweden
1964	Long Tall Sally EP	Holland
1964	"A Hard Day's Night"	U.S., Canada, Australia (NS Wales), UK, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Argentina, Czechoslovakia
1964	"I Should Have Known Better"	Canada, Holland, Australia (NS Wales), Norway, Sweden, Denmark
1964	"If I Fell"	Norway
1964	"I Feel Fine"	Canada, Australia (NS Wales), UK, Holland, Sweden, U.S., Rhodesia, Ireland, Norway, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Denmark
1965	"Rock and Roll Music" / "No Reply"	Norway, Sweden, Holland, Rhodesia, Finland, Denmark, Australia (NS Wales), Hong Kong, Luxembourg
1965	"Eight Days a Week"	Canada, Uruguay, U.S., Hong Kong, Luxembourg
1965	"I'll Follow the Sun"	Sweden
1965	"Ticket to Ride"	Ireland, Canada, Norway, UK, Sweden, Australia (NS Wales), Holland, U.S., Rhodesia, New Zealand
1965	"Words of Love"	Sweden
1965	"Help!"	Canada, Australia (NS Wales), UK, Ireland, Holland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, U.S., Rhodesia, Norway, Argentina, Brazil, Italy
1965	"Yesterday"	Canada, Holland, U.S., Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Hong Kong, Poland, Denmark, South Korea
1965	"We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper"	Canada, Norway, UK, Ireland, Australia (NS Wales), Holland, Sweden, Hong Kong, U.S. (A-side only), Rhodesia, Brazil
1966	"Michelle"	France, Holland, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy
1966	"Nowhere Man"	Canada, Australia (NS Wales)
1966	"Paperback Writer"	Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, U.S., UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark
1966	"Yellow Submarine" / "Eleanor Rigby"	Canada, UK, Ireland, Norway, France, Holland, Germany, Australia (NS Wales), New Zealand, Belgium, Poland (B-side)
1967	"Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever"	Canada, Norway, France, Holland, Sweden, U.S. (A-side), New Zealand, Germany, Australia (NS Wales), Denmark, and also UK in most recognised charts
1967	"All You Need Is Love" (b/w "Baby You're a Rich Man")	Finland, Poland, Canada, UK, Holland, Australia (NS Wales), Norway, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, U.S., New Zealand, Rhodesia, Denmark
1967	"With a Little Help from My Friends"	Poland
1967	"Hello, Goodbye"	Canada, UK, France, Holland, Sweden, U.S., Norway, Germany, Australia (NS Sales), New Zealand, Poland, Denmark
1968	"Lady Madonna" (b/w "The Inner Light")	Canada, UK, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, Australia (NS Wales)
1968	"Hey Jude"	Canada, UK, Sweden, Norway, Austria, France, Ireland, Holland, Spain, U.S., Switzerland, Rhodesia, New Zealand, Belgium, Australia (NS Wales), Germany, Poland, Denmark
1968	"Revolution"	New Zealand
1968	"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"	Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia (NS Wales)
1969	"Get Back" (b/w "Don't Let Me Down")	UK, Canada, Holland, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, Germany, Malaysia, Denmark, Spain, U.S., Rhodesia, Australia (NS Wales)
1969	"The Ballad of John and Yoko"	UK, Holland, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Australia (NS Wales), Austria, Denmark
1969	"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"	France
1969	"Something" / "Come Together"	Canada, U.S., Australia (NS Wales), New Zealand, Germany
1970	"Let It Be"	Germany, Austria, Holland, Australia (NS Wales), Norway, France, Malaysia, U.S., Switzerland, New Zealand, Italy, Poland, Canada
1970	"The Long and Winding Road"	Canada, U.S.
1976	"Got to Get You Into My Life"	Canada

Song samples

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

On film

The Beatles appeared in several films, most of which were very well received. The exception was the (mostly unscripted) television movie Magical Mystery Tour which was panned by critics and the public alike. All of their films had the same name as their associated soundtrack albums and a song on that album.

A Hard Day's Night

File:A Hard Days night movieposter.jpg

A Hard Day's Night poster

The Beatles had a 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, the movie 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, with Spike Milligan.

Help!

In 1965 came Help!; an Eastmancolour extravaganza, which was also directed by Lester. The film 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 late 1966 Lennon took time off to play a supporting character, Gripweed, 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

The Magical Mystery Tour film was essentially 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 felt inspired to take this idea and blend it with the peculiarly English working class tradition of charabanc mystery tours, in which children took chaperoned bus rides through the English countryside, destination unknown. 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". While the film has historical importance as an early advance into the music video age, at the time many viewers found it plotless and confusing. Compounding this culture clash was the fact that the film was made in colour and made use of colour filters for some of the scenes - particularly in a sequence for Blue Jay Way. In December 1967 practically no-one in the UK owned a colour receiver, the service only having started a few months earlier.

Yellow Submarine

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 especially stinging pangs of heartbreak, 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. In 1971, Starr played the part of Frank Zappa in Zappa's epic cult film about a rock and roll band touring, entitled 200 Motels. 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 Corps, although it was Harrison who would achieve the most success as a film producer.

Let It Be

File:Getback roof.jpg

The rooftop concert

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 performances — 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 rejected both the film and the album, instead recording and issuing the Abbey Road album. 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 the spring of 1970. When the film finally appeared, it was after the break-up had been announced.

Unlike the other Beatles films, Let It Be is not currently available to buy on DVD or any other media.

Other Projects

Anthology

Approximately coinciding with the release of the "Free as a Bird" single and Anthology 1 album (the first of three double-CD albums), The Beatles Anthology series of documentaries was broadcast on television in 1995. The series, which was made over five years of planning and production (1,760 minutes),^{[citation needed]} collected together numerous film clips and interviews to present a complete history of the band from The Beatles' own personal perspectives. The series was later released on VHS, laserdisc and as a boxed set of five DVDs.

Love

Love is a 2006 theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil which combines the re-produced and re-imagined music of The Beatles with an interpretive, circus-based artistic and athletic stage performance. The production is a joint venture between Cirque du Soleil and The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd, and is the first production that Apple Corps Ltd. has partnered in. Love plays at a specially-built theatre at The Mirage in Las Vegas.

The music for the show was produced, arranged and remixed by Sir George Martin and his son, Giles Martin, with the approval and encouragement of McCartney, Olivia Harrison (George's widow), Starr and Yoko Ono, executor of the John Lennon estate. The Martins made use of the original studio multitrack tapes to produce remixed and re-imagined versions of the songs selected.[7] A soundtrack album of the show was released in November 2006.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bramwell, Tony (2005). Magical Mystery Tours. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33043-9Template:Please check ISBN. 
• Braun, Michael (1964 [1995 Reprint]). Love Me Do: The Beatles' Progress. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-002278-3. 
• Carr, Roy & Tyler, Tony (1975). The Beatles: An Illustrated Record. Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-52045-1. 
• Colonna, Roberto (2005). Dalla prospettiva degli scarafaggi. Napolipiù - La verità. 
• Cross, Craig (2005). The Beatles: Day by Day, Song by Song, Record by Record. iUniverse, Inc. ISBN 0-595-34663-4. 
• – – – . Beatles-discography.com: The Beatles: Day-by-Day, Song-by-Song, Record-by-Record. Various webpages. Retrieved January 26, 2006.
• Davies, Hunter (1985). The Beatles. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 00070155267 Template:Please check ISBN. 
• Emerick, Geoff, & Massey, Howard (2006). Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles. Gotham Books. ISBN 1-59240-179-1. 
• Goldsmith, Martin (2004). The Beatles Come To America. Turning Points. ISBN 0-471-46964-5. 
• Kubernik, Ken (October 16, 2005). Here, There & Everywhere. Variety Magazine's 100 Icons of the Century. Variety Magazine. Retrieved January 28, 2006.
• Lewis, Martin (October 16, 2005). The Apollonian Spirit of the Beatles. Variety Magazine's 100 Icons of the Century. Variety Magazine. Retrieved January 28, 2006.
• Lewisohn, Mark (1990). EMI's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years. Hamlyn. ISBN 0-681-03189-1. 
• MacDonald, Ian (1995). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. Vintage. ISBN 0-7126-6697-4. 
• Martin, George (1994). Summer of love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-60398-2. 
• Norman, Philip (1997). Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation. MJF Books. ISBN 1-56731-087-7. 
• Schaffner, Nicholas (1977). The Beatles Forever. Cameron House. ISBN 0-8117-0225-1. 
• Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316-80352-9. 

Further reading

• The Gospel according to the Beatles. Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. ISBN 0-664-22983-2.
• The Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, LLC, 2000. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
• Emerick, Geoff, and Howard Massey. Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles. New York: Gotham Books, 2006. ISBN 1-59240-179-1. [Memoir of one of the Beatles' main recording engineers.]
• Spitz, Bob. The Beatles. Little, Brown, 2005. ISBN 0-316-80352-9.
• Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write. 3rd ed. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2005. ISBN 0-06-084409-4. [Discusses the inspiration or meaning for every Beatles song.]
• Dimery, Martin. Being John Lennon. SAF books, 2002. ISBN 0-946719-43-8.
• Alan J. Porter Before They Were Beatles: The Early Years 1956-1960. Xlibris. ISBN 1-4134-3056-2.
• Ryan, Kevin, and Brian Kehew. Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums. Los Angeles: Curvebender Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-9785200-0-9.
• Listen to Cynthia Lennon talk about her marriage to John Lennon to David Jensen on UK radio station, Capital Gold (November 2005)

See also

The Beatles Portal

• The Beatles line-ups
• The Beatles' London
• The Beatles trivia

External links

• The Beatles Official site
• The Beatles at Rolling Stone
• The Beatles at MusicBrainz
• Beatles Interview Database
• Notes on Beatles, by Alan Pollack
• The Beatle Timeline
• Beatles Tour of Hamburg
• The Internet Beatles Album
• The Beatles on TIME's 100 Best Albums list

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