Message about the Beatles. The history of the British rock band The Beatles What happened to the Beatles

Beatles (« The Beatles»; separately, the members of the ensemble in Russia are called the "Beatles") - a cult British rock band from Liverpool:
John Lennon (rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards, tambourine, maracas, bass guitar, harmonica, vocals)
Paul McCartney (bass guitar, keyboards, drums, guitar, vocals)
George Harrison (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, sitar, tambourine, keyboards, vocals)
Ringo Starr (drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell, bongos, keyboards, vocals)

Also at different times, Pete Best (drums, vocals) and Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar, vocals), Jimmy Nichol (drums) performed in the group. The group has made an invaluable contribution to the development of rock music. The ensemble not only changed it, but also achieved unprecedented popularity, thanks to which Beatles became one of the brightest phenomena of world culture of the 20th century, having sold more than 1 billion records worldwide. The appearance, demeanor and beliefs of the musicians made them trendsetters, which, coupled with their huge popularity, led to a significant influence of the group on the cultural and social revolution of the 1960s. After the breakup of the group, which occurred in 1970, each of its members began a solo career. " The Beatles» is considered the greatest group of all times and peoples.

Origins (1956-1960)

The roots of the ensemble go back to the mid-1950s, the era of rock and roll, which shaped the worldview and musical tastes of the future members of the group. In the spring of 1956, John Lennon (1940-1980) first heard the song "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley, which, according to him, meant the end of his entire previous life (it is interesting to note that Bill Haley, whom he had heard before, is the most popular rock-n-singer -roll before Presley - made less impression on him). By that time, John was playing harmonica and banjo. Now he began to master the guitar. Soon, together with schoolmates, he founded the group "The Blackjacks", a week later renamed The Quarrymen, named after their school, Quarry Bank. The Quarrymen played skiffle - the British form of amateur rock and roll - and tried to be like teddy boys. In the summer of 1957, during one of Quarryman's first concerts, Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney, who impressed John with his knowledge of the chords and words of the latest rock and roll songs (in particular the song "Twenty Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochran) and the fact that he was clearly better developed musically (Paul also played trumpet and piano). In the spring of 1958, Paul's friend George Harrison (1943-2001) joined them for episodic performances, and from autumn onwards, they were constantly joined. It was these three who became the main backbone of the group, for the rest of the members of the Quarryman, rock and roll was a temporary hobby, and they soon fell away from the team.

Quarrymen occasionally played at various parties, weddings, social events, but it didn’t reach real concerts and recordings (although in 1958, out of curiosity, they recorded a disc with two songs for their own money); several times the participants dispersed (for example, Harrison had his own group for some time). Lennon and McCartney, inspired by the example of Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran (they not only sang, but also played the guitars themselves and composed songs themselves, which was not a common practice in the music industry of that time), began to write their own songs together, while they decided to give they have a dual authorship by analogy with American groups of authors like Leiber and Stoller. In late 1959, the group included aspiring artist Stuart Sutcliffe, whom Lennon met at his art college. Sutcliffe's playing was not very skillful, which repeatedly annoyed the demanding McCartney. In this form, the composition of the ensemble was almost complete: John Lennon (vocals, rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (vocals, piano, rhythm guitar), George Harrison (lead guitar), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar). However, there was a problem - the lack of a permanent drummer, which prompted the musicians to even arrange comic competitions, inviting the audience to the stage as drummers.

Name

By that time, the group was actively trying to integrate into the concert and club life of Liverpool and the outskirts. Talent competitions followed one after another, but the group was constantly unlucky. Such - more serious - events made the musicians think about a suitable stage name - none of the participants had any relation to Quarry Bank. So, for example, at a local television competition in December 1959, the group performed under the name "Johnny and the Moondogs", which was replaced by others at subsequent concerts. The name "The Beatles" appeared a few months later, in April 1960. There is still no clear answer as to who exactly coined this word. According to the memoirs of the group members, Sutcliffe and Lennon are considered to be the authors of the neologism, who were fascinated by the idea of ​​coming up with a name that had different meanings at the same time. Buddy Holly's group The Crickets was taken as an example ("crickets", but for the British there was a second meaning - "cricket"). Lennon stated that he came up with the name in a dream: "I saw a burning man who said, 'Let there be beetles'." However, the mere word Beetles ("beetles") did not have any double meaning; only with the replacement of “e” with “a” did the original word appear: if you pronounce it, you hear “beetles”, but if you see it printed, then the root “beat” (like beat music) immediately catches your eye. The promoters found the name too short and "inconspicuous", so the musicians were forced at first to change their name on the posters to a more promotional one - "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and The Beetles" or "The Silver Beatles". The band received more and more offers to perform - usually in pubs and small clubs. In April 1960, The Beatles embarked on their first small tour of Scotland as an accompanying band. Their prowess as musicians grew steadily, although they continued to be one of the many obscure rock and roll bands in Liverpool.

Hamburg (1960-1962)

Summer 1960 Beatles received an invitation to play in Hamburg, where club owners were interested in real English-speaking rock and roll ensembles; the fact that several Liverpool bands were already playing in Hamburg played into the hands of the Beatles. However, this also forced them to urgently look for a drummer in order to comply with a professional contract. So they recruited Pete Best, who was the drummer for the Liverpool rock band The Blackjacks, who played at the Casbah Club. On August 16, the Beatles left England, and the very next day their first concert took place in the Hamburg club Indra, in which the group played until October. From October until the end of November, The Beatles played at the Kaiserkeller Club.

The schedule of performances was extremely rigid: as a rule, one group played in the club for one hour, another hour for another, for 12 hours. Members of The Beatles lived in one cramped room, located in the cinema building. On stage, the musicians had to play a huge amount of material, so in addition to rock and roll (they played almost all the records in a row from the albums of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and others), they played blues, rhythm and blues, folk songs, old pop and jazz numbers, modifying them in the style of rock and roll. Sometimes ordinary songs in the rock and roll format were turned into half-hour improvisations; in doing so, the group found that the Germans enjoyed particularly loud and assertive playing. Your own songs Beatles they did not perform, because, according to their confession, there was no incentive for the same reason - there was too much suitable material in the surrounding modern music. It was this kind of daily work and the ability to play music of any genre that became one of the determining factors in the development of The Beatles' talent.

In Hamburg, the members of the ensemble met a group of students from the local art college - Astrid Kirchherr and Klaus Foorman, who played a significant role in the biography of the group. Kirchherr soon became Sutcliffe's girlfriend and it was she who suggested, however, on The Beatles' next visit to Hamburg, in the spring of 1961, new hairstyles - hair combed over the forehead and ears, and a little later - jackets without collars and lapels in the fashion of Pierre Cardin. All these innovations were first tested by Sutcliff on himself, and only then they were adopted by the whole group (although Best did not agree to a long bang).

Upon his return in December 1960 to Liverpool Beatles were among the most active and ambitious local bands that competed in terms of repertoire, sound and number of fans. Interestingly, all the Liverpool bands played almost the same (American) songs, but the competition was also based on the principle of who would “discover” which song first and make it “his own”. Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were considered leaders, they played in the best clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg - it was there that the Beatles met their drummer - Ringo Starr (real name - Richard Starkey), with whom they quickly became friends and began to spend time together.

In April 1961, the group went on a second tour to Hamburg, where they performed for three months at the Top Ten club. It was in Hamburg that the first professional recording of the Beatles took place - as an accompanying ensemble of singer Tony Sheridan. Sheridan positioned himself as a rock and roll singer for the domestic West German market. The recording took place under the direction of Bert Kaempfert, who selected the Beatles. During recording, the band was allowed to record some of their own compositions (Lennon also sang "Ain't She Sweet"). The first result of the recordings was the single "My Bonnie / The Saints", released in August 1961 in Germany, with the names of the performers - Tony Sheridan and ... "The Beat Brothers". So for the German market, for reasons of euphony, The Beatles were named. At the end of the tour, Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg with Kirchherr and thus give up his musical activities with the band. The bass guitar was taken over by McCartney. A year later, on April 10, 1962, Sutcliffe died in Hamburg from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Since the spring of 1961, sporadically, and since August - regularly, The Beatles began to perform at the Cavern club in Liverpool. In total, The Beatles performed there 262 times between 1961 and 1962, with the last performance taking place on August 3, 1962. On July 27, a concert took place at Liverpool's Litherland Town Hall, which became the first truly major success - the local press called Beatles the best rock and roll band in Liverpool.

In November 1961, Brian Epstein became the first manager of the Beatles (Allan Williams, who had previously helped the group, was not a manager, he only served as a concert promoter and tour agent, not in any way connected with the group).

First contract (1962)

Over time, Brian Epstein met with producer George Martin from the Parlophone label, which was owned by EMI. George showed interest in the band and wanted to see them perform in the studio; he invited the quartet to audition at Abbey Road Studios in London on 6 June. It should be noted that in the end, George Martin was not particularly impressed with the first demos of the group, but immediately fell in love with the Beatles as ordinary people. While acknowledging that they had talent, Martin later said in interviews that it was not the Beatles' talent that impressed him that day, but the Beatles themselves - attractive, cheerful and slightly cheeky young people. When Martin asked if there was anything they didn't like about the studio, Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie." Luckily for " Beatles”, George Martin appreciated the joke: the group was invited to sign a long-awaited recording contract, and direct and witty answers to questions became the Beatles’ signature style of conversation at various press conferences and interviews.

George Martin had problems only with Pete Best - he believed that Pete did not reach the general level of the group. As a result, Martin personally offered to Brian Epstein to change the band's drummer. However, despite his not very good drumming, Best enjoyed great popularity among fans, which somewhat angered the other three members of the group. Moreover, Pete did not get along with the rest of the Beatles because of his personality - Epstein was generally angry (which happened to him infrequently) when Best refused to make himself a trademark "Beatle" hairstyle and fit the general style of the group. As a result, on August 16, 1962, Brian announced that Pete Best was leaving the group. Beatles. His place was immediately taken by the drummer from the Rory Storm and the Hurricanes group, Ringo Starr, with whom the Beatles had long been familiar. Having first met Ringo in Hamburg, the Beatles, ironically, recorded their first record with him. In mid-August 1960, in the private studio "Akustik", "The Beatles" participated in the recording of the first record in their life - a demo, then printed in only four copies and designed to be played at a speed of 78 revolutions per minute. In fact, it was not their record, but Rory Storm and The Hurricanes bassist and vocalist Lu Walters, who decided to record the songs "Fever", "Summertime", "September Song" and asked "The Beatles " help him. Sutcliffe and Best were simply present in the studio, as Walters preferred Ringo to play drums.

Soon the work of "The Beatles" in the studio began. Their first recording at the EMI studio did not bring any results, but during the September sessions, The Beatles recorded and released their first single - "Love Me Do", which was released on October 5, 1962 and reached #17 in the music magazine chart " Record Retailer” is a pretty good result for young musicians. In America, where it was released in May 1964 (just at the height of Beatlemania in Britain), the song stayed at the top of the charts for a full 18 months. A well-known role here was played by the commercial cunning of Brian Epstein, who, at his own peril and risk, bought 10 thousand copies of the record, which significantly increased its buyout index and attracted new buyers. The Beatles made their first television appearance on October 17, 1962, on the program People and Places, which broadcast their concert in Manchester filmed by Granada Television. Soon the group recorded the single "Please Please Me", which, according to various magazines, took first and second places in their charts (Britain had no official national hit parade in early 1963).

On February 11, 1963, the Beatles recorded all the material for their debut album Please Please Me in one go, in just 12 hours. Three months after the release of the single of the same name (March 22), the Beatles finally released their first album, which on April 12 led the national charts for 6 months (finally appeared). The album was mixed from the band's own songs by Lennon-McCartney and cover versions of their favorite hit songs, owned by famous artists at the time.

October 13, 1963 is considered to be the birthday of "Beatlemania" - a phenomenon of deafening popularity, which has not yet been repeated by any group in the world. The Beatles then performed at the London Palladium, from where their concert was broadcast on Sunday Night At The London Palladium throughout the country. The program gathered 15 million viewers, but thousands of young fans and admirers preferred to skip the program and filled the streets adjacent to the concert hall building in the hope of seeing the musicians not on the screen, but in life. After the concert, the quartet had to make their way to the car, surrounded by a police squad. November 4 "The Beatles" became the highlight of the Royal Variety Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The concert was attended by the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, and the Queen did not hide her admiration for the Beatles' song "Till There Was You" from the popular musical "The Music Man".

On November 22, the quartet's second album "With The Beatles" was released. Of the fourteen songs on the record, eight are the musicians' own compositions, including the song "Don't Bother Me" by George Harrison for the first time on the band's official albums. The album set a world record for pre-order sales with 300,000, and by 1965 it had sold over a million copies of the record.

Trip to America and the height of Beatlemania (1963-1964)

Despite the band's growing popularity in Britain and their high chart positions since early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol Records (also owned by EMI), hesitated to release The Beatles' singles in the US, in part because for the fact that not a single English group in America has had lasting success. Brian Epstein, however, managed to conclude a contract with a small Chicago firm "Vee Jay", and she released the singles "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You", as well as the album "Introducing The Beatles", but they were not successful and did not even hit the regional charts.

The situation changed after the release of the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the USA at the end of 1963. In England, he appeared a little earlier and immediately got into first place. Impressed by this particular song, the Sunday Times music critic Richard Buckle, in an issue of December 29, 1963, called Lennon and McCartney "the greatest composers since Beethoven." On January 18, 1964, the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was announced as number one in the United States on the Cash Box chart and number three on the weekly Billboard chart. On January 20, the American company "Capitol" released the album "Meet the Beatles!", Partially similar in content to the English "With The Beatles" - both the single and the album became "gold" in the USA on February 3. By the beginning of April, only Beatles songs appeared in the top five songs of the US national hit parade, and in general there were 14 of them in the hit parade.

"Beatlemania" stepped across the ocean. The musicians were convinced of this immediately, as soon as they landed on February 7, 1964 at New York's Kennedy Airport - more than four thousand fans came to meet them. At that time, the quartet gave three concerts in the USA: one at the Washington Coliseum and two at New York's Carnegie Hall. In addition, The Beatles performed twice on the TV program The Ed Sullivan Show, attracting a record number of viewers in the history of television - 73 million (40% of the US population at that time!). Almost the rest of the time they met with journalists, American colleagues in art, and on the morning of February 22 they returned to England.

On March 2, the Beatles began filming and recording songs for their first musical film, A Hard Day's Night, and an album of the same name. The work had not yet been completed when the British press reported a new sensation: the single "Can't Buy Me Love" / "You Can't Do That", which appeared on March 20, collected an unprecedented number of pre-orders in England and the USA - 3 million. Not a single work of art and literature knew such a first edition.

On June 4, the quartet embarked on their first major overseas tour. His route ran through Denmark, Holland, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Australia again. On the eve of the trip, Ringo fell ill in the hospital with acute tonsillitis and did not appear on stage until June 16 in Melbourne. Prior to this, The Beatles had performed with session drummer Jimmy Nicol. The tour was a truly triumphant success. In Adelaide, for example, a crowd of 300,000 (!) met the musicians at the airport.

The quartet returned to London on 2 July, and three days later the premiere of A Hard Day's Night (directed by Richard Lester) took place at the Pavilion cinema in the capital. Shortly after the premiere, the group's self-titled album was released, for the first time not containing any borrowed songs. Both the film and the record evoked rave reviews from the press, and the outstanding American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, after listening to the album A Hard Day's Night, called Lennon and McCartney "the best songwriters since Schubert."

August 19, 1964 began the first full-fledged tour Beatles in North America (the previous trip in February was more of an advertising and excursion character). In 32 days, the quartet traveled 35,906 kilometers and gave 31 concerts in 24 cities (including three in Canada). For each concert, the ensemble received 25-30 thousand dollars. Initially, the tour route included not 24, but 23 cities. A performance in Kansas City was not envisaged, but the owner of the local professional basketball club, Charles Finlay, who clearly decided to go down in history, offered $150,000 for one half-hour Beatles concert, and Brian Epstein agreed.

But the musicians themselves in those days were more concerned about the other side of success. During the tour, they felt like prisoners, because they were completely isolated from the world. The hotels they stayed in were besieged by mobs around the clock. Incredible, but true: the equipment with which The Beatles performed in huge stadiums in 1964 would not satisfy even the most seedy restaurant ensemble today - the power and sound quality were so low. Technique hopelessly lagged behind the pace of show business development set by the quartet. There were not even monitors (control speakers), and behind the deafening roar of the stands, the musicians often did not hear not only each other, but also themselves, lost their rhythm, lost their tonality in vocal parts. But the audience did not notice this, they also heard almost nothing, and did not really see: for security reasons, the stage was installed either in the center of the football field or at the back of the baseball field.

Under such conditions, there could be no talk of any creative development or progress. Unlike the Hamburg concerts, the quartet now had to perform a limited number of the same songs day after day. Changes to the program were not allowed. The stage was no longer a laboratory or testing ground for the musicians. From now on, they could create something new, create, develop only outside of it.

"Beatles For Sale" and "Help!" (1964-1965)

Returning to London on September 21, The Beatles began recording their next album, Beatles For Sale, the same day. Of the 14 selected songs, six were borrowed and featured in the quartet's repertoire for more than one year ("Rock And Roll Music", "Mr. Moonlight", "Kansas City", "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby")). On the whole, the record was a bizarre bouquet of styles from rock and roll to country and western with a predominance of intonations in the spirit of Buddy Holly records. On the first day (December 4), the disc sold 700,000 copies and a week later topped the British hit parade. In February 1965, filming began on the second feature film, Help!, directed by Richard Lester, already known from the Beatles' previous film A Hard Day's Night. The film premiered in London on July 29, and the self-titled album was released on August 6.

Each song on the album is good, but without exaggeration one of them can be called an outstanding piece of music, a classic not only for popular music, but for music in general. This is the song "Yesterday". Its melody was composed by Paul McCartney at the beginning of the year, while the text appeared much later. He called it "Scrambled Eggs" because he hummed the tune with the first words that came to mind: "Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs..." . George Martin liked the melody, but he suggested recording it as a song using a string quartet accompaniment that was completely unexpected for The Beatles. This was the first time that neither John, nor George, nor Ringo participated in the recording. The song was clearly "doomed" to great success, but The Beatles did not release it on their own, on a single, but immediately included it on the album. With their creativity, they could afford it. Shortly after the release of the album "Help!" the song "Yesterday" began to be performed one by one by many soloists and ensembles, its instrumental versions were included in the repertoire of symphony orchestras. Today, about two thousand interpretations of this composition are known - more than any other in history.

On August 13, The Beatles embarked on their second American tour. Exactly two weeks later, an event occurred that still haunts show businessmen and music lovers to this day: The Beatles visited Elvis Presley, with whom they not only talked, but also played music, and several songs were recorded on a tape recorder. Neither during Elvis' lifetime nor after his death in 1977 were the recordings released. Despite the best efforts of agents hired by American, British, West German and Japanese record companies, the whereabouts of the tapes could not be located. Their value is in the millions of dollars.

New directions in creativity and the end of concert activity (1965-1966)

The summer of 1965 was a turning point in the history of rock music. From dancing, entertaining, it became a serious art. New rock bands appeared, and such ensembles and performers as The Byrds, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan began to compete with The Beatles, who, of course, could not stay away from these changes. On October 12 in London, they started recording the album "Rubber Soul", which marked the beginning of a new phase not only in their work, but also in rock music culture in general. All competing authors and performers were again left far behind. "It was the first album that introduced the world to the new, maturing Beatles," recalled George Martin years later. Beatles began recording this record with an almost empty "portfolio": by October 12 they did not have even three songs completely ready for recording. And on December 3, 1965, the album was already on the shelves of music stores. In the songs of the album, for the first time, elements of mysticism and surrealism appeared, which were so characteristic of The Beatles in the future.

October 26, 1965 - the members of the group at Buckingham Palace were awarded (Labour Prime Minister Wilson announced this on June 12) state awards - the Order of the British Empire, MBE. For the first time, the UK's highest honor has been given to pop musicians, "for their contribution to the development of British culture and its popularization around the world." Three of them took it with delight. And John later admitted: “If at court they bothered to read what I think about the royal family, they would never have allowed this.” The presentation of the award to members of the Beatles caused outrage among some of its owners, including military heroes. They returned their orders in protest, because, in their opinion, now these awards have simply depreciated. “The British royal house has made me equal with a handful of vulgar dumbass,” wrote one of these cavaliers.

In 1966, the Beatles began to have real problems for the first time. In July, during a tour in the Philippines, due to their accidental conflict with the first lady of this country (they refused an official reception at the presidential palace), the Beatles were almost torn apart by an angry mob, and they barely took their legs out of this state. On their way to the plane from the Philippines, their tour manager, Mal Evans, was horribly beaten at the airport, the band members were pushed and literally "knocked" onto the plane. Already after returning to his homeland across the ocean, in America, a hype arose because of the phrase Lennon had inadvertently said back in March that “Christianity is dying, and, for example, now Beatles more popular than Jesus. In England, this phrase was read, quarreled and immediately forgotten. In the cities of the United States and, oddly enough, in South Africa, protests against The Beatles swept, their records, portraits, clothes were burned, in every lane there were buckets with the inscription: "For garbage from ... The Beatles", and in one fine day the priests built stuffed musicians, and everyone could approach them and do whatever they wanted.However, the Beatles themselves reacted to this with humor: "ha, because before they burn these records, they have to buy them. "But under pressure from the American press, Lennon officially apologized for his statements at a press conference on August 11 in Chicago (USA).

Nevertheless, despite all the failures, on August 5, 1966, one of the best albums was released. Beatles- «Revolver». The album was distinguished primarily by the fact that most of its songs did not involve stage performance - the studio effects used here are so complex. And The Beatles were now a purely studio group. They were so tired of the exhausting world tour that they decided to stop their concert activity. In their native country, their last performance took place on May 1, 1966 at the Empire Pool of London's Wembley Stadium, where they took part in a gala concert, performing 5 songs in a 15-minute performance: "I Feel Fine", "Nowhere Man ", "Day Tripper", "If I Needed Someone" and "I'm Down". The last tour was the American tour of the same year, ending with a concert in San Francisco on August 29. On this stage biography of the quartet ended. The album "Revolver", meanwhile, led the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Critics regarded it as the culmination of the work of The Beatles. It seemed that a record better than this could not be created in principle, and many newspapers seriously suggested that the quartet would stop on this incredibly high note. From the outside, such a decision would look quite logical, but the musicians themselves did not even think of it.

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967)

At the end of 1966 Beatles gathered again in the studio. The recording sessions that began on November 24 resulted in the single "Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever", which appeared on February 17, 1967. A characteristic feature of the single was that instead of the usual first and second sides, it had two firsts. Thus, it was emphasized that both songs included in the disc are the main ones. The composition "Strawberry Fields Forever" seemed to contain all the experience accumulated by the quartet in studio work. The musicians began recording it on November 24, 1966, and the final version, which we hear on the record, appeared only on January 2. Innovative techniques in arrangement, a huge number of studio instrumentalists who participated in the recording at that time, the very view of the studio as a musical instrument with almost unlimited possibilities, all this, characteristic of the single "Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever", as it were prepared the listeners (and the musicians themselves!) for the metamorphosis embodied in the album “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The recording date for Sergeant Pepper is November 24, when Beatles began work on "Strawberry Fields Forever". Over a 129-day period (compared to 12 hours for Please Please Me), the musicians ended up recording the greatest album in rock history. During the recording days of the record, almost all the studio staff did not go home until late at night, even those who had a day off. The camera room was crowded with fellow musicians, producers of other bands. Eyewitnesses said that Ron Richard, who was at that time the producer of the recordings of The Hollies, the song "A Day In The Life" (according to some critics, the best song on the album) literally led to a panic. Sitting in the corner of the operator's room with his head in his hands, he kept repeating like a clockwork: "This is incredible ... I give up." Meanwhile, the Beatles created the album playfully. It was a pleasure for them to saturate it with unheard of, unexpected musical and sound effects in general. And as a result, the album, released on May 26, received a phenomenal success and stayed at the top of the charts for 88 (!) weeks.

Death of Brian Epstein and the White Album (1967-1968)

June 25, 1967 Beatles became the first ensemble whose performance was broadcast to the whole world - almost 400 million people in all countries could see them. Their number became part of the world's first global television program Our World. The performance was broadcast live from the Beatles' main studio on Abbey Road in London, during which a video version of "All You Need Is Love" was recorded.

But after this triumph, the group's business began to decline, and the tragic death of The Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who died on August 27, 1967 as a result of an overdose of sleeping pills, played a significant role in this. "The Fifth Beatle", as the members of the group themselves called him, who was in charge of all financial affairs and devoted all his time to the group, passed away. He was only 32.

At the end of 1967, The Beatles received the first negative press reviews about their work - the film "Magical Mystery Tour" became the object of criticism. The main complaint about the film was that it was only released in color, and few British people had color televisions at the time. The soundtrack to the film (by the way, did not receive any claims) was released in the UK as an EP.

The group spent early 1968 in Rishikesh, India, studying meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yoga. After returning to their homeland, Lennon and McCartney announced the birth of the Apple corporation, under whose label The Beatles now began to release their records. Meanwhile, the quartet carried out two major projects at once: preparing material for the next album and participating in the work on the full-length animated film "Yellow Submarine", which was released in January 1969 along with a soundtrack disc. In addition, on August 30, The Beatles released one of the best songs in the history of the group - "Hey Jude" on a single. By the end of the year, the record had sold 6 million copies worldwide, topping the charts almost all over the world.

November 22, 1968 the group released their new record - a double album Beatles, which is known to the masses simply as the "white album", because of its stark white cover, which was only embossed with the band's name. Critics gave the album mixed reviews. Many reviewers were of the opinion that the musicians should have been more demanding and put together one disc. However, the audience was delighted - everyone liked the album. Well, in the biography of the Beatles, he occupies a special place, since he is the first clear evidence of the impending collapse of the Beatles. The days of working on the "white album" showed the barriers that arose between the members of the group, their relationship worsened, and Ringo Starr even left the ensemble for a while. As a result, in the songs "Martha My Dear", "Wild Honey Pie", "Dear Prudence" and "Back in the USSR" drum parts performed by McCartney were recorded. However, a song composed by Ringo, "Don't Pass Me By", was released on the same album. The atmosphere in the group was also tense because of Lennon's new wife, Yoko Ono, who was present at every sound session of the group and was very annoying to all its members (except, of course, Lennon). In addition, Lennon and Harrison began to release solo records, which also did not contribute much to the improvement of the group's condition. All these nuances inexorably led to disintegration.

Last albums and breakup (1969-1970)

Reunification attempt, death of John Lennon

On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was assassinated in New York City by a mentally unstable US citizen, Mark Chapman. On the day of his death, Lennon gave his last interview to American journalists, and at 10:50 p.m., when John and Yoko entered under the arch of their house, returning from the Hit Factory recording studio, Chapman, who earlier that day took Lennon's autograph on the cover of the new album "Double Fantasy", fired five shots at his back. Lennon was taken to the Roosevelt Hospital in just a few minutes by a police car called by the doorman of the Dakota. But the doctors' attempts to save Lennon were in vain - due to a large loss of blood, he died, the official time of death is 23 hours 15 minutes. Lennon was cremated in New York and his ashes were given to Yoko Ono.

Mark Chapman is serving a life sentence for his crime in a New York prison. He applied for parole five times, but each time the applications were denied.

Paul McCartney was planning a reunion Beatles a year before the assassination of John Lennon. In his 1979 contract with CBS Records, McCartney claimed he could record music with Lennon, Harrison and Starr again under the Beatles name.

Details of the $10.8 million contract have been made public on the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death. A spokesman for the record company commented: This is the earliest evidence that any of the Beatles made a formal attempt to revive the group.».

This is also proof that Paul was not the one who initiated the breakup, as was believed up to that point.

Free As A Bird, Real Love, Now And Then

When, in 1994, McCartney, Starr, and Harrison were compiling an anthology Beatles, John's widow Yoko Ono gave them tapes with unfinished versions of three songs, two of which - "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" - ​​were finalized by the musicians. The third had to be abandoned, because the late Lennon's colleagues did not dare to add the stanzas of the verse, so as not to misinterpret John's thought. According to other sources, the reason for the failure was strong noise on the recording.

« The song existed in the form of a fragmentary chorus, it had nothing else, - Jeff Lynn, a famous musician and close friend of the Beatles, who produced the record, shares his memories. - We recorded the backing track, but things didn't go any further - then "Now And Then" remained unfinished. It's kind of a blues ballad, a very light song. I really like it, and I hope that it still gets to the listeners».

Nevertheless, after more than 10 years, Paul McCartney decided on a bold step: he composed the missing lines and recorded them in his own performance, leaving the author's voice in the chorus. Ringo Starr provided the drums, and the musicians took the guitar from archive recordings of George Harrison.

Today, the Beatles are known to contemporaries as the author of popular retro songs such as Yesterday, Let It Be, Help, Yellow Submarine and others. However, few people know that this group had the loudest success in the history of show business, which has never been repeated. What was this success and what are its reasons I will try to state in this article.

Describing the success of the Beatles

The Beatles (The Beatles) in the final composition was formed in 1962 and existed for 7 years - until 1970. During this short time, by the standards of show business, the group released 13 albums, shot 4 feature films and achieved success that no other group could achieve before or after this group.

The idea for the band's name came to John Lennon in a dream, and is a play on the words "beetle" (beetle) and "beat" (beat, beat, rhythm). At first the group was called "Long John And The Silver Beatles", then the name was decided to be shortened to "The Beatles".

It is immediately worth noting the fact that this group has a large number of generally accepted terms related to it. Among them are the "Famous Four" ("The fab four"), "Liverpool Four". The term "Beatlemania" is also used to describe the band's unique success. This term is unique in its kind and is not found in other groups. In addition, there is the concept of "The Beatles movie" (The Beatles movie), used to analyze the contribution of the group in the field of cinema.

The speed with which fame and success came to the group is also interesting. Until 1960, the group was known only in Liverpool, and played basically the same as everyone else - arrangements of popular American songs. Even during their first tour of Scotland as an accompanying band in April 1960, they continued to be one of Liverpool's many obscure rock and roll bands.

Then in August 1960 the band made a 5 month trip to Hamburg (where they played in the clubs "Indra" and then "Kaiserkeller") after which the band became one of the most successful and ambitious Liverpool bands. By the beginning of 1961, the Beatles were at the top of the list of the top 350 beat bands in Liverpool. The quartet performs almost daily, gathering a large number of listeners.

4 months later, in April 1961, during the second tour in Hamburg, the Beatles recorded their first single together with Tony Sheridan "My Bonnie / The Saints". While in the studio, Lennon recorded one of his first songs, "Ain't She Sweet".

The first major musical success came to the Beatles after a tour to Hamburg, namely on July 27, 1961, when, after a concert in Liverpool's Litherland Town Hall, the local press called The Beatles the best rock and roll ensemble in Liverpool.

Then, starting in August 1961, the Beatles began to perform regularly at the Liverpool Cavern club, where after 262 concerts (until August 1962) the group became the best in the city and it already had real fans.

Then, shortly after the release of their debut album in February 1963, the group's success quickly escalated into national hysteria. The beginning of such a craze, which received the term “Beatlomania” (“Beatlomania”), is considered to be the summer of 1963, when the Beatles were supposed to open the British concerts of Roy Orbison, but turned out to be an order of magnitude more popular than the American.

In October, the Beatles begin to set records for popularity in the ratings and charts, when the single "She Loves You" becomes the most replicated record in the history of the UK gramophone industry. And a month later, in November 1963, The Beatles perform at the Royal Variety Show at the Prince of Wales Theater in front of the Queen and the English aristocracy. Thus, 2 years after the first musical success, the group becomes recognized throughout the country. Further, their success grew like a snowball, and her fame breaks out of the country.

The Beatles are listened to not only by the English-speaking audience, but also by the whole of Europe, Japan and even Asia (for example, the Philippines). The United States was conquered in early 1964, a year after the release of the first album in their homeland, whereas before the Beatles, English artists were not very popular in America. After the Beatles, a wave of "English invaders" emerged in the USA, that is, the Beatles paved the way for successful tours of such English groups as The Rolling Stones, The Kniks, The Hermits and The Searchers.

The band during the Beatlemania period becomes more than a musical group, it becomes an idol, a style model, a trendsetter, a source of answers to all questions, hopes are pinned on them, etc. Their whole concept and "philosophy" begin to feel cramped within the musical framework and enter neighboring areas of art, such as cinema, and later - socio-political movements. In the genre of cinematography, the group made their debut by filming the film "A Hard Day's Night" in the spring and summer of 1964. The plot of the film is based on the events of one day of the band's life, and the Beatles' third album of the same name became the musical accompaniment to it.

By their example, the group demonstrated that a successful musical concept successfully exists not only in a standard form, but can be successfully projected onto adjacent areas, such as cinema.

The purpose of the Beatles

By the phenomenon of the Beatles group, we mean the kind of success of a musical group that has grown into a real national mania. So, what is the reason that four people have had such phenomenal success when no one else had such success before them? Maybe in luck, maybe in genius, maybe in a combination of circumstances or something else?

In order to understand the nature of the band's success, you first need to understand what the Beatles wanted, what they aspired to. In such a case, we can view their success as a consequence of achieving their goal.

The goal of the Beatles from the very beginning of their existence was very simple - to become the best group of all times and peoples. John Lennon said after the breakup of the band that it was the belief that the Beatles were the best band in the world that made them who they were, be it the best rock and roll band, pop band or whatever.

I believe this goal came about when Lennon and McCartney started writing together. They felt and saw that they could create something in the future that no one had been able to do before. They intuitively understood that at that time it was impossible to create such “magic”, great things in any other way. A great desire to bring to life the musical ideas of the Lennon-McCartney duet formed a clear need for the creation of such a group. It was their author's duet that became the starting point in the creation of the Beatles.

Analysis of the initial conditions for the birth of a group

To achieve any goal, certain conditions and opportunities are required, so let's consider what conditions and opportunities for the Beatles to gain success existed in the late 50s. These possibilities can be divided into two groups. The first of them is external or exogenous, that is, not dependent on the members of the group, and the second is internal, endogenous, that is, which they can influence on their own. Consider first all the necessary external conditions at the end of the 50s in England, which contributed to the birth of the group.

Time and society

Inexperienced listener of the 60s

Events unfold in the 60s of the 20th century. In the English-speaking environment, mass music is only developing, the genre of love lyrics is far from being saturated with masterful, skillfully performed compositions. Until the 60s, there was no technically perfect and professional musical offer of a mass nature for listeners. John Robertson notes that before the Beatles, music was in a state of lethargic sleep, and only after them did it become not only a multi-million dollar business, but also an art.

At the time of the birth of the group, there was no musical proposal striving for an ideal, to which the listener would have "nothing to answer and object to" and could only succumb to the moods that such music carries. The emotional messages that existed at that time were more calm and balanced. They were such that the author himself believed that they should be listened to calmly and not lose one’s head from them, because causing delight and euphoria, there is a so-called responsibility of the author to himself - why convey such strong feelings to the world that cause fanaticism and, possibly, breaking the fate of others.

Thus, until the 60s, there was no significant test for the "virgin" hearing of the English-speaking listener. The first significant attempts to cross this line were on the other side of the ocean with Elvis Presley and Little Richard. The Beatles were the first to shamelessly cross this line and the first to have the opportunity to professionally express these feelings in an optimal musical format.

Unsaturated information environment

The 60s didn't have the huge amount of infotainment distractions that came in the early 21st century. There was no colossal entertainment industry, ranging from computer games to social networks. The more infotainment resources there are, the more time they require from a person to use them. At the moment, if you use the most popular services and services, then there will be no time left for some serious creativity. Consequently, the unsaturated information environment of society in the 60s disposed young people to creative pursuits in music, cinema, painting, etc.

A minimum of alternatives for a quick "conquest of the world"

A young man in those days had not a difficult choice in order to succeed in life: work, study or art. Music was the most common among young people. And if a young man was full of energy and desire to realize himself, then more often he chose music to achieve his goal. Undoubtedly, such people were John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who, as you know, chose music. In favor of the prevalence of music in the UK in the early 60s, John began his musical career at an early age in the church choir and then played the banjo, and Paul McCartney was introduced to music when his parents gave him a trumpet.

Scene

The process of the birth of the group, and then its success, takes place in the English city of Liverpool. In the capitalist England of the 60s, there were no ideological barriers and strict moral censorship, which also contributed to the study of music. However, the disadvantage was capitalism with its requirement to spend all working time on earning money to maintain one's lifestyle. For Paul McCartney, this was reflected in the fact that before the final decision to start playing in the group, he got a job as a janitor at the factory on the instructions of his father.

The need to spend most of the time making money was not so acute in the countries of the communist bloc. However, there was no way to achieve great success in music in principle, due to understandable ideological restrictions.

Also in Liverpool, teenage musical activity was widely developed, which was expressed in a large number of youth groups playing in the style of rock and roll and skiffle (350 beat groups in 1961). The most common instruments were banjo, electric and semi-acoustic guitar, bass guitar, simple drums with a barrel, harmonica. All these instruments were subsequently used by the Beatles. The relatively high standard of living in the UK made it easy to acquire these essential musical instruments.

Summarizing the analysis of the above conditions, we get that in the English-speaking world of the early 60s there was an inexperienced listener and a favorable environment for the debut of a masterly skillful team. Moreover, if this group conveyed a strong emotional charge through its music, then the listener, not knowing how to react to it, could respond with a real explosion, mania, fanaticism, thereby causing a public outcry. The more skillfully the band can convey its musical message to the listener, the stronger the amplitude of this resonance will be. It is also determined by the uniqueness of the emotional message, which is difficult to express in precise terms.

Members of the Beatles

Before analyzing the reasons for the success of the Beatles, consider the composition of the members of this group. The sound of a musical group is determined by the set of instruments that its members use, for example, piano, guitar, harmonica, singing voice.

For the early Beatles, the specialization on instruments looked like this: McCartney and Lennon were responsible for vocals, Harrison for guitar, McCartney again for bass, Ringo Starr for drums and partly McCartney (for example, in the song "A Day In The Life"). Lennon played rhythm guitar, but it was not his main instrument (the voice was the main one), since in most of the band's songs the guitar accompaniment is determined precisely by Harrison's guitar. In addition, Lennon almost never performed solo during the entire time he played in the group (especially on stage). However, his solo performance with the song “Baby It's you” can be cited as an exception. In addition to vocals and guitar, John Lennon mastered another accompanying instrument quite well - the harmonica (in “Love Me Do” he plays the chromatic harmonica of the Marine Band ), which also suggests that the guitar was not his specialty. John himself later admitted that he plays the guitar "averagely" All this confirms his specialization in songwriting and vocal performance.

Some instruments for the musician are the main ones, that is, which he skillfully owns, and is responsible for the use of this instrument in the team. For example, George Harrison focused on the guitar while moving away from other things such as songwriting and honing his vocal skills. Of course, Lennon and McCartney initially took him as a guitarist, since they themselves were completely absorbed in writing songs. As a result, Harrison was responsible for the professional, fast-paced and improvising guitar in the band. Therefore, in the formative period, the representative song of the group, in addition to the rhythm section, consists of the vocals of John and Paul and the guitar of George. By developing his guitar technique, Harrison had much less time for creativity, and given that his songwriting talent was not as bright as that of the Lennon-McCartney duo, explains his later emergence in the group as a songwriter (from the second album "With The Beatles ").

The Beatles - full cycle musical group

There are three main types of musical groups: those specializing in writing material, performing it, or creating and performing their own material at the same time. Of course, the probability of the formation of the latter is much less, since it requires the ability to do two fundamental things well.

In practice, usually a band is good at one thing, so it's more common for a band to either be good at composing music or perform well.

The Beatles wrote and performed themselves, which at one time was a precedent, since there was a practice when the music was composed by outside composers for performing groups. That is, in the early 60s, the separation of the author's and performing functions dominated, which, of course, complicated the process of the creative cycle - from composing a song, writing music, to recording in a studio and performing on stage. This occurred as a result of the emergence of transaction costs in the transfer of musical material between the composer and the performer. For example, the author has to spend time to convey to the performer the emotional nuances of his song, which is completely impossible to convey in the form of lyrics and scores. In addition, during such a "transfer" part of the author's intention may be lost due to the complexity of transferring such subjective information.

In the case of combining these two qualities in one person / team, this problem is removed. By the time the first album was recorded, the Beatles had become full-cycle musicians - that is, they closed the entire process of creating songs on themselves, which gave them the opportunity to quickly and losslessly create their songs from idea to recording.

Necessary internal conditions for success

Let us now consider the possibilities and conditions necessary to achieve the goal, which could depend on the future members of the group. In order to become the best band in the world, oddly enough, this band must first be created, then get the opportunity to professionally perform ready-made material, and then professionally write your own.

The need for a group

The need for a musical group arose from John Lennon's desire to have the best rock and roll band in the world. This group was needed for the full expression of the author's thoughts in musical language. To do this, the author needs an ensemble of musicians who own a set of instruments necessary for the full expression of the author's thoughts.

John Lennon formed his first group, The Quaryymen, in the spring of 1956. However, until meeting Paul McCartney in the summer of 1957, it was a purely amateur game. When Lennon and McCartney met, then that powerful author's duet began to form, the musical ideas of which, no doubt, demanded worthy expression. Lennon-McCartney co-authorship developed gradually in practice - by the end of 1958, 4 years before the release of the first album, they already had about 50 songs in their assets. Thus, the Lennon-McCartney duo had an objective need to create a group.

In addition, the young Beatles already had an idea of ​​​​how large-scale success in the musical field can be, using the example of the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley. Elvis was the inspiration for Lennon-McCartney at the very beginning of their work, as the musicians themselves admitted that if there was no Elvis, then there would be no Beatles.

Creation of the Beatles

To create a viable group, the creator needs to find a sufficient number of like-minded musicians. The creative duo of John and Paul needed their own musical accompaniment as they both focused on songwriting and vocals.

The most common instrument at that time, as in other things, and in ours, was the guitar, and therefore it is not surprising that the duet's musical accompaniment was the guitar of George Harrison, whom Paul brought into the group in 1958. George's interests completely coincided with the interests of the duet: George wanted to play the guitar and had already played in The Rebels, and the place of the game was determined by the presence of George's friend Paul McCartney in it.

This trio formed the backbone of the band, while the members on the other instruments changed constantly until the group found its final line-up in August 1962, when the band changed drummers from Pete Best to Richard Starkey.

The short duration of the existence of a musical group

Musical creativity is always a collaborative process. One person can be orders of magnitude less than in the company of a person, even with less talent.

Joint creativity is possible with a fundamental coincidence of desires, goals, worldviews of co-authors, and this intersection exists for a relatively short time. And during this period, masterpieces of art are created. However, when co-creating, you have to compromise, taking into account the interests of the co-author, and there is always a temptation to separate and write your own things, having complete freedom of action. That is, in a team you always have to give up your own opinion in favor of a common cause. Therefore, only those collectives continue to exist in which each participant can do orders of magnitude more than on their own.

The group consists of instruments playing together, the musician plays the instrument, the musician is a person. At each of the listed stages, a failure is possible and then the entire musical group cannot function fully. For example, a member of the group has a high-quality instrument, has an excellent command of it, but at the moment he does not want to play in this group / this song / this instrument and the whole team instantly falls into a non-working state. Here the human factor is manifested and the group is already under the threat of disintegration, although there are no objective reasons.

In the later Beatles, this manifests itself in the fact that, after writing the Beatles For Sale album in 1964, the Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo stopped writing songs together. The last song together was "Baby's In Black", and starting with the album "Magical Mystery Tour", each of the quartet begins to use the others only as accompanying musicians to record their own songs.

The requirement that the interests of all participants coincide is clearly seen in the example of early bassist Stuart Sutcliffe. This is a clear example of a person who chose the wrong area of ​​activity for self-realization, because even before joining the group he wanted to become an artist. Sutcliffe agreed to be the bassist, most likely because his friend John asked for it. Another reason was the popularity of music among young people, which gave a chance to quickly become famous.

As a result, Stewart did not pay much attention to the skill of playing the bass, while continuing to paint at the same time, which caused discontent among the rest of the band. Being a musician was not his vocation, this is evidenced by the fact that after leaving the group he stayed in Hamburg and radically changed the type of activity, becoming an artist.

A similar situation was with the second drummer Pete Best. His interests differed from other members of the group, in particular, he did not fit with the rest physically, was taller and "more beautiful" than the rest. As the Beatles later said, almost all the girls preferred him, which also did not add stability to his position in the group.

Also, Best "wasn't actually a full member of the group because of his relationships with the other members." George Harrison later explains it this way: “There was one thing: Pete rarely spent time with us. When the show was over, Pete would leave, and we all stayed together, and then, when Ringo got close to us, it seemed to us that now there were as many of us as it should be, both on stage and off stage. When Ringo joined the four of us, everything fell into place.

In addition, Best did not recognize the general style of the group - he did not agree to do the same hairstyle as the other Beatles, did not wear the same clothes, which caused the real anger of the band's manager Brian Epstein. Pete did not get along with the other members of the group by nature, and therefore his departure was only a matter of time. As a consequence, he naturally and without scandal left the group in August 1962.

Until the final line-up, the group was formed gradually. For 6 years after the creation of the group in 1956, the Lennon-McCartney-Harrison trio continued to play together in part, while the rest of the musicians replaced each other constantly. And since they could not achieve a significant return on the game during this period, this is a confirmation of their great desire to play together, faith in themselves and the complete coincidence of their interests.

And finally, after the group found a decent drummer in 1962 (Starr played in the second most popular Liverpool band, Rory Storme And The Hurricanes), the band found a steady state. Now each instrument had a separate musician for whom it was the main one, and could exist for a sufficient amount of time to realize its potential.

The requirement for professional performance of the material

The transition to the level of professional performance of the material transfers the team from amateur to mature. Usually, this happens during the course of getting practical performance experience, and the Beatles were no exception. They made 2 trips to Hamburg - in the fall of 1960 and in the spring of 1961, where they forged their mastery of performance in a foreign land, working for pennies 8 hours a day, performing in the Hamburg clubs Indra, Kaiserkeller, Top Ten. Of course, the second trip to Hamburg was already on better terms for the group - after the first days of their stay, the aspiring Beatles were recognized as the best touring band in the city. Also, away from home, the guys had a special motivation for the development of performance techniques - the effect of a stranger - when a person in a new place feels like a stranger, so to speak, on "enemy land", and therefore wants to succeed, gain a foothold, prove his success more strongly. After trips to Hamburg, the Beatles finally moved into the category of professional beat groups after holding more than 260 concerts in the Liverpool Cavern club in 1961 - 1962.

The technical prowess made the band ready for the studio as it made it possible to record songs quickly as the minimum number of errors reduced the number of recording takes. In addition, there was the possibility of easy improvisation, which allowed the Beatles to quickly develop a musical theme to a finished composition. The excellent teamwork of the Lennon-McCartney-Harrisson trio helped to quickly achieve mastery of performance, which, after 5 years of acquaintance, understood each other in a musical sense from a half-word.

Requirement to develop writing skills

Band members acting as songwriters must develop and practice their creative writing function. That is, they must be able to quickly and accurately express their thoughts in a musical language, namely: to compose lyrics and come up with a main motive.

The main songwriters of the Beatles - John Lennon and Paul McCartney - began to practice composing at the age of 16. After they met and Paul entered the Lennon group, the future duo began to spend time together, making music. Usually, visiting one of them, they cooked scrambled eggs and composed simple songs. It was also during this time that Paul showed Lennon the basic chords on the guitar, which helped the latter transition from banjo to guitar. A year and a half after John and Paul met, they already had about fifty songs in their assets, on which they trained to compose, not only on their own, but also together. At this time, the poetic skills of the future authors of the Beatles were formed.

It is also interesting that a year before they met in 1956, John Lennon in his group "The Quarrymen" did not even try to write his own songs. His amateur band only performed songs in the style of skiffle, country and western and rock and roll. In my opinion, the need for my own songs arose after meeting McCartney. Then both talented authors had a desire to outdo the other, or at least look no worse, which stimulated them to constantly hone their skills.

As a result, Lennon's talent for writing hit songs developed through long and painstaking practice, while McCartney had a natural talent for writing beautiful melodies.

By 1963, the Beatles were able to skillfully perform other people's material and honed their writing skills, and were also ready to start realizing their huge accumulated creative potential in the studio. It is noteworthy that the Beatles were ready to work in the studio a year before their first recordings. However, it was precisely the fact that they were admitted to the studio later that provided a reserve of creative and technical potential, which made it possible, firstly, to release fundamental hit albums two per year, and, secondly, to create albums "playfully" easily. In other words, by the beginning of the recording of the first album, the musicians were already in a state of “permanent musical readiness”.

Permanent musical readiness

Each musician, if he is not engaged in music on an ongoing basis, needs time to tune in to the game, refresh the primary control of the instrument in his memory. For example, a guitarist needs to repeat basic playing techniques, move his fingers on special exercises, play scales, and so on.

The need to play each time before the game, significantly reduces the time of useful work, which reduces the number of games played. In addition, if the group is inexperienced, then all the fresh forces of the musicians, which could be spent on creative search, can go to the warm-up.

This problem is also relevant for experienced musicians. Even if the musician has a significant break between the game, the musician again “gets upset”, that is, he loses RAM and the feeling of controlling the instrument and will no longer be able to play the instrument “freely” right away.

Is there a solution to this problem that will save time and effort spent on such a "setup"? There is such a solution and it consists in not leaving the state of constant “tuning” and contact with a musical instrument.

This is possible if you make music the main activity, as well as through constant playing without significant interruptions, as well as using the tool to solve related problems (working with a vocal part, inventing melodies on the go). In this case, each time you can "not forget" all the subtleties and sensations of the game and be in a state of constant (permanent) musical readiness.

Having honed their performing and authoring skills by the time the debut album was recorded, the Beatles not only played together, but also entered the state described above. The Beatles' first such sensations were to come during their tour to Hamburg, where they were required to work on stage every day for 8 hours a day. Then, after holding over 260 concerts at the Cavern Club, the Beatles finally entered a state of permanent readiness by August 1962 and did not leave it until the breakup in 1970.

As a result, the constant "combat readiness" made it possible to fully realize the full potential of the joint Lennon-McCartney in a relatively short time: from 1963 to 1969. In addition, this gave an amazing speed with which the group's albums were released. The Beatles released an average of two albums a year, which in principle was not unusual for those times. For example, Elvis Presley recorded an average of 3 albums in the 60s, and The Rolling Stones released 4 albums in the first 2 years of work.

However, the speed with which the band's new albums are released is astonishing due not only to their complexity and level of elaboration, but also to the unsurpassed number of hits in each album. This speed with which so many hits came out also brought a sense of "impossibility", "wonder" to the Beatles' music. And the unprecedented level of recording and mixing in the best English studio Abbey Road also gave the sound a "superhuman" origin.

Such intensity of music lessons required a significant limitation of the personal life of musicians due to the lack of free time and energy. Members of the Beatles from 1963 to 1965 approached his extreme state - a complete renunciation of personal life. For example, in the midst of Beatlemania, the band members spent about 3 years without significant breaks on tour or working in the studio, living in hotels and not being at home for several months. It is also interesting that the rhythm of the Beatles' life during these years was so intense and tough that modern pop stars could not even dream of.

Musical success as society's response to the band's message

The last necessary condition for success is that the band's musical message is accepted by society. This process is largely subjective and largely determined by the nature of the group's message. However, indirectly it depends on such parameters as the novelty of the message, its relevance to society, depth, style and a kind of philosophy that it carries.

The Beatles' goal of becoming the best rock 'n' roll band of all time shaped the band's core idea of ​​"give what you want". Musical messages, like other details of their activities, were only an expression of this idea. The uniqueness of the message was achieved by the fact that the idea was expressed in the language of a specific creative duo Lennon-McCartney.

Of course, the Beatles met all the formal criteria for success. In particular, novelty was ensured, on the one hand, by a breakthrough in the genre of love lyrics, and on the other hand, by the original style of the game, which synthesized such styles as rock and roll, country, etc. The Beatles were also innovators in musical performance. For example, they had their own style - beat music - where the drum rhythm is transmitted by a fast constant beat, most often eighth notes, which gave the music significant expressiveness and emotional tension when changing the accents of the game.

As a result, as practice showed, their message was quickly accepted by the English, and then the American society of the 60s.

The Beatles Phenomenon

So, the Beatles had every opportunity to be successful. But why did her success turn into real national hysteria?

First, we note that the success of a creative team is a process of public reaction in time and space to information and emotional messages created by a creative team. If accepted, the nature of success is determined by the specifics of the message. If the message is calm, then the reaction in case of success will be calm, adequate, sustained. If the message conveys a cry, enthusiasm or a call to action, then the response, if successful, will be appropriate.

The desire to be the best made the Beatles' musical message to the outside world, the purpose of which was to make a splash.

Popularization of the Beatles

However, no matter how successful, explosive the musical message is, the depth and scale of success is largely determined by the efficiency and speed with which it is "presented" to the listener. Such a necessary component of success as “popularization” or advertising of the group is responsible for this.

The messages of the musical group are transmitted in the form of musical compositions, through sales of sound media (vinyl records), broadcasts on radio and television, as well as live performances of the group. In addition to primary musical recordings, the dialogue between the group and society takes place through all kinds of publications and mentions in the media.

A distinctive feature of the Beatles group was that for the first time mass popularization technologies were tried on it, when all of the above means of contact with the audience were used to the maximum.

It was first handled by Brian Epstein, who considered success in the four. When the group gained momentum, absolutely all the media took over the baton of advertising due to the specifics of their work (to keep the reader informed of what he is interested in). Then, given that the image of the Beatles was exploited by everyone who could, for commercial purposes, businessmen of all stripes were connected to advertising.

The start of Beatlemania in England is noteworthy. There is an opinion that the success of the Beatles was purely promotional. However, in reality, first the group gained fame, and then it spread through the media.

Indeed, until October 1963, the Beatles' fame was limited to Liverpool and Hamburg. However, in these cities, the group already had crowds of fans who made a stampede and did not allow the passage. However, not a single word was written about this phenomenon in any English newspaper. The media did not acknowledge this phenomenon until October 13, 1963. Although until that time all the signs of Beatlemania were already on the face - during 1963 the Beatles toured intensively, gradually becoming leaders of the programs, leaving behind their colleagues Helen Shapiro, Danny Williams and Kenny Lynch.

In November-December, the Beatles were the sole leaders of the concert programs, eclipsing the American star Roy Orbinson. Already at the time when the Beatles ran onto the stage, they were met by a deafening roar of the crowd, young fans rushed forward, creating a stampede, the girls threw themselves under the car, which was swiftly taking the Beatles away from the rampaging fans. And all this was without any media support, all the popularity was won only thanks to word of mouth, live performances and 2 albums (the second was released just on November 22, 1963). For the same reason, their fame was limited to a greater extent by Liverpool and England.

Then, for unknown reasons, the go-ahead to popularize the Beatles comes from the very top of conservative England. First, on October 13, the Beatles performed at the London Palladium Sunday Afternoon concert, which brought the group a colossal success, marking the full involvement of the national print media in popularizing the group. The elite then make a sign to everyone by giving them the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Show in front of the elite of English society, including Queen Elizabeth II. Here comes a turning point in the effectiveness of the foursome's spin - the Beatles are shown for the first time to an audience of 26 million, as a result of which the heart of the nation was won, and success completely spread throughout the country.

The Beatles vs USA

Having won unconditional fame in their homeland, the Beatles set their sights on the last English-speaking outpost - the United States of America. Conquering America was especially flattering for the Beatles, given that they began by imitating its music, and their early inspiration was the king of American rock and roll, Elvis Presley.

In the US, the Beatles had to overcome the negative attitude of the American listener, and especially American producers, towards English pop music. This attitude has developed due to the fact that not a single English group in America has had lasting success.

Despite the rise of the Beatles in England, Capitol Records, the American division of EMI, did not agree to release records until January 1964. Epstein's first attempt to negotiate a U.S. release of the "Please Please Me" single ended in failure: "We don't think the Beatles can do anything in the U.S. market."

Not giving up, Brian Epstein signed a contract with other record companies: "Vee-Jay" from (Chicago) and "Swan Records" (Philadelphia). The former released limited edition singles "Please Please Me"/"Ask Me Why" on February 25 and "From Me To You"/"Thank You Girl" on May 27, 1963, while the latter released the single "She Loves You"/"I 'll Get You" September 16th. However, all three times the compositions did not rise in the main rating list of the USA - the weekly Billboard.

In America, the single "Love Me Do" was released in May 1964 (just at the height of Beatlemania in Britain) and stayed at the top of the charts for 18 months. A well-known role here was played by the commercial cunning of Brian Epstein, who, at his own peril and risk, bought 10 thousand copies of the record, which significantly increased its buyout index and attracted new buyers.

Another strategic move Brian made was to travel to New York and meet on November 11-12 with the host of America's most popular show, Ed Sullivan. At this meeting, he talked Sullivan into 3(!) consecutive performances of the Beatles at his show on February 9th, 16th and 23rd. Of course, Sullivan's decision was swayed by direct evidence of the extent of Beatlemania when his flight to London on October 31st was delayed by a crowd of screaming teenagers welcoming the Beatles from a tour of Sweden.

The US promotion situation changes towards the end of November 1963, when Epstein presses Capitol Records President Alan Livingston over the phone to listen to the band's English single "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and reminds them that the Beatles will be performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, which may be a great opportunity for Capitol Records. Livingston later agrees to spend $40,000 promoting the Beatles, the equivalent of $250,000 today.

After deciding to launch the Beatles campaign, Capitol Records released the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in late 1963, which went to number one on the Cash Box chart on January 18, 1964 and number three on the Billboard weekly chart. On January 20, Capitol released the album "Meet the Beatles!", partly similar in content to the English "With The Beatles". Both the single and the album went gold on February 3 in the US. By the beginning of April, only The Beatles songs appeared in the top five songs of the US national hit parade, and in general there were 14 of them in the hit parade.

The fact that the United States was conquered by the group became obvious on February 7, 1964, when the musicians landed at New York's Kennedy Airport - more than four thousand fans came to meet them.

As a result, it took Beatlemania about a year after it began in the UK to make it across the ocean. The main reasons for the Beatles' success were their explosive message and phenomenal success in their home country. It was these factors that made it possible to break through the wall of distrust towards English music among representatives of the American show business. The first mentions of the group were in newspaper and television stories, just dedicated to the "squealing" England with might and main. The feature films "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help" also played a role, which also contributed to the growth of the group's popularity in the United States. The beginning of a modest advertising campaign for Capitol Records (modest, because for each concert during the group's second visit to the USA they received 20 - 30 thousand dollars) was only a necessary technical step, which until the beginning of 1964 was an almost artificial barrier to realizing the band's amazing potential in America.

Analysis of the possibility of repetition

Why didn’t it work for those who came before them

Analyzing the success of the four, one may wonder why such success did not exist before the Beatles. The main reason, in my opinion, is just the lack of an artfully conveyed explosive message. That is, no one before the Beatles so fanatically sought to convey such strong emotions to the world. The only exception was the lone talent Elvis Presley, who worked on the other side of the ocean. Elvis's music was the first to show strong emotions, conducive to a vivid display of emotions, and therefore it is not surprising that he was an idol for the early Beatles.

As a second reason, it can be noted that before the Beatles, no one at the collective level tried so purposefully to convey such "uncompromising" emotions to the world. Before them, there was no ensemble in which almost all participants were equally involved, who strived for perfection in appearance, performance, recording quality, interviews, mixing songs, that is, integrity in music and life. In those days, the musician, when he put the instrument into the case, became an “ordinary” person, while the Beatles remained one with the music always.

They made a choice in favor of the full realization of their creative potential to the detriment of, for example, their personal lives. Oddly enough, they succeeded quite well for 10 years and did not cause a particular crisis, which, for example, Elvis Presley experienced. George Harrison explained this by saying that Elvis was alone, while the Beatles were always together and could share their experiences with each other.

Why didn’t it work for those who came after them

I believe that a song can be "eternal" only in minor variations of the performance of the same theme. This is explained by the fact that all authors have the same basic, "immortal" themes. Therefore, after one author BEFORE another has said his word, the rest will have to talk about it in a different way, so as not to “repeat” and not become a plagiarist. And if this first author also said his word masterfully, then the next ones will have to try hard to look no worse.

The Beatles were the first to professionally reveal such topics as love, loneliness, romance, the philosophy of human life. This gave them the opportunity to act as freely as possible, and allowed them to remove the “cream of the genre”. After the Beatles idealized, simply and skillfully traversed the entire genre of love lyrics, other performers are faced with the so-called "follower complex" effect. A song that is destined to become a classic should have simplicity, a strict classical structure, be performed on basic instruments, and be distinguished by the skill of recording.

Post-Beatles performers essentially have the same themes for songs, but they no longer "can" express their feelings "straight and simple" (instrumental moves, arrangements, etc.). This restriction is imposed regardless of whether they have come to this on their own, not knowing about the pioneers, or not.

Therefore, subsequent authors have to deviate from the ideal, simple course and go sideways in order to remain at least "innovators." However, the further away from the topic and the simplicity of its presentation, the less universality of the work and, as a result, the potential for its success. Therefore, after the Beatles, a return to a simple expression of delight in musical language was difficult in terms of creating repetition / plagiarism. A typical example of such a follower group was the Rolling Stones. In particular, they started with the Beatles song "I Wanna Be Your Man", and then continued to compose in a similar style, but that had not yet been revealed by their predecessors. In favor of the version that the classical themes were already sufficiently developed is the fact that in 1964 a whole “bouquet” of groups arose that predetermined the emergence of a large variety of new trends in English rock music. Among them, first of all, we should mention "The Knicks", "Small Fanzie" and "The Who".

Thus, we can conclude that the Beatles occupied the best part of the love lyrics genre, and given that it makes sense not to sing about everything, then the subsequent authors had to either invent a new one, change the old one, or invent a Time Machine.

Generalization

So, let's sum up the reasons for the rise of the Beatles. External conditions and factors played an important role in the formation of this phenomenon. In a favorable environment, all the conditions arose for the formation of a skillful temptation for world hearing. That is, the genre niche was completely free, professionalism in which could lead to a social explosion, resonance.

The first to take this place was a talented and uncompromising duet of young co-authors, which caused an unprecedented enthusiasm of the public, which grew into a real mania.

Of course, before the Beatles there was already a similar success, but Elvis Presley in the USA had a slightly different character. However, Elvis was a solitary talent, and the Beatles became the first group of like-minded people in England who concentrated entirely on conveying the strongest emotions and emotional attraction to the world.

The Beatles phenomenon was defined by the unique intersection of a large number of rare events. To begin with, it is worth noting that in addition to talent, Lennon and McCartney were originally smart people. Music, as a way to quickly conquer the world, was determined for them by itself, firstly, due to the lack of alternatives, and secondly, the Beatles already had a common role model - the American pioneer of mass hysteria Elvis Presley.

Further, the likelihood of the formation of the Beatles is significantly reduced by the fact that two complementary young people, with the same interests and a thirst for universal love, met and became friends at such an early age (John was 16 and Paul 15). This helped them together to go through the path of becoming in the musical mainstream, as it gave the duo, and then the rest of the group, a strong motivation for development.

As a result, a collective author appeared with many times greater creative potential, compared to each of them individually. That is, the effect of multiplying the creative function from the union of two talented authors from an early age was observed. Also, this association gave both a strong motivation to develop in the mainstream of writing music due to rivalry, as well as the need to improve the technique in order to be able to perform composed songs.

Further, the two authors needed minimal musical accompaniment to perform their songs. Moreover, not just a good technique was required, but a full-fledged accompaniment of the musical idea of ​​a duet with an instrumental part (rapid improvisation, creation of riffs, solo). Of course, this refers to guitarist George Harrison, who met all these requirements. Indeed, firstly, he focused on the guitar, leaving songwriting behind the duet, and secondly, he was a friend of McCartney, which allowed him to quickly fit into the band.

The acquisition of Harrison added to the birth of the Beatles even more exclusivity and meant the formation of the core of the group.

Of course, the guitarist was not immediately found, which adds a little bit of realism to the story of the Beatles. But the trio could already calmly not only sing invented songs, but also listen to them with the main accompanying instrument, that is, vocals plus an independent guitar. Thus, the core of the Beatles was formed, which made it possible, from 1958, to gradually realize the existing potential of Lennon-McCartney.

Then follows a less significant event - the acquisition of the rest, more technical, musical accompaniment. Until August 1962, the rhythm section was McCartney's bass and Pete Best's drums. However, Pete Best was the last one on the team who was out of place. As a result, when Brian Epstein announced his departure, the Beatles acquired the last musician to form a worthy rhythm section - drummer Ringo Starr. The latter came to the Beatles from the second most popular Liverpool band, Rory Storme And The Hurricanes.

The rhythm section did not require special creative talents, they needed a sufficient level of playing at that time. Therefore, an important condition was the compatibility of the new member with the main team. And this also showed the exclusivity of the birth of the Beatles - Ringo fit into the group like a glove.

With the addition of a drummer, the Beatles were unstoppable. The only question was the speed and scale of their success. The attraction to the essence of the Brian Epstein band certainly hastened and increased the band's success, providing a financial and promotional function. Also, their manager added the “fifth Beatle” to the group in the form of permanent sound engineer George Martin.

Martin provided amazing for those times recording and mixing of the band's compositions in the studio (especially noticeable from the second album). At that time, the infrastructure for the distribution of musical material was already relatively developed, which in the case of the Beatles ensured the mass character and speed of distribution of new signals to listeners in the form of released records, radio and television broadcasts, as well as promotional events. Of course, live performances were an integral part of the Beatles' activities, where the delight of the listeners was actually manifested directly.

Further, when a well-trained group had a way to transmit their works to the whole society as a whole, all obstacles to the realization of the original talent of the duet disappeared, and the matter took a technical, inertial course of development.

John Lennon said after the breakup of the group that it was the belief that the Beatles were the best group in the world that made them who they were, whether it was the best rock and roll group, pop group or whatever. The realization of his unprecedentedness came to him when he began to compose with Paul McCartney. Thus, the Beatles phenomenon is the success that naturally came to a group that had sufficient creative potential, and which went through all the necessary stages to achieve its goal of becoming the best band in the world. The nature of this success was determined by the group's message to the public, as well as by the receptivity of the public itself, which was extremely unsophisticated.

Conclusion

So, the Beatles phenomenon was the success of the musical group, which grew into a real sensation and went far beyond just popular music. The success of the group knew no bounds and was noted at various levels: from the orders of the Queen to a huge number of music awards and prizes.

If we consider the starting point for the development of the Beatles, which ensured the future explosion, then it was the beginning of the joint work of Lennon and McCartney in 1957. Together they realized that they could do great things together through music. As a result, they created a creative idea, the essence of which, as a result, was attracted first by a capable guitarist, and then by a drummer of a decent level.

After the group is noticed by their future manager, the group has financial opportunities to start and develop. Finally, the last necessary like-minded person joins the group - sound director George Martin, who provided the recording process in the studio. He became the last link in the chain of transmission of the musical messages of the Beatles to the listener, and thus all the possibilities for achieving the goal were at the disposal of the group, and the Beatles successfully used them.

The Beatles' goal was to become the best musicians of all time. This desire to convey to the world their strong emotions through music formed the need to create a musical group of a decent level. In order to adequately convey their unique potential, an appropriate level of its demonstration was required, that is, the maximum possible, the best form of its presentation.

In accordance with the purpose of creating the group, the requirements that were imposed on all aspects of the group's activities become clear: from texts and repertoire to dress code and style of conversation. The group was required not only to be able to perform works, but to do it to the limit of the possible. Similar requirements were for the sound quality of the songs, and their emotional content.

The band's musical message was shaped by the personalities of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo, while the form of that message was a direct result of the desire to be the best. In particular, this means that tomorrow and 50 years from now, you need to remain the best. For the appearance, this means being above the current fashion, that is, more universal than the current phase of its development. Therefore, if you look at this group today, in general, they do not belong to any pronounced era, and their appearance is quite universal. In terms of music, the Beatles chose themes that are classic and still resonate to this day.

The Beatles are a phenomenon that turned out to be able to go beyond the musical framework into neighboring areas of art, such as cinema, social movements, the creation of an entire subculture. After the Beatles, the English-speaking world, in particular the cultural and entertainment areas, have irreversibly changed, having received a strong, all-overcoming impetus for development. The Beatles left behind a legacy that continues to give positive emotions to the listeners, as well as inspire entire generations to creative achievements. The work of the Beatles does not lose its relevance to this day in the face of constantly emerging new fans who discover this group.

The Beatles are a symbol of modern pop culture and the music industry, perhaps even more significant than such musical "monsters" as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Michael Jackson. And The Beatles - the best-selling music brand in history (more than 1 billion records sold worldwide) - forever changed the music world.

1. John Lennon originally named the group differently

John Lennon founded the group in 1957 and named it the Quarry Men. Later, he invited Paul McCartney to the group, who brought in George Harrison. Ringo Starr became the last of the "big four" after he replaced Peter Best as drummer.

2. Quarry Men, Johnny and the Moondogs...

The band changed its name many times before settling on the name
The Beatles. In addition to the Quarry Men, the group also went by the names Johnny and the Moondogs, Rainbows and British Everly Brothers.

3. "Beetles" (beetlles) and "Rhythm" (beat)

Although no one can say exactly where the group's final name came from, most fans believe that John Lennon suggested the name after Buddy Holly's American Crickets. Other sources emphasize that the name deliberately combined 2 words - "bugs" (beetlles) and "rhythm" (beat).

4. "From Me To You"

The Beatles called their first UK single "From Me To You", taking the idea from the letters section of the British magazine NME, then called "From You to Us". They wrote this song on a bus while on tour supporting Helen Shapiro.

5. There was nothing before Elvis

John Lennon was very fond of cats. He had ten pets when he lived in Weybridge with his first wife, Cynthia. His mother had a cat named Elvis as the woman was a big fan of Elvis Presley. Not surprisingly, Lennon later claimed that "there was nothing before Elvis."

6 Abbey Road

The band originally wanted to name the song "Abbey Road" "Everest". But when their record company invited the band to visit the Himalayas to shoot a video there, the Beatles decided to rename the song after the street where the recording studio was located.

7. Hit for the main competitors

Very few people know the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the first hit for their main rivals, the Rolling Stones. "I Wanna Be Your Man" was released in 1963 and peaked at number twelfth on the UK Singles Chart.

8. Good Morning Good Morning

John Lennon wrote "Good Morning Good Morning" after being infuriated by a Kellogg cereal commercial.

9 Billboard Hot Record Breakers

During the week of April 4, 1964, as many as twelve Beatles songs were included in the top 100 Billboard Hot singles, including the compositions of this group occupied the first five lines. This record has not been broken so far, for fifty-two years.

10. The Beatles sold 178 million records.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Beatles have sold 178 million records in the United States. That's more than any other artist in US music history.

11. "Got to Get You into My Life"

1966 the song "Got to Get You into My Life" appeared. It was originally thought to be about a girl, but McCartney later claimed in an interview that the song was actually about marijuana.

12. Hey Jude

If you listen carefully to the words of the legendary song "Hey Jude", you can hear how Paul swore dirty, making a mistake during the recording of the song.

13. "New disease"

Many people mistakenly believe that the term "Beatlemania" first appeared in 1963 after a review in the Daily Mirror. However, the term was actually invented by Canadian Sandy Gardiner and first appeared in the Ottawa Journal in November 1963, where the word was used to describe a "new disease" that was sweeping the globe.

14. ... well, if they themselves ask

Mae West initially turned down an offer to have her picture on the album cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but she changed her mind after receiving a private letter from the band. Other famous women on the cover are Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple.

15. "Something" is the greatest love song

Frank Sinatra has often publicly expressed his admiration for the band, and once said that "Something" is the greatest love song ever written.

16. Help! and "Strawberry Fields Forever"

John Lennon said that the only real songs he ever wrote were "Help!" and "Strawberry Fields Forever". He claimed that these were the only songs he wrote based on his own experiences and not just imagining himself in certain situations.

17. Beatles Records Publicly Burned in the South

In March 1966, John Lennon noticed that Christianity was in decline and that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus. His remarks led to protests in the American South, where the band's records were publicly burned. The protests have even spread to other countries such as Mexico, South Africa and Spain.

18. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. All four of its members were also inducted into the hall of fame individually from 1994 to 2015.

19. The Beatles hold the record for hits...

As of 2016, the Beatles still hold the record for most hits (20) to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis Presley and Mariah Carey are tied for second with 18 songs each. The Beatles also hold the record for the most number one albums in the US and UK.

20. Unfulfilled dream

The members of The Beatles were so passionate about Tolkien's work that they wanted to star in the film "The Lord of the Rings", where the director was supposed to be Stanley Kubrick. Fortunately, Kubrick and his record company did not find this idea attractive, and a few decades later, Peter Jackson created his famous cinematic masterpieces.

21. The Beatles broke up because of...

No one knows 100 percent why the Beatles broke up. When Paul McCartney was asked why the band broke up, he claimed it was due to "personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all, he enjoys spending time with his family much more".

22. Missed Opportunity

The closest the band came to a reunion after their split in 1970 was at Eric Clapton's wedding when he married Patti Boyd in 1979. George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr played together at the wedding, but John Lennon did not come.

23. Bands with guitars are out of fashion.

The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records on January 1, 1962, but were turned down because "groups with guitars are out of style" and also because "the band members lack talent". The Decca label instead chose a band called the Tremeloes, who no one remembers today. This is widely considered to be the biggest mistake in twentieth century music history.

24. The Beatles bought an island...

In 1967, when the Beatles were at the height of their drug addiction, they decided to buy their own island. Throwing in cash, the band members bought a beautiful private island in Greece where they wanted to live together, away from screaming fans. Unfortunately, when the group broke up, the island was also sold.

25. Beatles songs heal

Some scientists have suggested that several Beatles songs could help children with autism and other disabilities. In particular, they refer to the songs "Here Comes The Sun", "Octopus's Garden", "Yellow Submarine", "Hello Goodbye", "Blackbird" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Sourced from list25.com

Not so long ago, it appeared on the Web, which, of course, will be of interest to all fans of this group.

The Beatles are a phenomenal group without which modern music would be completely different. Every second musician today claims that he was influenced by the work of the Beatles, regardless of which country he lives in. The group's total sales of records, cassettes and discs exceeded 1 billion copies. The style of the Beatles cannot be confused with anyone - you can not listen to them, but it is impossible not to know.

History of creation and composition

The history of the group began in Britain in the 50s, during the era of the general boom of musical groups. Anyone who could play the guitar, drums or banjo at least a little, aspired to get into the "band".

When school was left behind and it was necessary to decide what to do next, all three chose music without hesitation. The members agreed that the band needed a new name. There were a lot of options: "Rainbows", "Johnny and the Moon Dogs", "Beetles" - The Beetles. The latter option formed the basis of the original name.

There is a legend that Lennon saw the word beatles in a dream - supposedly a man in flames appeared to him and dictated the name of the band. According to a simpler version, the word was chosen because it had the root beat, meaning a rhythmic beat or drum beat.

In January 1960, Stuart Sutcliffe joined the musicians, becoming a bass player, although he had to learn to play literally “on the go”. At this time, the group performed in their native Liverpool and occasionally toured the UK. In the summer, the Beatles were invited to concerts in Hamburg. To accept the invitation and appear on stage as a classic beat band, they had to urgently find a drummer. They became Pete Best, who had previously performed in the Liverpool ensemble The Blackjacks.

The first foreign tours took place in conditions close to extreme: they had to work a lot, the pay was low, there were problems with documents, because of which, as a result, the musicians were deported from the country. Despite this, a year later, the Beatles soloists, having received a second invitation to Hamburg, agreed, and this time everything went much calmer.

In Germany, the musicians met Astrid Kirchherr, an art student who began an affair with Sutcliffe. It was she who organized the first professional photo session for the group and came up with an original image for them: new hairstyles, instead of the previous concert leather jackets - jackets without collars and lapels.

Hairstyles and costumes of The Beatles

The Beatles returned home as a quartet: the bass player decided to stay in Germany with Astrid. There, Stewart became famous as a talented artist, but his creative biography turned out to be very short: at the age of 21, the young man died of a brain hemorrhage.

For the next 2 years, the musicians regularly performed in their hometown, at the Cavern Club. During 1961-1963 they played 262 concerts there. The group's popularity grew, although at that time their repertoire consisted mainly of other people's musical works. The author's duet of Paul and John created new songs, but preferred to put them "on the table", not hoping for success. The works saw the light only when the Beatles found a producer - Brian Epstein.

Prior to this, Epstein had no professional experience in promoting: before meeting the musicians, he traded records, but the work of the young Beatles seemed promising to Brian. Most labels did not share his enthusiasm, but he managed to get a contract with EMI on the condition that the guys write at least 4 more singles.

“He spelled out in the most accurate way what we were supposed to do, and it all seemed more real,” Lennon recalled. “Until Brian showed up, we were living in a dream.”

Before recording the first album, Pete Best left the band. The girl's favorite and the most attractive member, he did not cope with the studio work, which turned out to be much more difficult than the live one, and was forced to leave the group. On August 16, 1962, he joined The Beatles.

Music

In 1963, the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, was released. The material was collected at an accelerated pace and managed in almost a day. In addition to other people's hits, it included author's songs by Lennon and McCartney. The musicians agreed in advance that they would sign the compositions with exactly two names, and kept this tradition to the end, even though the last songs were written separately.

Love Me Do by The Beatles

In the same year, the Beatles' discography was replenished with the second album With the Beatles, which became the beginning of the "Beatlemania" in the homeland of the musicians. The scale of the hobby, nicknamed the “national hysteria” by the media, turned out to be unusual: whole crowds came to the performances, the audience densely packed not only the halls, but also the surrounding streets, they were ready to stand on the street for hours to hear at least echoes of the concert. Applause and enthusiasm sometimes became so stormy that the musicians at the performance did not hear themselves.

She Loves You by The Beatles

In 1964, the Beatlemania epidemic took over the United States. For the next 2 years, the musicians live according to a schedule scheduled to the minute: tours, concerts, work from the studio, TV appearances, radio broadcasts and filming did not give the slightest respite. During this time, the British rock band from Liverpool recorded 5 albums and 2 videos - Paperback Writer and Rain.

Despite the crazy work schedule, the musicians found time for their personal lives, trying, however, to hide it from fans. John Lennon was the first to marry in 1962. The marriage, in which the son Julian was soon born, lasted 6 years and broke up when the musician met. An extravagant Japanese woman changed Lennon's whole life and actively interfered in the affairs of the group, for which the rest of the musicians disliked her. It was to her that Lennon dedicated the ballad Don't Let Me Down.

Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles

Ringo Starr was the second to marry - they lived with Maureen Cox for 10 years and gave birth to three children. George Harrison married Patti Boyd in 1966, but in 1974 his wife left him for. Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman in 1968, with whom he lived until the end of her life.

In 1965, the group received the Order of the British Empire for their contribution to the development of culture, which caused a big scandal. Previously, there were no musicians among the owners of such a high award, and some gentlemen declared their unwillingness to stand in the same row with pop idols. 4 years later, Lennon protested against the British intervention in the Biafro-Nigerian war and returned the Order.

Movie

For the first time, the Liverpool Four acted in films in 1964. A Hard Day's Evening was created in the feature film genre and produced in just 8 weeks. The musicians did not need any special acting work: it was a movie about the daily life of the group - concerts, fans, tours. The film was a success among fans and was twice nominated for an Oscar, and the soundtrack was released as a separate album.

Song Yesterday by The Beatles

The following year, the tape "Help!" featuring the Beatles. For the first time, the famous Yesterday appeared on the record with music for it, which entered the Guinness Book of Records in terms of the number of arrangements and interpretations (today more than 2 thousand are known)

Yellow Submarine song by The Beatles

In 1968, the musicians became the heroes of the Yellow Submarine cartoon. Prior to this, the band members tried to create their own movie, but the picture Magical Mystery Tour received rather low ratings from both the public and critics.

Decay

In 1966, the group ceased to give "live" concerts and went headlong into studio work. A year later, the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which many consider the best in the history of the band. Meanwhile, the musicians' relationship is cracking. The Beatles, tired of fame, announced their desire to do personal projects.

Song Come Together by The Beatles

In 1967, Brian Epstein suddenly died of an overdose of sleeping pills. They couldn’t find a full-fledged replacement for him, but, having joined forces, the Beatles recorded 3 more records: The White Album (1968), Abbey Road (1968) and Let it be (1970), as well as the single Come Together (1969).

Soon after, Paul McCartney's first solo album was released. In an interview, he actually draws a line under the history of The Beatles. The last photo of the band in full force was taken on August 22, 1969, near the estate of John Lennon, in Tittenhurst Park.

After the collapse, a series of lawsuits began over copyrights to the notes, lyrics and the band's logo, the results of which are still conflicting on the Web.

10 years later, the musicians began to think about the revival, but these plans were not destined to come true. In 1980, John Lennon was killed by a mentally unstable fan. Together with his death, the hope for the restoration of the group also died. So the great Beatles finally became a thing of the past.

George Harrison died in 2001 from a brain tumor.

The Beatles now

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney remain on stage. In January 2014, they received an honorary Grammy Award for their contribution to the development of the music of the 20th century.

The career of former drummer Pete Best was not easy. He changed several bands and tried to do solo work, but unsuccessfully.

In 1968, he decided to quit music and entered the civil service, but 20 years later he began to appear in public again and created his own group, The Pete Best Band, which now regularly performs with concerts in the United States.

Discography

• 1963 – Please Please Me
• 1963 - With The Beatles
• 1964 - A Hard Day's Night
• 1964 - The Beatles For Sale
• 1965 Help!
• 1965 - Rubber Soul
• 1966 - Revolver
• 1967 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• 1967 Magical Mystery Tour
• 1968 - The Beatles ("White Album")
• 1969 - Yellow Submarine
• 1969 Abbey Road
• 1970 - Let It Be

Clips

• 1963 – Please Please Me
• 1964 - I Should Have Known Better
• 1996 – I Wanna Hold Your Hand
• 1967 – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
• 1969 - Don't Let Me Down
• 1969 - Get Back
• 1968 - Glass Onion
• 1968 – All Together Now
• 1968 - Lady Madonna
• 1970 - The Long And Winding Road
• 1973 - You "ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

Short biography:

The group was founded by 15-year-old John Lennon in the spring of 1956 (originally called "The Quarrymen").

Group"The Quarrymen" consisted entirely of amateurs. None of the participants properly owned any musical instrument. John Lenon himself sang in the church choir from childhood and knew how to play several learned tunes on the harmonica. This was enough to create a musical group and become its soloist.
In 1957, the well-known Paul McCartney accidentally meets Lenon in the garden of the parish church of St. Petra (Liverpool), during the performance of "The Quarrymen". And a week later, McCartney was in their line-up, although he played the guitar much better than Lennon and the rest of the group.
In 1958, on the advice of Paul, 15-year-old guitarist George Harrison was taken into the group. Soon the ensemble began to be called "Jonny and The Moondogs". They played mostly rock and roll. The repertoire included famous American hits and songs composed by Lennon and McCartney.

The composition of the group was constantly changing, except for the main backbone - Paul, John and George.
After a temporary decline in activity, Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar) appears in the group.
In November 1959, after successful performances in the Liverpool youth club "Casbah",
the group is renamed "The Silver Beatles" and then simply ""

In the summer of 1960, after a long search for a drummer, Pete Best joined the band just before the start of the Hamburg tour. And the team for the first time found a stable composition.
Seven months in Hamburg was their first real test of endurance. Played for 8 hours straight.

In 1961 they recorded their first studio recording.
In May 1962, George Martin signs a contract with them and becomes their producer. In the same year, for unknown reasons, Pete Best left the band, but was soon replaced by Ringo Starr.

The Beatles' first real record was "Love me do". They are recognized as the best Liverpool group. Next record “Please, please me”
And in October 1963 a wave of "Beatlemania" swept over the British Isles.

The conquest of the rest of the world they began with Sweden.
In January 1964, the composition “I want to hold your hand” in America goes from 83 to first place. The band itself was on tour in Paris.
After that came the furore. The world has been conquered! In some places, growing into popular hysteria.

For all the time of its existence, the group has sold more than 1 billion CDs and cassettes worldwide and became the authors of 18 albums!
The Beatles performed for the last time August 29, 1966 Further work was only studio.
In 1967 they released the record "Sgt. Pepper", and their last work was the record "Let it be".
In 1970 - "" broke up. Each of the four members had their own project on the side and each started a solo career.
The assassination of John Lennon in 1980 finally destroys hopes for the reunion of the legendary four. But, despite this, they are loved, admired for many years. They are idolized!