The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in
Liverpool

Liverpool in 1960.
With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison

George Harrison and Ringo
Starr, they became widely regarded as the foremost and most
influential music band.[1] Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and
roll, the Beatles later experimented with several musical styles,
ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelia and hard
rock, often incorporating classical elements and unconventional
recording techniques in innovative ways. In 1963 their enormous
popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania"; as the group's music grew
in sophistication, led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney,
the band were integral to pop music's evolution into an art form and
to the development of the counterculture of the 1960s.[2]
The Beatles

The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in
Liverpool

Liverpool and
Hamburg

Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe
initially serving as bass player. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney
and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of
drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them in
1962. Manager
Brian Epstein

Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and
producer
George Martin

George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly
expanding the group's popularity in the United Kingdom after their
first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. They acquired the nickname "the
Fab Four" as
Beatlemania

Beatlemania grew in Britain over the next year, and by
early 1964 became international stars, leading the "British Invasion"
of the United States pop market. From 1965 onwards, the Beatles
produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band (1967),
The Beatles

The Beatles (also known as the White Album, 1968) and
Abbey Road

Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed
success as solo artists. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980,
and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr
remain musically active.
The Beatles

The Beatles are the best-selling band in history, with estimated sales
of over 800 million physical and digital albums worldwide. They have
had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles
in the UK than any other act. They are also the best-selling music
artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In
2008, the group topped Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most
successful artists; as of 2017[update], they hold the record for most
number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with twenty. They have received
seven Grammy Awards, an
Academy Award

Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and
fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and all four main members were inducted
individually from 1994 to 2015. They were also collectively included
in Time magazine's compilation of the twentieth century's 100 most
influential people.
Contents
1 History
1.1 1957–1962: Formation, Hamburg, and UK popularity
1.2 1963–1966:
Beatlemania

Beatlemania and touring years
1.2.1
Please Please Me

Please Please Me and With the Beatles
1.2.2 First visit to United States and British Invasion
1.2.3 A Hard Day's Night
1.2.4 1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan, and stand on civil rights
1.2.5 Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul
1.2.6 Controversy, final tour and Revolver
1.3 1966–1970: Studio years and break-up
1.3.1 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1.3.2 Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album and Yellow Submarine
1.3.3 Abbey Road,
Let It Be

Let It Be and break-up
1.4 1970–present: After the break-up
1.4.1 1970s
1.4.2 1980s
1.4.3 1990s
1.4.4 2000s
1.4.5 2010s
2 Musical style and development
2.1 Influences
2.2 Genres
2.3 Contribution of George Martin
2.4 In the studio
3 Legacy
4 Awards and achievements
5 Members
6 Discography
7 Song catalogue
8 Notes
9 Citations
10 Sources
11 Further reading
12 External links
History
History of the Beatles
The Quarrymen
In Hamburg
At The Cavern Club
Decca audition
Beatlemania
United Kingdom
United States
"More popular than Jesus"
In India
Break-up
Timeline
v
t
e
1957–1962: Formation, Hamburg, and UK popularity
In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a skiffle group
with several friends from Quarry Bank High School. They briefly called
themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen
after discovering that a respected local group was already using the
other name.[3] Fifteen-year-old
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm
guitarist shortly after he and Lennon met that July.[4] In February
1958, McCartney invited his friend
George Harrison

George Harrison to watch the band.
The fifteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his
playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young to join
them. After a month of Harrison's persistence, during a second
meeting, arranged by McCartney, he performed the lead guitar part for
the instrumental "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a
Liverpool

Liverpool bus,[5]
and they enlisted him as their lead guitarist.[6][7] By January 1959,
Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began studies
at the
Liverpool

Liverpool College of Art.[8] The three guitarists, billing
themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs,[9] were
playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer.[10] Lennon's
art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had recently sold one of his
paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar, joined in
January 1960, and it was him who suggested changing the band's name to
Beatals, as a tribute to
Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly and the Crickets.[11][12] They
used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before
undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop
singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had
changed their name to the Silver Beatles and by the middle of August
to the Beatles.[13]
Allan Williams, the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency
for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned
and hired
Pete Best

Pete Best in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece,
left four days later, contracted to club owner
Bruno Koschmider

Bruno Koschmider for
what would be a 3½-month residency.[14] Beatles historian Mark
Lewisohn writes: "They pulled into
Hamburg

Hamburg at dusk on 17 August, the
time when the red-light area comes to life ... flashing neon
lights screamed out the various entertainment on offer, while scantily
clad women sat unabashed in shop windows waiting for business
opportunities."[15]
Koschmider had converted a couple of strip clubs in the district into
music venues, and he initially placed the Beatles at the Indra Club.
After closing the Indra due to noise complaints, he moved them to the
Kaiserkeller

Kaiserkeller in October.[16] When he learned they had been performing
at the rival
Top Ten Club

Top Ten Club in breach of their contract, he gave the
band one month's termination notice,[17] and reported the underage
Harrison, who had obtained permission to stay in
Hamburg

Hamburg by lying to
the German authorities about his age.[18] The authorities arranged for
Harrison's deportation in late November.[19] One week later,
Koschmider had McCartney and Best arrested for arson after they set
fire to a condom in a concrete corridor; the authorities deported
them.[20] Lennon returned to
Liverpool

Liverpool in early December, while
Sutcliffe remained in
Hamburg

Hamburg until late February with his German
fiancée Astrid Kirchherr,[21] who took the first semi-professional
photos of the Beatles.[22]
During the next two years, the Beatles were resident for periods in
Hamburg, where they used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain
their energy through all-night performances.[23] In 1961, during their
second
Hamburg

Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi"
(existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles.[24][25]
When Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume
his art studies in Germany, McCartney took up the bass.[26] Producer
Bert Kaempfert

Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June
1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of
recordings for Polydor Records.[12][27] As part of the sessions, the
Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year.[28] Credited to "Tony
Sheridan & the Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in
June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the
Musikmarkt chart.[29]
After the Beatles completed their second
Hamburg

Hamburg residency, they
enjoyed increasing popularity in
Liverpool

Liverpool with the growing Merseybeat
movement. However, they were also growing tired of the monotony of
numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night.[30] In
November 1961, during one of the group's frequent performances at The
Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record-store
owner and music columnist.[31] He later recalled: "I immediately liked
what I heard. They were fresh, and they were honest, and they had what
I thought was a sort of presence ... [a] star quality."[32]
Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they
appointed him as their manager in January 1962.[33] Throughout early
and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their
contractual obligations to
Bert Kaempfert

Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually
negotiated a one-month-early release from their contract in exchange
for one last recording session in Hamburg.[34] Tragedy greeted them on
their return to Germany in April, when a distraught Kirchherr met them
at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from
what would later be determined to have been a brain hemorrhage.[35]
Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording
contract. In order to secure a UK record contract, Epstein negotiated
an early end to the band's contract with Polydor, in exchange for more
recordings backing Tony Sheridan.[36] After a New Year's Day audition,
Decca Records rejected the band with the comment "Guitar groups are on
the way out, Mr. Epstein."[37] However, three months later, producer
George Martin

George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI's
Parlophone

Parlophone label.[35]
Abbey Road

Abbey Road Studios main entrance
Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at EMI's
Abbey Road

Abbey Road Studios in
London

London on 6 June 1962.[38] Martin immediately
complained to Epstein about Best's poor drumming and suggested they
use a session drummer in his place.[39] Already contemplating Best's
dismissal,[40] the Beatles replaced him in mid-August with Ringo
Starr, who left
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes

Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join them.[38] A 4
September session at
EMI

EMI yielded a recording of "Love Me Do" featuring
Starr on drums, but a dissatisfied Martin hired drummer Andy White for
the band's third session a week later, which produced recordings of
"Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "P.S. I Love You".[38] Martin
initially selected the Starr version of "Love Me Do" for the band's
first single, though subsequent re-pressings featured the White
version, with Starr on tambourine.[38] Released in early October,
"Love Me Do" peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer
chart.[41] Their television debut came later that month with a live
performance on the regional news programme People and Places.[42]
After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster
tempo,[43] a studio session in late November yielded that
recording,[44] of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made
your first No.1."[45]
In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg
residency.[46] By 1963, they had agreed that all four band members
would contribute vocals to their albums – including Starr, despite
his restricted vocal range, to validate his standing in the group.[47]
Lennon and McCartney had established a songwriting partnership, and as
the band's success grew, their dominant collaboration limited
Harrison's opportunities as a lead vocalist.[48] Epstein, in an effort
to maximise the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to
adopt a professional approach to performing.[49] Lennon recalled him
saying, "Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places,
you're going to have to change – stop eating on stage, stop
swearing, stop smoking ..."[37] Lennon said: "We used to dress how we
liked, on and off stage. He'd tell us that jeans were not particularly
smart and could we possibly manage to wear proper trousers, but he
didn't want us suddenly looking square. He'd let us have our own sense
of individuality."[37]
1963–1966:
Beatlemania

Beatlemania and touring years
Please Please Me

Please Please Me and With the Beatles
Their logo was designed by Ivor Arbiter.[50]
On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single
studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. The album was
supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two
singles. Martin originally considered recording the Beatles' debut LP
live at The Cavern Club, but after deciding that the building's
acoustics were inadequate, he elected to simulate a "live" album with
minimal production in "a single marathon session at Abbey Road".[51]
After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please
Me" met with a more emphatic reception. Released in January 1963, two
months ahead of the album of the same name, the song reached number
one on every chart in
London

London except Record Retailer, where it peaked
at number two.[52] Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a
debut album, bashing out
Please Please Me

Please Please Me in a day", AllMusic's
Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine comments, "Decades after its release, the
album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense
origins."[53] Lennon said little thought went into composition at the
time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers,
à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that
– to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant."[54]
"She Loves You"
Sample of "She Loves You". The song's repeated use of "yeah"
exclamations became a signature phrase for the group at the
time.[55][56]
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Released in March 1963, the album initiated a run during which eleven
of their twelve studio albums released in the United Kingdom through
1970 reached number one.[57] The band's third single, "From Me to
You", came out in April and was also a chart-topping hit, starting an
almost unbroken string of seventeen British number-one singles for the
Beatles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the
next six years.[58] Issued in August, the band's fourth single, "She
Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to
that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four
weeks.[59] It became their first single to sell a million copies, and
remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978.[60][nb 1]
Their commercial success brought increased media exposure, to which
the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that
defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even
more interest.[61] The band toured the UK three times in the first
half of the year: a four-week tour that began in February, the
Beatles' first nationwide, preceded three-week tours in March and
May–June.[62] As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of
the group took hold. Greeted with riotous enthusiasm by screaming
fans, the press dubbed the phenomenon "Beatlemania".[63] Although not
billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts Tommy
Roe and
Chris Montez

Chris Montez during the February engagements and assumed top
billing "by audience demand", something no British act had previously
accomplished while touring with artists from the US.[64] A similar
situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison.[65]
McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer
Lill-Babs

Lill-Babs and Lennon on the
set of the Swedish television show Drop-In, 30 October 1963[66]
In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their
first time abroad since the final
Hamburg

Hamburg engagement of December
1962.[67] On their return to the UK on 31 October several hundred
screaming fans greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around
50 to 100 journalists and photographers as well as representatives
from the BBC also joined the airport reception, the first of more than
100 such events.[68] The next day, the band began its fourth tour of
Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks.[69] In
mid-November, as
Beatlemania

Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using
high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in
Plymouth.[70]
Please Please Me

Please Please Me maintained the top position on the Record Retailer
chart for 30 weeks, only to be displaced by its follow-up, With the
Beatles,[71] which
EMI

EMI released on 22 November to record advance
orders of 270,000 copies. The LP topped a half-million albums sold in
one week.[72] Recorded between July and October,
With the Beatles

With the Beatles made
better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor.[73]
It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks.[74]
Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one
that betters the original".[75] In a reversal of then standard
practice,
EMI

EMI released the album ahead of the impending single "I Want
to Hold Your Hand", with the song excluded to maximise the single's
sales.[76] The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann
of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the
outstanding English composers of 1963".[73] The newspaper published a
series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the
music, lending it respectability.[77]
With the Beatles

With the Beatles became the
second album in UK chart history to sell a million copies, a figure
previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack.[78] When
writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band's press officer, Tony
Barrow, used the superlative the "fabulous foursome", which the media
widely adopted as "the Fab Four".[79]
First visit to United States and British Invasion
Main article:
The Beatles

The Beatles in the United States
EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles'
releases in the United States for more than a year by initially
declining to issue their music, including their first three singles.
Concurrent negotiations with the independent US label
Vee-Jay

Vee-Jay led to
the release of some of the songs in 1963, but not all.[80] Vee-Jay
finished preparation for the album Introducing... The Beatles, culled
from most of the songs of Parlophone's Please Please Me, but a
management shake-up led to the album not being released.[nb 2] Then
when it surfaced that the label did not report royalties on their
sales, the licence
Vee-Jay

Vee-Jay signed with
EMI

EMI was voided.[82] A new
licence was granted to the Swan label for the single "She Loves You".
The record received some airplay in the Tidewater area of Virginia by
Gene Loving of radio station WGH and was featured on the
"Rate-a-Record" segment of American Bandstand, but it failed to catch
on nationally.[83]
Epstein arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign. American chart
success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station WWDC
in Washington, DC first played "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in
mid-December 1963.[84] It was not until the end of the first week of
January 1964 that their records were played in New York City (also
accompanied by a major marketing campaign and with similar play
frequency), and then the rest of the country, initiating their music's
spread across US radio. This caused an increase in demand, leading
Capitol to rush-release "I Want to Hold Your Hand" later that
month.[85] Issued on 26 December 1963, with the band's previously
scheduled debut there just weeks away, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold
a million copies, becoming a number-one hit in the US by
mid-January.[86] In its wake,
Vee-Jay

Vee-Jay released Introducing... The
Beatles[87] to go along with Capitol's debut album, Meet the Beatles!,
while Swan reactivated production of "She Loves You".[88]
The Beatles

The Beatles arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7
February 1964
On 7 February 1964, the Beatles left the United Kingdom with an
estimated 4,000 fans gathered at Heathrow, waving and screaming as the
aircraft took off.[89] Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy
Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them.[90] They
gave their first live US television performance two days later on The
Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over
23 million households,[91] or 34 per cent of the American population.
Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating
service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for
an American television program".[92] The next morning, the Beatles
awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US,[93] but a
day later their first US concert saw
Beatlemania

Beatlemania erupt at Washington
Coliseum.[94] Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with
another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall.[91] The
band then flew to Florida and appeared on the weekly
Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan Show
a second time, before another 70 million viewers, before returning to
the UK on 22 February.[95]
The Beatles' first visit to the United States impacted a nation
mourning the recent death of President John F. Kennedy.[96] It has
been mentioned that for many, particularly the young, it re-ignited
the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the
wake of the assassination, helping set the stage for much of the
revolutionary social changes to come in the decade.[96] According to
Mikal Gilmore:
Within days it was apparent that a genuine upheaval was underway,
offering a frenetic distraction to the dread that had set into America
after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and a renewal of
the brutally wounded ideal that youthfulness carried our national
hope.[96]
Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many
adults,[12] became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth
culture.[97] Their popularity generated unprecedented interest in
British music, and a number of other UK acts subsequently made their
own American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in
what was termed the British Invasion.[98] The Beatles' success in the
US opened the door for a successive string of British beat groups and
pop acts such as the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Petula Clark, the
Kinks, and the Rolling Stones to achieve success in America.[99]
During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on
the
Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five.[100][nb
3]
A Hard Day's Night
Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go
unnoticed, and a competitor,
United Artists

United Artists Records, encouraged their
film division to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal,
primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the
US.[102] Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night involved the
band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in
a mock-documentary.[103] The film premiered in
London

London and New York in
July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with
some critics drawing comparison with the Marx Brothers.[104] United
Artists released a full soundtrack album for the North American
market, combining Beatles songs and Martin's orchestral score;
elsewhere, the group's third studio LP, A Hard Day's Night, contained
songs from the film on side one and other new recordings on side
two.[105] According to Erlewine, the album saw them "truly coming into
their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first
two albums coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled
with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies."[106] That "ringing
guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's 12-string
electric Rickenbacker, a prototype given to him by the manufacturer,
which made its debut on the record.[107][nb 4]
1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan, and stand on civil rights
Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows
over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New
Zealand.[108][nb 5] In August and September they returned to the US,
with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities.[110] Generating intense interest
once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000
fans to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New
York.[110]
For their scheduled 11 September 1964 show at the Gator Bowl Stadium
in Jacksonville, the Beatles refused to perform unless city leaders
de-segregated the venue for the event. The event was held before an
integrated audience.
In August, journalist
Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet
Bob Dylan.[111] Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan
introduced them to cannabis.[112] Gould points out the musical and
cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians'
respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate
subcultural worlds": Dylan's audience of "college kids with artistic
or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and
a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with their fans, "veritable
'teenyboppers' – kids in high school or grade school whose lives
were totally wrapped up in the commercialised popular culture of
television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. To
many of Dylan's followers in the folk music scene, the Beatles were
seen as idolaters, not idealists."[113] Within six months of the
meeting, according to Gould, "Lennon would be making records on which
he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and
introspective vocal persona"; and six months after that, Dylan began
performing with a backing band and electric instrumentation, and
"dressed in the height of Mod fashion".[114] As a result, Gould
continues, the traditional division between folk and rock enthusiasts
"nearly evaporated", as the Beatles' fans began to mature in their
outlook and Dylan's audience embraced the new, youth-driven pop
culture.[114]
During the 1964 US tour, the group were confronted with the reality of
racial segregation in the country at the time, particularly in the
South.[115][116] When informed that the 11 September show at the Gator
Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida was to be held at a segregated venue,
the Beatles expressed astonishment and announced that they would
refuse to perform unless the show become integrated.[117][115][116]
Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't
going to start now … I'd sooner lose our appearance money."[115] The
group’s stand drew controversy in the local media,[116] but city
officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show.[115] On the
tour the group also refused to stay in segregated hotels.[116]
Documents reveal that for their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966,
the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be
integrated.[116][118]
Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul
According to Gould, Beatles for Sale, the Beatles' fourth studio LP,
evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their
global success and their creative ambitions.[119] They had intended
the album, recorded between August and October 1964,[120] to continue
the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike their first
two LPs, contained only original songs.[121] They had nearly exhausted
their backlog of songs on the previous album, however, and given the
challenges constant international touring posed to their songwriting
efforts, Lennon admitted, "Material's becoming a hell of a
problem".[122] As a result, six covers from their extensive repertoire
were chosen to complete the album. Released in early December, its
eight original compositions stood out, demonstrating the growing
maturity of the
Lennon–McCartney

Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership.[121]
Together in 1965, celebrating a Grammy win
In early 1965, while they were his guests for dinner, Lennon and
Harrison's dentist secretly added LSD to their coffee. Lennon
described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was
fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two."[123] He and
Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by
Starr on at least one occasion. McCartney was initially reluctant to
try it, but eventually did so in late 1966.[124] He became the first
Beatle to discuss LSD publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that
"it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant
member of society".[125]
Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen
Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II appointed all
four Beatles Members of the
Order of the British Empire

Order of the British Empire (MBE) after
Prime Minister
Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson nominated them for the award.[126] In
protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon
military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE
recipients returned their own insignia.[127]
The US trailer for Help! with (from the rear) Harrison, McCartney,
Lennon and (largely obscured) Starr
Released in July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was again directed
by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond",[128] it
inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. McCartney
said: "Help! was great but it wasn't our film – we were sort of
guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was
a bit wrong."[129] The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote
and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "Help!"
and "Ticket to Ride".[130] The accompanying Help! album, the group's
fifth studio LP, mirrored A Hard Day's Night by featuring soundtrack
songs on side one and additional songs from the same sessions on side
two.[131] The LP contained all original material save for two covers,
"Act Naturally" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"; they were the last covers the
band would include on an album, with the exception of Let It Be's
brief rendition of the traditional
Liverpool

Liverpool folk song "Maggie
Mae".[132] The band expanded their use of vocal overdubs on Help! and
incorporated classical instruments into some arrangements, including a
string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday".[133] Composed by and
sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the
recording[134] – "Yesterday" inspired the most cover versions of any
song ever written.[135]
The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a
world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's
Shea Stadium

Shea Stadium on 15 August
1965 – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in
Lewisohn's description.[136] A further nine successful concerts
followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles
gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback
system of on-stage monitor speakers.[137] Towards the end of the tour,
they met with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the
band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills.[138][139]
September saw the launch of an American Saturday-morning cartoon
series, The Beatles, that echoed A Hard Day's Night's slapstick antics
over its two-year original run.[140] The series was a historical
milestone as the first weekly television series to feature animated
versions of real, living people.[141]
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
Sample of "Norwegian Wood" from
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul (1965). Harrison's use of
a sitar on this song is representative of the Beatles' incorporation
of unconventional instrumentation into rock music.[142]
Problems playing this file? See media help.
In mid-October 1965, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the
first time when making an album, they had an extended period without
other major commitments.[143] Until this time, according to George
Martin, "we had been making albums rather like a collection of
singles. Now we were really beginning to think about albums as a bit
of art on their own."[144] Released in December,
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul was
hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and
complexity of the band's music.[142] Their thematic reach was
beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and
philosophy.[145] Biographers Peter Brown and
Steven Gaines attribute
the new musical direction to "the Beatles' now habitual use of
marijuana",[146] an assertion confirmed by the band – Lennon
referred to it as "the pot album",[147] and Starr said: "Grass was
really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the
writers. And because they were writing different material, we were
playing differently."[147] After Help!'s foray into the world of
classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a
sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further
progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As
their lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper
meaning. Of "Norwegian Wood" Lennon commented: "I was trying to be
sophisticated in writing about an affair ... but in such a
smokescreen way that you couldn't tell."[148]
While many of Rubber Soul's prominent songs were the product of Lennon
and McCartney's collaborative songwriting,[149] it also featured
distinct compositions from each,[150] though they continued to share
official credit. The song "In My Life", of which each later claimed
lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire
Lennon–McCartney

Lennon–McCartney catalogue.[151] Harrison called
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul his
"favourite album"[147] and Starr referred to it as "the departure
record".[152] McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now
it was time to expand."[153] However, recording engineer Norman Smith
later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing
conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was
becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George
could do no right".[154] In 2003,
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone ranked Rubber Soul
fifth among "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time",[155] and AllMusic's
Richie Unterberger

Richie Unterberger describes it as "one of the classic folk-rock
records".[156]
Controversy, final tour and Revolver
At
EMI

EMI Studios with
George Martin

George Martin in the mid-1960s
Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles
recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over
format,[80] compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings
and issuing songs of their choosing as singles.[157][nb 6] In June
1966, Yesterday and Today, one of Capitol's compilation albums, caused
an uproar with its cover, which portrayed the grinning Beatles dressed
in butcher's overalls, accompanied by raw meat and mutilated plastic
baby dolls. It has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a
satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions
of their albums.[159] Thousands of copies of the LP had a new cover
pasted over the original; an unpeeled "first-state" copy fetched
$10,500 at a December 2005 auction.[160] In England, meanwhile,
Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on
the instrument.[161]
During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and
Today furore, the Beatles unintentionally snubbed the nation's first
lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected them to attend a breakfast
reception at the Presidential Palace.[162] When presented with the
invitation, Epstein politely declined on the band members' behalf, as
it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations.[163]
They soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to taking no
for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they
escaped the country with difficulty.[164] Immediately afterwards, the
band members visited India for the first time.[165]
We're more popular than
Jesus

Jesus now; I don't know which will go first
– rock 'n' roll or Christianity.
—
John Lennon

John Lennon to journalist Maureen Cleave, 1966[166]
Almost as soon as they returned home, the Beatles faced a fierce
backlash from US religious and social conservatives (as well as the Ku
Klux Klan) over a comment Lennon had made in a March interview with
British reporter Maureen Cleave.[167] "Christianity will go," Lennon
had said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm
right and I will be proved right. ...
Jesus

Jesus was alright but his
disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it
for me."[166] The comment went virtually unnoticed in England, but
when US teenage fan magazine
Datebook

Datebook printed it five months later –
on the eve of the group's August US tour – it sparked a controversy
with Christians in the American "Bible Belt".[167] The Vatican issued
a protest, and bans on Beatles' records were imposed by Spanish and
Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service.[168]
Epstein accused
Datebook

Datebook of having taken Lennon's words out of
context; at a press conference Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said
television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with
it."[169] Lennon claimed that he was referring to how other people
viewed their success, but at the prompting of reporters, he concluded:
"If you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay,
I'm sorry."[169]
As preparations were made for the US tour, the Beatles knew that their
music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30
amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers,
specially designed by Vox for them as they moved into larger venues in
1964, but these were still inadequate. Struggling to compete with the
volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown
increasingly bored with the routine of performing live.[170]
Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they
decided to make the August tour their last.[171]
"Eleanor Rigby"
Sample of "Eleanor Rigby" from Revolver (1966). The album involves
innovative compositional approaches, arrangements and recording
techniques. This song, primarily written by McCartney, prominently
features classical strings in a novel fusion of musical styles.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul had marked a major step forward; Revolver, released in
August 1966 a week before the Beatles' final tour, marked
another.[172] Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef identifies it as "the sound
of a band growing into supreme confidence" and "redefining what was
expected from popular music".[173] Revolver featured sophisticated
songwriting, studio experimentation, and a greatly expanded repertoire
of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string
arrangements to psychedelic rock.[172] Abandoning the customary group
photograph, its cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the
band since their
Hamburg

Hamburg days – "was a stark, arty, black-and-white
collage that caricatured the Beatles in a pen-and-ink style beholden
to Aubrey Beardsley", in Gould's description.[172] The album was
preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain".[174]
Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by
cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music
videos",[175] they aired on
The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops
in June 1966.[176]
Among the experimental songs that Revolver featured was "Tomorrow
Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan
Book

Book of the
Dead. Its creation involved eight tape decks distributed about the EMI
building, each staffed by an engineer or band member, who randomly
varied the movement of a tape loop while Martin created a composite
recording by sampling the incoming data.[177] McCartney's "Eleanor
Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; Gould describes it as "a
true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of
song".[178] Harrison was developing as a songwriter, and three of his
compositions earned a place on the record.[179] In 2003, Rolling Stone
ranked Revolver as the third greatest album of all time.[155] During
the US tour that followed its release, however, the band performed
none of its songs.[180] As Chris Ingham writes, they were very much
"studio creations ... and there was no way a four-piece rock 'n'
roll group could do them justice, particularly through the
desensitising wall of the fans' screams. 'Live Beatles' and 'Studio
Beatles' had become entirely different beasts."[181] The band's final
concert at San Francisco's
Candlestick Park

Candlestick Park on 29 August was their
last commercial concert.[182] It marked the end of a four-year period
dominated by almost nonstop touring that included over 1,400 concert
appearances internationally.[183]
1966–1970: Studio years and break-up
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Front cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "the most famous
cover of any music album, and one of the most imitated images in the
world"[184]
Freed from the burden of touring, the Beatles embraced an increasingly
experimental approach as they recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band, beginning in late November 1966.[185] According to engineer
Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours.[186] He
recalled the band's insistence "that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to
be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass
instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to
violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of
instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck
together upside down and the wrong way around."[187] Parts of "A Day
in the Life" featured a 40-piece orchestra.[187] The sessions
initially yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry
Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967;[188] the Sgt. Pepper LP
followed in June.[189] The musical complexity of the records, created
using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded
contemporary artists.[184] Among music critics, acclaim for the album
was virtually universal.[190] Gould writes:
The overwhelming consensus is that the Beatles had created a popular
masterpiece: a rich, sustained, and overflowing work of collaborative
genius whose bold ambition and startling originality dramatically
enlarged the possibilities and raised the expectations of what the
experience of listening to popular music on record could be. On the
basis of this perception, Sgt. Pepper became the catalyst for an
explosion of mass enthusiasm for album-formatted rock that would
revolutionise both the aesthetics and the economics of the record
business in ways that far outstripped the earlier pop explosions
triggered by the Elvis phenomenon of 1956 and the Beatlemania
phenomenon of 1963.[191]
Sgt. Pepper was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete
lyrics, which appeared on the back cover.[192][193] Those lyrics were
the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album
was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and
professor of English Richard Poirier, who observed that his students
were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that
he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy".[194] Poirier
identified what he termed its "mixed allusiveness": "It's unwise ever
to assume that they're doing only one thing or expressing themselves
in only one style ... one kind of feeling about a subject isn't
enough ... any single induced feeling must often exist within the
context of seemingly contradictory alternatives."[194] McCartney said
at the time: "We write songs. We know what we mean by them. But in a
week someone else says something about it, and you can't deny
it. ... You put your own meaning at your own level to our
songs."[194] The album's elaborate cover also attracted considerable
interest and study.[195] A collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake
and Jann Haworth, it depicted the group as the fictional band referred
to in the album's title track[196] standing in front of a crowd of
famous people.[197] The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected
the growing influence of hippie style,[198] while cultural historian
Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of
military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and
anti-establishment" display.[199] In 2003,
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone ranked it
number one on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[155]
Brian Epstein

Brian Epstein was dead ... Paul and George were in complete shock. I
don't think it could have been worse if they had heard that their own
fathers had dropped dead … Brian had found them, believed in them,
molded them, turned them into millionaires, and made them famous the
world over … We knew that life would never be the same again.
– Pattie Boyd, wife of George Harrison[200]
On 25 June 1967, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single, "All
You Need Is Love", to an estimated 350 million viewers on Our World,
the first live global television link.[201] Released a week later,
during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power
anthem.[202] Two months later, the group suffered a loss that threw
their career into turmoil. Having been introduced to Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi only the previous night in London, on 25 August they travelled to
Bangor for his
Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental Meditation retreat. Two days later,
their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that
Epstein, only thirty-two years old, had died.[203] The coroner ruled
the death an accidental carbitol overdose, although it was widely
rumoured to be a suicide.[204] Epstein had been in a fragile emotional
state, stressed by personal issues.[nb 7] His death left the group
disoriented and fearful about the future. Lennon recalled: "We
collapsed. I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn't really have
any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play
music, and I was scared. I thought, 'We've had it now.'"[206]
Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album and Yellow Submarine
Filming a sequence for "I Am the Walrus"
Magical Mystery Tour, the soundtrack to a forthcoming Beatles
television film, was released in the UK as a six-track double extended
play disc (EP) in early December 1967.[80][207] In the United States,
the six songs were issued on an identically titled LP that also
included five tracks from the band's recent singles.[101] Unterberger
says of the US Magical Mystery Tour, "the psychedelic sound is very
much in the vein of Sgt. Pepper, and even spacier in parts (especially
the sound collages of 'I Am the Walrus')" and he calls its five songs
culled from the band's 1967 singles "huge, glorious, and
innovative".[208] In its first three weeks, the album set a record for
the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP, and it is the only
Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon
of studio albums.[209] First aired on Boxing Day, the Magical Mystery
Tour film, largely directed by McCartney, brought the group their
first major negative UK press. It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish"
by the Daily Express; the
Daily Mail

Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit";
and
The Guardian

The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play
about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience".[210]
Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of
people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus".[210] Although
the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led
US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film.[211]
In January 1968, the Beatles filmed a cameo for the animated movie
Yellow Submarine, which featured cartoon versions of the band members
and a soundtrack with eleven of their songs, including four unreleased
studio recordings that made their debut in the film.[212] Released in
June 1968, the film was praised by critics for its music, humour and
innovative visual style.[213] It would be seven months, however,
before its soundtrack album appeared.[214]
The Beatles, known as the White Album for its minimalist cover,
conceived by pop artist Richard Hamilton "in direct contrast to Sgt.
Pepper", while also suggesting a "clean slate"[215]
In the interim came The Beatles, a double LP commonly known as the
White Album for its virtually featureless cover.[216] Creative
inspiration for the album came from a new direction: without Epstein's
guiding presence, the group had briefly turned to Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi as their guru.[217] At his ashram in Rishikesh, India, a "Guide
Course" scheduled for three months marked one of their most prolific
periods, yielding numerous songs including a majority of the 30
included on the album.[218] However, Starr left after only ten days,
likening it to Butlins, and McCartney eventually grew bored and
departed a month later.[219] For Lennon and Harrison, creativity
turned to questioning when an electronics technician known as Magic
Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate
them.[217] When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances
to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months
into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of
the group's entourage with him.[219] In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing
song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal
issues. McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more
to him than there was."[217]
During recording sessions for the White Album, which stretched from
late May to mid-October 1968, relations between the Beatles grew
openly divisive.[220] Starr quit for two weeks, and McCartney took
over the drum kit for "Back in the U.S.S.R." (on which Harrison and
Lennon drummed as well) and "Dear Prudence".[221] Lennon had lost
interest in collaborating with McCartney,[222] whose contribution
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit".[223] Tensions
were further aggravated by Lennon's romantic preoccupation with
avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the
sessions despite the group's well-established understanding that
girlfriends were not allowed in the studio.[224] Describing the double
album, Lennon later said: "Every track is an individual track; there
isn't any Beatle music on it. [It's] John and the band, Paul and the
band, George and the band."[225] McCartney has recalled that the album
"wasn't a pleasant one to make".[226] Both he and Lennon identified
the sessions as the start of the band's break-up.[227][228]
Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first Apple Records
album release, although
EMI

EMI continued to own their recordings.[229]
The new label was a subsidiary of Apple Corps, which Epstein had
formed as part of his plan to create a tax-effective business
structure.[230] The record attracted more than 2 million advance
orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a
month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio
stations.[231] Despite its popularity, it did not receive flattering
reviews at the time. According to Gould:
The critical response ... ranged from mixed to flat. In marked
contrast to Sgt. Pepper, which had helped to establish an entire genre
of literate rock criticism, the White Album inspired no critical
writing of any note. Even the most sympathetic reviewers ...
clearly didn't know what to make of this shapeless outpouring of
songs. Newsweek's Hubert Saal, citing the high proportion of parodies,
accused the group of getting their tongues caught in their
cheeks.[231]
General critical opinion eventually turned in favour of the White
Album, and in 2003,
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone ranked it as the tenth greatest
album of all time.[155] Pitchfork's Mark Richardson describes it as
"large and sprawling, overflowing with ideas but also with
indulgences, and filled with a hugely variable array of
material ... its failings are as essential to its character as
its triumphs."[232] Erlewine comments: "The [band's] two main
songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were
George and Ringo", yet "Lennon turns in two of his best ballads",
McCartney's songs are "stunning", Harrison had become "a songwriter
who deserved wider exposure", and Starr's composition was "a
delight".[233]
The Yellow Submarine LP, issued in January 1969, contained only the
four previously unreleased songs that had debuted in the film, along
with the title track (already issued on Revolver), "All You Need Is
Love" (already issued as a single and on the US Magical Mystery Tour
LP) and seven instrumental pieces composed by Martin.[214] Because of
the paucity of new Beatles music, AllMusic's Unterberger and Bruce
Eder suggest the album might be "inessential" but for Harrison's "It's
All Too Much": "the jewel of the new songs ... resplendent in
swirling Mellotron, larger-than-life percussion, and tidal waves of
feedback guitar ... a virtuoso excursion into otherwise hazy
psychedelia".[234]
Abbey Road,
Let It Be

Let It Be and break-up
Although
Let It Be

Let It Be was the Beatles' final album release, it was
largely recorded before Abbey Road. The project's impetus came from an
idea Martin attributes to McCartney, who suggested they "record an
album of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before a live
audience for the very first time – on record and on film".[235]
Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called
Beatles at Work, much of the album's content came from extensive
rehearsals filmed by director
Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Michael Lindsay-Hogg at Twickenham Film
Studios, beginning in January 1969.[235][236] Martin has said that the
project was "not at all a happy recording experience. It was a time
when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb."[235]
Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell ... the
most miserable ... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of
all-time".[237] Irritated by both McCartney and Lennon, Harrison
walked out for five days. Upon returning, he threatened to leave the
band unless they "abandon[ed] all talk of live performance" and
instead focused on finishing a new album, initially titled Get Back,
using songs recorded for the TV special.[238] He also demanded they
cease work at Twickenham and relocate to the newly finished Apple
Studio. The other band members agreed, and the idea came about to
salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature
film.[239]
Apple Corps

Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, site of the
Let It Be

Let It Be rooftop
concert
American soul musician
Billy Preston

Billy Preston (pictured in 1971) was, for a
short time, considered a fifth Beatle during the recording of Get
Back.
In an effort to alleviate tensions within the band and improve the
quality of their live sound, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy
Preston to participate in the last nine days of sessions.[240] Preston
received label billing on the "Get Back" single – the only musician
ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles
release.[241] At the conclusion of the rehearsals, the band could not
agree on a location to film a concert, rejecting several ideas,
including a boat at sea, a lunatic asylum, the Tunisian desert, and
the Colosseum.[235] Ultimately, what would be their final live
performance was filmed on the rooftop of the
Apple Corps

Apple Corps building at 3
Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969.[242] Five weeks later,
engineer Glyn Johns, whom Lewisohn describes as Get Back's "uncredited
producer", began work assembling an album, given "free rein" as the
band "all but washed their hands of the entire project".[243]
New strains developed between the band members regarding the
appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become
evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon, Harrison
and Starr favoured Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and
Sam Cooke;[244] McCartney wanted Lee and John Eastman – father and
brother, respectively, of Linda Eastman,[245] whom McCartney married
on 12 March.[246] Agreement could not be reached, so both Klein and
the Eastmans were temporarily appointed: Klein as the Beatles'
business manager and the Eastmans as their lawyers.[247][248] Further
conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost.[244]
On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band,[249] the Eastmans
having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' attorneys. McCartney
refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was
out-voted by the other Beatles.[250]
Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to
produce another album, as the
Get Back

Get Back sessions had been "a miserable
experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of
us".[251] The primary recording sessions for
Abbey Road

Abbey Road began on 2
July 1969.[252] Lennon, who rejected Martin's proposed format of a
"continuously moving piece of music", wanted his and McCartney's songs
to occupy separate sides of the album.[253] The eventual format, with
individually composed songs on the first side and the second
consisting largely of a medley, was McCartney's suggested
compromise.[253] On 4 July, the first solo single by a Beatle was
released: Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", credited to the Plastic Ono
Band. The completion and mixing of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20
August 1969 was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were
together in the same studio.[254] Lennon announced his departure to
the rest of the group on 20 September, but agreed to withhold a public
announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album.[255]
Released six days after Lennon's declaration,
Abbey Road

Abbey Road sold 4
million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a
total of seventeen weeks.[256] Its second track, the ballad
"Something", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition
ever to appear as a Beatles A-side.[257]
Abbey Road

Abbey Road received mixed
reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim.[256]
Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group",
containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock
record".[258] Musicologist and author
Ian MacDonald

Ian MacDonald calls the album
"erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and
coherence" offered by the medley.[259] Martin has singled it out as
his personal favourite of all the band's albums; Lennon said it was
"competent" but had "no life in it". Recording engineer Emerick notes
that the replacement of the studio's valve mixing console with a
transistorised one yielded a less punchy sound, leaving the group
frustrated at the thinner tone and lack of impact and contributing to
its "kinder, gentler" feel relative to their previous albums.[260]
For the still unfinished
Get Back

Get Back album, one last song, Harrison's "I
Me Mine", was recorded on 3 January 1970. Lennon, in Denmark at the
time, did not participate.[261] In March, rejecting the work Johns had
done on the project, now retitled Let It Be, Klein gave the session
tapes to American producer Phil Spector, who had recently produced
Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!"[262] In addition to remixing the
material, Spector edited, spliced and overdubbed several of the
recordings that had been intended as "live". McCartney was unhappy
with the producer's approach and particularly dissatisfied with the
lavish orchestration on "The Long and Winding Road", which involved a
fourteen-voice choir and 36-piece instrumental ensemble.[263]
McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were
ignored,[264] and he publicly announced his departure from the band on
10 April 1970, a week before the release of his first, self-titled
solo album.[263][265]
On 8 May, the Spector-produced
Let It Be

Let It Be was released. Its
accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was the Beatles'
last; it was released in the United States, but not in the UK.[174]
The
Let It Be

Let It Be documentary film followed later that month, and would
win the 1970
Academy Award

Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.[266] Sunday
Telegraph critic
Penelope Gilliatt called it "a very bad film and a
touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring,
geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of
siblings".[267] Several reviewers stated that some of the performances
in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks.[268]
Describing
Let It Be

Let It Be as the "only Beatles album to occasion negative,
even hostile reviews", Unterberger calls it "on the whole underrated";
he singles out "some good moments of straight hard rock in 'I've Got a
Feeling' and 'Dig a Pony'", and praises "Let It Be", "Get Back", and
"the folky 'Two of Us', with John and Paul harmonising together".[269]
McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual
partnership on 31 December 1970.[270] Legal disputes continued long
after their break-up, and the dissolution was not formalised until 29
December 1974,[271] when
John Lennon

John Lennon signed the paperwork terminating
the partnership while on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World
Resort in Florida.[272]
1970–present: After the break-up
See also: Collaborations between ex-Beatles
1970s
Lennon and McCartney in 1975 and 1976
Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in
1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the
others;[273] Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only album to include
compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles, albeit on
separate songs. With Starr's participation, Harrison staged the
Concert for Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971.[274] Other
than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later bootlegged as A Toot and
a Snore in '74, Lennon and McCartney never recorded together
again.[275]
Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein,
1962–1966

1962–1966 and 1967–1970, were released in 1973, at first under the
Apple Records

Apple Records imprint.[276] Commonly known as the "Red Album" and
"Blue Album", respectively, each have earned a Multi-Platinum
certification in the United States and a Platinum certification in the
United Kingdom.[277][278] Between 1976 and 1982, EMI/Capitol released
a wave of compilation albums without input from the ex-Beatles,
starting with the double-disc compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music.[279]
The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles
at the Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert
recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they
played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours.[280][nb 8]
The music and enduring fame of the Beatles was commercially exploited
in various other ways, again often outside their creative control. In
April 1974, the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert,
written by
Willy Russell and featuring singer Barbara Dickson, opened
in London. It included, with permission from Northern Songs, eleven
Lennon-McCartney compositions and one by Harrison, "Here Comes the
Sun". Displeased with the production's use of his song, Harrison
withdrew his permission to use it.[282] Later that year, the
off-Broadway musical
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road
opened.[283]
All This and World War II

All This and World War II (1976) was an unorthodox
nonfiction film that combined newsreel footage with covers of Beatles
songs by performers ranging from
Elton John

Elton John and
Keith Moon

Keith Moon to the
London

London Symphony Orchestra.[284] The Broadway musical Beatlemania, an
unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular,
spinning off five separate touring productions.[285] In 1979, the band
sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in
damages.[285]
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical
film starring the
Bee Gees

Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial
failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham.[286]
On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live, producer
Lorne Michaels
.jpg/440px-Lorne_Michaels_(8892275065).jpg)
Lorne Michaels offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on his show.
Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's
apartment at
The Dakota

The Dakota in New York, which was within walking distance
of the studio where the show was being filmed. The former bandmates
entertained the idea of hailing a taxi to the studio and surprising
Michaels by accepting his offer, but ultimately declined.[287]
1980s
Harrison and Starr performing at the Prince's Trust All-Star Rock
Concert at Wembley Arena, 1987
After the murder of Lennon in December 1980, Harrison rewrote the
lyrics to his song "All Those Years Ago" in Lennon's honour. With
Starr on drums and McCartney and his wife, Linda, contributing backing
vocals, the song was released as a single in May 1981.[288]
McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War
album in April 1982.[289] In 1987, Harrison's Cloud Nine album
included "When We Was Fab", a song about the
Beatlemania

Beatlemania era.[290]
When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by
EMI

EMI and Apple
Corps in 1987, their catalogue was standardised throughout the world,
establishing a canon of the twelve original studio LPs as issued in
the UK plus the US LP version of
Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour (1967).[291] All
the remaining material from the singles and EPs which had not appeared
on the original studio albums was gathered on the two-volume
compilation
Past Masters

Past Masters (1988). Except for the Red and Blue albums,
EMI

EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the
Hollywood Bowl record – from its catalogue.[280]
In 1988, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the
ceremony with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and
Sean.[292][293] McCartney declined to attend, citing unresolved
"business differences" that would make him "feel like a complete
hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion".[293] The
following year, EMI/Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit filed by the
band over royalties, clearing the way to commercially package
previously unreleased material.[294][295]
1990s
Live at the BBC, the first official release of unissued Beatles
performances in seventeen years, appeared in 1994.[296] That same year
McCartney, Harrison and Starr collaborated on the Anthology project.
Anthology was the culmination of work begun in 1970, when Apple Corps
director Neil Aspinall, their former road manager and personal
assistant, had started to gather material for a documentary with the
working title The Long and Winding Road.[297] Documenting their
history in the band's own words, the Anthology project included the
release of several unissued Beatles recordings. McCartney, Harrison
and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to two songs
recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s.[298]
During 1995–96, the project yielded a television miniseries, an
eight-volume video set, and three two-CD/three-LP box sets featuring
artwork by Klaus Voormann. The two songs based on Lennon demos, "Free
as a Bird" and "Real Love", were issued as new Beatles singles. The
releases were commercially successful and the television series was
viewed by an estimated 400 million people.[299] In 1999, to coincide
with the re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, a new
soundtrack compilation CD/LP, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was
issued.[300]
2000s
The Beatles' 1, a compilation album of the band's British and American
number-one hits, was released on 13 November 2000. It became the
fastest-selling album of all time, with 3.6 million sold in its first
week[301] and 13 million within a month.[302] It topped albums charts
in at least 28 countries, including the UK and US.[303] As of
April 2009[update], the compilation had sold 31 million copies
globally,[304] and is the best-selling album of that decade in the
United States.[305]
Harrison died from metastatic lung cancer in November
2001.[306][307][308] McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who
performed at the Concert for George, organised by
Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton and
Harrison's widow, Olivia. The tribute event took place at the Royal
Albert Hall on the first anniversary of Harrison's death. In addition
to songs he composed for the group and during his solo career, the
concert included a celebration of Indian classical music, which had
significantly influenced Harrison.[309]
In 2003, Let It Be... Naked, a reconceived version of the Let It Be
album, with McCartney supervising production, was released. One of the
main differences with the Spector-produced version was the omission of
the original string arrangements.[310] It was a top ten hit in both
Britain and America. The US album configurations from 1964 to 1965
were released as box sets in 2004 and 2006 – The Capitol Albums,
Volume 1 and Volume 2 included both stereo and mono versions based on
the mixes that were prepared for vinyl at the time of the music's
original American release.[311]
As a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Beatles stage revue,
Love,
George Martin

George Martin and his son Giles remixed and blended 130 of the
band's recordings to create what Martin called "a way of re-living the
whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period".[312] The
show premiered in June 2006, and the Love album was released that
November when McCartney discussed his hope that "Carnival of Light", a
fourteen-minute experimental recording made at
Abbey Road

Abbey Road in 1967,
would receive an official release.[313] A rare live performance
involving two ex-Beatles took place in April 2009 at a benefit concert
organised by McCartney at New York's Radio City Music Hall, where he
was joined by Starr for three songs.[314]
Starr and McCartney introduced the video game The Beatles: Rock Band
at the 2009 E3 convention.
On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued
following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four
years.[291] Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums,
along with
Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour and the
Past Masters

Past Masters compilation, were
released on compact disc both individually and as a box set. Comparing
the new releases with the 1987 CDs, which had been widely criticised
for their lack of clarity and dynamism, Mojo's Danny Eccleston wrote,
"the remastered vocals are purer, more natural-sounding and give the
illusion of sitting slightly higher in the mix."[315] A second
collection,
The Beatles

The Beatles in Mono, included remastered versions of every
Beatles album released in true mono along with the original 1965
stereo mixes of Help! and
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul (which Martin had remixed for
the 1987 editions).[316] The Beatles: Rock Band, a music video game in
the
Rock Band

Rock Band series, was issued on the same day.[317] In December
2009, the band's catalogue was officially released in FLAC and MP3
format in a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives.[318]
2010s
Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among
the last major artists to sign deals with online music services.[319]
Residual disagreement emanating from Apple Corps' dispute with Apple,
Inc., iTunes' owners, over the use of the name "Apple" was also partly
responsible for the delay, although in 2008, McCartney stated that the
main obstacle to making the Beatles' catalogue available online was
that
EMI

EMI "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them".[320] In
2010, the official canon of thirteen Beatles studio albums, Past
Masters, and the Red and Blue greatest-hits albums were made available
on iTunes.[321]
In 2012, EMI's recorded music operations were sold to Universal Music
Group. In order for Universal Music to acquire EMI, the European
Union, for antitrust reasons, forced
EMI

EMI to spin off assets including
Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music
catalogue, managed by
Capitol Records

Capitol Records under its Capitol Music Group
division.[322] Also in 2012, the entire original Beatles album
catalogue was reissued on vinyl, available either individually or as a
box set.[323]
In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings entitled On Air – Live at
the BBC Volume 2 was released. That December saw the release of
another 59 Beatles recordings on iTunes. The set, titled The Beatles
Bootleg Recordings 1963, had the opportunity to gain a 70-year
copyright extension conditional on the songs being published at least
once before the end of 2013.
Apple Records

Apple Records released the recordings on
17 December to prevent them from going into the public domain and had
them taken down from iTunes later that same day. Fan reactions to the
release were mixed, with one blogger saying "the hardcore Beatles
collectors who are trying to obtain everything will already have
these."[324][325]
On 26 January 2014,
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney and
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr performed
McCartney's "Queenie Eye" in
Los Angeles

Los Angeles at the 56th Annual Grammy
Awards, held at the
Staples Center

Staples Center in Los Angeles.[326] The following
day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles
television special was taped in the
Los Angeles

Los Angeles Convention Center's
West Hall. It aired on 9 February, the exact date of – and at the
same time, and on the same network as – the original broadcast of
the Beatles' first US television appearance on The
Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan Show,
50 years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs
by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival
footage, and Paul and Ringo being interviewed by
David Letterman
.jpg/440px-David_Letterman_with_his_Individual_Peabody_at_the_75th_Annual_Peabody_Awards_(cropped).jpg)
David Letterman at
the
Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan Theater, site of The
Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan Show.[327][328]
In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming
on various streaming music services.[329] On 18 May 2017, Sirius XM
Radio launched a 24/7 radio channel,
The Beatles

The Beatles Channel. On 26 May
2017,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was reissued with new
stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary.
The reissue is available in five different formats – digital format,
a single CD, a double CD set, a double vinyl set, and a six-CD deluxe
edition box set.[330]
Musical style and development
See also: Lennon–McCartney
In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music
Forever, Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles'
musical evolution:
In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the
Fab Four revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular
music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock
acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the
Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but
they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly
original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and
roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding
rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical
territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated
experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock,
country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the
effortless mass appeal of their early work.[331]
In
The Beatles

The Beatles as Musicians, Walter Everett describes Lennon and
McCartney's contrasting motivations and approaches to composition:
"McCartney may be said to have constantly developed – as a means to
entertain – a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint
and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally
agreed-upon common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely,
Lennon's mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a
largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic
sensibility."[332]
Ian MacDonald

Ian MacDonald describes McCartney as "a natural melodist – a creator
of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody
lines are characterised as primarily "vertical", employing wide,
consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism".
Conversely, Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a
"horizontal" approach featuring minimal, dissonant intervals and
repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic accompaniment for
interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies
close to the rhythms and cadences of speech, colouring his lyrics with
bluesy tone and harmony rather than creating tunes that made striking
shapes of their own."[333] MacDonald praises Harrison's lead guitar
work for the role his "characterful lines and textural colourings"
play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts, and describes Starr
as "the father of modern pop/rock drumming".[334]
Influences
The band's earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins,
Little Richard

Little Richard and Chuck Berry.[335] During the Beatles' co-residency
with
Little Richard

Little Richard at the
Star-Club

Star-Club in Hamburg, from April to May
1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his
songs.[336] Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until
I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been
the Beatles."[337]
Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Roy
Orbison[338] and the Everly Brothers.[339]
The Beatles

The Beatles continued to
absorb influences long after their initial success, often finding new
musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their contemporaries,
including Bob Dylan, the Who, Frank Zappa, the Lovin' Spoonful, the
Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose 1966 album
Pet Sounds

Pet Sounds amazed and
inspired McCartney.[340][341][342][343] Referring to the Beach Boys'
creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on
the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]."[344] Ravi Shankar, with whom
Harrison studied for six weeks in India in late 1966, had a
significant effect on his musical development during the band's later
years.[345]
Genres
Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s
rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre,[346] and their
repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop
music.[347] Reflecting the range of styles they explored, Lennon said
of Beatles for Sale, "You could call our new one a Beatles
country-and-western LP",[348] while Gould credits
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul as "the
instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into
the camp of pop".[349]
A Höfner "violin" bass guitar and
Gretsch

Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar,
models played by McCartney and Harrison, respectively; the Vox AC30
amplifier behind them is the model the Beatles used during
performances in the early 1960s.
Although the 1965 song "Yesterday" was not the first pop record to
employ orchestral strings, it marked the group's first recorded use of
classical music elements. Gould observes: "The more traditional sound
of strings allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as
composers by listeners who were otherwise allergic to the din of drums
and electric guitars."[350] They continued to experiment with string
arrangements to various effect; Sgt. Pepper's "She's Leaving Home",
for instance, is "cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad",
Gould writes, "its words and music filled with the clichés of musical
melodrama".[351]
The band's stylistic range expanded in another direction with their
1966 B-side "Rain", described by Martin Strong as "the first overtly
psychedelic Beatles record".[352] Other psychedelic numbers followed,
such as "Tomorrow Never Knows" (recorded before "Rain"), "Strawberry
Fields Forever", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Am the
Walrus". The influence of
Indian classical music

Indian classical music was evident in
Harrison's "The Inner Light", "Love You To" and "Within You Without
You" – Gould describes the latter two as attempts "to replicate the
raga form in miniature".[353]
Innovation was the most striking feature of their creative evolution,
according to music historian and pianist Michael Campbell: "'A Day in
the Life' encapsulates the art and achievement of the Beatles as well
as any single track can. It highlights key features of their music:
the sound imagination, the persistence of tuneful melody, and the
close coordination between words and music. It represents a new
category of song – more sophisticated than pop ... and uniquely
innovative. There literally had never before been a song – classical
or vernacular – that had blended so many disparate elements so
imaginatively."[354] Philosophy professor Bruce Ellis Benson agrees:
"the Beatles ... give us a wonderful example of how such
far-ranging influences as Celtic music, rhythm and blues, and country
and western could be put together in a new way."[355]
Author Dominic Pedler describes the way they crossed musical styles:
"Far from moving sequentially from one genre to another (as is
sometimes conveniently suggested) the group maintained in parallel
their mastery of the traditional, catchy chart hit while
simultaneously forging rock and dabbling with a wide range of
peripheral influences from country to vaudeville. One of these threads
was their take on folk music, which would form such essential
groundwork for their later collisions with Indian music and
philosophy."[356] As the personal relationships between the band
members grew increasingly strained, their individual tastes became
more apparent. The minimalistic cover artwork for the White Album
contrasted with the complexity and diversity of its music, which
encompassed Lennon's "Revolution 9" (whose musique concrète approach
was influenced by Yoko Ono), Starr's country song "Don't Pass Me By",
Harrison's rock ballad "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and the
"proto-metal roar" of McCartney's "Helter Skelter".[233]
Contribution of George Martin
George Martin's close involvement in his role as producer made him one
of the leading candidates for the informal title of the "fifth
Beatle".[357] He applied his classical musical training in various
ways, and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing
songwriters, according to Gould.[358] Martin suggested to a sceptical
McCartney that the arrangement of "Yesterday" should feature a string
quartet accompaniment, thereby introducing the Beatles to a "hitherto
unsuspected world of classical instrumental colour", in MacDonald's
description.[359] Their creative development was also facilitated by
Martin's willingness to experiment in response to their suggestions,
such as adding "something baroque" to a particular recording.[360] In
addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin
often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ
and brass.[361]
Collaborating with Lennon and McCartney required Martin to adapt to
their different approaches to songwriting and recording. MacDonald
comments, "while [he] worked more naturally with the conventionally
articulate McCartney, the challenge of catering to Lennon's intuitive
approach generally spurred him to his more original arrangements, of
which 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!' is an outstanding
example."[362] Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting
styles and his own stabilising influence:
Compared with Paul's songs, all of which seemed to keep in some sort
of touch with reality, John's had a psychedelic, almost mystical
quality ... John's imagery is one of the best things about his
work – 'tangerine trees', 'marmalade skies', 'cellophane
flowers' ... I always saw him as an aural Salvador Dalí, rather
than some drug-ridden record artist. On the other hand, I would be
stupid to pretend that drugs didn't figure quite heavily in the
Beatles' lives at that time ... they knew that I, in my
schoolmasterly role, didn't approve ... Not only was I not into
it myself, I couldn't see the need for it; and there's no doubt that,
if I too had been on dope, Pepper would never have been the album it
was. Perhaps it was the combination of dope and no dope that worked,
who knows?[363]
Harrison echoed Martin's description of his stabilising role: "I think
we just grew through those years together, him as the straight man and
us as the loonies; but he was always there for us to interpret our
madness – we used to be slightly avant-garde on certain days of the
week, and he would be there as the anchor person, to communicate that
through the engineers and on to the tape."[364]
In the studio
See also: The Beatles' recording technology
Making innovative use of technology while expanding the possibilities
of recorded music, the Beatles urged experimentation by Martin and his
recording engineers. Seeking ways to put chance occurrences to
creative use, accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle, a
tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards – any of
these might be incorporated into their music.[365] Their desire to
create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's
arranging abilities and the studio expertise of
EMI

EMI staff engineers
Norman Smith,
Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all contributed
significantly to their records from
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul and, especially,
Revolver onwards.[365] Along with innovative studio techniques such as
sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops,
double tracking and vari-speed recording, the Beatles augmented their
songs with instruments that were unconventional in rock music at the
time. These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian
instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood" and the swarmandal
in "Strawberry Fields Forever".[366] They also used novel electronic
instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the
flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro,[367] and the
clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like
sound on "Baby, You're a Rich Man".[368]
Legacy
Main article: Cultural impact of the Beatles
The Beatles

The Beatles Monument in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Former
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone associate editor
Robert Greenfield compared the
Beatles to Picasso, as "artists who broke through the constraints of
their time period to come up with something that was unique and
original ... [I]n the form of popular music, no one will ever be
more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive ..."[317] The
British poet
Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and
intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roĺl with their own adolescent
romanticism", and "the first advance in popular music since the
War".[369] They not only sparked the
British Invasion

British Invasion of the US,[370]
they became a globally influential phenomenon as well.[371] From the
1920s, the United States had dominated popular entertainment culture
throughout much of the world, via Hollywood movies, jazz, the music of
Broadway and
Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley and, later, the rock and roll that first
emerged in Memphis, Tennessee.[302]
The Beatles

The Beatles are regarded as
British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band
among a group of people that they most associated with UK
culture.[372][373]
Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians
worldwide.[371] Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence
and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs.[374] On radio,
their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme
director of New York's WABC radio station forbade his DJs from playing
any "pre-Beatles" music, marking the defining line of what would be
considered oldies on American radio.[375] They helped to redefine the
album as something more than just a few hits padded out with
"filler",[376] and they were primary innovators of the modern music
video.[377] The
Shea Stadium

Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965
North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people,[136] then
the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as
a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the
concert business".[378] Emulation of their clothing and especially
their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global
impact on fashion.[97]
According to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to
popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began
as the
Beatlemania

Beatlemania fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen
as an embodiment of sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of
the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they became a catalyst for
bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas,
fuelling movements such as women's liberation, gay liberation and
environmentalism.[379] According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more
popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable
pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to
spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness".[161]
Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced
the inception of their socio-cultural impact earlier, interpreting
even the
Beatlemania

Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the
United States, as a key moment in the development of generational
awareness.[96][380] Referring to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan
Show Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the
beginning of a cultural revolution...
The Beatles

The Beatles were like aliens
dropped into the United States of 1964".[380] According to Gilmore:
Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley had shown us how rebellion could be fashioned into
eye-opening style; the Beatles were showing us how style could have
the impact of cultural revelation — or at least how a pop vision
might be forged into an unimpeachable consensus.[96]
Awards and achievements
See also: List of awards and nominations received by the Beatles
In 1965, Queen
Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and
Starr Members of the
Order of the British Empire

Order of the British Empire (MBE).[126] The film
Let It Be

Let It Be (1970) won the 1971
Academy Award

Academy Award for Best Original Song
Score.[266] The recipients of seven Grammy Awards[381] and fifteen
Ivor Novello Awards,[382] the Beatles have been awarded six Diamond
albums, as well as 24 Multi-Platinum albums, 39 Platinum albums and 45
Gold albums in the United States.[277][383] In the UK, the Beatles
have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold
albums and one Silver album.[278] They were inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
The best-selling band in history, the Beatles have sold more than 800
million physical and digital albums as of 2013.[384] They have had
more number-one albums on the UK charts, fifteen,[385] and sold more
singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act.[386] In 2004,
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the best artist of all time.[387]
They ranked number one on Billboard magazine's list of the all-time
most successful Hot 100 artists, released in 2008 to celebrate the US
singles chart's 50th anniversary.[388] As of 2017[update], they hold
the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with
twenty.[389] The
Recording Industry Association of America certifies
that the Beatles have sold 178 million units in the US, more than any
other artist.[390] They were collectively included in Time magazine's
compilation of the twentieth century's 100 most influential
people.[391] In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award.[392]
Members
Further information: List of members of bands featuring members of the
Beatles
Principal members
John Lennon – vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards,
harmonica, bass guitar (1960–1969)
Paul McCartney – vocals, bass guitar, rhythm and lead guitar,
keyboards, drums (1960–1970)
George Harrison – lead and rhythm guitar, vocals, sitar, bass
guitar, keyboards (1960–1970)
Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, vocals (1962–1970)
Early members
Pete Best – drums, vocals (1960–1962)
Stuart Sutcliffe – bass guitar, vocals (1960–1961)
Chas Newby – bass guitar (1960–1961)
Norman Chapman – drums (1960)
Tommy Moore – drums (1960)
Touring musician
Jimmie Nicol – drums (1964)
Timeline
Discography
Main article:
The Beatles

The Beatles discography
See also: List of songs recorded by the Beatles
Further information:
The Beatles' recording sessions and The Beatles
bootleg recordings
Please Please Me

Please Please Me (1963)
With the Beatles

With the Beatles (1963)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Beatles for Sale

Beatles for Sale (1964)
Help! (1965)
Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul (1965)
Revolver (1966)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

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

The Beatles ("The White Album", 1968)
Yellow Submarine (1969)
Abbey Road

Abbey Road (1969)
Let It Be

Let It Be (1970)
When the above albums were reissued on CD in 1988, the American
Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour album (1967) and the double-CD compilation set
Past Masters

Past Masters were included so that the full set would contain every
track commercially released in the band's lifetime.
See also
John Lennon

John Lennon discography
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney discography
George Harrison

George Harrison discography
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr discography
Collaborations between ex-Beatles
Song catalogue
Through 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively
by
Northern Songs Ltd., a company formed in February 1963 by music
publisher
Dick James

Dick James specifically for Lennon and McCartney, though it
later acquired songs by other artists. The company was organised with
James and his partner, Emmanuel Silver, owning a controlling interest,
variously described as 51% or 50% plus one share. McCartney had 20%.
Reports again vary concerning Lennon's portion – 19 or 20% – and
Brian Epstein's – 9 or 10% – which he received in lieu of a 25%
band management fee.[393][394][395]
In 1965, the company went public. Five million shares were created, of
which the original principals retained 3.75 million. James and Silver
each received 937,500 shares (18.75% of 5 million); Lennon and
McCartney each received 750,000 shares (15%); and Epstein's management
company, NEMS Enterprises, received 375,000 shares (7.5%). Of the 1.25
million shares put up for sale, Harrison and Starr each acquired
40,000.[396] At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney
renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to
Northern Songs until 1973.[397]
Harrison created
Harrisongs to represent his Beatles compositions, but
signed a three-year contract with
Northern Songs that gave it the
copyright to his work through March 1968, which included "Taxman" and
"Within You Without You".[398] The songs on which Starr received
co-writing credit before 1968, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying",
were also
Northern Songs copyrights.[399] Harrison did not renew his
contract with
Northern Songs when it ended, signing instead with Apple
Publishing while retaining the copyright to his work from that point
on.
Harrisongs thus owns the rights to his later Beatles songs such as
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". That year, as well,
Starr created Startling Music, which holds the rights to his Beatles
compositions, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".[400][401]
In March 1969, James arranged to sell his and his partner's shares of
Northern Songs to the British broadcasting company Associated
Television (ATV), founded by impresario Lew Grade, without first
informing the Beatles. The band then made a bid to gain controlling
interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London
brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding.[402] The deal
collapsed over the objections of Lennon, who declared, "I'm sick of
being fucked about by men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the
City."[403] By the end of May, ATV had acquired a majority stake in
Northern Songs, controlling nearly the entire Lennon–McCartney
catalogue, as well as any future material until 1973.[404] In
frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late
October 1969.[405]
In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, ACC, led it to
attempt to sell its music division. According to authors Brian
Southall and Rupert Perry, Grade contacted McCartney, offering ATV
Music and
Northern Songs for $30 million.[406] According to an account
McCartney gave in 1995, he met with Grade and explained he was
interested solely in the
Northern Songs catalogue, if Grade were ever
willing to "separate off" that portion of ATV Music. Soon afterwards,
Grade offered to sell him
Northern Songs for £20 million, giving the
ex-Beatle "a week or so" to decide. By McCartney's account, he and Ono
countered with a £5 million bid that was rejected.[407] According to
reports at the time, Grade refused to separate Northern Songs, and
turned down an offer of £21–25 million from McCartney and Ono for
ATV Music. In 1982, ACC as a whole was sold to Australian business
magnate
Robert Holmes à Court for £60 million.[408]
Three years later,
Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson purchased ATV for a reported $47.5
million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights
to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other
copyrights.[409] In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110
million, Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony,
creating a new company, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he held a
50% stake. The merger made the new company, then valued at over half a
billion dollars, the third largest music publisher in the world.[410]
In 2016,
Sony

Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson
estate for $750 million.[411]
Despite the lack of publishing rights to most of their songs, Lennon's
estate and McCartney continue to receive their respective shares of
the writers' royalties, which together are 33⅓% of total commercial
proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between
50 and 55%.[412] Two of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs –
"Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" – were published by an EMI
subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before they signed with James.
McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in the
mid-1980s,[413] and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by
McCartney's company MPL Communications.[414]
On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in United States district
court against
Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership
of his share of the
Lennon–McCartney

Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in
2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the
author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56
years.[415][416] McCartney and
Sony

Sony agreed to a confidential
settlement in June 2017.[417][418]
Notes
^ It was "Mull of Kintyre", by McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings,
that surpassed it in sales.[60]
^
Vee-Jay

Vee-Jay company president
Ewart Abner resigned after it was
disclosed he used company funds to cover gambling debts.[81]
^ During the same week in April 1964, a third American Beatles LP
joined the two already in circulation; two of the three reached the
first spot on the Billboard albums chart, the third peaked at number
two.[101]
^ Harrison's ringing 12-string inspired Roger McGuinn, who obtained
his own Rickenbacker and used it to craft the trademark sound of the
Byrds.[107]
^ Starr was briefly hospitalised after a tonsillectomy, and Jimmie
Nicol sat in on drums for the first five dates.[109]
^ It was not until
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 that
a Beatles album was released with identical track listings in both the
UK and the US.[158]
^ It was speculated that he was concerned that the band might not
renew his management contract, due to expire in October, over
discontent with his supervision of business matters, particularly
regarding Seltaeb, the company that handled their US merchandising
rights.[205]
^ The band unsuccessfully attempted to block the 1977 release of Live!
at the
Star-Club

Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. The independently issued
album compiled recordings made during the group's
Hamburg

Hamburg residency,
taped on a basic recording machine using only one microphone.[281]
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The Beatles

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^ "
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^ Southall & Perry 2006, pp. 192–193.
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Astley, John (2006). Why Don't We Do It In The Road? The Beatles
Phenomenon. The Company of Writers. ISBN 0-9551834-7-2.
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Beatles Story. New York: Thunder's Mouth.
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Life with the Beatles. New York: St. Martin's Press.
ISBN 978-0-312-33044-6.
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ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-002278-3.
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York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-52045-1.
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2007. ISBN 1-59986-256-5. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
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Book

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Hamburg

Hamburg Days. Guildford,
Surrey: Genesis Publications. ISBN 978-0-904351-73-6.
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ISBN 978-0-307-33855-6.
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The Beatles

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Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every
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The Beatles

The Beatles album discography
Albums in the core catalogue are marked in bold.
Studio albums
Please Please Me
With the Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles

The Beatles ("White Album")
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let It Be
US albums
Introducing... The Beatles
Meet the Beatles!
The Beatles' Second Album
A Hard Day's Night
Something New
The Beatles' Story
Beatles '65
The Early Beatles
Beatles VI
Help!
Rubber Soul
Yesterday and Today
Revolver
Magical Mystery Tour
Yellow Submarine
Hey Jude
Canadian albums
Twist and Shout
The Beatles' Long Tall Sally
Extended plays
Twist and Shout
The Beatles' Hits
The Beatles

The Beatles (No. 1)
All My Loving
Souvenir of Their Visit to America
Four by the Beatles
Long Tall Sally
Extracts from the Film A Hard Day's Night
Extracts from the Album A Hard Day's Night
4 by the Beatles
Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale

Beatles for Sale No. 2
The Beatles' Million Sellers
Yesterday
Nowhere Man
Magical Mystery Tour
Live albums
Live! at the
Star-Club

Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962
The Beatles

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
First Live Recordings
Live at the BBC
On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2
Compilations
From Then To You / The Beatles' Christmas Album
Sessions
Past Masters
Anthology (1, 2, 3)
I Saw Her Standing There
The Beatles

The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963
Remixes
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Let It Be... Naked
Love
Box sets
The Beatles

The Beatles Collection
The Beatles: The Collection
The Beatles

The Beatles Box
The Beatles

The Beatles Box Set
The Capitol Albums
vol. 1
2
The Beatles

The Beatles in Mono
The Beatles

The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings)
The U.S. Albums
The Japan Box
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The Beatles

The Beatles compilation discography
Bert Kaempfert

Bert Kaempfert recordings
(with Tony Sheridan)
My Bonnie
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My Bonnie (GER, 1962)
The Beatles

The Beatles with
Tony Sheridan

Tony Sheridan and Their Guests (1964)
Ain't She Sweet (1964)
The Beatles' First

The Beatles' First (GER, 1964 / UK, 1967)
Very Together

Very Together (1969)
In the Beginning (Circa 1960)

In the Beginning (Circa 1960) (1970)
The Early Tapes of the Beatles

The Early Tapes of the Beatles (1984)
Beatles Bop –
Hamburg

Hamburg Days (2001)
I Saw Her Standing There

I Saw Her Standing There (2013)
Hits
Greatest Hits Volume
1 (The Beatles album)

1 (The Beatles album) (AUS, 1966)
Greatest Hits Volume 2 (
The Beatles

The Beatles album) (AUS, 1967)
A Collection of Beatles
Oldies (1966)
The Essential Beatles

The Essential Beatles (AUS, 1972)
1962–1966

1962–1966 (1973)
1967–1970

1967–1970 (1973)
20 Greatest Hits (1982)
The Number Ones

The Number Ones (AUS, 1983)
1 (2000)
Themes
Rock 'n' Roll Music (1976)
Love Songs (1977)
The Beatles

The Beatles Ballads (1980)
Reel Music

Reel Music (1982)
Tomorrow Never Knows

Tomorrow Never Knows (2012)
Non-album tracks
Hey Jude

Hey Jude (US, 1970 / UK, 1979)
Por Siempre Beatles

Por Siempre Beatles (ARG, 1971)
Rarities (UK, 1978)
Rarities (US, 1980)
Past Masters

Past Masters (1988)
Alternative versions
Yellow Submarine Songtrack

Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999)
Let It Be... Naked

Let It Be... Naked (2003)
Other
Jolly What!

Jolly What! /
The Beatles

The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage (US, 1964)
The Beatles

The Beatles in Italy (ITA, 1965)
The Beatles' Christmas Album (US) / From Then to You (UK) (1970)
The Beatles

The Beatles Tapes from the David Wigg Interviews (1976)
Only The Beatles...
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Only The Beatles... (UK, 1987, withdrawn)
Love (2006)
The Black Album (2014, unofficial)
Box sets
The Singles Collection 1962–1970

The Singles Collection 1962–1970 (UK, 1976)
The Beatles

The Beatles Collection (UK, 1978 / US, 1979)
The Beatles

The Beatles Box (1980)
The Beatles

The Beatles EP Collection (1981)
The Beatles: The Collection (1982)
The Beatles

The Beatles Mono Collection (1982)
The Beatles

The Beatles Box Set (1988)
The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 (2004)
The Capitol Albums, Volume 2

The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 (2006)
The Beatles

The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings) (2009)
The Beatles

The Beatles in Mono (2009)
The U.S. Albums

The U.S. Albums (2014)
The Japan Box

The Japan Box (2014)
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The Beatles

The Beatles singles discography
UK and US
(all labels)
1963
"Please Please Me" / "Ask Me Why"
"From Me to You" / "Thank You Girl"
"She Loves You" / "I'll Get You"
1964
"Can't Buy Me Love" / "You Can't Do That"
"I Feel Fine" / "She's a Woman"
1965
"Ticket to Ride" / "Yes It Is"
"Help!" / "I'm Down"
"We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper"
1966
"Paperback Writer" / "Rain"
"Yellow Submarine" / "Eleanor Rigby"
1967
"Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever"
"All You Need Is Love" / "Baby, You're a Rich Man"
"Hello, Goodbye" / "I Am the Walrus"
1968
"Lady Madonna" / "The Inner Light"
"Hey Jude" / "Revolution"
1969
"Get Back" / "Don't Let Me Down"
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" / "Old Brown Shoe"
"Something" / "Come Together"
1970
"Let It Be" / "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"
1978
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little
Help from My
Friends" / "A Day in the Life"
1982
"
The Beatles

The Beatles Movie Medley" / "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You"
1995
"Free as a Bird" / "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)"
1996
"Real Love" / "Baby's in Black"
UK only
(Parlophone,
Apple)
1962
"My Bonnie" / "The Saints"
"Love Me Do" / "P.S. I Love You"
1963
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" / "This Boy"
1964
"Ain't She Sweet" / "If You Love Me, Baby"
"A Hard Day's Night" / "Things We Said Today"
1976
"Yesterday" / "I Should Have Known Better"
"Back in the U.S.S.R." / "Twist and Shout"
US only
(Vee-Jay,
Swan,
Tollie,
Capitol,
Apple)
1963
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" / "I Saw Her Standing There"
1964
"Twist and Shout" / "There's a Place"
"Do You Want to Know a Secret" / "Thank You Girl"
"Love Me Do" / "P.S. I Love You"
"Sie liebt dich" / "I'll Get You"
"I'll Cry Instead" / "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You"
"And I Love Her" / "If I Fell"
"A Hard Day's Night" / "I Should Have Known Better"
"Matchbox" / "Slow Down"
1965
"Eight Days a Week" / "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party"
"Yesterday" / "Act Naturally"
1966
"Nowhere Man" / "What Goes On"
1970
"The Long and Winding Road" / "For You Blue"
1976
"Got to Get You into My Life" / "Helter Skelter"
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" / "Julia"
Other
countries
(Odeon,
Parlophone,
Apple)
1963
"All My Loving" / "This Boy" (Canada)
1964
"Komm, gib mir deine Hand / Sie liebt dich" (Germany)
1966
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" / "Nowhere Man" (Australia)
1968
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" / "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Europe, Japan,
Australia)
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" / "I Will" (Philippines)
"Back in the U.S.S.R." / "Don't Pass Me By" (Sweden)
1969
"You're Going to Lose That Girl" / "Tell Me What You See" (Japan)
1970
"Oh! Darling" / "Here Comes the Sun" (Japan)
1972
"All Together Now" / "Hey Bulldog" (Europe)
1978
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little
Help from My
Friends" / "Within You Without You" (Germany)
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The Beatles

The Beatles filmography and videography
Filmography and videography
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
Magical Mystery Tour
Yellow Submarine
Let It Be
Documentaries
The First U.S. Visit
At Shea Stadium
A Salute to the Beatles
The Compleat Beatles
It Was Twenty Years Ago Today
Anthology
All Together Now
Eight Days a Week

Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
It Was Fifty Years Ago Today... Sgt Pepper and Beyond
Promotional films (music videos)
"Rain"
"Paperback Writer"
"Strawberry Fields Forever"
"Penny Lane"
"A Day in the Life"
"Hello, Goodbye"
"Lady Madonna"
"Hey Jude"
"Revolution"
"Something"
"Free as a Bird"
"Real Love"
Fictionalised Beatles
Ringo
Birth of the Beatles
Beatlemania
Give My Regards to Broad Street
John and Yoko: A Love Story
Backbeat
The Hours and Times
The
Linda McCartney

Linda McCartney Story
Two of Us
In His Life: The
John Lennon

John Lennon Story
The Killing of John Lennon
Chapter 27
Nowhere Boy
Lennon Naked
Inspired by Beatles
The Girls on the Beach
All This and World War II
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
All You Need Is Cash
Secrets
I Am Sam
The Rutles

The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
Across the Universe
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George Harrison
Studio albums
Wonderwall Music
Electronic Sound
All Things Must Pass
Living in the Material World
Dark Horse
Extra Texture (Read All About It)
Thirty Three & 1/3
George Harrison
Somewhere in England
Gone Troppo
Cloud Nine
Brainwashed
Live albums
The Concert for Bangladesh
Live in Japan
Compilations
The Best of George Harrison
Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989
Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison
Early Takes: Volume 1
Box sets
The Dark Horse Years 1976–1992
Collaborations (with Ravi Shankar)
The Apple Years 1968–75
George Harrison

George Harrison – The Vinyl Collection
Books
I, Me, Mine
Songs by George Harrison
Songs by
George Harrison

George Harrison 2
Raga

Raga Mala (as editor)
Related
Articles
Discography
Songs
Awards and nominations
Asian Music Circle
Bhaktivedanta Manor
The Concert for Bangladesh
Concert for George
Dark Horse Records
Friar Park
Harrisongs
"Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
"Horse to the Water"
Kinfauns
Material World Charitable Foundation
Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India
1974 North American tour
1991 Japanese tour
Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
People
John Barham
The Beatles
Pattie Boyd

Pattie Boyd (wife)
Eric Clapton
Derek and the Dominos
Olivia Harrison

Olivia Harrison (wife)
Dhani Harrison

Dhani Harrison (son)
Jim Keltner
Jeff Lynne
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
The Quarrymen
Radha Krishna Temple
The Rutles
Ravi Shankar
Derek Taylor
Traveling Wilburys
Klaus Voormann
Gary Wright
Albums
Is This What You Want?
That's the Way God Planned It
Doris Troy
Encouraging Words
The Radha Krsna Temple
Joi Bangla

Joi Bangla (EP)
Footprint
Straight Up
Raga
Brother
In Concert 1972
Shankar Family & Friends
The Place I Love
Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India
Traveling Wilburys

Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1
Traveling Wilburys

Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3
Ravi Shankar: In Celebration
Chants of India
Films
HandMade Films
All You Need Is Cash
Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session
The Concert for Bangladesh

The Concert for Bangladesh (film)
Concert for George (film)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Little Malcolm
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Raga
Tributes
Songs from the Material World: A Tribute to George Harrison
"Never Without You"
Concert for George (album)
Harrison on Harrison:
Jazz

Jazz Explorations of George Harrison
Tribute To
George Fest
Book
Category
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John Lennon
Discography
Song list
Studio albums
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Imagine
Mind Games
Walls and Bridges
Rock 'n' Roll
with Yoko Ono
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions
Wedding Album
Some Time in New York City
Double Fantasy
Milk and Honey
Live albums
Live Peace in Toronto 1969
Live Jam
Live in New York City
Compilations
Shaved Fish
The
John Lennon

John Lennon Collection
Menlove Ave.
Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon
Wonsaponatime
Instant Karma: All-Time Greatest Hits
Acoustic
Peace, Love & Truth
Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon
Power to the People: The Hits
Icon
Box sets
Lennon
John Lennon

John Lennon Anthology
John Lennon

John Lennon Signature Box
Gimme Some Truth
Books
In His Own Write
A Spaniard in the Works
Skywriting by Word of Mouth
Films
Beatles films
Erection (1971)
Sweet Toronto (1971)
Imagine

Imagine (1972)
John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985)
Imagine:
John Lennon

John Lennon (1988)
Two of Us (2000)
In His Life: The
John Lennon

John Lennon Story (2000)
The U.S. vs.
John Lennon

John Lennon (2006)
The Killing of
John Lennon

John Lennon (2006)
Chapter 27

Chapter 27 (2007)
I Met the Walrus

I Met the Walrus (2007)
Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy (2009)
Lennon Naked (2010)
LennoNYC (2010)
Family
Cynthia Lennon

Cynthia Lennon (first wife)
Julian Lennon

Julian Lennon (son)
Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono (second wife)
Sean Lennon

Sean Lennon (son)
Alfred Lennon
.jpg/440px-Freddie_Lennon_(1966).jpg)
Alfred Lennon (father)
Julia Lennon

Julia Lennon (mother)
Julia Baird

Julia Baird (half-sister)
Mimi Smith

Mimi Smith (aunt)
George Smith (marital uncle)
Related
People/artists
The Quarrymen
The Beatles
Plastic Ono Band
David Peel
The Lower East Side Band
The Dirty Mac
May Pang
Harry Nilsson
John Sinclair
Rosaura Lopez
Albums
The Pope Smokes Dope
Pussy Cats
Roots:
John Lennon

John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits
A Toot and a Snore in '74
Imagine: John Lennon
Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon
S.I.R. John Winston Ono Lennon
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur
The 30th Annual
John Lennon

John Lennon Tribute: Live from the Beacon Theatre, NYC
Lennon Bermuda
Songs
"That's My Life (My Love And My Home)"
"The Immigrant"
"All Those Years Ago"
"Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)"
"Here Today"
"
Life Is Real

Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)"
"Roll On John"
"The Late Great Johnny Ace"
"Working Class Hero"
Other media
Lennon Remembers
Marx & Lennon: The Parallel Sayings
The Lost Lennon Tapes
Toronto Rock and Roll Revival
Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music (concert)
Lennon (musical)
Lennon Legend: The Very Best of
John Lennon

John Lennon (DVD)
The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
Articles
Death
251 Menlove Avenue
Bagism
Bed-In
The Beatles

The Beatles discography
Nutopia
Lennon–McCartney
Liverpool

Liverpool
John Lennon

John Lennon Airport
More popular than Jesus
John Lennon

John Lennon Museum
John Lennon's musical instruments
The Dakota
Strawberry Fields
John Lennon

John Lennon Park
John Lennon

John Lennon Peace Monument
Imagine

Imagine Peace Tower
LennonOno Grant for Peace
Lennon Wall
Book
Category
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Paul McCartney
Paul "Wix" Wickens
Rusty Anderson
Brian Ray
Abe Laboriel Jr.
Linda McCartney
Hamish Stuart
Robbie McIntosh
Chris Whitten
Blair Cunningham
Studio albums
McCartney
Ram (with Linda McCartney)
McCartney II
Tug of War
Pipes of Peace
Give My Regards to Broad Street
Press to Play
Снова в СССР
Flowers in the Dirt
Off the Ground
Flaming Pie
Run Devil Run
Driving Rain
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Memory Almost Full
Kisses on the Bottom
New
with Wings
Wild Life
Red Rose Speedway
Band on the Run
Venus and Mars
Wings at the Speed of Sound
London

London Town
Back to the Egg
Classical
The Family Way
Thrillington
Paul McCartney's
Liverpool

Liverpool Oratorio
Standing Stone
Working Classical
Ecce Cor Meum
Ocean's Kingdom
Electronica
Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest

Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (The Fireman)
Rushes (The Fireman)
Liverpool

Liverpool Sound Collage
Twin Freaks
Electric Arguments

Electric Arguments (The Fireman)
Live albums
Wings over America
Tripping the Live Fantastic
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)
Paul Is Live
Back in the U.S.
Back in the World Live
iTunes Festival: London
Amoeba's Secret
Good Evening New York City
Live in Los Angeles
iTunes Live from Capitol Studios
Compilations
Wings Greatest
Cold Cuts (unreleased)
All the Best!
The
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney Collection
Costello Album (bootleg)
Wingspan: Hits and History
Pure McCartney
Tours
Wings University Tour
Wings Over Europe Tour
Wings 1973 UK Tour
Wings Over the World

Wings Over the World tour
Wings UK Tour 1979
The
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney World Tour
The New World Tour
Driving World Tour
Back in the World
2004 Summer Tour
The 'US' Tour
Summer Live '09
Good Evening Europe Tour
Up and Coming Tour
On the Run
Out There
One on One
Filmography
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Help! (1965)
Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Yellow Submarine (1968)
Let It Be

Let It Be (1970)
James
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney (1973)
Wings Over the World

Wings Over the World (1979)
Rockestra (unreleased) (1979)
Concert for Kampuchea

Concert for Kampuchea (1980)
Rockshow

Rockshow (1980)
Back to the Egg

Back to the Egg (1981)
Give My Regards to Broad Street

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)
Put It There (1990)
Get Back

Get Back (1991)
Paul Is Live

Paul Is Live (1993)
In the World Tonight (1997)
Live at the Cavern Club (1999)
Wingspan
_departs_London_Heathrow_15Aug2008_arp.jpg/440px-Saudi_Arabian_Airlines_Boeing_777-200ER_(HZ-AKC)_departs_London_Heathrow_15Aug2008_arp.jpg)
Wingspan (2001)
Back in the U.S.

Back in the U.S. (2002)
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney in Red Square (2005)
Between Chaos and Creation (2005)
Chaos and Creation at
Abbey Road

Abbey Road (2005)
The Space Within US

The Space Within US (2006)
The McCartney Years

The McCartney Years (2007)
Good Evening New York City
.png)
Good Evening New York City (2009)
The Love We Make

The Love We Make (2011)
Related
Articles
Discography
Song list
Awards
Music contributions and appearances
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney concerts
Maxi-singles
Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now
MPL Communications
Oobu Joobu
Paul is dead
"Lisa the Vegetarian"
The Concert for New York City
People/Artists
The Quarrymen
The Beatles
Wings
Heather Mills
Personal relationships
Music
Wide Prairie
A Garland for Linda
Paul McCartney's Glastonbury Groove
Let Us in Americana: The Music of Paul McCartney
A Toot and a Snore in '74
The Art of McCartney
"Cut Me Some Slack"
Book
Category
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Ringo Starr
Studio albums
Sentimental Journey
Beaucoups of Blues
Ringo
Goodnight Vienna
Ringo's Rotogravure
Ringo the 4th
Bad Boy
Stop and Smell the Roses
Old Wave
Time Takes Time
Vertical Man
I Wanna Be Santa Claus
Ringo Rama
Choose Love
Liverpool

Liverpool 8
Y Not
Ringo 2012
Postcards from Paradise
Give More Love
Live albums
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Volume 2: Live from Montreux
4-Starr Collection
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr and His Third All-Starr Band-Volume 1
VH1 Storytellers
King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Ringo & His New All-Starr Band
Extended Versions
Tour 2003
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr and Friends
Ringo Starr: Live at Soundstage
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band Live 2006
Live at the Greek Theatre 2008
Compilations
Blast from Your Past
Starr Struck: Best of Ringo Starr, Vol. 2
The Anthology... So Far
Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr
Icon
Singles
"Beaucoups of Blues"
"It Don't Come Easy" / "Early 1970"
"Back Off Boogaloo"
"Photograph"
"You're Sixteen"
"Oh My My"
"Only You (And You Alone)"
"No No Song" / "Snookeroo"
"(It's All Down to) Goodnight Vienna"
"Oh My My" / "No No Song"
"A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll"
"Hey! Baby"
"Wings"
"Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)"
"In My Car"
"I Keep Forgettin'"
"Act Naturally"
"Weight of the World"
"Never Without You"
"
Liverpool

Liverpool 8"
"Walk with You"
Books
Postcards From the Boys
Octopus's Garden
Photograph
Related
Articles
Discography
Song list
Filmography
The Concert for Bangladesh
Ring O' Records
Scouse the Mouse
Ringo's Yellow Submarine
Ringo (1978 film)
The Hollywood Vampires
Bands
Rory Storm

Rory Storm and the Hurricanes
The Beatles
Ringo Starr
.jpg/440px-Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band_(8470866906).jpg)
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
People/Artists
Maureen Starkey

Maureen Starkey (first wife)
Zak Starkey

Zak Starkey (son)
Barbara Bach

Barbara Bach (second wife)
Francesca Gregorini (stepdaughter)
George Harrison
Mark Hudson
Harry Nilsson
Vini Poncia
Book
Category
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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 1988
Performers
The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys (Al Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson,
Dennis Wilson)
The Beatles

The Beatles (George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo
Starr)
The Drifters

The Drifters (Ben E. King, Rudy Lewis, Clyde McPhatter, Johnny Moore,
Bill Pinkney, Charlie Thomas, and Gerhart Thrasher)
Bob Dylan
The Supremes

The Supremes (Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson)
Early influences
Woody Guthrie
Lead Belly
Les Paul
Non-performers
(Ahmet Ertegun Award)
Berry Gordy
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 141205608
LCCN: n79018119
ISNI: 0000 0001 2170 7484
GND: 2005535-3
SUDOC: 084287195
BNF: cb13901884f (data)
ULAN: 500372404
MusicBrainz: b10bbbfc-cf9e-42e0-be17-e2c3e1d2600d
NLA: 36101014
NKC: ko2002101672
BNE: XX