   #copyright

The Beatles

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Performers and composers

   L-R: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in
   1964.
   L-R: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in
   1964.
   Background information
   Origin England Liverpool, England
   Genre(s) Rock
   Pop
   Psychedelic rock
   Classic rock
   Years active 1960– 1970
   1994– 1996
   Label(s) Parlophone
   Capitol
   Apple
   Odeon
   Vee-Jay
   United Artists
   Atco
   Swan
   Tollie
   Polydor
   Website beatles.com
   Former members
   John Lennon
   Paul McCartney
   George Harrison
   Ringo Starr
   Pete Best
   Stuart Sutcliffe

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

   The Beatles were the best-selling popular musical act of the 20th
   century. In the United Kingdom alone, they released more than 40
   different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one. This
   commercial success was repeated in many other countries: EMI estimated
   that by 1985, the band had sold over one billion discs or tapes
   worldwide. The RIAA has certified The Beatles as the top selling
   artists of all time in America based on U.S. sales of singles and
   albums.

   The Beatles were a major force behind the so-called " British Invasion"
   of UK-based popular bands in the United States in the mid-1960s and
   they helped to pioneer more advanced, multi-layered arrangements in pop
   music. The Beatles' impact extended well beyond their music. Their
   clothes, hairstyles, and statements made them trend-setters from the
   1960s to this day, while their growing social awareness — reflected in
   the development of their music — saw their influence extend into the
   social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

Record contract

   Epstein eventually met with producer George Martin of EMI's Parlophone
   label. Martin expressed an interest in hearing the band in the studio;
   he invited the quartet to London's Abbey Road studios for an audition
   on 6 June. Martin had not been particularly impressed by the band's
   demo recordings, but he instantly liked them as people when he met
   them. He concluded that they had raw musical talent, but said (in later
   interviews) that what made the difference for him that day was their
   wit and humour in the studio. They were very likeable, and slightly
   cheeky, young men. When he asked them if there was anything they did
   not like, Harrison replied, "For a start, I don't like your tie." The
   remark typified the slightly surreal blend of wry humour and
   irreverence towards authority that eventually became the band's in-joke
   with a global audience. That day, however, their audience was a single
   person: a detail-orientated, slightly stuffy looking Parlophone
   executive who had never worked with a rock 'n' roll band before.
   Fortunately for the band, Martin, whose background was in comedy and
   novelty records, appreciated the joke. He offered the band a contract.

   Martin did have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised for not
   being able to keep time. He privately suggested to Brian Epstein that
   the band use another drummer in the studio. Best had some popularity
   and was considered good-looking by many fans, but the three founding
   members had become increasingly unhappy with his popularity and his
   personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal to
   adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. Epstein
   sacked Best on 16 August 1962. They immediately asked Ringo Starr (real
   name: Richard Starkey), the drummer for one of the top Merseybeat
   groups Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, to join the band. The Beatles had
   met and performed with Starr previously in Hamburg. In fact, the first
   recordings of John, Paul, George, and Ringo together were as early as
   15 October 1960, in a series of demonstration records privately
   recorded in Hamburg as backing group for singer Lu Walters. Starr
   played on The Beatles' second EMI recording session on 4 September
   1962, but Martin hired session drummer Andy White for their next
   session on 11 September.

   Their recording contract — in common with how shabbily new artists were
   treated in that era — paid them only one penny for every single sold,
   which was split among the four Beatles. This amounted to one farthing
   per group member. This royalty rate was further reduced for overseas
   sales, on which they received half of one penny (split between the
   whole band) for singles sales outside of the UK. George Martin said
   later that it was a "pretty awful" contract. Their publishing contract
   with Dick James Music (DJM) was also standard for the time; each writer
   received the statutory minimum of 50% of the gross monies received,
   with the publisher retaining the other 50%.

   The Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June did not yield any releasable
   recordings but the September sessions produced a minor UK hit, " Love
   Me Do", which peaked on the charts at number 17. ("Love Me Do" reached
   the top of the U.S. singles chart over 18 months later in May 1964.)
   This was swiftly followed by their second single " Please Please Me".
   Three months later they recorded their first album (also titled Please
   Please Me). The band's first televised performance was on a program
   called People and Places transmitted live from Manchester by Granada
   Television on 17 October 1962.

America

   Although the band experienced huge popularity in the record charts in
   the UK from early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol
   Records (owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles "Love Me Do", "
   Please Please Me" and " From Me to You" in the United States, partly
   because no British act had ever yet had a sustained commercial impact
   on American audiences. Vee-Jay Records, a small Chicago label, is said
   by some to have been pressured into issuing these singles as part of a
   deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music
   director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please Please
   Me" into radio rotation in late February 1963, making it possibly the
   first time a Beatles record was heard on American radio. Vee-Jay's
   rights to The Beatles were cancelled for non-payment of royalties.

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

   In August 1963, the Philadelphia-based Swan label tried again with The
   Beatles' " She Loves You", which also failed to receive airplay. A
   testing of the song on Dick Clark's TV show American Bandstand resulted
   only in laughter and scorn from American teenagers when they saw the
   group's Beatle haircuts. The famous radio DJ, Murray the K (Kaufman)
   featured "She Loves You" on his 1010 WINS record revue in October, to
   an underwhelming response.

Beatlemania

   In November 1963, The Beatles appeared on the Royal Variety Performance
   and were photographed with Marlene Dietrich who also appeared on the
   show. In early November 1963, Brian Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to
   commit to presenting The Beatles on three editions of his show in
   February, and parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with
   Capitol Records. Capitol committed to a mid-January release for "I Want
   to Hold Your Hand", but a series of unplanned circumstances triggered
   premature airplay of an imported copy of the single on a Washington DC
   radio station in mid-December. Capitol brought forward release of the
   record to December 26, 1963.

   Several New York radio stations — first WMCA, then WINS and WABC —
   began playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on its release day, and the
   Beatlemania that had started in Washington was duplicated in New York
   and quickly spread to other markets. The record sold one million copies
   in just ten days, and by January 16, Cashbox Magazine had certified The
   Beatles record number one (in the edition published with the cover-date
   January 23).

   This contributed to the hysterical fan reaction at JFK Airport on
   February 7, 1964. A record-breaking seventy-three million viewers —
   approximately 40% of the U.S. population at the time — tuned in to the
   first Sullivan appearance on February 9. During the week of April 4,
   The Beatles held the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100 (see The
   Beatles record sales, worldwide charts) — a feat that has never been
   repeated. They had an additional 7 songs at lower positions: 12% of the
   chart consisted of Beatles songs.

   In the summer of 1964 the band undertook their first appearances
   outside of Europe and North America, touring Australia and New Zealand
   (notably without Ringo Starr who was ill and was temporarily replaced
   by session drummer Jimmy Nicol). When they arrived in Adelaide, The
   Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the largest crowd of
   their touring career, when over 300,000 people — about one-third of the
   population of the city — turned out to see them. In September that year
   baseball owner Charles O. Finley paid the band the then unheard of sum
   of $150,000 to play in Kansas City, Missouri.

   In 1965 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon them the MBE, a
   civil honour nominated by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The award, at
   that time primarily given to military veterans and civic leaders,
   sparked some conservative MBE recipients to return their awards in
   protest, which was widely reported in the British press and was even
   the lead item on the BBC television news. The first two were returned
   on June 14, before The Beatles received theirs on October 26 1965.

   On August 15 that year, The Beatles performed the first stadium concert
   in the history of rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd
   of 55,600. The band later admitted that they had been largely unable to
   hear themselves play or sing, due to the screaming and cheering. This
   concert is generally considered the point at which began their
   disenchantment with performing live.

Backlash and controversy

   In July 1966, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they
   unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had
   expected the group to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential
   Palace. When presented with the invitation, Brian Epstein politely
   declined on behalf of the group, as it had never been the group's
   policy to accept such "official" invitations. The group soon found that
   the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an answer.
   After the snubbing was widely broadcast on Philippine television and
   radio, all The Beatles' police protection disappeared. The group and
   their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own,
   with the authorities throwing up every road block they could to harass
   them as much as possible. At the airport, roadie Mal Evans was beaten
   and kicked, and The Beatles themselves were pushed and jostled about by
   a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans
   were ordered off, and Evans said, "Tell my wife that I love her..."
   (showing how seriously he thought the danger was of them both being
   shot). Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the band had
   earned while they were there before being allowed back on the plane (
   Anthology).

   Almost as soon as they returned from the Philippines, an earlier
   comment by John back in March of that year launched a backlash against
   The Beatles from religious and social conservatives in the Bible Belt
   of the United States. In an interview with British reporter Maureen
   Cleave Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and
   that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now." In many cities and
   towns across the United States (primarily in the South) and in South
   Africa, people banned and burned Beatles records. However, The Beatles
   observed wryly, "Hey, they've gotta buy 'em before they can burn 'em."
   Under tremendous pressure from American media, Lennon apologised for
   his remarks at a press conference in Chicago on August 11, the eve of
   the first performance of what turned out to be their final tour.

The studio years

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

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

   On 25 June 1967, The Beatles became the first band globally transmitted
   on television, in front of an estimated 400 million people worldwide.
   The band appeared in a segment within the first-ever worldwide TV
   satellite hook-up — a show entitled Our World. The Beatles were
   transmitted live from Abbey Road Studios, and their new song " All You
   Need Is Love" was recorded live during the show.

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

   The group spent the early part of 1968 in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh,
   India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh
   Yogi. Upon their return, Lennon and McCartney took a trip to New York
   to announce the formation of Apple Corps, initially an altruistic
   business venture which they described as an attempt at "western
   communism." The middle part of 1968 saw the band busy recording the
   double album The Beatles, popularly known as The White Album due to its
   stark white cover. These sessions saw deep divisions opening within the
   band.

   McCartney gradually took greater charge of the group's production,
   growing dominant in that role. Internal divisions within the band had
   been a small but growing problem during their earlier career; most
   notably, this was reflected in the difficulty that George Harrison
   experienced in getting his own songs onto Beatles' albums, and in the
   growing artistic and personal estrangement between Lennon and
   McCartney.

   On the business side McCartney wanted Lee Eastman — the father of his
   wife Linda Eastman — to manage The Beatles, but the remaining Beatles
   wanted New York manager Allen Klein to represent them. All Beatles
   decisions in the past were unanimous but this time the four could not
   unanimously agree on a manager. Lennon, Harrison and Starr felt the
   Eastmans would look after McCartney's well-being before that of the
   group. Paul was quoted years later during the Anthology interviews,
   saying that "Looking back, I can understand why they would feel that
   was biased against them."

   Their final live performance was on the rooftop of the Apple building
   in Savile Row, London on 30 January 1969, the next-to-last day of the
   difficult Get Back sessions. Largely due to McCartney's efforts, they
   recorded their final album, Abbey Road in summer 1969. Rowan Ayers
   launched the album on his show Late Night Line Up on 26 September 1969.
   Rowan recalls, "we had lunch at Apple Studios and they showed me their
   latest album."

Breakup

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

After the break-up

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

   In 1971, it was discovered that Allen Klein had stolen £5m from The
   Beatles holdings, and, in 1973, Lennon admitted to McCartney that they
   should have gone with the Eastmans' management. This helped to mend the
   personal relationship between the two, although not entirely. They
   never recorded together again. Lennon was shot and killed on December
   8, 1980.

   The BBC has a large collection of Beatles recordings, mostly comprising
   original studio sessions from 1963–1968. Much of this material formed
   the basis for a 1988 radio documentary series The Beeb's Lost Beatles
   Tapes. Later, in 1994, the best of these sessions were given an
   official EMI release on Live at the BBC.

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

   The Beatles still remain enormously popular. 450,000 copies of
   Anthology 1 were sold on its first day of release, reaching the highest
   volume of single-day sales ever for an album. In 2000, a compilation
   album named 1 was released, containing almost every number-one single
   released by the band from 1962 to 1970. The collection sold 3.6 million
   copies in its first week and more than 12 million in three weeks
   worldwide, becoming the fastest-selling album of all time and the
   biggest-selling album of the year 2000. The collection also reached
   number one in the United States and 33 other countries.

Musical evolution

   The Beatles were fans of almost every kind of music that they heard on
   the radio, or heard on imported records from America. These early
   records were not officially imported to the UK, but were taken to
   Liverpool by sailors who had bought them in America. Early influences
   included Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Lonnie Donegan, ragtime, and
   English music hall.

   Their constant demands to create new sounds on every new recording, and
   the imaginative — and ground-breaking — studio expertise of EMI staff
   engineers, including Norman Smith, Ken Townshend and Geoff Emerick all
   played significant parts in the innovative sounds of the albums Rubber
   Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
   (1967). (In 1973, Smith had a hit as a singer under the performing name
   Hurricane Smith with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say".) The role of
   producer George Martin is often cited as a crucial element in their
   success. He used his experience to bring out the potential in the
   group, recognising and nurturing their creativity rather than imposing
   his views. After The Beatles stopped touring, they increasingly came
   under pressure, and it was decided for the group to vent their artistic
   energy solely into recording. They had already shown a clear trend
   towards progressively greater complexity in technique and style but
   this accelerated noticeably on their Revolver album. The subject matter
   of their post-touring songs branched out as well, as a diverse range of
   subjects were written about.

   The Beatles also continued to absorb influences throughout their career
   — long after their initial success — often finding new musical and
   lyrical avenues to explore from listening to the work of some of their
   contemporaries. Among those influences were Bob Dylan, on songs such as
   " You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (Help!) and " Norwegian Wood (This
   Bird Has Flown)" (Rubber Soul). Dylan introduced The Beatles to
   cannabis (1964) in a New York hotel room when he offered the Fab Four
   pot as a consequence of his misconception that the lyrics in their hit
   song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (Meet the Beatles!) were "I get high"
   instead of "I can't hide". This initial partaking in drugs grew into
   heavier experimentation with LSD and various other substances whose
   psychedelic effects were commonly thought to have manifested themselves
   in the band's music. The Beatles, in turn, would influence Dylan's move
   into an electrified rock sound in his music.

   In 1965, having recently become interested in Indian music, George
   Harrison purchased a sitar, which he played on the song " Norwegian
   Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", the first instance of such an instrument
   being used on a rock record. He later took sitar lessons from maestro
   Ravi Shankar, and implemented further elements of Eastern music and
   spirituality into his songs, notably " Love You To" and " Within You
   Without You". These musical decisions greatly increased the influence
   of Indian music on popular culture in the late 1960s.

   Along with studio tricks such as sound effects, unconventional
   microphone placements, automatic double tracking and vari-speed
   recording, The Beatles began to augment their recordings with
   instruments that were unconventional for rock music at the time,
   including string and brass ensembles, Indian instruments such as the
   sitar and the swarmandel, tape loops, and early electronic instruments
   including the Mellotron, which was used with flute voices on the intro
   to "Strawberry Fields Forever". McCartney once asked Martin what a
   guitar would sound like if it was played underwater, and was serious
   about trying it. Lennon also wondered what his vocals would sound like
   if he was hanging upside down from the ceiling. Clearly their ideas
   were out-stripping the technology that was available at the time.

   Lennon is portrayed as having played the major role in steering The
   Beatles towards psychedelia (" Rain" and " Tomorrow Never Knows" from
   1966, and " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", " Strawberry Fields
   Forever" and " I Am the Walrus" from 1967), but McCartney was also
   influential, being involved in the London avant garde scene, which was
   itself moving towards psychedelia during the same period.

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

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

   While most recording artists of the time were using two, three or four
   tracks in the studio, The Beatles had to use linked pairs of four-track
   decks, and ping-ponging tracks two, and even three times, became
   common.

   EMI delayed the introduction of eight-track recording — already
   becoming common in American studios — until 1968, when American studios
   were already upgrading to 16-tracks. EMI were loath to spend any money
   on new equipment — even though The Beatles were earning vast amounts —
   and so Abbey Road was always (technically) one step behind every other
   studio.

   Beginning with the use of a string quartet (arranged by George Martin)
   on " Yesterday" in 1965, The Beatles pioneered a modern form of art
   song, exemplified by the double-quartet string arrangement on " Eleanor
   Rigby" (1966), " Here, There and Everywhere" (1966) and " She's Leaving
   Home" (1967). Lennon and McCartney's interest in the music of Bach led
   them to use a piccolo trumpet on the arrangement of " Penny Lane" and a
   Mellotron at the start of " Strawberry Fields Forever".

   The extreme complexity of Sgt. Pepper reached its height on the Yellow
   Submarine soundtrack album, parts of which (for example, " It's All Too
   Much" and " Only a Northern Song") were left over from 1967, and were
   used because The Beatles themselves were disinterested in the animated
   film as a project.

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

Influence

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

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

   ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra, which was formed 1971, was heavily
   influenced by The Beatles. Jeff Lynne, the lead singer and song writer
   of the group, often mimicked McCartney and Lennon's style of vocals and
   melodies in early songs such as " Mr. Radio" (No Answer) and " Mister
   Kingdom" (Eldorado). The group even released a song called " Beatles
   Forever", on the LP version of Secret Messages, in which Lynne
   expressed how he idolized the group and admired their talent and
   success.

   Amongst other relatively recent bands who have cited The Beatles as a
   major influence are Pearl Jam, U2, Oasis and Radiohead. Oasis' and
   Radiohead's definitive albums, Definitely Maybe and OK Computer
   respectively, are two examples of how the Beatle's sound has not become
   any less influential.

Instrumentation

     * Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Epiphone, Gibson, and Fender guitars
     * Ludwig drums
     * Steinway, and Blüthner pianos
     * Höfner, Fender and Rickenbacker basses
     * Hammond, Vox and Lowrey electric organs
     * Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hohner Pianet electric pianos
     * Moog Modular synthesizer

Microphones

   A Neumann U87
   Enlarge
   A Neumann U87

   Although microphone usage varied somewhat according to the requirements
   of each song, the group's recordings at Abbey Road most often employed
   Neumann U47 or U67 microphones for electric guitars and one or more
   Neumann U48s for vocals. Early in their recording career the drums
   usually were recorded with only two microphones: one overhead (an AKG
   D19 or STC 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20). Later,
   more microphones were used on the drums.

   With the group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick
   experimented with microphone placement and equalization. Many of his
   techniques were unusual for the time but have since become commonplace,
   such as "close miking" (physically placing the microphone in very close
   proximity of a sound source) of acoustic instruments or deliberately
   overloading the signal to produce distortion. For example, he obtained
   the biting string sound that characterizes " Eleanor Rigby" by miking
   the instruments extremely closely — Emerick has related that the string
   players would instinctively back away from the microphones at the start
   of each take, and he would go back into the studio and move the
   microphones closer again.

   The AKG C28 is visible in the Let It Be film. Available studio
   documentation and interviews with their former recording engineers
   indicate that this microphone was not used for recording in the studio.

Discography

Studio albums

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

                             1. Please Please Me
                              ( March 22, 1963)

                             2. With the Beatles
                            ( November 22, 1963)

                            3. A Hard Day's Night
                              ( July 10, 1964)

                             4. Beatles for Sale
                             ( December 4, 1964)

                                  5. Help!
                              ( August 6, 1965)

                               6. Rubber Soul
                             ( December 3, 1965)

                                 7. Revolver
                              ( August 5, 1966)

                  8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
                               ( June 1, 1967)

                      9. The Beatles (The White Album)
                            ( November 22, 1968)

                            10. Yellow Submarine
                             ( January 17, 1969)

                               11. Abbey Road
                            ( September 26, 1969)

                                12. Let It Be
                               ( May 8, 1970)

Official CD catalogue

   In 1987, EMI released The Beatles' original albums on CD. To allow the
   catalogue to be truly complete, EMI released an American-compiled album
   on CD in 1987 and two compilation CDs in 1988:

                            Magical Mystery Tour
                              ( 8 August 1987)

                          Past Masters, Volume One
                              ( March 7, 1988)

                          Past Masters, Volume Two
                              ( March 7, 1988)

   According to EMI and the Guinness Book of Records, The Beatles have
   sold in excess of 1,010,000,000 units (including cassettes, records,
   CDs, bootlegs). The only other artist to come close is Elvis Presley,
   with a similar number.

Song catalogue

   In 1963 John Lennon and Paul McCartney agreed to assign their song
   publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by music
   publisher Dick James in conjunction with Brian Epstein. The company was
   administered by James' own company Dick James Music. Northern Songs
   went public in 1965 with Lennon and McCartney each holding 15% of the
   company's shares while Dick James and the company's chairman, Charles
   Silver, held a controlling 37.5%. In 1969, following a failed attempt
   by Lennon and McCartney to buy the company, James and Silver sold
   Northern Songs to British TV company Associated TeleVision (ATV), in
   which Lennon and McCartney received stock.

   In 1985, after a short duration in which the parent company was owned
   by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court, ATV Music was
   sold to Michael Jackson for a reported $47 million (trumping a joint
   bid by McCartney and Yoko Ono), including the publishing rights to over
   200 songs composed by Lennon and McCartney. (McCartney, who had two hit
   duets with Jackson, " The Girl Is Mine" and " Say Say Say", later told
   Rolling Stone that while he and Jackson were working together on the
   video for "Say, Say, Say", he told Jackson that there was money to be
   made in owning song publishing, referring to his ownership of the Buddy
   Holly song catalog, and Jackson reportedly told McCartney, "One day I'm
   going to buy your songs." The purchase later caused a rift between
   McCartney and Jackson.) A decade later Jackson and Sony merged their
   music publishing businesses. Since 1995, Jackson and Sony/ATV Music
   Publishing have jointly owned most of the Lennon-McCartney songs
   recorded by The Beatles. Sony later reported that Jackson had used his
   share of their co-owned Beatles' catalogue as collateral for a loan
   from the music company. Meanwhile, Lennon's estate and McCartney still
   receive their respective songwriter shares of the royalties. (Despite
   his ownership of most of the Lennon-McCartney publishing, Jackson has
   only recorded one Lennon-McCartney composition himself, " Come
   Together" which was featured in his film Moonwalker.)

   Although the Jackson-Sony catalogue includes most of The Beatles'
   greatest hits, four of their earliest songs had been published by one
   of EMI's publishing companies prior to Lennon & McCartney signing with
   Dick James — and McCartney later succeeded in personally acquiring the
   publishing rights to " Love Me Do", " Please Please Me", " P.S. I Love
   You" and " Ask Me Why" from EMI.

   Harrison and Starr did not renew their songwriting contracts with
   Northern Songs in 1968, signing with Apple Publishing instead. Harrison
   later created Harrisongs, his own company which still owns the rights
   to his post-1967 songs such as " While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "
   Something". Starr also created his own company, called Startling Music.
   It holds the rights to his two post-1967 songs recorded by The Beatles,
   " Don't Pass Me By" and " Octopus's Garden".

Number one singles

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

On film

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

A Hard Day's Night

   The Beatles had a successful film career, beginning with A Hard Day's
   Night (1964), a loosely scripted comic farce, sometimes compared to the
   Marx Brothers in style. It focused on Beatlemania and their hectic
   touring lifestyle, the movie was directed in a quasi-documentary style
   in black-and-white by the up-and-coming Richard Lester, who was known
   for having directed a television version of the successful BBC radio
   series The Goon Show as well as the off-beat short film The Running,
   Jumping and Standing Still Film, with Spike Milligan.

Help!

   In 1965 came Help!; an Eastmancolour extravaganza, which was also
   directed by Lester and also featured black eyeliner, and was shot in
   exotic locations (such as Salisbury Plain, with Stonehenge visible in
   the background; the Bahamas; and Salzburg and the Tyrol region of the
   Austrian Alps) in the style of a James Bond spoof along with even more
   Marx Brothers-style zaniness: For example, the film is dedicated "to
   Elias Howe, who, in 1846, invented the sewing machine."

   In 1966 Lennon took time off to play a supporting character in the film
   called How I Won the War, again directed by Lester. It was a satire of
   World War II films, and its dry, ironic British humour was not well
   received by American audiences.

Magical Mystery Tour

   The Magical Mystery Tour film was essentially McCartney's idea, which
   was thought up as he returned from a trip to the U.S. in the late
   spring of 1967, and was loosely inspired by press coverage McCartney
   had read about Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters' LSD-fuelled American bus
   odyssey. McCartney felt inspired to take this idea and blend it with
   the peculiarly English working class tradition of charabanc mystery
   tours, in which children took chaperoned bus rides through the English
   countryside, destination unknown. The film was critically dismissed
   when it was aired on the BBC's premier television network, BBC-1, on
   Boxing Day — a day primarily for traditional "cosy, family
   entertainment". The film appeared radically avant-garde by those
   standards, and instead of showcasing the lovable black eyeliner they
   had donned up until then, it portrayed them as sensitive superheroes
   replete with dyed black hair, which was at odds with the British
   establishment of that era. Compounding this culture clash was the fact
   that BBC-1, at that time, only transmitted programmes in
   black-and-white, while Magical Mystery Tour was in colour. The film was
   repeated a few days later on the BBC's second channel (BBC-2) in
   colour, receiving somewhat more appreciation than its initial
   reception.

Yellow Submarine

   The animated Yellow Submarine followed in 1968, but had little direct
   input from The Beatles, save for a live-action epilogue and the
   contribution of four new songs (including " Only a Northern Song", an
   unreleased track from the Sgt. Pepper sessions). It was acclaimed for
   its boldly innovative graphic style and especially stinging pangs of
   heartbreak, along with the soundtrack. The Beatles are said to have
   been pleased with the result and attended its highly publicised London
   premiere, every one of The Beatles thought their own voices (narrated
   by actors) were not quite right, whilst saying that the other three
   were perfect.

   In 1969, Ringo Starr took second billing to Peter Sellers in the
   satirical comedy The Magic Christian; in a part which had been written
   especially for him. Starr later embarked on an irregular career in
   comedy films through the early 1980s, and his interest in the subject
   led him to be the most active of the group in the film division of
   Apple Corps, although it was Harrison who would achieve the most
   success as a film producer.

Let It Be

   Let It Be was an ill-fated documentary of the band that was shot over a
   four-week period in January 1969. The documentary — which was
   originally intended to be simply a chronicle of the evolution of an
   album and the band's possible return to live performances — captured
   the prevailing tensions between the band members, and in this respect
   it unwittingly became a document of the beginning of their break-up.

   The band initially rejected both the film and the album - instead
   recording and issuing the Abbey Road album. But with so much money
   having been spent on the project, it was decided to finish, and
   release, the film and album (the latter with considerable
   post-production by Phil Spector) in the spring of 1970. When the film
   finally appeared, it was after the break-up had been announced.

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

Anthology

   Approximately conciding with the release of the " Free as a Bird"
   single and Anthology 1 album (the first of three double-CD albums), The
   Beatles Anthology series of documentaries was broadcast on television
   in 1995. The series, which was made over five years of planning and
   production (1,760 minutes), collected together numerous film clips and
   interviews to present a complete history of the band from The Beatles'
   own personal perspectives. The series was later released on VHS,
   laserdisc and as a boxed set of five DVDs.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
