The Beatles Biography

The Beatles were an English music group from Liverpool who continue to be held in high esteem for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, their groundbreaking role in the history of popular music, and their contributions to popular culture. Although the band's musical style was rooted in the sounds of 1950's Rock & Roll, The Beatles explored many different musical styles, such as Ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, Classical, Indian, Hard Rock, experimental, Psychedelic, and abstract art pieces. 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.

The Beatles were one of the best-selling popular musical acts 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 records worldwide. The RIAA has certified The Beatles as the top selling artist of all time based on U.S. sales.

Their early material fused elements of American rock 'n' roll and R&B into a new and influential strain of popular rock 'n roll. With Lennon and McCartney penning most of the band's songs, the band established a prototype for the "self-contained" rock group, which split with the long-established practice of producers, composers and arrangers writing the songs for popular music acts. The Beatles were a major force behind the so-called "British Invasion" of U.K.-based rock 'n' roll bands in the United States in the mid-1960s, inspiring what the media was to term "Beatlemania" (see below). They helped to pioneer more advanced, multi-layered arrangements in both rock and pop, and were instrumental in the development of some of the dominant musical styles of the 1960s, notably folk rock, hard rock and psychedelia.

The Beatles' impact extended well beyond their music. Their clothes, hairstyles, statements, and even their choice of instruments made them trend-setters throughout the 1960s (see The Beatles' influence on popular culture), 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.

In March of 1957, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen (fleetingly known as The Blackjacks). On 6 July of that year, Lennon met Paul McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Fete. In February of 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which was then playing under a variety of names. A few primitive recordings of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison from that era have survived. During this period, members continually joined and left the lineup; Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison emerged as the only constant members.

The Quarrymen went through a progression of names -- Johnny and The Moondogs, Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles, The Beat Brothers -- and somehow eventually decided on "The Beatles." There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling; it is usually credited to John Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insects "beetles" (as a nod/compliment to Buddy Holly's band The Crickets) and the word "beat". He also later said that it was a joke, meaning a pun on "Beat-less". In Cynthia Lennon's book "John" she suggests that John came up with the name Beatles at a "...brainstorming session over a beer soaked table in Renshaw Hall bar...". In addition to being a fan of the Crickets, Lennon is paraphrased as having said: "if you turn it round it was "les beat," which sounded French and cool".[3] Lennon, who became famous for giving multiple versions of the same story, also once claimed in Mersey Beat magazine, with tongue in cheek, that a man appeared to him on a "flaming pie" and instructed him to "call the band, The Beatles -- with an 'a'".

In May of 1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle,[4] who was signed to the Larry Parnes agency. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to that short tour as a great experience for the band. For this tour the chronically drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. The band’s van (driven by Gentle) had a head-on crash with another vehicle on their way back from Scotand and Moore lost some teeth and had stitches after being hit in the mouth by a guitar. Nobody else was seriously injured. He left the band shortly after, feeling the age gap was too great and went back to work in a bottling factory as a fork-lift truck driver, on the advice of his girlfriend.

Norman Chapman was their next drummer, but only for a few weeks, as he was called up for National Service. This was a real problem as their unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany. (Paul McCartney has often said that if any of The Beatles had been individually called-up for National Service - had it been extended for just a few more weeks - the band would never have come into existence, because of the different ages of the key members at this crucial period.

In August of 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's drummer, after watching Best playing with The Blackjacks [8] in the Casbah Club; this was a cellar club, operated by Best's mother Mona, in Hayman's Green, Liverpool, where The Beatles had played and often used to visit.

While in Hamburg, The Beatles were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961. On 23 October Polydor released the recording "My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which made it into the German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers".

Upon their return from Hamburg, the group was enthusiastically promoted by Sam Leach, who presented them for the next year and a half on various stages in Liverpool forty-nine times. Brian Epstein, manager of the record department at NEMS, his family's furniture store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and led The Beatles' quest for a British recording contract. In one now-famous exchange, an executive at Decca Records turned Epstein down flat and informed him that guitar groups were on the way out.

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, "I don't like your tie". The remark typified the slightly surreal blend of wry humour and irreverence toward authority that eventually became the band's in-joke with a global audience. That day, however, their audience was a single person: a detail-oriented, slightly stuffy-looking Parlophone executive who had never before worked with a rock 'n' roll band. 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 then 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 female fans, but the three founding members had become increasingly unhappy with his drumming and his personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. The Beatles let Best go on 16 August 1962, leaving it to Brian Epstein to tell him. 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, having gone so far as to privately cut a record with him. 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, 1962.

Their recording contract was probably one of the worst at the time, as they were paid one penny for every single sold, which was split among the four Beatles. This amounted to less than one farthing per Beatle. They were paid half of one penny (split between the whole band) for sales outside of the UK. Even George Martin said later that it was "pretty awful". Their publishing contract with Dick James Music (DJM) was not much better; they only got 50% of the money received, while James took the other 50%. Epstein also took a percentage of Lennon and McCartney´s share.

The Beatles' first recording session, in June 1962, was unsatisfactory to Martin, but a second in September 1962 produced a UK hit, "Love Me Do", which charted. ("Love Me Do" reached the top of the U.S. singles chart over 18 months later in May 1964.) This was swiftly followed by the recording of their second single "Please Please Me". Three months later they recorded their first album (also titled Please Please Me), a mix of original songs by Lennon and McCartney with some covers of their favourite songs. 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.

Although the band experienced huge popularity in the record charts in Britain 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 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.[citation needed]

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.

THE BEATLES PICTURES

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THE BEATLES BIOGRAPHY