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The Beatles revolutionized the world with their music. Throughout the sixties and early seventies, the entire world was mesmerized by the magic of the Beatles. The line up of the band featured John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, all natives of Liverpool. Even now, long after their disbanding, that magic not only continues uninterrupted, but seems to increase with every passing year.
Some of the popular albums by The Beatles include Meet The Beatles, Help!, A Hard Day's Night, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road. The Beatles also featured in a number of films, particularly A Hard Day's Night, Help and the experimental Magical Mystery Tour.
History of the Beatles: The Early Years
Beatles, the band, has its inception in the industrial town of Liverpool in the early sixties. The journey of The Beatles began in March 1957 when John Lennon began a band by the name The Black Jacks along with his friend Pete Shotton. In the same year John Lennon met Paul McCartney and the following year saw the formation of The Quarry Men featuring George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCatney. There were some rapid changes in line up that featured Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on the drums at various points of time. The name of the band also changed time and again before settling on 'The Beatles' in 1960. Some of the early engagements for the band were in the clubs of Hamburg and the native Liverpool.
A momentous event in the history of The Beatles was the appointment of Brian Epstein as the manager of the band, who had played a major role in their phenomenal success. In the mean time Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as the drummer. In the October of 1962, the first single of The Beatles 'Love Me Do' was released. In the subsequent years The Beatles soared up great heights of success. Recording deals were hard to come by, and after a number of failed initial attempt, the single “Love Me Do” was finally finally produced by George Martin for EMI records. The moderate success was followed by the immensely popular “Please Please Me” in the November of 1962, and by 1964, The Beatles was a nation-wide rage, giving rise to the phenomenon of “Beatlemania”, particularly among the teenage female fans. Their shows started to draw in heavy crowds, particularly comprising members from the young generation of Britain.
It was not long before the craze moved over across the Atlantic to reach the United States, and when the Beatles made their first US visit and appeared for the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, they were already the most famous musical group in the world. What followed were highly successful years of recording and Live performances, that saw an unprecedented response from the fans. However, the growing popularity and the sheer hysteria they produced wherever they went, made Live performances increasingly dangerous for security reasons. The band itself was moving in new directions of spirituality and musical influences. By 1966, the Beatles simply stopped Live performances and turned themselves into an out and out studio band. The Studio Years saw a new direction in the Beatles music, mixing influences of psychedelic rock, Dylan and Indian Classical music to create a form absolutely their own. Albums like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the White Album remain as veritable classics of this period. It was also the time the band launched their own recording company AppleCorps at Seville Road in London.
Beatles: The Later Years
During the recording of the White Album, the rifts between the band members became apparent over a number of issues. By this time, the band members were cultural icons on their own rights, and there were problems and disagreements that could not be sorted out. The end of the journey of The Beatles was marked by the disbanding of the band in the early seventies following irreconcilable differences. But they signed off in style with their final album 'Abbey Road'. It was an end of an era and this album was a fitting swan song to match a decade long journey of excellence, class and unsurpassed popularity. Let it Be was released after the band's dissolution, ending a decade long legacy of great music and creativity.
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