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{{Short description|English rock band (1960–1970)}}
{{About|the band|their eponymous album|The Beatles (album){{!}}''The Beatles'' (album)|other uses|Beatles (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|Beatle|Fab Four|the insect|Beetle|other uses|Fab Four (disambiguation)}}
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{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox musical artist
{{Infobox musical artist
|Name = [[Image:Beatleslogo.png|center|100px]]
| name = The Beatles
|Img = Beatles_retouched.jpg
| image = The Fabs.JPG
|Img_capt = L-R: [[John Lennon]], [[Paul McCartney]], [[George Harrison]], and [[Ringo Starr]] in 1964.
| caption = The Beatles in 1964; clockwise from top left: [[John Lennon]], [[Paul McCartney]], [[Ringo Starr]] and [[George Harrison]]
| alt = A square quartered into four head shots of young men with moptop haircuts. All four wear white shirts and dark coats.
|Img_size =
|Background = group_or_band
| origin = [[Liverpool]], England
| genre = {{hlist|[[Rock music|Rock]]|[[Pop music|pop]]|[[beat music|beat]]|[[Psychedelic music|psychedelia]]}} <!--Based on talk page discussions and consensus. Please do not add other genres or sub-genres without first reaching consensus with other editors on the talk page. Thank you.-->
|Alias =
| discography = {{hlist|[[The Beatles albums discography|Albums]]|[[The Beatles singles discography|singles]]|[[List of songs recorded by the Beatles|songs]]}}
|Origin = {{flagicon|England}} [[Liverpool]], [[England]]
| years_active = 1960–1970<!--Please discuss on talk page before changing.-->
|Genre = [[Rock and roll]]<br>[[Pop music|Pop]]<br>[[Psychedelic rock]]
| label = {{hlist|[[Polydor Records|Polydor]]|[[Parlophone]]|[[Tollie Records|Tollie]]|[[Vee-Jay Records|Vee-Jay]]|[[Capitol Records|Capitol]]|[[Swan Records|Swan]]|[[United Artists Records|United Artists]]|[[Atco Records|Atco]]|[[Apple Records|Apple]]}}
|Years_active = 1960–1970, 1994–1996
| spinoff_of = [[The Quarrymen]]
|Label = [[Parlophone]], [[Capitol Records|Capitol]], [[Apple Records|Apple]], [[Odeon Records|Odeon]], [[Vee-Jay Records|Vee-Jay]], [[United Artists Records|United Artists]], [[Atco Records|Atco]], [[Swan Records|Swan]], [[Tollie Records|Tollie]], [[Polydor Records|Polydor]]
| website = {{URL|thebeatles.com}}
|Associated_acts =
| past_members = * [[John Lennon]]
|URL = [http://www.beatles.com/ Beatles.com]
* [[Paul McCartney]]
|Current_members =
* [[George Harrison]]
|Past_members = [[John Lennon]]<br>[[Paul McCartney]]<br>[[George Harrison]]<br>[[Stuart Sutcliffe]]<br>[[Pete Best]]<br>[[Ringo Starr]]
* [[Ringo Starr]]
* (see [[#Personnel|Personnel section]] for others)
}}
}}
<!-- Please do not change or remove any photos without first discussing it on the talk page -->


'''The Beatles''' were<!-- Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in each of American, Canadian and British English. Please do not change "were" to "was". REPLY: No, they don't, but I'm not going to fight you on it. In English, "The Beatles" IS the name of a group.--> an English [[Rock music|rock]] band formed in [[Liverpool]] in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised [[John Lennon]], [[Paul McCartney]], [[George Harrison]] and [[Ringo Starr]]. They are widely regarded as the [[Cultural impact of the Beatles|most influential band of all time]]{{sfn|Hasted|2017|p=425}} and were integral to the development of [[Counterculture of the 1960s|1960s counterculture]] and the recognition of [[popular music]] as an art form.{{sfn|Frontani|2007|p=125}} Rooted in [[skiffle]], [[beat music|beat]] and 1950s [[rock and roll|rock 'n' roll]], their sound incorporated elements of [[classical music]] and [[traditional pop]] in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from [[Folk music|folk]] and [[Music of India|Indian music]] to [[Psychedelic music|psychedelia]] and [[hard rock]]. As [[Recording practices of the Beatles|pioneers in recording]], songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the [[Baby boomers|era's youth]] and sociocultural movements.{{sfn|Frontani|2007|p=157}}
'''The Beatles''' were an [[Music of England|English]] [[rock and roll]] band from [[Liverpool]]. <!--DO NOT change "were" to "was", it's grammatically incorrect-->They were the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful [[popular music]] band in [[history of music|history]].<ref>[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:995j8qmtbtn4 AMG biography]</ref><ref>[http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thebeatles/biography Rolling Stone biography]</ref> 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 [[Timeline of trends in music (1950-1959)|1950s]] [[Rock and roll#Early North American rock and roll (1953-1963)|rock and roll]], the group explored a great variety of [[music genre|genres]], ranging from [[Tin Pan Alley]] to [[psychedelic rock]].


Led by primary songwriters [[Lennon–McCartney|Lennon and McCartney]], the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, [[the Quarrymen]], and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and [[Hamburg]], Germany, over three&nbsp;years from 1960, initially with [[Stuart Sutcliffe]] playing [[Bass guitar|bass]]. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including [[Pete Best]], before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager [[Brian Epstein]] moulded them into a professional act, and producer [[George Martin]] guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with [[EMI]] and achieved their first hit, "[[Love Me Do]]", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "[[Beatlemania]]", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or other members of the band's entourage were sometimes informally referred to as a "[[fifth Beatle]]".
The Beatles were the best-selling popular musical act of the [[20th century]]. In the [[United Kingdom]] alone, they released more than 40 different [[The Beatles discography#Singles|singles]], [[The Beatles discography|albums]], and [[The Beatles discography#Extended plays (EPs)|EPs]] that reached [[UK Singles Chart|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.<ref>{{cite web | title=Biggest All-Time Sales For a Band | work=Guinness World Records | url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=50910 | accessdate=January 25 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> The [[Recording Industry Association of America|RIAA]] has certified The Beatles as the top selling artists of all time in [[United States|America]] based on U.S. sales of singles and albums.<ref>[http://www.riaa.com/gp/bestsellers/topartists.asp Best Sellers: Gold & Platinum Top Artists]. Updated [[July 31]], [[2006]]. Retrieved on [[September 16]], [[2006]].</ref>


By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the [[British Invasion]] of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced albums of greater sophistication, including ''[[Rubber Soul]]'' (1965), ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'' (1966) and ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' (1967). They enjoyed further commercial success with ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]'' (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and ''[[Abbey Road]]'' (1969). The success of these records heralded the [[album era]], as albums became the dominant form of record use over [[single (music)|singles]]. These records also increased public interest in [[psychedelic drug]]s and Eastern spirituality, and furthered advancements in [[electronic music]], [[album art]] and [[music video]]s. In 1968, they founded [[Apple Corps]], a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After [[Break-up of the Beatles|the group's break-up]] in 1970, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists, and some [[Collaborations between ex-Beatles|partial reunions]] occurred. Lennon [[Murder of John Lennon|was murdered]] in 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active.
The Beatles were a major force behind the "[[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 [[popular music|pop music]]. [[The Beatles' influence on popular culture|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.


The Beatles are the [[List of best-selling music artists|best-selling music act of all time]], with estimated sales of 600&nbsp;million units worldwide.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/music-news/yeah-yeah-yeah-rare-footage-of-the-beatles-dublin-performance-34420385.html |title=Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! Rare footage of the Beatles's Dublin performance |last=Siggins |first=Gerard |date=7 February 2016 |work=[[Irish Independent]]|access-date=1 December 2017|archive-date=9 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109095328/https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/music-news/yeah-yeah-yeah-rare-footage-of-the-beatles-dublin-performance-34420385.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19800654 |title=The Beatles at 50: From Fab Four to fabulously wealthy |last=Hotten |first=Russell |date=4 October 2012 |work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=28 January 2013|archive-date=12 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312172123/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19800654|url-status=live}}</ref> They are the most successful act in the history of the US [[Billboard charts|''Billboard'' charts]],<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-of-all-time-artists/ |title=Greatest of All Time Artists |magazine=Billboard|access-date=21 March 2023|archive-date=14 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114170915/https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-of-all-time-artists/|url-status=live}}</ref> holding the record for most number-one albums on the [[UK Albums Chart]] (15), [[List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones#|most number-one hits]] on the US [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart (20) and most singles sold in the UK (21.9&nbsp;million). The band received [[List of awards and nominations received by the Beatles|many accolades]], including seven [[Grammy Awards]], four [[Brit Awards]], an [[Academy Award]] (for [[Academy Award for Best Original Score#1970s|Best Original Song Score]] for the 1970 documentary film ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]'') and fifteen [[Ivor Novello Awards]]. They were inducted into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped ''[[Rolling Stone]]''{{'}}s lists of [[Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time|the greatest artists in history]]. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine named them among the [[Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century|20th century's 100 most important people]].
==History==
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[image:Beatles John Lennon 1964.jpg|left|thumb|150px|[[John Lennon]], vocals and [[rhythm guitar]]]]
===Formation and early years===
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. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (then playing under a variety of names) perform at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool <ref>Ray O'Brien, ''There are Places I'll Remember: Volume 1'', 2001</ref> and he was soon a regular player. Paul had become acquainted with George (a year younger) at school, the [[Liverpool Institute]], and on the morning school bus-ride; they had also grown up in a common neighbourhood (Speke). 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.


== History ==
The Quarrymen went through a progression of names — Johnny and The Moondogs, Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles (derived from Larry Williams's suggestion "Long John and the Silver Beetles"), The Beat Brothers — and 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 her book ''John'', [[Cynthia Lennon]] suggests that John came up with the name Beatles at a "...brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar...".<ref>Lennon, Cynthia (2005). ''John''. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.</ref> 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."<ref>Lennon, Cynthia (2005). ''John''. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.<!-- Page number reference preferred if possible --> </ref> Lennon, who became famous for giving multiple versions of the same story, also joked in a [[tongue-in-cheek]] 1961 article in ''[[Mersey Beat]]'' magazine that "It came in a vision — a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'."<ref>[[Hunter Davies|Davies, Hunter]]. ''The Beatles'' (1981 edition)</ref>. (This story was later the inspiration for the title of one of McCartney's solo albums, ''[[Flaming Pie]]''.)
{{The Beatles history}}


=== 1956–1963: Formation ===
In May of 1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle<ref>Coleman, Ray (1984). ''Lennon: The Definitive Biography''. [[Pan Books]]. 212.</ref>, 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} For this tour the chronically drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others.<ref>Lewisohn, Mark (1992). ''The Complete Beatles Chronicle''. Chancellor Press. ISBN 1-85152-975-6.</ref> The band's van (driven by Gentle) had a head-on crash with another vehicle on their way back from Scotland; Moore lost some teeth and had stitches after being hit in the mouth by a guitar.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} Nobody else was seriously injured. (Shortly afterwards, feeling the age gap was too great — and following his girlfriend's advice — Moore left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as a fork-lift truck driver.)<ref name="Coleman213">Coleman, Ray (1984). ''Lennon: The Definitive Biography''. [[Pan Books]]. 213.</ref>
<!-- Please be aware that various former names of the Beatles redirect to {{anchor|Formation}}. -->


==== The Quarrymen and name changes ====
===Hamburg===
{{Main|The Quarrymen}}
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
In November 1956, sixteen-year-old [[John Lennon]] formed a [[skiffle]] group with several friends from [[Calderstones School|Quarry Bank High School]] in [[Liverpool]]. They were called ''[[the Quarrymen]]'', a reference to their school song "Quarry men old before our birth".{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|pp=104}} Fifteen-year-old [[Paul McCartney]] met Lennon on 6 July 1957 and joined as a [[rhythm guitar]]ist shortly after.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=93–99}} In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend [[George Harrison]], then aged fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "[[Raunchy (instrumental)|Raunchy]]" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus,<ref>{{harvnb|Miles|1997|p=47}}; {{harvnb|Spitz|2005|p=127}}.</ref> and they enlisted him as [[lead guitar]]ist.{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=47}}{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=13}}
[[image:Beatles James Paul McCartney 1964.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[Paul McCartney]], vocals and [[bass guitar]]]]
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]].<ref name="LewisohnChronicles">{{cite book|last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |authorlink=Mark Lewisohn|title=The Complete Beatles Chronicle| year=1996 |publisher=Chancellor Press|pages=368 |id=1851529756}}</ref> 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.<ref name="PaulManyYears">{{cite book |last=McCartney |first=Paul |authorlink=Paul McCartney |title=Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now |year=1997 | month=October |publisher=Secker & Warburg |pages=576 |id=0436280221}}.</ref>


By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group and he began his studies at the [[Liverpool College of Art]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=103}} The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=17}} were playing [[rock and roll]] whenever they could find a drummer.{{sfn|Harry|2000b|pp=742–743}} They also performed as ''the Rainbows''. Paul McCartney later told ''New Musical Express'' that they called themselves that "because we all had different coloured shirts and we couldn't afford any others!".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Alan |title=The Beatles, Paul McCartney: Close-Up on Paul McCartney, a Beatle |work=New Musical Express |publisher=NME Networks |date=9 August 1963 |location=London, England}}</ref>
In August of 1960, McCartney invited [[Pete Best]] to become the group's drummer after watching Best playing with The Blackjacks <ref>{{cite web|url=http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/namec.htm|title=From Blackjacks to Beatles: How the Fab Four Evolved|accessdate=2006-06-21}}</ref> 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<ref>http://maxwelledison.blogspot.com/2005_10_16_maxwelledison_archive.html</ref>.


Lennon's art school friend [[Stuart Sutcliffe]], who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to ''Beatals'', as a tribute to [[Buddy Holly]] and [[the Crickets]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=18}}{{sfn|Gilliland| 1969|loc=show 27, track 4}} They used this name until May, when they became ''the Silver Beetles'', before undertaking a brief [[The Beat Ballad Show Tour|tour of Scotland]] as the backing group for pop singer and fellow [[Liverpudlian]] [[Johnny Gentle]]. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as ''the Silver Beatles'' and by the middle of August simply ''the Beatles''.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=18–22}}
They started in Hamburg by playing in the Indra and [[Kaiserkeller]] bars. They were told to play six or seven hours a night, seven nights a week. They went back a second time and played the Top Ten club for three months (April until June, 1961.) While they were playing at the Top Ten they 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]].<ref name="LewisohnChronicles">null</ref> Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961. On [[31 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".{{Fact|date=December 2006}} Their third stay in Hamburg was [[13 April]]–[[31 May]] [[1962]], when they opened The Star Club.<ref name="LewisohnChronicles">null</ref>


==== Early residencies and UK popularity ====
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<ref>http://www.americanenglishbeatles.com/message_from_sam_leach.htm</ref>. [[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 are on the way out, Mr. Epstein."<ref>The Beatles. ''The Beatles Anthology''. Chronicle Books, LLC, 2000.</ref>
[[Allan Williams]], the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them [[The Beatles in Hamburg|in Hamburg]]. They auditioned and hired drummer [[Pete Best]] in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner [[Bruno Koschmider]] for what would be a {{frac|3|1|2}}-month residency.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=21–25}} Beatles historian [[Mark Lewisohn]] writes: "They pulled into Hamburg at dusk on 17 August, the time when the [[Reeperbahn|red-light area]] comes to life&nbsp;... flashing neon lights screamed out the various entertainment on offer, while scantily clad women sat unabashed in shop windows waiting for business opportunities."{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=22}}


Koschmider had converted a couple of strip clubs in the district into music venues and initially placed the Beatles at the [[The Beatles in Hamburg|Indra Club]]. After closing Indra due to noise complaints, he moved them to the [[Kaiserkeller]] in October.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=23}} When he learned they had been performing at the rival [[Top Ten Club]] in breach of their contract, he gave them one month's termination notice,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=24, 33}} and reported the underage Harrison, who had obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=88}} The authorities arranged for Harrison's deportation in late November.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=24}} 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=24–25}} Lennon returned to Liverpool in early December, while Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg until late February with his German fiancée [[Astrid Kirchherr]],{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=25}} who took the first semi-professional photos of the Beatles.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=222–224}}
===Record contract===
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[image:Beatles George Harrison 1964.jpg|left|thumb|150px|[[George Harrison]], [[lead guitar]] and vocals]]
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]].<ref>[[Hunter Davies|Davies, Hunter]]. ''The Beatles'' (1981 edition). pp. 178</ref> Martin had not been particularly impressed by the band's demo recordings, but he instantly liked them as people when he met them.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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."<ref>[[Hunter Davies|Davies, Hunter]]. ''The Beatles'' (1981 edition). pp. 179</ref> 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} Fortunately for the band, Martin, whose background was in comedy and novelty records, appreciated the joke.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} He offered the band a contract.<ref name="Coleman213">Coleman, Ray (1984). ''Lennon: The Definitive Biography''. [[Pan Books]]. 213.</ref>


During the next two&nbsp;years, the Beatles were resident for periods in Hamburg, where they used [[Phenmetrazine|Preludin]] both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances.{{sfn|Miles|1997|pp=66–67}} In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "[[exi (subculture)|exi]]" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=32}}{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=76}} Later on, Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany. McCartney took over bass.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=89, 94}} Producer [[Bert Kaempfert]] contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as [[Tony Sheridan]]'s [[backup band|backing band]] on a series of recordings for [[Polydor Records]].{{sfn|Gilliland|1969|loc=show 27, track 4}}{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=249–251}} As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one&nbsp;year.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=450}} 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.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=100}}
Martin did have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised for not being able to keep time.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} He privately suggested to Brian Epstein that the band use another drummer in the studio.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} Epstein sacked Best on 16 August 1962.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} The Beatles had met and performed with Starr previously in Hamburg.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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]].{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


After the Beatles completed their second Hamburg residency, they enjoyed increasing popularity in Liverpool with the growing [[beat music|Merseybeat]] movement. However, they were growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=33}} 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.{{sfn|Miles|1997|pp=84–87}} 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&nbsp;... [a] star quality."{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=34–35}}
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} This amounted to one [[British Farthing coin|farthing]] per group member.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.<ref>[http://www.beatles-discography.com/index.html?http://www.beatles-discography.com/1962.html "Beatles History — 1962"] at ''Beatles Discography''.</ref> 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%.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


==== First EMI recordings ====
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} ("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 (song)|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 programme called ''People and Places'' transmitted live from [[Manchester]] by [[Granada Television]] on [[17 October]] [[1962]].{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they appointed him as their manager in January 1962.{{sfn|Miles|1997|pp=84–88}} Throughout early and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually negotiated a one-month early release in exchange for one last recording session in Hamburg.{{sfn|Winn|2008|p=10}} On their return to Germany in April, a distraught Kirchherr met them at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from a [[intracerebral hemorrhage|brain haemorrhage]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=56}} Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording contract. 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=612, 629}} After a New Year's Day audition, [[The Beatles' Decca audition|Decca Records rejected the band]], saying, "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein".{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=67}} However, three months later, producer [[George Martin]] signed the Beatles to [[EMI]]'s [[Parlophone]] label.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=56}}


[[File:Abbey Rd Studios.jpg|thumb|right|Main entrance at [[EMI Studios]] (now Abbey Road Studios, pictured 2007) |alt=A flight of stone steps leads from an asphalt car park up to the main entrance of a white two-story building. The ground floor has two sash windows, the first floor has three shorter sash windows. Two more windows are visible at basement level. The decorative stonework around the doors and windows is painted grey.]]
===America===
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[image:Beatles Ringo Starr 1964.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[Ringo Starr]], [[drums]] and vocals]]
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#"Please Please Me"|Please Please Me]]" and "[[From Me to You]]"<ref>[http://www.jpgr.co.uk/r5015.html JPGR].</ref> in the United States, partly because no British act had ever yet had a sustained commercial impact on American audiences.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at [[Abbey Road Studios|EMI Recording Studios]] (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 6 June 1962.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=59}} He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested they use a [[session musician|session drummer]] in his place.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=318, 322}} Already contemplating Best's dismissal,{{sfn|Miles|1998|pp=49–50}} the Beatles replaced him in mid-August with [[Ringo Starr]], who left [[Rory Storm and the Hurricanes]] to join them.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=59}} A 4 September session at EMI yielded a recording of "[[Love Me Do]]" featuring Starr on drums, but a dissatisfied Martin hired drummer [[Andy White (drummer)|Andy White]] for the band's third session a week later, which produced recordings of "Love Me Do", "[[Please Please Me (song)|Please Please Me]]" and "[[P.S. I Love You (Beatles song)|P.S. I Love You]]".{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=59}}
[[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.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.dermon.com/Beatles/Veejay.htm | title = The Beatles on Vee Jay Records | accessmonthday = August 19 | accessyear = 2006}}</ref>


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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=59}} Released in early October, "Love Me Do" peaked at number seventeen on the ''[[Record Retailer]]'' chart.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=59–60}} Their television debut came later that month with a live performance on the regional news programme ''[[Granada Reports|People and Places]]''.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=81, 355}} After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster tempo,{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=90}} a studio session in late November yielded that recording,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=62, 84}} of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No.&nbsp;1".{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=875}}
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 Lies over the Ocean|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.){{Fact|date=December 2006}}


In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg residency.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=62, 86}} 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=191}} Lennon and McCartney had established [[Lennon–McCartney|a songwriting partnership]], and as the band's success grew, their dominant collaboration limited Harrison's opportunities as a [[lead vocalist]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=494}} Epstein, to maximise the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to adopt a professional approach to performing.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=128, 133–134}} Lennon recalled him saying, "Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places, you're going to have to change&nbsp;– stop eating on stage, stop swearing, stop smoking&nbsp;...".{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=67}}{{refn|group=nb|Lennon said of Epstein, "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."{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=67}}}}
In August 1963, the Philadelphia-based [[Swan Records|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 haircut]]s. The famous radio DJ, [[Murray the K|Murray the K (Kaufman)]] featured "She Loves You" on his 1010 WINS record revue in October, to an underwhelming response.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


===Beatlemania===
=== 1963–1966: Beatlemania and touring years ===
{{Main|Beatlemania}}
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[Image:Beatlessullivantogether.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'']]
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]]",<ref>[http://www.jpgr.co.uk/r5084.html JPGR].</ref> 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 [[26 December]] [[1963]].{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


==== ''Please Please Me'' and ''With the Beatles'' ====
Several New York radio stations &mdash; first [[WMCA]], then [[WINS]] and [[WABC (AM)|WABC]] &mdash; 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 [[16 January]], ''[[Cashbox]]'' Magazine had certified The Beatles record number one (in the edition published with the cover-date [[23 January]]).{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
[[File:The Beatles logo.svg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|alt=The logo of the English rock band the Beatles|The band's logo was designed by [[Ivor Arbiter]].{{sfn|Womack|2007|p=76}}]]


On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, ''[[Please Please Me]]''. It was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles. Martin considered recording the 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".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=147}} After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please Me" was released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album. It reached number one on every UK chart except ''Record Retailer'', where it peaked at number two.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=88, 351}}
This contributed to the hysterical fan reaction at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|JFK Airport]] on [[7 February]] [[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 9 February. During the week of [[4 April]], 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.[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.beatles/browse_frm/thread/604d0dcbde6a602/806301df4a23bd9d]


Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out ''Please Please Me'' in a day", [[AllMusic]] critic [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] wrote: "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins."<ref name="Please Please Me AllMusic">{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |title=''Please Please Me'' – The Beatles |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/please-please-me-mw0000649873 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530202703/http://www.allmusic.com/album/please-please-me-mw0000649873 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs ''à la'' [[The Everly Brothers|Everly Brothers]], ''à la'' Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that&nbsp;– to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant."{{sfn|Sheff|1981|p=129}}
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 &mdash; about one-third of the population of the city &mdash; 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]].{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


{{listen
In 1965 [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II]] bestowed upon them the [[Member of the Order of the British Empire|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 14 June, before The Beatles received theirs on 26 October [[1965]].<ref>[http://www.napierchronicles.co.uk/1965.htm Napier Chronicles].</ref>
|type=music
|filename=She Loves You (Beatles song - sample).ogg
|title="She Loves You"
|description=Sample of "[[She Loves You]]". The song's repeated use of "yeah" exclamations became a signature phrase for the group at the time.{{sfn|Davies|1968|p=200}}{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=35}}
}}
Released in March 1963, ''Please Please Me'' was the first of eleven consecutive Beatles albums released in the United Kingdom to reach number one.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=90, 351}} The band's third single, "[[From Me to You]]", came out in April and began an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number-one singles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six&nbsp;years.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=89, 350–351}} Issued in August, their 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=159}} It became their first single to sell a million copies and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=990}}{{refn|group=nb|"She Loves You" was surpassed in sales by "[[Mull of Kintyre (song)|Mull of Kintyre]]", by McCartney's post-Beatles band [[Paul McCartney and Wings|Wings]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=990}}}}


The 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=166–169}} 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=90, 98–105, 109–112}} As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. On 13 October, the Beatles starred on ''[[Tonight at the London Palladium|Sunday Night at the London Palladium]]'', the UK's top variety show.{{sfn|Pawlowski|1990|p=146}} Their performance was televised live and watched by 15&nbsp;million viewers. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "[[Beatlemania]]" to describe the riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans who greeted the band – and it stuck.{{sfn|Pawlowski|1990|p=146}}{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=444–445}} Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts [[Tommy Roe]] and [[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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=88}} A similar situation arose during their May–June [[Roy Orbison/The Beatles Tour|tour with Roy Orbison]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=90}}
On 15 August that year, The Beatles performed the first [[stadium rock|stadium concert]] in the history of rock, playing at [[Shea Stadium]] in New York to a crowd of 55,600.<ref>Badman, Keith (2000). ''The Beatles Off The Record''. London: Omnibus Press. 193. ISBN 0-7119-7985-5.</ref> 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


[[File:The Beatles and Lill-Babs 1963.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and John Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In in 1963|McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer [[Lill-Babs]] and Lennon on the set of the [[Sveriges Television|Swedish television]] show ''Drop-In'', 30 October 1963{{sfn|Miles|1998|p=86}}]]
===Backlash and controversy===
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Lennon500 250.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[John Lennon]], 1966]] -->
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{{Fact|date=December 2006}}. 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 ([[The Beatles Anthology|Anthology]]).


In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=1088}} 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 Television|BBC]], also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=92–93}} The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=127–133}} In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.{{sfn|Davies|1968|pp=184–185}} On 4 November, they played in front of [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|The Queen Mother]] and [[Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon|Princess Margaret]] during the [[List of Royal Variety Performances#1960s|Royal Variety Performance]] at the [[Prince of Wales Theatre]].{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=111}}
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."<ref>Cleave, Maureen (1966). [http://www.geocities.com/nastymcquickly/articles/standard.html "How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This"]. London ''[[Evening Standard]]'' [[March 4]], [[1966]]. Retrieved on [[September 16]], [[2006]].</ref> 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."{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


''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]]'',{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=90, 92, 100}} which EMI released on 22 November to record advance orders of 270,000 copies. The LP topped a half-million albums sold in one week.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=93}} Recorded between July and October, ''With the Beatles'' made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=187}} It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=1161}} Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original".<ref>{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |title=''With the Beatles'' – The Beatles |publisher=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/with-the-beatles-mw0000192941 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530202746/http://www.allmusic.com/album/with-the-beatles-mw0000192941 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>
===The studio years===
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[Image:beatleslastconcert.jpg|thumb|left|320px|The Beatles during their last concert in Candlestick Park.]]
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


In a reversal of then standard practice, 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=187–188}} The album caught the attention of music critic [[William Mann (critic)|William Mann]] of ''[[The Times]]'', who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=187}} The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=1162}} ''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)|''South Pacific'' soundtrack]].{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=978}} When writing the [[liner notes|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".{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=402}}
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
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==== First visit to the United States and the British Invasion ====
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
{{Main|British Invasion}}[[File:The Beatles arrive at JFK Airport.jpg|thumb|alt=A black-and-white image of four men standing in front of a crowd of people at the bottom of an aeroplane staircase|The Beatles arriving at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]], 7 February 1964]]
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]] led to the release of some, but not all, of the songs in 1963.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=350}} Vee-Jay finished preparation for the album ''[[Introducing... The Beatles]]'', comprising most of the songs of Parlophone's ''Please Please Me'', but a management shake-up led to the album not being released.{{refn|group=nb|Vee-Jay company president [[Ewart Abner]] resigned after it was disclosed he used company funds to cover gambling debts.{{sfn|Spizer|2004|p=36}}}} After it emerged that the label did not report royalties on their sales, the licence that Vee-Jay had signed with EMI was voided.{{sfn|Spizer|2004|p=40}} A new licence was granted to the [[Swan Records|Swan]] label for the single "She Loves You". The record received some airplay in the [[Tidewater region|Tidewater area]] of Virginia from Gene Loving of radio station [[WGH (AM)|WGH]] and was featured on the "Rate-a-Record" segment of ''[[American Bandstand]]'', but it failed to catch on nationally.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=225–226, 228, 1118–1122}}
[[File:Beatlemania fan - Press and Sun-Bulletin (1964).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|Newspaper clipping, 8 February 1964]]


Epstein brought a demo copy of "[[I Want to Hold Your Hand]]" to Capitol's [[Brown Meggs]], who signed the band and arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign. American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station [[WQOF|WWDC]], in Washington, DC, obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air.<ref>{{cite news |last=Vries |first=Lloyd |title=Beatles' 'Helping Hand' Shuns Fame |publisher=[[CBS News]] |date=16 January 2004 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beatles-helping-hand-shuns-fame/|access-date=28 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806140924/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/beatles-helping-hand-shuns-fame/|archive-date=6 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Taped copies of the song soon circulated among other radio stations throughout the US. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to bring forward the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by three weeks.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=206}} Issued on 26 December, 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=136, 350}} In its wake Vee-Jay released ''Introducing... The Beatles''{{sfn|Spizer|2004|p=96}} along with Capitol's debut album, ''[[Meet the Beatles!]]'', while Swan reactivated production of "She Loves You".{{sfn|Davies|1968|p=218}}
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 (film)|Magical Mystery Tour]]'''''.<ref>''[http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/beatles-magical.htm Magical Mystery Tour]''.</ref> 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 criticised as being too trivial for any real sympathy]. The [[Magical Mystery Tour (album)|film's soundtrack]], which features one of The Beatles' few instrumental tracks ("[[Flying (song)|Flying]]"), was released in the United Kingdom as a [[double EP]], and in the United States as a full LP.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


{{multiple image|image1=Beatles with Ed Sullivan.jpg|image2=The Beatles performing at The Ed Sullivan Show (cropped 2).jpg|direction=vertical|footer=The Beatles performing on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]],'' February 1964}}
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 (album)|The Beatles]]''''', popularly known as '''''The White Album''''' due to its stark white cover. These sessions saw deep divisions opening within the band.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
On 7 February 1964, the Beatles departed from Heathrow with an estimated 4,000 fans waving and screaming as the aircraft took off.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=457}} Upon landing at New York's [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|John F. Kennedy Airport]], an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=459}} They gave their first live US television performance two days later on ''[[The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show|The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', watched by approximately 73&nbsp;million viewers in over 23&nbsp;million households,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=137}} or 34 per cent of the American population. Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the [[Nielsen ratings|Nielsen]] rating service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television {{lang|en-US|program}}".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=3}} The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US,{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=473–474}} but a day later at their first US concert, Beatlemania erupted at the [[Washington Coliseum]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=1134–1135}} Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at [[Carnegie Hall]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=137}} The band flew to Florida, where they appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' a second time, again before 70&nbsp;million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=137, 146–147}}


The Beatles' first visit to the US took place when the nation was still mourning the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination of President John F. Kennedy]] the previous November.<ref name="Gimore (RS Beatles/Dylan/60s)">{{cite magazine |last1=Gilmore |first1=Mikal |title=Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Rock of the Sixties |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-the-beatles-and-the-rock-roll-of-the-60s-19900823 |magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=19 February 2018 |date=23 August 1990|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219151727/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-the-beatles-and-the-rock-roll-of-the-60s-19900823|archive-date=19 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Commentators often suggest that for many, particularly the young, the Beatles' performances reignited the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the wake of the assassination and helped pave the way for the revolutionary social changes to come later in the decade.<ref>{{cite web |work=Slate |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/11/kennedy_s_assassination_the_beatles_and_phil_spector_nov_22_1963_was_a_bad.html |title=Did JFK's Death Make Beatlemania Possible? |first=Jack |last=Hamilton |date=18 November 2013|access-date=23 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925143800/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/11/kennedy_s_assassination_the_beatles_and_phil_spector_nov_22_1963_was_a_bad.html|archive-date=25 September 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults,{{sfn|Gilliland| 1969|loc=show 27, track 4}} became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=345}}
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[image:jk beatles george.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[George Harrison]], 1968.]]
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


The group's popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and many other UK acts subsequently made their American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the [[British Invasion]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=9, 250, 285}} The Beatles' success in the US opened the door for a successive string of British [[Beat music|beat groups]] and [[Pop music|pop]] acts such as [[the Dave Clark Five]], [[the Animals]], [[Herman's Hermits]], [[Petula Clark]], [[the Kinks]] and [[the Rolling Stones]] to achieve success in America.<ref name="Puterbaugh (British Invasion)">{{cite magazine |last1=Puterbaugh |first1=Parke |title=The British Invasion: From the Beatles to the Stones, The Sixties Belonged to Britain |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-british-invasion-from-the-beatles-to-the-stones-the-sixties-belonged-to-britain-19880714 |magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=19 February 2018 |date=14 July 1988|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170530194323/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-british-invasion-from-the-beatles-to-the-stones-the-sixties-belonged-to-britain-19880714|archive-date=30 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=138}}{{refn|group=nb|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'' [[Billboard 200|albums chart]], the third peaked at number two.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=351}}}}
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."{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


==== ''A Hard Day's Night'' ====
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 (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 Corps|Apple Studios]] and they showed me their latest album."{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
{{Main|A Hard Day's Night (film){{!}}''A Hard Day's Night'' (film)}}
Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go unnoticed, and a competitor, [[United Artists Records]], encouraged [[United Artists|its film division]] to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the US.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=483–484}} Directed by [[Richard Lester]], ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a musical comedy.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=230–232}} The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing a comparison with the [[Marx Brothers]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=489–490}}


United Artists released a [[A Hard Day's Night (album)#North American release|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 (album)|A Hard Day's Night]]'', contained songs from the film on side one and other new recordings on side two.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=47}} 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."<ref>{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |title=''A Hard Day's Night'' – The Beatles |publisher=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-hard-days-night-mw0001948685 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530233822/http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-hard-days-night-mw0001948685 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> That "ringing guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's [[Rickenbacker 360/12|12-string electric Rickenbacker]], a prototype given to him by the manufacturer, which made its debut on the record.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=286–287}}{{refn|group=nb|Harrison's ringing 12-string inspired [[Roger McGuinn]], who obtained his own Rickenbacker and used it to craft the trademark sound of [[the Byrds]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=286–287}}}}
===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 (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 (album)|Let It Be]]''''', followed by the [[Let It Be (film)|documentary film of the same name]]. The Beatles' partnership was legally dissolved after McCartney filed a lawsuit on 31 December 1970.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


==== 1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan and stand on civil rights ====
===After the break-up===
[[File:Paul, George & John.png|thumb|upright=1.2|right|alt=Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles performing on Dutch TV in 1964|McCartney, Harrison and Lennon performing on Dutch TV in 1964]]
<!-- Please do not remove or change this photo-->
[[image:jk beatles ringo.jpg|left|thumb|150px|[[Ringo Starr]], 1968]]
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 (album)|Ram]]'' (1971) and Harrison's ''[[All Things Must Pass]]'' (1970). Some of their albums featured contributions by other former Beatles; Starr's ''[[Ringo (album)|Ringo]]'' (1973) was the only one to include compositions and performances by all four, albeit on separate songs.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=161–165}}{{refn|group=nb|Starr was briefly hospitalised after a [[tonsillectomy]], and [[Jimmie Nicol]] sat in on drums for the first five dates.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=160–161, 163}}}} In August and September, they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=249}} Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 people to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=249}}
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974 (later bootlegged as ''[[A Toot and a Snore in '74]]''), they never recorded together again. Lennon was shot and killed on 8 December 1980.


In August, journalist [[Al Aronowitz]] arranged for the Beatles to meet [[Bob Dylan]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=252}} Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]].{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=185}} 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 '[[teenybopper]]s' – 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."{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=252–253}}
The [[BBC]] has a large collection of Beatles recordings, mostly comprising original studio sessions from 1963&ndash;1968. Much of this material formed the basis for a 1988 [[radio]] [[radio documentary|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 (The Beatles album)|Live at the BBC]]''.


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 Dylan controversy|electric instrumentation]], and "dressed in the height of Mod fashion".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=253}} 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=253}}
[[Image:Anthology_cover_collage.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Collage of the various covers of the ''Anthology'' series]]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 (music)|single]] in December 1995, with "[[Real Love (The Beatles song)|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)|Revolver]]'' album cover, directed the ''Anthology'' cover concept.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


During [[The Beatles' 1964 North American tour|the 1964 US tour]], the group were confronted with [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] in the country at the time.<ref name="Integration (BBC)">{{cite news |title=The Beatles Banned Segregated Audiences, Contract Shows |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-14963752 |date=18 September 2011|access-date=17 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214193031/http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-14963752|archive-date=14 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Integration (Mirken)">{{cite web |last=Mirken |first=Bruce |title=1964, Civil Rights – and the Beatles? |website=Greenling Institute |url=http://greenlining.org/blog/2013/1964-civil-rights-and-the-beatles/ |date=11 September 2013|access-date=17 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220034646/http://greenlining.org/blog/2013/1964-civil-rights-and-the-beatles/|archive-date=20 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> When informed that the venue for their 11 September concert, the [[Gator Bowl Stadium|Gator Bowl]] in [[Jacksonville, Florida]], was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=171}}<ref name="Integration (BBC)" /><ref name="Integration (Mirken)" /> Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now&nbsp;... I'd sooner lose our appearance money."<ref name="Integration (BBC)" /> City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show.<ref name="Integration (BBC)" /> The group also cancelled their reservations at the whites-only [[Hotel George Washington (Jacksonville)|Hotel George Washington]] in Jacksonville.<ref name="Integration (Mirken)" /> For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated.<ref name="Integration (Mirken)" /><ref name="Integration (Huffpost)">{{cite news |title=Beatles Refused to Play for Segregated Audiences, Contract Reveal |newspaper=Huffington Post |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/beatles-refused-to-play-segregated-audiences_n_966541.html |date=16 November 2011|access-date=17 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516112443/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/beatles-refused-to-play-segregated-audiences_n_966541.html|archive-date=16 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Beatles 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} In 2000, a compilation album named ''[[1 (album)|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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} The collection also reached number one in the United States and 33 other countries.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} The album recently went Diamond.


==== ''Beatles for Sale'', ''Help!'' and ''Rubber Soul'' ====
==Musical evolution==
According to Gould, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, ''[[Beatles for Sale]]'', evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=255–256}} They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=167–176}} to continue the format established by ''A Hard Day's Night'' which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=255–256}} 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".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=256}} 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]] songwriting partnership.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=255–256}}
{{unreferenced|article's section called "Musical evolution"|date=December 2006}}
The Beatles were fans of almost every kind of music that they heard on the radio, or heard on imported records from [[United States|America]]. These early records were not officially imported to the [[UK]], but were taken to [[Liverpool]] by sailors who had bought them in America.<!--Although I've seen this in Beatles bios, I've also seen it DEBUNKED. Perhaps this claim should be removed?--> Early influences included [[Buddy Holly]], [[Elvis Presley]], [[Lonnie Donegan]], [[ragtime]], and English [[music hall]]. [[Country music]] artists such as [[Hank Williams]], [[Buck Owens]] and [[Jimmie Rodgers]] were also a strong influence as were American [[soul music|soul]] and [[rhythm and blues]] artists such as [[Ray Charles]], [[Arthur Alexander]], and [[Little Richard]], as reflected in the numerous cover versions recorded on their early albums.


In early 1965, following a dinner with Lennon, Harrison and their wives, Harrison's dentist, John Riley, secretly added [[lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]] to their coffee.<ref>{{cite news |last=Herbert |first=Ian |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/revealed-dentist-who-introduced-beatles-to-lsd-6231654.html |title=Revealed: Dentist who introduced Beatles to LSD |date=9 September 2006 |work=The Independent|access-date=13 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513223841/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/revealed-dentist-who-introduced-beatles-to-lsd-6231654.html|archive-date=13 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Lennon described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two."{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=316}} He and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. Harrison's use of [[psychedelic drug]]s encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|acid]], it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realised a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and [[Ravi Shankar|Ravi]]'s music."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Glazer |year=1977 |pages=41}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/strawberry_fields/george-talks-about-lsd-t7757.html |title=George Talks About LSD |website=Strawberry Fields |date=25 September 2008|access-date=12 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412213016/https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/strawberry_fields/george-talks-about-lsd-t7757.html|archive-date=12 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=317}} 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".{{sfn|Brown|Gaines|2002|p=228}}
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 (album)|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)|Revolver]]'' album. The subject matter of their post-touring songs branched out as well, as a diverse range of subjects were written about.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


[[File:TrailerUSHelp.jpg|thumb|right|alt=The Beatles performing music in a field. In the foreground, the drums are played by Starr (only the top of his head is visible). Beyond him, the other three stand in a column with their guitars. In the rear, Harrison, head down, strikes a chord. In the front, Lennon smiles and gives a little wave toward camera, holding his pick. Between them, McCartney is jocularly about to choke Lennon.|The US trailer for ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]'' with (from the rear) Harrison, McCartney, Lennon and (largely obscured) Starr]]
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'').[http://www.geocities.com/paul_82_allen/beatles] Dylan introduced The Beatles to [[Cannabis (drug)|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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen [[Elizabeth II]] appointed all four Beatles Members of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (MBE) after Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] nominated them for the award.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=556}} In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=557}}
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


In July, the Beatles' second film, ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]'', was released, again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of [[Production of the James Bond films|Bond]]",{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=275}} it inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. McCartney said: "''Help!'' was great but it wasn't our film&nbsp;– we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong."{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=274}} The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "[[Help! (song)|Help!]]" and "[[Ticket to Ride (song)|Ticket to Ride]]".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=276–277}}
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 loop]]s, 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


The ''[[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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=62}} The LP contained all original material save for two covers, "[[Act Naturally]]" and "[[Dizzy, Miss Lizzy|Dizzy Miss Lizzy]]"; they were the last covers the band would include on an album until ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]''{{'s}} brief rendition of the traditional Liverpool folk song "[[Maggie May (folk song)|Maggie Mae]]".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=276–280}} 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 (Beatles song)|Yesterday]]".{{sfnm|1a1=Gould|1y=2007|1pp=290–292|2a1=Lewisohn|2y=1988|2pp=59, 62}} Composed and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=59}} – "Yesterday" has inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schaal |first=Eric |date=29 June 2019 |title=Is The Beatles' 'Yesterday' Really the Most-Covered Song of All Time? |url=https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/is-the-beatles-yesterday-really-the-most-covered-song-of-all-time.html/ |access-date=6 January 2020 |website=Cheatsheet |archive-date=7 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507104239/https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/is-the-beatles-yesterday-really-the-most-covered-song-of-all-time.html/ |url-status=live}}</ref> With ''Help!'', the Beatles became the first rock group to be nominated for a [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newsweek.com/grammy-awards-album-year-winners-steely-dan-426569 |first=Zach |last=Schonfeld |title=The Most Ridiculous 'Album of the Year' Winners in Grammy History |work=[[Newsweek]] |date=15 February 2016|access-date=24 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108065752/https://www.newsweek.com/grammy-awards-album-year-winners-steely-dan-426569|archive-date=8 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Image:Beatles - Abbey Road.jpg|thumb|left|220px|The ''[[Abbey Road (album)|Abbey Road]]'' album cover]]
Lennon is portrayed as having played the major role in steering The Beatles towards [[psychedelic music|psychedelia]] ("[[Rain (The Beatles song)|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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


[[File:Beatles press conference 1965.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|alt=The Beatles at a press conference in August 1965|The Beatles at a press conference in [[Minnesota]] in August 1965, shortly after playing at [[Shea Stadium]] in New York]]
Moreover, with his customary humourous irreverence, Lennon once quipped: "Avant-garde is French for bullshit."<ref>[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1569834,00.html Qtd. in the London ''Observer''].</ref>


The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's [[Shea Stadium]] on 15 August – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=181}} 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 (sound engineering)|foldback]] system of on-stage monitor speakers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Emerson |first=Bo |title=Beatles Atlanta show made history in more ways than one |work=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]] |date=11 August 2009 |url=https://www.accessatlanta.com/news/entertainment/music/beatles-atlanta-show-made-history-in-more-ways-tha/nQyrz/ |access-date=27 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514212710/http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/entertainment/music/beatles-atlanta-show-made-history-in-more-ways-tha/nQyrz/ |archive-date=14 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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, California|Beverly Hills]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=882–883}}{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=283–284}} Presley later said the band was an example of a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse.{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=192}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guralnick |first=Peter |title=Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley |publisher=Little, Brown and Co. |year=1999 |pages=419–422}}</ref>
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


September 1965 saw the launch of an American [[Saturday-morning cartoon]] series, ''[[The Beatles (TV series)|The Beatles]]'', that echoed ''A Hard Day's Night''{{'s}} slapstick antics over its two-year original run.{{sfn|McNeil|1996|p=82}} The series was the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people.<ref name="Animators">{{cite web |url=https://www.beatlescartoon.com/animators/animators.html |title=Animators |work=beatlescartoon.com|access-date=12 April 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329194411/http://www.beatlescartoon.com/animators/animators.html|archive-date=29 March 2016}}</ref>
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 [[multitrack recording|four-track]] decks, and [[Ping pong recording technique|ping-ponging]] tracks two, and even three times, became common.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


In mid-October, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=202}} 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."{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|pp=149–150}} Released in December, ''[[Rubber Soul]]'' was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music.<ref name="Rubber Soul AllMusic">{{cite web |last=Unterberger |first=Richie |author-link=Richie Unterberger |title=''Rubber Soul'' – The Beatles |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/rubber-soul-mw0000192940 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191013145500/https://www.allmusic.com/album/rubber-soul-mw0000192940 |archive-date=13 October 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy, a development that NEMS executive [[Peter Brown (music industry)|Peter Brown]] attributed to the band members' "now habitual use of marijuana".{{sfn|Brown|Gaines|2002|pp=181–182}} Lennon referred to ''Rubber Soul'' as "the pot album"{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=194}} 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."{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=194}} After ''Help!''{{'}}s foray into 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 the lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=297–298, 423}}
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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
Beginning with the use of a string quartet (arranged by George Martin) on "[[Yesterday (song)|Yesterday]]" in 1965, The Beatles pioneered a modern form of [[art rock|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 [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] led them to use a [[piccolo trumpet]] on the arrangement of "[[Penny Lane]]" and a [[Mellotron]] at the start of "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]".{{Fact|date=December 2006}}


{{listen
The extreme complexity of ''Sgt. Pepper'' reached its height on the ''[[Yellow Submarine (album)|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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
|type=music
|filename=Beatles norwegian wood.ogg
|title="Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
|description=Sample of "Norwegian Wood" from ''Rubber Soul'' (1965). Harrison's use of a [[sitar]] on this song is representative of the Beatles' incorporation of unconventional instrumentation into rock music.<ref name="Rubber Soul AllMusic" />
}}
While some of ''Rubber Soul''{{'}}s songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting,{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=584–592}} the album also included distinct compositions from each,{{sfn|Miles|1997|pp=268, 276, 278–279}} though they continued to share official credit. "[[In My Life]]", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=587}} Harrison called ''Rubber Soul'' his "favourite album",{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=194}} and Starr referred to it as "the departure record".{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=591}} McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand."{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=197}} However, recording engineer [[Norman Smith (record producer)|Norman Smith]] later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group&nbsp;– "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right".{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=780}}


==== Controversies, ''Revolver'' and final tour ====
Lennon and McCartney renewed their interest in rootsy forms towards the close of The Beatles' career — for example, "[[Yer Blues]]" and "[[Birthday (song)|Birthday]]" in [[1968]], and "[[Don't Let Me Down (The Beatles song)|Don't Let Me Down]]" in [[1969]].{{Fact|date=December 2006}}
Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=350}} compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=295–296}}{{refn|group=nb|It was not until ''[[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.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=59}}}} In June 1966, the Capitol LP ''[[Yesterday and Today]]'' 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. According to Beatles biographer [[Bill Harry]], it has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions of the band's albums.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=1187}} 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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gaffney |first=Dennis |title=The Beatles' "Butcher" Cover |work=[[Antiques Roadshow]] Online |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/chicago_200302A14.html |date=5 January 2004 |access-date=15 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428010433/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/chicago_200302A14.html |archive-date=28 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro [[Ravi Shankar]], who agreed to train him on the instrument.{{sfn|Lavezzoli|2006|p=176}}


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 [[Malacañang Palace|Presidential Palace]].{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=619}} 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.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=620}} They soon found that the [[History of the Philippines (1965–1986)|Marcos regime]] was unaccustomed to taking no for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they escaped the country with difficulty.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=623}} Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time.{{sfn|Lavezzoli|2006|p=177}}
==Influence==
{{Main|The Beatles' influence on popular culture}}
{{expandsection}}
The Beatles influence on [[Rock and roll|rock music]] and popular culture was — and remains — immense. Their commercial success started an almost immediate wave of changes — including a move from [[United States|U.S.]] global dominance of [[rock and roll]] to UK acts, from soloists to groups, from professional [[songwriter]]s 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.


{{quote box|width=25em|quote=We're [[more popular than Jesus]] now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity.|source=– John Lennon, 1966{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=309}}}}
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 (band)|Nirvana]], whose frontman [[Kurt Cobain]] always listed [[John Lennon|Lennon]] as a major inspiration to him. The revolutionary [[automatic double tracking]] system, which was first used by [[John Lennon|Lennon]] while working on ''Revolver'', was used to great effect on ''[[Nevermind]]'', Nirvana's most popular album.


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]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=212–213}} "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&nbsp;... [[Jesus]] was alright but his [[Disciples (Christianity)|disciples]] were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=307–309}} His comments went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine ''Datebook'' printed them five months later, it sparked a controversy with Christians in America's conservative [[Bible Belt]] region.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=212–213}} The [[Holy See|Vatican]] issued a protest, and bans on Beatles records were imposed by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's [[South African Broadcasting Corporation|national broadcasting service]].{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=449}} Epstein accused ''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."{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=346}} He 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."{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=346}}
[[Electric Light Orchestra|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 idolised the group and admired their talent and success.


{{listen
Amongst other relatively recent bands who have cited The Beatles as a major influence are [[Pearl Jam]], [[U2]], [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]], [[Blind Melon]] and [[Radiohead]].
|type=music
|filename=Beatles eleanor rigby.ogg
|title="Eleanor Rigby"
|description=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.
}}
Released in August 1966, a week before the Beatles' final tour, ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'' marked another artistic step forward for the group.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=348}} The album featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to [[psychedelic music|psychedelia]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=348}} Abandoning the customary group photograph, its [[Aubrey Beardsley]]-inspired cover – designed by [[Klaus Voormann]], a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – was a monochrome collage and line drawing caricature of the group.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=348}} The album was preceded by the single "[[Paperback Writer]]", backed by "[[Rain (Beatles song)|Rain]]".{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=350–351}} Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos",{{sfn|Austerlitz|2007|p=18}} they aired on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' and ''[[Top of the Pops]]'' in June.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=221–222}}


Among the experimental songs on ''Revolver'' was "[[Tomorrow Never Knows]]", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from [[Timothy Leary]]'s ''[[The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=364–366}} McCartney's "[[Eleanor Rigby]]" made prominent use of a [[octet (music)|string octet]]; Gould describes it as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of song".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=350, 402}} Harrison's emergence as a songwriter was reflected in three of his compositions appearing on the record.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=63}} Among these, "[[Taxman]]", which opened the album, marked the first example of the Beatles making a political statement through their music.{{sfn|Turner|2016|p=162}}
==Instrumentation==
*[[Rickenbacker]], [[Gretsch]], [[Epiphone]], [[Gibson Guitar Corporation|Gibson]], and [[Fender]] guitars
*[[Ludwig-Musser|Ludwig]] drums
*[[Steinway]], and [[Blüthner]] pianos
*[[Höfner]], [[Fender]] and [[Rickenbacker]] basses
*[[Hammond organ|Hammond]], [[Vox (musical equipment)|Vox]] and [http://www.lowrey.com/organs.aspx Lowrey] electric organs
*[[Fender Rhodes]], [[Wurlitzer]], and [[Hohner]] [[Pianet]] electric pianos
*[[Moog]] Modular synthesiser


[[File:Candlestick Postcard - 01.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|right|alt=San Francisco's Candlestick Park in the 1960s|San Francisco's [[Candlestick Park]] (pictured in the early 1960s) was the venue for the Beatles' final concert before a paying audience.]]
===Microphones===
[[Image:Neumann_U87.jpg|thumb|100px|right|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 [[Georg Neumann GmbH|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 [[Standard Telephones and Cables|STC]] 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20). Later, more microphones were used on the drums.


As preparations were made for a tour of the US, 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 for them by [[Vox (musical equipment)|Vox]], as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, 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.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=1093}} Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August tour their last.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=210, 230}}
With the group's encouragement, recording engineer [[Geoff Emerick]] experimented with microphone placement and equalization.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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 characterises "[[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.<ref>Emerick, Geoff, with Howard Massey (2006). ''Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles.'' ISBN 1-59240-179-1.</ref>


The band performed none of their new songs on the tour.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=361–365}} In Chris Ingham's description, they were very much "studio creations&nbsp;... 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."{{sfn|Ingham|2006|p=44}} The band's concert at San Francisco's [[Candlestick Park]] on 29 August was their last commercial concert.{{sfn|Miles|1997|pp=293–295}} It marked the end of four&nbsp;years dominated by almost non-stop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=5–6, 249, 281, 347}}
The [[AKG]] C28 is visible in the ''[[Let It Be (film)|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.<ref>http://www.eqmag.com/story.asp?storycode=12030</ref>


=== 1966–1970: Studio years ===
==Discography==
==== ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' ====
{{main|The Beatles discography}}
{{Main|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band{{!}}''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''}}
{{see|List of Beatles songs by singer|The Beatles record sales, worldwide charts|The Beatles bootlegs}}
[[File:Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.jpg|thumb|right|alt=The album artwork of the Beatles' 1967 album ''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"{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=970}}]]


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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=232}} According to engineer [[Geoff Emerick]], the album's recording took over 700 hours.{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|p=190}} 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."{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=387–388}} Parts of "[[A Day in the Life]]" featured a 40-piece orchestra.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=387–388}} The sessions initially yielded the non-album [[double A-side]] single "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]"/"[[Penny Lane]]" in February 1967;{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=221}} the ''Sgt. Pepper'' LP followed with a rush-release in May.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=123}} The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive [[Multitrack recording|four-track]] recording technology, astounded contemporary artists.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=970}} Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=420–425}} Gould writes:
===Studio albums===
The original studio albums by The Beatles in their home market (the UK) are as follows:


{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=418}}}}
<gallery>
Image:PleasePleaseMe.jpg|<center>'''1. ''[[Please Please Me]]'''''<br>([[22 March]] [[1963]])<br />
Image:WiththeBeatles.jpg|<center>'''2. ''[[With the Beatles]]'''''<br>([[22 November]] [[1963]])<br />
Image:HardDayUK.jpg|<center>'''3. ''[[A Hard Day's Night (album)|A Hard Day's Night]]'''''<br>([[10 July]] [[1964]])<br />
Image:Beatlesforsale.jpg|<center>'''4. ''[[Beatles for Sale]]'''''<br>([[4 December]] [[1964]])</center><br />
Image:HelpUK.jpg|<center>'''5. ''[[Help! (album)|Help!]]'''''<br>([[6 August]] [[1965]])</center>
Image:RubberSoulUK.jpg|<center>'''6. ''[[Rubber Soul]]'''''<br>([[3 December]] [[1965]])</center>
Image:Revolver.jpg|<center>'''7. ''[[Revolver (album)|Revolver]]'''''<br>([[5 August]] [[1966]])</center>
<center>
Image:Pepper's.jpg|<center>'''8. ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'''''<br>([[1 June]] [[1967]])</center>
Image:Whitealbum.jpg|<center>'''9. ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]''''' (''The White Album'')<br>([[22 November]] [[1968]])</center>
Image:TheBeatlesYellowSubmarinealbumcover.jpg|<center>'''10. ''[[Yellow Submarine (album)|Yellow Submarine]]'''''<br>([[17 January]] [[1969]])</center>
Image:Beatles - Abbey Road.jpg|<center>'''11. ''[[Abbey Road (album)|Abbey Road]]'''''<br>([[26 September]] [[1969]])</center>
Image:LetItBe.jpg|<center>'''12. ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]'''''<br>([[8 May]] [[1970]])
</center>
</gallery>


In the wake of ''Sgt. Pepper'', the underground and mainstream press widely publicised the Beatles as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries".{{sfn|Frontani|2007|p=157}} The album was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=236}}{{sfn|Inglis|2008|p=96}} 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".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=423–425}}{{refn|group=nb|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&nbsp;... one kind of feeling about a subject isn't enough&nbsp;... any single induced feeling must often exist within the context of seemingly contradictory alternatives."{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=423–425}} 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.&nbsp;... You put your own meaning at your own level to our songs."{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=423–425}}}} The elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=394–395}} A collage designed by [[pop art]]ists [[Peter Blake (artist)|Peter Blake]] and [[Jann Haworth]], it depicted the group as the fictional band referred to in the album's [[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)|title track]]{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=312}} standing in front of [[List of images on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band|a crowd of famous people]].{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=248}} The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of the [[hippie]] movement,{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=236}} while cultural historian Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment" display.{{sfn|Harris|2005|pp=12–13}}
===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]]:
<gallery>
Image:TheBeatlesMagicalMysteryTouralbumcover.jpg|<center>'''''[[Magical Mystery Tour (album)|Magical Mystery Tour]]'''''<br>([[8 August]] [[1987]]<ref>LP version originally released in the United States on [[27 November]] [[1967]].</ref>)</center>
Image:PastMastersV1cover.jpg|<center>'''''[[Past Masters, Volume One]]'''''<br>([[7 March]] [[1988]])</center>
Image:PastMastersV2cover.jpg|<center>'''''[[Past Masters, Volume Two]]'''''<br>([[7 March]] [[1988]])</center>
</gallery>
According to EMI and the ''[[Guinness World Records|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.


''Sgt. Pepper'' topped the UK charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number one in the period through to February 1968.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/search/albums/sgt-pepper's-lonely-hearts-club-band/ |title=Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles" > "Chart Facts |publisher=[[Official Charts Company]]|access-date=11 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820102815/http://www.officialcharts.com/search/albums/sgt-pepper%27s-lonely-hearts-club-band/|archive-date=20 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> With 2.5&nbsp;million copies sold within three months of its release,{{sfn|Frontani|2007|p=147}} ''Sgt. Pepper''{{'}}s initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=697}} It was the first rock album to win the [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Grammy Award Nominees 1968 |url=https://www.awardsandshows.com/features/grammy-awards-1968-218.html| access-date=27 February 2024| archive-date=7 December 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207013017/https://www.awardsandshows.com/features/grammy-awards-1968-218.html| url-status=live}}</ref> It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ghoshal |first=Somak |date=21 June 2017 |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/06/21/on-world-music-day-a-salute-to-these-guys-who-made-history-50-y_a_22494609/ |title=On World Music Day, A Salute To These Guys Who Made History 50 Years Ago |newspaper=[[HuffPost]]|access-date=3 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927122027/https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/06/21/on-world-music-day-a-salute-to-these-guys-who-made-history-50-y_a_22494609/|archive-date=27 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Song catalogue===
{{main|Northern Songs}}
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.


==== ''Magical Mystery Tour'' and ''Yellow Submarine'' ====
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 (magazine)|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 catalogue, 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]]''.)
{{Main|Magical Mystery Tour (film){{!}}''Magical Mystery Tour'' (film)|Yellow Submarine (film){{!}}''Yellow Submarine'' (film)}}
Two Beatles film projects were conceived within weeks of completing ''Sgt. Pepper'': ''[[Magical Mystery Tour (film)|Magical Mystery Tour]]'', a one-hour television film, and ''[[Yellow Submarine (film)|Yellow Submarine]]'', an animated feature-length film produced by [[United Artists]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|pp=41, 110–111, 122}} The group began recording music for the former in late April 1967, but the project then lay dormant as they focused on recording songs for the latter.{{sfn|Miles|2001|pp=276–77}} On 25 June, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single "[[All You Need Is Love]]" to an estimated 350&nbsp;million viewers on ''[[Our World (1967 TV program)|Our World]]'', the first live global television link.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=237, 259–260}} Released a week later, during the [[Summer of Love]], the song was adopted as a [[flower power]] anthem.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=428–429}} The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs was at its height during that summer.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=129}} In July and August, the group pursued interests related to similar utopian-based ideology, including a week-long investigation into the possibility of starting an island-based [[Intentional community|commune]] off the coast of Greece.{{sfn|Womack|2007|p=197}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knott |first=Jonathan |date=9 September 2023 |title='Used as propaganda': the Beatles' Greek island plans and international politics |journal=Journal of Beatles Studies |language=en |volume=2023 |issue=Spring/Autumn |pages=109–141 |doi=10.3828/jbs.2023.7 |s2cid=261671152 |issn=2754-7019 |doi-access=free}}</ref>


On 24 August, the group were introduced to [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]] in London. The next day, they travelled to [[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]] for his [[Transcendental Meditation]] retreat. On 27 August, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein had died.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=709, 713–719}} The coroner ruled the death an accidental [[Bromoureide|carbitol]] overdose, although it was widely rumoured to be a suicide.{{sfn|Brown|Gaines|2002|p=249}}{{refn|group=nb|Epstein had been in a fragile emotional state, stressed by personal troubles. 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.{{sfn|Brown|Gaines|2002|pp=227–228}}}} His death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future.{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=268}} 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 fuckin' had it now.{{' "}}{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=508}} Harrison's then-wife [[Pattie Boyd]] remembered that "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."{{sfn|Boyd|2008|pp=106–107}} During a band meeting in September, McCartney recommended that the band proceed with ''Magical Mystery Tour''.{{sfn|Miles|2001|pp=276–77}}
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 (1962 song)|P.S. I Love You]]" and "[[Ask Me Why]]" from EMI.


The [[Magical Mystery Tour|''Magical Mystery Tour'' soundtrack]] was released in the UK as a six-track double [[extended play]] (EP) in early December 1967.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=350}}{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=452}} It was the first example of a double EP in the UK.{{sfn|Neaverson|1997|p=53}}{{sfn|Larkin|2006|p=488}} The record carried on the psychedelic vein of ''Sgt. Pepper'',<ref>{{cite web |last=Unterberger |first=Richie |title=''Magical Mystery Tour'' – The Beatles |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/magical-mystery-tour-mw0000651227 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530212729/http://www.allmusic.com/album/magical-mystery-tour-mw0000651227 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> though in line with the band's wishes, the packaging reinforced the idea that the release was a film soundtrack rather than a follow-up to ''Sgt. Pepper''.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=452}} In the US, the soundtrack appeared as an identically titled LP that also included five tracks from the band's recent singles.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=351}} In its first three weeks, the album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP and is the only Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=699}}
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]]".


''Magical Mystery Tour'' first aired on [[Boxing Day]] to an audience of approximately 15&nbsp;million.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=90}} Largely directed by McCartney, the film was the band's first critical failure in the UK.{{sfn|Miles|1997|pp=368–69}} It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the ''[[Daily Express]]'', the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' called it "a colossal conceit" and ''[[The Guardian]]'' labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=455–456}} Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=455–456}} Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=703}}
===Number one singles===
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!Year
!Single
!Countries
|-
|[[1962 in music|1962]]
|"[[Love Me Do]]"
|[[United States|U.S.]] (once Beatlemania hit in 1964)
|-
|[[1963 in music|1963]]
|"[[Please Please Me (song)|Please Please Me]]"
| [[Italy]and also UK in most recognised charts]
|-
|[[1963 in music|1963]]
|"[[From Me to You]]"
|[[United Kingdom|UK]], [[Ireland]]
|-
|[[1963 in music|1963]]
|"[[Twist and Shout]]"
|[[Finland]]
|-
|[[1963 in music|1963]]
|"[[She Loves You]]"
|UK, [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], [[Canada]], [[Denmark]], U.S.
|-
|[[1963 in music|1963]]
|"[[I Want to Hold Your Hand]]"
|UK, [[Australia|Australia (NS Wales)]], Sweden, Norway, [[Germany]], [[Netherlands|Holland]], U.S., Canada
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[I Saw Her Standing There]]"
|Australia (NS Wales)
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[All My Loving]]"
|Sweden, Canada, Australia (NS Wales) (EP), Finland
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[Can't Buy Me Love]]"
|Sweden, UK, Holland, U.S., Ireland, Australia (NS Wales)
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[Ain't She Sweet]]"
|Sweden
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|''[[Long Tall Sally (EP)|Long Tall Sally]]'' EP
|Holland
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[A Hard Day's Night (song)|A Hard Day's Night]]"
|U.S., Canada, Australia (NS Wales), UK, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, [[Argentina]], [[Czechoslovakia]]
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[I Should Have Known Better]]"
|Canada, Holland, Australia (NS Wales), Norway, Sweden, Denmark
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[If I Fell]]"
|Norway
|-
|[[1964 in music|1964]]
|"[[I Feel Fine]]"
|Canada, Australia (NS Wales), UK, Holland, Sweden, U.S., [[Rhodesia]], Ireland, Norway, [[Hong Kong]], [[Malaysia]], Denmark
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[Rock and Roll Music (song)|Rock and Roll Music]]" / "[[No Reply (song)|No Reply]]"
|Norway, Sweden, Holland, Rhodesia, Finland, Denmark, Australia (NS Wales), Hong Kong, [[Luxembourg]]
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[Eight Days a Week]]"
|Canada, [[Uruguay]], U.S., Hong Kong, Luxembourg
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[I'll Follow the Sun]]"
|Sweden
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[Ticket to Ride]]"
|Ireland, Canada, Norway, UK, Sweden, Australia (NS Wales), Holland, U.S., Rhodesia, [[New Zealand]]
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[Words of Love]]"
|Sweden
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[Help! (song)|Help!]]"
|Canada, Australia (NS Wales), UK, Ireland, Holland, Hong Kong, Singapore, [[Spain]], U.S., Rhodesia, Norway, Argentina, Brazil, Italy
|-
|[[1965 in music|1965]]
|"[[Yesterday (song)|Yesterday]]"
|Canada, Holland, U.S., Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Hong Kong, Poland, Denmark
|-
|[[1965 in music|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 in music|1966]]
|"[[Michelle (song)|Michelle]]"
|France, Holland, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy
|-
|[[1966 in music|1966]]
|"[[Nowhere Man]]"
|Canada, Australia (NS Wales)
|-
|[[1966 in music|1966]]
|"[[Paperback Writer]]"
|Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, U.S., UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark
|-
|[[1966 in music|1966]]
|"[[Yellow Submarine (song)|Yellow Submarine]]" / "[[Eleanor Rigby]]"
|Canada, UK, Ireland, Norway, France, Holland, Germany, Australia (NS Wales), New Zealand, Belgium, Poland (B-side)
|-
|[[1967 in music|1967]]
|"[[Penny Lane]]" / "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]"
|Canada, Norway, France, Holland, Sweden, U.S. (A-side), New Zealand, Germany, Australia (NS Wales), Denmark, and also UK in most recognised charts
|-
|[[1967 in music|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 in music|1967]]
|"[[With a Little Help from My Friends]]"
|Poland
|-
|[[1967 in music|1967]]
|"[[Hello, Goodbye]]"
|Canada, UK, France, Holland, Sweden, U.S., Norway, Germany, Australia (NS Sales), New Zealand, Poland, Denmark
|-
|[[1968 in music|1968]]
|"[[Lady Madonna]]" (b/w "[[The Inner Light]]")
|Canada, UK, France, Sweden, [[Switzerland]], [[Austria]], New Zealand, Australia (NS Wales)
|-
|[[1968 in music|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 in music|1968]]
|"[[Revolution (song)|Revolution]]"
|New Zealand
|-
|[[1968 in music|1968]]
|"[[Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da]]"
|Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia (NS Wales)
|-
|[[1969 in music|1969]]
|"[[Get Back (song)|Get Back]]" (b/w "[[Don't Let Me Down (The Beatles song)|Don't Let Me Down]]")
|UK, Canada, Holland, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, Germany, Malaysia, Denmark, Spain, U.S., Rhodesia, Australia (NS Wales)
|-
|[[1969 in music|1969]]
|"[[The Ballad of John and Yoko]]"
|UK, Holland, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Australia (NS Wales), Austria, Denmark
|-
|[[1969 in music|1969]]
|"[[Maxwell's Silver Hammer]]"
|France
|-
|[[1969 in music|1969]]
|"[[Something (song)|Something]]" / "[[Come Together]]"
|Canada, U.S., Australia (NS Wales), New Zealand, Germany
|-
|[[1970 in music|1970]]
|"[[Let It Be (song)|Let It Be]]"
|Germany, Austria, Holland, Australia (NS Wales), Norway, France, Malaysia, U.S., Switzerland, New Zealand, Italy, Poland, Canada
|-
|[[1970 in music|1970]]
|"[[The Long and Winding Road]]"
|Canada, U.S.
|-
|[[1976 in music|1976]]
|"[[Got to Get You Into My Life]]"
|Canada
|-
|}


The group were less involved with ''Yellow Submarine'', which featured the band appearing as themselves for only a short live-action segment.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=276}} Premiering in July 1968, the film 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=485}} Critics praised the film for its music, humour and innovative visual style.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=487–88, 505–506}} A [[Yellow Submarine (album)|soundtrack LP]] was issued seven months later; it contained those four new songs, 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=304, 350}}
===Song samples===
The following samples are organised as per the year the song was originally released.


==== India retreat, Apple Corps and the White Album ====
====1965====
{{Main|Beatles in India|Apple Corps|The Beatles (album){{!}}''The Beatles'' (album)}}
*{{audio|Beatles help.ogg|"Help!"}}
In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's [[ashram]] in [[Rishikesh]], India, to take part in a three-month meditation "Guide Course". Their [[The Beatles in India|time in India]] marked one of the band's most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=108–109}} However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=463–468}} For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as [[Magic Alex]] suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=705–706}} 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=463–468}} 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."{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=705–706}}
*{{audio|Beatles yesterday.ogg|"Yesterday"}}
*{{audio|Beatles drive my car.ogg|"Drive My Car"}}
*{{audio|Beatles nowhere man.ogg|"Nowhere Man"}}
*{{audio|Beatles in my life.ogg|"In My Life"}}


In May, Lennon and McCartney travelled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles' new business venture, [[Apple Corps]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=282}} It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism and education.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=20, 26}} McCartney described Apple as "rather like a Western communism".{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=26}} The enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|pp=280–281}} handled largely by members of the Beatles' entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=22}} Among its numerous subsidiaries were [[Apple Electronics]], established to foster technological innovations with Magic Alex at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived [[Apple Boutique]] in London.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=20, 22, 25, 35}} Harrison later said, "Basically, it was chaos&nbsp;... John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it."{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=26}}
====1966====
*{{audio|Beatles taxman.ogg|"Taxman"}}
*{{audio|Beatles eleanor rigby.ogg|"Eleanor Rigby"}}
*{{audio|Beatles im only sleeping.ogg|"I'm Only Sleeping"}}
*{{audio|Beatles into my life.ogg|"Got To Get You Into My Life"}}


[[File:TheBeatles68LP.jpg|thumb|alt=The album artwork of the Beatles' self-titled 1968 album, also known as "the White Album"|''The Beatles'', known as "the White Album" for its minimalist cover, conceived by pop artist [[Richard Hamilton (artist)|Richard Hamilton]] "in direct contrast to ''Sgt. Pepper''", while also suggesting a "clean slate".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=510–511}}]]
====1967====
*{{audio|Strawberryfields.ogg|"Strawberry Fields Forever"}}
*{{audio|Pennylane.ogg|"Penny Lane"}}
*{{audio|Beatles sgt pepper.ogg|"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"}}
*{{audio|Beatles lucy sky.ogg|"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"}}
*{{audio|Beatles sixty-four.ogg|"When I'm Sixty-Four"}}
*{{audio|Beatles day life.ogg|"A Day in the Life"}}
*{{audio|Mysterytour.ogg|"Magical Mystery Tour"}}
*{{audio|Iamthewalrus.ogg|"I Am the Walrus"}}


From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]'', a double LP commonly known as "the White Album" for its virtually featureless cover.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=510}} During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=310}} Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record "[[Back in the U.S.S.R.]]" and "[[Dear Prudence]]" as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums.{{sfn|Winn|2009|pp=205–207}} Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney,{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=513, 516}} whose contribution "[[Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da]]" he scorned as "granny music shit".{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|p=246}} 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.{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=103}} McCartney has recalled that the album "wasn't a pleasant one to make".{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=310}} He and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band's break-up.{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=237}}{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=102}}
====1968====
*{{audio|Beatles blackbird.ogg|"Blackbird"}}
*{{audio|Beatles mother nature.ogg|"Mother Nature's Son"}}
*{{audio|Beatles helter skelter.ogg|"Helter Skelter"}}
*{{audio|Beatles revolution 1.ogg|"Revolution 1"}}


With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=315}} and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Faust |first1=Edwin |title=On Second Thought: The Beatles – The Beatles |url=http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/the-beatles-the-beatles.htm |website=Stylus Magazine|access-date=18 December 2016 |date=1 September 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223025212/http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/the-beatles-the-beatles.htm|archive-date=23 December 2008}}</ref> During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the album a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|pp=137, 146, 150, 152}} 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."{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=509}} The sessions also produced the Beatles' longest song yet, "[[Hey Jude]]", released in August as a non-album single with "[[Revolution (Beatles song)|Revolution]]".{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=152}}
====1969====
*{{audio|Beatles cometogether.ogg|"Come Together"}}
*{{audio|Beatles something.ogg|"Something"}}
*{{audio|Beatles herecomesthesun.ogg|"Here Comes the Sun"}}
*{{audio|Beatles bathroomwindow.ogg|"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"}}


Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first [[Apple Records]] album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=278}} The record attracted more than 2&nbsp;million advance orders, selling nearly 4&nbsp;million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=528}} Its lyrical content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|pp=311–313}} Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album's content and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that ''Sgt. Pepper'' had.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=528}}
==On film==


==== ''Abbey Road'', ''Let It Be'' and separation ====
The Beatles appeared in several films, most of which were very well received. The exception was the (mostly unscripted) [[television movie]] ''[[Magical Mystery Tour (film)|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.
{{See also|Break-up of the Beatles}}
Although ''[[Let It Be (album)|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".{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=539}} Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called ''Beatles at Work'', in the event much of the album's content came from studio work beginning in January 1969, many hours of which were captured on film by director [[Michael Lindsay-Hogg]].{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=539}}{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=306–307}} Martin 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."{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=539}} Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell&nbsp;... the most miserable&nbsp;... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time".{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=310}} Irritated by 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=307}} He also demanded they cease work at [[Twickenham Film Studios]], where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished [[Apple Studios (recording studio)|Apple Studio]]. His bandmates agreed and it was decided to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=306–307, 309}}


[[File:Billy Preston perforning in 1971.jpg|alt=American musician Billy Preston in 1971|thumb|left|The American soul musician [[Billy Preston]] (pictured in 1971) was, for a short time, considered a [[fifth Beatle]] during the ''Get Back'' sessions.]]
==='''''A Hard Day's Night'''''===
[[image:A Hard Days night movieposter.jpg|right|thumb|150px|''A Hard Day's Night'' poster]]
The Beatles had a successful film career, beginning with '''''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|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]].


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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=309–314}} Preston received label billing on the "[[Get Back]]" single – the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=451, 660}} After 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 Libyan desert and the [[Colosseum]].{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=539}} Ultimately, what would be their [[The Beatles' rooftop concert|final live performance]] was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 [[Savile Row]], London, on 30 January 1969.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=307–308, 312}} 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".{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=309, 316–323}}
===''Help!''===
In 1965 came '''''[[Help! (film)|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]]."


[[File:3 Savile Row.jpg|thumb|upright=.75|alt=A terrace house with four floors and an attic. It is red brick, with a slate roof, and the ground floor rendered in imitation of stone and painted white. Each upper floor has four sash windows, divided into small panes. The door, with a canopy over it, occupies the place of the second window from the left on the ground floor.|Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, site of the [[The Beatles' rooftop concert|''Let It Be'' rooftop concert]]]]
In 1966 Lennon took time off to play a supporting character, Gripweed, 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.


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]];{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=612}} McCartney wanted [[Lee Eastman|Lee]] and John Eastman – father and brother, respectively, of [[Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman]],{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=70, 132}} whom McCartney married on 12 March.{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=336}} 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.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=71–72}}{{sfn|Goodman|2015|pp=164–166}} Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=612}} On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=322}} the Eastmans having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' lawyers. McCartney refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles.{{sfn|Goodman|2015|pp=174–175}}
==='''''Magical Mystery Tour'''''===
The '''''[[Magical Mystery Tour (film)|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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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]] &mdash; 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.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.


Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce another album, as the ''Get Back'' sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=560}} The primary recording sessions for ''Abbey Road'' began on 2 July.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=324}} 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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=563}} The eventual format, with individually composed songs on the first side and the second consisting largely of a [[List of musical medleys|medley]], was McCartney's suggested compromise.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=563}} Emerick noted that the replacement of the studio's [[Vacuum tube|valve]]-based 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.{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|pp=277–278}}
==='''''Yellow Submarine'''''===
The animated '''''[[Yellow Submarine (film)|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.


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 was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were together in the same studio.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=191}} On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the [[Lennon–McCartney]] pretence and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas.<ref name="8sep69">{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Williams (journalist) |title=This tape rewrites everything we knew about the Beatles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/11/the-beatles-break-up-mark-lewisohn-abbey-road-hornsey-road |url-status=live |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=11 September 2019 |access-date=12 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911235132/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/11/the-beatles-break-up-mark-lewisohn-abbey-road-hornsey-road |archive-date=11 September 2019}}</ref> On 20 September, Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group but agreed to withhold a public announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album.{{sfn|Norman|2008|pp=622–624}}
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.


Released on 26 September, ''Abbey Road'' sold four&nbsp;million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of seventeen weeks.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=593}} Its second track, the ballad "[[Something (Beatles song)|Something]]", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition that appeared as a Beatles A-side.{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=553}} ''Abbey Road'' received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=593}} Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record".<ref>{{cite web |last=Unterberger |first=Richie |title=''Abbey Road'' – The Beatles |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/abbey-road-mw0000192938 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529232715/https://www.allmusic.com/album/abbey-road-mw0000192938 |archive-date=29 May 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Musicologist]] and author [[Ian MacDonald]] calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=367}} Martin singled it out as his favourite Beatles album; Lennon said it was "competent" but had "no life in it".{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|pp=277–278}}
==='''''Let It Be'''''===
[[Image:Getback roof.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The rooftop concert]]
'''''[[Let It Be (film)|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.


For the still unfinished ''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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=342}} 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!]]"{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=342–343}} 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.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=349}} McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were ignored,{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=682}} and he publicly announced his departure from the band on 10 April, a week before the release of his first [[McCartney (album)|self-titled solo album]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=349}}{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=853}}
The band initially rejected both the film and the album, instead recording and issuing the ''[[Abbey Road (album)|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.


On 8 May 1970, ''Let It Be'' was released. Its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was expected to be the Beatles' last; it was released in the US, but not in the UK.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|pp=350–351}} The ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]'' documentary film followed later that month and would win the 1970 Academy Award for [[Academy Award for Best Original Score#1970s|Best Original Song Score]].{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=96}} ''[[Sunday Telegraph]]'' critic [[Penelope Gilliatt]] called it "a very bad film and a touching one&nbsp;... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=600}} Several reviewers stated that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=601}} Describing ''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 (song)|Let It Be]]", "Get Back" and "the folky '[[Two of Us (Beatles song)|Two of Us]]', with John and Paul harmonising together".<ref>{{cite web |last=Unterberger |first=Richie |title=''Let It Be'' – The Beatles |publisher=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/let-it-be-mw0000192939 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130806194702/http://www.allmusic.com/album/let-it-be-mw0000192939 |archive-date=6 August 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Unlike the other Beatles films, ''Let It Be'' is not currently available to buy on DVD or any other media.


McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on 31 December 1970.{{sfn|Harry|2002|p=139}} Legal disputes continued long after their break-up and the dissolution was not formalised until 29 December 1974,{{sfn|Harry|2002|p=150}} when Lennon signed the paperwork terminating the partnership while on vacation with his family at [[Walt Disney World]] Resort in Florida.{{sfn|Pang|2008|p=118}}
==='''''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),{{Fact|date=December 2006}} 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.


==='''''Love'''''===
=== After the breakup ===
{{See also|Collaborations between ex-Beatles}}
Released on November 21, 2006, LOVE contains 26 Beatles tracks that were remixed, rearranged and adapted for stage use by [[Le Cirque du Soleil]]. Produced and arranged by [[Sir George Martin]] himself, with the approval of Paul, George, Ringo and [[Yoko Ono]], the executor of the John Lennon estate. Featuring such classics as "[[While My Guitar Gently Weeps]]," "[[Lady Madonna]]" and "[[Revolution]]," Martin made use of the original studio multitrack tapes to produce different but coherent versions of the songs selected.[http://www.amazon.com/Love-Beatles/dp/B000JK8OYU]


==Notes==
==== 1970s ====
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Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the other members;{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=601–604}} Starr's ''[[Ringo (album)|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.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=603–604}} Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later [[Bootleg recording|bootlegged]] as ''[[A Toot and a Snore in '74]]'', Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again.{{sfn|Sandford|2006|pp=227–229}}
==References==
*{{cite book | author=Bramwell, Tony | title=Magical Mystery Tours | publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]| year=2005 | id=ISBN 0-312-33043-9}}
*{{cite book | author=Braun, Michael | title=Love Me Do: The Beatles' Progress | location=London | publisher=[[Penguin Books]] | year=1964 [1995 Reprint] | id=ISBN 0-14-002278-3}}
*{{cite book | author=Carr, Roy & Tyler, Tony | title=The Beatles: An Illustrated Record | publisher=Harmony Books | year=1975 | id=ISBN 0-517-52045-1}}
*{{cite book | author=Colonna, Roberto | title=Dalla prospettiva degli scarafaggi | publisher=[[Napolipiù - La verità]] | year=2005}}
*{{cite book | author=Cross, Craig | title=The Beatles: Day by Day, Song by Song, Record by Record | publisher=iUniverse, Inc | year=2005 | id=ISBN 0-595-34663-4}}
*–––. {{cite web | title = Beatles-discography.com: The Beatles: Day-by-Day, Song-by-Song, Record-by-Record | url=http://www.beatles-discography.com/ | accessdate=January 26 | accessyear=2006 | work=Various webpages}}
*{{cite book | author=Davies, Hunter | authorlink=Hunter Davies | title=The Beatles [Second Revised Edition] | publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]] | year=1985 | id=ISBN 00070155267 {{Please check ISBN|00070155267 (too long)}}}}
*{{cite book | author=Emerick, Geoff, & Massey, Howard | authorlink=Geoff Emerick | title=Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles | publisher=[[Gotham Books]]| year=2006 | id=ISBN 1-59240-179-1}}
*{{cite book | author=Goldsmith, Martin | title=The Beatles Come To America | publisher=Turning Points | year=2004 | id=ISBN 0-471-46964-5}}
*{{cite web | author=Kubernik, Ken | year=[[October 16]], [[2005]] | title=Here, There & Everywhere | work=Variety Magazine's 100 Icons of the Century | publisher=''[[Variety Magazine]]'' | url=http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=variety100&content=jump&jump=icon&articleID=VR1117930700 | accessdate=January 28 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | author=Lewis, Martin | year=[[October 16]], [[2005]] | title=The Apollonian Spirit of the Beatles | work=Variety Magazine's 100 Icons of the Century | publisher=''[[Variety Magazine]]'' | url=http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=variety100&content=jump&jump=general&articleID=VR1117930902 | accessdate=January 28 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite book | author=Lewisohn, Mark | authorlink=Mark Lewisohn | title=EMI's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years | publisher=Hamlyn | year=1990 | id=ISBN 0-681-03189-1}}
*{{cite book | author=MacDonald, Ian | authorlink=Ian MacDonald | title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties | publisher=Vintage | year=1995 | id=ISBN 0-7126-6697-4}}
*{{cite book | author=Martin, George | title=Summer of love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper | publisher=Macmillan | year=1994 | id=ISBN 0-333-60398-2}}
*{{cite book | author=Norman, Philip | title=Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation | publisher=MJF Books | year=1997 | id=ISBN 1-56731-087-7}}
*{{cite book | author=Schaffner, Nicholas | title=The Beatles Forever | publisher=Cameron House | year=1977 | id=ISBN 0-8117-0225-1}}
*{{cite book | author=Spitz, Bob | title=The Beatles | publisher=Little Brown | year=2005 | id=ISBN 0-316-80352-9}}


Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, ''[[1962–1966]]'' and ''[[1967–1970]]'', were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint.{{sfn|Ingham|2006|p=69}} Commonly known as the "Red Album" and "Blue Album", respectively, each has earned a [[Music recording certification|Multi-Platinum certification]] in the US and a Platinum certification in the UK.<ref name="RIAAb">{{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=The+Beatles&ti=&lab=&genre=&format=&date_option=release&from=&to=&award=&type=&category=&adv=SEARCH#search_section |title=Gold & Platinum Artist Tallies |access-date=16 February 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216002911/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=The+Beatles&ti=&lab=&genre=&format=&date_option=release&from=&to=&award=&type=&category=&adv=SEARCH |archive-date=16 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="BPI2009">{{cite web |work=[[British Phonographic Industry]] |title=Certified Awards Search |url=https://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115055129/http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx |archive-date=15 January 2013 |access-date=6 October 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 (album)|Rock 'n' Roll Music]]''.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=109}} 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.{{sfn|Ingham|2006|pp=66, 69}}{{refn|group=nb|The band unsuccessfully attempted to block the 1977 release of ''[[Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962]]''. The independently issued album compiled recordings made during the group's [[The Beatles in Hamburg|Hamburg residency]], taped on a basic recording machine using only one microphone.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=124–126}}}}
==Further reading==
*The Gospel according to the Beatles. Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. ISBN 0-664-22983-2.
*The Beatles. ''The Beatles Anthology''. Chronicle Books, LLC, 2000. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
*Emerick, Geoff, and Howard Massey. ''Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles''. New York: Gotham Books, 2006. ISBN 1-59240-179-1. [Memoir of one of the Beatles' main recording engineers.]
*Spitz, Bob. ''The Beatles''. Little, Brown, 2005. ISBN 0-316-80352-9.
*Turner, Steve. ''A Hard Day's Write''. 3rd ed. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2005. ISBN 0-06-084409-4. [Discusses the inspiration or meaning for every Beatles song.]
*Dimery, Martin. ''Being John Lennon''. SAF books, 2002. ISBN 0-946719-43-8.
*[[Alan J. Porter]] ''Before They Were Beatles: The Early Years 1956-1960''. Xlibris. ISBN 1-4134-3056-2.
*Ryan, Kevin, and Brian Kehew. ''Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums''. Los Angeles: Curvebender Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-9785200-0-9.


The music and enduring fame of the Beatles were 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.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=109–110}} Later that year, the off-Broadway musical ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road]]'' opened.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945312,00.html |title=The Theater: Contagious Vulgarity |date=2 December 1974 |magazine=[[TIME (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=27 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016041739/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945312,00.html|archive-date=16 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[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]] and [[Keith Moon]] to the [[London Symphony Orchestra]].{{sfn|Rodriguez|2010|pp=306–307}} The Broadway musical ''[[Beatlemania (musical)|Beatlemania]]'', an unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions.{{sfn|Ingham|2006|pp=66–67}} In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages.{{sfn|Ingham|2006|pp=66–67}} ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' (1978), a musical film starring the [[Bee Gees]] and [[Peter Frampton]], was a commercial failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham.{{sfn|Ingham|2006|p=66}}
==See also==<!-- wherever possible please WORK THESE INTO THE TEXT. E.g. a mention of London could get the [[The Beatles' London]] link. -->
{{Portal}}
*[[The Beatles line-ups]]
*[[The Beatles' London]]
*[[The Beatles trivia]]


Accompanying the wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the US during the 1970s, several entrepreneurs made public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|pp=169–72}} Promoter Bill Sargent first offered the Beatles $10&nbsp;million for a reunion concert in 1974. He raised his offer to $30&nbsp;million in January 1976 and then to $50&nbsp;million the following month.<ref>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Brennan |title=$150m Beatles blitz all set to blast U.S. again |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-antonio-express-150m-beatles-blitz/135439616 |newspaper=[[San Antonio Express]] |date=9 May 1976 |access-date=19 November 2023 |archive-date=19 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119163019/https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-antonio-express-150m-beatles-blitz/135439616/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Cliff |last=Radel |title=Capitol Album May Fuel Beatles Revival |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-capitol-album-ma/135439894/ |newspaper=[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]] |date=20 June 1976 |access-date=19 November 2023 |archive-date=19 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119163028/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-capitol-album-ma/135439894/ |url-status=live}}</ref> On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', producer [[Lorne Michaels]] jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's apartment at [[the Dakota]] in New York, which was within driving distance of the [[Studio 8H|NBC studio]] where the show was being broadcast. The former bandmates briefly entertained the idea of going to the studio and surprising Michaels by accepting his offer, but decided not to.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=155}}
==External links==
{{wikiquote|The Beatles|Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and The Beatles}}
{{commons|The Beatles}}
{{lyricwiki}}
* ''[http://www.beatles.com/ The Beatles (Apple Corps)]'' Official site
* [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/61025 The Beatles] at ''[[Rolling Stone (magazine)|Rolling Stone]]''
* {{musicbrainz artist|id=b10bbbfc-cf9e-42e0-be17-e2c3e1d2600d|name=The Beatles}}
* [http://www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1 Beatles Interview Database]
* [http://www.nemsworld.com/beatles/ Beatles Photo Sessions]
* [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-notes_on.html Notes on... Series by Alan Pollack] An analysis of The Beatles canon by musicologist Alan W. Pollack
* [http://beatles.ncf.ca/timeline.html The Beatle Timeline]
* [http://webs.wichita.edu/mschneegurt/hamburg/hamburg.html Beatles Tour of Hamburg]
* [http://www.beatlesagain.com/ The Internet Beatles Album]
* [http://www.whatgoeson.com/ What Goes On] The Latest Beatles News
* [http://www.time.com/time/2006/100albums/ The Beatles have 5 albums on TIME's 100 Best Albums list]


==== 1980s ====
{{The Beatles}}
{{multiple image
|perrow =
|total_width = 250
|align = left
|direction =
|image1 =
|image2 =
|footer = Harrison and Starr performing at [[the Prince's Trust]] All-Star Rock Concert at [[Wembley Arena]], 1987
|footer_align = center
}}


In December 1980, Lennon was [[murder of John Lennon|shot and killed]] outside his New York City apartment by [[Mark David Chapman]], an American Beatles fan. Harrison rewrote the lyrics of his song "[[All Those Years Ago]]" in Lennon's honour. With Starr on drums and McCartney and his wife, [[Linda McCartney|Linda]], contributing backing vocals, the song was released as a single in May 1981.{{sfn|Badman|1999|p=284}} McCartney's own tribute, "[[Here Today (Paul McCartney song)|Here Today]]", appeared on his ''[[Tug of War (Paul McCartney album)|Tug of War]]'' album in April 1982.{{sfn|Harry|2002|pp=412–413}} In 1984, Starr co-starred in McCartney's film ''[[Give My Regards to Broad Street (film)|Give My Regards to Broad Street]]'',<ref>Snider, Eric (19 September 2012) [https://www.mtv.com/news/2769688/give-my-regards-to-broad-street/ "Eric's Bad Movies: Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226064113/https://www.mtv.com/news/2769688/give-my-regards-to-broad-street/ |date=26 December 2021 }} ''MTV.com''. Retrieved 26 December 2021.</ref> and played with McCartney on several of the songs on the [[Give My Regards to Broad Street|soundtrack]].<ref>Loder, Kurt (17 January 1985) [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/give-my-regards-to-broad-street-sdtk-102267/ "Give My Regards to Broad Street (Soundtrack)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226064114/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/give-my-regards-to-broad-street-sdtk-102267/ |date=26 December 2021 }} ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 26 December 2021.</ref> In 1987, Harrison's ''[[Cloud Nine (George Harrison album)|Cloud Nine]]'' album included "[[When We Was Fab]]", a song about the Beatlemania era.{{sfn|Doggett|2009|p=292}}
[[Category:English musical groups|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:Music from Liverpool|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:1960s music groups|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:Parlophone artists|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:The Beatles| ]]
[[Category:The Beatles with Tony Sheridan|, Beatles]]
[[Category:Apple Corps|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:Apple Records artists|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:George Harrison]]
[[Category:Brian Epstein|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:1960 establishments|Beatles, The]]
[[Category:1970 disestablishments|Beatles, The]]


When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by 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''.<ref name="EMI 2009" /> All the remaining material from the singles and EPs that had not appeared on these thirteen studio albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation ''[[Past Masters]]'' (1988). Except for the ''Red'' and ''Blue'' albums, EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the ''Hollywood Bowl'' record – from its catalogue.{{sfn|Ingham|2006|pp=66, 69}}
{{Link FA|he}}
{{Link FA|pt}}


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 Lennon|Julian]] and [[Sean Lennon|Sean]].<ref name="R&R HoF">{{cite web |publisher=[[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] |title=Inductees: The Beatles |url=https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/beatles |access-date=14 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827150207/https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/beatles |archive-date=27 August 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Harry|2002|p=753}} 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".{{sfn|Harry|2002|p=753}} 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kozinn |first=Allan |author-link=Allan Kozinn |title=Beatles and Record Label Reach Pact and End Suit |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=10 November 1989 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/10/arts/beatles-and-record-label-reach-pact-and-end-suit.html |access-date=27 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124034028/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/10/arts/beatles-and-record-label-reach-pact-and-end-suit.html |archive-date=24 January 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Harry|2002|p=192}}
[[ar:بيتلز]]

[[ast:The Beatles]]
==== 1990s ====
[[bn:দ্য বীটল্‌স]]
''[[Live at the BBC (Beatles album)|Live at the BBC]]'', the first official release of unissued Beatles performances in 17&nbsp;years, appeared in 1994.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=661–663}} That same year McCartney, Harrison and Starr collaborated on the ''[[The Beatles Anthology|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''.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=110–111}}
[[be:The Beatles]]

[[bs:The Beatles]]
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]]. Documenting their history in the band's own words, the ''Anthology'' project included the release of several unissued Beatles recordings. Alongside producer [[Jeff Lynne]], McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to songs recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s,{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=111–112, 428, 907–908}} resulting in the release of two "new" Beatles singles, "[[Free as a Bird]]" and "[[Real Love (Beatles song)|Real Love]]". A third Lennon demo, "[[Now and Then (Beatles song)|Now and Then]]", was also attempted, but abandoned due to the low quality of the recording.<ref name=":0" /> The ''Anthology'' releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400&nbsp;million people.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=111–112}} A book, ''[[The Beatles Anthology (book)|The Beatles Anthology]]'', followed in October 2000. In 1999, to coincide with the re-release of the 1968 film ''Yellow Submarine'', an expanded soundtrack album, ''[[Yellow Submarine Songtrack]]'', was issued.{{sfn|Doggett|2009|p=342}}
[[br:Beatles]]

[[bg:Бийтълс]]
==== 2000s ====
[[ca:The Beatles]]
The Beatles' ''[[1 (Beatles album)|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&nbsp;million sold in its first week<ref>{{cite news |publisher=[[CNN]] |agency=Reuters |title=Beatles '1' is fastest selling album ever |date=6 December 2000 |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/06/beatles.reut/index.html |access-date=26 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302160919/http://edition.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/06/beatles.reut/index.html |archive-date=2 March 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> and 13&nbsp;million within a month.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=9}} It topped albums charts in at least 28 countries.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=204}} The compilation had sold 31&nbsp;million copies globally by April 2009.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Randy |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-beatles8-2009apr08,0,242705.story |title=Beatles' Catalog Will Be Reissued Sept.&nbsp;9 in Remastered Versions |date=8 April 2009 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=2 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411024440/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-beatles8-2009apr08%2C0%2C242705.story |archive-date=11 April 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[cs:Beatles]]

[[da:The Beatles]]
Harrison died from [[Metastasis|metastatic]] lung cancer in November 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/george-harrisons-death-certificate |title=George Harrison's Death Certificate |work=[[The Smoking Gun]] |access-date=22 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120628104956/http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/george-harrisons-death-certificate |archive-date=28 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |agency=BBC |title=George Harrison Dies |date=30 November 2001 |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1492446.stm |access-date=27 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904001513/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1492446.stm |archive-date=4 September 2009}}</ref>{{sfn|Harry|2003|p=119}} McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who performed at the [[Concert for George]], organised by [[Eric Clapton]] and Harrison's widow, [[Olivia Harrison|Olivia]]. The tribute event took place at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] on the first anniversary of Harrison's death.{{sfn|Harry|2003|pp=138–139}}
[[de:The Beatles]]

[[et:The Beatles]]
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 from the Spector-produced version was the omission of the original string arrangements.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Naked Truth About The Beatles' Let It {{sic|BeNaked |nolink=y}} |url=https://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_naked_truth_beatles/ |last=Hurwitz |first=Matt |work=[[Mix (magazine)|Mix]] |date=1 January 2004 |access-date=21 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530202935/http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_naked_truth_beatles/ |archive-date=30 May 2013}}</ref> 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 ''[[The Capitol Albums, Volume 2|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.{{sfn|Womack|2007|p=100}}
[[es:The Beatles]]

[[eo:The Beatles]]
As a soundtrack for [[Cirque du Soleil]]'s [[Las Vegas Strip|Las Vegas]] Beatles stage revue, ''[[Love (Cirque du Soleil)|Love]]'', George Martin and his son [[Giles Martin|Giles]] remixed and [[Mashup (music)|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".<ref>{{cite web |website=[[NME]] |title=Beatles to release new album |date=2 October 2006 |url=https://www.nme.com/news/beatles/24534 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011185624/https://www.nme.com/news/beatles/24534 |archive-date=11 October 2011}}</ref> The show premiered in June 2006 and the ''[[Love (Beatles album)|Love]]'' album was released that November.<ref>{{cite news |last=Collett-White |first=Mike |title=McCartney Hints at Mythical Beatles Track Release |date=17 November 2008 |work=Reuters |url=https://uk.reuters.com/article/music-us-beatles-idUKTRE4AG64Y20081117 |access-date=20 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209013348/http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/11/17/music-us-beatles-idUKTRE4AG64Y20081117 |archive-date=9 February 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In April 2009, Starr performed three songs with McCartney at a benefit concert held at New York's [[Radio City Music Hall]] and organised by McCartney.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lustig |first=Jay |title=Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr Perform Together in Support of Transcendental Meditation |website=[[The Star-Ledger]] |date=5 April 2009 |url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/04/paul_mccartney_ringo_starr_sin.html |access-date=6 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115092140/http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/04/paul_mccartney_ringo_starr_sin.html |archive-date=15 November 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[eu:The Beatles]]

[[fr:The Beatles]]
On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four&nbsp;years.<ref name="EMI 2009">{{cite press release |publisher=EMI |title=The Beatles' Entire Original Recorded Catalogue Remastered by Apple Corps Ltd. |date=7 April 2009 |url=https://www.emimusic.com/news/2009/the-beatles-entire-original-recorded-catalogue-remastered-by-apple-corps-ltd-and-emi-music-for-worldwide-release-on-september-9-2009-9-9-09/ |access-date=25 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401100034/http://www.emimusic.com/news/2009/the-beatles-entire-original-recorded-catalogue-remastered-by-apple-corps-ltd-and-emi-music-for-worldwide-release-on-september-9-2009-9-9-09/ |archive-date=1 April 2012}}</ref> Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with ''Magical Mystery Tour'' and the ''Past Masters'' compilation, were released on compact disc both individually and [[The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings)|as a box set]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Eccleston |first=Danny |title=Beatles Remasters Reviewed |work=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]] |date=9 September 2009 |url=https://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/09/beatles_remasters_reviewed.html |access-date=13 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007072418/https://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/09/beatles_remasters_reviewed.html |archive-date=7 October 2009}}</ref> A second collection, ''[[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'' (both of which Martin had remixed for the 1987 editions).<ref>{{cite news |last=Collett-White |first=Mike |title=Original Beatles digitally remastered |work=Reuters |date=7 April 2009 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-beatles-remastered-idUSTRE5363RN20090407 |access-date=13 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209220852/http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/07/us-beatles-remastered-idUSTRE5363RN20090407 |archive-date=9 February 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The Beatles: Rock Band]]'', a music video game in the ''[[Rock Band]]'' series, was issued on the same day.<ref name="CNN Gross">{{cite news |last=Gross |first=Doug |url=https://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/04/beatles.999/index.html |title=Still Relevant After Decades, The Beatles Set to Rock 9&nbsp;September 2009 |date=4 September 2009 |publisher=CNN |access-date=6 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906145915/http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/04/beatles.999/index.html |archive-date=6 September 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> In December 2009, the band's catalogue was officially released in [[FLAC]] and [[MP3]] format in [[The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings)#Limited edition USB flash drive|a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Martens |first=Todd |title=Meet the Beatles' USB Drive; EMI Files Suit Against BlueBeat for Selling Beatles Downloads |date=4 November 2009 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/meet-the-beatles-usb-drive-emi-files-suit-against-bluebeat-for-selling-beatles-downloads.html |access-date=5 November 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091106052411/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/meet-the-beatles-usb-drive-emi-files-suit-against-bluebeat-for-selling-beatles-downloads.html |archive-date=6 November 2009}}</ref>
[[ga:The Beatles]]

[[gd:Na Beatles]]
==== 2010s ====
[[ko:비틀즈]]
Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among the last major artists to sign deals with online music services.<ref>{{cite news |last=La Monica |first=Paul R. |title=Hey iTunes, Don't Make It Bad&nbsp;... |publisher=[[CNN Money]] |date=7 September 2005 |url=https://money.cnn.com/2005/09/07/technology/personaltech/beatles/index.htm |access-date=25 July 2009|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904070136/http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/07/technology/personaltech/beatles/index.htm |archive-date=4 September 2009}}</ref> Residual disagreement emanating from [[Apple Corps v Apple Computer|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 "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them".<ref>{{cite news |last=Kaplan |first=David |title=Beatles tracks not coming to iTunes any time soon; McCartney: Talks at an impasse |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=25 November 2008 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2008/nov/25/thebeatles-apple |access-date=16 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317050622/http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2008/nov/25/thebeatles-apple |archive-date=17 March 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Aswad |first=Jem |title=Beatles End Digital Boycott, Catalog Now on iTunes |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=16 November 2010 |access-date=17 November 2010 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-end-digital-boycott-catalog-now-on-itunes-20101116 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217060655/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-end-digital-boycott-catalog-now-on-itunes-20101116 |archive-date=17 December 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[hr:The Beatles]]

[[ilo:Beatles]]
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 to spin off assets including Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, managed by [[Capitol Records]] under its [[Capitol Music Group]] division.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ingham |first=Tim |url=https://www.musicweek.com/news/read/steve-barnett-named-chairman-of-universal-s-capitol-records/052695 |title=Universal's Capitol takes shape: Barnett in, Beatles on roster |work=Music Week |date=26 November 2012 |access-date=28 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208190010/http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/steve-barnett-named-chairman-of-universal-s-capitol-records/052695 |archive-date=8 February 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> The entire original Beatles album catalogue was also reissued on vinyl in 2012; available either individually or as a box set.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Randy |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-xpm-2012-sep-27-la-et-ms-beatles-vinyl-album-catalog-reissue-20120927-story.html |title=Beatles album catalog will get back to vinyl Nov. 13 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=27 September 2012 |access-date=29 September 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208143637/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/27/entertainment/la-et-ms-beatles-vinyl-album-catalog-reissue-20120927 |archive-date=8 February 2013}}</ref>
[[id:The Beatles]]

[[is:Bítlarnir]]
In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings, ''[[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 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."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/12/beatles-copyright-apple-release-tracks |title=Beatles for sale: copyright laws force Apple to release 59 tracks |first=Mark |last=Brown |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=12 December 2013|access-date=19 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215094508/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/12/beatles-copyright-apple-release-tracks|archive-date=15 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-surprise-with-rare-bootleg-1963-release-20131217 |title=Beatles Surprise With 'Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 Release' |first=Steve |last=Knopper |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=17 December 2013|access-date=19 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219231439/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-surprise-with-rare-bootleg-1963-release-20131217|archive-date=19 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[it:The Beatles]]

[[he:הביטלס]]
On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed together at the [[56th Annual Grammy Awards]], held at the [[Staples Center]] in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartney-and-ringo-starr-share-grammy-stage-for-rare-performance-20140126 |title=Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Share Grammy Stage for Rare Performance |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=26 January 2014 |access-date=15 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006162213/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartney-and-ringo-starr-share-grammy-stage-for-rare-performance-20140126 |archive-date=6 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The following day, ''[[The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles]]'' television special was taped in the [[Los Angeles Convention Center]]'s West Hall. It aired on 9 February, the exact date of&nbsp;– and at the same time and on the same network as&nbsp;– the original broadcast of the Beatles' first US television appearance on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', 50&nbsp;years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival footage and interviews with the two surviving ex-Beatles carried out by [[David Letterman]] at the [[Ed Sullivan Theater]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/news/grammy-beatles-special-to-air-feb-9-2014 |title=GRAMMY Beatles Special To Air Feb. 9, 2014 |publisher=Grammy Awards |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131116033058/http://www.grammy.com/news/grammy-beatles-special-to-air-feb-9-2014 |archive-date=16 November 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Yarborough |first=Chuck |url=https://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2014/02/paul_mccartney_ringo_starr_to.html |title=Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr to be interviewed by David Letterman for 'Grammy Salute to the Beatles' |newspaper=The Plain Dealer |date=7 February 2014 |access-date=6 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006162126/https://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2014/02/paul_mccartney_ringo_starr_to.html |archive-date=6 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming on various streaming music services including [[Spotify]] and [[Apple Music]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dillet |first1=Romain |title=The Beatles Come To Spotify, Apple Music And Other Streaming Services |url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/the-beatles-come-to-spotify-apple-music-and-other-streaming-services/ |website=TechCrunch |date=23 December 2015|access-date=31 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131013342/http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/the-beatles-come-to-spotify-apple-music-and-other-streaming-services/|archive-date=31 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[ka:ბითლზი]]

[[la:The Beatles]]
In September 2016, the documentary film ''[[The Beatles: Eight Days a Week]]'' was released. Directed by [[Ron Howard]], it chronicled the Beatles' career during their touring years from 1961 to 1966, from their performances in Liverpool's the Cavern Club in 1961 to their final concert in San Francisco in 1966. The film was released theatrically on 15 September in the UK and the US, and started streaming on [[Hulu]] on 17 September. It received several awards and nominations, including for Best Documentary at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thebeatles.com/news/watch-trailer-beatles-eight-days-week-touring-years |title=Watch the Trailer for 'The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years' |date=20 June 2016 |website=thebeatles.com|access-date=15 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015060447/https://www.thebeatles.com/news/watch-trailer-beatles-eight-days-week-touring-years|archive-date=15 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> An expanded, remixed and remastered version of ''The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl'' was released on 9 September, to coincide with the release of the film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/beatles-release-new-hollywood-bowl-live-album-84822 |title=The Beatles to release remixed and remastered recordings from their Hollywood Bowl concerts |work=Uncut |author=Bonner, Michael |date=20 July 2016|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721115149/http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/beatles-release-new-hollywood-bowl-live-album-84822|archive-date=21 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-announce-new-live-at-the-hollywood-bowl-album-w429893 |title=Beatles Announce New 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' Album |magazine=Rolling Stone |author=Grow, Kory |date=20 July 2016|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830112528/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-announce-new-live-at-the-hollywood-bowl-album-w429893|archive-date=30 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[lv:The Beatles]]

[[lt:The Beatles]]
On 18 May 2017, [[Sirius XM Radio]] launched a 24/7 radio channel, The Beatles Channel. A week later, ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary Edition|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' was reissued with new stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary.<ref>{{cite web |last=Deriso |first=Nick |url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-sgt-pepper-reissue-release-date/ |title=Release Date and Formats Revealed for Beatles Expanded 'Sgt. Pepper' Reissue |website=Ultimate Classic Rock |date=4 April 2017|access-date=9 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407084255/http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-sgt-pepper-reissue-release-date/|archive-date=7 April 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Similar box sets were released for ''[[The Beatles: 50th Anniversary Edition|The Beatles]]'' in November 2018,<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Enos |first=Morgan |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8477265/the-beatles-white-album-reissue-giles-martin |title=The Beatles' White Album Remastered: Producer Giles Martin Talks Giving the Classic a Fresh Look at 50 |magazine=Billboard |date=1 October 2018|access-date=7 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008005718/https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8477265/the-beatles-white-album-reissue-giles-martin|archive-date=8 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> and ''[[Abbey Road: 50th Anniversary Edition|Abbey Road]]'' in September 2019.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://abbeyroad.thebeatles.com/ |title=The Beatles Revisit Abbey Road with Special Anniversary Releases |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=8 August 2019 |website=thebeatles.com |publisher=Apple Corps |access-date=8 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808103219/https://abbeyroad.thebeatles.com/ |archive-date=8 August 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> On the first week of October 2019, ''Abbey Road'' returned to number one on the UK Albums Chart. The Beatles broke their own record for the album with the longest gap between topping the charts as ''Abbey Road'' hit the top spot 50&nbsp;years after its original release.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/04/beatles-abbey-road-returns-number-one-50-years/ |title=The Beatles' Abbey Road returns to number one 50 years on |date=4 October 2019 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|access-date=15 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015055010/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/04/beatles-abbey-road-returns-number-one-50-years/|archive-date=15 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[li:Beatles]]

[[hu:The Beatles]]
==== 2020s ====
[[mk:The Beatles]]
In November 2021, ''[[The Beatles: Get Back]]'', a documentary directed by [[Peter Jackson]] using footage captured for the ''Let It Be'' film, was released on [[Disney+]] as a three-part [[miniseries]].<ref>{{Cite web |title='The Beatles: Get Back', a Disney+ Original Documentary Series Directed by Peter Jackson, to Debut Exclusively on Disney+ |url=https://www.thebeatles.com/news/%E2%80%9C-beatles-get-back%E2%80%9D-disney-original-documentary-series-directed-peter-jackson-debut-exclusively|access-date=7 July 2021 |website=The Beatles |language=en|archive-date=17 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617142958/https://www.thebeatles.com/news/%E2%80%9C-beatles-get-back%E2%80%9D-disney-original-documentary-series-directed-peter-jackson-debut-exclusively|url-status=dead}}</ref> A book also titled ''The Beatles: Get Back'' was released on 12 October, ahead of the documentary.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Beatles Expanded Let It Be/Get Back Release Is Due In October |publisher=noise11.com |url=https://www.noise11.com/news/the-beatles-expanded-let-it-be-get-back-release-is-due-in-october-20210813 |date=13 August 2021|access-date=26 August 2021|archive-date=15 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015165755/https://www.noise11.com/news/the-beatles-expanded-let-it-be-get-back-release-is-due-in-october-20210813|url-status=live}}</ref> A [[Let It Be: Special Edition|super deluxe version]] of the ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]'' album was released on 15 October.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |date=26 August 2021 |title=The Unheard 'Let It Be': An Exclusive Guide to the Beatles' New Expanded Classic |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beatles-let-it-be-special-edition-super-deluxe-1214774/|access-date=26 August 2021 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US|archive-date=26 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826131345/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beatles-let-it-be-special-edition-super-deluxe-1214774/|url-status=live}}</ref> In January 2022, the album ''[[The Beatles' rooftop concert#Set list|Get Back (Rooftop Performance)]]'', consisting of newly mixed audio of the [[The Beatles' rooftop concert|Beatles' rooftop performance]], was released on streaming services.<ref>{{Cite web |title='The Beatles: Get Back-the Rooftop Performance' |url=https://www.thebeatles.com/beatles-get-back-rooftop-performance-0|access-date=25 March 2022 |website=www.thebeatles.com|archive-date=30 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220430054941/https://www.thebeatles.com/beatles-get-back-rooftop-performance-0|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[mt:The Beatles]]

[[ms:The Beatles]]
In 2022, McCartney and Starr collaborated on a new recording of "[[Let It Be (song)|Let It Be]]" with [[Dolly Parton]], [[Peter Frampton]] and [[Mick Fleetwood]], which was released on Parton's album ''[[Rockstar (Dolly Parton album)|Rockstar]]'' in November 2023.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/dolly-parton-love-note-paul-mccartney-ringo-starr-rockstar-collaboration-1235504979/ |title=Dolly Parton Says She Sent 'Love Note' to Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr to Ask Them for 'Rockstar' Collaboration |first=Rania |last=Aniftos |publisher=Billboard |date=21 November 2023 |accessdate=11 January 2024|archive-date=11 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111174226/https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/dolly-parton-love-note-paul-mccartney-ringo-starr-rockstar-collaboration-1235504979/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine |last=Nicholson |first=Jessica |date=9 May 2023 |title=Dolly Parton's Star-Studded Album 'Rockstar' Finally Has a Release Date |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/country/dolly-parton-rock-album-rockstar-release-date-1235325131/ |magazine=Billboard |language=en-US |access-date=9 May 2023 |archive-date=13 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213082841/https://www.billboard.com/music/country/dolly-parton-rock-album-rockstar-release-date-1235325131/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In October, a [[Revolver: Special Edition|special edition]] of ''Revolver'' was released, featuring unreleased demos, studio outtakes, the original mono mix and a new stereo remix using [[Artificial intelligence|AI]] de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson's [[WingNut Films]], which had previously been used to restore audio for the documentary ''Get Back''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Aswad |first1=Jem |title=The Beatles' 'Revolver' Box Brings a 'Get Back' Treatment to the Group's Creative Breakthrough: Album Review |url=https://variety.com/2022/music/album-reviews/the-beatles-revolver-deluxe-box-album-review-1235417007/ |website=Variety |access-date=18 November 2022 |date=28 October 2022 |archive-date=18 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118120644/https://variety.com/2022/music/album-reviews/the-beatles-revolver-deluxe-box-album-review-1235417007/ |url-status=live}}</ref> New music videos were produced for "[[Here, There and Everywhere]]" and "[[I'm Only Sleeping]]", the latter of which won the [[Grammy Award for Best Music Video]] at the [[66th Annual Grammy Awards]].
[[nl:The Beatles]]

[[ja:ビートルズ]]
In June 2023, McCartney announced plans to release "the final Beatles record" later in the year, using Jackson's de-mixing technology to extract Lennon's voice from an old demo of a song that he had written as a solo artist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=13 June 2023 |title=Sir Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has enabled a 'final' Beatles song |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65881813 |access-date=13 June 2023 |archive-date=5 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805102233/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65881813 |url-status=live}}</ref> In October 2023, the song was revealed to be "[[Now and Then (Beatles song)|Now and Then]]", with a physical and digital release date of 2 November 2023.<ref name="NowAndThen2023">{{cite web |last=Ruggieri |first=Melissa |date=26 October 2023 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/10/26/beatles-last-song-now-and-then-release-date-ai-explained/71315449007/ |title=The last Beatles song, 'Now and Then,' finally arrives after more than 40 years |work=USA Today |publisher=Gannett |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026221203/https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/10/26/beatles-last-song-now-and-then-release-date-ai-explained/71315449007/ |archivedate=26 October 2023}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=McIntyre |first=Hugh |title=The Beatles Dethrone Taylor Swift On Spotify |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/11/03/the-beatles-dethrone-taylor-swift-on-spotify/ |access-date=6 November 2023 |website=Forbes |language=en |archive-date=6 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106190504/https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/11/03/the-beatles-dethrone-taylor-swift-on-spotify/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The official music video for "Now and Then" was released the following day, garnering upwards of 8&nbsp;million views in its first 12 hours,<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Watercutter |first1=Angela |title='Now and Then,' the Beatles' Last Song, Is Here, Thanks to Peter Jackson's AI |url=https://www.wired.com/story/the-beatles-now-and-then-last-song-artificial-intelligence-peter-jackson/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=4 November 2023 |date=3 November 2023 |archive-date=4 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104002316/https://www.wired.com/story/the-beatles-now-and-then-last-song-artificial-intelligence-peter-jackson/ |url-status=live}}</ref> as the song arrived on Spotify's rankings as one of the most-streamed current songs.<ref name=":2" /> "Now and Then" debuted simultaneously across music, alternative, news/talk and sports stations. The song's premiere achieved the record for the most radio stations to simulcast a music track.<ref>{{Cite web |last=White |first=Matthew |date=6 November 2023 |title=The Beatles' last single "Now and Then" breaks radio record as AI revives Lennon recording |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/11/the-beatles-last-single-now-and-then-breaks-radio-record-as-ai-revives-lennon-760660 |access-date=9 November 2023 |website=Guinness world records |archive-date=9 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109132259/https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/11/the-beatles-last-single-now-and-then-breaks-radio-record-as-ai-revives-lennon-760660 |url-status=live}}</ref> The song became their first UK number one single since 1969.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Beaumont-Thomas |first1=Ben |title=The Beatles set record 54-year gap between No 1 singles as Now and Then tops UK chart |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/10/the-beatles-54-years-no-1-singles-now-and-then-uk-chart |access-date=28 November 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=10 November 2023 |archive-date=11 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111080219/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/10/the-beatles-54-years-no-1-singles-now-and-then-uk-chart |url-status=live}}</ref> It was nominated for [[Grammy Award for Record of the Year|Record of the Year]] at the [[67th Annual Grammy Awards]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Willman |first=Chris |date=8 November 2024 |title=Grammy Nominations 2025: Beyonce Leads With 11 Nods as Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX Are Among Top Nominees |url=https://variety.com/2024/music/news/grammy-nominations-2025-beyonce-taylor-swift-chappell-roan-complete-list-1236204610/ |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |access-date=8 November 2024 |archive-date=8 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241108164954/https://variety.com/2024/music/news/grammy-nominations-2025-beyonce-taylor-swift-chappell-roan-complete-list-1236204610/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[no:The Beatles]]

[[nn:The Beatles]]
On 8 May 2024 the 1970 film ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]'', digitally restored by [[Peter Jackson]]{{'}}s [[Park Road Post]], was released on [[Disney+]], marking the first time it has been publicly screened since its original theatrical release.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tingley |first=Anna |date=8 May 2024 |title=Beatles' 1970 'Let It Be' Documentary Is Now Streaming on Disney+ |url=https://variety.com/2024/music/news/beatles-let-it-be-documentary-how-to-watch-online-streaming-1235996229/ |access-date=10 May 2024 |website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |language=en-US |archive-date=10 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510083342/https://variety.com/2024/music/news/beatles-let-it-be-documentary-how-to-watch-online-streaming-1235996229/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[pl:The Beatles]]

[[pt:The Beatles]]
== Artistry ==
[[ro:The Beatles]]
{{See also|Lennon–McCartney}}
[[ru:The Beatles]]

[[sq:The Beatles]]
=== Development ===
[[scn:The Beatles]]
In ''Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever'', Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles' musical evolution:
[[simple:The Beatles]]

[[sk:The Beatles]]
{{blockquote|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 music|country]], [[psychedelic music|psychedelia]], and [[baroque pop]], without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work.{{sfn|Schinder|Schwartz|2007|p=160}}}}
[[sl:The Beatles]]

[[sr:Битлси]]
In ''The Beatles as Musicians'', [[Walter Everett (musicologist)|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."{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=9}}
[[sh:The Beatles]]

[[su:The Beatles]]
Ian MacDonald describes McCartney as "a natural melodist&nbsp;– a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody lines are characterised as primarily "vertical", employing wide, [[Consonance and dissonance|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."{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=12}} 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".{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|pp=382–383}}
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[[sv:The Beatles]]
=== Influences ===
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The Beatles' earliest influences include Elvis Presley, [[Carl Perkins]], [[Little Richard]], [[Chuck Berry]] and [[Gene Vincent]].{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=140, 660, 856–858, 881}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/02/beatles-tune-in-mark-lewisohn-review |title=The Beatles – All These Years: Volume One: Tune in by Mark Lewisohn – review |date=2013 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=4 May 2023|archive-date=4 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504231227/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/02/beatles-tune-in-mark-lewisohn-review|url-status=live}}</ref> During the Beatles' co-residency with Little Richard at the [[Star-Club]] in Hamburg, from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=660}} 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."{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=881}} Chuck Berry was particularly influential in terms of songwriting and lyrics. Lennon noted, "He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. We all owe a lot to him."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.johnlennon.com/music/interviews/rolling-stone-interview-1970/ |title=The Rolling Stone Interview, December 1970. |date=1970 |newspaper=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=11 May 2023|archive-date=8 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408222419/https://www.johnlennon.com/music/interviews/rolling-stone-interview-1970/|url-status=live}}</ref> Other early influences include Buddy Holly, [[Eddie Cochran]], [[Roy Orbison]],{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=289, 526, 830}} [[the Everly Brothers]]{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=111, 123, 131, 133}} and [[Jerry Lee Lewis]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/john-lennon-the-last-interview-179443/ |title=John Lennon: The Last Interview |date=2010 |newspaper=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=4 May 2023|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724205328/https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/john-lennon-the-last-interview-179443/|url-status=live}}</ref>
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[[uk: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]], [[Smokey Robinson and the Miracles]], [[the Who]], [[Frank Zappa]], [[the Lovin' Spoonful]], [[the Byrds]] and [[the Beach Boys]], whose 1966 album ''[[Pet Sounds]]'' amazed and inspired McCartney.{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=99, 217, 357, 1195}}{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=333–335, 359}}{{sfn|Lavezzoli|2006|pp=147, 150, 162, 169}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/feb/01/thebeatles.popandrock |title=Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! |date=2004 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=1 May 2023|archive-date=1 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501235518/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/feb/01/thebeatles.popandrock|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Miles |first=Barry |date=November 1966 |title=A Conversation with Paul McCartney |newspaper=International Times |location=London}}</ref> Referring to the Beach Boys' creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]."{{sfn|Granata|2003|p=17}} 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.{{sfn|Lavezzoli|2006|pp=147, 165, 177}}
[[zh-yue:披頭四]]

[[zh:披頭四樂隊]]
=== Genres ===
Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/merseybeat-ma0000012018/songs |title=Merseybeat – Significant Albums, Artists and Songs |publisher=AllMusic|access-date=27 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016041739/http://www.allmusic.com/style/merseybeat-ma0000012018/songs|archive-date=16 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> and their repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=30–32, 100–107}} 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",{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=255}} while Gould credits ''Rubber Soul'' as "the instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into the camp of pop".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=296}}

[[File:Guitarras de McCartney y Harrison.jpg|upright=.75|thumb|A [[Höfner 500/1|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.|alt=Two electric guitars, a light brown violin-shaped bass and a darker brown guitar resting against a Vox amplifier]]

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."{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=278}} They continued to experiment with string arrangements to various effect; ''Sgt. Pepper''{{'}}s "[[She's Leaving Home]]", for instance, is "cast in the {{lang|en-US|mold}} of a sentimental Victorian ballad", Gould writes, "its words and music filled with the clichés of musical melodrama".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=402}}

The band's stylistic range expanded in another direction with their 1966 B-side "Rain", described by [[Martin C. Strong|Martin Strong]] as "the first overtly psychedelic Beatles record".{{sfn|Strong|2004|p=108}} 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]] was evident in Harrison's "[[The Inner Light (song)|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".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=406, 462–463}}

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&nbsp;... and uniquely innovative. There literally had never before been a song – classical or vernacular – that had blended so many disparate elements so imaginatively."{{sfn|Campbell|2008|p=196}} Philosophy professor Bruce Ellis Benson agrees: "The Beatles&nbsp;... 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."{{sfn|Benson|2003|p=43}}

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."{{sfn|Pedler|2003|p=256}} 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 music|country]] song "[[Don't Pass Me By]]", Harrison's [[rock ballad]] "[[While My Guitar Gently Weeps]]" and the "[[Heavy metal music#Origins: late 1960s and early 1970s|proto-metal]] roar" of McCartney's "[[Helter Skelter (song)|Helter Skelter]]".<ref name="White Album AllMusic">{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |title=''The Beatles [White Album]'' – The Beatles |publisher=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-beatles-white-album-mw0000418113 |access-date=21 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530202730/https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-beatles-white-album-mw0000418113 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Contribution of George Martin ===
[[File:Beatles and George Martin in studio 1966.JPG|thumb|alt=The Beatles with George Martin in the studio in the mid-1960s|[[George Martin]] (second from right) in the studio with the Beatles in the mid-1960s]]
[[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]]".{{sfn|Harry|2000a|p=721}} He applied his classical musical training in various ways and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing songwriters, according to Gould.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=121, 290}} 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.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=158}} Their creative development was also facilitated by Martin's willingness to experiment in response to their suggestions, such as adding "something [[baroque music|baroque]]" to a particular recording.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=290}} In addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ and [[Brass instrument|brass]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=382, 405, 409, 443, 584}}

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."{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=238}} Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting styles and his stabilising influence:

{{blockquote|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&nbsp;... John's imagery is one of the best things about his work&nbsp;– 'tangerine trees', 'marmalade skies', 'cellophane flowers' ...&nbsp;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&nbsp;... they knew that I, in my schoolmasterly role, didn't approve&nbsp;... 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, ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band|Pepper]]'' would never have been the album it was. Perhaps it was the combination of dope and no dope that worked, who knows?{{sfn|Martin|1979|pp=205–206}}}}

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&nbsp;– 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."{{sfn|Harry|2003|p=264}}

=== In the studio ===
{{See also|Recording practices of the Beatles}}

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.{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=103}} Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, [[Ken Townsend]] and Geoff Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from ''Rubber Soul'' and, especially, ''Revolver'' onwards.{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=103}}

Along with innovative studio techniques such as [[audio signal processing|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".{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=212}} They also used novel electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro,{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=219}} and the [[clavioline]], an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "[[Baby, You're a Rich Man]]".{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=259}}

== Legacy ==
{{Main|Cultural impact of the Beatles}}
{{multiple image
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| caption1 = ''[[The Beatles Monument (Almaty)|The Beatles Monument]]'' in [[Almaty]], Kazakhstan
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| caption3 = [[Abbey Road#Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"|Abbey Road crossing]] in London is a popular destination for Beatles fans. In December 2010 it was given [[Listed building#Grade II|grade II listed]] status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12059385 |title=Beatles' Abbey Road zebra crossing given listed status |date=22 December 2010 |work=BBC News|access-date=27 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720174732/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12059385|archive-date=20 July 2011}}</ref>
}}

Former ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine associate editor [[Robert Greenfield]] compared the Beatles to [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original&nbsp;... [I]n the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive&nbsp;..."<ref name="CNN Gross" /> The British poet [[Philip Larkin]] described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism" and "the first advance in popular music since the War".<ref>{{cite book |last=Drabble |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Drabble |title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature |edition=6th |pages=76–77 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-866244-0 |url=https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=16096298022&searchurl=isbn%3D0198662440|access-date=6 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202025140/http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=16096298022&searchurl=isbn%3D0198662440|archive-date=2 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1964, the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. is credited with initiating the [[album era]];<ref>{{cite web |first=Ann |last=Powers |authorlink=Ann Powers |title=A New Canon: In Pop Music, Women Belong at the Center of the Story |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/07/24/538601651/a-new-canon-in-pop-music-women-belong-at-the-center-of-the-story |publisher=[[NPR]] |date=24 July 2017|access-date=10 March 2020|archive-date=22 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122040554/https://www.npr.org/2017/07/24/538601651/a-new-canon-in-pop-music-women-belong-at-the-center-of-the-story|url-status=live}}</ref> the music historian [[Joel Whitburn]] says that LP sales soon "exploded and eventually outpaced the sales and releases of singles" in the music industry.<ref>{{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |authorlink=Joel Whitburn |year=2003 |title=Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 |publisher=[[Record Research]] |isbn=978-0-89820-155-0 |page=xxiii}}</ref> They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US,{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=277}} they became a globally influential phenomenon as well.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=8}} From the 1920s, the US had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] films, [[jazz]], the music of Broadway and [[Tin Pan Alley]], and later, the rock and roll that first emerged in [[Memphis, Tennessee]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=9}} The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people whom they most associated with UK culture.<ref>{{cite news |title=Shakespeare 'a cultural icon' abroad |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27110234 |agency=BBC |date=9 April 2017|access-date=6 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913230807/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27110234|archive-date=13 September 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Culture, attraction and soft power |url=https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/as-others-see-us-report.pdf |publisher=British Council |date=9 April 2017|access-date=9 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403042324/https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/as-others-see-us-report.pdf|archive-date=3 April 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=8}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vega |first=Luis Daniel |title=Una idea descabellada: instantáneas del rock en Bogotá (1957–1975) |url=https://bibliotecadigitaldebogota.gov.co/resources/3648839/ |access-date=11 April 2024 |website=bibliotecadigitaldebogota.gov.co |language=es |archive-date=27 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240327113242/https://www.bibliotecadigitaldebogota.gov.co/resources/3648839/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with [[List of cover versions of Beatles songs|covers of their songs]].<ref>{{cite web |publisher=BBC Radio 2 |title=60s Season&nbsp;– Documentaries |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/60sseason/documentaries/sgtpeppers.shtml#tracklist |access-date=25 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211073431/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/60sseason/documentaries/sgtpeppers.shtml#tracklist |archive-date=11 February 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's [[WABC (AM)|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.{{sfn|Fisher|2007|p=198}} They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "[[filler (media)|filler]]",{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=91}} and they were primary innovators of the modern music video.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=609–610}} The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their [[The Beatles' 1965 US tour|1965 North American tour]] attracted an estimated 55,600 people,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1992|p=181}} then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough&nbsp;... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business".{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=576–578}} Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=345}}

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 fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|1960s counterculture]], Gould continues, they became a catalyst for [[bohemianism]] and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as [[feminist movement|women's liberation]], [[gay liberation]] and [[environmental movement|environmentalism]].{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=8–9}} 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".{{sfn|Lavezzoli|2006|p=176}}

Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their sociocultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the US, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness.<ref name="Gimore (RS Beatles/Dylan/60s)" /><ref name="Leopold (Beatlemania/CNN)">{{cite web |last1=Leopold |first1=Todd |title=Beatles + Sullivan = Revolution: Why Beatlemania Could Never Happen Today |url=https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/beatles-ed-sullivan-50-years-anniversary/ |publisher=CNN|access-date=23 February 2018 |date=31 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223110942/https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/beatles-ed-sullivan-50-years-anniversary/|archive-date=23 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Referring to their appearance on ''the Ed Sullivan Show'' Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the beginning of a cultural revolution&nbsp;... The Beatles were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964."<ref name="Leopold (Beatlemania/CNN)" /> According to Gilmore:
{{blockquote|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&nbsp;– or at least how a pop vision might be forged into an unimpeachable consensus.<ref name="Gimore (RS Beatles/Dylan/60s)" />}}

Established in 2009, [[Global Beatles Day]] is an annual holiday on 25 June each year that honours and celebrates the ideals of the Beatles.<ref>{{cite web |last=Desk |first=Lifestyle |title=Global Beatles Day: What is it and why is it celebrated |website=[[The Indian Express]] |date=25 June 2018 |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/global-beatles-day-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-celebrated-5232622/ | access-date=26 July 2020 | archive-date=4 August 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804084855/https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/global-beatles-day-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-celebrated-5232622/ | url-status=live}}</ref> The date was chosen to commemorate the date the group participated in the [[BBC]] programme ''[[Our World (1967 TV program)|Our World]]'' in 1967, performing "[[All You Need Is Love]]" broadcast to an international audience.<ref>{{cite web |last=Christensen |first=Doreen |title=World Beatles Day: Free streaming of all 12 Beatles albums for Prime members |website=[[Sun-Sentinel]] |date=25 June 2018 |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/deals-shopping/fl-bz-world-beatles-day-free-streaming-free-music-20180625-story.html | access-date=26 July 2020 | archive-date=26 July 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726073851/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/deals-shopping/fl-bz-world-beatles-day-free-streaming-free-music-20180625-story.html | url-status=live}}</ref>

== Awards and achievements ==
{{See also|List of awards and nominations received by the Beatles}}
In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (MBE).{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=556}} The Beatles won the 1971 Academy Award for [[Academy Award for Best Original Score#1970s|Best Original Song Score]] for the film ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]'' (1970).{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=96}} The recipients of seven Grammy Awards<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences]] |title=Grammy Past Winners Search |url=https://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=Beatles&title=&year=All&genre=All |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510104927/http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=Beatles&title=&year=All&genre=All |archive-date=10 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> and fifteen [[Ivor Novello Awards]],{{sfn|Harry|2000a|pp=559–560}} the Beatles have six [[Music recording certification|Diamond albums]], as well as 20 Multi-Platinum albums, 16 Platinum albums and six Gold albums in the US.<ref name="RIAAb" /> In the UK, the Beatles have four [[Music recording certification|Multi-Platinum albums]], four [[Music recording certification|Platinum albums]], eight [[Music recording certification|Gold albums]] and one [[Music recording certification|Silver album]].<ref name="BPI2009" /> They were inducted into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 1988.<ref name="R&R HoF" />

The [[List of best-selling music artists|best-selling band]] in history, the Beatles have sold more than 600&nbsp;million units {{as of|2012|lc=y}}.<ref name="bbc41012">{{cite web |last=Hotten |first=Russell |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-19800654 |title=The Beatles at 50: From Fab Four to fabulously wealthy |work=BBC Business |date=4 October 2012|access-date=20 August 2020|archive-date=23 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923142215/http://www.bbc.com/news/business-19800654|url-status=live}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Another estimate gives total international sales of over 1 billion units,{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=9}} a figure based on EMI's statement and recognised by ''[[Guinness World Records]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-group |title=Best-selling group |work=[[Guinness World Records]] |date=19 March 2001 |access-date=23 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191122220820/https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-group|archive-date=22 November 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>}} From 1991 to 2009 the Beatles sold 57&nbsp;million albums in United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-apr-08-et-beatles8-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |first=Randy |last=Lewis |title=Delayed arrival |date=8 April 2009|access-date=14 October 2022|archive-date=11 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411024440/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-beatles8-2009apr08,0,242705.story|url-status=live}}</ref> They have had more [[List of artists by number of UK Albums Chart number ones|number-one albums on the UK charts]], fifteen,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theofficialcharts.com/artist/_/BEATLES/#albums |title=Beatles |year=2010 |publisher=[[Official Charts Company]] |location=[[London]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103114845/http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/BEATLES/|archive-date=3 November 2013}}</ref> and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9&nbsp;million, than any other act.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Official Chart Company |title=The Official Singles Charts' Biggest Selling Artists of All Time Revealed |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-singles-charts-biggest-selling-artists-of-all-time-revealed-1431/ |date=4 June 2012 |access-date=24 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703073546/http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-singles-charts-biggest-selling-artists-of-all-time-revealed-1431/ |archive-date=3 July 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the Beatles as the most significant and influential rock music artists of the last 50&nbsp;years.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Costello |first=Elvis |author-link=Elvis Costello |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/the-beatles-20110420 |title=100 Greatest Artists: The Beatles |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |year=2004 |access-date=25 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621173923/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/the-beatles-20110420 |archive-date=21 June 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> They ranked number one on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|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.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists (20-01) |date=11 September 2008 |magazine=Billboard |url=https://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-artists-20.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913150551/https://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-artists-20.shtml |archive-date=13 September 2008 |access-date=13 September 2008}}</ref> {{As of|2017}}, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, with twenty.<ref name="hot100">{{cite magazine |first=Kevin |last=Rutherford |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7744226/the-beatles-come-together-chart-history-aerosmith-godsmack |title=The Beatles, Aerosmith & Godsmack: A History of 'Come Together' on the Charts |date=30 March 2017 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|access-date=31 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330213322/http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7744226/the-beatles-come-together-chart-history-aerosmith-godsmack|archive-date=30 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Recording Industry Association of America]] certifies that the Beatles have sold 183&nbsp;million units in the US, more than any other artist.<ref name="insider">{{cite web |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/best-selling-music-artists-of-all-time-2016-9 |title=The 50 best-selling music artists of all time |last=Clark |first=Travis |date=10 March 2020 |work=Business Insider|access-date=20 August 2020|archive-date=30 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830191133/https://www.businessinsider.com/best-selling-music-artists-of-all-time-2016-9|url-status=live}}</ref> They were collectively included in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's compilation of the [[Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century|20th century's 100 most influential people]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Loder |first=Kurt |author-link=Kurt Loder |title=The Time 100 |url=https://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/beatles.html |date=8 June 1998 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=31 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822101414/http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/beatles.html |archive-date=22 August 2008}}</ref> In 2014, they received the [[Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartney-and-ringo-starr-share-grammy-stage-for-rare-performance-20140126 |title=Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Share Grammy Stage for Rare Performance |date=26 January 2014 |magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=30 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129235323/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartney-and-ringo-starr-share-grammy-stage-for-rare-performance-20140126|archive-date=29 January 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 16 January each year, beginning in 2001, people celebrate World Beatles Day under [[UNESCO]]. This date has direct relation to the opening of [[the Cavern Club]] in 1957.<ref>{{cite news |title=Мир отмечает день The Beatles|trans-title=The world is celebrating the Beatles Day |url=https://rg.ru/2013/01/16/beatles.html |newspaper=[[Rossiyskaya Gazeta]] |access-date=4 January 2020 |language=ru |date=16 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203022710/https://rg.ru/2013/01/16/beatles.html |archive-date=3 December 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Aghadadashov |first1=Jafar |title=World marks January 16 The Beatles Day |url=https://report.az/en/show-business/world-marks-january-16-the-beatles-day/ |website=report.az |access-date=4 January 2020 |date=16 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203022708/https://report.az/en/show-business/world-marks-january-16-the-beatles-day/ |archive-date=3 December 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2007, the Beatles became the first band to feature on a [[Great Britain commemorative stamps 2000–2009|series of UK postage stamps]] issued by the [[Royal Mail]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Queen – not that one – to appear on postage stamps |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/23/queen-to-appear-on-postage-stamps |access-date=28 June 2020 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=28 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628004306/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/23/queen-to-appear-on-postage-stamps |url-status=live}}</ref> Earlier in 1999, the [[United States Postal Service]] issued a stamp dedicated to the Beatles and ''Yellow Submarine''.<ref>[https://postalmuseum.si.edu/us-postage-and-the-beatles-the-1999-stamp-the-2003-proofs-and-future-expectations U.S. Postage and the Beatles: The 1999 Stamp, the 2003 Proofs and Future Expectations] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112012018/https://postalmuseum.si.edu/us-postage-and-the-beatles-the-1999-stamp-the-2003-proofs-and-future-expectations |date=12 January 2023}}. Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. 27 March 2014</ref> In 2004 and 2011, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' named them the greatest artist of all time.<ref>{{cite news |last=Costello |first=Elvis |title=The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time |date=15 April 2004 |url=https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Rolling_Stone,_April_15,_2004| access-date=31 January 2024| archive-date=31 January 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131193110/https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Rolling_Stone,_April_15,_2004| url-status=live}}</ref>

== Personnel ==
{{Further|List of members of bands featuring members of the Beatles}}
{{col-float-begin}}
'''Principal band members'''
* [[John Lennon]]&nbsp;– vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica, bass <small>(1960–1969; died 1980)</small>
* [[Paul McCartney]]&nbsp;– vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards, drums <small>(1960–1970)</small>
* [[George Harrison]]&nbsp;– guitars, vocals, sitar, keyboards, bass <small>(1960–1970; died 2001)</small>
* [[Ringo Starr]]&nbsp;– drums, percussion, vocals <small>(1962–1970)</small>{{ref|a|[a]}}
{{col-float-break}}
'''Other early members'''
* [[Stuart Sutcliffe]]&nbsp;– bass, vocals <small>(1960–1961; died 1962)</small>{{ref|b|[b]}}
* [[Pete Best]]&nbsp;– drums, vocals <small>(1960–1962)</small>{{ref|c|[c]}}
{{col-float-end}}
'''Temporary members'''
* {{sup|{{note|a|[a]}}}} [[Jimmie Nicol]] temporarily replaced Starr for eight dates on [[The Beatles' 1964 tour of Australasia|the Australian leg]] of their [[The Beatles' 1964 world tour|1964 tour]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Phelan |first=Tom |date=28 November 2024 |title=Who replaced Ringo Starr in The Beatles? |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/who-replaced-ringo-starr-in-the-beatles/ |access-date=21 December 2024 |website=[[Far Out (website)|Far Out]]}}</ref>
* {{sup|{{note|b|[b]}}}} [[Chas Newby]] performed bass with the Beatles for a short span of live shows in late 1960, filling in for Sutcliffe when he was unable to perform with the band.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Singh |first=Surej |date=24 May 2023 |title=Early Beatles bassist Chas Newby has died, aged 81 |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/early-beatles-bassist-chas-newby-has-died-aged-81-3447259 |access-date=21 December 2024 |website=[[NME]]}}</ref>
* {{sup|{{note|c|[c]}}}} [[Tommy Moore (musician)|Tommy Moore]] and [[Norman Chapman]] preceded Best as temporary drummers in the Silver Beetles/Beatles before Best joined in August 1960.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Graff |first=Gary |date=9 April 2024 |title=Rock Bands That Replaced Members: 11 Notorious Departures |url=https://www.billboard.com/lists/rock-bands-replace-members-depart/pete-best-the-beatles-1962/ |access-date=21 December 2024 |website=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Rush |date=20 November 2023 |orig-date=21 April 2010 |title=Q&A: Pete Best looks back on the beginnings of the Fab Four - Goldmine Magazine: Record Collector & Music Memorabilia |url=https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/qa-pete-best-looks-back-on-the-beginnings-of-the-fab-four |access-date=21 December 2024 |website=[[Goldmine (magazine)|Goldmine]]}}</ref>

=== Timeline ===
{{#tag:timeline|ImageSize=width:800 height:auto barincrement:26
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Alignbars = justify
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id:harm value:tan2 legend:Harmonica
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id:rguitar value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_guitar
id:sitar value:drabgreen legend:Sitar
id:piano value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:perc value:claret legend:Percussion
id:tour value:yellow legend:Touring/session
id:studio value:black legend:Studio_albums
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bar:John text:John Lennon
bar:Paul text:Paul McCartney
bar:George text:George Harrison
bar:Stu text:Stuart Sutcliffe
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bar:Tommy text:Tommy Moore
bar:Norman text:Norman Chapman
bar:Best text:Pete Best
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bar:George from:20/03/1965 till:08/02/1968 color:sitar width:9
bar:George from:30/05/1968 till:10/01/1969 color:piano width:5
bar:George from:22/01/1969 till:10/04/1970 color:piano width:5
bar:George from:22/08/1968 till:05/09/1968 color:perc width:5
bar:George from:start till:10/01/1969 color:bvoc width:3
bar:George from:22/01/1969 till:10/04/1970 color:lvoc width:3

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bar:Ringo from:05/09/1968 till:10/04/1970 color:bvoc width:3

bar:Best from:12/08/1960 till:17/08/1962 color:drums
bar:Best from:12/08/1960 till:17/08/1962 color:bvoc width:3

bar:Stu from:start till:01/12/1960 color:bass
bar:Stu from:start till:01/12/1960 color:bvoc width:3
bar:Stu from:01/12/1960 till:15/01/1961 color:bass width:3
bar:Stu from:15/01/1961 till:01/07/1961 color:bass
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bar:Stu from:15/01/1961 till:01/07/1961 color:bass

bar:Tommy from:10/05/1960 till:11/06/1960 color:drums
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at:05/08/1966
at:26/05/1967
at:27/11/1967
at:22/11/1968
at:13/01/1969
at:26/09/1969
at:08/05/1970}}

== Discography ==
{{Main|The Beatles albums discography|The Beatles singles discography|List of songs recorded by the Beatles}}

The Beatles' core catalogue consists of thirteen studio albums and one compilation album which collects all the UK non-album singles and [[Extended play|EP]] tracks:{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|pp=200–201}}{{refn|group=nb|According to Lewisohn on pg. 201, the ''Past Masters'' compilation of singles and EP tracks was originally released as two separate albums, Volumes One and Two in 1988. However, they were later merged into one compilation.}}
{{div col}}
* ''[[Please Please Me]]'' (1963)
* ''[[With the Beatles]]'' (1963)
* ''[[A Hard Day's Night (album)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' (1964)
* ''[[Beatles for Sale]]'' (1964)
* ''[[Help!]]'' (1965)
* ''[[Rubber Soul]]'' (1965)
* ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'' (1966)
* ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' (1967)
* ''[[Magical Mystery Tour]]'' (1967)
* ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]'' ("The White Album") (1968)
* ''[[Yellow Submarine (album)|Yellow Submarine]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Abbey Road]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]'' (1970)
* ''[[Past Masters]]'' (1988, compilation)
{{div col end}}

== Song catalogue ==
Until 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively by [[Northern Songs]], a company formed in February 1963 by music publisher [[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&nbsp;– 19 or 20%&nbsp;– and Brian Epstein's&nbsp;– 9 or 10%&nbsp;– which he received in lieu of a 25% band management fee.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=15–17}}{{sfn|Norman|1996|pp=169–71, 368–369}}{{sfn|Brown|Gaines|2002|p=178}} In 1965, the company went public. 5&nbsp;million shares were created, of which the original principals retained 3.75&nbsp;million. James and Silver each received 937,500&nbsp;shares (18.75% of 5&nbsp;million); Lennon and McCartney each received 750,000&nbsp;shares (15%); and Epstein's management company, NEMS Enterprises, received 375,000&nbsp;shares (7.5%). Of the 1.25&nbsp;million shares put up for sale, Harrison and Starr each acquired 40,000.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=37–38}} At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to Northern Songs until 1973.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=42}}

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]]".{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=45}} The songs on which Starr received co-writing credit before 1968, such as "[[What Goes On (Beatles song)|What Goes On]]" and "[[Flying (Beatles instrumental)|Flying]]", were also Northern Songs copyrights.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=46–47}} Harrison did not renew his contract with Northern Songs when it ended, signing instead with [[Apple Corps|Apple Publishing]] while retaining the copyright to his work from that point on. Harrison thus owned 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]]".{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=351}}

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 a controlling interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding.{{sfn|Norman|1996|pp=369–372}} 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 [[City of London|the City]]".{{sfn|Norman|1996|p=372}} 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.{{sfn|Miles|1998|p=296}} In frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late October 1969.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=236}}

In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, [[Associated Communications Corporation]] (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&nbsp;million.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=129}} 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&nbsp;million, giving the ex-Beatle "a week or so" to decide. By McCartney's account, he and Ono countered with a £5&nbsp;million bid that was rejected.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=130}} According to reports at the time, Grade refused to separate Northern Songs and turned down an offer of £21–25&nbsp;million from McCartney and Ono for Northern Songs. In 1982, ACC was acquired in a [[takeover]] by Australian business magnate [[Robert Holmes à Court]] for £60&nbsp;million.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=130, 139}}

In 1985, [[Michael Jackson]] purchased ATV for a reported $47.5&nbsp;million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other copyrights.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=140, 174, 176}} In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110&nbsp;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.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=198}} In 2016, Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite news |last=Christman |first=Ed |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7526542/sony-atv-michael-jackson-publishing-acquisition-completed |title=Sony Finalizes Acquisition of Michael Jackson Estate's Stake in Sony/ATV Publishing |magazine=Billboard |date=30 September 2016 |access-date=2 June 2020 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112021346/https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7526542/sony-atv-michael-jackson-publishing-acquisition-completed |url-status=live}}</ref>

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 33{{frac|3}}% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%.{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|p=195}} Two of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs&nbsp;– "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You"&nbsp;– were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before they signed with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore{{sfn|Southall|Perry|2006|pp=192–193}} in 1978,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=13&ti=1,13&SC=Author&SA=Ardmore%20%26%20Beechwood%2C%20Ltd%2E&PID=Upy2LYQ_qgX3JEfWR3-tuPzH0eAB&SEQ=20190215123104&SID=4 |title=Public Catalog |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=19 May 1978 |website=cocatalog.loc.gov |publisher=U.S. Copyright Office |access-date=15 February 2019 |archive-date=13 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613172517/https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=13&ti=1,13&SC=Author&SA=Ardmore%20%26%20Beechwood%2C%20Ltd%2E&PID=Upy2LYQ_qgX3JEfWR3-tuPzH0eAB&SEQ=20190215123104&SID=4 |url-status=live}}</ref> and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by McCartney's company MPL Communications.{{sfn|Harry|2002|p=536}} On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in the [[United States district court]] against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the 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&nbsp;years.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/18/paul-mccartney-sue-sony-rights-beatles-songs |title=We can't work it out: Paul McCartney to sue Sony for rights to Beatles classics |date=18 January 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=19 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119012029/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/18/paul-mccartney-sue-sony-rights-beatles-songs|archive-date=19 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38675147 |title=Sir Paul McCartney sues Sony over Beatles songs |date=19 January 2017 |agency=BBC|access-date=19 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119114251/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38675147|archive-date=19 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/04/beatles-song-rights-dispute-paul-mccartney-and-sony-atv-work-it-out |title=Beatles song rights dispute: Paul McCartney and Sony ATV work it out |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=4 July 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=13 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504082753/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/04/beatles-song-rights-dispute-paul-mccartney-and-sony-atv-work-it-out|archive-date=4 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://fortune.com/2017/06/30/sony-beatles-copyright/ |title=Paul McCartney Settles with Sony/ATV to Reclaim Beatles' Song Copyright |agency=Reuters |work=Fortune |date=30 June 2017|access-date=13 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616153758/http://fortune.com/2017/06/30/sony-beatles-copyright/|archive-date=16 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Selected filmography ==
{{Main|The Beatles in film}}

'''Fictionalised'''
* ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' (1964)
* ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]'' (1965)
* ''[[Magical Mystery Tour (film)|Magical Mystery Tour]]'' (1967)
* ''[[Yellow Submarine (film)|Yellow Submarine]]'' (1968) (brief cameo)

'''Documentaries and filmed performances'''
* ''[[The Beatles at Shea Stadium]]'' (1966)
* ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]'' (1970)
* ''[[The Compleat Beatles]]'' (1982)
* ''[[It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (film)|It Was Twenty Years Ago Today]]'' (1987) (about ''Sgt. Pepper'')
* ''[[The Beatles Anthology (TV series)|The Beatles Anthology]]'' (1995)
* ''[[1 (Beatles album)#1+|The Beatles: 1+]]'' (2015) (collection of digitally restored music videos)
* ''[[The Beatles: Eight Days a Week]]'' (2016) (about Beatlemania and touring years)
* ''[[The Beatles: Get Back]]'' (2021)
* ''Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song'' (2023) (short film about the creation of "[[Now and Then (Beatles song)|Now and Then]]")

== Concert tours ==
{{Main|List of the Beatles' live performances}}
{{col-float-begin}}
'''Headlining'''
* 1963 UK tours (winter–autumn)
* Autumn 1963 Sweden tour
* Winter 1964 North American tour
* Spring 1964 UK tour
* [[The Beatles' 1964 world tour|1964 world tour]]
* [[The Beatles' 1964 North American tour|1964 North American tour]]
* [[The Beatles' 1965 European tour|1965 European tour]]
* [[The Beatles' 1965 US tour|1965 US tour]]
* [[The Beatles' 1965 UK tour|1965 UK tour]]
* [[The Beatles' 1966 tour of Germany, Japan and the Philippines|1966 tour of Germany, Japan and the Philippines]]
* [[The Beatles' 1966 US tour|1966 US tour]]
{{col-float-break}}
'''Co-headlining'''
* [[The Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour|Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour]]
* Spring 1963 [[Tommy Roe]]/[[Chris Montez]] UK tour
* [[Roy Orbison/The Beatles Tour]]
{{col-float-end}}

== See also ==
* [[Outline of the Beatles]]
* [[The Beatles timeline]]
* [[Grammy Award records#Most Grammys won by a group|Grammy Award records – most Grammys won by a group]]
* [[List of songs recorded by the Beatles]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Austerlitz |first=Saul |year=2007 |title=Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video, from The Beatles to The White Stripes |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=978-0-7119-7520-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Badman |first=Keith |year=1999 |edition=2001 |title=The Beatles After the Breakup 1970–2000: A Day-by-Day Diary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wTZRwz8N9jIC&pg=PP1 |publisher=Omnibus |location=London |isbn=978-0-7119-8307-6 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122040554/https://books.google.com/books?id=wTZRwz8N9jIC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |author=The Beatles |year=2000 |title=The Beatles Anthology |publisher=[[Chronicle Books]] |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-8118-2684-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWuQu8EMDKcC |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121092524/https://books.google.com/books?id=HWuQu8EMDKcC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Benson |first=Bruce Ellis |year=2003 |title=The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue: A Phenomenology of Music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qJ1Q7ZeRr5EC&pg=PP1 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge and New York |isbn=978-0-521-00932-4 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122040553/https://books.google.com/books?id=qJ1Q7ZeRr5EC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Boyd |first=Pattie |date=2008 |author-link=Pattie Boyd |title=Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me |url=https://archive.org/details/wonderfultonight00boyd_0 |publisher=[[Three Rivers Press]] |isbn=978-0-307-40783-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Peter |year=2002 |author-link=Peter Brown (music industry) |last2=Gaines |first2=Steven |author-link2=Steven Gaines |title=[[The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of The Beatles]] |publisher=[[New American Library]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-451-20735-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Michael |year=2008 |title=Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On |publisher=Wadsworth |location=East Windsor, CT |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIZSM3zxNUEC |isbn=978-0-495-50530-3 |access-date=31 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Davies |first=Hunter |year=1968 |title=The Beatles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WpsszVLFsMEC&pg=PP1 |edition=Revised 2009 |location=New York & London |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company|W. W. Norton]] |author-link=Hunter Davies |isbn=978-0-393-33874-4 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122040554/https://books.google.com/books?id=WpsszVLFsMEC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Doggett |first=Peter |year=2009 |title=You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=luOMJFxe-bYC |edition=1st US hardcover |location=New York |publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper]] |isbn=978-0-06-177446-1 |access-date=31 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Doggett |first=Peter |title=You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup |publisher=It Books |location=New York |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-06-177418-8}}
* {{cite book |last1=Emerick |first1=Geoff |year=2006 |author-link=Geoff Emerick |last2=Massey |first2=Howard |title=Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles |location=New York |publisher=[[Gotham Books|Gotham]] |isbn=978-1-59240-179-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Everett |first=Walter |year=1999 |title=The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eTkHAldi4bEC&pg=PP1 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford and New York |isbn=978-0-19-512941-0 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121092004/https://books.google.com/books?id=eTkHAldi4bEC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Everett |first=Walter |year=2001 |title=The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul |url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesasmusicia00ever |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford and New York |isbn=978-0-19-514105-4 |access-date=31 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Fisher |first=Marc |year=2007 |title=Something in the Air |url=https://archive.org/details/somethinginairra00fish |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Random House]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-375-50907-0 |access-date=31 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Frontani |first=Michael R. |year=2007 |title=The Beatles: Image and the Media |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QHtMYEl4QxsC&pg=PP1 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-57806-965-1 |access-date = 31 March 2014 |archive-date = 22 January 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230122040554/https://books.google.com/books?id=QHtMYEl4QxsC&pg=PP1 |url-status = live}}
* {{Gilliland |show=27 |title=The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers}}
* {{cite book |last=Goodman |first=Fred |location=Boston, New York |year=2015 |title=Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |isbn=978-0-547-89686-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Gould |first=Jonathan |year=2007 |title=Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America |publisher=Three Rivers Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-35338-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Granata |first=Charles L. |title=I Just Wasn't Made for These Times: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds |date=2003 |publisher=Unanimous |location=London |isbn=978-1-55652-507-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/wouldntitbenice00char}}
* {{cite book |last=Harris |first=Jonathan |year=2005 |chapter=Introduction: Abstraction and Empathy – Psychedelic Distortion and the Meaning of the 1960s |editor-last=Grunenberg |editor-first=Christoph |editor2=Jonathan Harris |title=Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counterculture in the 1960s |publisher=[[Liverpool University Press]] |location=Liverpool |isbn=978-0-85323-919-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Harry |first=Bill |year=2000a |author-link=Bill Harry |title=The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated |publisher=[[Virgin Books|Virgin]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-7535-0481-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Harry |first=Bill |year=2003 |title=The George Harrison Encyclopedia |publisher=Virgin |location=London |isbn=978-0-7535-0822-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Harry |first=Bill |year=2000b |title=The John Lennon Encyclopedia |publisher=Virgin |location=London |isbn=978-0-7535-0404-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Harry |first=Bill |year=2002 |title=The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia |publisher=Virgin |location=London |isbn=978-0-7535-0716-2}}
* {{cite book |first=Nick |last=Hasted |title=You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks |publisher=Omnibus Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78558-851-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Hertsgaard |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Hertsgaard |year=1995 |chapter=We All Want to Change the World: Drugs, Politics, and Spirituality |title=A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles |chapter-url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/67755284/We-All-Want-to-Change-the-World-Drugs-Politics-and-Spirituality |publisher=[[Dell Publishing|Delacorte Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-385-31517-3 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=17 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317015412/http://www.scribd.com/doc/67755284/We-All-Want-to-Change-the-World-Drugs-Politics-and-Spirituality |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Ingham |first=Chris |year=2006 |title=The Rough Guide to The Beatles |location=London |publisher=[[Rough Guides]] |isbn=978-1-84353-720-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Inglis |first=Ian |year=2008 |chapter=Cover Story: Magic, Myth and Music |title=Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today |editor-last=Julien |editor-first=Olivier |location=Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing|Ashgate]] |isbn=978-0-7546-6249-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Larkin |first=Colin |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]] |isbn=978-0-19-531373-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Lavezzoli |first=Peter |year=2006 |title=The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi |location=New York and London |publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group|Continuum]] |isbn=978-0-8264-1815-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSZKCXtx-wEC |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122040555/https://books.google.com/books?id=OSZKCXtx-wEC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |year=1988 |author-link=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions |publisher=Harmony |location=New York |isbn=978-0-517-57066-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |year=1992 |edition=2010 |location=Chicago |title=The Complete Beatles Chronicle:The Definitive Day-By-Day Guide To the Beatles' Entire Career |publisher=[[Chicago Review Press]] |isbn=978-1-56976-534-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Beatles – All These Years, Volume One: Tune In |publisher=Crown Archetype |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4000-8305-3}}
* {{cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Ian |year=2005 |author-link=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |edition=2nd revised |publisher=Pimlico |location=London |isbn=978-1-84413-828-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Martin |first=George |author-link=George Martin |year=1979 |title=All You Need Is Ears |publisher=St. Marten's Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-312-11482-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Yoio9MewhcC |access-date=31 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=McNeil |first=Alex |year=1996 |title=Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present |location=New York City |publisher=Penguin Books |edition=4th |isbn=978-0-14-024916-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry |year=1997 |author-link=Barry Miles |title=Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8050-5249-7|title-link=Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now}}
* {{cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry |year=1998 |title=The Beatles: A Diary – An Intimate Day by Day History |location=London |publisher=Omnibus |isbn=978-0-7119-9196-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry |title=The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years |publisher=Omnibus Press |location=London |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7119-8308-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Neaverson |first=Bob |title=The Beatles Movies |publisher=Cassell |location=London |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-304-33796-5 |url=http://www.beatlesmovies.co.uk/magical-mystery-tour/background.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091002072940/http://www.beatlesmovies.co.uk/magical-mystery-tour/background.asp|archive-date=2 October 2009 |via=beatlesmovies.co.uk (chapter: "Magical Mystery Tour Part 1 – Background and Production")}}
* {{cite book |last=Norman |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Norman (author) |title=Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation |location=New York |publisher=Fireside |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-684-43254-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Norman |first=Philip |title=John Lennon: The Life |location=New York |publisher=Ecco/HarperCollins |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-06-075401-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/johnlennonlife00norm_0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Pang |first1=May |title=Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon |date=2008 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-9397-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YLCmcCgjvfYC&q=in+the+unlikely+backdrop+of+the+Polynesian+Village+Hotel+at+Disney+World%2C+ended+the+greatest+rock+%27n%27+roll+band+in+history&pg=PT118|access-date=7 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111145120/https://books.google.cl/books?id=YLCmcCgjvfYC&pg=PT118#v=onepage&q=in%20the%20unlikely%20backdrop%20of%20the%20Polynesian%20Village%20Hotel%20at%20Disney%20World%2C%20ended%20the%20greatest%20rock%20'n'%20roll%20band%20in%20history|archive-date=11 January 2016|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |author=Pawlowski, Gareth L. |title=How They Became The Beatles |publisher=McDonald & Co (Publishers) Ltd |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-356-19052-5 |ref={{SfnRef|Pawlowski|1990}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Pedler |first=Dominic |year=2003 |title=The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fts1uK4ceJ8C&pg=PP1 |publisher=Omnibus |location=London |isbn=978-0-7119-8167-6 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122041059/https://books.google.com/books?id=fts1uK4ceJ8C&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Rodriguez |first=Robert |year=2010 |title=Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980 |location=New York |publisher=Backbeat |isbn=978-0-87930-968-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Sandford |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Sandford (biographer) |year=2006 |title=McCartney |location=New York |publisher=[[Carroll & Graf Publishers|Carroll & Graf]] |isbn=978-0-7867-1614-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/mccartney00sand}}
* {{cite book |last=Schaffner |first=Nicholas|author-link=Nicholas Schaffner |title=The Beatles Forever |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York, NY |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-07-055087-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesforever00scha}}
* {{cite book |last1=Schinder |first1=Scott |year=2007 |last2=Schwartz |first2=Andy |title=Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Greenwood Press]] |location=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0-313-33845-8}}
* {{cite book |last1=Southall |first1=Brian |first2=Rupert |last2=Perry |year=2006 |title=Northern Songs: The True Story of the Beatles Song Publishing Empire |publisher=Omnibus |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWSRvGfa3-sC |isbn=978-1-84609-237-4 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121092522/https://books.google.com/books?id=HWSRvGfa3-sC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Sheff |first=David |editor-last=Golson |editor-first=G. Barry |publisher=Playboy |year=1981 |title=The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono |isbn=978-0-87223-705-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/playboyinterview00lenn_0}}
* {{cite book |last=Spitz |first=Bob |year=2005 |author-link=Bob Spitz |title=The Beatles: The Biography |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company|Little, Brown]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-316-80352-6|title-link=The Beatles: The Biography}}
* {{cite book |last=Spizer |first=Bruce |year=2004 |title=The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America |publisher=498 Productions |location=New Orleans |isbn=978-0-9662649-9-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Strong |first=Martin |year=2004 |title=The Great Rock Discography |publisher=[[Canongate Books|Canongate]] |location=Edinburgh and New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_WoRAPJQ58sC |isbn=978-1-84195-615-2 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122041057/https://books.google.com/books?id=_WoRAPJQ58sC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Turner |first=Steve|author-link=Steve Turner (writer) |title=Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year |year=2016 |publisher=Ecco |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-06-247558-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Winn |first=John C. |year=2008 |title=Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume One, 1957–1965 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwvYhxcBr5oC |publisher=Three Rivers Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-45157-6 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122041057/https://books.google.com/books?id=UwvYhxcBr5oC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Winn |first=John C. |year=2009 |title=That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966–1970 |publisher=Three Rivers Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-45239-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdsMqbAQJWgC |access-date=31 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Womack |first=Kenneth |year=2007 |title=Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles |publisher=Continuum |location=London & New York |isbn=978-0-8264-1746-6}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Astley |first=John |year=2006 |title=Why Don't We Do It In The Road? The Beatles Phenomenon |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JZzwWc6bOlIC |publisher=The Company of Writers |isbn=978-0-9551834-7-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Barrow |first=Tony |year=2005 |title=John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me: The Real Beatles Story |publisher=Thunder's Mouth |location=New York |isbn=978-1-56025-882-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bramwell |first1=Tony |year=2006 |last2=Kingsland |first2=Rosemary |title=Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-33044-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Braun |first=Michael |year=1964 |title=Love Me Do: The Beatles' Progress |location=London |publisher=Penguin |edition=1995 reprint |isbn=978-0-14-002278-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=Roy |year=1975 |last2=Tyler |first2=Tony |location=New York |title=The Beatles: An Illustrated Record |publisher=Harmony Books |isbn=978-0-517-52045-1}}
* {{cite book |title=A Cellarful of Noise |last=Epstein |first=Brian| author-link = Brian Epstein |year=1964 |publisher=[[Byron Preiss]] |isbn=978-0-671-01196-3 |oclc=39211052| title-link= A Cellarful of Noise}}
* {{cite book |author=((Federal Bureau of Investigation)) |author-link=FBI |year=2007 |title=The Beatles: The FBI Files |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q-StswEACAAJ&pg=PA1 |publisher=Filiquarian |isbn=978-1-59986-256-9 |access-date=5 November 2023 |archive-date=5 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105155731/https://books.google.com/books?id=q-StswEACAAJ&pg=PA1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Greene |first=Doyle |year=2016 |title=Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966–1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-1-4766-6214-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Harry |first=Bill |location=Poole, Dorset |title=The Book Of Beatle Lists |publisher=Javelin |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-7137-1521-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Kirchherr |first=Astrid |author-link=Astrid Kirchherr |author2=Voormann, Klaus |title=Hamburg Days |location=Guildford, Surrey |publisher=Genesis Publications |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-904351-73-6|author2-link=Klaus Voormann}}
* {{cite book |last=Lennon |first=Cynthia |year=2005 |author-link=Cynthia Lennon |title=John |url=https://archive.org/details/john0len20lenn |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=978-0-307-33855-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Mansfield |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Mansfield |title=The White Book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Je7C3JHRs7UC&q=The%20White%20Book&pg=PP1 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |location=Nashville, TN |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59555-101-6 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122041059/https://books.google.com/books?id=Je7C3JHRs7UC&q=The%20White%20Book&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=George |author-link=George Martin |last2=Pearson |first2=William |title=Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-333-60398-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Riley |first=Tim |title=Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music – The Definitive Life |url=https://archive.org/details/lennonmanmythmus00rile |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Hyperion/HarperCollins |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4013-2452-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Sheffield |first1=Rob |title=Dreaming the Beatles |date=2017 |publisher=Harper Collins |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-220765-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Turner |first=Steve |author-link=Steve Turner (writer) |title=A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song |edition=3rd |publisher=Harper Paperbacks |location=New York |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-06-084409-7}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|date=3 July 2015|The Beatles, Part 1.ogg|The Beatles, Part 2.ogg|The Beatles - Part 3.ogg}}
{{Sister project links
|b= no|c= Category:The Beatles|d= Q1299|m= no|mw= no|n= Category:The Beatles|q= The Beatles|s=no |species=no |v=no |voy=no |wikt=Beatles}}
* {{official website}}
* {{Amazon Music artist|B00GB0QTOY}}
* [https://archive.org/search?query=the+Beatles+ The Beatles] on the [[Internet Archive]]
* {{Twitter}}
* [https://vault.fbi.gov/The%20Beatles The Beatles] – [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] file
* {{citation |hdl=1903.1/4593 |title=The Hugo Keesing Collection on the Beatles |publisher=University of Maryland}}
<!--Please discuss on the talk page before adding any more links. Thank you. -->

{{The Beatles main|state=expanded}}
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[[Category:English rock music groups]]
[[Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1960]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1970]]
[[Category:Musical groups from Liverpool]]
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Latest revision as of 21:30, 22 December 2024

The Beatles
A square quartered into four head shots of young men with moptop haircuts. All four wear white shirts and dark coats.
The Beatles in 1964; clockwise from top left: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison
Background information
OriginLiverpool, England
Genres
Discography
Years active1960–1970
Labels
Spinoff ofThe Quarrymen
Past members
Websitethebeatles.com

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time[1] and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form.[2] Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.[3]

Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or other members of the band's entourage were sometimes informally referred to as a "fifth Beatle".

By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced albums of greater sophistication, including Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). They enjoyed further commercial success with The Beatles (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). The success of these records heralded the album era, as albums became the dominant form of record use over singles. These records also increased public interest in psychedelic drugs and Eastern spirituality, and furthered advancements in electronic music, album art and music videos. In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1970, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists, and some partial reunions occurred. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active.

The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide.[4][5] They are the most successful act in the history of the US Billboard charts,[6] holding the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15), most number-one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (20) and most singles sold in the UK (21.9 million). The band received many accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people.

History

1956–1963: Formation

The Quarrymen and name changes

In November 1956, sixteen-year-old John Lennon formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They were called the Quarrymen, a reference to their school song "Quarry men old before our birth".[7] Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957 and joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after.[8] In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison, then aged fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus,[9] and they enlisted him as lead guitarist.[10][11]

By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art.[12] The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs,[13] were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer.[14] They also performed as the Rainbows. Paul McCartney later told New Musical Express that they called themselves that "because we all had different coloured shirts and we couldn't afford any others!".[15]

Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.[16][17] They used this 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 refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles and by the middle of August simply the Beatles.[18]

Early residencies and UK popularity

Allan Williams, the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg. They auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3+12-month residency.[19] Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn writes: "They pulled into 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."[20]

Koschmider had converted a couple of strip clubs in the district into music venues and initially placed the Beatles at the Indra Club. After closing Indra due to noise complaints, he moved them to the Kaiserkeller in October.[21] When he learned they had been performing at the rival Top Ten Club in breach of their contract, he gave them one month's termination notice,[22] and reported the underage Harrison, who had obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age.[23] The authorities arranged for Harrison's deportation in late November.[24] 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.[25] Lennon returned to Liverpool in early December, while Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg until late February with his German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr,[26] who took the first semi-professional photos of the Beatles.[27]

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.[28] In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles.[29][30] Later on, Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany. McCartney took over bass.[31] Producer 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.[17][32] As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year.[33] 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.[34]

After the Beatles completed their second Hamburg residency, they enjoyed increasing popularity in Liverpool with the growing Merseybeat movement. However, they were growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night.[35] 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.[36] 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."[37]

First EMI recordings

Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they appointed him as their manager in January 1962.[38] Throughout early and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually negotiated a one-month early release in exchange for one last recording session in Hamburg.[39] On their return to Germany in April, a distraught Kirchherr met them at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from a brain haemorrhage.[40] Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording contract. 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.[41] After a New Year's Day audition, Decca Records rejected the band, saying, "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein".[42] However, three months later, producer George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI's Parlophone label.[40]

A flight of stone steps leads from an asphalt car park up to the main entrance of a white two-story building. The ground floor has two sash windows, the first floor has three shorter sash windows. Two more windows are visible at basement level. The decorative stonework around the doors and windows is painted grey.
Main entrance at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios, pictured 2007)

Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at EMI Recording Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 6 June 1962.[43] He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested they use a session drummer in his place.[44] Already contemplating Best's dismissal,[45] the Beatles replaced him in mid-August with Ringo Starr, who left Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join them.[43] A 4 September session at 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".[43]

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.[43] Released in early October, "Love Me Do" peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart.[46] Their television debut came later that month with a live performance on the regional news programme People and Places.[47] After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster tempo,[48] a studio session in late November yielded that recording,[49] of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No. 1".[50]

In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg residency.[51] 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.[52] 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.[53] Epstein, to maximise the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to adopt a professional approach to performing.[54] 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 ...".[42][nb 1]

1963–1966: Beatlemania and touring years

Please Please Me and With the Beatles

The logo of the English rock band the Beatles
The band's logo was designed by Ivor Arbiter.[55]

On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. It was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles. Martin considered recording the 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".[56] After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please Me" was released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album. It reached number one on every UK chart except Record Retailer, where it peaked at number two.[57]

Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day", AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins."[58] 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."[59]

Released in March 1963, Please Please Me was the first of eleven consecutive Beatles albums released in the United Kingdom to reach number one.[62] The band's third single, "From Me to You", came out in April and began an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number-one singles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six years.[63] Issued in August, their 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.[64] It became their first single to sell a million copies and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978.[65][nb 2]

The 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.[66] 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.[67] As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. On 13 October, the Beatles starred on Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the UK's top variety show.[68] Their performance was televised live and watched by 15 million viewers. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans who greeted the band – and it stuck.[68][69] Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts Tommy Roe and 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.[70] A similar situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison.[71]

Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and John Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In in 1963
McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In, 30 October 1963[72]

In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962.[73] 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.[74] The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks.[75] In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.[76] On 4 November, they played in front of The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret during the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre.[77]

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,[78] which EMI released on 22 November to record advance orders of 270,000 copies. The LP topped a half-million albums sold in one week.[79] Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor.[80] It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks.[81] Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original".[82]

In a reversal of then standard practice, 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.[83] 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".[80] The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability.[84] 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.[85] 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".[86]

First visit to the United States and the British Invasion

A black-and-white image of four men standing in front of a crowd of people at the bottom of an aeroplane staircase
The Beatles arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964

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 led to the release of some, but not all, of the songs in 1963.[87] Vee-Jay finished preparation for the album Introducing... The Beatles, comprising most of the songs of Parlophone's Please Please Me, but a management shake-up led to the album not being released.[nb 3] After it emerged that the label did not report royalties on their sales, the licence that Vee-Jay had signed with EMI was voided.[89] 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 from 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.[90]

Newspaper clipping, 8 February 1964

Epstein brought a demo copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to Capitol's Brown Meggs, who signed the band and 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, obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air.[91] Taped copies of the song soon circulated among other radio stations throughout the US. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to bring forward the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by three weeks.[92] Issued on 26 December, 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.[93] In its wake Vee-Jay released Introducing... The Beatles[94] along with Capitol's debut album, Meet the Beatles!, while Swan reactivated production of "She Loves You".[95]

The Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, February 1964

On 7 February 1964, the Beatles departed from Heathrow with an estimated 4,000 fans waving and screaming as the aircraft took off.[96] Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them.[97] They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households,[98] 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".[99] The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US,[100] but a day later at their first US concert, Beatlemania erupted at the Washington Coliseum.[101] Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall.[98] The band flew to Florida, where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a second time, again before 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February.[102]

The Beatles' first visit to the US took place when the nation was still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the previous November.[103] Commentators often suggest that for many, particularly the young, the Beatles' performances reignited the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the wake of the assassination and helped pave the way for the revolutionary social changes to come later in the decade.[104] Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults,[17] became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture.[105]

The group's popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and many other UK acts subsequently made their American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion.[106] 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, Herman's Hermits, Petula Clark, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones to achieve success in America.[107] During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five.[108][nb 4]

A Hard Day's Night

Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go unnoticed, and a competitor, United Artists Records, encouraged its film division to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the US.[110] 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 musical comedy.[111] The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing a comparison with the Marx Brothers.[112]

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.[113] 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."[114] 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.[115][nb 5]

1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan and stand on civil rights

Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles performing on Dutch TV in 1964
McCartney, Harrison and Lennon performing on Dutch TV in 1964

Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.[116][nb 6] In August and September, they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities.[118] Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 people to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York.[118]

In August, journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet Bob Dylan.[119] Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis.[120] 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."[121]

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".[122] 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.[122]

During the 1964 US tour, the group were confronted with racial segregation in the country at the time.[123][124] When informed that the venue for their 11 September concert, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated.[125][123][124] Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now ... I'd sooner lose our appearance money."[123] City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show.[123] The group also cancelled their reservations at the whites-only Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville.[124] For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated.[124][126]

Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul

According to Gould, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, Beatles for Sale, evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions.[127] They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964,[128] to continue the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs.[127] 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".[129] 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 songwriting partnership.[127]

In early 1965, following a dinner with Lennon, Harrison and their wives, Harrison's dentist, John Riley, secretly added LSD to their coffee.[130] Lennon described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two."[131] He and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realised a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music."[132][133] McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966.[134] 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".[135]

The Beatles performing music in a field. In the foreground, the drums are played by Starr (only the top of his head is visible). Beyond him, the other three stand in a column with their guitars. In the rear, Harrison, head down, strikes a chord. In the front, Lennon smiles and gives a little wave toward camera, holding his pick. Between them, McCartney is jocularly about to choke Lennon.
The US trailer for Help! with (from the rear) Harrison, McCartney, Lennon and (largely obscured) Starr

Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen Elizabeth II appointed all four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award.[136] In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia.[137]

In July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was released, again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond",[138] 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."[139] 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".[140]

The 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.[141] 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 until Let It Be's brief rendition of the traditional Liverpool folk song "Maggie Mae".[142] 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".[143] Composed and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording[144] – "Yesterday" has inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written.[145] With Help!, the Beatles became the first rock group to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[146]

The Beatles at a press conference in August 1965
The Beatles at a press conference in Minnesota in August 1965, shortly after playing at Shea Stadium in New York

The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description.[147] 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.[148] 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.[149][150] Presley later said the band was an example of a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse.[151][152]

September 1965 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.[153] The series was the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people.[154]

In mid-October, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments.[155] 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."[156] Released in December, Rubber Soul was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music.[157] Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy, a development that NEMS executive Peter Brown attributed to the band members' "now habitual use of marijuana".[158] Lennon referred to Rubber Soul as "the pot album"[159] 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."[159] After Help!'s foray into 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 the lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning.[160]

While some of Rubber Soul's songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting,[161] the album also included distinct compositions from each,[162] though they continued to share official credit. "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue.[163] Harrison called Rubber Soul his "favourite album",[159] and Starr referred to it as "the departure record".[164] McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand."[165] 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".[166]

Controversies, Revolver and final tour

Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format,[87] compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles.[167][nb 7] In June 1966, the Capitol LP Yesterday and Today 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. According to Beatles biographer Bill Harry, it has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions of the band's albums.[169] 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.[170] In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on the instrument.[171]

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.[172] 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.[173] 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.[174] Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time.[175]

We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity.

– John Lennon, 1966[176]

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.[177] "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 was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."[178] His comments went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine Datebook printed them five months later, it sparked a controversy with Christians in America's conservative Bible Belt region.[177] The Vatican issued a protest, and bans on Beatles records were imposed by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service.[179] Epstein accused 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."[180] He 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."[180]

Released in August 1966, a week before the Beatles' final tour, Revolver marked another artistic step forward for the group.[181] The album featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelia.[181] Abandoning the customary group photograph, its Aubrey Beardsley-inspired cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – was a monochrome collage and line drawing caricature of the group.[181] The album was preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain".[182] Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos",[183] they aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June.[184]

Among the experimental songs on Revolver was "Tomorrow Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan 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.[185] 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".[186] Harrison's emergence as a songwriter was reflected in three of his compositions appearing on the record.[187] Among these, "Taxman", which opened the album, marked the first example of the Beatles making a political statement through their music.[188]

San Francisco's Candlestick Park in the 1960s
San Francisco's Candlestick Park (pictured in the early 1960s) was the venue for the Beatles' final concert before a paying audience.

As preparations were made for a tour of the US, 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 for them by Vox, as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, 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.[189] Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August tour their last.[190]

The band performed none of their new songs on the tour.[191] In Chris Ingham's description, 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."[192] The band's concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August was their last commercial concert.[193] It marked the end of four years dominated by almost non-stop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally.[194]

1966–1970: Studio years

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The album artwork of the Beatles' 1967 album 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"[195]

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.[196] According to engineer Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours.[197] 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."[198] Parts of "A Day in the Life" featured a 40-piece orchestra.[198] The sessions initially yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967;[199] the Sgt. Pepper LP followed with a rush-release in May.[200] The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists.[195] Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal.[201] 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.[202]

In the wake of Sgt. Pepper, the underground and mainstream press widely publicised the Beatles as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries".[3] The album was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover.[203][204] 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".[205][nb 8] The elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study.[206] 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[207] standing in front of a crowd of famous people.[208] The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of the hippie movement,[209] while cultural historian Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment" display.[210]

Sgt. Pepper topped the UK charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number one in the period through to February 1968.[211] With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release,[212] Sgt. Pepper's initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums.[213] It was the first rock album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[214] It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records.[215]

Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine

Two Beatles film projects were conceived within weeks of completing Sgt. Pepper: Magical Mystery Tour, a one-hour television film, and Yellow Submarine, an animated feature-length film produced by United Artists.[216] The group began recording music for the former in late April 1967, but the project then lay dormant as they focused on recording songs for the latter.[217] On 25 June, 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.[218] Released a week later, during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem.[219] The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs was at its height during that summer.[220] In July and August, the group pursued interests related to similar utopian-based ideology, including a week-long investigation into the possibility of starting an island-based commune off the coast of Greece.[221][222]

On 24 August, the group were introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London. The next day, they travelled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. On 27 August, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein had died.[223] The coroner ruled the death an accidental carbitol overdose, although it was widely rumoured to be a suicide.[224][nb 9] His death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future.[226] 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 fuckin' had it now.'"[227] Harrison's then-wife Pattie Boyd remembered that "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."[228] During a band meeting in September, McCartney recommended that the band proceed with Magical Mystery Tour.[217]

The Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play (EP) in early December 1967.[87][229] It was the first example of a double EP in the UK.[230][231] The record carried on the psychedelic vein of Sgt. Pepper,[232] though in line with the band's wishes, the packaging reinforced the idea that the release was a film soundtrack rather than a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper.[229] In the US, the soundtrack appeared as an identically titled LP that also included five tracks from the band's recent singles.[109] In its first three weeks, the album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP and is the only Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums.[233]

Magical Mystery Tour first aired on Boxing Day to an audience of approximately 15 million.[234] Largely directed by McCartney, the film was the band's first critical failure in the UK.[235] It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the Daily Express, the Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit" and The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience".[236] Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus".[236] Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film.[237]

The group were less involved with Yellow Submarine, which featured the band appearing as themselves for only a short live-action segment.[238] Premiering in July 1968, the film 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.[239] Critics praised the film for its music, humour and innovative visual style.[240] A soundtrack LP was issued seven months later; it contained those four new songs, 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.[241]

India retreat, Apple Corps and the White Album

In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a three-month meditation "Guide Course". Their time in India marked one of the band's most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album.[242] However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later.[243] For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as Magic Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them.[244] 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.[243] 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."[244]

In May, Lennon and McCartney travelled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles' new business venture, Apple Corps.[245] It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism and education.[246] McCartney described Apple as "rather like a Western communism".[247] The enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects[248] handled largely by members of the Beatles' entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience.[249] Among its numerous subsidiaries were Apple Electronics, established to foster technological innovations with Magic Alex at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived Apple Boutique in London.[250] Harrison later said, "Basically, it was chaos ... John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it."[247]

The album artwork of the Beatles' self-titled 1968 album, also known as "the White Album"
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".[251]

From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became The Beatles, a double LP commonly known as "the White Album" for its virtually featureless cover.[252] During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive.[253] Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums.[254] Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney,[255] whose contribution "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit".[256] 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.[257] McCartney has recalled that the album "wasn't a pleasant one to make".[258] He and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band's break-up.[259][260]

With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles[261] and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre.[262] During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the album a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort.[263] 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."[264] The sessions also produced the Beatles' longest song yet, "Hey Jude", released in August as a non-album single with "Revolution".[265]

Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings.[266] 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.[267] Its lyrical content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture.[268] Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album's content and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that Sgt. Pepper had.[267]

Abbey Road, Let It Be and separation

Although 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".[269] Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called Beatles at Work, in the event much of the album's content came from studio work beginning in January 1969, many hours of which were captured on film by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.[269][270] Martin 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."[269] Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell ... the most miserable ... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time".[271] Irritated by 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.[272] He also demanded they cease work at Twickenham Film Studios, where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished Apple Studio. His bandmates agreed and it was decided to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film.[273]

American musician Billy Preston in 1971
The American soul musician Billy Preston (pictured in 1971) was, for a short time, considered a fifth Beatle during the Get Back sessions.

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.[274] Preston received label billing on the "Get Back" single – the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release.[275] After 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 Libyan desert and the Colosseum.[269] Ultimately, what would be their final live performance was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969.[276] 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".[277]

A terrace house with four floors and an attic. It is red brick, with a slate roof, and the ground floor rendered in imitation of stone and painted white. Each upper floor has four sash windows, divided into small panes. The door, with a canopy over it, occupies the place of the second window from the left on the ground floor.
Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, site of the Let It Be rooftop concert

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;[278] McCartney wanted Lee and John Eastman – father and brother, respectively, of Linda Eastman,[279] whom McCartney married on 12 March.[280] 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.[281][282] Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost.[278] On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band,[283] the Eastmans having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' lawyers. McCartney refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles.[284]

Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce another album, as the Get Back sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us".[285] The primary recording sessions for Abbey Road began on 2 July.[286] 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.[287] The eventual format, with individually composed songs on the first side and the second consisting largely of a medley, was McCartney's suggested compromise.[287] Emerick noted that the replacement of the studio's valve-based 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.[288]

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 was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were together in the same studio.[289] On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretence and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas.[290] On 20 September, Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group but agreed to withhold a public announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album.[291]

Released on 26 September, Abbey Road sold four million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of seventeen weeks.[292] Its second track, the ballad "Something", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition that appeared as a Beatles A-side.[293] Abbey Road received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim.[292] Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record".[294] Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley.[295] Martin singled it out as his favourite Beatles album; Lennon said it was "competent" but had "no life in it".[288]

For the still unfinished 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.[296] 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!"[297] 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.[298] McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were ignored,[299] and he publicly announced his departure from the band on 10 April, a week before the release of his first self-titled solo album.[298][300]

On 8 May 1970, Let It Be was released. Its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was expected to be the Beatles' last; it was released in the US, but not in the UK.[182] The Let It Be documentary film followed later that month and would win the 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.[301] 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".[302] Several reviewers stated that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks.[303] Describing 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".[304]

McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on 31 December 1970.[305] Legal disputes continued long after their break-up and the dissolution was not formalised until 29 December 1974,[306] when Lennon signed the paperwork terminating the partnership while on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.[307]

After the breakup

1970s

Lennon in 1974 and McCartney in 1976

Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the other members;[308] 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.[309] 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.[310]

Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962–1966 and 1967–1970, were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint.[311] Commonly known as the "Red Album" and "Blue Album", respectively, each has earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the US and a Platinum certification in the UK.[312][313] 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.[314] 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.[315][nb 10]

The music and enduring fame of the Beatles were 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.[317] Later that year, the off-Broadway musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road opened.[318] 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 and Keith Moon to the London Symphony Orchestra.[319] The Broadway musical Beatlemania, an unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions.[320] In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages.[320] Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham.[321]

Accompanying the wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the US during the 1970s, several entrepreneurs made public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert.[322] Promoter Bill Sargent first offered the Beatles $10 million for a reunion concert in 1974. He raised his offer to $30 million in January 1976 and then to $50 million the following month.[323][324] On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live, producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's apartment at the Dakota in New York, which was within driving distance of the NBC studio where the show was being broadcast. The former bandmates briefly entertained the idea of going to the studio and surprising Michaels by accepting his offer, but decided not to.[325]

1980s

In December 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan. Harrison rewrote the lyrics of 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.[326] McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War album in April 1982.[327] In 1984, Starr co-starred in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street,[328] and played with McCartney on several of the songs on the soundtrack.[329] In 1987, Harrison's Cloud Nine album included "When We Was Fab", a song about the Beatlemania era.[330]

When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by 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.[331] All the remaining material from the singles and EPs that had not appeared on these thirteen studio albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation Past Masters (1988). Except for the Red and Blue albums, EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the Hollywood Bowl record – from its catalogue.[315]

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.[332][333] 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".[333] 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.[334][335]

1990s

Live at the BBC, the first official release of unissued Beatles performances in 17 years, appeared in 1994.[336] 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.[337]

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. Documenting their history in the band's own words, the Anthology project included the release of several unissued Beatles recordings. Alongside producer Jeff Lynne, McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to songs recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s,[338] resulting in the release of two "new" Beatles singles, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". A third Lennon demo, "Now and Then", was also attempted, but abandoned due to the low quality of the recording.[339] The Anthology releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400 million people.[340] A book, The Beatles Anthology, followed in October 2000. In 1999, to coincide with the re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, an expanded soundtrack album, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was issued.[341]

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[342] and 13 million within a month.[343] It topped albums charts in at least 28 countries.[344] The compilation had sold 31 million copies globally by April 2009.[345]

Harrison died from metastatic lung cancer in November 2001.[346][347][348] McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who performed at the Concert for George, organised by 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.[349]

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 from the Spector-produced version was the omission of the original string arrangements.[350] 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.[351]

As a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Beatles stage revue, Love, 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".[352] The show premiered in June 2006 and the Love album was released that November.[353] In April 2009, Starr performed three songs with McCartney at a benefit concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall and organised by McCartney.[354]

On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four years.[331] Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with Magical Mystery Tour and the Past Masters compilation, were released on compact disc both individually and as a box set.[355] A second collection, 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 (both of which Martin had remixed for the 1987 editions).[356] The Beatles: Rock Band, a music video game in the Rock Band series, was issued on the same day.[357] 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.[358]

2010s

Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among the last major artists to sign deals with online music services.[359] 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 "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them".[360] 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.[361]

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 to spin off assets including Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, managed by Capitol Records under its Capitol Music Group division.[362] The entire original Beatles album catalogue was also reissued on vinyl in 2012; available either individually or as a box set.[363]

In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings, 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 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."[364][365]

On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed together at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.[366] The following day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles television special was taped in the 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 Show, 50 years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival footage and interviews with the two surviving ex-Beatles carried out by David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater.[367][368] In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming on various streaming music services including Spotify and Apple Music.[369]

In September 2016, the documentary film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week was released. Directed by Ron Howard, it chronicled the Beatles' career during their touring years from 1961 to 1966, from their performances in Liverpool's the Cavern Club in 1961 to their final concert in San Francisco in 1966. The film was released theatrically on 15 September in the UK and the US, and started streaming on Hulu on 17 September. It received several awards and nominations, including for Best Documentary at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.[370] An expanded, remixed and remastered version of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was released on 9 September, to coincide with the release of the film.[371][372]

On 18 May 2017, Sirius XM Radio launched a 24/7 radio channel, The Beatles Channel. A week later, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was reissued with new stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary.[373] Similar box sets were released for The Beatles in November 2018,[374] and Abbey Road in September 2019.[375] On the first week of October 2019, Abbey Road returned to number one on the UK Albums Chart. The Beatles broke their own record for the album with the longest gap between topping the charts as Abbey Road hit the top spot 50 years after its original release.[376]

2020s

In November 2021, The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary directed by Peter Jackson using footage captured for the Let It Be film, was released on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries.[377] A book also titled The Beatles: Get Back was released on 12 October, ahead of the documentary.[378] A super deluxe version of the Let It Be album was released on 15 October.[379] In January 2022, the album Get Back (Rooftop Performance), consisting of newly mixed audio of the Beatles' rooftop performance, was released on streaming services.[380]

In 2022, McCartney and Starr collaborated on a new recording of "Let It Be" with Dolly Parton, Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood, which was released on Parton's album Rockstar in November 2023.[381][382] In October, a special edition of Revolver was released, featuring unreleased demos, studio outtakes, the original mono mix and a new stereo remix using AI de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson's WingNut Films, which had previously been used to restore audio for the documentary Get Back.[383] New music videos were produced for "Here, There and Everywhere" and "I'm Only Sleeping", the latter of which won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.

In June 2023, McCartney announced plans to release "the final Beatles record" later in the year, using Jackson's de-mixing technology to extract Lennon's voice from an old demo of a song that he had written as a solo artist.[339] In October 2023, the song was revealed to be "Now and Then", with a physical and digital release date of 2 November 2023.[384][385] The official music video for "Now and Then" was released the following day, garnering upwards of 8 million views in its first 12 hours,[386] as the song arrived on Spotify's rankings as one of the most-streamed current songs.[385] "Now and Then" debuted simultaneously across music, alternative, news/talk and sports stations. The song's premiere achieved the record for the most radio stations to simulcast a music track.[387] The song became their first UK number one single since 1969.[388] It was nominated for Record of the Year at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.[389]

On 8 May 2024 the 1970 film Let It Be, digitally restored by Peter Jackson's Park Road Post, was released on Disney+, marking the first time it has been publicly screened since its original theatrical release.[390]

Artistry

Development

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.[391]

In 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."[392]

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."[393] 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".[394]

Influences

The Beatles' earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent.[395][396] During the Beatles' co-residency with Little Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg, from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs.[397] 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."[398] Chuck Berry was particularly influential in terms of songwriting and lyrics. Lennon noted, "He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. We all owe a lot to him."[399] Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison,[400] the Everly Brothers[401] and Jerry Lee Lewis.[402]

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, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Who, Frank Zappa, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose 1966 album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney.[403][404][405][406][407] Referring to the Beach Boys' creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]."[408] 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.[409]

Genres

Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre,[410] and their repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music.[411] 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",[412] while Gould credits Rubber Soul as "the instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into the camp of pop".[413]

Two electric guitars, a light brown violin-shaped bass and a darker brown guitar resting against a Vox amplifier
A Höfner "violin" bass guitar and 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."[414] 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".[415]

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".[416] 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 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".[417]

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."[418] 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."[419]

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."[420] 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".[421]

Contribution of George Martin

The Beatles with George Martin in the studio in the mid-1960s
George Martin (second from right) in the studio with the Beatles in the mid-1960s

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".[422] He applied his classical musical training in various ways and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing songwriters, according to Gould.[423] 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.[424] 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.[425] In addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ and brass.[426]

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."[427] Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting styles and his 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?[428]

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."[429]

In the studio

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.[430] Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from Rubber Soul and, especially, Revolver onwards.[430]

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".[431] They also used novel electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro,[432] and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby, You're a Rich Man".[433]

Legacy

Statue in Liverpool
The Beatles statue at Pier Head in Liverpool, their home city
Road crossing in London
Abbey Road crossing in London is a popular destination for Beatles fans. In December 2010 it was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.[434]

Former Rolling Stone magazine 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 ..."[357] The British poet Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism" and "the first advance in popular music since the War".[435]

In 1964, the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. is credited with initiating the album era;[436] the music historian Joel Whitburn says that LP sales soon "exploded and eventually outpaced the sales and releases of singles" in the music industry.[437] They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US,[438] they became a globally influential phenomenon as well.[439] From the 1920s, the US had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood films, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, and later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee.[343] The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people whom they most associated with UK culture.[440][441]

Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide.[439][442] Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs.[443] 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.[444] They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler",[445] and they were primary innovators of the modern music video.[446] The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people,[147] then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business".[447] Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion.[105]

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 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.[448] 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".[171]

Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their sociocultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the US, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness.[103][449] 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 were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964."[449] According to Gilmore:

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.[103]

Established in 2009, Global Beatles Day is an annual holiday on 25 June each year that honours and celebrates the ideals of the Beatles.[450] The date was chosen to commemorate the date the group participated in the BBC programme Our World in 1967, performing "All You Need Is Love" broadcast to an international audience.[451]

Awards and achievements

In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).[136] The Beatles won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be (1970).[301] The recipients of seven Grammy Awards[452] and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards,[453] the Beatles have six Diamond albums, as well as 20 Multi-Platinum albums, 16 Platinum albums and six Gold albums in the US.[312] In the UK, the Beatles have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold albums and one Silver album.[313] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.[332]

The best-selling band in history, the Beatles have sold more than 600 million units as of 2012.[454][nb 11] From 1991 to 2009 the Beatles sold 57 million albums in United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[456] They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts, fifteen,[457] and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act.[458] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the most significant and influential rock music artists of the last 50 years.[459] 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.[460] As of 2017, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with twenty.[461] The Recording Industry Association of America certifies that the Beatles have sold 183 million units in the US, more than any other artist.[462] They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people.[463] In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[464]

On 16 January each year, beginning in 2001, people celebrate World Beatles Day under UNESCO. This date has direct relation to the opening of the Cavern Club in 1957.[465][466] In 2007, the Beatles became the first band to feature on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.[467] Earlier in 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp dedicated to the Beatles and Yellow Submarine.[468] In 2004 and 2011, Rolling Stone named them the greatest artist of all time.[469]

Personnel

Principal band members

  • John Lennon – vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica, bass (1960–1969; died 1980)
  • Paul McCartney – vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards, drums (1960–1970)
  • George Harrison – guitars, vocals, sitar, keyboards, bass (1960–1970; died 2001)
  • Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, vocals (1962–1970)[a]

Other early members

Temporary members

  • ^[a] Jimmie Nicol temporarily replaced Starr for eight dates on the Australian leg of their 1964 tour.[470]
  • ^[b] Chas Newby performed bass with the Beatles for a short span of live shows in late 1960, filling in for Sutcliffe when he was unable to perform with the band.[471]
  • ^[c] Tommy Moore and Norman Chapman preceded Best as temporary drummers in the Silver Beetles/Beatles before Best joined in August 1960.[472][473]

Timeline

Discography

The Beatles' core catalogue consists of thirteen studio albums and one compilation album which collects all the UK non-album singles and EP tracks:[474][nb 12]

Song catalogue

Until 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively by Northern Songs, a company formed in February 1963 by music publisher 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.[475][476][477] In 1965, the company went public. 5 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.[478] At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to Northern Songs until 1973.[479]

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".[480] The songs on which Starr received co-writing credit before 1968, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying", were also Northern Songs copyrights.[481] 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. Harrison thus owned 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".[482][483]

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 a controlling interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding.[484] 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".[485] 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.[486] In frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late October 1969.[487]

In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, Associated Communications Corporation (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.[488] 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.[489] 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 Northern Songs. In 1982, ACC was acquired in a takeover by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court for £60 million.[490]

In 1985, 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.[491] 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.[492] In 2016, Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million.[493]

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 3313% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%.[494] 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[495] in 1978,[496] and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by McCartney's company MPL Communications.[497] On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in the United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the 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.[498][499] McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017.[500][501]

Selected filmography

Fictionalised

Documentaries and filmed performances

Concert tours

Headlining

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Lennon said of Epstein, "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."[42]
  2. ^ "She Loves You" was surpassed in sales by "Mull of Kintyre", by McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings.[65]
  3. ^ Vee-Jay company president Ewart Abner resigned after it was disclosed he used company funds to cover gambling debts.[88]
  4. ^ 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.[109]
  5. ^ Harrison's ringing 12-string inspired Roger McGuinn, who obtained his own Rickenbacker and used it to craft the trademark sound of the Byrds.[115]
  6. ^ Starr was briefly hospitalised after a tonsillectomy, and Jimmie Nicol sat in on drums for the first five dates.[117]
  7. ^ It was not until 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.[168]
  8. ^ 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."[205] 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."[205]
  9. ^ Epstein had been in a fragile emotional state, stressed by personal troubles. 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.[225]
  10. ^ The band unsuccessfully attempted to block the 1977 release of Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. The independently issued album compiled recordings made during the group's Hamburg residency, taped on a basic recording machine using only one microphone.[316]
  11. ^ Another estimate gives total international sales of over 1 billion units,[343] a figure based on EMI's statement and recognised by Guinness World Records.[455]
  12. ^ According to Lewisohn on pg. 201, the Past Masters compilation of singles and EP tracks was originally released as two separate albums, Volumes One and Two in 1988. However, they were later merged into one compilation.

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