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British tours

What about The Beatles first British tours? They only played for 20 minutes or so, and were preceded by comedians and solo singers as part of a Music-hall package. Their time on stage in the US was not very long either.

Instrumentation

Anonymous user at 71.76.219.92 deleted the entire "instrumentation" section. While the article definitely is too long, I think the instrumentation material is worthwhile. How about if we put the old "instrumentation" section into a separate article and beef it up, discussing the significance of each instrument (e.g., John's J160E on "I Feel Fine", Paul's Rickenbacker bass on "Paperback Writer", and so on)? Raymond Arritt 02:28, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes; revert it. 71.76.219.92 is a Led Zeppelin fan who is vandalizing this page. She/he does not leave any kind of note on the discussion page to verify what he/she has done, and doesn´t sign in. Block him/her. --andreasegde 19:10, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Length

I've removed a template saying "this article is too long", as it was ugly and most of us are aware of the problem anyway (see e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject The Beatles/The Beatles history)

I'm just posting here to let everyone who edits the article know. --kingboyk 18:31, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

The Beatles meet The Supremes

When The Beatles were finally knocked off the #1 spot in the USA it was by The Supremes. Consequently a meeting was set up with the four boys from Liverpool and the three girls from Detroit. The Beatles apparently fully expected The Supremes to strip off to their underwear and start smoking joints with them. However The Supremes remainly fully clothed and with their knees pressed firmly together. None of them had ever taken drugs in their life. One of The Beatles asked Florence Ballard how they they got that great sound on 'Baby Love' and she replied confidently that it was the guy at the front with that machine with all the buttons. They were both super-groups but had nothing whatever to say to each other. They did not meet again. SmokeyTheFatCat 09:25, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

The Beatles weren´t very good at meeting people: Elvis, Lennon and Bardot, The Queen. The first Dylan meeting went well, but probably because they were all off their heads... --andreasegde 09:53, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

They seemed to get on well with Muhammed Ali (but I suppose they had to - or else) and rumour has it John Lennon got on well with Yoko Ono when they met. The others didn't, mind you.--Crestville 13:54, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

George's Photo

The colour piccy of George has gone on the missing list. Vera, Chuck & Dave 13:57, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Why, it must be none other than the "George-Harrison-Picture-thieves"! Those bastards make a living by shanghi-ing photos of the Quiet Beatle (1943-2001) and then selling them on the Korean black market. Of course, there's no real call for pictures of "My Sweet Lord" star Harrison, so the thieving bastards are very hungry, angry and resentful. Experts believe Michael Abraham worked with the group for a time. They really need to branch out. Idiots.--Crestville 15:52, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

this is the best band ever. i love them!!!!!

Put another one in there from the rooftop concert, which is a good-un because he´s not on the on the rooftop shot below. Question: Why has the photo of George gone and the other three are still there? (Whoops... I think I´ve just shot myself in the foot.) --andreasegde 15:25, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Notes and References

Can someone please sort them out? They're more confused than a rectum that doesn't know where its elbow is, and they look messy. Can someone put them together? BTW, if anyone wants to know what "notes and references" should really look like, take a ganders at the KLF page - it'll knock yer socks off. --andreasegde 12:23, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Magical Mystery Tour

I've replaced the suggestion that MMT was broadcast only in Black and White, thus ruining The Beatles plans for the film - Ringo claimed this in the Anthology - ISTR it was broadcast twice over the xmas period of 1967; once on BBC1 in B+W then on BBC2 in colour. In fact this was pretty much irrelevent as in December 1967 practically nobody in the UK had a colour receiver as the colour service had only started in July 1967, only on a single channel and, ISTR only in the London area. It seems pretty silly to make a TV film that relies so much on colour in that situation.

Apepper 18:50, 8 November 2006 (UTC)Apepper

Laughter

If anyone wants to brighten up their day, I suggest you watch this: [1] It's fab. --andreasegde 06:55, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, it just goes to show eh? I didn't think Oasis were that good! Vera, Chuck & Dave 16:53, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Why isn't Magical Mystery Tour on the list

On the Official studio albums, why isn't Magical mystery Tour there? It's like one of the best albums, and besides, it came out in 1967. Why isn't it on that list? --Imax80 19:19, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Because it wasn't an official album until the CD era. The album was compiled in the USA by Capitol Records. It was a double EP of two 45 rpm records in the UK. Steelbeard1 19:22, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Now it's the album covers!

First it was the piccy's, now it's the album covers gone missing! Am I becoming paranoid or are we under attack from a sinister, covert anti-Beatles terrorist group? Vera, Chuck & Dave 15:26, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

User:Keepsleeping appears to have removed them as alleged copyright violation. - DavidWBrooks 15:30, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Is it a copyright violation? Cheers, Vera, Chuck & Dave 15:33, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Fair use fanatics seem to think so, average Wikipedians perhaps not (as evidenced by this being standard practice). Have your say at e.g. Wikipedia talk:Fair use. Personally I think it's harder to defend their use in this article than in the standalone discography; I think they're essential in the latter. --kingboyk 15:39, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

If the images of the album cover is used solely in an article in respect of the album, then it constitutes fair use and is allowed (especially since fair use is invoked when there is no "free" alternative - and there is no alternative to the official cover). If the images are used outside of articles specifically relating to the subject then they can be removed. I suggest asking User:Keepsleeping why the images are being removed.LessHeard vanU 15:46, 14 October 2006 (UTC)I posted this at the same time as Kingboyk - I was unfamiliar with the article that they have been removed from.LessHeard vanU 15:46, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Criterion #8 of the fair use criteria is that images used "must contribute significantly to the article". It's perfectly acceptable to use an image of the album cover in that album's article, or even in a section of the main article that discusses that album — in that case, the image is being used as an illustration of text that specifically discusses what's in the image. In this case, though, the images were being used in a discography list, when exactly the same information could be conveyed without the images, which makes the use of the images decorative and unnecessary. I promise you I'm not a member of any sinister, covert, anti-Beatles terrorist group :) --keepsleeping slack off! 15:53, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

This has gone all over my head - I'm just a thick "Mickey". Is there anything that you are allowed to do without convening a Mothers Meeting? Vera, Chuck & Dave 16:08, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

That is how I have become the editor I am today, by tripping over Admins whilst blundering through articles..... hmmmm, perhaps you may want to find your own way!LessHeard vanU 16:17, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, and it looks like I'll need me B.A.! Vera, Chuck & Dave 16:30, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

This is just silly. Has anyone in the whole wide world actually complained about using the album cover images in an article about the band ("It's not about the album! It's about the band so you can't use it!")? I somehow doubt it. They are among the most familiar images in the world, and some - like With the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road - have been parodied, referred to, used, misused, and re-created approximately 12 million times. In the last month alone. This is trying to create a problem where there is none. Carlo 20:39, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

That is an excellent point; some examples of record covers by The Beatles became icons in their own right, seperate from the music contained therein. As such they should be fair use in an article/section that discusses the impact the band made/make in popular culture. The particular references to Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper are well made, even today the images are used as a cultural reference point. If the images are re-instated into the article, though, these reasons must be made clear, and of course the images will need to be in the appropriate (part of the) section.LessHeard vanU 20:47, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

I noticed that someone inserted a "cleanup" heading on the Discography section. I made Song catalogue a separate heading which should solve the problem so I'll delete the heading. Steelbeard1 20:51, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Samples

I think the song samples should really be only in the individual album/song articles, not here. I did, however, add the 1963 samples here just to de-orphan them so they won't be deleted. I'll move them into the album articles when I can, and remove them from here. --LDC 19:57, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Band member stats

I added the vital stats because I didn't find any on the page. Now it's deleted, with the explanation that it's "not really necessary." I'd take issue with that, mainly because it's part of the basic information in any article mentioning person(s) affiliated with the article, and structurally this info should be in the article preamble. Now you say the info is already in the article; good, then find it for me. Then make it stand out.

I see the active band years is already mentioned in the box. BTW I will no longer take part in here. Mdoc7 17:19, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism in this Article

The Beatles are not Emo. Please somebody change that...

In future, just click "edit this page" and correct it. Power to the people! yandman 06:46, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Right on, Yandman! Unfortunately the page is semi-protected so our anon friend could not make that edit without help ;-) Leeborkman 07:01, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Ah. Errr.... Moderate possibilites available to certain persons! No, just doesn't sound right. Oh well. yandman 07:08, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Correct name

Is the name correct? Should it be "The Beatles" or plain right "Beatles"? My suspicion is Apple Records holds a trademark right over "Beatles" not "The Beatles" suggesting the former to be the correct name. As it is Rolling Stones and not The Rolling Stones - the former definitely incorrect redirects to the last one (it should be the other way round imho). Gebruiker:Dedalus 22:49, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes. "The Beatles" is a registered trademark, and was first used as such on 8th November 1963, Application For Trademark Registration Claim Number:187978. Vera, Chuck & Dave 00:51, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

WP:TBP. Please discuss "The" there, so the rest of us can quietly ignore it :) It's an old debate, the project settled on "The Beatles", end of story as far as most of us are concerned :) --kingboyk 13:18, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Using logo in infobox

Hi, there's been a discussion recently on the musical artist infobox talk page about the use of logos in the infobox. The discussion is ranging from whether support for logos in the infobox can be enhanced to whether this sort of thing even qualifies under WP's Fair Use policy at all. Since this is one of the most prominent articles using a logo in the infobox, and since it has its own well-established WikiProject, I'd like to invite interested parties to join the discussion. Xtifr _tälk 20:16, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

The Beatles Anthology

I'm not really happy with how The Beatles Anthology is presented in this article. The moment the various elements ("Free As A Bird" and "Real Love", the albums, the documentary series) are mixed up in various sections in the article. The two singles - probably the most notable element of the project - are given least prominence. I'm going to try and fix this by moving some of the info from the Anthology documentary section within "On film" into the "history" section. I'm just giving some indictation of my intentions, so I don't end up getting reverted just for making major edits to a popular article. :) --Nick R^Talk 16:22, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

OK, done that - I incorporated some of the content from History of The Beatles. In order to clarify the distinction between the Anthology CDs and the Anthology documentaries, I had to move the image of the collage cover away from the "film" section: it's more associated with the CDs than the documentaries, and should be placed next to the statement about Klaus Voormann. Unfortunately that doesn't look very good, since the text is squashed between that picture and that of Ringo. But the text is better now, IMO. --Nick R^Talk 17:10, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

A great picture

I just stumbled onto this pic, and think maybe it should be slotted into the History section somewhere?:

Image:Kleinsigning.jpg --kingboyk 12:15, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

That must be the cheesiest photo on Wikipedia... We've got to have it! yandman 13:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I just noticed... where's George?! --kingboyk 13:17, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Isn't Macca standing on him?LessHeard vanU 13:41, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

History of the Beatles

Our work on Paul McCartney has lead me to think again about the History of the Beatles article, a fork which clearly hasn't worked and which has dogged this project since inception. Macca's article is 90k (too long really but doesn't look bad). The KLF got Featured at over 70k. The Beatles is currently 66k but I'm sure contains some cruft which could go.

The history section is 30k, and the history article is only 47k. Those numbers don't show any good reason for the fork AFAIC. The time had come to take action, and I've taken it. History of The Beatles now redirects here. The last substantial edit was this revision and the article text follows. Please recycle anything pertinent into this article.

We can revisit the issue of forking when we get this article closer to a new FAC; for now we have to accept that the last forking failed. Accordingly I've archived Wikipedia:WikiProject The Beatles/The Beatles history. --kingboyk 14:11, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

History of The Beatles

The Beatles were a hugely successful band, consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), with global sales exceeding 1.3 billion albums (as of 2004). This article covers The Beatles' extensive history from their earliest beginnings in the 1950s until their breakup and beyond.

Early beginnings

Lennon met McCartney on July 6, 1957 at the annual St. Peter's Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete. Lennon was in a skiffle group called The Quarry Men who were performing at the event. Lennon was impressed by McCartney as he knew the words to several rock 'n' roll songs (Lennon would just make his own words up), and because he taught him some guitar chords (Lennon only knew the banjo chords taught to him by his mother Julia). McCartney subsequently joined the band, and brought Harrison along soon after, on February 6, 1958. In 1958, The Quarry Men recorded a demo of two songs; the first was an original Harrison/McCartney tune called "In Spite Of All The Danger"; the other was a cover of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day". A number of songs that were later recorded for Beatles records, were originally written at this time including "I'll Follow The Sun" (which McCartney had written independently), "When I'm Sixty-Four" and "One After 909".

After a brief split, The Quarry Men regrouped in 1960 as The Fabulous Silver Beatles, later shortened to The Beatles. The name was a tribute to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets, combined with beat music, a common British term for rock and roll at the time. In another tribute, they had sometimes called themselves the Foreverly Brothers.

The reformed band consisted of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, plus Lennon's closest friend Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. Allan Williams served as their first manager. They were offered a gig in Hamburg, West Germany, but they had no drummer. Pete Best, who had played occasionally with The Quarry Men, was auditioned on August 12th, 1960. Four days later, the group (with new member Pete Best) left for Hamburg. Hamburg was a wild place for the young men. They were featured at the Indra, a small club where they were playing to Germans who often did not understand English. They were uninhibited on stage, drinking alcohol, sometimes goading the crowd and acting unruly, but such was the club's atmosphere. The Beatles playing together in Hamburg had the group becoming more tight-knit, better musicians and better showmen. When The Beatles were just about to switch to a bigger, more popular club, The Top Ten Club, Harrison was deported for being underage and they returned to Liverpool.

In March 1961, The Beatles played their first gig at Liverpool's 'Cavern Club' before returning to the lucrative Hamburg scene with a now legal Harrison. During their stay in Germany they were hired by Bert Kaempfert to record backing for the singer Tony Sheridan. A single, "My Bonnie", was released in Germany on the Polydor label in August 1961, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Boys. It was The Beatles' first commercial release.

In the Spring of 1961, while still in Hamburg, Sutcliffe decided to leave the band in order to concentrate on his art studies. While Sutcliffe had had little musical impact on the group, he had influenced their appearance and sense of style. McCartney, who had been playing guitar, replaced him on bass.

In their early days, The Beatles composed and rehearsed their songs at 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool, the home of Paul McCartney, and now a National Trust property open to the public.

The Beatles, as individuals and as a group, soaked up influences from performers enjoying popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. Besides the previously mentioned Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were enamored with early Elvis Presley recordings. George Harrison liked American “rockabilly” guitar styles. The Beatles were also directly influenced by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, The Isley Brothers, and the Motown stars and groups. The Beatles were an opening act for Roy Orbison during one of Orbison’s overseas tours, and his influence can be heard in some of McCartney’s early melodies. Ringo Starr had a fondness for straight-ahead country & western music. Guitar-based American blues had little influence on them until the late ‘60s, although they recorded the old Blind Lemon Jefferson song “Matchbox Blues” (but in a country & western style). By the mid sixties, Bob Dylan’s “folk rock” was an influence on John Lennon’s lyrical attitudes and content. Still later, American mainstream amplified-guitar blues had an influence on The Beatles, but probably more by way of Eric Clapton and Cream, and other British bands that had been steeped in that influence for years, by this point.

On December 10, 1961, Brian Epstein agreed to become the band's full-time manager, after receiving requests for the band's music two months earlier in his record store ("My Bonnie by The Beatles" — Epstein couldn't find it) and watching them perform at the Cavern Club on November 9, 1961. Epstein arranged for The Beatles to audition for Decca Records on January 1, 1962. Decca, in one of the most embarrassing business decisions in music history, rejected the band, on the grounds that guitar music was "on the way out". The Decca audition has subsequently accumulated significant legend.

The Beatles auditioned for EMI's Parlophone label on June 6, 1962. George Martin, who was at first unimpressed by the band's demos, liked them as people when he met them, and they were signed. Not only did he feel that they had musical talent, but he also felt that their wit and humor made them extremely "likeable." When he asked them if there was anything they wanted to change, Harrison said, "I don't like your tie". Martin informed The Beatles that he was signing them in late July.

Martin did have a problem with Best however, whom he criticised for not being able to keep time. For this and other reasons, The Beatles let Best go on August 16, 1962, although it was left to Brian Epstein to tell him. They immediately asked Starr, whom they had met and even performed with previously, to join the band permanently. Starr had been the drummer for Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, at a time when they had been one of the top Merseybeat groups, a bigger group than The Beatles were. Martin, unaware of this personnel change, hired session drummer Andy White to play drums on The Beatles' first studio session on September 4, 1962. Andy would be the session drummer during their 3rd EMI session on September 11, 1962.

The Beatlemania years

220px|thumb|right|The Beatles arriving in America The Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do", was released on October 5, 1962 and became a minor hit. The Beatles recorded their first full length album, often "live" in the studio, on February 11, 1963 in one 12 hour session; it was released as Please, Please Me in March. On February 22, 1963 The Beatles' second single, "Please Please Me" went straight to No. 2 in the UK "From Me to You" and "She Loves You" (with its instantly memorable "Yeah, yeah, yeah" refrain) followed to the top of the UK charts.

Beatlemania as a chaotic cultural phenomenon began in Britain on October 13, 1963 with a televised appearance at the London Palladium.

Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, was released on January 20, 1964. On February 7, 1964 The Beatles traveled to New York for a number of U.S. television appearances and performances. Upon arriving at JFK airport, The Beatles noticed thousands of kids screaming and awaiting the plane's arrival. They assumed that there must have been someone important on the plane with them and were a bit shocked to learn that the crowds were actually there for them.

On February 9, 1964 The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. Their appearance made their popularity explode across the country. To this day it remains one of the highest rated television programs of all time, with 73 million people tuning in. The Beatles made four more live appearances on the show in months to come. Two days later, on February 11 in the Washington Coliseum, The Beatles made their first live stage appearance in the United States.

On April 4, 1964, The Beatles set a record that has yet to be broken when they occupied all five top positions on Billboard's Hot 100 (they first appeared on Billboard on January 18th that year). Their single "Can't Buy Me Love" was at number one. In August of that year, The Beatles' first motion picture was released, A Hard Day's Night. They started filming their second film, Help! on February 24, 1965 in the Bahamas.

The psychedelic years

From mid 1964 all the band members became habitual smokers of marijuana after reportedly being introduced to it when they met Bob Dylan for the first time in New York. In mid 1965, according to Lennon and Harrison, they were unwillingly 'dosed' with LSD at a party by their dentist. (The dentist, however, never admitted that he had put anything unusual in Lennon's or Harrison's tea).

Nevertheless, in the ensuing years, The Beatles met with psychedelic counterculture icon Timothy Leary, and began experimenting with the psychedelic drug. Two albums released during this period, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band were both clearly influenced by the band's experimentation with LSD. Around this same time, Geoff Emerick took over as the new recording engineer at the beginning of the Revolver sessions. With Emerick's help, the group incorporated a new sound into these two groundbreaking albums, one which represented a radical alteration compared to their previous studio work. A key innovation in their recording was the use of automatic double tracking, invented by Abbey Road staff engineer Ken Townshend, which allowed the group to automatically 'double' their vocals in recordings. Townshend reportedly came up with the technique because of Lennon's well-known dislike of tracking sessions. In 1966 McCartney worked with George Martin on the film score for the Boulting Brothers' film The Family Way that allowed him to use orchestration, another element that featured in the following albums, and he subsequently won an Ivor Novello award for the score.

On June 12, 1965, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon each Beatle the MBE. This honour is bestowed by the monarch (under advisement by the Prime Minister) for important services rendered to the nation. Many opposed the decision, and some recipients of the Order returned their own honours in protest, claiming that the title had been "devalued." It should be remembered that at the time, many were veterans of World War II. Lennon would return his own in 1969 with the note:

"Your Majesty, I am returning my MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against 'Cold Turkey' slipping down in the Charts.

"With love,

"John Lennon of Bag"

On August 15, 1965, The Beatles started their second North American tour at Shea Stadium, which was the first rock concert to be held in a venue of that size. The concert also set two new world records, one for attendance (55,600.) and one for revenue, ($305,000).

On March 4, 1966, in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, John Lennon made the following statement:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first? rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

The statement was part of a two page interview and went virtually unnoticed in Britain. In July of that year, Lennon's words were reprinted in the United States fan magazine Datebook, leading to a backlash by conservative religious groups mainly in the rural South and Midwestern states. Radio stations banned the group's recordings, and their albums and other products were burned and destroyed. Spain and the Vatican denounced Lennon's words and South Africa banned Beatles music from the radio. On August 11, 1966 Lennon held a press conference in Chicago in order to address the growing furor. He told reporters:

"I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying we are greater or better."

On June 5, 1966, The Beatles returned to The Ed Sullivan Show, this time with a taped appearance, where they introduced their two new music videos, "Rain" and "Paperback Writer". In later years, The Beatles would appear on the show to introduce more music videos for the songs "Hello Goodbye", "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Two Of Us", and "Let It Be".

On July 2, 1966, The Beatles became the first musical group to perform at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo. The performance ignited a lot of protest from local citizens who felt that it was inappropriate for a rock-and-roll band to play at Budokan.

By the end of July, the band headed to the Philippines for a series of shows. The Beatles, while relaxing in their hotel room, read in the newspaper that they would visit the Malacanang Palace of President Ferdinand Marcos. This came as news to The Beatles, who were tired from the tour and otherwise had a strict policy of keeping their rare days off to themselves so as to be consistent about their obligations. They spent a relaxing evening in the hotel, and awoke the next morning to death threats and newspaper headlines like "Imelda stood up!" and "The Beatles snub the First Lady!". Epstein attempted to make a televised apology for the incident, but none of the local stations would air it. The following day, armed guards attempted to keep the band from leaving the country until they paid a fee of some kind. The Beatles, who hadn't been paid for their shows in the country, paid out of their own pockets. The Beatles literally had to fight their way to the airplane. Decades later with the fall of the Marcos regime and the full exposure of its abuses, the members of the band took some pride that they stood up to the Marcos' in some small way.

Events like those in the Philippines, in addition to the fact that the fans screamed so loud at their concerts that they couldn't even hear themselves perform, led to the band deciding to quit touring altogether. The band performed their last concert (at least on a large scale) at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966.

The studio years

With the distractions of touring behind them, The Beatles began recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on November 24, 1966. The album took so much time to record (for a Beatles record anyway) that the press started to suggest that The Beatles had "lost it" and had run out of creativity. Three early tracks, "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", and "Only A Northern Song", were left out of Sgt. Pepper as it was not then customary to include singles releases on albums. Some were saved for later albums: the latter song becoming part of the Yellow Submarine film, but George Martin still refers to the omission of "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" from Sgt. Pepper as the greatest regret of his career. Ironically, the "Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever" double A side was the first Beatles single not to make UK number 1 since their first release. It was kept from the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me".

Nonetheless, Sgt. Pepper's release on June 1, 1967, was a high point both for the band and for all of rock music, for it was the first-ever widely-popular concept album (built around a particular theme) and helped to launch what we know today as the "Classic Rock" format.

On June 25, 1967 The Beatles performed "All You Need Is Love" for the Our World television special. It was the first television special to air worldwide. Singing backup for The Beatles were a number of artists including Eric Clapton, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Who.

Manager Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose on August 27, 1967, while The Beatles were in Bangor, Wales, attending a weekend conference given by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The death was officially ruled accidental, although it has often been speculated that it was a suicide. Epstein had managed every aspect of The Beatles' career, and his absence was immediately noticeable. The Beatles' business affairs began to unravel.

In January 1968, The Beatles launched Apple Corps, a disastrously mismanaged entertainment company that included a recording studio, a record label (Apple Records), a film division and clothing store. In addition to Beatles records, Apple released albums by James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Billy Preston, Badfinger, Ravi Shankar and other artists.

Towards the end of the 1960s, members of the band began to pursue their own musical interests and were writing together less and less. This became more and more obvious on releases like 1968's The Beatles (also known as "The White Album"), and Let It Be. The Beatles was largely written during the band's visit to India, where they stayed at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's retreat. With the exception of Harrison, The Beatles eventually rejected the Maharishi, particularly after he was publicly disgraced. Lennon, disillusioned, wrote the song "Sexy Sadie" (originally titled "Maharishi") about their former teacher. A number of unreleased songs from the Let It Be sessions also make reference to the Maharishi. The Beatles went on to become their biggest selling LP in the United States and one of the US top ten selling albums of all time. The double album has often been criticised for its varying quality and including too many tracks on what should have been a single LP release. The Beatles released two albums in order to be free of their EMI contract which stipulated a total number of recorded songs. However, in the words of McCartney: "It sold, it was the bloody Beatles' White Album, shut up!"

It was during sessions for The Beatles that the band recorded "Hey Jude", a seven-minute magnum opus which turned out to be the biggest-selling single of the group's entire career.

In January 1969, The Beatles began rehearsals for a new album project (at the time entitled Get Back). The rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios made it the first album the group had made away from Abbey Road and without the guidance of George Martin. The recording sessions at Apple Studios were filmed for what would eventually become the Let It Be movie. Many ideas had been thrown around for the Get Back album, including the idea of recording it live during a surprise concert performance on top of a submarine, in an amphitheatre, or in a dance hall. None of these happened, but they did end the project with a live performance on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building in Savile Row, London, which was cut short when a local bank manager called the police to complain about the noise. This impromptu concert, held on January 30, 1969, was to be The Beatles' last public performance. An edited version of the performance can be seen in the documentary film Let It Be. Eventually the band gave up on the project. After the release of Abbey Road, Lennon turned the Get Back sessions over to producer Phil Spector, with controversial results. Spector's signature "Wall of Sound" production was in direct opposition to the original intent of the record, which had been to bring the band full circle, and record a stripped-down live studio performance just as their first album had been. McCartney in particular was critical of the results, particularly on tracks like "The Long and Winding Road".

The Beatles began recording their final album, entitled Abbey Road, in July 1969, returning to the EMI studios in West London and the production team led by George Martin. It proved to be a relatively smooth and peaceful production and a highly acclaimed album. Lennon announced to the other Beatles that he was leaving the band just before that album's release but was persuaded to remain quiet in public.

In September 1969, Russell Gibb, a radio DJ in Detroit, Michigan, announced that Paul McCartney was dead. Other DJs, television news reporters, newspapers and magazines picked up on the story and began to look for clues. This snowballed into what is commonly referred to today as the Paul Is Dead hoax. People that believed the rumors, claimed that McCartney had died in a car accident and was replaced by a look-alike named William Campbell. Numerous clues were supposedly hidden in album artwork, lyrics, and recordings themselves (fans even went so far as to play Beatles records backwards, for instance the words "number nine, number nine" on the song "Revolution 9" on The Beatles (also known as "The White Album") became "turn me on, dead man, turn me on, dead man" when played counterclockwise). Another key clue apparently was the cover of the album Abbey Road in which Paul held a cigarette with his right hand, indicating his becoming reduced to ashes. Paul is left-handed. The legendary hoax has been the subject of several books.

The band officially broke up in 1970. The last Beatles studio session that included all four band members took place on August 20, 1969. Ironically, one of the last songs they had completed as a complete group was titled "The End", although the last song that was finalized and approved by all four Beatles was "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". The final Beatles session was on January 4, 1970, with Paul, Ringo, and George recording "I Me Mine".

EMI released Let It Be, the result of the Spector rework of the Get Back sessions, in May 1970, and the film of the same name shortly after (for the main purpose of fulfilling the group's contract with United Artists).

Breakup

On April 10, 1970, McCartney announced that the band had officially broken up. The cause of the breakup has been debated by fans and historians ever since that day, and ultimately they came up with several factors that could have easily contributed to the breakup. It is likely that the world will never know what caused the break-up, following are some theories.

The end of touring

On August 29, 1966, The Beatles played their final live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It was the concluding concert in a series of short tours in the summer of 1966 that had several unhappy incidents. Viewed in hindsight, the occurrences were perhaps not as grave as they seemed at the time, but for a band that had toured almost without negative incident throughout 1964 and 1965 (although FBI files reveal an extortion threat in Denver, Colorado on August 26, 1964), the existence of troubles during their tours was a straw that broke the camel's back. Performing live was becoming a stressful chore rather than the satisfying experience it had been in their earlier days.

The problems started during their tour of Japan, where they were scheduled to play at the famous Budokan Hall, despite the large protests against it. The performance was in front of a very quiet audience. This was a change from the band's usual, in front of fans that couldn't hear the music over their own screaming. Due to the sudden ability to hear the band, it seemed that their ability to perform had degraded; a majority of the fans who have the bootleg of the show agree with this.

Philippines. Problems started with the band being denied permission to leave the hotel by the police. Then, shortly after their concert, the First Lady Imelda Marcos 'invited' them to a social event for her family and friends; however, neither the band nor manager Brian Epstein had been informed of this invitation in advance, and Epstein sent away the guards sent to escort the band to the First Lady. This was perceived as a snub by Marcos.

The next morning the local newspaper headlines proclaimed that The Beatles had stood up the First Lady. Angry riots broke out as the band tried to escape the country, and drummer Ringo Starr received rib injuries trying to reach their airplane. Numerous other Beatles touring crew members were also injured. Their instruments were lost, they were 'taxed' all the money they were due to have received from their concert, and several members of the touring party were left behind in the airport scuffles.

After the band's summer tour of the US ended, George Harrison by some accounts informed Epstein that he was quitting the band. If this conversation did occur, his decision was obviously rescinded. The thought behind it may be attributed to the growing discontent arising from the conflict between the desire to create music and the technical limitations of playing music live in the mid-1960s owing to the primitive amplification equipment of the era. The Beatles decided to make a wholesale change in their lives.

Instead of continuing the standard pattern of an endless succession of recording and touring, they decided to give up live performance in favor of focusing on recording and other projects. Given the growing sophistication in their composing and recording, as evidenced by the albums Rubber Soul and Revolver, they regarded this as a step forwards — an opportunity to devote whatever time was needed to creating music in the studio, without the usual pressures to record swiftly in order to meet commercial deadlines, or to have 'product' ready to promote on tour. The first results of this new philosophy were the single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" and their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The new music resulting from this commitment to spend unlimited time on creating music in the studio was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

The decision to give up live performance was quite a revolutionary step for successful musical performers in the 1960s, and was probably alarming to those who had a traditional view of how entertainers should conduct their careers. However The Beatles were clearly forging a new path as creative artists in which fulfilling their artistic urges was more important than toiling unhappily just because it was expected of them, or simply to make money. This approach was followed by many musical artists in the late 1960s and thereafter.

Eventually, the lack of live performance did lead to strains within the band. Paul McCartney in particular started to miss the positive aspects of playing live. This led to conflicts, especially with George Harrison, who came to believe that The Beatles iconic status with pop fans was incompatible with the band being able to play live as serious musicians in the same way as some of the newer progressive rock bands. Harrison wanted The Beatles to be appreciated for their newer music. He felt that live performances would be marred by fans screaming for their 'moptop' era pop songs. McCartney, however, felt that the essence of the band lay in live performance. Lennon and Starr vacillated between support of McCartney's and Harrison's viewpoints. After the issue of a possible return to live performance first surfaced, in late 1968, there was never a time that all four Beatles were in agreement on the topic. This factor probably contributed to their eventual break-up.

Brian Epstein's death

On August 27, 1967, the group's longtime manager Brian Epstein died of an overdose of Carbitral, a sleeping pill.

This marked the end of an era for the band; he had kept them together through the years of touring, and kept them doing something. From the time of his death onwards, the band was mostly aimless and drifted apart as a power vacuum was left open for who decided what The Beatles did, and when. This resulted in a struggle between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Lennon himself stated that this was a major factor in the breakup of the band in a series of interviews for Rolling Stone magazine (1970):

"We got fed up with being side men for Paul, after Brian died that's what began to happen to us you know ... after Brian died we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us, but what is leading us when we went around in circles? We broke up then."

"When Brian died I knew that was it. I knew we'd had it."

Apple Corps

Main article: Apple Corps

Beatles Ltd. was a company founded by The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein, to handle merchandising and other business affairs for the band. The company was dissolved in 1968 to form Apple Corps Ltd. and its record division Apple Records.

Shortly after its founding, due to the band's lack of experience at business matters, John Lennon announced that in his opinion it would go broke in six months. The level of work required to run the company resulted in a lot of stress, frustration, and fracturing of their friendships as the company wasted money almost nonstop.

When they decided to find someone experienced enough to run Apple, the band was divided. Paul McCartney wanted to hire Lee Eastman, but the other three wanted to hire The Rolling Stones' manager, the notorious Allen Klein. Klein won, but it was evidently too little and too late as the company stopped releasing records in 1975. Aside from the release of a few Beatles discs in the 1990s, the company remained unproductive. In later years, Lennon apologised to McCartney, saying that, in hindsight, Eastman would have been the better choice, which somewhat patched up their earlier disagreements, although this was after the band had broken up.

The Get Back/Let It Be Sessions

In January of 1969, Paul McCartney came up with the idea for the band to spend hours in Twickenham Studios being filmed rehearsing material for what would become the Let It Be album. They originally planned a TV special, a live performance, and other things but these were never realised and after a month of work the original project ended in failure. The band was forced to work together as relationships strained to the breaking point, George Harrison's songs were almost thoroughly ignored, and at one point he stormed out of the sessions claiming he was quitting.

Neglect of George Harrison's songs

Often cited as a large factor of the breakup is when Lennon and McCartney limited Harrison's song contributions to one or two tracks per album. By 1967, Harrison was writing songs of finer quality than his earlier 1963–1965 efforts. However Lennon and McCartney had been established as the group's primary songwriters since its earliest days — and they were astonishingly prolific. Though they acknowledged the considerable growth in the quality of Harrison's songwriting they continued to allocate him just a token presence on most Beatles records. The three tracks he was accorded on the 1966 album Revolver was an improvement on his average one song per album.

An example of this is when Harrison contributed songs like "Hear Me Lord" and "Let It Down" during the 1969 Get Back sessions. The bootlegs show that he ran through the songs on a guitar a few times and then it was dropped when band members decided to do something else. A similar thing happened to "All Things Must Pass" when they performed it several times during the sessions and then completely dropped it.

Though he was only a very occasional composer, Ringo Starr was treated in a similar way, and he was given only rare opportunities to have any of his songs included. According to him, he had written "Don't Pass Me By" as shown by the Top Gear program on the BBC promoting A Hard Day's Night. The chatter introduction to "And I Love Her" includes an exchange between McCartney and Starr in which McCartney sings an early and unmistakable rendition of the song, as well as Starr chiding McCartney for promising to record it. He asked the band to record it every time a new album was recorded. It wasn't recorded until the White Album. Study of the Get Back session bootlegs reveals that the band expressed scant interest in another Starr song, "Octopus's Garden" finally recorded for Abbey Road.

Starr did not regard himself as a songwriter so the neglect of his occasional compositions was not a major issue to him. But Harrison, who had growing pride in his development as a songwriter became frustrated that Lennon and McCartney tended to still treat him as the 'baby' of the band and were not giving him the respect he believed he deserved as a songwriter.

Yoko Ono

Main article: Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono was Lennon's second wife, whom he had met at an art opening at the Indica Gallery in 1966. Her involvement in the breakup is extremely debatable. The only contact she had with the band was when Lennon took her into the band's recording sessions, when she calmly sat out of everyone's way. She did offer some backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and some noise for "Revolution 9" (notably when she says "...you become naked..."). Often she would whisper criticisms of John's involvement in the group into his ear, encouraging his solo career. It is reported that Paul glared at her while recording the line "Get back to where you once belonged" in the song "Get Back."

In a 2003 interview with Jay Leno, Yoko revealed the disappointment she felt by the breakup and how it impacted a life that she was used to.

Numerous bootleg recordings of the Get Back and White Album sessions indicate Ono respected The Beatles, and on one infamous bootleg of one of Ono's audio diaries (recorded during the sessions for "Revolution 9" and composing the second disc of a bootleg called From Kinfauns To Chaos) she expresses her urge to leave the studio and leave The Beatles to themselves. In points she expresses sadness over what appears to be (from her perspective) the stress in Paul and John's relationship.

During the Let It Be movie, she is rarely visible; when she is, she is either sitting behind a soundproofing barrier or an amplifier, usually with what is unmistakably a very unhappy or bored expression on her face. Audio bootlegs show her speaking rarely, usually far from the microphones (and The Beatles). The only instances during the Get Back sessions where she did speak were comprised of turning down the offer of a dry sandwich from George Harrison (the rest of the room followed suit) and entering a discussion with Paul McCartney and Glyn Johns on the subject of audiences.

Some say her role in the breakup was how she "distracted" Lennon from being a Beatle when he fell in love with her. However, she is mentioned in the group's song "The Ballad of John and Yoko". Additionally, Lennon claimed on numerous occasions that he wanted "out" of The Beatles before he met Yoko.

After the breakup

On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was murdered in front of his New York City apartment by a mentally deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, thus forever crushing any hope of a Beatles reunion. His death was mourned by millions of fans around the world.

Singer Michael Jackson bought the publishing rights for most of The Beatles' music, on August 10, 1985, for $47 million. McCartney, who had been attempting to purchase the rights himself, had told Jackson that he should get into publishing. McCartney did not expect Jackson to purchase The Beatles' music. "I wrote a couple of letters and I said, Michael, don't you think that even if I was just a writer on the payroll after 30 years of being reasonably successful to this company that you now own, don't you think I could have a raise?" said McCartney. "And he said 'Oh Paul, that's just business'. He won't even answer my letters, so we haven't talked and we don't have that great a relationship. The trouble is I wrote those songs for nothing and buying them back at these phenomenal sums... I just can't do it." This is an example of how future royalties of an entertainment work are difficult to value and how creators should be cautious in making business decisions. However, McCartney is not short of a few pounds: He has always received his standard songwriter's share of the royalties to those songs and is by far the richest musician in UK history.

In 1988, The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison were also inducted separately in later years (1994, 1999, and 2004, respectively).

On November 30, 1994, Apple Records released a 2 CD collection of early Beatles performances on the BBC, entitled Live At The BBC.

In 2000, The Beatles released a best of collection, entitled 1. The CD included 27 number one hits by the band and, within five weeks, became the best selling album of the year. Later that year, The Beatles released the Anthology book, which included interviews with all four band members and others involved, plus rare photos. The book went straight to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications reportedly sent out of a list of 150 songs that were recommended to be pulled from airplay. Four Beatles songs were on the list: "A Day in the Life", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Ticket To Ride", and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". John Lennon's "Imagine", and Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" was also listed.

George Harrison fought a long battle with lung and brain cancer throughout the 1990s, finally succumbing and dying on November 29, 2001.

In 2002, the Let It Be film was being restored and prepared for future release on DVD, but due to continuing legal issues, its release has been delayed for some years, and no firm release date has been announced. It is expected that this DVD, if it is ever released at all, will include additional footage, not seen in the original film. The album Let It Be... Naked, featuring stripped-down (but intended) versions of the original album, was released in November 2003.

In January 2003, following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recovered nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people were arrested. The tapes have been used for bootleg releases for years.

In March 2003, the Anthology television series was released on DVD with additional bonus material.

Several individuals who played an important role in the history or promotion of the band have at various times been called, or called themselves, the "fifth Beatle".

On December 15, 2005, Paul and Ringo along with the families of John and George sued EMI in a royalties dispute in which Apple claimed EMI owes The Beatles £30 million.

Reunions and Speculation

McCartney-Lennon Jam Session

A jam session between John Lennon and Paul McCartney was recorded on March 31, 1974, when McCartney visited Lennon in Los Angeles, California. They played with a number of other musicians, including Stevie Wonder. Believed to be the last time the pair recorded together, this tape has been released on bootleg as A Toot and a Snore in '74.

The 1976 Sessions

There is speculation that the four Beatles reunited at the Davlin recoding studios on November 2, 1976 in Los Angeles, California for a recording session. It is alleged that The Beatles recorded five songs during this session: "Happy Feeling", "Back Home", "Rockin' Once Again", "People Of the Third World", and "Little Girl".

Allegedly, producer George Martin was also at the sessions. However, word is that The Beatles walked out of the session. The tape of the recording was erased, but rumor has it an unerased copy still exists in the vaults of the Abbey Road studios. The unedited tape and set list were put up for auction at an Internet web-site.

Rumors of a 1980 Reunion

Around the time of John Lennon's murder, speculation existed that Paul McCartney and John Lennon were going to reunite on a Ringo Starr solo album. This was revealed by Jack Douglas who produced John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy album. It was also revealed that Ono blocked the reunion from happening.

Tribute for John Lennon

In February 1981, the then-three surviving Beatles reunited for the first time since the break-up for George Harrison's tribute to fallen Beatle John Lennon, "All Those Years Ago". It was expressly a Harrison single off his album, Somewhere In England, but in a series of recording sessions McCartney contributed bass guitar and vocals (wife Linda also contributed vocals), and Starr played the drums, all of which was mixed into the final recording.

'Anthology' Reunion

In February 1994, the then-three surviving Beatles reunited again (since the recording of "All Those Years Ago") to produce and record additional music to a few of Lennon's old unfinished demos, with Jeff Lynne co-producing. The first new song, "Free As A Bird", premiered November 19, 1995 as part of The Beatles Anthology series of television specials on the ABC network in the US and ITV in the UK. The song was also included on a CD with the same title, which was released on November 21, 1995. The following year, a second "new" track was released, entitled "Real Love", on March 4, 1996. That song was also included on the second Anthology collection which was released on March 18, 1996. A third Anthology collection followed on October 12, 1996, but did not include any new material. At least one other song, entitled "Now And Then", was worked on during these sessions, but remains unreleased.

Personnel

The following were regular members of the band:

• John Lennon — guitar, piano, harmonica, bass, vocals (1960–1969)
• Paul McCartney — bass, piano, guitar, vocals (1960–1970)
• George Harrison — guitar, vocals (1960–1970)
• Ringo Starr — drums, vocals (1962–1970)
• Stu Sutcliffe — bass, vocals (1960–1961)
• Pete Best — drums (1960–1962)

Original drummer Pete Best was asked to leave the group in August 1962 just before it started recording, and was replaced by Starr. Earlier, in January 1961, original bass player Stu Sutcliffe had decided to leave the band and remain in Hamburg, Germany with his girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr where The Beatles had played several long engagements; McCartney took over the bass role. Sutcliffe would later die of a brain hemorrhage. His life, and his friendship with John Lennon, was fictionalised in the 1993 movie Backbeat.

Only primary instruments are listed; at one time or another, each of the four Beatles played other instruments on record as well.

The following individuals were irregular members of the band before The Beatles achieved international success:

• Chas Newby — Temporary bassist in Liverpool, after band returned from Hamburg in December 1960. Left the group to return to college, replaced on bass by McCartney January 1961.
• Tommy Moore — drummer for The Silver Beetles for one month in 1960. Quit the band, claiming to have had "just about enough of Lennon".
• Norman Chapman — drummer for The Silver Beetles for a few weeks in 1960. Left when conscripted into the Army for two years service in Kenya and Kuwait.

The following individuals have played a role in the studio when Beatles records were recorded:

• George Martin — Their producer, who translated their musical ideas into studio productions, and also did some harmonium or piano work on, for example, "In My Life".
• Jeff Lynne — Co-producer for The Beatles Anthology and 1994–1995 sessions
• Geoff Emerick — Studio Engineer
• Mal Evans — Roadie and Assistant
• Alf Bicknell — Roadie and driver (1964–1966)
• Neil Aspinall — Assistant, Road Manager
• Andy White — Drummer on The Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do"
• Billy Preston — Keyboardist on "Let It Be", player on "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down", first met them in their Hamburg days while touring with Little Richard. He was the only performer to get equal billing with The Beatles on an album, as Let it Be was credited to "The Beatles and Billy Preston."
• Eric Clapton — Lead guitarist on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
• Alan Civil — French horn Soloist on "For No One"
• David Mason — Piccolo trumpet soloist on "Penny Lane"
• Nicky Hopkins — Piano on "Old Brown Shoe" and "Revolution"

Others have been associated with The Beatles in several ways. These include:

• Allan Williams — Original manager
• Brian Epstein — The manager who took them from Hamburg to the world stage
• Tony Barrow — Press Officer 1963–1968
• Derek Taylor — Press Officer 1968–1997

See also

• The Beatles trivia

References

• Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316-80352-9.
• Bramwell, Tony (2005). Magical Mystery Tours. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33043-9.

{{The Beatles}} [[Category:The Beatles]] [[Category:Apple Corps]] [[Category:British music history]]

Influences on and the influence of The Beatles

The Beatles are without a doubt the most acclaimed group in the history of popular music, and quite possibly the most written about. Volumes could be written on the band and, indeed, Mark Lewisohn is currently working on such an endeavour. Therefore, this article has to be highly selective. I have to question, then, why this article has (had) three sections about artists who influenced The Beatles (parts of "Changes in their music", "Early influences", "Later influences"), and not a single paragraph on the influence of the group. Is an exhaustive list of the influences The Beatles consumed really amongst the most important things we can say about the group? Is it not the case that for every influence on The Beatles they influenced 100 or more other acts?

This is typical of the problems which beset articles on popular culture: fans of other artists feel they have to big up "their" artiste.

I'm going to be bold and majorly trim this stuff. The original sections will be pasted in below. If anybody wants to fork it out to another article that's their prerogative. --kingboyk 16:59, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

I've trimmed and refactored the material into a "Musical evolution" section. It's littered with {{fact}} tags (many of the statements I know to be true or citable, but that doesn't alter the reality that they'll need citations if we're to get this back to FA). I've not fully nailed the flow of the section: it still needs major refactoring for logical or chronological flow. I feel that a section on "musical evolution" versus 3 sections full of crap is an improvement though. --kingboyk 17:37, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Changes in their music

The Beatles were fans of almost every kind of music that they heard on the radio, or heard on imported records from America. These early records were not officially imported to the UK, but were taken to Liverpool by sailors who had bought them in America.

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

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

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

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.

[[:Image:Beatles - Abbey Road.jpg|thumb|left|220px|The Abbey Road album cover]]Beginning with the use of a string quartet (arranged by George Martin) on "Yesterday" in 1965, The Beatles pioneered a modern form of art song, exemplified by the double-quartet string arrangement on "Eleanor Rigby" (1966), "Here, There and Everywhere" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Lennon and McCartney's interest in the music of Bach led them to use a piccolo trumpet on the arrangement of "Penny Lane", and they used a Mellotron at the start of "Strawberry Fields Forever".

The decision to stop touring, in 1966, caused an abrupt change in their musical direction. They had already shown a clear trend towards progressively greater complexity in technique and style but this accelerated noticeably on their Revolver album. The subject matter of their post-touring songs branched out as well, as a diverse range of subjects were written about.

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

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

Studio band

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. After the breakup of the Beatles, Martin had other successes producing other acts such as America and Kenny Rogers.

Their constant demands to create new sounds on every new recording, and the imaginative – and ground-breaking – studio expertise of EMI staff engineers, including Norman Smith, Ken Townshend and Geoff Emerick all played significant parts in the innovative sounds of the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). (In 1973, Smith had a hit as a singer under the performing name Hurricane Smith with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say". A studio assistant on the Abbey Road sessions named Alan Parsons later had success in the 1970s and 1980s with his own band The Alan Parsons Project.)

Along with studio tricks such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, automatic double tracking and vari-speed recording, The Beatles began to augment their recordings with instruments that were unconventional for rock music at the time, including string and brass ensembles, Indian instruments such as the sitar and the swarmandel, tape loops, and early electronic instruments including the Mellotron, which was unforgettably 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.

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

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

When Magic Alex proposed building a 72-track studio in the basement of the Saville Row office, everybody encouraged him, but this was later proven to be a complete disaster, as Alex had no idea about studios at all, but nevertheless convinced all of The Beatles that he could do it.

Early influences

Major early influences included:

• Buddy Holly was a major early influence. Like Chuck Berry - he wrote and performed his own songs. The group played many of his songs on stage in their early days. They also recorded "Words of Love". It is accepted that their name was partially inspired by Holly’s backing group, The Crickets. Stuart Sutcliffe suggested "Beetles" which John Lennon altered to Beatles, but his version was a joke, meaning "Beat-less".

• Chuck Berry. They recorded covers of Berry songs: "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock and Roll Music" on their early albums, and also performed many other of his classics in their live repertoire. When Lennon first met Berry (as Berry walked in the dressing room door) Lennon shouted out, "Chuck Berry, my hero!".

• Country Music. All four band members have talked about their influences from American country music. The group covered Buck Owens "Act Naturally" and also recorded an original country-style number "What Goes On?", both sung by Starr. Starr's first original Beatles composition, "Don't Pass Me By" for The White Album, had a distinct bluegrass sound. Both Starr and McCartney would continue to record country material in their solo careers. McCartney was once asked to record a duet with Kenny Rogers, which he accepted but nothing was ever recorded.

• Elvis Presley. They recorded a number of Presley covers at the Abbey Road studio, and bootleg copies have existed since the late 1960s. Interviews for the documentary Anthology has all four band members speaking very highly of Presley, with Paul McCartney referring to him as "The guru". In other interviews McCartney has credited Presley as the rocker who influenced him the most. The band and Presley met only once, during their summer tour in 1965, The meeting was later described by the various Beatles as having been awkward and having mixed feelings about it. Five years later, Presley and President Richard Nixon were accused of claiming the band as "a real force for anti-American spirit." After Presley died in 1977 Lennon was asked for a comment. "Elvis died when he joined the army. . ." said Lennon.

• Little Richard. Some of their songs (especially in their early repertoire) featured falsetto screams similar to his, most notably on McCartney's rendition of Richard's song, "Long Tall Sally". In 1962, Richard socialised with The Beatles in Hamburg and they performed together at the Star-Club. "Long Tall Sally" became a permanent fixture in early Beatles' concert performances, and it would be the last song they performed at their final show at Candlestick Park in August 1966.

• Lonnie Donegan (and the whole British skiffle scene) - a British homemade equivalent of American jugband music. Donegan songs featured in the early Quarrymen repertoire.

• Ragtime and English music hall (vaudeville); owing something to the musical tastes of McCartney's father. This is apparent in songs such as "When I'm Sixty-Four" (composed during The Quarrymen period), "Honey Pie", and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". About their early single, "From Me to You", McCartney said, "It could be done as an old rag-time tune... especially the middle-eight, but we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom." John learned to play ukulele from his mother, and several tracks display a George Formby influence.

• American rockabilly music; particularly that of Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. The band's early stage shows featured several Perkins tunes; three of which (notably "Honey Don't", featuring an early Starr vocal) they eventually recorded on their albums.
• Early Motown artists. Early Beatles covers included Barrett Strong's Motown recording of "Money (That's What I Want)" and The Marvelettes' hit "Please Mr. Postman".

• The Everly Brothers. In their early days, Lennon and McCartney copied Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies. Their vocals on "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" were inspired by the Everlys' vocals on "Cathy's Clown" (1960), the first recording to ever reach number one simultaneously in the USA and England. "Two of Us", the opening track on Let It Be was overtly performed in the Everlys' style and McCartney acknowledged this in the recording, with a spoken "Take it Phil". McCartney later name-checked 'Phil and Don' in his solo track, "Let 'em In".

Later influences

The Beatles 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).[2] Dylan introduced The Beatles to marijuana (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.

Although not a major influence on Lennon, McCartney, or Starr, the impact of Ravi Shankar's lessons in both Indian music and spirituality to George Harrison made a permanent impact on Harrison's musical style, provoking greater use of spiritual themes in the band's music, and more intense musical experimentation, climaxing with "Within You Without You" on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which features solely Indian instrumentation.

At their peak in 1967-1968, The Incredible String Band had a brief but noticeable impact on Lennon and McCartney's songwriting. The fragmented structure of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" owes much to the ISB's "A Very Cellular Song" and the studied innocence of songs such as "The Inner Light" and "Mother Nature's Son" define similarities. Little evidence of their impact can be found after 1968 and so the importance of their influence is disputed.