Message about the Beatles. The Beatles

Popular group The Beatles, she's far away short biography, the composition of The Beatles and the history of the group over the decades since its collapse do not lose their relevance. New reports about the Beatles appear briefly or extensively at frequent intervals. There is a short message about the Beatles on the net and vice versa, we tried to combine all the available information about The Beatles into one, short and informative.

Absolutely everyone has heard about the Beatles, even if only summary. This team of 4 guys has become so firmly merged into the history of mankind that it still provides food for research for everyone who cares about music, be it a music lover or a critic.

The magnitude of popularity, which still makes itself felt today, a deep love for creativity, is really difficult to explain, but the fact remains that in the sixties the four turned the whole world upside down.

How it all began

For almost twenty years, the Beatles were considered the standard of musicians. The Beatles spawned a huge wave of imitation - both among ordinary fans and among other bands. The band's music inspired entire generations. It is she who is responsible for the fact that the movement for peace, for love and freedom actively flourished in Europe.

It is impossible to fully appreciate the importance The Beatles played in the culture of mankind, and it is unlikely that at least one of the team fully understood where the joint work would lead.

Liverpool, the hometown of the founders of the team, was actually an interesting place for the musicians of England. It was here that fresh ideas were brewed, which inspired Paul and John to study music.

In 1957, Paul McCartney met Lennon for the first time. John was already considered the leader of the Quarrymen, even though he was only seventeen. The style of creativity belonged to the British version of rock and roll - skiffle. McCartney charmed a new acquaintance, because he turned out to be a multi-instrumentalist - trumpet, piano and guitar, and besides, he was oriented in the chords and lyrics of all greatest hits that time. But besides that, Paul showed John the first compositions, and John also wanted to create his own songs. The competitive spirit made them both work hard. They became close later as a result tragic events- death of mothers.

In less than a few months, they not only played together, but also took to the stage. Helped them in this Harrison, George was a close friend of Paul. A little later, Stuart Sutcliffe, who studied with Harrison at the same college, joined the team that had just appeared.

It should be noted that the parents practically did not know what their sons were doing. They were really convinced that they wanted to get a working specialty. However, all the members of the foursome were too keen musical theme. Only Harrison's mother was warm to their studies.

What would you name the boat

A number of successful performances led the musicians to the idea that it was time to choose a suitable name. The ambitions of all members of the team were great, and even though it was difficult to call all their appearances on stage concerts, and no one would offer to record their music, they were still full of enthusiasm.

To do this, I had to join the Liverpool club life. Speaking under the name Quarrymen, they tried their hand at creative competitions over and over again, but nothing like success came of it. As a result, we had to think about which version of the name would better describe their approach to creativity.

Reflections led to The Beatles, and today there are disputes about how it appeared. Members of the team have repeatedly mentioned that the name was invented by Stuart and John. It occurred to them to create a name with a double meaning. Taking off from beetles, they changed the letter to make a reference to beat, because this particular style of music was especially popular.

Whether the name was responsible for the fact that the Beatles were noticed among others, no one can say for sure, but young people really began to be approached for performances.

1960 had barely begun when the band was called on a brief tour of the cities of Scotland, and it became Starting point, which helped to rise above the numerous bands that performed similar music in Liverpool. The team was supposed to work on the same stage with Johnny Gentle, a popular singer at that time.

Unfortunately, the Scottish tour brought not only positive impressions. During the concerts, the team quarreled with the manager, did not receive payment on time. IN hometown they returned earlier than the treaty suggested. The drummer, who received a concussion on the tour, left the team.

big start

From the summer of 1960 The Beatles received an invitation to a concert in Hamburg. For all the members of the Beatles, this was a great chance to showcase themselves outside home country, to reach Europe, as they would say today. The most curious thing is that in fact such a choice was quite strange. The group did not have a permanent drummer, which made it difficult to work, and she was not particularly known to anyone. However, it so happened that at that time the more popular bands could not go on a long tour, and Allan Williams managed to push the beginners forward. Before the tour, a long search for a drummer led Pete Best to the team - almost by accident.

Of course, it was not without difficulties - the tour to Germany was a big test. For almost seven months abroad, the Beatles performed at the Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs. The schedule of concerts turned out to be very busy, because the concerts then went on without stops, and in no case was it possible to lose face. Leaving their own compositions for a more convenient occasion, the team hit on the performance of variations, improvisations and arrangements.

It was impossible to relax. The Beatles played blues, processed folk songs, performed blues, rock and roll, selected and sang pop songs. It turned out to be a good experience: in the seven months of the tour, the skill has grown noticeably.

The return of the team was also appreciated in familiar clubs. The Beatles sounded different.

However, not only this trace was left by the first tour in the history of the team. Stuart Sutcliffe met and started a relationship with Astrid Kirchherr. She owns a photo shoot in the Hamburg Park. And it was she who suggested that the team choose a new image.

Stylish new hairstyles and neat jackets without collars and lapels from Cardin have become an updated image of the team. We can assume that the German girl acted as an image maker.

Epstein era

Back in Liverpool, the team began playing regularly at the Cavern. More experienced musicians quickly moved forward, and the city became known quite widely. However, they also had competitors, such as Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Ringo Starr sat on drums in this very popular group at that time.

Everyone managed to get acquainted with the Beatles team on the same German tour. With these guys, they jointly recorded a record - playing along as session players. However, in the end it was a fateful event.

By the way, remembering in Hamburg, the Beatles went there for the second time in 1961. This time the tour took three months. Germany gave the band the opportunity to record in the studio for the first time, as they performed with Tony Sheridan. On the record, the band was referred to as The Beat Brothers.

In Cavern, the team was noticed by Brian Epstein, who worked in one of the record stores. He was so enthusiastic that he began negotiations with record companies, but received many rejections, until finally Parlophone decided to sign a contract with a group that few had heard of.

George Martin, who was the studio's producer, said it wasn't the quality of the music or the craftsmanship that attracted him. "The Beatles" took wit, openness and even a little arrogance. They so fascinated Martin that he opened the way for them to Abbey Road, the famous London studio.

By mid-autumn 1962, Love Me Do appeared. No one can say whether the single would have sold worse if Epstein had not personally bought 10,000 records, which caused a buzz around rising stars.

This brought the team to TV screens, and, of course, the number of fans began to grow at an unprecedented rate. Now singles appeared, concerts were organized, and yet the first album saw the light of day. This was also a wonderful event: Please Please Me rose to the top of the national charts and did not leave the top lines for six months.

We can say that in 1963 a new phenomenon appeared - Beatlemania.

The next record, called With The Beatles, appeared a little later and brought a new record. Only pre-orders for this album collected 300 thousand. Over a million records were sold within a year!

Greatest Composers

Great Britain adored the four, but in America no one has yet heard of it. The hit re-releases that Epstein tried to negotiate didn't happen. However, when I Want To Hold Your Hand was recorded, Richard Buckle spoke about it in the very popular The Sunday Times. Speaking about the work of musicians, he expressed the opinion that the names of McCartney, Lennon will rise in the history of music immediately after the name of Beethoven. Such praise aroused interest, and so the songs of the Beatles sounded in the United States.

Not much time passed, as the first five compositions of the national hit parade of America belonged to them.

Albums continued to be recorded, and the team even made films. When Help! appeared, the whole world unanimously recognized Yesterday as the most magnificent composition. Covers sounded from all over, and today there are at least two thousand variations.

Studio work

In 1965, rock 'n' roll experienced a renaissance and turned from entertainment music into something new. The Beatles led the wave with Rubber Soul. A year later, they released Revolver, which had so many effects that it would have been impossible to perform the compositions live.

So the tour went into the background, and the team began to work seriously in the studios. In 1966 the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which lasted almost 130 days.

This album is still considered the evolution of the genre, a musical triumph. However, things got worse after that.

Epstein died of an overdose of sleeping pills in 1967.

White Album today is called the first signal of the breakup of the team.

Unfortunately, at that time tension was growing in the group, the music was not created jointly, but became a reason for competition among themselves. In addition, John had Yoko, and the other members of the team did not like her at all.

Sunset

Lennon has got new project, although he was still listed in The Beatles, McCartney hit the solo work. By mid-1969, there was no co-creation, but the fans seemed to be unaware of such an unpleasant situation.

When in 1970 McCartney announced that he was leaving the project, everyone was shocked. However, the team broke up safely - each musician found his own path.

Fans dreamed of a reunion, but Lennon died in 1980, and it became clear that the era of The Beatles had gone unconditionally, which did not affect the scale of popularity at all. And today the band's albums are listened to and known everywhere.

Some facts

Great Britain in 1965 awarded all members of the team with the Order of the British Empire.

Popular magazine among music lovers Rolling Stone called the Beatles the greatest performers of all time. The first place among the five hundred best albums was taken by the album of the Beatles.

The performance of The Beatles, which took place in 1967, was watched by 400,000,000 spectators. It was shown in Our World. It was there that All You Need Is Love received a video version.

1969: an unusual format at that time appeared - Yellow Submarine, a full-length cartoon. Many songs sounded in it, especially Hey Jude, which Lennon dedicated to his son Julian, was remembered by everyone.

Ringo and Paul can please fans with new music even today.

Biography of the Beatles - young years.
The legendary Beatles were born in 1959 in the UK, in the city of Liverpool. The very first line-up of the group included Paul McCartney (bass guitar, guitar, vocals), John Lennon (guitar, vocals), George Harrison (guitar, vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar), Pete Best (drums).
At first, the group was known only in Liverpool, then, when the musicians left for Germany in 1960, they were noticed by Tony Sheridan, who at that time was very famous performer rock and roll. With the Beatles, Sheridan recorded studio album"Tony Sheridan and the Beatles". It was then that the first serious debut at the international level took place in the creative biography of the Beatles.
After a joint project with Sheridan, Brian Epstein, owner of a record store, became interested in the band. From the autumn of 1961 he became their manager. When Stuart Sutcliffe left the group in December 1961, the Beatles became a quartet. Then the composition of the group underwent another change: the record company with which Epstein was negotiating, for their agreement to cooperate with the Beatles, demanded to change drummer Pete Best.
The first author's single of the Beatles, called "Love me do", was recorded on a little-known at the time recording studio Parlophone in December 1962. Brian Epstein, in an effort to arouse public interest in the group's new hit, took a rather risky step - he bought the first ten thousand copies himself. This commercial ruse was a success - interest in the instantly scattered record attracted a lot of buyers. The first independent album in the Beatles' biography was released in early 1963. By 1964, the whole world was crazy about the Beatles.
The official "birthday" of the "Beatlemania" phenomenon is considered to be the day the Beatles performed at the London Palladium on October 13, 1963. Their concert was televised and attracted about fifteen million viewers. At the same time, thousands of the group's fans, instead of watching a TV show, preferred to gather near the concert hall building, hoping to see their idols in real life.
On November 4 of that year, the Beatles performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Their performance became highlight of the program Royal Variety Show. The Queen Mother herself expressed admiration for the song "Till There Was You" performed by the Beatles.
Soon the Beatles' second album, With The Beatles, was released, breaking all existing records for the number of pre-purchase requests. By 1965, over one million copies of the album had been sold.
In 1963-1964, the Beatles conquered America. They became the first English band to have such a resounding success overseas. Moreover, the Parlofon company did not dare to release the group's singles in the USA, precisely because of the short-lived popularity in the States of almost all musicians from Great Britain. Brian Epstein tried to attract the attention of the American public by releasing the singles "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You" and the album "Introducing The Beatles", but they were not successful.

Popularity came after the release in the United States at the end of 1963 of the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand". One of the famous music critics after this song called Lennon and McCartney "the greatest composers since Beethoven". In January 1964, the album "Meet the Beatles!" was released in the United States, which in February received the status of "gold".
The quartet went on tour in the United States, where they gave three concerts, and also twice became participants in the popular television program The Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles brought together forty percent of the US population in front of television screens - that's about seventy-three million people. This fact of the Beatles' biography is one of the most significant: such a number of television audiences was recorded for the first time in the history of television.
This was the height of the "Beatlemania": their next creative project, the musical film "A Hard Day's Evening" and the album of the same name, received three million pre-orders, foreign tours were a triumph. The Beatles were called "the best songwriters since Schubert ".
However, the quartet soon had to put an end to concert performances: the public was ready to tear apart their idols, the fans did not let the musicians pass, so the Beatles were practically isolated from the whole world. In 1965, world popularity showed its reverse side: protests began against the Beatles, their records, portraits, and clothes were burned. The careless statements of the members of the group led to scandals on a national scale. In addition, the stage limited their creative development - day after day they performed the same songs, under the terms of the contract they did not have the right to deviate from the program. The stage biography of the Beatles ended, and the musicians decided to devote themselves entirely to studio work. On August 5, 1966, one of the best albums The Beatles - "Revolver" The album was distinguished primarily by the fact that most of its songs did not involve stage performance - the studio effects used here are so complex.
In 1967, the Beatles recorded a monumental and innovative album called Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. It was a real revolution in the world of rock music: the album was the first impetus to the new musical directions that subsequently appeared, such as art rock, hard rock and psychedelia.
Biography of the Beatles - mature years.
In June 1967, the Beatles concert was broadcast around the world. They also became the first in this - about four hundred million people saw their performance, no other musical ensemble has ever achieved such a grandiose success. During the performance, a video version of the song "All You Need Is Love" was recorded. Shortly after this triumphant success, the tragic death of the "fifth Beatle" of the band's manager, Brian Epstein, occurred. The group's business went into decline.
In 1968, the band released a double album, which would become known among the band's fans as the "white album" due to the cover artwork. The album was very popular, but it was during the work on it that the first signs of a subsequent collapse appeared in the group. The atmosphere began to heat up, between the musicians from time to time there were scandals. contributed to the improvement of the group.
In 1969, the group released one of their best songs, "Hey Jude". The single reached the top of the charts around the world and sold six million copies.
In February 1969, relations in the group finally went wrong due to disagreements over a new manager. McCartney sued his own group. However, later the group released another masterpiece of their work - the album "Abbey Road", which is considered their last collaboration (the album "Let It Be", released in 1970, included old recordings of the group).
In April 1970, at the same time as the release of the solo disc, Paul McCartney officially announced that the Beatles were no more. The world's greatest rock band has broken up. In 1979, McCartney made attempts to reunite the group in the same lineup. But this was never destined to happen - a year later, John Lennon was killed.

By 1958, when John, Paul and George began playing together, American rock and roll had spread to the United Kingdom with might and main. Young people were waiting for a second wind, some kind of spark that would overshadow the British conservation and post-war dullness, they wanted musical development. The idol of youth in those days was Elvis, under whom she was ready to dance all night long. Of course, in addition to simple admirers, he also had imitators. Hundreds of amateur bands all over England rehearsed in basements and garages, imitating American stars. In Liverpool alone, there were countless such teams. Stands out even special genre British music - mersibeat (after the name of the Liverpool River Mersey).

In those days, our heroes were far from the only band playing this kind of music. You can recall at least the group The Undertakers, which refused to cooperate with Brian Epstein (who knows, perhaps these guys would have become the most influential band in the world in history, had they signed a contract). And in the 1960s, British music was not limited to the Beatles alone: ​​there were The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Cream and many others. But it was The Beatles who managed to thunder all over the world so that the echoes are still heard.

Who knows whether this is the merit of one Brian Epstein or collective, but the fact remains: out of hundreds of identical groups, it was the famous Liverpool four that became legendary. They achieved what others could only dream of.

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2016-08-17
by: showbizby
Published in:

On the International Day of The Beatles, it is customary not only to sing the ageless hits of the Liverpool Quartet, but also to remember unusual facts and stories legendary band, especially since they are for the rich creative history there were a lot of teams.

None of the band members knew musical notation.

Exactly half of the quartet members are left-handed: Paul and Ringo.

John's aunt, Mimi, always repeated the phrase: "Guitar - good tool. However, it is unsuitable for making money.” After becoming rich, John bought his aunt a villa that had a marble wall with this saying.

John Lynn, the son of the owner of one of the venues where the Liverpool Four performed, told the Washington Post about the persistent smell of urine in concert halls after every Beatles concert. Bob Geldof, known to us as the lead actor in Alan Parker's film The Wall, based on the music of Pink Floyd, recalled: streams of urine ran - the girls literally pissed with delight. Therefore, I personally associate The Beatles, first of all, with the smell of urine.

Harrison himself recalled: “My first intercourse took place in Hamburg in the presence of Paul, John and Pete Best. We slept in bunk beds and covered ourselves with sheets, but after I came, there was loud applause. Well, at least they didn’t interfere with the process!

In 1967, the musicians almost bought an island near Athens, where they planned to live with friends and relatives. John Lennon said about the Greeks: "They tried everything - wars, nationalism, fascism, communism, capitalism, hatred, religion ... Why are we worse?" Paul McCartney later recalled: “Thank God we didn’t do it then. After all, then in any case, someone would have to wash the dishes - and this would no longer be a utopia.

The group members were introduced to LSD at a dentist's appointment. "Mad Dentist" John Riley slipped LSD into Lennon's coffee, Harrison, their wives, and Patty Boyd. It is not known exactly how much the musicians themselves wanted this, but George claimed that they tried LSD by accident. After the musicians had coffee and wanted to go home, Riley convinced them to stay. He said something in John's ear, Lennon turned to Harrison and said: "We're on LSD." George did not understand at first and reacted: “So what? Let's go already!" But that day the musicians returned home very late.

In Hamburg, the musicians lived in the back room of the Bambi Kino cinema located near the toilets. The smell of urine was terrible. In the end, George Harrison was deported due to his minority. Moving from Bambi Kino, Paul McCartney and Pete Best decided to give themselves a decent send-off and set fire to a condom. The fire flared up quite strongly and the patience of the owner of the premises overflowed - he turned to the police. The Beatles were arrested. In the end, McCartney and Best were deported after Harrison.

In America, Beatlemania began with 15-year-old teenager Marsh Albert from Maryland. After watching a news release about the band, Albert called Washington radio and asked, "Why don't they play this kind of music in America?" The DJ turned on the song "I Want To Hold Your Hand", after which other radio stations immediately included the Beatles in their repertoire.

The fateful acquaintance of Paul McCartney and John Lennon took place on July 6, 1957 at a concert by Lennon's The Quarrymen. Paul was 15 years old, and John was 16. At the same time, John was pretty drunk.

The Beatles were the first group to place a drum kit at the forefront of the stage. The debut took place in his native Liverpool. After Pete Best was almost trampled by female fans who rushed onto the stage, such a move was canceled.

The band became the first in history to have the lyrics of all the songs printed on the back of an album cover. Album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The harmonica used in the song "Love Me Do" was stolen by John in the summer of 1960 from a music store in the Dutch town of Arnhem.

After the release of the track "Penny Lane" in 1967, the authorities of Liverpool suffered serious losses due to the constant theft of signs on houses. As a result, it was decided to write the name of the street and the number of the house directly on the walls of the buildings.

Is not only godfather Sean Lennon. He is also the author of one of John Lennon's favorite cover versions of the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Moreover, so beloved that the track contains backing vocals and John's guitar.

To sit at Ringo Star's school desk, you need to pay five pounds sterling.

John Lennon was very fond of cats. He had ten pets when he lived in Weybridge with his first wife, Cynthia. His mother had a cat named Elvis as the woman was a big fan. Not surprisingly, Lennon later claimed that "there was nothing before Elvis."

During the week of April 4, 1964, as many as twelve Beatles songs entered the top 100 of the Billboard charts, while the group's compositions occupied the first five lines. This record has not been broken so far, although more than 50 years have passed.

In 1966, the Beatles wrote the song "Got to Get You into My Life". It was originally thought to be about a girl, but McCartney later claimed in an interview that the song was actually written about marijuana.

Film actress Mae West initially turned down an offer to have her image featured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" but changed her mind after receiving a private letter from the band. Other famous women on the cover - Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple.

Frank Sinatra has often publicly expressed his admiration for the band, and once said that "Something" is the greatest love song ever written.

John Lennon said that the only real songs he ever wrote were "Help!" and Strawberry Fields Forever. He claimed that these were the only songs he wrote based on his own experiences and not just imagining himself in certain situations.

The closest the band came to a reunion after their breakup was at a wedding when he married Patti Boyd in 1979. George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr played together at the wedding - but John Lennon did not come.

The Vatican accused The Beatles of Satanism after John Lennon said the group was "more popular than Jesus." The Papacy "forgave" the Beatles only in 2010, which - as Ringo Starr said, was not at all necessary.

In the mid-sixties, John had a molar tooth removed and gave it to a housekeeper with instructions to throw it away somewhere. Instead, she kept the tooth as a souvenir for her Beatleman daughter. For many years, the tooth was kept in the house until it was put up for auction in 2011 and sold for a fabulous sum of $31,000. The buyers claim that the purpose of the acquisition is to clone Lennon.

During the Beatles' legendary tour of India, Ringo Star carried a suitcase full of roasted beans. The fact is that his stomach, after diseases suffered in childhood, could not digest spicy and spicy local food.

Lennon was a terrible driver. Having received a car license at the age of 24 (the last of the Beatles), John never learned to drive well. Lennon last drove in 1969 during a family trip to Scotland, which ended in an accident - the star received 17 stitches. After that, Lennon always used the services of a taxi or a personal driver.

Lennon is the only Beatle who didn't go vegan. George and Paul were forced to remove meat from their diets for religious reasons, Ringo - for failing health, but John to the very last days did not deny himself the pleasure of eating meat, for which he even received from one of the journalists the offensive nickname "fat Beatle". Lennon's second gastronomic love was caffeine.

John Lennon was on the cover of the very first issue of Rolling Stone magazine. It happened November 9, 1969.

Lennon was unhappy with all of the Beatles' records. After the band broke up, John made a shocking announcement to his former producer George Martin that he would like to re-record every single Beatles song. Martin asked, "Even Strawberry Fields?" "Especially Strawberry Fields," was Lennon's response.

It is not known where Lennon's remains are located. On December 9, the day after the assassination, John Lennon's body was cremated and his ashes handed over to his widow. What she did with the ashes, how she disposed of them - the Japanese devil Yoko Ono has not yet confessed.

About

Biography

The story of the British group The Beatles, which had the strongest influence on the development of popular music in the twentieth century and continues to have this influence to this day, has been told many times in great detail. The most meticulous biographers start in the spring of 1956, when 15-year-old John Lennon organized The Quarrymen (The Quarry Boys) in the working-class quarter of Liverpool, ...

Biography

The story of the British group The Beatles, which had the strongest influence on the development of popular music in the twentieth century and continues to have this influence to this day, has been told many times in great detail. The most meticulous biographers start in the spring of 1956, when 15-year-old John Lennon organized The Quarrymen (The Quarry Boys) in the working-class quarter of Liverpool, which performed compositions in country and rock and roll styles.

The second important date was July 6, 1957, when Paul McCartney ( Paul McCartney) first heard The Quarrymen perform in the square near St. Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool. Then Paul and John met and Paul was able to impress John by knowing guitar chords that were unknown to John. For this convincing reason, Paul received an invitation to become a member of the group.

A year later, in 1958, Paul brought his high school friend, George Harrison, into the ensemble. George was only 15 years old, but he played the guitar quite well. Paul, John and George became the core of the band, which John renamed Johnny and the Moondogs. In 1959 John's art college classmate, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined the group.

In the same 1959, John Lennon changed its name several times: first it was "Long John And The Silver Beatles", then the abbreviated "The Silver Beatles" appeared, and finally, simply "The Beatles". The word "beatles" liked John, a great lover of word play - it contained two meanings: "beat" as "blow", "pulsation" and "beetles" - "Beetles". It also echoed the very popular Cricket group at that time.

By this time, the ensemble began performing at the Liverpool club "Jacaranda". There they were noticed by a certain Koschmider, the owner of a club in Hamburg - he invited the musicians on tour to his place in Germany. At that moment, the Beatles were once again looking for a drummer. The choice was stopped at Pete Best. The main argument was the fact that Pete had his own drum kit. As soon as the line-up was completed, the young artists immediately hit the road and on August 17, 1960, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe and Best took to the stage of the Hamburg Indra club. Later they moved to the more popular Kaiserkeller.

The musicians stayed in Hamburg for four and a half months - during this time they gained experience and significantly expanded their repertoire. Returning to their native Liverpool, they were already considered one of the best local groups. Despite the fact that they performed almost daily, invariably gathering crowds of listeners, this did not give anything in terms of development. In February 1961, they again went to Hamburg, where they already had fans.

In Hamburg, they had to urgently reshape their entire repertoire, because Stuart Sutcliffe, who was predicted to have a great artistic career (he drew beautifully), decided to leave the ensemble. When leaving, Stu gave his bass guitar to Paul McCartney and he had to master new tool. George Harrison instead of Paul was forced to become a solo guitarist. Stewart's German girlfriend, Astrid Kirkcher, provided the band with important assistance in establishing their own visual style. She designed for them special jackets without lapels and offered to cut their bangs and lengthen their hair so that the back of the musicians' heads looked like the backs of beetles.

In Hamburg, the Beatles entered the recording studio for the first time. Initially - as an accompaniment to the British guitarist and singer Tony Sheridan (Tony Sheridan). Before returning to Liverpool they recorded their own first single with two songs, "My Bonnie" and "The Saints". It was this record that a guy named Kurt Raymond Jones asked for on Saturday, October 28, 1961, at the record store of the Liverpool company NEMS Ltd., which was owned by 27-year-old Brian Epstein. Meticulous Brian did not have such a record in the store, but when he found it in the import catalog, he was very surprised to find out that the performers performed at the Cavern club, which was located next to the store. Epstein became curious and was not too lazy to stop by and listen to the band, since he was engaged not only in selling records, but also in promoting several local artists. After the concert, the Beatles received an offer of cooperation from him and signed a contract on November 13, according to which Brian Epstein became their official manager.

Being an active person, Epstein immediately attended to the release of the disc. It took him about six months to visit London, where he visited recording studios. Rejection followed rejection. Finally, in July 1962, the head of the Parlaphone company, George Martin, agreed to conclude a one-year contract with the Beatles, under which he undertook to release 4 singles. There was only one condition - to replace the drummer. Pete Best, although he had his fans, really lagged musically behind the other members of the Beatles. The offer to join the group was received by Ringo Starr, with whom the musicians were familiar from the Hamburg tour.

In early September 1962, the Beatles recorded their debut single "Love Me Do" / "P.S. I love you". Immediately after the release, he took the 17th place in the British national charts - it was a success that no one expected. Released in November, the second single "Please Please Me" / "Ask Me Why" has already topped the charts.

Catching the wind of success, the Beatles went on tour. They again visited Hamburg, gave a series of concerts in Sweden and traveled a lot to small towns in Britain. Having interrupted their tour for just one day, on February 11, 1963, the group in one go, in 585 minutes, completely recorded their debut album Please Please Me, which immediately jumped to first place in the charts and remained there for 6 months, giving way to only the next Beatles album.

Beatlemania was born on October 13, 1963, when the Beatles gave a concert at the London Palladium. Due to the mass hysteria of the audience, the musicians had to be evacuated from the hall with the help of the police.

The band's second disc "With The Beatles" set a world record for the number of pre-orders - there were more than 300,000 of them. Over a million copies were sold in a year. All subsequent singles by the Beatles sold a million copies immediately after release - this amazing record has not yet been broken by any performer.

In the United States, the Beatles were not accepted for a long time. The single "I Want To Hold You Hand" did not reach the first place of the charts until the beginning of 1964. However, when the musicians arrived on tour on February 7, at the airport. Kennedy came to meet them about four thousand fans. And in April, when the film “A Hard Days Night” and the new album of the same name were released, the songs of the Beatles occupied the first 5 lines of the American hit parade - this record also remains unbeaten.

The popularity and influence of the Beatles grew: new album The Beatles For Sale, which went on sale on December 4, 1964, sold 700,000 copies within a day. At very dense tour schedule the musicians managed to compose new songs and star in the next musical film. At the beginning of August 1965, the film and the disc "Help!" were released almost simultaneously, which, among other wonderful songs, contained the composition "Yesterday", which became the most performed melody of the 20th century.

The next two discs became a turning point not only for the work of the Beatles, but also for the development of world pop music in general. The compositions of the albums "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver", which were released in 1966, were so complex that they did not involve stage performance - there were so many studio effects. From that moment, the Beatles abandoned concert performances and switched to purely studio work.

Another reason for the refusal of concerts was a very big fatigue from continuous tours. The Beatles wanted and waited on all continents, they were lured by any means, but at the same time they became victims of provocations and speculation. Each concert performance turned into a battle with an army of temperamental fans who screamed so much that they drowned out the instruments. At the same time, in Japan, armed students in the city of Badokan threatened physical violence, and the Beatles had to literally flee from Manila after they aroused the wrath of the authorities by not appearing at an appointment with dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Because of John Lennon's accidental remark that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, members of the Ku Klux Klan in the southern United States began to publicly burn the Beatles' discs, demanding that they repent. Thus, having played the last concert of the American tour in San Francisco on August 29, 1966, the musicians never again appeared on the concert stage.

In the next compositions, many innovative techniques were used, the quintessence of which was the album “Sgt. Pepper "s Lonely Hearts Club Band" ("Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club") is the first concept album in history where everything, from the cover to the order of the songs, was subordinated common idea.

Album Sgt. Pepper "s ..." was the last major work for the Beatles. In the summer of 1967, a tragedy occurred - on August 27, Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose. Tensions arose within the group due to an unresolved problem - who would replace the manager, who, in fact, created success groups.

At the same time, creativity continued: a full-length animated film “Yellow Submarine” was released, and on November 22, 1968, a new double album appeared, simply called “The Beatles”. Soon the group took on a new unusual project. This time the idea was that complex compositions should be written in the studio as live ones, without stops and studio overdubs. And this whole process was to be shot on film and become the basis of the film. However, the task proved too difficult even for the Beatles. The camera blankly recorded endless stops and quarrels, about a hundred songs were recorded, even a concert was made on the roof of the Abbey Road studio, but in the end all the material was put aside "until better times."

In the summer of 1969, the musicians recorded the Abbey Road disc. This was their last collaboration in the studio. The day before, July 4, 1969, John Lennon announced that, together with his wife Yoko Ono, he organized new group, "Plastic Ono Band". In addition, serious financial problems began - the creative company Apple Records, which was founded by the Beatles musicians in early 1968, having invested in it earned money, turned into an organizational nightmare, a black hole into which a lot of money fell.

Having not reached an agreement on who would become the new manager of the group, the musicians stopped communicating with each other and Paul McCartney, releasing on April 10, 1970 solo album, placed an interview with himself on the envelope, in which he stated that he no longer plans to work in the Beatles group. This message shocked millions of fans, although by that time George Harrison was already on a concert tour with a duet with Delaney and Bonnie, and Ringo Starr was acting in a movie - he had the main role in the film "Magic Christian".

In January 1970, EMI, which had by then acquired the Parlaphone, invited American producer Phil Spector, who was then considered the best, to deal with the musical and film material abandoned in the studio. Spector listened to the recordings and prepared the Let It Be album for release. Thus, this disc came out when the Beatles were practically non-existent.

The Beatles practically created a new musical era. They turned light music into a voluminous subculture, influencing lyrics, arrangements, behavior, hair and clothing design - almost every aspect of modern life. They became not just the voice of their generation, but its symbol.

The collapse of the Beatles paradoxically allowed each of the quartet to be realized more fully. Each released records and performed at concerts. After the tragic death of John Lennon in December 1980, all hopes of a Beatles reunion collapsed. However, the popularity of the songs created by the group during the decade never waned.

In the early 1990s, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Lennon's widow Yoko Ono were finally able to sign a copyright agreement that allowed them to re-release material under the Beatles label. Thanks to this, in 1994 a double CD was released with BBC recordings made back in the early 60s. Then a multi-part documentary film "Anthology" was made about the history of the Beatles with musical material on six discs. This story was later published in the form of an illustrated book.

The death of George Harrison from throat cancer in 2001 was the cause of the deepest grief of fans around the world. As blasphemous as it sounds, but in the words of Lennon "The Beatles are now more popular than Jesus" there is some truth.

Today, the University of Liverpool has introduced Beatles to its curriculum. Upon graduation, graduates receive a master's degree in this subject. There are films and musicals based on the tunes of the Beatles, exhibitions are held, artifacts related to the history of the Beatles are sold at auctions for a lot of money. More than 8,000 books have been written about the group, and numerous

The work of the Beatles is one of the greatest bands in history contemporary music- and the personal life of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison over the years since the group's triumphal march around the world has been thoroughly investigated. The gigantic array of materials about the Beatles can be safely called, by analogy with Beatlemania, "Beatlology" - the science of the Beatles.

And yet, in the biography of the group and its members, one can still find not too replicated interesting, funny, and sometimes tragic facts.

1. From February 1961 to August 1963, the Beatles played 262 times on the stage of one of the Liverpool clubs. The dynamics of the then fees of the four is impressive - from 5 pounds for the first concert to 300 for the last.

2. In 1962, Decca Records refused to sign a contract with the group, informing the musicians that guitar bands are already out of fashion.

3. The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, was recorded in 10 hours of studio time. Now, with powerful electronics and computers, it takes months to record an album. The Beatles themselves in 1966 only recorded the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" for exactly 30 days.

4. It's hard to imagine now, but there were no stage monitors in the era of Beatlemania. Speaking in great hall or in the stadium, the Beatles simply did not hear themselves in the squealing and singing of the crowd of thousands. According to the apt expression of one of the musicians, the organizers could well carry wax figures on tours instead of living people.

5. For the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, the Nippon Budokan sports complex was built, which became a Mecca for Japanese fans of sumo and martial arts. In 1966, one Beatles concert was enough to turn the Budokan from a martial arts center into Japan's premier concert venue.

The Beatles Concert at the Nippon Budokan

6. Lennon, McCartney and 8 other musicians performed the final chord of the song “A Day in the Life” on one piano in 10 hands. The chord sounded for 42 seconds.

7. Almost all the drums in the songs of the Beatles were performed by Ringo Starr. But there are exceptions. Paul McCartney played drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R", "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" and "Dear Prudence".

8. In the song "All You Need is Love", first performed as the final composition of the world's first worldwide television satellite show "Our World", there are bars from the song "La Marseillaise", some time in 1917 the former unofficial anthem Russia.

9. Asteroids with numbers 4147 - 4150 are named by the full names of the members of the Liverpool Four. And Lennon also has a personal lunar crater.

10. This is nothing more than an accident, but by the time the Beatles broke up, they had recorded 13 albums. However, in what is considered the most complete collection of the group's albums, there are 15 of them - "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Past Masters" - a collection of unreleased songs - are added to the authentic ones.

11. In fact, the Beatles can be considered the inventors of the video clip. During the group's most prolific period in 1965, the musicians began to feel sorry for the time spent on traditional weekly television shows. On the other hand, participation in these shows was a necessary element in the promotion of singles and albums. The Beatles began to record performances in their own studio and send the resulting videos to the offices of television companies. Of course, not for free.

12. By Steven Spielberg's own admission, one of his movie editing aids was The Beatles' Magic Mystery Tour. Having watched a very weak film, it is difficult to understand what its editing could teach the future master of cinema.

Young Steven Spielberg

13. In 1989, a high-profile trial between the former Beatles and EMI ended. The musicians accused the music label of selling Beatles songs intended for non-commercial distribution for charity purposes. EMI's philanthropic neglect has netted McCartney, Starr, Harrison and Yoko Ono $100 million each. Three years earlier, unpaid royalties for the musical "Beatlemania" brought the band members only 10 million in total.

14. According to a rather popular legend, Paul McCartney crashed in a car accident back in 1967, and former police officer Bill Campbell took his place in the group. Supporters of the version have found a lot of evidence of its truth in the design of album covers and the lyrics of the songs of the Beatles.

15. The first to land on the land of countries that were part of the USSR during the heyday of the Beatles was Ringo Starr. The drummer with his group "All-Starr Band" gave concerts in both capitals of Russia in 1998.

16. At the suggestion of homegrown rock stars Western music critics write seriously about the Beatles' contribution to the destruction of the communist system. The “Great Four”, in their opinion, influenced Makarevich, Grebenshchikov, Gradsky and other rock musicians so much that the USSR was simply doomed. However, back in the 1970s, journalists put Lennon on a par with Mao Zedong and John F. Kennedy

17. The rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones existed and exists solely in the heads of the band's managers and their fans. There were friendly relations between the musicians. In 1963, John and Paul came to the Rolling Stones concert. After the performance, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger complained to them that it was time to release a single, but they didn't have enough songs. McCartney had the melody for a song that Starr was supposed to sing with the Beatles. After a little refinement right on the sidelines of the concert, the Rolling Stones received the missing song. It was called "I Wanna Be Your Man".

18. John Lennon's mother was special, far from Christian virtues. From the age of four, John lived and was brought up in his aunt's house. The sisters did not break off relations, and John often met with his mother. After one of the meetings, a drunk driver knocked Julia Lennon to death, which was a very hard blow for the 18-year-old Lennon.

At Clapton's wedding

19. Eric Clapton secretly dated George Harrison's wife Patti Boyd for a long time. This love triangle could well have revived the Beatles in 1979. Harrison was so grateful to Clapton for saving him from a tedious divorce from Patty and "bashing plates, squabbles and division of property" that he decided to gather all four at Eric and Patty's wedding. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney arrived and played a few songs, but Lennon ignored the invitation. John's death was one year away.