The Beatles - composition, photos, clips, listen to songs. The Beatles

The Beatles- a symbol of modern pop culture and the music industry, perhaps even more significant than such musical "monsters" as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Michael Jackson. And The Beatles - the best-selling music brand in history (more than 1 billion records sold worldwide) - forever changed the music world.

1. John Lennon originally named the group differently

John Lennon founded the group in 1957 and named it the Quarry Men. Later, he invited Paul McCartney to the group, who brought in George Harrison. Ringo Starr became the last of the "great four" after he replaced Peter Best as drummer.

2. Quarry Men, Johnny and the Moondogs...

The band changed its name many times before settling on the name
The Beatles. In addition to the Quarry Men, the group also went by the names Johnny and the Moondogs, Rainbows and British Everly Brothers.

3. "Beetles" (beetlles) and "Rhythm" (beat)

Although no one can say exactly where the band's final name came from, most fans believe that John Lennon suggested the name after American group"Crickets" (Crickets) Buddy Holly. Other sources emphasize that the name deliberately combined 2 words - "bugs" (beetlles) and "rhythm" (beat).

4. "From Me To You"

The Beatles called their first UK single "From Me To You", taking the idea from the letters section of the British magazine NME, then called "From You to Us". They wrote this song on a bus while on tour supporting Helen Shapiro.

5. There was nothing before Elvis

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 of Elvis Presley. Not surprisingly, Lennon later claimed that "there was nothing before Elvis."

6 Abbey Road

The band originally wanted to name the song "Abbey Road" "Everest". But when their record company invited the band to visit the Himalayas to shoot a video there, the Beatles decided to rename the song after the street where the recording studio was located.

7. Hit for the main competitors

Very few people know the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the first hit for their main rivals, the Rolling Stones. "I Wanna Be Your Man" was released in 1963 and peaked at number twelfth on the UK Singles Chart.

8. Good Morning Good Morning

John Lennon wrote "Good Morning Good Morning" after being infuriated by a Kellogg cereal commercial.

9 Billboard Hot Record Breakers

During the week of April 4, 1964, as many as twelve Beatles songs were included in the top 100 Billboard Hot singles, including the compositions of this group occupied the first five lines. This record has not been broken so far, for fifty-two years.

10. The Beatles sold 178 million records.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Beatles have sold 178 million records in the United States. That's more than any other artist in US music history.

11. "Got to Get You into My Life"

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

12. Hey Jude

If you listen carefully to the words of the legendary song "Hey Jude", you can hear how Paul swore dirty, making a mistake during the recording of the song.

13. "New Disease"

Many people mistakenly believe that the term "Beatlemania" first appeared in 1963 after a review in the Daily Mirror. However, the term was actually invented by Canadian Sandy Gardiner and first appeared in the Ottawa Journal in November 1963, where the word was used to describe a "new disease" that was sweeping the globe.

14. ... well, if they themselves ask

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

15. "Something" is the greatest love song

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

16. Help! and "Strawberry Fields Forever"

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.

17. Beatles Records Publicly Burned in the South

In March 1966, John Lennon noticed that Christianity was in decline and that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus. His remarks led to protests in the American South, where the band's records were publicly burned. The protests even spread to other countries such as Mexico, South Africa and Spain.

18. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. All four of its members were also inducted into the hall of fame individually from 1994 to 2015.

19. The Beatles hold the record for hits...

As of 2016, the Beatles still hold the record for most hits (20) to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis Presley and Mariah Carey are tied for second with 18 songs each. The Beatles also hold the record for the most number one albums in the US and UK.

20. Unfulfilled dream

The members of The Beatles were so passionate about Tolkien's work that they wanted to star in the film "The Lord of the Rings", where the director was supposed to be Stanley Kubrick. Fortunately, Kubrick and his record company did not find this idea attractive, and a few decades later, Peter Jackson created his famous cinematic masterpieces.

21. The Beatles broke up because of...

No one knows 100 percent why the Beatles broke up. When Paul McCartney was asked why the band broke up, he claimed it was due to "personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all, he enjoys spending time with his family much more".

22. Missed Opportunity

The closest the band came to a reunion after their split in 1970 was at Eric Clapton's 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.

23. Bands with guitars are out of fashion.

The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records on January 1, 1962, but were turned down because "groups with guitars are out of style" and also because "the band members lack talent". The Decca label instead chose a band called the Tremeloes, who no one remembers today. It is widely considered the most big mistake in the history of twentieth-century music.

24. The Beatles bought an island...

In 1967, when the Beatles were at the height of their drug addiction, they decided to buy their own island. Throwing in cash, the band members bought a beautiful private island in Greece where they wanted to live together, away from screaming fans. Unfortunately, when the group broke up, the island was also sold.

25. Beatles songs heal

Some scientists have suggested that several Beatles songs could help children with autism and other disabilities. In particular, they refer to the songs "Here Comes The Sun", "Octopus's Garden", "Yellow Submarine", "Hello Goodbye", "Blackbird" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Not so long ago, it appeared on the Web, which, of course, will be of interest to all fans of this group.

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.

Beatlemania

Mass hysteria, caused by the sometimes unhealthy adoration of The Beatles, which began in Liverpool and Hamburg, and subsequently swept the whole world (and even the USSR). Look at the recordings of concerts: the roar in the stands is such that sometimes the music itself is simply not heard. The raging crowd pursued the group literally on their heels and did not let it pass. It was sometimes very difficult to get from the airport to the car, and only the police ring rescued.

Such wild love of the fans tired the Beatles so much that in 1966 they announced the termination of the concert activity: the group was so exhausted by the phenomenon that it itself caused - the world-class Beatlemania that started in the 1960s and does not stop to this day. Of course, even now each group will have especially loving and fanatic fans, but no other group has ever repeated such a scale of adoration.

Pop cultural phenomenon

The music of The Beatles was understandable to absolutely everyone. Under it, one could dance, dream, be sad, love, and generally do anything. The Beatles have become a real cultural phenomenon in terms of their mass popularity, which no one had before or after them. And art, which has a particularly mass love, goes beyond its kind, becoming more than just art - a symbol of its era. The Beatles became one of the main symbols 20th century. Their images can still be found in many places, from photos in restaurants to graffiti on the walls, and products with the band's logo are still in high demand.

Influence

The list of musicians who confessed their love for the Liverpool Four and pointed out her work as a source of influence on their own is huge. Here are just a few: The Who, The Velvet Underground, T-Rex, Tom Petty & The Heartbrakers, Bee Gees, Oasis, Aerosmith, The Jam, Cheap Trick, David Bowie, The Smiths, The Beach Boys, The Stone Roses, The Flaming Lips, The Black Keys, Nirvana. Each of these teams pays tribute not only to the glory of The Beatles, but also to their musical talent.

fruitfulness

13 albums in 7 years is an absolute record. With all this, The Beatles approached each of their albums very responsibly and never did the work carelessly, just to release the album as soon as possible in order to earn more. Only deep purple(10 albums between 1968 and 1975), The Rolling Stones (12 albums between 1964 and 1974), Led Zeppelin (4 albums between 1969 and 1971) and The Smiths (4 albums over 3 years of existence) , not counting the collection of rare recordings). It is worth adding that there are 30 songs on the White Album alone. Today big group it takes an average of 3-4 years to record an album of 10-15 songs.

Development

The legendary four never stood still and brought something new to their work with each album. Over the 10 years of its existence, the musicians have tried their hand at various genres - from rhythm and blues to psychedelic rock and hard rock. In the latter, the group is generally a pioneer: the song Helter Skelter is considered a harbinger of hard rock and heavy metal. The Beatles and metal, can you imagine?

The range of these guys was really great. Instruments in the songs were also used very different: in addition to standard guitars and drums, you can hear sitar, harmonica, bongos and classical string orchestra. The Beatles always went uphill, and when it seemed that they had already reached the top and there was simply nowhere else to go, they surprised their listeners with a jump above their own heads.

Awarding by Elizabeth II

“Well, what’s wrong with that? - you ask, - Mick Jagger and Robert Plant were also awarded, a common thing. True, but only these two won their awards in the 2000s, and The Beatles were the first in this. In 1965, the band members were sensationally presented with the Order of the British Empire - a very honorary title - for their contribution to the development of British culture and its popularization around the world. This meant two things: the recognition of rock music by the conservative establishment (although some holders of the order were so offended by this event that they returned their awards) and the appearance of a new calling card for the hitherto non-musical UK.

Video sequence

Of course, the Beatles were not the first to use the clip format, but they set certain standards in this area. Famous films such as Help, A Hard Day's Night, Yellow Submarine, forever entered the history of not only music, but also cinema. After The Beatles, many bands willingly used this format (for example, The Who and Pink Floyd).

Separately

The worldwide fame of The Beatles led to the fact that after the collapse of the work of all four (!) Members of the group, they paid the same active attention as they did to the group. Of course, the behavior of the participants themselves also contributed to this: the protests of John Lennon, George Harrison's passion for Indian philosophy, the Wings group, which included Paul McCartney and his wife Linda ...

Think about what usually happens when a group breaks up. Attention to solo activities is usually enjoyed by the vocalist and guitarist, and you just need to have a super status so that the degree of attention to the work of all ex-participants does not decrease.

status quo

Time passed, music developed, new heroes and genres appeared. They still appear. But one thing remained unchanged: The Beatles were recognized by all the leading music publications as the best group ever created, and their albums have consistently remained in the tops of history.

Take at least the rating of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" according to Rolling Stone magazine. It included 10 albums by The Beatles, 4 of which are in the top ten. This is another record of the Liverpool Four: only Bob Dylan has more albums on this list - 11, but only 2 in the top ten. that all the records of The Beatles are absolutely on the case, no one had any doubts.

The Beatles are a phenomenal group without which modern music would be completely different. Every second musician today claims that he was influenced by the work of the Beatles, regardless of which country he lives in. The group's total sales of records, cassettes and discs exceeded 1 billion copies. The style of the Beatles cannot be confused with anyone - you can not listen to them, but it is impossible not to know.

History of creation and composition

The history of the team began in Britain in the 50s, during the era of the general boom musical groups. Anyone who could play the guitar, drums or banjo at least a little, aspired to get into the "band".

When school was left behind and it was necessary to decide what to do next, all three chose music without hesitation. The members agreed that the band needed a new name. There were a lot of options: "Rainbows", "Johnny and the Moon Dogs", "Beetles" - The Beetles. The latter option formed the basis of the original name.

There is a legend that Lennon saw the word beatles in a dream - supposedly a man in flames appeared to him and dictated the name of the band. According to a simpler version, the word was chosen because it had the root beat, meaning a rhythmic beat or drum beat.

In January 1960, Stuart Sutcliffe joined the musicians, becoming a bass player, although he had to learn to play literally “on the go”. At this time, the group performed in their native Liverpool and occasionally toured the UK. In the summer, the Beatles were invited to concerts in Hamburg. To accept the invitation and appear on stage as a classic beat band, they had to urgently find a drummer. They became Pete Best, who had previously performed in the Liverpool ensemble The Blackjacks.

The first foreign tours took place in conditions close to extreme: they had to work a lot, the pay was low, there were problems with documents, because of which, as a result, the musicians were deported from the country. Despite this, a year later, the Beatles soloists, having received a second invitation to Hamburg, agreed, and this time everything went much calmer.

In Germany, the musicians met Astrid Kirchherr, an art student who began an affair with Sutcliffe. It was she who organized the first professional photo session for the group and came up with an original image for them: new hairstyles, instead of the previous concert leather jackets - jackets without collars and lapels.

Hairstyles and costumes of The Beatles

The Beatles returned home as a quartet: the bass player decided to stay in Germany with Astrid. There Stuart became famous as talented artist, but his creative biography turned out to be very short: at the age of 21, the young man died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

For the next 2 years, the musicians regularly performed in their hometown, at the Cavern Club. During 1961-1963 they played 262 concerts there. The group's popularity grew, although at that time their repertoire consisted mainly of foreign musical works. The author's duet of Paul and John created new songs, but preferred to put them "on the table", not hoping for success. The works saw the light only when the Beatles found a producer - Brian Epstein.

Prior to this, Epstein had no professional experience in promoting: before meeting the musicians, he traded records, but the work of the young Beatles seemed promising to Brian. Most labels did not share his enthusiasm, but he managed to get a contract with EMI on the condition that the guys write at least 4 more singles.

“He spelled out in the most accurate way what we were supposed to do, and it all seemed more real,” Lennon recalled. “Until Brian showed up, we were living in a dream.”

Before recording the first album, Pete Best left the band. The girl's favorite and the most attractive member, he did not cope with the studio work, which turned out to be much more difficult than the live one, and was forced to leave the group. On August 16, 1962, he joined The Beatles.

Music

In 1963, the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, was released. The material was collected at an accelerated pace and managed in almost a day. In addition to other people's hits, it included author's songs by Lennon and McCartney. The musicians agreed in advance that they would sign the compositions with exactly two names, and kept this tradition to the end, even though the last songs were written separately.

Love Me Do by The Beatles

In the same year, the Beatles' discography was replenished with the second album With the Beatles, which became the beginning of the "Beatlemania" in the homeland of the musicians. The scale of the hobby, nicknamed the “national hysteria” by the media, turned out to be unusual: whole crowds came to the performances, the audience densely packed not only the halls, but also the surrounding streets, they were ready to stand on the street for hours to hear at least echoes of the concert. Applause and enthusiasm sometimes became so stormy that the musicians at the performance did not hear themselves.

She Loves You by The Beatles

In 1964, the Beatlemania epidemic took over the United States. For the next 2 years, the musicians live according to a schedule scheduled to the minute: tours, concerts, work from the studio, TV appearances, radio broadcasts and filming did not give the slightest respite. During this time, the British rock band from Liverpool recorded 5 albums and 2 videos - Paperback Writer and Rain.

Despite the crazy work schedule, the musicians found time for their personal lives, trying, however, to hide it from fans. John Lennon was the first to marry in 1962. The marriage, in which the son Julian was soon born, lasted 6 years and broke up when the musician met. An extravagant Japanese woman changed Lennon's whole life and actively interfered in the affairs of the group, for which the rest of the musicians disliked her. It was to her that Lennon dedicated the ballad Don't Let Me Down.

Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles

Ringo Starr was the second to marry - they lived with Maureen Cox for 10 years and gave birth to three children. George Harrison married Patti Boyd in 1966, but in 1974 his wife left him for. Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman in 1968, with whom he lived until the end of her life.

In 1965, the group received the Order of the British Empire for their contribution to the development of culture, which caused a big scandal. Previously, there were no musicians among the owners of such a high award, and some gentlemen declared their unwillingness to stand in the same row with pop idols. 4 years later, Lennon protested against the British intervention in the Biafro-Nigerian war and returned the Order.

Movie

For the first time, the Liverpool Four acted in films in 1964. A Hard Day's Evening was created in the feature film genre and produced in just 8 weeks. The musicians did not need any special acting work: it was a movie about Everyday life groups - concerts, fans, tours. The film was a success among fans and was twice nominated for an Oscar, and the soundtrack was released as a separate album.

Song Yesterday by The Beatles

The following year, the tape "Help!" featuring the Beatles. For the first time, the famous Yesterday appeared on the record with music for it, which entered the Guinness Book of Records in terms of the number of arrangements and interpretations (today more than 2 thousand are known)

Yellow Submarine song by The Beatles

In 1968, the musicians became the heroes of the Yellow Submarine cartoon. Prior to this, the band members tried to create their own movie, but the picture Magical Mystery Tour received rather low ratings from both the public and critics.

Decay

In 1966, the group ceased to give "live" concerts and went headlong into studio work. A year later, the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which many consider the best in the history of the band. Meanwhile, the musicians' relationship is cracking. The Beatles, tired of fame, announced their desire to do personal projects.

Song Come Together by The Beatles

In 1967, Brian Epstein suddenly died of an overdose of sleeping pills. Complete replacement they couldn’t find him, but by joining forces, the Beatles recorded 3 more records: White Album (1968), Abbey Road (1968) and Let it be (1970), as well as the single Come Together (1969 ).

Shortly thereafter, the first solo album Paul McCartney. In an interview, he actually draws a line under the history of The Beatles. Latest photos team in in full force made August 22, 1969 near the estate of John Lennon, in Tittenhurst Park.

After the collapse, the series began litigation about the copyrights to the notes, lyrics and the emblem of the band, the results of which are still contradictory on the Web.

10 years later, the musicians began to think about the revival, but these plans were not destined to come true. In 1980, John Lennon was killed by a mentally unstable fan. Together with his death, the hope for the restoration of the group also died. So the great Beatles finally became a thing of the past.

George Harrison died in 2001 from a brain tumor.

The Beatles now

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney remain on stage. In January 2014, they received an honorary Grammy Award for their contribution to the development of the music of the 20th century.

The career of former drummer Pete Best was not easy. He changed several bands and tried to do solo work, but unsuccessfully.

In 1968 he decided to quit music and entered the public service, but 20 years later he began to appear in public again and created his own group, The Pete Best Band, which now regularly performs with concerts in the United States.

Discography

• 1963 – Please Please Me
• 1963 - With The Beatles
• 1964 - A Hard Day's Night
• 1964 - The Beatles For Sale
• 1965 Help!
• 1965 - Rubber Soul
• 1966 - Revolver
• 1967 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• 1967 Magical Mystery Tour
• 1968 - The Beatles ("White Album")
• 1969 - Yellow Submarine
• 1969 Abbey Road
• 1970 - Let It Be

Clips

• 1963 – Please Please Me
• 1964 - I Should Have Known Better
• 1996 – I Wanna Hold Your Hand
• 1967 – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
• 1969 - Don't Let Me Down
• 1969 - Get Back
• 1968 - Glass Onion
• 1968 – All Together Now
• 1968 - Lady Madonna
• 1970 - The Long And Winding Road
• 1973 - You "ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

The work of the Beatles - one of the greatest groups in the history of modern music - and the personal lives of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in the years since the group's triumphal march around the world have 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 couldn't hear themselves screaming and singing 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. final chord Lennon, McCartney and 8 other musicians performed the songs "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", the beats from the song "La Marseillaise", which for some time in 1917 was the unofficial anthem of Russia, sound.

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 his place in the group was taken by former employee Police Bill Campbell. 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. Rivalry "The Beatles" and " Rolling Stones"existed and exists exclusively in the heads of band 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 revive 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.

Bruno Ceriotti (historian): “Today Rory Storm And The Hurricanes are performing at Cambridge Hall, Southport. Lineup: Al Caldwell (aka Rory Storm), Johnny Byrne (aka Johnny "Guitar"), Ty Brien, Walter "Wally" Eymond (aka Lou Walters), Richard Starkey (aka Ringo Starr).

From the diary of Johnny "Guitars" (Rory Storm and the Hurricanes band): "Southport. They played badly."

(conditional date)

Peter Frame: "When Stu Sutcliffe joined the band in January 1960, the first thing he did was to suggest changing the band's name to The Beatals, which would soon (April) be changed a bit."

approx. - it is believed that the name of the group "Beatles" appeared in April 1960. Most likely, from the words of Paul McCartney (Paul: "Once April evening 1960…”). According to thebeatleschronology.com, the name "The Beatals" was proposed by Stu Sutcliffe in January 1960 and was the original name of the group. He is mentioned by Paul McCartney in his letter to the Butlins summer camp. It is possible that, speaking at the art college on Fridays in the first months of 1960, they did not have any official name at all.

From Paul McCartney's Flaming Pie interview:

Floor: For many years there was confusion about who came up with the name "The Beatles". George and I clearly remember that it was like this. John and some art school buddies rented an apartment. We were all clustered there on old mattresses - it was so great. Listened to Johnny Barnett's records, raged until the morning, as teenagers do. And then one day John, Stu, George and I were walking down the street, suddenly John and Stu say: “Hey, we have an idea how to name the group - the Beatles, through the letter “a” (if you follow the rules of grammar, "The Beetles" was supposed to be written.) George and I are surprised, and John says, "Yeah, Stu and I figured that out."

So this story is remembered to me and George. But over the years, some have begun to think that John himself came up with the idea for the name of the group, and as evidence they refer to the article "A Brief Digression on the Questionable Origins of the Beatles", which John wrote in the early 60s for the Mercybit newspaper. . There were such lines: “Once upon a time there were three little boys, their names were John, George and Paul ... Many people ask: what is the Beatles, why the Beatles, how did this name come about? It came from a vision. A man appeared on a flaming pie and told them: “From now on you are the Beatles with the letter “a”. Of course, there was no vision. John joked, in a goofy manner typical of the time. But some people didn't get the humor. Although, like, everything is so obvious.

George: “Where the name came from is debatable. John claims he made it up, but I remember talking to Stuart the night before. The Crickets, who played Buddy Holly, had a similar name, but in fact Stewart adored Marlon Brando, and in the movie The Wild One there is a scene in which Lee Marvin says: "Johnny, we were looking for you," bugs "miss for you, all the "bugs" miss you. Perhaps both John and Stu remembered it at the same time, and we left this name. We attribute it equally to Sutcliffe and Lennon."

Bill Harry: “I witnessed how John and Stuart [Sutcliffe] came up with the name The Beatles. I called them the college band because they didn't use the Quarryman name anymore and couldn't come up with a new one. They sat in the house where Lennon and Sutcliffe rented an apartment and tried to come up with a name, it turned out stupid names like "Moondogs". Stewart said, "We play a lot of Buddy Holly songs, why don't we name our band after Buddy Holly's Crickets." John replied: "Yes, let's remember the names of insects." Then the name "Beetles" appeared. And the name has become permanent since August 1960.

PAUL: John and Stewart came up with the name. They went to art school, and while George and I were still being forced to sleep by our parents, Stuart and John could do what we only dreamed of: stay up all night. Then they came up with the name.

One April evening in 1960, walking along Gambier Terrace near Liverpool Cathedral, John and Stewart announced: “We want to call the group The Beatles. We thought, “Hmm, sounds creepy, right? Something nasty and creepy, huh?” And then they explained that in this case the word has a double meaning, and it was wonderful ... - "It's okay, this word has two meanings." The name of one of our favorite bands, The Crickets, also has two meanings: playing cricket and also called little grasshoppers. This is great, we thought, this is real literary name. (We later talked to the Crickets and found out that they had no idea at all about the double meaning of their name).

Pauline Sutcliffe: "Stuart didn't like the name of the group" Johnny and moon dogs", which he considered unoriginal. It seemed to him a kind of echo of such famous groups as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Johnny and the Pirates.

Bill Harry: Stewart came up with the name Beetles because it was an insect, and he wanted to connect it with Buddy Holly's Crickets, because the Quarrymen ( approx. - or Johnny and the Moondogs, or both?) used many Holly numbers in her repertoire. That's what they told me at the time."

Paul: “I think Buddy Holly was my first idol. It's not that we just loved him. Many people loved him. Buddy has been a huge influence on us because of his chords. Because when we were learning to play the guitar, many of his songs were based on three chords, and we had learned these chords by that time. It's a big deal to hear a record and be like, "Hey, I can play that!" It was so inspiring. In addition, on the announced tour of Britain, Gene Vincent was supposed to perform with The Beat Boys. How about "The Beetles" (Beetles)?.

Pauline Sutcliffe: Stewart suggested a new name for the band. Buddy Holly had a band called the Crickets, and in the coming months Gene Vincent and the Beat Boys were due to arrive on a UK tour. Why don't they become Beetles? One of the biker gangs in [the movie] The Wild One was also called that. Stu was a big fan of Marlon Brando, a popular movie actor at the time. He watched films with his participation several times, but one film, “Wild”, especially sunk into his soul. The film, shown in Britain, was a resounding success, many wanted to be like the hero Brando, dressed in the skin of the leader of the motorbikers. They rode their motorcycles with a group of chicks and were known as The Beetles.

PAUL: "In the movie 'The Savage', when the character says, 'Even the Bugs miss you!' he points to the girls on the motorcycles. A friend once looked into the dictionary of American slang and found out that "bugs" are motorcyclists' girlfriends. Now think for yourself!"

Albert Goldman: New member group Stu Sutcliffe suggested the band a new name "Beetles" (Beetles) - that was the name of Marlon Brando's rivals in the romantic film about motorcyclists The Savage.

Dave Persails: In the second edition of The Beatles' autobiography, Hunter Davis said that Derek Taylor told him that the title was inspired by the movie Wild. The black leather motorcycle gang was called the Beetles. As Davis writes, “Stu Sutcliffe saw this movie, heard this remark, and when he got home, he suggested it to John as the new name for their band. John agreed, but said that the name would be spelled "Beatles" to emphasize that this is a beat group. Taylor repeated this story in his book.

Derek Taylor: "Stu Sutcliffe saw the then-famous movie" Wild "( approx. - the film premiered on December 30, 1953) and suggested the title immediately after the film. In the plot of the film there is a motorized gang of teenagers "Beetles". At the time, Stewart was imitating Marlon Brando. There has always been a lot of discussion about who came up with the name The Beatles. John claimed he came up with it. But if you watch the movie Wild, you'll see the scene with the motorcycle gang where Johnny's gang (played by Brando) is in the coffee bar and another gang led by Chino (Lee Marvin) rides into town, getting into a fight."

Dave Persails: "Indeed, in the film, Chino's character refers to his gang as the Bugs. In a 1975 radio interview, George Harrison agrees with this version of the origin of the name, and it is more than likely that he was the source of this version for Derek Taylor, who simply retold it.

George: "John would say in an American accent, 'Where are we headed, boys?' and we would say, 'To the top, Johnny! We said it for laughs, but it was actually Johnny, I guess, from the Wild One. Because when Lee Marvin pulls up with his biker gang, if I heard right, I could swear that when Marlon Brando talks to Lee Mervin, Lee Marvin talks to him, "Listen, Johnny, I think so-and-so," Beetles "think you're so-and-so..." as if his biker gang were called the Bugs.

Dave Persails: 'Bill Harry denies the 'Wild' version because he claims the film was banned in England until the late 1960s and none of the Beatles likely saw it at the time the name was coined.

Bill Harry: “The story of the film “Wild” is not credible. It was banned until the late 1960s and they couldn't see it. Their comments were made retroactively."

Dave Persails: "If that's the case, the Beatles must have at least heard of the movie (it was banned after all) and the storyline of the movie may have been known." , including the name of the biker gang. That possibility, in addition to what George said, makes it plausible."

Bill Harry: “They were also not familiar with the plot of the picture to such details as small dialogues or a vague title. Otherwise, I would have heard about it during my many conversations with them.

Dusty Springfield: John, a question that you have most likely been asked a thousand times already, but to which you always ... you all give different versions, answer in different ways, therefore, you will now answer it for me. How did the name "The Beatles" come about?

John A: I just made it up.

Dusty Springfield: Did you just make it up? Another brilliant Beatle!

John A: No, no, really.

Dusty Springfield: Did you have any other name before that?

John: They were called, uh, "Quorrimen" ( approx. - John says the name "The Stonecutters" but not "Johnny and the Moondogs". Again, to the fact that both names were used at that time?).

Dusty Springfield: Ooo. You have a harsh personality.

From an interview with the Beatles:

John: When I was twelve years old, I had a vision. I saw a man on a flaming pie, and he said, “You are the Beatles with an [letter] “a”, and it happened.

From an interview in 1964:

George: John got the name "The Beatles" ...

John: In a vision when I was...

George A: A long time ago, you see, when we were looking, when we needed a name, and everyone came up with a name, and he came up with The Beatles.

From an interview with Bob Costas in November 1991:

Floor: We were asked, uh, someone asked, "How did the band come about?" And instead of saying, “The band started when these guys got together in Woolton City Hall at 19…”, John mumbled something along the lines of, “We had a vision. One person appeared before us on a bun, and we had a vision.

From an interview with Peter McCabe in August 1971:

John: I used to write so-called Beatcomber notes. I used to admire the Beachcomber approx. — Beachcomber is in the [Daily] Express, and every week I wrote a column called Beatcomber. And when I was asked to write a story about the Beatles, it was when I was at Alan Williams' Jacaranda club. I wrote with George "the man who appeared on the flaming pie ...", because even then they were asking: "Where did the name "Beatles" come from"? Bill Harry said, "Look, they ask you about it all the time, so why don't you tell them how the name came about?" So I wrote: "There was one person, and he appeared ...". I used to do this back in school, all this imitation of the Bible: “And he appeared and said:“ You are the Beatles with [letter] “a” ... and a man appeared from the sky on a flaming cake, and said, you are the Beatles. with "a".

Bill Harry: “I asked John to write a story about the Beatles for Mercy Beat, and I printed it in early 1961, which is where this flaming pie story came from. John had nothing to do with the title of the column. I liked "Beechcomber" in the Daily Express and I gave it the name "Beatcomber" for his column. I also came up with the title "The Dubious Origins of the Beatles as Recited by John Lennon" for this article in the first issue.

From an interview in The New York Times, May 1997, regarding the title of the album's title track "Flaming Pie":

Floor: Anyone who hears the words "flaming cake" or "to me" (unto me) knows that this is a joke. There is much more that remains fiction due to compromise. If not everyone agrees with the story, someone has to give up. Yoko insists in some way that John has full right to this name. She believes that he had a vision. And it still leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths. Therefore, when I was choosing a rhyme for the words “cry” (cry) and “sky” (sky), [the word] “pie” (pie) came to mind. "Flaming Pie" Wow!

Pauline Sutcliffe: “Stu's offer was accepted by John, but since he was the founder and leader of the group, he had to contribute to this cause. And although John loved and respected Stu, it was fundamental for him that the final word was his. John suggested replacing one of the letters. Ultimately, brainstorming with John led to a modified Beatles (The Beatles, you know, like in beat music).

Cynthia: “To match their changing stage persona, they decided to change the name of the band as well. We had a stormy brainstorm around a beer-stained table in a bar called Renshaw Hall, where we often popped in for a drink.”

PAUL: "Thinking about the name 'Crickets', John wondered if there were any other insects to take advantage of their name and play with it. Stew suggested first "The Beetles" ("Beetles"), and then "Beatals" (from the word "beat" - rhythm, beat). At that time, the term "beat" meant not just a rhythm, but a certain trend in the late fifties, a musical style based on rhythmic, hard rock and roll. Also, the term was a reminiscence to the then thundering movement of the “beatniks”, which eventually led to the emergence of such terms as “big beat” and “mercy beat”. Lennon, who was always averse to punning, turned it into "Beatles" (a combination of those words) "just for fun, so that the word would be related to beat music."

Floor: John came up with it [name] mostly just as a name, just for the band, you know. We just didn't have a name. Er, well, yes, we had a name, but we had about a dozen a week, you see, and we didn't like it, so we had to settle for one particular name. And one night John came over with the Beatles and he kind of explained that it should be spelled with an 'e-a' and we said, 'Oh yeah, that's hilarious!'

From an interview in 1964:

Interviewer: Why "Bee" (B-e-a), instead of "Bee" (B-e-e)?

George: Well, of course, you see ...

John: Well, you know, if you leave it with a "B", a double "ee"... It was hard enough to get people to understand why it was a "B", never mind, you know.

Ringo: John came up with the name "The Beatles" and he's going to tell you about it now.

John: It just means The Beatles, doesn't it? Do you understand? It's just a name, like "shoe," for example.

Floor: "Shoe". You see, we could not be called "Shoe".

From a telephone interview in February 1964:

George: We've been thinking about a name for a long time, and we just brainwashed ourselves with different names, and then John came along with this name "The Beatles", which was great, because in a way it was about an insect, and also a pun, you know , "b-and-t" to "bit". We just liked the name and we accepted it.

John: Well, I remember, the other day someone at a press conference mentioned the [group] "Crickets" (Crickets). It slipped from my mind. I was looking for a name similar to "Crickets", which has two meanings ( approx. - the word "rickets" has two meanings, "crickets" and the game "Crocket"), and from "crickets" I came to "beaters" (Beatles). I changed it to "B-e-a" because it [word] didn't have a double meaning - [word] "beetles" - "B-double i-t-l-z" doesn't have a double meaning. So I changed to "a", added "e" to "a", and then it began to have a double meaning.

Jim Stack: What are the two meanings, to be specific.

John: I mean, it doesn't mean two things, but it indicates... It's "beat" (beat) and "beetles" (beetles - bugs), and when you say it, something creepy comes to mind, and when you read it, it's beat music.

From an interview with Red Beard, KT-Ex-Q, Dallas, April 1990:

Floor: When we first heard [the band] Crickets... Going back to England, there's a cricket game there, and we knew about the cheerful, returning cricket Hoppity ( approx. - 1941 cartoon). So we thought it was going to be brilliant, a really amazing title with double meanings, like the style of the game and the bug. We thought it would be brilliant, we decided, well, we'll take it. So John and Stewart came up with this name that the rest of us hated, with the Beatles, which is spelled with an "a". We asked: "Why?" They said, "Well, you know, it's bugs, and it's double meaning, like Crickets." Many things influenced us, different spheres.

Cynthia: "John loved Buddy Holly and the Crickets, so he suggested playing with insect names. It was John who came up with the Beetles. He made “Beatles” out of them, drawing attention to the fact that if you swap the syllables, you get “les beat”, and this sounds in the French manner - elegant and witty. In the end, they settled on the name "Silver Beatles" (Silver Beatles).

John: “And so I came up with: beetles (beetles), only we will write differently: “beatles” (Beatles is a “hybrid” of two words: beetle- beetle and to beat- hit) to hint at a connection with beat music - such a playful play on words.

Pauline Sutcliffe: “And after brainstorming with John, The Beatles were born – you know, like in beat (beat) music?”

Hunter Davis: "Thus, although final version John came up with the name, thanks to Stu, that combination of sounds of the name of the group was born, which became the basis of the name of the group.

Pauline Sutcliffe: “Without a doubt, if Stu and John had not met one day, the group would not have had the name The Beatles.

Royston Ellis (British poet and novelist): “When I suggested to John that they come to London in July, I asked what the name of their group was. When he said it, I asked him to write the title. He explained that they got the idea from the name of the car "Volswagen" (beetle). I said that they have a “Beat” [Beat] lifestyle, “Beat” music, that they support me as a beat poet, and I wondered why they don’t write their name with an “A”? I don't know why John is considered to have adopted this spelling, but it was I who inspired him to stop there. His oft-quoted story about the title mentions "a man on a flaming pie". This is a playful reference to the night I made a frozen chicken and mushroom pie for dinner for the guys (and girls) in that apartment. And I managed to burn it."

Pete Shotton: “Having completed my training, I finally, for a plausible alternative, allowed myself to be persuaded to join the police. To my dismay, I was immediately sent on patrol (where do you think?!) in Garston, the site of the "Bloodbaths"! Moreover, I was also assigned to the night shift, while my weapon was a traditional whistle, and a flashlight - and with this I had to defend myself from the wild animals of those infamous vile streets! I was not even twenty at the time, and walking around my precinct, I experienced incredible fear, so it is not surprising that after a year and a half I quit the police.

During this period, I had relatively little contact with John, who in turn was new life with Stuart and Cynthia. Our meetings became more frequent after I became a partner in the owner of the Old Dutch Café, a more or less respectable hangout near Penny Lane. The Old Woman was one of the few establishments in Liverpool that didn't close until late at night, and for a long time served as a convenient meeting place for John, Paul, and all our old friends.

John and Paul often stayed there at night after the band played, and then boarded their buses at the Penny Lane terminus. By the time I started working at the Old Woman on the night shift, they had already adopted black leather jackets and pants as their uniform (? approx. — most likely, Pete eventually forgot that the "skin" appeared after Hamburg) and baptized himself into the Beatles.

When I asked about the origin of this strange name, John said that he and Stuart were looking for something zoological, like Phil Spector's Cubs and Buddy Holly's Crickets. Having tried and discarded options like "Lions", "Tigers", etc. they chose the Beetles. The idea of ​​naming his band such a low form of life appealed to John's twisted sense of humor.

But despite the new name and clothing, the prospects for the Beatles, and John in particular, looked bleak to say the least. By 1960, Merseyside was literally teeming with hundreds of rock 'n' roll bands, and some of them, like Rory Storm and the Hurricanes or Jerry and the Pacemakers, had far more fans than the Beatles, who didn't yet have permanent drummer. In addition, in Liverpool, which occupied a rather modest place among other cities, even Rory and Jerry did not have the desire to achieve primacy in rock and roll as an end in itself. However, John had already convinced himself that sooner or later the whole country, if not the whole world, would learn to pronounce the word "beetles" with the letter "a".

Len Harry: “One day they were talking about renaming the band to The Beatles, and I thought what a strange name. You immediately remember some crawling creatures. It had nothing to do with music for me."

Peter Frame: Since January, the band has been performing under the name Beatals. From May to June under the name Silver Beetles, from June to July under the name Silver Beatles. Since August, the band has been called simply The Beatles.