Die Beatles waren eine englische Rockband, die 1960 in Liverpool gegründet wurde. Mit ihren Mitgliedern John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison und Ringo Starr galten sie als die einflussreichste und einflussreichste Musikband in der Geschichte. [1] Verwurzelt im Skiffle, Beat und Rock and Roll der 1950er Jahre war die Gruppe ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Entwicklung der Popmusik zu einer Kunstform und der Entwicklung der Gegenkultur der 1960er Jahre. Sie enthielten oft klassische Elemente, ältere Popformen und unkonventionelle Aufnahmetechniken auf innovative Weise und experimentierten später mit verschiedenen Musikstilen, die von Popballaden über indische Musik bis hin zu Psychedelia und Hardrock reichen. Als die Mitglieder weiterhin Einflüsse aus einer Vielzahl kultureller Quellen zogen, wuchs ihre musikalische und lyrische Raffinesse und sie wurden als Verkörperung der soziokulturellen Bewegungen der Ära gesehen.
Die Beatles, angeführt von den Hauptliedern Lennon und McCartney, bauten ihren Ruf in Clubs und Clubs in Liverpool und Hamburg ab 1960 auf. Stuart Sutcliffe fungierte zunächst als Bassist. Das Kerntrio von Lennon, McCartney und Harrison, zusammen seit 1958, durchlief eine Reihe von Schlagzeugern, darunter Pete Best, bevor er Starr bat, 1962 zu ihnen zu kommen. Manager Brian Epstein formte sie zu einem professionellen Act und Produzent George Martin leitete und entwickelte ihre Aufnahmen und weitete den Heimaterfolg der Gruppe nach ihrem ersten Hit "Love Me Do" Ende 1962 stark aus. Als ihre Popularität in den intensiven Fanrausch mit dem Namen "Beatlemania" anwuchs, erhielten sie den Spitznamen "the Fab Four" mit Epstein, Martin und andere Mitglieder der Band-Entourage erhielten manchmal den informellen Titel "5th Beatle".
Zu Beginn des Jahres 1964 waren die Beatles internationale Stars, sie führten die "British Invasion" des US-amerikanischen Pop-Markts an und brachen zahlreiche Verkaufsrekorde. Ihr Kinodebüt gab sie bald mit der Scheindokumentation A Hard Day's Night (1964). Ab 1965 produzierten sie zunehmend innovative Aufnahmen, darunter die Alben Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), Die Beatles (auch bekannt als "White Album", 1968) und Abbey Road (1969). Im Jahr 1968 gründeten sie Apple Corps, einen Multi-Arm-Multimedia-Konzern, der nach wie vor aktiv ist. Nach ihrer Auflösung 1970 waren die vier Mitglieder als Solokünstler erfolgreich. Lennon wurde im Dezember 1980 erschossen und starb, und Harrison starb im November 2001 an Lungenkrebs. McCartney und Starr sind weiterhin musikalisch aktiv.
Die Beatles sind die meistverkauften Bands der Geschichte mit einem geschätzten Umsatz von über 800 Millionen Schallplatten weltweit. Mit 178 Millionen zertifizierten Einheiten sind sie die meistverkauften Musiker in den USA. Die Gruppe wurde 1988 in die Rock and Roll Hall of Fame aufgenommen, und alle vier Hauptmitglieder wurden von 1994 bis 2015 einzeln aufgenommen. Sie hatten auch mehr Alben der britischen Charts und verkauften mehr Singles in Großbritannien als alle anderen andere Handlung. Im Jahr 2008 erreichte die Gruppe die Liste der Zeitschrift Billboard der erfolgreichsten Künstler aller Zeiten; Ab 2017 [update] halten sie mit 20 den Rekord für die meisten Nummer-Eins-Hits auf dem Hot 100-Chart. Sie haben sieben Grammy Awards erhalten, einen Oscar für den besten Original-Song-Score und fünfzehn Ivor Novello Awards. Sie wurden auch gemeinsam in der Zeitschrift Time der 100 einflussreichsten Personen des 20. Jahrhunderts aufgenommen.
Geschichte
1957–1962: Formation, Hamburg und britische Popularität
Im März 1957 gründete der damals sechzehnjährige John Lennon mit mehreren Freunden der Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool eine Skiffle-Gruppe. Sie nannten sich kurz Blackjack, bevor sie ihren Namen in Quarrymen umbenannten, nachdem sie herausgefunden hatten, dass eine angesehene lokale Gruppe bereits den anderen Namen verwendete. Der 15-jährige Paul McCartney kam kurz nach seinem Treffen mit Lennon im Juli als Rhythmusgitarrist dazu. Im Februar 1958 lud McCartney seinen Freund George Harrison ein, um sich die Band anzusehen. Der 15-jährige sprach für Lennon vor, beeindruckte ihn mit seinem Spiel, aber Lennon dachte zunächst, Harrison sei zu jung für die Band. Nach einem Monat von Harrisons Beharrlichkeit, während eines zweiten Treffens (arrangiert von McCartney), spielte er den Lead-Gitarrenpart des Instrumentalsongs "Raunchy" auf dem Oberdeck eines Liverpooler Busses [5] und sie wählten ihn als ihren Leadgitarristen . Im Januar 1959 hatten Lennons Freunde der Quarry Bank die Gruppe verlassen und er begann sein Studium am Liverpool College of Art. Die drei Gitarristen, die sich mindestens dreimal mit Johnny und den Moondogs rechneten, spielten Rock and Roll, wann immer sie einen Drummer finden konnten. Lennons Freund der Kunstschule Stuart Sutcliffe, der gerade eines seiner Bilder verkauft hatte und zum Kauf einer Bassgitarre überredet wurde, schloss sich im Januar 1960 an, und er schlug vor, den Namen der Band in Beatals zu ändern Hommage an Buddy Holly und die Grillen. [12] Sie benutzten diesen Namen bis zum Mai, als sie zu den Silver Beetles wurden, bevor sie eine kurze Tour durch Schottland als Hintergrundgruppe für Popsänger und Leberpudlianer Johnny Gentle unternahmen. Anfang Juli hatten sie sich zu den Silver Beatles umgestaltet und Mitte August den Namen auf The Beatles verkürzt.
Allan Williams, der inoffizielle Manager der Beatles, arrangierte eine Residenz für sie Hamburg, aber ohne Vollzeit-Schlagzeuger fehlten sie Mitte August 1960 und stellten Pete Best an. Die Band, die jetzt fünf Mitglieder ist, verließ vier Tage später den Clubbesitzer Bruno Koschmider für eine 3 [19659014] 1 [1945 2 -monatiger Wohnsitz. Beatles-Historiker Mark Lewisohn schreibt: "Sie brachen am 17. August in der Abenddämmerung in Hamburg ein, der Zeit, in der der Rotlichtbereich zum Leben erweckt wird ... Blinkende Neonröhren schreien aus den verschiedenen Unterhaltungsangeboten, während leicht bekleidete Frauen in einem Geschäft saßen Fenster warten auf Geschäftsmöglichkeiten. "
Nachtclub auf der Reeperbahn in St. Pauli - dem Rotlichtviertel von Hamburg, in dem die Beatles von 1960 bis 1962 ausgiebig auftraten (Foto 2006)
Koschmider hatte ein paar Strip-Clubs im Stadtteil umgebaut Musikveranstaltungen, und er platzierte die Beatles zunächst im Indra Club. Nachdem er Indra wegen Lärmbeschwerden geschlossen hatte, zog er sie im Oktober in den Kaiserkeller. Als er erfuhr, dass sie gegen den Vertrag des Rivalen Top Ten Club aufgetreten waren, gab er der Band eine Kündigungsfrist von einem Monat zurück und meldete den minderjährigen Harrison, der die Erlaubnis erhalten hatte, in Hamburg zu bleiben, indem er die deutschen Behörden belogen hatte Alter. Die Behörden veranlassten Harrisons Deportation Ende November. Eine Woche später ließ Koschmider McCartney und Best wegen Brandstiftung verhaften, nachdem sie in einem Betongang ein Kondom in Brand gesetzt hatten; die Behörden deportierten sie. Lennon kehrte Anfang Dezember nach Liverpool zurück, während Sutcliffe mit seiner deutschen Verlobten Astrid Kirchherr, die die ersten semiprofessionellen Fotos der Beatles machte, bis Ende Februar in Hamburg blieb.
In den folgenden zwei Jahren lebten die Beatles zeitweise in Hamburg, wo sie Preludin sowohl zur Erholung als auch zur Aufrechterhaltung ihrer Energie bei Nachtauftritten nutzten. Im Jahr 1961, während ihres zweiten Hamburger Engagements, schnitt Kirchherr Sutcliffes Haare im "Exi" -Stil (Existentialismus), der später von den anderen Beatles übernommen wurde. Als Sutcliffe beschloss, die Band Anfang des Jahres zu verlassen und sein Kunststudium in Deutschland fortzusetzen, nahm McCartney den Bass auf. Der Produzent Bert Kaempfert unterzeichnete bis Juni 1962 eine vierteilige Gruppe, die er als Tony Sheridans Begleitband für eine Reihe von Aufnahmen für Polydor Records verwendete. [12] Im Rahmen der Sessions wurden die Beatles bei Polydor unter Vertrag genommen ein Jahr. Die Single "My Bonnie", die im Juni 1961 aufgenommen und vier Monate später veröffentlicht wurde, wurde "Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers" zugeschrieben und erreichte die Nummer 32 des Musikmarkt Charts.
Nachdem die Beatles ihre abgeschlossen hatten In der zweiten Hamburger Residenz erfreuten sie sich mit der wachsenden Merseybeat-Bewegung in Liverpool wachsender Beliebtheit. Sie wurden jedoch müde von der Eintönigkeit zahlreicher Auftritte Nacht für Nacht in denselben Clubs. Im November 1961 lernten sie während eines häufigen Auftritts der Gruppe im Cavern Club Brian Epstein, einen lokalen Plattenladenbesitzer und Musikkolumnisten, kennen. Später erinnerte er sich: "Mir hat sofort gefallen, was ich gehört habe. Sie waren frisch und sie waren ehrlich, und sie hatten das, was ich für eine Art Präsenz hielt ... [a] Star-Qualität." Epstein bewarb sich während der nächsten paar Monate um die Band und sie ernannten ihn im Januar 1962 zu ihrem Manager. Anfang und Mitte des Jahres 1962 versuchte Epstein, die Beatles von ihren vertraglichen Verpflichtungen gegenüber Bert Kaempfert Productions zu befreien. Er verhandelte schließlich eine einmonatige vorzeitige Befreiung von ihrem Vertrag als Gegenleistung für eine letzte Aufnahmesession in Hamburg. Die Tragödie begrüßte sie bei ihrer Rückkehr nach Deutschland im April, als ein verwirrter Kirchherr sie am Vortag am Flughafen mit der Nachricht von Sutcliffes Tod aus einer späteren Gehirnblutung traf.
Epstein begann Verhandlungen mit Plattenfirmen für einen Plattenvertrag. Um sich einen britischen Plattenvertrag zu sichern, verhandelte Epstein mit Polydor ein frühes Ende des Vertrages der Band, als Gegenleistung für weitere Aufnahmen, die Tony Sheridan unterstützten. Nach einem Neujahrsspringen lehnte Decca Records die Band mit dem Kommentar "Gitarrengruppen sind auf dem Weg, Mr. Epstein" ab. Drei Monate später unterzeichnete Produzent George Martin die Beatles beim Parlophone-Label von EMI.
Haupteingang der Abbey Road Studios
Am 6. Juni 1962 fand in den Abbey Road Studios des EMI in London die erste Aufnahme von Martin mit den Beatles statt. Martin beschwerte sich sofort bei Epstein Bests schlechtes Trommeln und schlug vor, an seiner Stelle einen Session-Drummer zu verwenden. Die Beatles, die bereits über Bests Entlassung nachgedacht hatten, ersetzten ihn Mitte August durch Ringo Starr, der Rory Storm und die Hurricanes verließ, um sich ihnen anzuschließen. Eine Sitzung am 4. September bei EMI brachte eine Aufnahme von "Love Me Do" mit Starr am Schlagzeug hervor, aber ein unzufriedener Martin stellte Drummer Andy White für die dritte Session der Band eine Woche später ein, die Aufnahmen von "Love Me Do", "Please Please", produzierte Ich "und" PS ich liebe dich ". Martin wählte zunächst die Starr-Version von "Love Me Do" für die erste Single der Band. Nachfolgende Repressings enthielten jedoch die White-Version mit Starr auf Tamburin. Anfang Oktober veröffentlicht, erreichte "Love Me Do" auf Platz 17 des Record Retailer Charts. Ihr Fernsehdebüt gab es später in diesem Monat mit einer Live-Performance in der regionalen Nachrichtensendung People and Places . Nachdem Martin vorgeschlagen hatte, "Please Please Me" in einem schnelleren Tempo aufzunehmen, ergab eine Studio-Session Ende November diese Aufnahme, von der Martin genau sagte: "Sie haben gerade Ihre erste Nr. 1 gemacht."
Im Dezember 1962 Die Beatles beendeten ihre fünfte und letzte Hamburger Residenz. Bis 1963 hatten sie sich damit einverstanden erklärt, dass alle vier Bandmitglieder Vocals zu ihren Alben beitragen würden - einschließlich Starr trotz seines eingeschränkten Stimmumfangs, um sein Ansehen in der Gruppe zu bestätigen. Lennon und McCartney hatten eine Songwriting-Partnerschaft begründet, und als der Erfolg der Band wuchs, beschränkte ihre dominante Zusammenarbeit Harrisons Möglichkeiten als Sänger. Im Bestreben, das kommerzielle Potenzial der Beatles zu maximieren, ermutigte Epstein sie zu einer professionellen Performance. Lennon erinnerte sich, wie er sagte: "Wenn Sie wirklich in diese größeren Orte gehen wollen, müssen Sie sich ändern - hören Sie auf der Bühne auf zu essen, hören Sie auf zu fluchen, hören Sie auf zu rauchen ...", sagte Lennon: "Wir zogen uns an Wie wir es mochten, auf und außerhalb der Bühne: Er sagte uns, dass Jeans nicht besonders schick seien und wir es vielleicht schaffen würden, ordentliche Hosen zu tragen, aber er wollte nicht, dass wir plötzlich quadratisch aussahen der Individualität. "
1963–1966: Beatlemania und Touring-Jahre
Please Please Me und Bei den Beatles
Am 11. Februar 1963 nahmen die Beatles während einer Studio-Session zehn Lieder auf ihr Debüt-LP, Please Please Me . Das Album wurde durch die vier Tracks ergänzt, die bereits bei den ersten beiden Singles veröffentlicht wurden. Ursprünglich erwog Martin, die Beatles-Debüt-LP live im The Cavern Club aufzunehmen. Nachdem er jedoch die Akustik des Gebäudes als unzureichend erachtet hatte, entschied er sich, ein "Live" -Album mit minimaler Produktion in "einer einzigen Marathon-Session in Abbey Road" zu simulieren. Nach dem mäßigen Erfolg von "Love Me Do" wurde die Single "Please Please Me" mit Nachdruck aufgenommen. Das im Januar 1963 zwei Monate vor dem gleichnamigen Album veröffentlichte Lied erreichte die Nummer eins auf allen UK-Charts, mit Ausnahme von Record Retailer wo es auf Platz zwei landete. Erinnern sich, wie die Beatles "ein schnelles Debütalbum lieferten" Please Please Me eines Tages ", kommentiert Stephen Thomas Erlewine von AllMusic," Jahrzehnte nach seiner Veröffentlichung klingt das Album immer noch frisch, gerade wegen seines intensive Herkunft. " Lennon sagte, dass zu dieser Zeit wenig Gedanken in die Komposition gingen; er und McCartney schrieben "einfach Songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, Popsongs, an die sie nicht mehr gedacht haben - um einen Sound zu erzeugen fast irrelevant. "
Das im März 1963 veröffentlichte Album löste einen Lauf aus, bei dem elf der zwölf bis Ende 1970 in Großbritannien veröffentlichten Studioalben die Nummer eins erreichten. Die dritte Single der Band, "From Me to You", erschien im April und war auch ein Hit in den Charts. Sie begann eine fast ununterbrochene Reihe von siebzehn britischen Nummer-Eins-Singles für die Beatles, darunter alle bis auf einen der achtzehn veröffentlichten in den nächsten sechs Jahren. Die vierte Single der Band, "She Loves You", wurde im August veröffentlicht und erzielte in Großbritannien bislang den Rekordumsatz aller Rekorde. In weniger als vier Wochen wurden drei Viertel einer Million Exemplare verkauft. Es war ihre erste Single, die eine Million Exemplare verkaufte, und blieb bis 1978 der meistverkaufte Rekord in Großbritannien. [nb 1] Ihr kommerzieller Erfolg brachte eine erhöhte Medienpräsenz mit sich, auf die die Beatles mit einer respektlosen und komischen Haltung reagierten, die den Erwartungen widersprach der damaligen Popmusiker, die noch mehr Interesse weckten. Die Band tourte in der ersten Jahreshälfte dreimal in Großbritannien. Eine vierwöchige Tournee, die im Februar begann, die erste landesweite der Beatles, war dreiwöchigen Tourneen im März und Mai-Juni vorausgegangen. Als sich ihre Popularität verbreitete, setzte sich eine rasende Verehrung der Gruppe durch. Mit aufgeregter Begeisterung von kreischenden Fans begrüßt, nannte die Presse das Phänomen "Beatlemania". Obwohl die Beatles nicht als Reiseleiter in Rechnung gestellt wurden, überschatteten die Beatles die amerikanischen Acts Tommy Roe und Chris Montez während der Februar-Engagements und nahmen "Top-Billing" von der Publikumsnachfrage an. Dies hatte noch kein britischer Act auf Tournee mit Künstlern aus den USA erreicht. Eine ähnliche Situation ergab sich während ihrer Mai-Juni-Tournee mit Roy Orbison.
McCartney, Harrison, der schwedische Popsänger Lill-Babs und Lennon am Set der schwedischen Fernsehsendung Drop-In 30. Oktober 1963
Ende Oktober begannen die Beatles eine fünftägige Tour durch Schweden, das erste Mal im Ausland seit dem letzten Hamburger Engagement im Dezember 1962. Bei ihrer Rückkehr nach Großbritannien am 31. Oktober begrüßten mehrere hundert schreiende Fans sie bei heftigem Regen Flughafen heathrow. Rund 50 bis 100 Journalisten und Fotografen sowie Vertreter der BBC nahmen an der Flughafenrezeption teil, der ersten von mehr als 100 solcher Veranstaltungen. Am nächsten Tag startete die Band innerhalb von neun Monaten ihre vierte Tour durch Großbritannien, die für sechs Wochen vorgesehen war. Als Beatlemania sich intensivierte, setzte die Polizei Mitte November vor einem Konzert in Plymouth die Kontrolle über die Menge mit Hochdruckwasserschläuchen ein.
Please Please Me behielt die Spitzenposition auf dem -Ratensatz bei Einzelhändler Chart für 30 Wochen, nur um durch seine Nachfolge, With The Beatles verdrängt zu werden, die EMI am 22. November freigab, um Vorbestellungen von 270.000 Exemplaren zu verzeichnen. Die LP überstieg eine halbe Million Alben in einer Woche. Aufgenommen zwischen Juli und Oktober, Bei den Beatles wurden die Studioproduktionstechniken besser als beim Vorgänger eingesetzt. Es hielt sich 21 Wochen lang an der Spitze mit einer Chartlebensdauer von 40 Wochen. Erlewine beschrieb die LP als "eine Fortsetzung der höchsten Ordnung - eine, die das Original übertrumpft". In einer Umkehrung der damals üblichen Praxis veröffentlichte EMI das Album vor der bevorstehenden Single "I Want to Hold Your Hand", wobei der Song ausgeschlossen wurde, um den Umsatz der Single zu maximieren. Das Album erregte die Aufmerksamkeit des Musikkritikers William Mann von The Times der vorschlug, Lennon und McCartney seien "die herausragenden englischen Komponisten von 1963". Die Zeitung veröffentlichte eine Reihe von Artikeln, in denen Mann detaillierte Analysen der Musik anbot, um sie zu respektieren. Mit den Beatles wurde das zweite Album in der britischen Chartgeschichte, das eine Million Exemplare verkaufte, eine Zahl, die zuvor nur mit erreicht wurde der Sound von 1958 Südpazifik . Beim Schreiben der Ärmelnotizen für das Album verwendete der Pressesprecher der Band, Tony Barrow, den Superlativ den "fabelhaften Vierer", den die Medien weithin als "The Fab Four" annahmen.
Erster Besuch in den Vereinigten Staaten und in British Invasion [19659036] Die amerikanische Tochtergesellschaft von EMI, Capitol Records, behinderte die Veröffentlichungen der Beatles für mehr als ein Jahr in den Vereinigten Staaten, indem sie zunächst die Veröffentlichung ihrer Musik ablehnten, einschließlich ihrer ersten drei Singles. Gleichzeitige Verhandlungen mit dem unabhängigen US-Label Vee-Jay führten 1963 zur Veröffentlichung einiger der Songs, aber nicht allen. Vee-Jay beendete die Vorbereitungen für das Album Einführung ... Die Beatles die aus den meisten Liedern von Parlophones Please Please Me stammten, aber ein Management-Shake-up führte nicht zum Album [nb 2] Als dann auftauchte, dass das Label keine Lizenzgebühren für ihre Verkäufe meldete, wurde die mit VI-Jay unterzeichnete Lizenz für ungültig erklärt. Dem Swan-Label wurde eine neue Lizenz für die Single "She Loves You" erteilt. Das Album wurde von Gene Loving des Radiosenders WGH im Tidewater-Gebiet von Virginia mit einem Airplay versehen und war im "Rate-a-Record" -Segment von American Bandstand zu sehen, konnte sich jedoch nicht national durchsetzen. Ein Schwarz-Weiß-Bild von vier Männern, die vor einer Menschenmenge am Fuße einer Flugzeugtreppe stehen " src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/The_Beatles_in_America.JPG/220px-The_Beatles_in_America.JPG" decoding="async" width="220" height="155" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/The_Beatles_in_America.JPG/330px-The_Beatles_in_America.JPG 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/The_Beatles_in_America.JPG/440px-The_Beatles_in_America.JPG 2x" data-file-width="3578" data-file-height="2526"/>
Die Beatles, die am John F. Kennedy International Airport am 7. Februar 1964 ankamen
Epstein arrangierte eine 40.000 US-Dollar-Marketingkampagne. Der US-amerikanische Chart-Erfolg begann, nachdem der Disc-Jockey Carroll James vom AM-Radiosender WWDC in Washington, DC, Mitte Dezember 1963 eine Kopie der britischen Single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" erhalten hatte, und begann sie on-air zu spielen. [19659041] Aufgenommene Kopien des Songs wurden bald in den USA in anderen Radiosendern verbreitet. Dies führte zu einer steigenden Nachfrage, was dazu führte, dass Capitol die Veröffentlichung von "Ich möchte deine Hand halten" um drei Wochen vorverlegen. Das am 26. Dezember herausgegebene Debüt der Band, "I Want to your Hand", verkaufte eine Million Exemplare und wurde Mitte Januar zum Nummer 1-Hit in den USA. In der Folge veröffentlichte Vee-Jay Introducing ... The Beatles zum Debütalbum von Capitol, Meet the Beatles! während Swan die Produktion von "She Loves You" reaktivierte.
Am 7. Februar 1964 verließen die Beatles das Vereinigte Königreich mit geschätzten 4.000 in Heathrow versammelten Fans, die winkten und schrien, als das Flugzeug startete. Bei der Landung am Flughafen John F. Kennedy in New York begrüßte sie eine aufrüttelnde Menschenmenge, die auf 3.000 geschätzt wurde. Sie gaben ihre erste US-amerikanische Live-Aufführung zwei Tage später The Ed Sullivan Show die von rund 73 Millionen Zuschauern in über 23 Millionen Haushalten oder 34 Prozent der amerikanischen Bevölkerung gesehen wurde. Der Biograf Jonathan Gould schreibt, dass es laut Nielsen Rating Service "das größte Publikum war, das jemals für ein amerikanisches Fernsehprogramm aufgenommen worden war". Am nächsten Morgen erwachten die Beatles in den USA zu einem weitgehend negativen Konsens, aber einen Tag später, bei ihrem ersten US-Konzert, brach Beatlemania im Washington Coliseum aus. Wieder am nächsten Tag in New York, wurden die Beatles bei zwei Shows in der Carnegie Hall erneut stark empfangen. Die Band flog nach Florida, wo sie auf der wöchentlichen Ed Sullivan Show ein zweites Mal erschien, bevor weitere 70 Millionen Zuschauer kamen, bevor sie am 22. Februar nach Großbritannien zurückkehrte.
Der erste Besuch der Beatles im Die Vereinigten Staaten fanden statt, als die Nation im vergangenen November immer noch um die Ermordung von Präsident John F. Kennedy trauerte. [96] Kommentatoren weisen oft darauf hin, dass die Performances der Beatles für viele, besonders für junge Leute, das Gefühl der Erregung und der Möglichkeit für einen Moment wiederbeleben Nach dem Attentat verblasste es und half, den revolutionären sozialen Veränderungen im Jahrzehnt Platz zu machen. [97] Ihre Frisur, ungewöhnlich lang für die Epoche und von vielen Erwachsenen verspottet, [12] wurde zum Symbol der Rebellion des aufkeimende Jugendkultur.
Die Popularität der Gruppe weckte ein beispielloses Interesse an britischer Musik, und eine Reihe anderer britischer Acts brachten daraufhin ihre eigenen amerikanischen Debüts auf und tourten erfolgreich über die nächsten drei Jahre in dem, was als britische Invasion bezeichnet wurde. Der Erfolg der Beatles in den USA öffnete die Tür für eine Reihe von britischen Beat-Gruppen und Pop-Acts wie Dave Clark Five, Animals, Petula Clark, The Kinks und Rolling Stones, um in Amerika Erfolg zu haben. [100] In der Woche vom 4. April 1964 hatten die Beatles zwölf Positionen auf der Billboard Hot 100-Single-Charts, einschließlich der Top 5. [nb 3]
A Hard Day's Night
blieb nicht unbemerkt, und ein Konkurrent, United Artists Records, ermutigte seine Filmabteilung, den Beatles einen Drei-Film-Deal anzubieten, vor allem wegen des kommerziellen Potenzials der Soundtracks in den USA. Unter der Regie von Richard Lester A Hard Day's Night beschäftigte die Band im März / April 1964 für sechs Wochen, als sie sich in einer Mock-Dokumentation spielten. Der Film wurde im Juli bzw. August in London und New York uraufgeführt und war ein internationaler Erfolg. Einige Kritiker zogen den Vergleich mit den Marx-Brüdern an. United Artists veröffentlichten ein komplettes Soundtrack-Album für den nordamerikanischen Markt, in dem Beatles-Songs und Martins Orchester-Score kombiniert wurden. An anderer Stelle enthielt die dritte Studio-LP der Gruppe, A Hard Day's Night Songs aus dem Film auf der ersten und andere neue Aufnahmen auf der zweiten Seite. Laut Erlewine, sahen sie das Album als "wirklich zu ihrem Recht geworden". Alle unterschiedlichen Einflüsse auf ihren ersten beiden Alben vermischten sich zu einem hellen, fröhlichen, originellen Sound, der mit klingenden Gitarren und unwiderstehlichen Melodien gefüllt war. Dieser "klingende Gitarrensound" war in erster Linie das Produkt von Harrisons 12-saitigem elektrischen Rickenbacker, einem Prototyp des Herstellers, der sein Debüt auf der Platte gab. [nb 4]
1964 Welttournee, Treffen mit Bob Dylan und Stand auf Civil rights
McCartney, Harrison und Lennon treten 1964 im niederländischen Fernsehen auf
Bei internationalen Tourneen im Juni und Juli veranstalteten die Beatles 37 Shows an 27 Tagen in Dänemark, den Niederlanden, Hongkong, Australien und Neuseeland. [nb 5] Im August und September kehrten sie mit 30 Konzerten in 23 Städten in die USA zurück. Die monatelange Tour zog erneut ein reges Interesse an und lockte 10.000 bis 20.000 Fans zu jeder 30-minütigen Vorstellung in Städten von San Francisco bis New York.
Im August arrangierte der Journalist Al Aronowitz die Beatles, um Bob Dylan zu treffen. Dylan besuchte die Band in ihrer New Yorker Hotelsuite und stellte ihnen Cannabis vor. Gould weist auf die musikalische und kulturelle Bedeutung dieses Treffens hin, vor dem die jeweiligen Fanbasen der Musiker "in zwei voneinander getrennten subkulturellen Welten" wahrgenommen wurden: Dylans Publikum von "College-Kindern" mit künstlerischen oder intellektuellen Neigungen, einem aufkeimenden politischen und sozialen Idealismus und Ein milder, böhmischer Stil "kontrastierte mit ihren Fans" wahren "Teenyboppers" - Kindern in der High School oder der Grundschule, deren Leben völlig in die kommerzialisierte Populärkultur von Fernsehen, Radio, Pop-Records, Fan-Magazinen und Teenie-Mode eingepfercht war Viele von Dylans Anhängern in der Volksmusikszene wurden als Idolater und nicht als Idealisten angesehen. " Innerhalb von sechs Monaten nach dem Treffen ", so Gould," würde Lennon Aufzeichnungen machen, auf denen er Dylans Nasendrohne, Sprödel und introspektive Gesangsperson offen nachahmte "; und ein halbes Jahr später begann Dylan mit einer Begleitband und elektrischen Instrumenten zu spielen und "gekleidet in Modehöhe". Gould fährt fort, die traditionelle Trennung zwischen Folk- und Rock-Enthusiasten sei "fast verflogen", als die Fans der Beatles reif wurden und Dylans Publikum die neue, jugendliche Popkultur annahm.
Während des Jahres 1964 Bei einer Tour durch die USA war die Gruppe damals mit der Realität der Rassentrennung im Land konfrontiert, insbesondere im Süden. [116][117] Als bekannt gegeben wurde, dass der Veranstaltungsort für ihr Konzert am 11. September die Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, segregierte, Die Beatles sagten, sie würden sich weigern, aufzutreten, wenn das Publikum nicht integriert wäre. [116][117] Lennon erklärte: "Wir spielen nie vor einem getrennten Publikum und wir werden jetzt nicht anfangen ... Ich würde früher unser Auftrittgeld verlieren." 19659059] Beamte der Stadt gaben nach und stimmten zu, eine integrierte Show zuzulassen. [116] Die Gruppe stornierte auch ihre Reservierungen im weißen Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville. [117] Aus den Unterlagen geht hervor, dass für ihre nachfolgenden US-Reisen 1965 und 1966 dieBeatles schloss Klauseln in Verträgen ein, die festlegen, dass Shows integriert werden. [117][119]
Beatles for Sale Help! und Rubber Soul
Laut Gould, Beatles for Sale ]die vierte Studio-LP der Beatles, zeigte einen wachsenden Konflikt zwischen dem kommerziellen Druck ihres globalen Erfolgs und ihren kreativen Ambitionen. Das zwischen August und Oktober 1964 aufgenommene Album sollte das von A Hard Day's Night festgelegte Format beibehalten, das im Gegensatz zu den beiden ersten LPs nur Originallieder enthielt. Sie hatten ihren Rückstand an Songs auf dem vorigen Album beinahe erschöpft und angesichts der ständigen internationalen Tourneen, die sich ihren Songwriting-Bemühungen stellten, gab Lennon zu, "Material wird zum Höllenproblem". Als Ergebnis wurden sechs Cover aus ihrem umfangreichen Repertoire ausgewählt, um das Album zu vervollständigen. Die Anfang Dezember veröffentlichten acht Originalkompositionen waren herausragend und zeugen von der zunehmenden Reife der Lennon-McCartney-Songwriting-Partnerschaft.
Nach einem Abendessen mit Lennon, Harrison und ihren Ehefrauen fügte Harrison's Zahnarzt John Riley Anfang 1965 LSD hinzu ihren Kaffee. [124] Lennon beschrieb die Erfahrung: "Es war einfach nur schrecklich, aber es war fantastisch. Ich war ein oder zwei Monate lang fassungslos." Er und Harrison wurden später regelmäßige Konsumenten der Droge, bei mindestens einer Gelegenheit trat Starr dazu. McCartney zögerte zunächst, es zu versuchen, tat es aber schließlich Ende 1966. Er wurde der erste Beatle, der LSD öffentlich diskutierte, und erklärte in einem Magazininterview, dass "es mir die Augen öffnete" und "einen besseren, ehrlichen, toleranteren Menschen" machte Mitglied der Gesellschaft ".
Der US-Trailer zu Help! mit (von hinten) Harrison, McCartney, Lennon und (weitgehend verdecktem) Starr
Kontroverse brach im Juni aus 1965 ernannte Königin Elizabeth II. Alle vier Beatles-Mitglieder des Order of the British Empire (MBE), nachdem Ministerpräsident Harold Wilson sie für die Auszeichnung nominiert hatte. Aus Protest - die Ehre wurde damals vor allem Militärveteranen und Staatsoberhäuptern verliehen - einige konservative MBE-Empfänger gaben ihre eigenen Insignien zurück. Der im Juli veröffentlichte zweite Film der Beatles, Help! wurde erneut von Lester inszeniert. Er wurde als "vorwiegend eine unnachgiebige Parodie von Bond" beschrieben und löste bei den Rezensenten und der Band eine gemischte Reaktion aus. McCartney sagte: " Hilfe! war großartig, aber es war nicht unser Film - wir waren sozusagen Gaststars. Es hat Spaß gemacht, aber als Idee für einen Film war das ein bisschen falsch." Der Soundtrack wurde dominiert von Lennon, der die meisten seiner Songs, darunter auch die beiden Singles, Lead geschrieben und gesungen hat: "Help!" und "Ticket to Ride". Das dazugehörige Help! -Album, die fünfte Studio-LP der Gruppe, spiegelte A Hard Day's Night wider, indem es neben den ersten Sessions auch Soundtrack-Songs und zusätzliche Songs aus den gleichen Sessions auf der zweiten Seite gab. Die LP enthielt alles Originalmaterial mit Ausnahme der beiden Cover "Act Naturally" und "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". sie waren die letzten Cover, die die Band auf ein Album aufnehmen würde, mit Ausnahme von Let It Be einer kurzen Wiedergabe des traditionellen Liverpooler Volksliedes "Maggie Mae". Die Band erweiterte ihre Verwendung von Vokal-Overdubs auf Help! und baute klassische Instrumente in einige Arrangements ein, darunter ein Streichquartett in der Popballade "Yesterday". Composed by and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording – "Yesterday" inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written.
The band at a press conference in Minnesota in August 1965, shortly after playing Shea Stadium in New York
The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965 – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description. A further nine successful concerts followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback system of on-stage monitor speakers. Towards the end of the tour, they met with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills. September saw the launch of an American Saturday-morning cartoon series, The Beatlesthat echoed A Hard Day's Night's slapstick antics over its two-year original run. The series was a historical milestone as the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people.[143]
In mid-October 1965, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments. Until this time, according to George Martin, "we had been making albums rather like a collection of singles. Now we were really beginning to think about albums as a bit of art on their own."[145] Released in December, Rubber Soul was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music. Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy. Biographers Peter Brown and Steven Gaines attribute the new musical direction to "the Beatles' now habitual use of marijuana", an assertion confirmed by the band – Lennon referred to it as "the pot album", and Starr said: "Grass was really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the writers. And because they were writing different material, we were playing differently." After Help!'s foray into the world of classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As their lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning. Of "Norwegian Wood" Lennon commented: "I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair ... but in such a smokescreen way that you couldn't tell."
Sample of "Norwegian Wood" from Rubber Soul (1965). Harrison's use of a sitar on this song is representative of the Beatles' incorporation of unconventional instrumentation into rock music.
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While many of Rubber Soul's prominent songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting, it also featured distinct compositions from each, though they continued to share official credit. The song "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue. Harrison called Rubber Soul his "favourite album" and Starr referred to it as "the departure record". McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand." However, recording engineer Norman Smith later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right". In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Rubber Soul fifth among "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and AllMusic's Richie Unterberger describes it as "one of the classic folk-rock records".
Controversy, final tour and Revolver
Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format, compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles.[nb 6] In June 1966, Yesterday and Todayone of Capitol's compilation albums, caused an uproar with its cover, which portrayed the grinning Beatles dressed in butcher's overalls, accompanied by raw meat and mutilated plastic baby dolls. It has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions of their albums. Thousands of copies of the LP had a new cover pasted over the original; an unpeeled "first-state" copy fetched $10,500 at a December 2005 auction. In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on the instrument.
During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and Today furore, the Beatles unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected them to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Epstein politely declined on the band members' behalf, as it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations. They soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to taking no for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they escaped the country with difficulty. Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time.
American disc jockey Bruce Morrow (with microphone) interviewing the Beatles. Morrow's interview was among the many exchanges with the US press during the band's August 1966 tour in which Lennon's "Jesus" remark was the focus of attention.
Almost as soon as they returned home, the Beatles faced a fierce backlash from US religious and social conservatives (as well as the Ku Klux Klan) over a comment Lennon had made in a March interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave. "Christianity will go," Lennon had said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. ... Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." The comment went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine Datebook printed it five months later – on the eve of the group's August US tour – it sparked a controversy with Christians in the American "Bible Belt". The Vatican issued a protest, and bans on Beatles' records were imposed by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service. Epstein accused Datebook of having taken Lennon's words out of context; at a press conference Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it." Lennon claimed that he was referring to how other people viewed their success, but at the prompting of reporters, he concluded: "If you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry."
As preparations were made for the US tour, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30 amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers, specially designed by Vox for them as they moved into larger venues in 1964, but these were still inadequate. Struggling to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown increasingly bored with the routine of performing live. Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August tour their last.
Sample of "Eleanor Rigby" from Revolver (1966). The album involves innovative compositional approaches, arrangements and recording techniques. This song, primarily written by McCartney, prominently features classical strings in a novel fusion of musical styles.
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Rubber Soul had marked a major step forward; Revolverreleased in August 1966 a week before the Beatles' final tour, marked another.Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef identifies it as "the sound of a band growing into supreme confidence" and "redefining what was expected from popular music".Revolver featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation, and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelic rock. Abandoning the customary group photograph, its cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – "was a stark, arty, black-and-white collage that caricatured the Beatles in a pen-and-ink style beholden to Aubrey Beardsley", in Gould's description. The album was preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain". Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos", they aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June 1966.
San Francisco's Candlestick Park (pictured in its 1960s configuration) was the venue for the Beatles' final concert before a paying audience.
Among the experimental songs that Revolver featured was "Tomorrow Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Its creation involved eight tape decks distributed about the EMI building, each staffed by an engineer or band member, who randomly varied the movement of a tape loop while Martin created a composite recording by sampling the incoming data. McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; Gould describes it as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of song". Harrison was developing as a songwriter, and three of his compositions earned a place on the record. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Revolver as the third greatest album of all time. During the US tour that followed its release, however, the band performed none of its songs. As Chris Ingham writes, they were very much "studio creations ... and there was no way a four-piece rock 'n' roll group could do them justice, particularly through the desensitising wall of the fans' screams. 'Live Beatles' and 'Studio Beatles' had become entirely different beasts." The band's concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August was their last commercial concert. It marked the end of a four-year period dominated by almost nonstop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally.
1966–1970: Studio years
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Front cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"the most famous cover of any music album, and one of the most imitated images in the world"
Freed from the burden of touring, the Beatles embraced an increasingly experimental approach as they recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Bandbeginning in late November 1966. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours. He recalled the band's insistence "that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck together upside down and the wrong way around." Parts of "A Day in the Life" featured a 40-piece orchestra. The sessions initially yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967; the Sgt. Pepper LP followed in June. The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists. Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal. Gould writes:
The overwhelming consensus is that the Beatles had created a popular masterpiece: a rich, sustained, and overflowing work of collaborative genius whose bold ambition and startling originality dramatically enlarged the possibilities and raised the expectations of what the experience of listening to popular music on record could be. On the basis of this perception, Sgt. Pepper became the catalyst for an explosion of mass enthusiasm for album-formatted rock that would revolutionise both the aesthetics and the economics of the record business in ways that far outstripped the earlier pop explosions triggered by the Elvis phenomenon of 1956 and the Beatlemania phenomenon of 1963.
Sgt. Pepper was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover. Those lyrics were the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and professor of English Richard Poirier, who observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy". Poirier identified what he termed its "mixed allusiveness": "It's unwise ever to assume that they're doing only one thing or expressing themselves in only one style ... one kind of feeling about a subject isn't enough ... any single induced feeling must often exist within the context of seemingly contradictory alternatives." McCartney said at the time: "We write songs. We know what we mean by them. But in a week someone else says something about it, and you can't deny it. ... You put your own meaning at your own level to our songs." The album's elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study. A collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, it depicted the group as the fictional band referred to in the album's title track standing in front of a crowd of famous people. The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of hippie style, while cultural historian Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment" display. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it number one on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Brian Epstein was dead ... Paul and George were in complete shock. I don't think it could have been worse if they had heard that their own fathers had dropped dead ... Brian had found them, believed in them, molded them, turned them into millionaires, and made them famous the world over ... We knew that life would never be the same again.
– Pattie Boyd, wife of George Harrison
On 25 June 1967, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single, "All You Need Is Love", to an estimated 350 million viewers on Our Worldthe first live global television link. Released a week later, during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem. Two months later, the group suffered a loss that threw their career into turmoil. Having been introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi only the previous night in London, on 25 August they travelled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. Two days later, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein, only thirty-two years old, had died. The coroner ruled the death an accidental carbitol overdose, although it was widely rumoured to be a suicide. Epstein had been in a fragile emotional state, stressed by personal troubles.[nb 7] His death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future. Lennon recalled: "We collapsed. I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn't really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought, 'We've had it now.'"
Magical Mystery Tourthe White Album and Yellow Submarine
Magical Mystery Tourthe soundtrack to a forthcoming Beatles television film, was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play disc (EP) in early December 1967. In the United States, the six songs were issued on an identically titled LP that also included five tracks from the band's recent singles. Unterberger says of the US Magical Mystery Tour"the psychedelic sound is very much in the vein of Sgt. Pepperand even spacier in parts (especially the sound collages of 'I Am the Walrus')" and he calls its five songs culled from the band's 1967 singles "huge, glorious, and innovative". In its first three weeks, the album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP, and it is the only Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums. First aired on Boxing Day, the Magical Mystery Tour film, largely directed by McCartney, brought the group their first major negative UK press. It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the Daily Express; the Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit"; and The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience". Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus". Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film.
In January 1968, the Beatles filmed a cameo for the animated movie Yellow Submarinewhich featured cartoon versions of the band members and a soundtrack with eleven of their songs, including four unreleased studio recordings that made their debut in the film. Released in June 1968, the film was praised by critics for its music, humour and innovative visual style. It would be seven months, however, before its soundtrack album appeared.
The Beatlesknown as the White Album for its minimalist cover, conceived by pop artist Richard Hamilton "in direct contrast to Sgt. Pepper", while also suggesting a "clean slate"
In the interim came The Beatlesa double LP commonly known as the White Album for its virtually featureless cover. Creative inspiration for the album came from a new direction: without Epstein's guiding presence, the group had briefly turned to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as their guru. At his ashram in Rishikesh, India, a "Guide Course" scheduled for three months marked one of their most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs including a majority of the 30 included on the album. However, Starr left after only ten days, likening it to Butlins, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to questioning when an electronics technician known as Magic Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them. When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues. McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was."
During recording sessions for the White Album, which stretched from late May to mid-October 1968, relations between the Beatles grew openly divisive. Starr quit for two weeks, and McCartney took over the drum kit for "Back in the U.S.S.R." (on which Harrison and Lennon drummed as well) and "Dear Prudence". Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney, whose contribution "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit". Tensions were further aggravated by Lennon's romantic preoccupation with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the sessions despite the group's well-established understanding that girlfriends were not allowed in the studio. Describing the double album, Lennon later said: "Every track is an individual track; there isn't any Beatle music on it. [It's] John and the band, Paul and the band, George and the band." McCartney has recalled that the album "wasn't a pleasant one to make". Both he and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band's break-up.
Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings. The new label was a subsidiary of Apple Corps, which Epstein had formed as part of his plan to create a tax-effective business structure. The record attracted more than 2 million advance orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations. Despite its popularity, it did not receive flattering reviews at the time. According to Gould:
The critical response ... ranged from mixed to flat. In marked contrast to Sgt. Pepperwhich had helped to establish an entire genre of literate rock criticism, the White Album inspired no critical writing of any note. Even the most sympathetic reviewers ... clearly didn't know what to make of this shapeless outpouring of songs. Newsweek's Hubert Saal, citing the high proportion of parodies, accused the group of getting their tongues caught in their cheeks.
General critical opinion eventually turned in favour of the White Album, and in 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it as the tenth greatest album of all time. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson describes it as "large and sprawling, overflowing with ideas but also with indulgences, and filled with a hugely variable array of material ... its failings are as essential to its character as its triumphs." Erlewine comments: "The [band's] two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were George and Ringo", yet "Lennon turns in two of his best ballads", McCartney's songs are "stunning", Harrison had become "a songwriter who deserved wider exposure", and Starr's composition was "a delight".
The Yellow Submarine LP, issued in January 1969, contained only the four previously unreleased songs that had debuted in the film, along with the title track (already issued on Revolver), "All You Need Is Love" (already issued as a single and on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP) and seven instrumental pieces composed by Martin. Because of the paucity of new Beatles music, AllMusic's Unterberger and Bruce Eder suggest the album might be "inessential" but for Harrison's "It's All Too Much": "the jewel of the new songs ... resplendent in swirling Mellotron, larger-than-life percussion, and tidal waves of feedback guitar ... a virtuoso excursion into otherwise hazy psychedelia".
Abbey RoadLet It Be and separation
Although Let It Be was the Beatles' final album release, it was largely recorded before Abbey Road. The project's impetus came from an idea Martin attributes to McCartney, who suggested they "record an album of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before a live audience for the very first time – on record and on film". Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called Beatles at Workin the event much of the album's content came from studio work beginning in January 1969, many hours of which were captured on film by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Martin has said that the project was "not at all a happy recording experience. It was a time when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb." Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell ... the most miserable ... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time". Irritated by both McCartney and Lennon, Harrison walked out for five days. Upon returning, he threatened to leave the band unless they "abandon[ed] all talk of live performance" and instead focused on finishing a new album, initially titled Get Backusing songs recorded for the TV special. He also demanded they cease work at Twickenham Film Studios, where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished Apple Studio. The other band members agreed, and the idea came about to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film.
American soul musician Billy Preston (pictured in 1971) was, for a short time, considered a fifth Beatle during the recording of Get Back.
In an effort to alleviate tensions within the band and improve the quality of their live sound, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate in the last nine days of sessions. Preston received label billing on the "Get Back" single – the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release. At the conclusion of the rehearsals, the band could not agree on a location to film a concert, rejecting several ideas, including a boat at sea, a lunatic asylum, the Tunisian desert, and the Colosseum. Ultimately, what would be their final live performance was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969. Five weeks later, engineer Glyn Johns, whom Lewisohn describes as Get Back's "uncredited producer", began work assembling an album, given "free rein" as the band "all but washed their hands of the entire project".
New strains developed between the band members regarding the appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon, Harrison and Starr favoured Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke; McCartney wanted Lee and John Eastman – father and brother, respectively, of Linda Eastman, whom McCartney married on 12 March. Agreement could not be reached, so both Klein and the Eastmans were temporarily appointed: Klein as the Beatles' business manager and the Eastmans as their lawyers. Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost. On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band, the Eastmans having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' lawyers. McCartney refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles.
Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce another album, as the Get Back sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us". The primary recording sessions for Abbey Road began on 2 July 1969. Lennon, who rejected Martin's proposed format of a "continuously moving piece of music", wanted his and McCartney's songs to occupy separate sides of the album. The eventual format, with individually composed songs on the first side and the second consisting largely of a medley, was McCartney's suggested compromise. On 4 July, the first solo single by a Beatle was released: Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", credited to the Plastic Ono Band. The completion and mixing of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20 August 1969 was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were together in the same studio. Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group on 20 September, but agreed to withhold a public announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album.
Released six days after Lennon's declaration, Abbey Road sold 4 million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of seventeen weeks. Its second track, the ballad "Something", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition ever to appear as a Beatles A-side.Abbey Road received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim. Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record".Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley. Martin has singled it out as his personal favourite of all the band's albums; Lennon said it was "competent" but had "no life in it". Recording engineer Emerick notes that the replacement of the studio's valve mixing console with a transistorised one yielded a less punchy sound, leaving the group frustrated at the thinner tone and lack of impact and contributing to its "kinder, gentler" feel relative to their previous albums.
For the still unfinished Get Back album, one last song, Harrison's "I Me Mine", was recorded on 3 January 1970. Lennon, in Denmark at the time, did not participate. In March, rejecting the work Johns had done on the project, now retitled Let It BeKlein gave the session tapes to American producer Phil Spector, who had recently produced Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!" In addition to remixing the material, Spector edited, spliced and overdubbed several of the recordings that had been intended as "live". McCartney was unhappy with the producer's approach and particularly dissatisfied with the lavish orchestration on "The Long and Winding Road", which involved a fourteen-voice choir and 36-piece instrumental ensemble. McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were ignored, and he publicly announced his departure from the band on 10 April 1970, a week before the release of his first, self-titled solo album.
On 8 May, the Spector-produced Let It Be was released. Its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was the Beatles' last; it was released in the United States, but not in the UK. The Let It Be documentary film followed later that month, and would win the 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.Sunday Telegraph critic Penelope Gilliatt called it "a very bad film and a touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings". Several reviewers stated that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks. Describing Let It Be as the "only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews", Unterberger calls it "on the whole underrated"; he singles out "some good moments of straight hard rock in 'I've Got a Feeling' and 'Dig a Pony'", and praises "Let It Be", "Get Back", and "the folky 'Two of Us', with John and Paul harmonising together". McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on 31 December 1970. Legal disputes continued long after their break-up, and the dissolution was not formalised until 29 December 1974, when John Lennon signed the paperwork terminating the partnership while on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.[276]
1970–present: After the break-up
1970s
Lennon and McCartney in 1975 and 1976
Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the others; Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only album to include compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles, albeit on separate songs. With Starr's participation, Harrison staged the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971. Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again.[279]
Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962–1966 and 1967–1970were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint. Commonly known as the "Red Album" and "Blue Album", respectively, each have earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the United States and a Platinum certification in the United Kingdom. Between 1976 and 1982, EMI/Capitol released a wave of compilation albums without input from the ex-Beatles, starting with the double-disc compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music. The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours.[nb 8]
The music and enduring fame of the Beatles was commercially exploited in various other ways, again often outside their creative control. In April 1974, the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bertwritten by Willy Russell and featuring singer Barbara Dickson, opened in London. It included, with permission from Northern Songs, eleven Lennon-McCartney compositions and one by Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun". Displeased with the production's use of his song, Harrison withdrew his permission to use it. Later that year, the off-Broadway musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road opened.[287]All This and World War II (1976) was an unorthodox nonfiction film that combined newsreel footage with covers of Beatles songs by performers ranging from Elton John and Keith Moon to the London Symphony Orchestra. The Broadway musical Beatlemaniaan unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions. In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages.Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham.
A wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the United States during the 1970s led several entrepreneurs to make public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert. Promoter Bill Sargent first offered the Beatles $10 million for a reunion concert in 1974. He raised his offer to $30 million in January 1976 and then to $50 million the following month.[291][292] On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Liveproducer Lorne Michaels offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's apartment at the Dakota in New York, which was within walking distance of the NBC studio where the show was being broadcast. The former bandmates briefly entertained the idea of going to the studio and surprising Michaels by accepting his offer, but decided not to.[293] Concert promoter Sid Bernstein ran full-page newspaper advertisements in September 1976, inviting the Beatles to reunite for a concert that would raise $230 million for charity.[294][295][296] In June 1976, entrepreneur Alan Amron created the International Committee to Reunite the Beatles, asking Beatles fans worldwide to send in one dollar to then offer the money to the Beatles to reunite.[297][298] In January 1977, Amron partnered with boxer Muhammad Ali for a proposal to the Beatles to reunite to help create a $200 million charity fund.[299][300] In March 1978, an environmental group called Project Interspeak announced to the media that they were planning a concert to raise money for anti-whaling efforts and suggested the Beatles would participate.[301][302][303] Bernstein again appealed to the Beatles with a full-page newspaper advertisement in September 1979, asking them to perform three concerts to benefit the Vietnamese boat people.[304] At the same time another effort to reunite the Beatles for the same cause was sponsored by United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. Those discussions led to the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea in December featuring Wings but not the rumoured Beatles reunion.
1980s
After the murder of Lennon in December 1980, Harrison rewrote the lyrics to his song "All Those Years Ago" in Lennon's honour. With Starr on drums and McCartney and his wife, Linda, contributing backing vocals, the song was released as a single in May 1981. McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War album in April 1982. In 1987, Harrison's Cloud Nine album included "When We Was Fab", a song about the Beatlemania era.
When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by EMI and Apple Corps in 1987, their catalogue was standardised throughout the world, establishing a canon of the twelve original studio LPs as issued in the UK plus the US LP version of Magical Mystery Tour. All the remaining material from the singles and EPs that had not appeared on these thirteen studio albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation Past Masters (1988). Except for the Red and Blue albums, EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the Hollywood Bowl record – from its catalogue.
In 1988, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the ceremony with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and Sean.[310] McCartney declined to attend, citing unresolved "business differences" that would make him "feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion". The following year, EMI/Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit filed by the band over royalties, clearing the way to commercially package previously unreleased material.
1990s
Live at the BBCthe first official release of unissued Beatles performances in seventeen years, appeared in 1994. That same year McCartney, Harrison and Starr collaborated on the Anthology project. Anthology was the culmination of work begun in 1970, when Apple Corps director Neil Aspinall, their former road manager and personal assistant, had started to gather material for a documentary with the working title The Long and Winding Road. Documenting their history in the band's own words, the Anthology project included the release of several unissued Beatles recordings. McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to two songs recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s.
During 1995–96, the project yielded a television miniseries, an eight-volume video set, and three two-CD/three-LP box sets featuring artwork by Klaus Voormann. The two songs based on Lennon demos, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", were issued as new Beatles singles. The releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400 million people. In 1999, to coincide with the re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarinean expanded soundtrack album, Yellow Submarine Songtrackwas issued.
2000s
The Beatles' 1a compilation album of the band's British and American number-one hits, was released on 13 November 2000. It became the fastest-selling album of all time, with 3.6 million sold in its first week and 13 million within a month. It topped albums charts in at least 28 countries. As of April 2009[update]the compilation had sold 31 million copies globally, and is the best-selling album of that decade in the United States.
Harrison died from metastatic lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who performed at the Concert for George, organised by Eric Clapton and Harrison's widow, Olivia. The tribute event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on the first anniversary of Harrison's death.
In 2003, Let It Be... Nakeda reconceived version of the Let It Be album, with McCartney supervising production, was released. One of the main differences from the Spector-produced version was the omission of the original string arrangements. It was a top ten hit in both Britain and America. The US album configurations from 1964 to 1965 were released as box sets in 2004 and 2006; The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2 included both stereo and mono versions based on the mixes that were prepared for vinyl at the time of the music's original American release.
As a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Beatles stage revue, LoveGeorge Martin and his son Giles remixed and blended 130 of the band's recordings to create what Martin called "a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period". The show premiered in June 2006, and the Love album was released that November. In April 2009, Starr performed three songs with McCartney at a benefit concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall and organised by McCartney.
On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four years. Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with Magical Mystery Tour and the Past Masters compilation, were released on compact disc both individually and as a box set. A second collection, The Beatles in Monoincluded remastered versions of every Beatles album released in true mono along with the original 1965 stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul (both of which Martin had remixed for the 1987 editions).The Beatles: Rock Banda music video game in the Rock Band series, was issued on the same day. In December 2009, the band's catalogue was officially released in FLAC and MP3 format in a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives.
2010s
Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among the last major artists to sign deals with online music services. Residual disagreement emanating from Apple Corps' dispute with Apple, Inc., iTunes' owners, over the use of the name "Apple" was also partly responsible for the delay, although in 2008, McCartney stated that the main obstacle to making the Beatles' catalogue available online was that EMI "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them". In 2010, the official canon of thirteen Beatles studio albums, Past Mastersand the "Red: and "Blue" greatest-hits albums were made available on iTunes.
In 2012, EMI's recorded music operations were sold to Universal Music Group. In order for Universal Music to acquire EMI, the European Union, for antitrust reasons, forced EMI to spin off assets including Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, managed by Capitol Records under its Capitol Music Group division.[340] The entire original Beatles album catalogue was also reissued on vinyl in 2012; available either individually or as a box set.
In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings, titled On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2was released. That December saw the release of another 59 Beatles recordings on iTunes. The set, titled The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963had the opportunity to gain a 70-year copyright extension conditional on the songs being published at least once before the end of 2013. Apple Records released the recordings on 17 December to prevent them from going into the public domain and had them taken down from iTunes later that same day. Fan reactions to the release were mixed, with one blogger saying "the hardcore Beatles collectors who are trying to obtain everything will already have these."[342][343]
On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed together at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.[344] The following day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles television special was taped in the Los Angeles Convention Center's West Hall. It aired on 9 February, the exact date of – and at the same time, and on the same network as – the original broadcast of the Beatles' first US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show50 years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival footage, and interviews with the two surviving ex-Beatles carried out by David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater.[345][346]
In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming on various streaming music services.[347] On 18 May 2017, Sirius XM Radio launched a 24/7 radio channel, The Beatles Channel. A week later, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was reissued with new stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary.[348] A similar box set for The Beatlesthe band's 1968 double album, was released in November 2018.[349]
Musical style and development
In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music ForeverScott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles' musical evolution:
In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work.
In The Beatles as MusiciansWalter Everett describes Lennon and McCartney's contrasting motivations and approaches to composition: "McCartney may be said to have constantly developed – as a means to entertain – a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally agreed-upon common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely, Lennon's mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic sensibility."
Ian MacDonald describes McCartney as "a natural melodist – a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody lines are characterised as primarily "vertical", employing wide, consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism". Conversely, Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a "horizontal" approach featuring minimal, dissonant intervals and repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic accompaniment for interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies close to the rhythms and cadences of speech, colouring his lyrics with bluesy tone and harmony rather than creating tunes that made striking shapes of their own." MacDonald praises Harrison's lead guitar work for the role his "characterful lines and textural colourings" play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts, and describes Starr as "the father of modern pop/rock drumming".
Influences
The band's earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. During the Beatles' co-residency with Little Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg, from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs. Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been the Beatles."
Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers. The Beatles continued to absorb influences long after their initial success, often finding new musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their contemporaries, including Bob Dylan, the Who, Frank Zappa, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose 1966 album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney.[362] Referring to the Beach Boys' creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]." Ravi Shankar, with whom Harrison studied for six weeks in India in late 1966, had a significant effect on his musical development during the band's later years.
Genres
Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre,[365] and their repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music. Reflecting the range of styles they explored, Lennon said of Beatles for Sale"You could call our new one a Beatles country-and-western LP", while Gould credits Rubber Soul as "the instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into the camp of pop".
Although the 1965 song "Yesterday" was not the first pop record to employ orchestral strings, it marked the group's first recorded use of classical music elements. Gould observes: "The more traditional sound of strings allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as composers by listeners who were otherwise allergic to the din of drums and electric guitars." They continued to experiment with string arrangements to various effect; Sgt. Pepper's "She's Leaving Home", for instance, is "cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad", Gould writes, "its words and music filled with the clichés of musical melodrama".
The band's stylistic range expanded in another direction with their 1966 B-side "Rain", described by Martin Strong as "the first overtly psychedelic Beatles record". Other psychedelic numbers followed, such as "Tomorrow Never Knows" (recorded before "Rain"), "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Am the Walrus". The influence of Indian classical music was evident in Harrison's "The Inner Light", "Love You To" and "Within You Without You" – Gould describes the latter two as attempts "to replicate the raga form in miniature".
Innovation was the most striking feature of their creative evolution, according to music historian and pianist Michael Campbell: "'A Day in the Life' encapsulates the art and achievement of the Beatles as well as any single track can. It highlights key features of their music: the sound imagination, the persistence of tuneful melody, and the close coordination between words and music. It represents a new category of song – more sophisticated than pop ... and uniquely innovative. There literally had never before been a song – classical or vernacular – that had blended so many disparate elements so imaginatively." Philosophy professor Bruce Ellis Benson agrees: "the Beatles ... give us a wonderful example of how such far-ranging influences as Celtic music, rhythm and blues, and country and western could be put together in a new way."
Author Dominic Pedler describes the way they crossed musical styles: "Far from moving sequentially from one genre to another (as is sometimes conveniently suggested) the group maintained in parallel their mastery of the traditional, catchy chart hit while simultaneously forging rock and dabbling with a wide range of peripheral influences from country to vaudeville. One of these threads was their take on folk music, which would form such essential groundwork for their later collisions with Indian music and philosophy." As the personal relationships between the band members grew increasingly strained, their individual tastes became more apparent. The minimalistic cover artwork for the White Album contrasted with the complexity and diversity of its music, which encompassed Lennon's "Revolution 9" (whose musique concrète approach was influenced by Yoko Ono), Starr's country song "Don't Pass Me By", Harrison's rock ballad "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and the "proto-metal roar" of McCartney's "Helter Skelter".
Contribution of George Martin
Martin (second from right) in the studio with the Beatles in the mid-1960s
George Martin's close involvement in his role as producer made him one of the leading candidates for the informal title of the "fifth Beatle". He applied his classical musical training in various ways, and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing songwriters, according to Gould. Martin suggested to a sceptical McCartney that the arrangement of "Yesterday" should feature a string quartet accompaniment, thereby introducing the Beatles to a "hitherto unsuspected world of classical instrumental colour", in MacDonald's description. Their creative development was also facilitated by Martin's willingness to experiment in response to their suggestions, such as adding "something baroque" to a particular recording. In addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ and brass.
Collaborating with Lennon and McCartney required Martin to adapt to their different approaches to songwriting and recording. MacDonald comments, "while [he] worked more naturally with the conventionally articulate McCartney, the challenge of catering to Lennon's intuitive approach generally spurred him to his more original arrangements, of which 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!' is an outstanding example." Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting styles and his own stabilising influence:
Compared with Paul's songs, all of which seemed to keep in some sort of touch with reality, John's had a psychedelic, almost mystical quality ... John's imagery is one of the best things about his work – 'tangerine trees', 'marmalade skies', 'cellophane flowers' ... I always saw him as an aural Salvador Dalí, rather than some drug-ridden record artist. On the other hand, I would be stupid to pretend that drugs didn't figure quite heavily in the Beatles' lives at that time ... they knew that I, in my schoolmasterly role, didn't approve ... Not only was I not into it myself, I couldn't see the need for it; and there's no doubt that, if I too had been on dope, Pepper would never have been the album it was. Perhaps it was the combination of dope and no dope that worked, who knows?
Harrison echoed Martin's description of his stabilising role: "I think we just grew through those years together, him as the straight man and us as the loonies; but he was always there for us to interpret our madness – we used to be slightly avant-garde on certain days of the week, and he would be there as the anchor person, to communicate that through the engineers and on to the tape."
In the studio
Making innovative use of technology while expanding the possibilities of recorded music, the Beatles urged experimentation by Martin and his recording engineers. Seeking ways to put chance occurrences to creative use, accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle, a tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards – any of these might be incorporated into their music. Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from Rubber Soul and, especially, Revolver onwards. Along with innovative studio techniques such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops, double tracking and vari-speed recording, the Beatles augmented their songs with instruments that were unconventional in rock music at the time. These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood" and the swarmandal in "Strawberry Fields Forever". They also used novel electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro, and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby, You're a Rich Man".
Legacy
Former Rolling Stone associate editor Robert Greenfield compared the Beatles to Picasso, as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original ... [I]n the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive..." The British poet Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism", and "the first advance in popular music since the War".[388] They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US, they became a globally influential phenomenon as well. From the 1920s, the United States had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood movies, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley and, later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee. The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people that they most associated with UK culture.[391][392]
Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide. Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs. On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's WABC radio station forbade his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music, marking the defining line of what would be considered oldies on American radio. They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler", and they were primary innovators of the modern music video. The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people, then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business". Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion.
According to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness".
Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their socio-cultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the United States, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness.[96][399] Referring to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the beginning of a cultural revolution...The Beatles were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964".[399] According to Gilmore:
Elvis Presley had shown us how rebellion could be fashioned into eye-opening style; the Beatles were showing us how style could have the impact of cultural revelation – or at least how a pop vision might be forged into an unimpeachable consensus.[96]
Awards and achievements
In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The film Let It Be (1970) won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The recipients of seven Grammy Awards and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards, the Beatles have been awarded six Diamond albums, as well as 24 Multi-Platinum albums, 39 Platinum albums and 45 Gold albums in the United States. In the UK, the Beatles have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold albums and one Silver album. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
The best-selling band in history, the Beatles have sold more than 800 million physical and digital albums as of 2013[update].[403] They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts, fifteen,[404] and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the best artist of all time. They ranked number one on Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, released in 2008 to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary. As of 2017[update]they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with twenty.[408] The Recording Industry Association of America certifies that the Beatles have sold 178 million units in the US, more than any other artist. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the twentieth century's 100 most influential people. In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[411]
On 16 January, beginning from 2001, people celebrate the World Beatles Day under UNESCO. This date has direct relation to the opening of The Cavern Club in 1957.[412][413]
Members
Principal members
John Lennon – vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards, harmonica, bass guitar (1960–1969)
Paul McCartney – vocals, bass guitar, rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards, drums (1960–1970)
George Harrison – lead and rhythm guitar, vocals, sitar, keyboards, bass guitar (1960–1970)
The above albums were reissued on CD in 1987, followed by the 1988 compilations Past Masters – Volume One and Past Masters – Volume Twowhich collected all of the Beatles' non-album singles plus the 1964 EP Long Tall Sally and a few other rarities that were commercially available in the 1960s.
See also
Song catalogue
Through 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively by Northern Songs Ltd, a company formed in February 1963 by music publisher Dick James specifically for Lennon and McCartney, though it later acquired songs by other artists. The company was organised with James and his partner, Emmanuel Silver, owning a controlling interest, variously described as 51% or 50% plus one share. McCartney had 20%. Reports again vary concerning Lennon's portion – 19 or 20% – and Brian Epstein's – 9 or 10% – which he received in lieu of a 25% band management fee.
In 1965, the company went public. Five million shares were created, of which the original principals retained 3.75 million. James and Silver each received 937,500 shares (18.75% of 5 million); Lennon and McCartney each received 750,000 shares (15%); and Epstein's management company, NEMS Enterprises, received 375,000 shares (7.5%). Of the 1.25 million shares put up for sale, Harrison and Starr each acquired 40,000. At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to Northern Songs until 1973.
Harrison created Harrisongs to represent his Beatles compositions, but signed a three-year contract with Northern Songs that gave it the copyright to his work through March 1968, which included "Taxman" and "Within You Without You". The songs on which Starr received co-writing credit before 1968, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying", were also Northern Songs copyrights. Harrison did not renew his contract with Northern Songs when it ended, signing instead with Apple Publishing while retaining the copyright to his work from that point on. Harrisongs thus owns the rights to his later Beatles songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". That year, as well, Starr created Startling Music, which holds the rights to his Beatles compositions, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".
In March 1969, James arranged to sell his and his partner's shares of Northern Songs to the British broadcasting company Associated Television (ATV), founded by impresario Lew Grade, without first informing the Beatles. The band then made a bid to gain controlling interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding. The deal collapsed over the objections of Lennon, who declared, "I'm sick of being fucked about by men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the City." By the end of May, ATV had acquired a majority stake in Northern Songs, controlling nearly the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue, as well as any future material until 1973. In frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late October 1969.
In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), led it to attempt to sell its music division. According to authors Brian Southall and Rupert Perry, Grade contacted McCartney, offering ATV Music and Northern Songs for $30 million. According to an account McCartney gave in 1995, he met with Grade and explained he was interested solely in the Northern Songs catalogue, if Grade were ever willing to "separate off" that portion of ATV Music. Soon afterwards, Grade offered to sell him Northern Songs for £20 million, giving the ex-Beatle "a week or so" to decide. By McCartney's account, he and Ono countered with a £5 million bid that was rejected. According to reports at the time, Grade refused to separate Northern Songs, and turned down an offer of £21–25 million from McCartney and Ono for ATV Music. In 1982, ACC was acquired in a takeover by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court for £60 million.
Three years later, Michael Jackson purchased ATV for a reported $47.5 million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other copyrights. In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110 million, Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony, creating a new company, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he held a 50% stake. The merger made the new company, then valued at over half a billion dollars, the third largest music publisher in the world. In 2016, Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million.[432]
Despite the lack of publishing rights to most of their songs, Lennon's estate and McCartney continue to receive their respective shares of the writers' royalties, which together are 331⁄3% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%. Two of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs – "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" – were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before they signed with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in 1978,[435] and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by McCartney's company MPL Communications.
On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in the United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in 2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56 years.[437][438] McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017.[439][440]
Selected filmography
Fictionalised, starring the Beatles
Documentaries
Concert tours
1963
1964
1965
1966
Notes
^It was "Mull of Kintyre", by McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, that surpassed it in sales.
^Vee-Jay company president Ewart Abner resigned after it was disclosed he used company funds to cover gambling debts.
^During the same week in April 1964, a third American Beatles LP joined the two already in circulation; two of the three reached the first spot on the Billboard albums chart, the third peaked at number two.
^Harrison's ringing 12-string inspired Roger McGuinn, who obtained his own Rickenbacker and used it to craft the trademark sound of the Byrds.
^Starr was briefly hospitalised after a tonsillectomy, and Jimmie Nicol sat in on drums for the first five dates.
^It was not until Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 that a Beatles album was released with identical track listings in both the UK and the US.
^It was speculated that he was concerned that the band might not renew his management contract, due to expire in October, over discontent with his supervision of business matters, particularly regarding Seltaeb, the company that handled their US merchandising rights.
^The band unsuccessfully attempted to block the 1977 release of Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. The independently issued album compiled recordings made during the group's Hamburg residency, taped on a basic recording machine using only one microphone.
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Further reading
Astley, John (2006). Why Don't We Do It In The Road? The Beatles Phenomenon. The Company of Writers. ISBN 978-0-9551834-7-8.
Barrow, Tony (2005). John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me: The Real Beatles Story. New York: Thunder's Mouth. ISBN 978-1-56025-882-7.
Bramwell, Tony; Kingsland, Rosemary (2006). Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-33044-6.
Braun, Michael (1964). Love Me Do: The Beatles' Progress (1995 reprint ed.). London: Pinguin. ISBN 978-0-14-002278-0.
Carr, Roy; Tyler, Tony (1975). The Beatles: An Illustrated Record. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-517-52045-1.
Epstein, Brian (1964). A Cellarful of Noise. Byron Preiss. ISBN 978-0-671-01196-3. OCLC 39211052.
The Beatles: The FBI Files. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Filibust. 2007. ISBN 978-1-59986-256-9. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
Harry, Bill (1985). The Book Of Beatle Lists. Poole, Dorset: Javelin. ISBN 978-0-7137-1521-7.
Kirchherr, Astrid; Voormann, Klaus (1999). Hamburg Days. Guildford, Surrey: Genesis Publications. ISBN 978-0-904351-73-6.
Lennon, Cynthia (2005). John. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 978-0-307-33855-6.
Lewisohn, Mark (2013). The Beatles – All These Years: Volume One: Tune In. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0-316-72960-4.
Mansfield, Ken (2007). The White Book. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-59555-101-6. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
Martin, George; Pearson, William (1994). Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-60398-7.
Riley, Tim (2011). Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music – The Definitive Life. New York: Hyperion/HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1-4013-2452-0.
Schaffner, Nicholas (1977). The Beatles Forever. Harrisburg, PA: Cameron House. ISBN 978-0-8117-0225-6.
Sheffield, Rob (2017). Dreaming the Beatles. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-220765-4.
Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-06-084409-7.
External links
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