|
The Beatles are one of the most influential popular
music groups of the rock era, initially affecting the culture of Britain and the U.S., the
postwar baby boom generation, and then of much of the rest of the world,
especially during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Certainly they are one of the most successful, with global sales exceeding 1.3 billion albums. Their influences on
popular culture extended far beyond their roles as recording artists, as they branched out into film and even semi-willingly
became spokesmen for their generation. The members of the group were John
Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), all
from Liverpool in England. The effect
of the Beatles on Western culture (and by extension much of the rest of the world) has been immense.
Originally a high-energy pop band (typified by the early singles "Twist and Shout" and "Please Please Me"), the
Beatles, as they progressed, modified their style, influenced by Bob Dylan,
Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Goffin and King, and the pop-music world in general. Their popularity, very high in the UK after their
return from Hamburg, Germany (where they played long hours, added muscle to their
delivery, and honed their sound) was aided by their attractive looks, distinctive personalities, and natural charisma; they came
across particularly well on television, as evidenced by their thunderous reception when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and others.
Beatlemania began in the UK and exploded following the appearance of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan
Show in the United States, in February 1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans,
hysterical adulation, and denunciations by culture commentators and others such as Frank Sinatra. Some of this was confusion over the sources of their music (a similar confusion was evinced in
1956 over Elvis Presley by commentators who were unaware of the tradition of blues, R&B and gospel out of which Presley
emerged), and some of it was simply an incredulous reaction to the length of their hair. At any rate, it was regarded by the band
members with both awe and resentment.
A condensed history
Main article: History of the Beatles
Lennon met McCartney at a garden fete, and joined his band, The Quarry
Men, into which McCartney also recruited Harrison. The band briefly split before regrouping. After going through several
changes in name and band members, it finally became "the Beatles" under the EMI's Parlophone label. The Beatles' first full-length album, Please Please Me, was recorded within 12 consecutive hours. In 1964 they held the top five places on Billboard's Top Pop Singles Chart, a feat which has never been repeated.
In 1965 they began experimenting with LSD and were
created as Members of the Order of the British Empire.
Lennon caused a great backlash against the Beatles the following year when in an interview he claimed that Christianity was dying. Eventually he apologised after being slammed by among
others, the Holy See.
That same year the Beatles performed their last concert. Their fortunes took a turn for the worse when their manager, Brian Epstein, passed away, and the band's affairs began to unravel. The various
members began to pursue their individual interests and got together less often. In 1969
they recorded their last album, Abbey Road (although in 1970 various songs recorded earlier were compiled into Let It
Be). In the same year, the Paul Is Dead hoax sprang up. The band
officially broke up in 1970, and any hopes of a reunion were crushed when Lennon was murdered in 1980.
Studio style evolution
By 1966, the influence of the peace movement, psychedelic drugs and the studio
technique of producer George Martin resulted in the albums Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band, still widely regarded as classics. Particularly notable, along with the use of studio tricks such as sound
processing, unconventional microphone placements, and vari-speed recording, was the Beatles' use of unconventional instruments
for pop music, including string and brass elements, Indian instruments such as the sitar,
tape loops and early electronic instruments. At the height of their fame in the
mid-sixties, bolstered by the two films Help! and A Hard Day's Night, the band discontinued touring. The
increasingly sophisticated arrangements of their songs were difficult to perform in front of thousands of screaming fans who
typically made such noise that the music could not be heard anyway.
By then, the stress of their fame was beginning to tell and the band was on the verge of splitting at the time of the release
of The Beatles ("The White Album"), with some
tracks recorded by the band members individually, and Starr taking a two-week holiday — sometimes reported as a temporary
break-up — in the middle of the recording session. By 1970, the band had split, with each of the members going on to solo
careers with varying degrees of success.
In the movies
The Beatles also had a limited film career, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964). Directed by the up-and-coming
American Richard Lester, it was a gritty black-and-white documentary-like account of a short period in the life of a
rock-and-roll band. In 1965 came Help!, a Technicolor extravaganza shot in exotic locations with a thin, if not almost
transparent plot regarding Ringo's finger! The critically slammed Magical Mystery Tour (the concept of which was adapted from Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters LSD-orientated bus tour of the USA) was aired on British television in 1967, but is now considered a cult
classic.
The animated Yellow Submarine followed shortly after,
but had little input from the Beatles themselves, save for a live-action epilogue at the film's conclusion, and the contribution
of five new songs for the film, including a holdover from the Sgt. Pepper sessions, "Only A Northern Song". Nonetheless,
it was acclaimed for its boldly innovative graphic style and clever humour as well as the soundtrack.
Finally, the documentary of a band in terminal decline, Let It Be was shot over an extended period in 1969; the music
from this formed the album of the same name, which although recorded before Abbey Road, was (after much contractual
to-ing and fro-ing) their final release.
Achievements
Throughout their relatively short time recording and performing together, the Beatles set a number of world records —
most of which have yet to be broken. The following is a partial list.
- The Beatles are the best-selling musical group of all time, estimated by EMI to be over
one billion discs and tapes sold worldwide.
- The most multi-platinum selling albums for any artist or musical group (13 in the U.S. alone).
- The Beatles have had more Number One singles than any other artist or musical group (22 in the U.S., 23 in Australia, 23 in
The Netherlands, 22 in Canada, 21 in Norway, 18 in Sweden). Ironically, the Beatles could easily have had even more Number Ones,
because they were often competing with their own singles. For example, the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields
Forever" were released as a "double A"-sided single, which caused sales and airplay to be divided between the two songs
instead of being counted collectively. Even so, they reached Number Two with the singles.
- The Beatles have had more Number One albums than any other act (19 in the U.S. and 15 in the U.K.).
- The Beatles spent the highest number of weeks at Number One in the albums chart (132 in the U.S. and 174 in the U.K.).
- The most successful first week of sales for a double album (The Beatles Anthology Volume 1), which sold 855,473 copies in the U.S. from November 21 to November 28,
1995).
- In terms of charting positions, Lennon and McCartney are the most successful songwriters in history, with 32 number one
singles in the U.S. for McCartney, and 26 for Lennon (23 of which were written together). Lennon was responsible for 29 Number
One singles in the U.K., and McCartney was responsible for 28 (25 of which were written together).
- During the week of April 4, 1964, The
Beatles held the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart. No one had ever done anything like this before, and
it is doubtful that the conditions will ever exist for anyone to do it again. The songs were "Can't Buy Me Love", "Twist and
Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me".
- The next week, April 11, 1964, the
Beatles held 14 positions on the Billboard Hot 100. Before the Beatles, the highest number of concurrent singles by one artist on
the Hot 100 was nine (by Elvis Presley, December 19, 1956).
- The Beatles are the only artist to have back-to-back-to-back number one singles on Billboard's Hot 100. Boyz II Men and Elvis Presley
have succeeded themselves on the chart, but the Beatles are the only artist to three-peat.
- The Beatles' "Yesterday" is the most covered song in history, appearing in the Guinness Book of Records with over 3000 recorded versions.
- The Beatles had the fastest selling single of all time with "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The song sold 250,000 units within
three days in the U.S., one million in 2 weeks. (Additionally, it sold 10,000 copies per hour in New York City alone for the
first 20 days.)
- The Beatles have the fastest selling CD of all time with 1. It sold over 13 million copies in four weeks.
- The largest number of advance orders for a single, at 2.1 million copies in the U.S. for "Can't Buy Me Love" (it sold 940,225
copies on its first day of release in the U.S. alone).
- Sgt. Pepper`s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the best selling album of all time in the U.K. (over 4.5 million copies
sold).
- With their performance at Shea Stadium in 1965, The Beatles set new
world records for concert attendance (55,600+) and revenue.
- The Beatles broke television ratings records in the U.S. with their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
- On June 12, 1965, the Beatles were awarded
the order of Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the
Queen.
- On June 30, 1966, the Beatles became the
first musical group to perform at the Nippon Budokan Hall in
Tokyo. They performed five times in three days gathering about 10,000 audiences per
performance.
The music
Unlike their contemporaries the Rolling Stones, the Beatles were
seldom directly influenced by blues. Though they drew inspiration from an eclectic
variety of sources, their home idiom was closer to pop music. Their distinctive
vocal harmonies were influenced by early Motown artists in the US. Chuck Berry was perhaps the most fundamental progenitor of the Beatles' sound; the
Beatles covered "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock And Roll Music" early in their careers on record (with most other Berry classics
heard in their live repertoire). Chuck Berry's influence is also heard, in an altered form, in later songs such as "Everybody's
Got Something to Hide Except Me And My Monkey" (1968) and "Come Together" (1969). (After "Come Together" was released, Chuck
Berry successfully sued John Lennon for copyright infringement of his song "You Can't Catch Me".)
A significant and acknowledged musical influence was the Beach Boys, who
were in turn spurred on by the work of the Beatles. The song Back in
the USSR contains an overt allusion to the Beach Boys, but many other songs exhibit the kind of attention to vocal harmony
for which the Beach Boys are also famous.
The Everly Brothers were another major influence on the
Beatles, with Lennon and McCartney consciously trying to copy Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies.
The songwriting of Goffin and King was yet another influence upon the Beatles, and it could be said that one of the Beatles'
many achievements was to marry the relative sophistication of Goffin and King's songs (which used major-seventh chords, for
example) with the simplicity of Buddy Holly, Berry and the early
rock-and-roll performers.
Individually, the four Beatles drew further inspiration from different sources. John Lennon's early style owed a huge debt to
Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison ("Misery" from 1963 and "Please Please Me" from
1963). After becoming acquainted with the work of Bob Dylan, Lennon became
influenced heavily by folk music ("You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "Norwegian Wood" from 1965).
Lennon played the major role in steering the group toward psychedelia ("Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the
Walrus" from 1967), and renewed his interest in earlier rock forms at the close of the Beatles' career ("Don't Let Me Down"
from 1969).
Paul McCartney is perhaps best known as the group's romantic balladeer: beginning with "Yesterday" (1965), he pioneered a
modern form of art song, exemplified by
"Eleanor Rigby" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Meanwhile, Paul maintained an affection for the driving R&B of Little Richard in a series
of songs which John Lennon dubbed "potboilers", from "I Saw Her Standing There" (1963) to "Lady Madonna" (1968). "Helter Skelter"
(1968), which is the closest The Beatles ever came to heavy metal
music, is a McCartney composition.
George Harrison derived his early guitar style from 1950s rockabilly greats
such as Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore (who worked with Elvis Presley), and
Duane Eddy. "All My Loving" (1963) and "She's A Woman" (1964) are prime
examples of Harrison's early rockabilly guitar work.
In 1965, George Harrison broke new ground in the West by recording with an Indian sitar on "Norwegian Wood". A result of his long and continued collaboration with Sir Ravi Shankar, a famous Indian
classical musician, many of his following compositions were based on Indian forms, most notably "Love You To" (1966), "Within
You, Without You" (1967), and "The Inner Light" (1968). Indian music and culture also influenced the band as a whole, with the
use of swirling tape loops, droning bass lines, and mantra-like vocals on "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966) and "Dear Prudence"
(1968). George retained Western musical forms in his later compositions, where he emerged as a significant pop composer in his
own right, occasionally reprising major themes that indicated his new relationship with Indian classical music and the Hindu god Krishna. His later guitar style, while not
displaying the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, became distinctive with its use of clear melodic lines and subtle fills ("Something"
[1969], "Let It Be" [1970]) in contrast to the increasingly distorted riffs and rapid-fire guitar solo work of his
contemporaries.
Ringo Starr's contributions to The Beatles' sound are widely underestimated. While he is mostly appreciated for his gentle
comic baritone ("Yellow Submarine" 1966, "Octopus's Garden" 1969), steady drumming, and everyman image, he was likely responsible
for the group's occasional interest in surprisingly authentic country
sounds ("What Goes On" 1965; "Don't Pass Me By" 1968).
In the Beatles' later music, the pace of the songs tends to be moderate, with more of the interest usually (but not always)
coming from the melody and the orchestration than the rhythm. Penny Lane (1967)
is a good example of this style; it is a song you might emulate if you wanted to create a recognizably "Beatlesque" sound. Their
earlier songs were often a bit faster paced. Throughout their career, their songs were rarely riff-driven. "Day Tripper" (1965) and "Hey Bulldog" (1968) are among the exceptions.
Their music is still performed in public by tribute bands such as the
Bootleg Beatles.
Song influences
As stated above, a lot of Beatles songs had some psychedelia in them ("Yellow Submarine", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "I
Am The Walrus" from 1967) but these also link to The Goon Show
and the work of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. Both "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Field(s)" are places in Liverpool, but the song In My
Life (1965) also invokes such ideas. The song "Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite" (1967) is based on a Music Hall poster, and
the song "All Together Now" (1968) is based around children's rhymes. A handful of Beatles songs both musically and lyrically
border on the dadaist or absurd ("Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey", "You Know My Name (Look Up The
Number)", and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", from 1968).
While romantic themes permeate the Beatles' work, in contrast to the Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Doors, songs with overtly sexual themes are rare
in The Beatles' catalogue. "Norwegian Wood" very obliquely refers to sexual infidelity, and "Lovely Rita" (1967) alludes to
casual sex. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" (1968) is a rare Beatles song that deals with erotic imagery. The "Ballad Of John and Yoko"
(1969) also raised some eyebrows with a sexual pun ("we're only trying to get us some
peace"), as well as the use of "Christ" as an expletive in the chorus.
UK albums discography
- Please Please Me (March 22, 1963)
- With the Beatles (November 22, 1963)
- A Hard Day's Night (July 10, 1964)
- Beatles for Sale (December 4, 1964)
- Help! (August 6, 1965)
- Rubber Soul (December 3, 1965)
- Revolver (August 5, 1966)
- A Collection of Beatles' oldies (December 9, 1966)
- Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band (June 1, 1967)
- Magical Mystery Tour (December 8, 1967)
(Double EP)
- The Beatles (White Album) (November
22, 1968)
- Yellow Submarine (January 17, 1969)
- Abbey Road (September 26, 1969)
- Let It Be (May 8, 1970)
UK singles
- Love Me Do / P.S. I Love Youi - October 5, 1962
- Please Please Me / Ask Me Why - January 11, 1963
- From Me To You / Thank You girl - April 11, 1963
- She Loves you / I'll Get You - August 23, 1963
- I Want To Hoold Your Hand / This Boy - November 29, 1963
- Can't Buy Me Love / You Can't Do That - March 20, 1964
- A Hard Day's Night / Things We Said Today - July 10, 1964
- I Feel Fine / She's A Woman - November 27, 1964
- Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is - April 9, 1965
- Help! / I'm Down - July 23, 1965
- We Can Work It Out / Day tripper - December 3, 1965
- Paperback Writer / Rain - June 10, 1966
- Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine - August 5, 1966
- Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane - February 17, 1967
- All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man - July 7, 1967
- Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus - November 24, 1967
- Lady Madonna / The Inner Light - March 15, 1968
- Hey Jude / Revolution - August 30, 1968
- Get Back / Don't Let Me Down - April 11, 1969
- The Ballad of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe - May 30, 1969
- Something / Come Together - October 31, 1969
- Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) -March 6, 1970
U.S.A. singles
- Please Please Me / Ask Me Why - February 25, 1963
- From Me To You / Thank You Girl - May 27, 1963
- She Loves You / I'll Get You - September 16, 1963
- I Want To Hold Your Hand / I Saw Her Standing There - December 26, 1963
- My Bonnie / The Saints - January 27, 1964
- Please Please Me / From Me To You - January 30, 1964
- All My Loving / This Boy - February 8, 1964
- Roll Over Beethoven / Please Mister Postman - February 15, 1964
- Twist And Shout / There's A Place - March 2, 1964
- Can't Buy Me Love / You Can't Do That - March 16, 1964
- Do You Want To Know A Secret / Thank You Girl - March 23, 1964
- Why / Cry For A Shadow - March 27, 1964
- Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You - April 27, 1964
- Sie Liebt Dich (German She Loves You) / I'll Get You - May 21, 1964
- Sweet Georgia Brown / Take Out Some Insurance on Me - June 1, 1964
- Ain't She Sweet / Nobody's Child - July 6, 1964
- A Hard Day's Night / I Should Have Known Better - July 13, 1964
- I'll Cry Instead / I'm Happy Just To Dance With You - July 20, 1964
- And I Love Her / If I Fell - July 20, 1964
- Matchbox / Slow Down - August 24, 1964
- I Feel Fine / She's A Woman - November 23, 1964
- Eight Days A Week / I Don't Want To Spoil The Party - February 15, 1965
- Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is - April 19, 1965
- Help! / I'm Down - July 19, 1965
- Yesterday / Act Naturally - September 13, 1965
- We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper - December 6, 1965
- Nowhere Man / What Goes On - February 21, 1966
- Paperback Writer / Rain - May 30, 1966
- Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine - August 8, 1966
- Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane - February 13, 1967
- All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man - July 17, 1967
- Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus - November 27, 1967
- Lady Madonna / The Inner Light - March 18, 1968
- Hey Jude / Revolution - August 26, 1968
- Get Back / Don't Let Me Down - May 5, 1969
- The Ballad Of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe - June 4, 1969
- Something / Come Together - October 6, 1969
- Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) - March 11, 1970
- The Long And Winding Road / For You Blue - May 11, 1970
U.S. Albums (no longer available since 1987)
- ...Introducing The Beatles - July 22, 1963
- Meet the Beatles - January 27, 1964
- The Beatles Second Album (2nd for Capitol records) - April 10, 1964
- Four By The Beatles (EP) - May 21,
1964
- A Hard Day's Night - June 26, 1964
- Something New - July 20, 1964
- The Beatles' Story - November 23, 1964
- Beatles 65 - December 15, 1964
- The Early Beatles - March 22, 1965
- The Beatles VI - June 14, 1965
- Help! - August 13, 1965
- Rubber Soul - December 6, 1965
- "Yesterday"...And Today - June 20, 1966
- Revolver - August 8, 1966
- Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - June 2, 1967
- Magical Mystery Tour - November 27, 1967
- The Beatles (double album) - November 25, 1968
- Yellow Submarine - January 13, 1969
- Abbey Road - October 1, 1969
- Hey Jude (compilation) - February 26, 1970
- Let It Be - May 18, 1970
Related topics
External links
Further reading
|