Beatles group. Facts from the history of the legendary The Beatles that will surprise you. With a new look to a new life

The Beatles (MFA: [ðə ˈbiː.tlz]; separately, the members of the ensemble are called the "Beatles", they are also called the "Magnificent Four" [Eng. Fab Four] and the "Liverpool Four") - British rock band from Liverpool, founded in 1960, which included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. also in different time The group included Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe and Jimmy Nichol. Most of The Beatles' compositions were co-authored and signed with the names of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The band's discography includes 12 official studio albums, released from 1963-1970, and 211 songs.

Starting by emulating the classics of American rock and roll of the 1950s, The Beatles came to their own style and sound. The Beatles had a significant impact on rock music and are recognized by experts as one of the most successful bands of the 20th century, both in a creative and commercial sense. Many famous rock musicians admit that they became such under the influence of the songs of The Beatles. Since the release of the single "Please Please Me / Ask Me Why" in 1963, the group began their ascent to success, giving rise to a global phenomenon with their work - Beatlemania. The four became the first British band to hit the charts in the US, and began the worldwide recognition of British bands as well as the "Merseybeat" sound of rock music. The musicians of the group and their producer and sound engineer George Martin own innovative developments in the field of sound recording, combining various styles, including symphonic and psychedelic music, as well as filming video clips.

Rolling Stone ranked The Beatles #1 on their list of the greatest artists of all time. On the Rolling Stone 500 list, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The group has won ten Grammy awards. All four, in recognition of their services to the country, were awarded MBE orders. As of 2001, over 163 million of the group's CDs have been sold in the US alone. The total sales of media content units (discs and cassettes) associated with the group have so far exceeded one billion copies.

The Beatles stopped working together in 1970, although Paul and John had been running their own projects since at least 1967. After the breakup, each of the musicians continued solo career. John Lennon was assassinated near his home in 1980, and George Harrison died of cancer in 2001. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr continue to be creative and write music.

Main participants:
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr

Others:
Stuart Sutcliffe
Pete Best
Jimmy Nichol

The band's official discography:
1. "Please Please Me" (1963)
2. "With the Beatles" (1963)
3. "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)
4. Beatles For Sale (1964)
5. "Help!" (1965)
6. "Rubber Soul" (1965)
7. "Revolver" (1966)
8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967)
9. "The Beatles (White Album)" (1968)
10. "Yellow Submarine" (1969)
11 Abbey Road (1969)
12. "Let It Be" (1970)

John Lennon was 15 years old when, in 1956, he created his first musical group and it was, in the fullest sense, a team of amateurs. In July 1957, when the musicians were playing in the garden of St. Peter's Church (Liverpool), Paul McCartney heard them. A week after that, Paul was already a member of the group.
In 1958, on the advice of Paul, John invited guitarist George Harrison to join the band. These three musicians formed the permanent backbone of the group.

In the summer of 1960, the group, which also included Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, were already playing at the Indra Club (Hamburg), but soon they moved to the Kaiserkeller Club, which is much more popular with young people. They stayed in Hamburg for 4.5 months, during which time they became quite an experienced team, which performed both their own and other people's compositions with equal ease. In the spring of 1961, Sutcliffe left the band, donating his bass guitar to McCartney.

In July 1961, the head of the Parlafon company offered the Beatles to sign a contract for a year, with the obligation to release four singles, but at the same time set the condition that they change the drummer. This condition coincided with the opinion of Paul, George and John, who had long received the consent of Ringo Starr to join the group.
On August 18, 1961, the Beatles performed for the first time with a new drummer, whose name was Ringo Starr.

In February 1962, interrupting their tour, the Beatles at once, within 585 minutes, managed to completely record the album Please Please Me, which went on sale in March of the same year, and in April topped all the charts for six months. . The beginning of Beatlemania, however, is considered to be 1963, the month of October, when they gathered a full house and fifteen million viewers at a concert in the Palladium Hall, and after the concert they made their way to the car, surrounded by police.

On November 22, 1963, the group released their second album, "With The Beatles", which set a world, at that time, record for the number of pre-orders for the purchase (there were three hundred thousand). The Americans, however, until some time did not take the group seriously until the single "I Want To Hold You Hand" was released in late 1963. In early 1964, Beatlemania finally crossed the ocean, reaching number one on the Cach Box magazine chart.

From October to November 1964, the group toured 27 cities in Britain. In February 1965, the shooting of the second film of the group, called "Help", which premiered on July 29th, began, and on August 6th an album with the same name was released.

In August of the same year, 64, the musicians went on their tour of America for the second time. A couple of weeks after they left, a very significant event: The Beatles were visiting the king of rock and roll Elvis, with whom they even recorded several compositions on magnetic tape, but neither during Presley's lifetime, nor after, they were never released. The turning point, both in the history of rock style music and in the history of the group, was the summer of 65, when their music turned from entertainment into a very serious art. The year of acquiring the identity of the group is considered to be the 66th, when each of the musicians began to write songs on their own. The album called "Revolver", meanwhile, was the leader of all charts on both sides of the ocean.

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2016-08-17
by: showbizby
Published in:

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

None of the band members knew musical notation.

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

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

John Lynn, the son of the owner of one of the venues where the Liverpool Four played, told the Washington Post about the persistent smell of urine in concert halls after every Beatles concert. Bob Geldof, known to us as the lead actor in Alan Parker's film "The Wall", based on the music " Pink Floyd”, recalled: “At the concerts of the Beatles, because of the screams of the music fans, it was not audible at all, and streams of urine ran across the floor every now and then - the girls literally pissed with delight. Therefore, I personally associate The Beatles, first of all, with the smell of urine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John Lennon said that the only real songs he ever wrote were "Help!" and Strawberry Fields Forever. He claimed that these were the only songs he wrote based on own experience rather than just imagining yourself in certain situations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About

Biography

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

Biography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next two discs became a turning point not only for the work of the Beatles, but also for the development of world pop music in general. The compositions of the albums "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver", which was released on August 5, 1966, were so complex that they did not involve stage performance - there were so many studio effects. From that moment, the Beatles abandoned concert performances and switched to purely studio work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Beatles formed in 1959 in Liverpool. The very first line-up of the group included Paul McCartney (bass guitar, guitar, vocals), John Lennon (guitar, vocals), George Harrison (guitar, vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar), Pete Best (drums). Who was in the original Beatles, how did Paul McCartney "die" and when will the remaining "bugs" sing together again? The Beatles are the greatest rock band of the century.

During its existence, The Beatles released 13 studio albums. After the breakup of the group, compilation albums were released by Apple & Parlophone studios. They became the first English group, which had such a resounding success "overseas". The group's business went into decline. In 1968, the band released a double album, which would become known among the band's fans as the "white album" due to the cover artwork.

In 1969, the group released one of their best songs, "Hey Jude". The single reached the top of the charts around the world and sold six million copies.

In April 1970, at the same time as the release of the solo disc, Paul McCartney officially announced that the Beatles were no more. The world's greatest rock band has broken up. By then, Stuart Sutcliffe had left the band, and Paul McCartney took over on bass. Then the group decided to stop the concert activity.

Relations in the group became strained, it was almost impossible to work together. In 1971, Paul McCartney created the group "Wings", which lasted until 1980. McCartney actively performed with concerts and composed music.

2. The founder of The Beatles, John Lennon formed his first group called The Quarrymen in 1956. The team included his friends from the QuarryBank school. 3. The name The Beatles was coined when new members came to Lennon's group - Paul McCartney, and after George Harrison - who had no relation to the Quarry school. 8. In 1961, during the band's second tour of Hamburg, Stuart Sutcliffe fell in love with a young artist and photographer, Astrid Kirchherr.

Sutcliffe made the decision to leave the group and stay in Hamburg with Astrid. 9. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best - in this composition The Beatles came to their first success. 10. Stuart Sutcliffe died in Hamburg from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1962. Despite the fact that Stewart was in the group for a very short time, he influenced all members of The Beatles. October 28, 1961 in a music store, he asked for a record with the song My Bonnie little known bands The Beatles.

19. He starred in the movie Hard Day’s Night at the age of 13. future star and Genesis frontman Phil Collins - he plays one of the fans. 29. On this moment two band members are alive: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. George Harrison died of cancer in 2001 and was given a Hindu burial.

John's father did not remind himself of himself for many years, but decided to meet him only at the height of Beatlemania and even released his own single with the song "Here is My Life". James Paul McCartney was born to James McCartney and Mary Mohin, and two years later they had a brother, Michael. Both brothers went to the same school and then to the prestigious Liverpool Institute. Paul was an excellent student, showing a penchant for English literature, and could well enter the Semi-University.

Again, Lennon's obsession with the matter brought McCartney to Lennon's attention, and both quickly made the decision to play and compose as an ensemble. Together with the Beatles, Sheridan recorded the studio album Tony Sheridan and the Beatles. It was then in creative biography The Beatles made their first major international debut. After joint project with Sheridan, Brian Epstein, owner of a record store, became interested in the group.

The first independent album in the Beatles' biography was released in early 1963. By 1964, the whole world was crazy about the Beatles. By 1965, over one million copies of the album had been sold. In 1963-1964, the Beatles conquered America. Moreover, the Parlofon company did not dare to release the group's singles in the USA, precisely because of the short-lived popularity in the States of almost all musicians from Great Britain.

This fact of the Beatles' biography is one of the most significant: such a number of television audiences was recorded for the first time in the history of television. The careless statements of the members of the group led to scandals on a national scale. In addition, the stage limited their creative development - day after day they performed the same songs, under the terms of the contract they did not have the right to deviate from the program.

In February 1969, relations in the group finally went wrong due to disagreements over a new manager.

In 1967, the Beatles recorded a monumental and innovative album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. During the performance, a video version of the song "All You Need Is Love" was recorded. Shortly after this triumphant success, the tragic death of the "fifth Beatle" of the band's manager, Brian Epstein, occurred. The album was very popular, but it was during the work on it that the first signs of a subsequent collapse appeared in the group.

The following year, after the release of the second album "With The Beatles", an inexplicable phenomenon began - Beatlemania. In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II recognized their contributions to British culture by awarding each member of the ensemble with the Order of the British Empire.

A year later, their most successful album, Revolver, was released, in which new directions gained a tangible character. On August 27, 1967, their manager Brian Epstein was found dead in his home. Having lost their manager, the musicians decided to run their own business and founded the infamous Apple company. The Beatles stopped for a while musical activity and spent three months in India studying Indian philosophy and meditation.

The group played in clubs and at parties, performing the then popular rock and roll. When Stuart Sutcliffe left the group in December 1961, the Beatles became a quartet. The 1994 film "The Beatles: 4+1 (The Fifth of the Four)" tells about this period in the history of the group. After leaving the Beatles in 1969, John Lennon formed the Plastic Ono Band with his wife Yoko Ono. His most famous songs were the anti-war "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Beatles Concert at the Nippon Budokan

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

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

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

9 Asteroids 4147 - 4150 Named full names members of the Liverpool Four. And Lennon also has a personal lunar crater.

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

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

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

Young Steven Spielberg

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Clapton's wedding

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