History of the Beatles

In 1956, a teenager named John Lennon formed a band with a few of his friends. They called themselves the Quarrymen and while they played a few gigs, but they weren't in big demand. At a one of their peformances, John was introduced to another guitar player, Paul McCartney. Soon after, Paul was invited to join the Quarrymen. Paul knew a skilled lead guitarist, George Harrison, who could improve the band greatly. But he was younger than the others and not immediately asked to join. After awhile, however, George joined them. Other members came and went, and the band lacked a drummer, so they didn't make much progress for the first few years.

In 1960, the band got booked to play at clubs in Hamburg. But they needed to find a drummer. They hired Pete Best. He wasn't a great drummer, but drummers were very hard to come by in Liverpool. Also joining them on this trip was John's friend Stuart Sutcliff, their bassist. He also didn't have much skill, but he had a very nice guitar. The clubs they played in were in a very rough section of Hamburg. Fights broke out all the time and the Beatles had to play long sets to satisfy the locals and protect themselves from being harmed. They gained a lot of experience playing in Hamburg however, and when they came back to Liverpool, they were able to get a steadt gig at the Cavern Club. Alternating between Hamburg and Liverpool, the Beatles] became popular. Brian Epstein went to see them after a customer came in his music store asking for a recording they'd made with Tony Sheridan in Hamburg. He was impressed by the Beatles and offered to be their manager. By this time the band had only four members. Stuart had stayed in Hamburg and died in 1961 of a brain hemmorage. Brian organized them and used his connections to the record companies to get them auditions. They failed their first audition with Decca. But they ahd another with Parlophone. George Martin, the producer liked them and signed them to a record deal. His only request was that they find a new drummer because Pete wasn't good enough. The other members had been feeling this way for quite some time now and they asked an old friend and drummer Ringo Starr to join. The Beatles were now complete..

 

Please Please Me was recorded in just thirteen hours. It contained songs from they used during their performances, and included such classics as Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There, and Twist And Shout. The album went to number one in England and started the first wave of Beatlemania. The Beatles continued to tour nonstop and they gathered more and more fans all the time. But record companies in America thought that the Beatles were just a fad and refused to release their album. But in England, the Beatles were a huge success. Later in 1963, With The Beatles was released and was another hit. The fans couldn't get enough of the Beatles.

 

American deejays began to get imports of the Beatles albums and played them. The American people loved the sound and wanted the Beatles albums to be issued there. The huge demand made the record companiy reconsider and they released a Beatle album in America. Americans got caught up in Beatlemania also. It was decided that the Beatles would appear on the Ed Sullivan show and do a tour of America. All kinds of Beatle merchandise came on the market-Beatle dolls, Beatle wigs, Beatle books, Beatle towels. Anything that could be turned into a Beatle item was produced. The Beatles were becoming a worldwide sensation. They toured virtually nonstop, appeared on all kinds of variety shows,eginning to seperate.

 

The Beatles wanted to remain together, so they wanted to get back to their roots on the next album. They recorded a lot of songs but the fighting continued. No one really felt like editing the album, so the project was put aside. A new Beatle movie came out, a cartoon called Yellow Submarine. After, the Beatles, tried another album. They tried to act their best and they mostly made the music with each other. They scaled down on the studio tricks. This album contained many of their greatest songs, and it became their final album recorded. Abbey Road was the end of the Beatles recording days.

But it was not their final release. The band got together to edit the other project. They added some orchestration and edited the film. The film and album were called Let It Be. Then the end really came and the Beatles went their seperate ways.

Lycée Classique Echternach, Luxembourg.
Teacher : Jos Bertemes : jos.bertemes@ci.educ.lu