32 Articles

The Beatles are arguably the best-loved band in modern musical history. They gain new followers every day, while their records continue to be essential to any well-established collection. This chronological companion to their career and back-catalogue is packed with beautiful images of the band, snippets of memorabilia, and quotes from the mouths of the Fab Four themselves. Even the most obsessive Beatles fan will find new insights here, into the relationships between band members, their most significant gigs from Liverpool’s Cavern Club to a sold-out Shea Stadium, and how it all came to an end. It’s been an incredible 50 years since the release of Revolver, their seventh studio album, but the Beatles’ music is timeless, their imagery is iconic and their story is compelling – all three combine in…

3 min.

INTRODUCTION

John Lennon, a 17-year-old art student, had found one way around the boredom. It was rock and roll. His skiffle group, the Quarrymen, played wherever and whenever they could find an audience. Today, though, he failed to notice that someone in the typically small crowd was watching his performance more intently than anyone else. After the show, John’s friend Ivan Vaughan told him there was someone he wanted John to meet. Paul McCartney stepped forward. Saturday, July 6, 1957 was indeed a historic date in the annals of popular music. The mid-1950s had seen the start of a revolution imported from across the Atlantic that would forever divide generations: the cult of youth. With rock and roll, the first teenagers were born. To Lennon and McCartney, and a million others,…

4 min.

1957–1960 ENTER THE BEATLES

On July 6, 1957, the Quarrymen played St Peter’s Parish church fete in Woolton. Ivan Vaughan came just to watch, bringing with him a friend from the Liverpool Institute. He wanted John to meet his friend – Paul McCartney. John and Paul’s first meeting started out as a cool affair, until Paul revealed a winning secret – he could tune a guitar. John and Paul gradually spent more and more time together. Despite very different personalities they shared a love of music and guitars. The other Quarrymen were unconvinced, finding McCartney bossy and big-headed. Skiffle had been a short-lived fad. Rock and roll was the real thing: rising stars like Eddie Cochran were not only brilliant performers, they also wrote their own songs. John and Paul also started to create…

5 min.

1961 ENTER BRIAN, STAGE LEFT

Ray McFall, the owner of the Cavern club, had noticed the popularity of the new beat groups. A Beatles gig at Mona Best’s Casbah club in December 1960 persuaded him to give them a shot. The Beatles became regulars there in February. They were given 25 shillings (£1.25) a day to play two 45-minute stints – an easy task compared to Hamburg. They quickly became a big attraction. And the girls soon started screaming. Things were going well, but Stu Sutcliffe began to feel more and more of an outsider. He missed Astrid, and also realised that he was the weak link in a good band. Paul didn’t disagree. He was tiring of Stu’s limitations, and was ready to take over the bass. In retrospect, Paul regrets some of his…

5 min.

1962 UPS AND DOWNS

Ringo’s Chilly Welcome By the time of the Beatles’ first professional recording session, Pete Best was gone. George Martin, however, had not been informed and so booked in Andy White, his regular session drummer. Turning up with the band, Ringo was not allowed to play. The following week, Martin gave him his chance to play, and was pleasantly surprised. Whilst not as good as a seasoned session man like White, Ringo was a clear improvement on Pete Best. During the sessions they would each record alternate takes of ‘Love Me Do’, the song chosen as their debut single. When Andy White’s version was released three weeks later, on October 4, Ringo was devastated. His version did make it to the album, though. The Beatles were not happy with their performance,…

5 min.

JOHN LENNON The Early Years

Julia was one of five daughters. Her father worked for the Glasgow and Liverpool Salvage Company – the numerous shipwrecks along the Mersey had kept him and his colleagues busy ever since the air raids had first begun. Julia was the wild one of the family. Two years earlier, she’d married long-time sweetheart Alf ‘Freddy’ Lennon, at least partly to defy the wishes of her father. It was not to be the closest of relationships: Freddy worked on the great passenger liners that travelled between Liverpool and New York and they were apart more often than not. Freddy was berthed in New York when war broke out. Wanting to avoid participation at all costs he jumped ship. He was eventually interned at Ellis Island, and ended up serving a sentence…

5 min.

1963 THE YEAR WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED

The Beatles stood out a mile with their “moptop” fringes and neat matching buttoned-up suits. But above all, the Beatles refused to appear mean and moody like so many other rock and rollers. They bounced around the television screen with beaming grins looking as if they were four lads having a fantastic time. And the sound was different, too: ‘Please Please Me’ was the first time the public was to experience one of the great hallmarks of the early Beatles sound: the band’s dramatic use of falsetto singing. And it was clear from their TV performance that shifting the dynamic in this way had an impact on their teenage audience – it seemed to make them scream more loudly! Hitting The Top Spot On February 10, the Beatles travelled down…

4 min.

PLEASE PLEASE ME

Label: Parlophone PCS 3042 Producer: George Martin Release: March 22, 1963 SIDE ONE I SAW HER STANDING THERE (Lennon/McCartney) 2:50 This Chuck Berry-influenced song had been a part of the Beatles’ live set for some time. It was written in 1961 by Paul McCartney – back then he had called it ‘Seventeen’. John Lennon later came up with some additional lyrics. Paul apparently wrote the song about a girl named Iris Caldwell, whom he had dated back in Liverpool. Iris was the seventeen-year-old sister of Rory Storm. Paul sings the lead part, but John provides backing vocals in the chorus. MISERY (Lennon/McCartney) 1:46 John wrote this song backstage at a gig in Stoke-on-Trent. He originally intended it to be for Helen Shapiro, but she never recorded it. Instead, it was…

5 min.

PAUL McCARTNEY The Early Years

Paul was seemingly graced from birth with charm that would get him out of all manner of childhood scrapes. Performing well at primary school, Paul easily passed his Eleven Plus examinations, winning a place at the City’s most prestigious grammar school, The Liverpool Institute. Paul was a model pupil, always helpful and quietly studious. He held his own easily in the school’s A-stream, finding that most schoolwork came to him quite easily. In subjects that he didn’t enjoy he could still usually muster enough effort to achieve at least a low-grade pass. Paul’s grandfather, Joe McCartney, was strictly traditional about his musical tastes. He enjoyed opera and brass bands, and played the double bass in the house, and the tuba for two separate bands – a local Territorial Army band,…

4 min.

WITH THE BEATLES

Label: Parlophone PCS 3045 Producer: George Martin Release: November 22, 1963 SIDE ONE IT WON’T BE LONG (Lennon/McCartney) 2:09 Written and sung by John, ‘It Won’t Be Long’ was intended as the follow up to ‘She Loves You’, but was rejected because it wasn’t strong enough. In the context of the album however, the song makes a thoughtful opener. ALL I’VE GOT TO DO (Lennon/McCartney) 1:59 Another song written wholly by John. He later said it was an attempt to produce something that sounded like Smokey Robinson. ALL MY LOVING (Lennon/McCartney) 2:04 One of the most famous of the Beatles’ early hits, ‘All My Loving’ was written and sung by Paul. It started life as a poem. As Paul says, “It was the first song I wrote where I had…

5 min.

1964 THE AMERICAN DREAM

The Beatles’ American campaign began when Brian Epstein made his first visit to New York late in 1963. He called in on Brown Meggs, Director of Eastern Operations with Capitol Records, and played the demo of ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’. Capitol reluctantly agreed to give the Beatles a try. The ammunition for Brian’s onslaught came from a less expected source. Ed Sullivan was a famous TV show host who had launched many celebrity careers, not least of all, Elvis. When he was caught up in a Beatlemania outburst between flights in London he saw no reason the boys couldn’t elicit the same reaction in the US. He booked them for two shows in February 1964, hedging his bets by paying a tiny fee. Capitol, meanwhile, were starting to…

3 min.

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

Label: Parlophone PCS 2058 Producer: George Martin Release: August 10, 1964 SIDE ONE A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (Lennon/McCartney) 2:28 From the distinctive chime of the Rickenbacker guitar in the opening chord, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ illustrates a continuing maturity in Lennon and McCartney’s compositions. The song opened and closed the film, and was released as a single a month before the album. With advance orders of over half-a-million it became the Beatles’ third consecutive single to enter the charts at number one. John wrote the song for his son Julian, who was about to celebrate his first birthday. The Goon Show star Peter Sellers also enjoyed a Top 20 hit with a comedy version of the song in 1965. His take was delivered music-free in the style of a Shakespearean…

5 min.

GEORGE HARRISON The Early Years

George Harrison was the youngest of four children, three boys and a girl. The eldest, his sister Louise, was almost twelve years older than he was, and one of his brothers, Harry, was eight years older. The other brother, Peter, was closer to his age, having been born in July 1940. Even so, George was definitely the baby of the household. His parents were both Liverpool natives. Louise, his mother, came from a partly Irish background – her father, John French, had moved to Liverpool from County Wexford in Ireland. Once in Liverpool, French married a local woman. George’s father, Harry Harrison, was a former steward for the White Star Line, and had gone on to work on the buses. At the time of George’s birth, the family lived in…

4 min.

BEATLES FOR SALE

Label: Parlophone PCS 3062 Producer: George Martin Release: December 4, 1964 SIDE ONE NO REPLY (Lennon/McCartney) 2:13 Lennon’s ‘No Reply’ is based on a late 1950s American hit called ‘Silhouettes’ by the Rays. Along with ‘Eight Days A Week’, it was considered as a possible new single, until John came up with ‘I Feel Fine’. Northern Songs publisher Dick James regarded it as Lennon’s best song to date. I’M A LOSER (Lennon/McCartney) 2:26 John also wrote and sang this Dylan-influenced number. John has also claimed that this was the first of his songs to be influenced by the BBC interviewer Kenneth Allsop. Earlier in the year Lennon had published In His Own Write, a best-selling book of his drawings, poems and nonsense verse – it was much the same kind…

5 min.

1965 TRANSFORMATION

Life as a Beatle was intolerable. The band wanted to cut down on the amount of time devoted to touring and transfer their energies into songwriting and mastering the recording process. If 1964 marked the Beatles as the most potent commercial force in music history, then 1965 sowed the seeds of a transformation that would see the Beatles change the course of popular music forever. January kicked off exactly as the last year had finished – more exhausting performances. The following month the Beatles attempted to resume their normal family lives – as if such a thing, as a Beatle, were possible. John went back to his surrey Mansion, Kenwood, and settled into family life with Cynthia and Julian. Paul was gadding around the London social scene with Jane Asher,…

4 min.

HELP!

Label: Parlophone PCS 3071 Producer: George Martin Release: August 6, 1965 SIDE ONE HELP! (Lennon/McCartney) 2:16 One of John Lennon’s personal favourites, it was originally written as a slow, Dylanesque acoustic number and he later went on record saying that he regretted how the song had been “Beatlefied”. In spite of the misgivings of the composer, ‘Help!’ remains one of the Beatle’s most popular songs and features some of Lennon’s most deeply felt and personal lyrics. Reflecting his increasing dissatisfaction with himself and his life, Lennon confirmed: “It was real… it was me singing ‘Help!’ and I meant it… I needed the help.” He also added one other footnote: “I don’t like the recording much – we did it too fast trying to be commercial.” THE NIGHT BEFORE (Lennon/McCartney) 2:30…

5 min.

RINGO STARR The Early Years

Ritchie’s education seemed to be doomed from the start. He first attended St. Silas Infant School at the age of five. His schooling was interrupted a year later, when a burst appendix led to peritonitis and a coma. He wasn’t expected to survive. Ritchie regained consciousness after ten weeks, and began a slow recovery. One of the presents he was given to keep himself entertained was a drum, which greatly captured his imagination. Six months later, still in hospital, he knocked himself unconscious when he fell out of bed, setting his recovery back further. By the time he finally came home from hospital, Ritchie had been in there for more than a year. Having lost so much time, Ritchie had fallen badly behind in his schooling, and was placed in…

4 min.

RUBBER SOUL

Label: Parlophone PCS 3075 Producer: George Martin Release: December 3, 1965 SIDE ONE DRIVE MY CAR (Lennon/McCartney) 2:25 This was one of John and Paul’s increasingly rare joint efforts. In an amusing reversal of regular roles, the lyric tells the story of the possible favours that might result if the man in the song becomes “her” chauffeur. The chorus also features the famous “Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah” backing vocals that have accompanied many a radio traffic broadcast ever since. NORWEGIAN WOOD (Lennon/McCartney) 2:01 ‘Norwegian Wood’ was, by John’s own admission, an attempt to confess that he had been unfaithful to Cynthia without actually telling her directly. John was not happy in his marriage and was known to have taken advantage of the numerous groupies and hangers-on that inevitably follow a successful…

5 min.

1966 BACK IN THE USA

Things, however, started to go awry in June. Their American label, Capitol, had planned to issue a compilation album, Yesterday and Today. This would contain album tracks that were not used on the US pressings of Help!, Rubber Soul and Revolver. All of their US albums up to this point had been scaled down versions of their British counterparts. On the early albums, this had been seen as just profiteering. However, Revolver and Rubber Soul seemed to be more like selfcontained pieces of work. By chopping them up, Capitol became an uninvited artistic editor. The band were starting to get irritated but they were powerless to act. Yet they had no idea at all of the chaos that was currently ensuing at Capitol’s headquarters. Yesterday and Today was slated to…

6 min.

REVOLVER

Label: Parlophone PCS 7009 Producer: George Martin Release: August 5, 1966 SIDE ONE TAXMAN (Harrison) 2:35 Revolver showed the world that the Beatles now had a third highly capable songwriter in their midst. ‘Taxman’ was written when George, by now in the highest possible income tax bracket, found out how much of his earnings were taken in tax payments by the British government. George sings (as the tax collector): “There’s one for you, nineteen for me”. In pre-decimal currency, one pound was made up of 20 shillings. For every pound the Beatles earned in the highest tax bracket, they paid 19 shillings and three pence (96p) in income tax. ELEANOR RIGBY (Lennon/McCartney) 2:35 Revolver was also the first album where Paul could be said to have matched John’s output. Released…

4 min.

1967 A FATAL BLOW

As was heard on Revolver, the Lennon/McCartney team were still pulling in very different directions. John’s desire to experiment with sound made huge demands on George Martin, and helped to create a whole new genre of psychedelic music. In contrast, Paul’s work was more straightforward, and his musicianship shines through track after track. Sgt. Pepper was received, by the public and critics alike, as no other record before. It topped the charts all over the world, and still receives massive attention and re-evaluation every time a notable release anniversary comes around. The Death of Brian In his element organizing the minutia of the Beatles’ working lives during the past five years – and still only in his early 30s – Brian was beginning to feel like an unnecessary part of…

5 min.

SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

Label: Parlophone PCS 7027 Producer: George Martin Release: June 1, 1967 SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (Lennon/McCartney) 1:59 It is as if the Beatles knew that for some, their magnum opus might be considered a little pretentious. The album self-mockingly heralds its own importance with the sounds of an orchestra tuning before it launches into its overture. Paul wrote and sang ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. Sound effects from Abbey Road’s archives were used to give the impression of a live band. The song ends with an introduction to “the one and only Billy Shears”, who sings the next number on the album. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (Lennon/McCartney) 2:41 The “Billy Shears” in question is Ringo, giving probably his most effective vocal as a Beatle.…

5 min.

1968 THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Having started The Apple Boutique, the band decided to build a business empire. The next stage was Apple Electronics. John Lennon had met a self-proclaimed electronics wizard named Alexis Mardas. “Magic Alex” created all kinds of gizmos that fascinated John. His favourite was the Nothing Box, a small box which displayed red lights at random. He used to watch it for hours on LSD, entranced. Mardas was given funding to pursue various ideas. He also planned to build a near-miraculous 72-track recording studio to replace Abbey Road, which he declared old-fashioned. George Martin – upgrading the studio from four to eight-track at the time – was not impressed. Further ‘Apple’ businesses were added – Apple Records, Apple Films, Apple Publishing, all under the umbrella of Apple Corps Ltd, which also…

9 min.

THE BEATLES (THE WHITE ALBUM)

Label: Parlophone PCS 6067 – 8 Producer: George Martin Release: November 22, 1968 SIDE ONE BACK IN THE USSR (Lennon/McCartney) 2:41 Written by Paul McCartney, ‘Back In The USSR’ was intended as a ‘Soviet’ equivalent to Chuck Berry’s ‘Back In The USA’. Interviewed by Playboy magazine in 1984, he said: “I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody… I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know? It was also ‘hands across the water’, which I’m still conscious of… they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids do. And that to me is very important for the future of the race.” The chorus certainly bears this up,…

2 min.

YELLOW SUBMARINE

Label: Parlophone PCS 7070 Producer: George Martin Release: January 17, 1969 SIDE ONE YELLOW SUBMARINE (Lennon/McCartney) 2:38 This is the same version of the song found on the Revolver album from 1966. ONLY A NORTHERN SONG (Harrison) 3:23 George Harrison’s song was recorded for the Sgt. Pepper sessions but failed to make the final cut. The lyrics show his dissatisfaction with the Beatles’ music publishing business. Northern Songs had been set up in 1963 primarily to exploit Lennon/McCartney compositions. The company had been floated in 1965, but whereas Lennon and McCartney each owned 15 per cent of the public company’s shares, Harrison owned just 0.8 per cent, so John and Paul, as bigger shareholders, earned more from George’s songs than he did himself. As the lyric declares: “It doesn’t really…

5 min.

1969 ROTTEN APPLES

When taped rehearsals began at Twickenham Film Studios on January 15, tensions were palpable from the outset. Paul was the only Beatle who really wanted to be there. The other three, for their part, were clearly tired of Paul’s over-assertiveness. Shortly after a terse exchange with Paul, George quietly walked out and spent the best part of the next week in Liverpool with his parents. Filming and rehearsals went on without him. He eventually returned with as little overt ado as his departure, following several lengthy negotiation sessions. Recording for the new album was scheduled to take place in Alex Mardas’ new Apple Studios in the basement of Savile Row. At the end of January, the Beatles turned up to start recording, only to find complete chaos and a clearly…

4 min.

ABBEY ROAD

Label: Parlophone PCS 7088 Producer: George Martin Release: September 26, 1969 SIDE ONE COME TOGETHER (Lennon/McCartney) 4:16 John’s composition was written originally as a campaign song for Dr Timothy Leary, who was planning to run for Governor in California. Leary’s campaign had barely begun when he was convicted of possessing marijuana. SOMETHING (Harrison) 2:58 George Harrison wrote this song – dedicated to his wife Patti (who eventually left him for his best friend Eric Clapton) – for inclusion on The White Album. Released as a single, although it fared badly by Beatle standards by only just scraping into the Top 5, it has become something of standard, being the second most covered Beatles song after ‘Yesterday’. MAXWELL’S SILVER HAMMER (Lennon/McCartney) 3:24 In John’s eyes, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was Paul at…

5 min.

1970 ...AND BEYOND

Allen Klein’s emergence on the scene had been a dramatic one. He arrived to find Apple Corps in a worse state than he could have imagined. Within months he had pared the organization down to the barest of essentials. Klein had also found the Beatles’ contractual affairs in a muddle. The Beatles had mistakenly thought that Yellow Submarine constituted the third and final film of their contract with United Artists. They were wrong. Instead of issuing the Get Back project as a TV show, Klein turned it into a feature length film that could be sold to United Artists. Klein’s next move was to renegotiate their record deals. This was a problem because John was now insistent that he was leaving the band. Klein asked him to keep silent until…

4 min.

LET IT BE

Label: Parlophone PCS 7096 Producer: George Martin, Phil Spector, Glyn Johns Release: May 8, 1970 SIDE ONE TWO OF US (Lennon/McCartney) 3:33 Paul’s ‘Two Of Us’ is a love song to the new woman in his life, Linda Eastman. It is introduced on the album by John Lennon as: “‘I Dig a Pygmy’ by Charles Hawtry and the Deaf Aids.” Charles Hawtry was a legendary English comedy actor, who featured in the famous Carry On… series of films. The Deaf Aids was a nickname given by the Beatles to their Vox amplifiers. The song was first recorded by New York group Mortimer, who had been signed to the Beatles’ Apple label, but it was never issued. DIG A PONY (Lennon/McCartney) 3:52 A song that perhaps indicates the Beatle state of…

4 min.

DISCOGRAPHY

Original UK Albums 22-03-63 Please Please Me 22-11-63 With The Beatles 10-06-64 A Hard Day’s Night 04-12-64 Beatles For Sale 06-08-65 Help! 03-12-65 Rubber Soul 05-08-66 Revolver 01-06-67 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 22-11-68 The Beatles (The White Album) 17-01-69 Yellow Submarine 26-09-69 Abbey Road 08-05-70 Let It Be Official UK Compilation Albums 09-12-66 A Collection of Beatles Oldies Parlophone Records 19-04-73 1962–1966 (The Red Album) 19-04-73 1967–1970 (The Blue Album) 19-11-76 Magical Mystery Tour 07-03-88 Past Masters, Volume One 07-03-88 Past Masters, Volume Two 15-11-88 The Beatles Box Set 30-11-94 Live at the BBC 21-11-95 Anthology 1 18-03-96 Anthology 2 28-10-96 Anthology 3 13-09-99 Yellow Submarine Songtrack 13-11-00 The Beatles 1 17-11-03 Let It Be… Naked 16-11-04 The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 11-04-06 The Capitol Albums, Volume 2…

8 min.

Chronology

1940 July 7th: Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) born. October 9: John Lennon born. 1942 June 18: Paul McCartney born. 1943 February 25: George Harrison born. 1957 March: John Lennon forms the Quarrymen. July 6: Paul McCartney meets John Lennon, who is performing with the Quarrymen. He is invited to join. August 7: The Quarrymen play at the Cavern Club – then a jazz and blues venue. Paul McCartney unfortunately misses the gig because he is away at scout camp! October 18: First Quarrymen performance featuring Lennon and McCartney. 1958 March: Paul introduces school friend George Harrison to The Quarrymen. He joins the band several months later. August: The Quarrymen cut their first demo disc. 1959 November: The band become Johnny and the Moondogs and reach the final heat stages of…

1 min.

PICTURE CREDITS

The publishers would like to thank the following sources for their kind permission to reproduce the photographs used throughout this book. Alamy: Steve Atkins Photography: 135 © Bill Harry: 20 Corbis: Bettmann: 70, 75, 76, 82–83, 142 (top), 144, 147; /Christie’s Images Ltd./epa: 72; /Hulton-Deutsch Collection: 146 Getty Images: 13, 20–21, 24, 27, 31, 32–33, 47, 49, 50–51, 52, 54–55, 64–65, 79, 95, 104, 106–107, 109, 112–113, 116–117, 122–123, 133, 142. 143 (bottom), 145; /Michael Ochs Archive: 66, 69, 87, 89, 90–91, 125, 127, 128, 129, 131; /Popperfoto: 19, 25, 44–45; /Redferns: 15, 16, 18, 23, 28, 88, 93, 136-137, 138, 141, 148–149, 153, 160–161; /Song BMG Music Entertainment: 59; /Time & Life Pictures: 56, 58 (top) 58 (centre) Photos12.com: Archives du 7eme Art: 20, 21 Press Association Images: 9,…

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