User:Rigadin

Consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles came from Liverpool England. Their talent was pop rock music. Before "The Beatles" published their first single, a band called Quarrymen played music in the pubs and night clubs of Liverpool in 1960. This band consisted of • John Lennon • Paul McCartney • George Harrison • Pete Best • Stuart Sutcliffe

        In the same year the Quarrymen gave concerts in Hamburg, St. Pauli. In Hamburg they had the first contact with sex and drugs and they met Ringo Starr. As they had many problems, for example George was under age, they had to leave Germany. Stue Sutcliffe stayed in Hamburg and married Astrid Kirchherr. 
        

1962: Back in Liverpool their first concert took place in the famous Cavern Club . Here they were discovered by Brian Epstein, who traded with records. He gave them their first contract and that's the reason why he became their manager. When Paul, John, Pete and George were back in Hamburg 1962, they played the songs "Skinny Minni" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" together with Tony Sheridan. Because of the contract they were produced by George Martin. He thought that Pete Best, the drummer, was not good enough for the group. So Pete Best was substituted by Ringo Starr. Now they were looking for a name which was easy to remember. The slang-word for motor cycle queen, "beetles" , in German Käfer, was changed into Beatles, coming from "Beat", in German "Schlag". Now the group consisted of • John Lennon (rhythm guitar) • Paul McCartney (bass guitar) • George Harrison (lead guitar) • Ringo Starr (drums) Lennon and McCartney were the songwriters. 1963:

In February 1963 the Nr. 1-Hit Please please me   brought the breakthrough. An album with the same title was published in this year. It reached an edition of over 6 million records. World wide an incomparable triumph began. Nearly every song climbed to the top of the charts. Everywhere beat bands occurred. In short time every school had at least one school band which played Beatles' songs. The elder generation were horrified. Because of their haircuts, reminding mushrooms, the Beatles were called "Pilzköpfe" in Germany. The Beatles' presentation in suits and ties became cult as well as their haircut. At every public appearance of "The Beatles" there was great fuss. Within short time they were established in London and they went on tour. Naturally they went to Germany, this time to Circus Krone in Münich. 
        In December 1963 they record the LP With the Beatles  . Best known songs of this LP are "All my loving", "Please Mr. Postman" and "Roll over Beethoven". 
        

1964: In 1964 the album A hard day's night followed with the songs "A hard day's night", "And I love her" and "If I fell". Under the same title the Beatles made their first movie with plat action but huge success, which was performed for the first time on June 7th, 1964 in London. Then they made the records of the only German songs "Komm gib mir deine Hand" and "Sie liebt Dich". The first US tour took place with concerts in New York, Washington and Miami Beach. The four became popular in the states with TV shows. 73 million TV watchers saw the Beatles in the Ed-Sullivan-Show. With this success they went back on tour through Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia. Almost 300.000 screaming fans were waiting in front of the hotel in Adelaide, almost 250.000 in Melbourne.

        At the end of the year they produced the album Beatles for sale   with an edition of 7 million. Best known titles are "Rock and Roll music" and Eight days a week". 
        

1965: The year 1965 brought an uncountable number of concerts. The drug consumption of the Beatles is also reflected in some songs, for example in "Nowhere man" or "Drive my car", but also in Yesterday. Most songs were written by Paul and John. The Beatles worked on a new movie mostly performed in Austria. Here they made some concerts, too. The title of the movie is Help and naturally was followed by an LP with the same title in an edition of 8 million. Best known titles are "Help", "Ticket to ride" and "Yesterday". In June 1965 the Beatles were honoured by the royal family with the MBE-decoration. One tour led the Beatles to South Europe and another one to America and Canada. Many concerts with uncountable fans took place. In December a further album was published with the title Rubber Soul . Best known songs are "Drive my car", "Nowhere man", "and Michelle “,” Girl and In my life".

1966: Tired of the live concerts, the Beatles left stage in 1966. They had given almost 1,400 concerts, an unreached record till today. One reason was the higher technical expenditure of the song production in the studios. Live performance was nearly impossible. In June a short tour took place in Germany organized by the youth magazine BRAVO. On the last tour through America and Canada the Beatles got more and more troubles with the US authorities because of insults and rising drug consumption. Even the CIA was occupied with John Lennon's statements towards the politics of Vietnam. Many radio stations took the Beatles' songs out of their programme. In Europe their fame faded, too. Each of the four tried to do different projects alone. John made a movie, George turned more towards the far eastern culture and played Indian instruments like the sitar.

        This year only one album Revolver   was published which was influenced by the drug consumption and far eastern effect. Best known titles are "Eleanor Rigby", "Good day sunshine" and "Yellow Submarine". 
        

1967: The Beatles also experienced the Hippie time. The year 1967 brought ups and downs in their career. In the studios of London they began to work for their most successful album. The title of it Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . It reached an edition of 18 million records. World wide many songs of this album were found in the Top 10. Best known songs are "With a little help from my friends", "Lucy in the sky with diamonds", "When I'm sixty-four", "Lovely Rita", "A day in the life" and the title song. With this album the Beatles became the icons of the Hippie movement. In August 1967 their manager and close friend Brian Epstein died, which was a very deep cut in the Beatles' life and work.

        At this time the Beatles started to produce a new album and a film, The Magical Mystery Tour  . Best known songs are "I'm the walrus" and naturally the title song. 
        

1968: The year 1968 brought the end of the Beatles. The climax of their career was reached with the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", their manager was dead and there were no more public appearances. Though the Beatles sake for team spirit with their own marketing company, the Apple, each of them followed more and more his own ideas. John dedicated himself to new projects together with Yoko Ono, Ringo took over smaller film parts. George explored the Indian culture intensively and wrote new songs. Paul made first attempts of a solo career. In spite of this an important album was produced this year. The White Album with an edition of about 12 million became a cult object. Best known songs are "Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Birthday" and "Revolution". Each of the four added their own songs. Because of the permanent presence of Yoko Ono problems arose which did not allow any reasonable work. There was especially a quarrel between John and Paul. Songs not showing anything of the problems were written for the animated cartoon "Yellow Submarine". The Beatle’s sang, writ songs, made movies and did tours for a 6 year period 1962 – 1968.

John Lenon: John Winston Ono Lennon was born on the 9 October 1940 in Liverpool and was best known as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Beatles. His creative career also included the roles of solo musician, peace activist, artist, actor and author. As half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, he heavily influenced the development of rock music, leading it towards more advanced multi-layered arrangements, mature lyrical sentiments, and musical eclecticism. He was shot in the back on December 8th 1980 in New York City. He is recognised as one of the greatest music icons of the 20th century; many of his songs, such as "Imagine", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "In My Life", are often ranked among the best songs in popular music history. In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time, and the British public voted Lennon into 8th place.

Paul McCartney: Sir James Paul McCartneywas born June 18, 1942 and is a British singer, musician and songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles. Recognised as an icon of the twentieth century, McCartney is listed in The Guinness Book Of Records as the most successful composer in popular music history. He has a record twenty-nine US number one singles, twenty of them with The Beatles, the rest with Wings and as a solo artist. McCartney has written or has co-writing credit on over 50 top ten hits, more than any other songwriter, and has been an influential bassist as well as an accomplished singer, guitarist, pianist, and drummer. With The Beatles he was one half of the highly successful songwriting team credited as Lennon-McCartney, along with fellow bandmate John Lennon. Their compositions for The Beatles remain amongst the best known songs in pop music. The most notable of The Beatles' songs generally attributed to McCartney alone include "Can't Buy Me Love", "Yesterday", "Hello Goodbye", "Hey Jude", and "Let It Be". Following the break-up of The Beatles in 1970, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings, scoring 30 Top Ten singles in the United Kingdom and United States. At the time of its release in 1977, the Wings single "Mull Of Kintyre" was the highest selling record in British chart history (until 1984). McCartney has also worked in the fields of classical music (with works such as the Liverpool Oratorio) and ambient/techno music as The Fireman. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is a painter (although until recently he kept his artwork private) and a strong advocate for animal rights, landmine action, vegetarianism, and music education.

George Harrison: George Harrison was born on the 24 February 1943, in Liverpool and was a popular British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer, and film producer. But he was best known as a member of The Beatles. Harrison was the lead guitarist of The Beatles. During the band’s extremely successful career, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were its main songwriters. However, Harrison usually wrote and sang lead on one or two songs per album, including the popular "If I Needed Someone", "Taxman", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun", and "Something". While still a Beatle, Harrison became attracted to Indian music and Hinduism, sparking unprecedented interest in Eastern beliefs and music in the Western Hemisphere. Both would subsequently play a prominent role in Harrison’s life and music. Harrison also had an uneven but sometimes very successful solo career after the break-up of The Beatles, scoring major hits with "My Sweet Lord" (1970), "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" (1973), "All Those Years Ago" (1981), and "Got My Mind Set on You" (1987). He also organized the first large-scale charity concert, The Concert For Bangladesh, which took place on August 1, 1971. Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2004. Harrison was also a film producer and founded Handmade Films in 1979. The company's films include Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, Time Bandits, Withnail and I, and Mona Lisa. Harrison also had a cameo role in The Beatles parody film The Rutles. He died on the 29th of Novenmer 2001 in Los Angeles but had an exciting life!

Richard Starky: Richard Starkey was born on July 7, 1940 in Liverpool, England. Known by his stage name Ringo Starr, he is a popular British musician but he is best known as drummer for The Beatles. Starr is known for his reliable, steady drumming and innovative fills. His everyman personality made him an easy fit with the other Beatles. He was the oldest member of the band, and the last one to join the now familiar Fab Four lineup. Starr married Maureen Cox in 1965, and they had three children, Zak, Jason, and Lee. The couple divorced in 1975; and in 1981 Starr married actress Barbara Bach, most famous for her role as Major Anya Amasova (female lead and main "Bond Girl") in The Spy Who Loved Me.