A Brief over of the Beatles the Beginning to the End

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in 1960 in Liverpool. The better known members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. There were other members in the early years like Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe, Chas Newby, Norman Chapman and Tommy Moore (. They built the reputation of their band by playing in clubs all over Liverpool. They're known as the best selling band in history of music. It took only six weeks for the band to go from being known as nobodys to the biggest pops stars in the USA. But it didn't end so well with the band they ended up splitting up. The paper sets out to discuss how the band got together, what they became famous for, look at why they broke up and see where they are now. Paul and John had grew up together, Paul's dad never liked John because he saw him as a trouble maker and he didn't want Paul to be around that environment. But as the years went on Paul still hung around John. John ended up starting a band called The Quarry Men and invited Paul to tag along.

John was wild, Paul once said that John was the fairground hero, the big lad riding the dodgems. John was out cussing, smoking, fighting, having sex and going to college parties, and Paul was mesmerized by Johns actions. But once Paul got to know John things changed fast, he went off in a completely different direction, before rock and roll changed his life he composed two catchy piano tunes, and dance-band numbers. Then the guitar came along and Paul was hooked. They often would try to outdo each other when writing songs, John called it a sibling rivalry it raised the standards of their writing of songs. (Lewisohn 1)Before Pauls mom died she wanted Paul to become a doctor and his dad wanted him to be a teacher or writer. But Paul had other plans, he wanted to be a star and to be rich. John also wanted to be rich and famous, although John's aunt said possessions don't bring happiness but they make misery easier. They both wanted to avoid work and become rich by singing and performing. (Lewisohn 4)Then the Beatles were formed, in 1960, they were going around to all of the clubs in liverpool performing. But still no one had heard of them in the USA. That was until February 9th, 1964 when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. They drew the largest tv audience in history with over 73 million viewers. This appearance sparked a world wilke frenzy, but it had already sparked Beatlemania in England where they were from (Greenberg 1).The news media and radio stations in America definitely help catapult the Beatles career.

After John F Kennedy was assassinated, Walter Cronkite ran a four-minute segment on Dec 10, 1963 which led to a young lady writing a letter to her local radio. The local DJ read the letter and on December 17, 1963 I Want to Hold Your Hand aired. From that, the Beatles came on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9th and 16th of 1964. American media and radio definitely played a part in the Beatles success (Greenberg 1). The band was able to stay together until 1970, but because of problems between band members it became hard for them to write music and practice to perform. They went almost a year between 1966 and 1967 without performing. At one practice, Paul gets up and says There's only two choices: We're gonna do it or we're not gonna do it, and I want a decision. Because I'm not interested in spending my #@&%ing days farting around here, while everyone makes up their minds whether they want to do it or not. Financial problems and getting proper credit for the work became other issues especially between Lennon and Harrison. Some say that John's life long time love Yoko Ono played a big part in why the band eventually split (Gilmore 1-22)After the Beatles ended, they never got together as a whole group. Lennon, Harrison, and Starr played together several times. Once at Harrison's ex wife's wedding to Eric Clapton, Paul George and Ringo played live for a few minutes.

Lennon and McCartney were able to restore their relationship but never wrote together again. John Lennon was then shot and killed in December of 1980 (Gutenberg 19). Harrison died of lung cancer in November of 2001 and McCartney and Starr remain alive to this day (Gutenberg 1)Some of their most famous songs are I Want to Hold Your Hand A Hard Day's Night, Help, Let it Be and Hey Jude also many more, but those are the most well known. But my favorite song by them is Here Comes the Sun because it's so mellow and soothing to the mind and it just sticks out to me as their best song. They won a total of eighty-four awards and had over a hundred nominations, eleven of them being grammy awards. The grammy award is one of the best awards you can be awarded as a musician or group. They've also won a total of three World Music Awards which is also very good. These awards can arguably say that they were the best band to ever live (Gutenberg 1). I wish I could have gotten a chance to see them perform, It would have been amazing to see the greatest band to live perform. But unfortunately, they were way before my time.

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