The four-member band from Liverpool, England, known as The Beatles, became one of the most popular rock and roll bands in history. In a course of 8 years they changed not only rock and roll, but also the face of all music forever.

Now almost all people know the names of those great musicians. That’s name them here:

        John Lennon (John Winston Lennon) - born October 9, 1940, Liverpool, England - died December 8, 1980, New York, USA

        Paul McCartney (James Paul McCartney) - born June 18, 1942, Liverpool, England

       George Harrison - born February 25, 1943, Liverpool, England - died November 30, 2001, Los Angeles, USA

       Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) - born July 7, 1940, Dingle, Liverpool, England

Presentation.

Before They Were The Beatles. 1957-1959

 John Lennon was just 17 when he formed his first band, “The Black Jacks”. The band was made up entirely of classmates at Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, and almost immediately after they started, they changed their name to “The Quarry Men”. They played skiffle music, a mixture of folk, jazz and blues which was popular in England at the time.

In the summer of 1957, “The Quarry Men” were playing in a church hall when another member of the band introduced Lennon to Paul McCartney, then a 15-year-old left-handed guitar player. He was immediately invited to join, which he did in October, 1957.

Another great musician, George Harrison, joined to the band in February 1958.

“The Quarry Men” broke up early in 1959. Lennon and McCartney continued their songwriting, but Harrison joined another band called “The Les Stewart Quartet”.

“The Quarry Men” briefly reunited when Harrison's group fell apart and he recruited Lennon and McCartney to help him fulfill a contract with Liverpool's Casbah Coffee Club. After that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison continued performing as “Johnny and the Moondogs.”

Pre-Beatlemania. 1960-1963

In 1960 Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were joined by drummer Pete Best and bassist Stu Sutcliffe, a friend of Lennon's from the Liverpool Art School. They used several different names like “Long John and The Beatles”, “The Silver Beetles”, “The Beat Brothers” before they became “The Beatles”, the band which name became known throughout the world.

Stu Sutcliffe left the band after 18 months, so it was Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Best who met in June 1962 the producer George Martin. Martin liked everything about the band except Pete Best. Because of that Ringo Starr was recruited to replace Best.

In September, 1962, the band's first single “Love Me Do” was released, eventually reaching №17 in the UK.

Beatlemania. 1964-1965

Beatlemania was responsible for the concept of the stadium concert. More than 55-thousand screaming fans (at the time, the most ever to have attended a single concert) packed New York's Shea Stadium in August 1965.

By April, 1964, the band's singles occupied the top five spots on the “Billboard” Hot 100 chart. That summer they toured New Zealand and Australia, where their arrival in Adelaide was greeted by a crowd estimated at more than 300,000. The first The Beatles movie, “A Hard Day's Night” was released in 1964.

It was a pivotal moment in their career. The song “Please Please Me” soon topped the UK charts. The Beatles progressed artistically and commercially with each successive record.

On February 9, 1964 they appeared on the American television program “The Ed Sullivan Show”. The show became the highest rated show in television history to that date. It was also claimed that there was not one reported crime during the time the performed.

Beginning of the End. 1966-1968The band released just two albums in 1966. In the summer of that year the band was attacked by an angry crowd in the Philippines after turning down an invitation to breakfast at the Presidential Palace. That disastrous tour had no sooner ended when Lennon set off a huge wave of record burning protests when he suggested in an interview that "Christianity is dying" and that The Beatles "are more popular than Jesus now."

Their double album, “The Beatles” (also known as “The White Album”) was released in November 1968.

Two months later all the members of the band were honored with Members of the Order of the British Empire, one of the highest honors bestowed in the UK, usually to military and government officials.

The Beatles' second movie, “Help!” came out in 1965, and the soundtrack was one of the four albums the band released that year.

Press here to listen

to the song “Help”

The End. 1969-1970

 Disagreements and disharmony among band members had been gradually increasing, become especially apparent during the White Album recording sessions. Their last recording session followed in August, 1969.

In September 1969, Lennon told the band that he was leaving.

  The band's breakup was announced in April 1970.

Life After The Beatles. 1970-present.

 All four of The Beatles carried on with successful solo careers after the breakup of The Beatles.

John Lennon released seven albums between 1970 and 1980. An additional album, Milk and Honey, was released (in 1984) after Lennon's death.

  George Harrison released a dozen solo albums and produced films through his company, Handmade Films. Harrison died of cancer at the age of 58 in November 2001.

  Ringo Starr has released nearly two dozen albums and appeared in about the same number of films since the breakup of The Beatles.

  Paul McCartney has been the most prolific ex-Beatle as a solo artist. He continues to tour and record and he is really one of the most successful musicians in history.

 

In addition to the 23 albums released during the band's life (1960-1970) there have been more than 150 compilations, recorded interviews and videos issued. Hundreds of books have been written about their personal lives, their music, and their influence on pop culture and rock music.

Their original record label, EMI and the Guinness Book of World Records estimate that more than 1-billion The Beatles albums, singles and CDs have been sold

worldwide.

The Beatles music still loved by hundreds of millions of people all over the world.

And the list is going on… The latest THE BEATLES’ album is “LOVE”, which was released in November 2006.Discography