The Beatles

The Beatles are a rock band from Liverpool, United Kingdom, active from 1960 to 1970. They are known as “the Fab Four” and are usually described as one of the most influential acts in popular music. Their core line-up is John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, although earlier members include Stuart Sutcliffe, Tommy Moore, Norman Chapman, Pete Best and Chas Newby.

Origins and development

The group grows out of John Lennon’s earlier band, the Quarrymen. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison perform together from 1958 and begin playing in Liverpool and Hamburg from 1960. Brian Epstein helps shape them into a more professional act, and George Martin expands their recorded sound. The Beatles sign with EMI and achieve their first hit with “Love Me Do” in 1962.

Sound and style

The Beatles’ music combines skiffle, beat, 1950s rock and roll, classical music and traditional pop, and later moves through folk, Indian music, psychedelia and hard rock. They are also associated with innovations in recording, songwriting and presentation, and with youth culture and social movements of the 1960s.

Success and recording work

As their popularity grows, “Beatlemania” develops and the band becomes central to the British Invasion of the United States pop market by early 1964. Their first film, A Hard Day’s Night, appears in 1964. In 1966 they stop performing live and focus on studio work, releasing albums such as Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (the White Album) and Abbey Road. These recordings help establish the album as a major format in popular music.

Business interests and legacy

In 1968 the group founds Apple Corps, a multimedia company connected with its legacy, and is also associated with Apple Records and Apple Corps Ltd. The Beatles disband in 1970. They are the best-selling music act in history, with estimated sales of more than 600 million units worldwide. They hold the record for the most number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 with 20, and sell 21.9 million singles in the United Kingdom. They also receive eight Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for Let It Be, and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and individual members are inducted between 1994 and 2015. Rolling Stone ranks them as the greatest artists in history in 2004 and 2011, and Time includes them among the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

Albums

Please Please Me (1963), With the Beatles (1963), A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Beatles for Sale (1964), Help! (1965), Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), Magical Mystery Tour (1967), The Beatles (1968), Yellow Submarine (1969), Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970).