The Beatles
Ten songs in about ten hours: the Beatles did most of their debut album in one February day in 1963, and Twist and Shout was the grand finale.
Published
Quick Facts
- Formed
- Liverpool, 1960 (growing out of John Lennon's Quarrymen, formed in 1956)
- Line-up
- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (Starr joined in August 1962)
- First hit single
- Love Me Do, released October 1962
- Debut album
- Please Please Me: ten of its fourteen tracks were recorded on 11 February 1963 at Abbey Road, the other four having been cut in late 1962
- Producer
- George Martin, who signed them to Parlophone
- Hamburg
- Residencies in 1960-62 sharpened their live act
- Final public performance
- The rooftop of Apple in Savile Row, London, 30 January 1969
- Split
- Announced publicly in April 1970
The album they mostly made in a single day
On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs in around ten hours at Abbey Road Studios in London. Together with four tracks already recorded in September and November 1962, that made Please Please Me. John Lennon, suffering from a cold, saved Twist and Shout for the very end because his voice was shredded. The first take is the one on the album. A second was attempted, but Lennon's voice had given out. The album topped the album chart for 30 weeks. Not bad for a day's work.
From skiffle boys to the Cavern
The story starts on 6 July 1957 at a church fete in Woolton, Liverpool, where Paul McCartney met John Lennon, who was playing with his skiffle group the Quarrymen. McCartney soon joined, and George Harrison followed. By 1960 the band had become the Beatles. Liverpool was a port city, and American records arrived with sailors. That helped feed a thriving local scene, and the Beatles became regulars at the Cavern Club on Mathew Street. Brian Epstein, who ran a record shop in the city, saw them there in November 1961 and became their manager. Ringo Starr, previously with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, replaced drummer Pete Best in August 1962.
Hamburg: the boot camp
Before fame, the Beatles played long, gruelling sets in Hamburg clubs from 1960. Hours on stage, night after night, turned a ragged group into a tight one. It was where they learned to hold a crowd. Stuart Sutcliffe, an early bassist and friend of Lennon's, stayed on in Hamburg and died there in 1962.
Beatlemania and beyond the screams
Love Me Do crept into the charts in 1962, and the follow-up, Please Please Me, reached number one in some listings in early 1963. By the end of that year the press had coined the word Beatlemania. In February 1964 they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States, watched by an enormous TV audience. The records were already getting more adventurous, with Rubber Soul in December 1965 and Revolver in August 1966. Then they stopped touring. Their last paid concert was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. From then on the studio became their instrument, and the records got stranger still: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 and the White Album in 1968. George Martin was central to this, helping translate their ideas into sound.
The rooftop goodbye
On 30 January 1969, the band climbed onto the roof of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row in London and played an impromptu lunchtime set. Police eventually asked them to stop. It was their last public performance together. Abbey Road, recorded later that year, was the last album they made together, though Let It Be came out afterwards. The break-up became public in April 1970.
Walking in their footsteps today
Liverpool has made the Beatles a pillar of its identity. Fans can walk down Mathew Street, see statues and visit the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney, which are looked after by the National Trust. Penny Lane and Strawberry Field are real places, and the songs about them have turned them into pilgrimage stops. In London, the zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios is probably the most photographed pedestrian crossing in the world, thanks to the 1969 album cover. Visitors still line up to recreate the walk, to the irritation of local drivers.
Notable people
- John Lennon
- Paul McCartney
- George Harrison
- Ringo Starr
- George Martin
- Brian Epstein
- Stuart Sutcliffe
- Pete Best
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