Early years

In March of 1957, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen (fleetingly known as The Blackjacks).^[5] On 6 July of that year, Lennon met Paul McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Fete. In February of 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which was then playing under a variety of names. A few primitive recordings of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison from that era have survived. During this period, members continually joined and left the lineup; Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison emerged as the only constant members.

Record contract

Beatlemania

Backlash and breakup

Musical overview

Influences

Technical experimentation

Stylistic experimentation

Filmography

The Beatles appeared in five films (excluding the Anthology collection) and most were well received. The exception was the (mostly unscripted) Magical Mystery Tour which was panned by critics and the public alike. All of their films had the same name as their soundtrack albums and a song on that album.

A Hard Day's Night

Help!

In 1965 came Help!, an Eastmancolour extravaganza, which was also directed by Lester. It was shot in exotic locations such as Salisbury Plain, with Stonehenge visible in the background, the Bahamas, and Salzburg and the Tyrol region of the Austrian Alps. Stylistically a James Bond spoof, featuring more Marx Brothers-style zaniness, the film is dedicated "to Elias Howe, who, in 1846, invented the sewing machine."

Magical Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour film was essentially Paul McCartney's idea, conceived as he returned from a trip to the U.S. in the late spring of 1967, and loosely inspired by press coverage McCartney had read about Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters' LSD-fuelled American bus odyssey. McCartney felt inspired to take this idea and blend it with the peculiarly English working class tradition of charabanc mystery tours, in which children took chaperoned bus rides through the English countryside, destination unknown. The film was critically dismissed when it was aired on the BBC's premier television network, BBC-1, on Boxing Day — a day primarily for traditional family entertainment. The film appeared radically avant-garde by those standards, and instead of showcasing the lovable 'moptop' Beatles as they had been up until then, it showed them as part of the hippie counter-culture of 1967, at odds with the British establishment of that era. Compounding this culture clash was the fact that BBC-1, at that time, still only transmitted programmes in black & white, while Tour was in colour. The film was repeated a few days later on the BBC's second channel (BBC-2) in colour — receiving more appreciation, but the initial negative media reaction is what is most remembered.

Yellow Submarine

The animated Yellow Submarine followed in 1968, but had little direct input from The Beatles, save for a live-action epilogue and the contribution of four new songs (including "Only a Northern Song", an unreleased track from the Sgt. Pepper sessions). It was acclaimed for its boldly innovative graphic style and humour, as well as its soundtrack. The Beatles are said to have been pleased with the result and attended its highly-publicised London premiere. Every one of The Beatles thought their own voices (narrated by actors) were not quite right, whilst saying that the other three were perfect.

Let It Be

Anthology

Official CD catalogue

In 1987, EMI released The Beatles' original albums on CD. To allow the catalogue to be truly complete, EMI released an American compiled album on CD in 1987 and two compilation CDs in 1988:

Song catalogue

Song samples

The following samples are organized as per the year the song was originally released.

1965

• "Help!" (help·info)
• "Yesterday" (help·info)
• "Drive My Car" (help·info)
• "Nowhere Man" (help·info)
• "In My Life" (help·info)

1966

• "Taxman" (help·info)
• "Eleanor Rigby" (help·info)
• "I'm Only Sleeping" (help·info)
• "Got to Get You into My Life" (help·info)

1967

• "Strawberry Fields Forever" (help·info)
• "Penny Lane" (help·info)
• "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (help·info)
• "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (help·info)
• "When I'm Sixty-Four" (help·info)
• "A Day in the Life" (help·info)
• "Magical Mystery Tour" (help·info)
• "I Am the Walrus" (help·info)

1968

• "Blackbird" (help·info)
• "Mother Nature's Son" (help·info)
• "Helter Skelter" (help·info)
• "Revolution 1" (help·info)

1969

• "Come Together" (help·info)
• "Something" (help·info)
• "Here Comes the Sun" (help·info)
• "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (help·info)

Further reading

• The Gospel according to the Beatles. Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. ISBN 0664229832.
• The Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, LLC, 2000. ISBN 0811826848.
• Emerick, Geoff, and Howard Massey. Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles. New York: Gotham Books, 2006. ISBN 1592401791. [Memoir of one of the Beatles' main recording engineers.]
• Spitz, Bob. The Beatles. Little, Brown, 2005. ISBN 0316803529.
• Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write. 3rd ed. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2005. ISBN 0060844094. [Discusses the inspiration or meaning for every Beatles song.]
• Dimery, Martin. Being John Lennon. SAF books, 2002. ISBN 0946719438.
• Alan J. Porter Before They Were Beatles: The Early Years 1956-1960. Xlibris. ISBN 1413430562.
• Ryan, Kevin, and Brian Kehew. Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums. Los Angeles: Curvebender Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0978520009.

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