A Report on The Beatles and Its Effect on Music World

Everyone has heard the terms the Fab Four, the British Invasion, or Beatlemania. All these terms are used when speaking about The Beatles. The Beatles were known worldwide for their musical talent. They had 41 albums that were released from 1961 (My Bonnie/ The Saints) – 2017 (The Vietnam War - A Film by Ken Burns, the film featured songs by the Beatles). With the complete Fab Four, (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) from 1963 through 1970 they released 22 albums. But not all the albums had different songs. On some of there albums, they had the same songs. For example, on The Beatles/1962-1966 album, it had all their most popular songs from 1962-1966. The album had 26 songs in all. Besides that, some people truly wonder where did all these talented musicians grow up, how many Beatles members were there in all, and what years were they playing in the band?

All four members of the Beatles grew up in Liverpool, England. There were a total of 8 different people in the band. John Lennon played rhythm guitar for the Beatles, he formed his own band (the Quarrymen) in 1956 and left the Beatles in September of 1969. Paul McCartney played mainly bass guitar, he joined the quarrymen in 1957 and announced that he was leaving the Beatles in April of 1970. George Harrison was the lead guitarist of the group, Paul introduced George to John, and in February of 1958, John let George join the Quarrymen, and George left the Beatles in 1970. Although George officially left in 1970, he temporarily left a few times in 1968 and 1969. Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey) joined the Beatles in August of 1962 and left in 1970. Same as George, Ringo temporarily left a few times in 1968 and 1969. Stuart Sutcliffe was the bassist of the group from 1960-1961. While the Beatles were touring in Germany, Stu left the band to pursue his art career. Tommy Moore and Pete Best were the drummers before Ringo, Jimmie Nicol temporarily replaced Ringo Starr for two weeks. “On June 3, 1964 Ringo Starr inexplicably collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where it was found he was suffering from severe tonsillitis that required immediate surgery. Unfortunately for the band, Ringo had collapsed literally the day before they were due to embark on their world tour.” How did the Beatles get so famous? How could they book an entire baseball stadium in just a half hour?

How did the Beatles get famous? The Beatles recorded their first hit: Love Me Do in 1962 which climbed to the top charts in England, but they didn’t become famous worldwide until 1964. On February 9th, 1964 the Beatles performed live on the Ed Sullivan Show. They sang five songs from four of their recent albums. The songs that they played were, “All My Loving,” from, “With the Beatles,” “Till There Was You,” also from, “With the Beatles, “She Loves You,” from the, “Twist and Shout” album, “I Saw Her Standing There” from, “Please Please Me,” and , “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” from , “Meet the Beatles!” More than 73 million people were watching that program, and as soon as they herd the Beatles, they fell in love with them and their music. When the Beatles came to America and hit worldwide fame, people started calling it “Beatlemania!” Or the “British Invasion”. Baseball stadiums that the Beatles were playing in could sell out in a half an hour. When some girls saw the Fab Four, they fainted. In some of the Beatles songs there were hidden and backwards messages. There was a whole conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney was dead.

Hidden messages showed up all over in the Beatles’ music. The hidden messages were mainly pointing at the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney was dead and replaced by a person called “Billy Shears.” It all started in November of 1966 when Paul supposedly had a car crash. In real life, Paul was in a car crash and got a scar on his lip, and that’s why he grew a mustache. At the end of, “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967) it sounds like, “I buried Paul,” but it says, “Cranberry Sauce” twice. On the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely-Hearts Club Band (1967), all of John, George, and Ringo are faced towards Paul. Another thing on Sgt. Pepper, Paul is wearing a badge that says O.P.D. People thought that meant Officially Pronounced Dead but meant Official Police Department. On the back of the Sgt. Pepper album, Paul is faced backwards, when all the other members are faced towards the camera. If you play, “Revolution 9” (1968) backwards it says, “Turn me on dead man.” In the 1969 album, “Abbey Road,” there is a license plate that looks like 28IF but said 281F. The reason why this was such a big fuss was because Paul McCartney would be 28 years old at that time IF he was a live at that time. Another clue that Paul was dead was also on the Abbey Road album cover. Paul was stepping out of line with the other members of the Beatles signaling that he was “gone.” Paul was the only Beatle in bare feet. Some cultures buried their dead people without shoes and he had a cigarette in his right hand though Paul McCartney was lefthanded proving that the person on the cover was an imposter.

The Beatles created a whole new style of music. They originated from playing the 1950s rock and roll and just took off from there. The Fab Four played pop, pop rock, progressive rock, folk rock, psych rock, and hard rock.

Works Cited

• 'Beatles, The.' Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990. . Encyclopedia.com. 24 Apr. 2019.
• Edgers, Geoff, and Jeremy Tugeau. Who Were the Beatles? New York, Penguin Group (USA), 2006.
• McLeese, Don. 'Beatles.' World Book Student, World Book, 2019, www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/ar051630. Accessed 6 May 2019.
• Miller, James E. 'The Beatles.' Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/the-Beatles. Accessed 6 May 2019.
• Pendergast, Sara, and Tom Pendergast. 'Beatles.' Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-century America, vol. 4, Detroit, UXL, 2002, pp. 846-48.