The Beatles, English rock 'n' roll quartet, a major influence in popular music in the middle and late 60's. The group's members, John lennon (born Oct. 9, 1942; died Dec. 8, 1980), Paul McCartney (born June 18, 1942), George Harrison (born Feb. 25, 1943), and Ringo Starr(born Richard Starkey, July 7, 1940), were all born in Liverpool and came from working-class backgrounds. They rose to fame in 1963 amid a wave of "Beatlemania"--the overpowering enthusiasm of adoring teen-age fans who greeted their idols with hysterical shrieks and copied the Beatles' moplike hairstyles and "mod" dress. With Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison playing electric guitars and singing and Ringo playing the drums, the Beatles produced an amplified sound and a pronounced beat that set the standard for many later rock 'n' roll groups.
The Group started as a collaboration between Lennon and McCartney in 1956 and expanded shortly after to include Harrison. For two years drummer Pete Best played with them, but was replaced in 1962 by Starr. The name Beatles was arrived at after a number of others had been used: The Quarry Men, The Moon Dogs, The Moonshiners, and The Silver Beetles. It's punning overtones, suggesting an insect (the beetle) and a rhythmic pulsation (the beat), reflect the wit of Lennon.
In their early career the Beatles, like numerous other Liverpool groups, entertained in small cellar clubs. Initially their music was a somewhat conventional amalgam of British and American rhythmic expressions: rock 'n' roll; skiffle, an improvised music played by British amateurs on unconventional instruments, such as the washboard, the kazoo, and the cigar-box guitar; and the rather simple form of jazz of the late 1920's and 1930's that lay behind both rock 'n' roll and skiffle. But despite the conventionality of their music, their personalities attracted notice. The refreshing wit of Lennon and McCartney, who wrote much of the material, caught the teen-age imagination; so did the sad, drooping, yet clownish face of Starr, who's nickname was acquired because of a predilection for rings; and the stony-faced , quiet Harrisonn, lead guitarist, who composed a number of the group's songs. A larger part of the Beatles' appeal was their boyish charm, enthusiasm, and ability to mock themselves as well as "the establishment."
In 1961, Brian Epstein, a young record distributor, became their manager. He did much to change their image, for example, altering their dress from leather jackets to fancy Edwardian clothes. A performance of the Beatles at the London Palladium in 1963 brought them national fame, and a wildly successful television appearance in the United Staes a year later made them international figures.
In their films A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965), the cinematic invention of the American director Richard Lester combined with their own taste for irony and farce to produce an atmosphere reminiscent of the Marx Brothers. Although basically antisentimental, the films lift room for the kind of cleverly turned sentimental song (such as "I Want To Hold Your Hand") of which Lennon and McCartney were masters.
With the production of the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, the Beatles' music reached maturity. Perhaps the first rock 'n' roll album to be conceived around a particular theme, it made comments on the conflicts between parents and children, on the effects ofdrugs, on middle-class culture, and, generally, on life in modern industrial society. It did so with a soft irony, with a sweetness of tune and firmness of beat, and with a new range of sounds. There were entertaining electronic noises. There were flashes of the sitar, an instrument of india--the result perhaps of Harrison's studies with star virtuoso Ravi Shankar and the Beatles' interest in Eastern Philosophy. There was the clever scoring of their arranger-conductor, George Martin. And there was evidence of the wise counsel of their manager, Brian Epstein, who had so much to do with their success from 1963 until his death in 1967.
With the Sergeant Pepper album, the Beatles clearly proved that they were more than a passing sensation riding the crest fo Beatlemania. Some 2.5 million copies of Sergeant Pepper were purchased during the first 3 months after it's release. By experimenting with classical, Eastern, and electronic music, the Beatles injected a lively, searching spirit into popular musical culture, at the same time expanding their following to include young adults, intellectuals, and business executives. The list of popular Beatle songs is long. It includes: "Michelle," "Yesterday," "Eleanor Rigby," "And I Love Her," "A Day In The Life," "Norwegian Wood," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "Yellow Submarine," "Penny Lane," "Strawberry Fields," "The Fool On The Hill," and "Hey Jude."
Besides the Beatles'
combined participation in records, concerts, and films, two of the Beatles, Lennon and
McCartney, branched out on their own. Lennon wrote two books In His Own Write
(1964) and A Spaniard In The Works (1965), verse ad prose with eleborate
exercises in wordplay. McCartney, working on a purely musical vein, composed the
soundtrack of the movie The Family Way (1967). The Beatles' last album was
Let It Be, released in 1970. That same year the group disbanded. Each of the
Beatles pursued sepreate careers throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's. Lennon, who
made a number of albums with his artist wife, Yoko Ono, was shot to death by a supposed
"fan" and admirer in 1980, in New York City.
Barry
Ulanov
Taken From Collier's Encyclopedia.
Copyright 1988 by Macmillan Eductaional Company.
A Division of Macmillan, Inc.
