Post by MrMeowMeow on Feb 5, 2004 3:19:28 GMT -5
alright, you may have noticed my incredibly awesome beatles icon i have been sporting for a while now.
If you don't know who these fellas are, you seriously need to get your head checked. This group is probably the most influential rock group of all time. They changed Rock 'n' Roll from solo singers like Elvis & Frank Sinatra, to a recognizable group.
All the way back in 1957 in Liverpool, England, a man you may know, John Lennon, bought himself a nice little guitar and started a group, titled The Quarrymen. After lots of changes by 1959 the lineup consisted of Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & a drummer by the name of Colin Hanton. In 1960, one of Lennon's classmates, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined up and suggested a name of The Beatles, this was to be contrasted to Buddy Holly's group, The Crickets. They added yet another member, Pete Best, and were settling in Europe. They became a pretty popular local act, but got kicked out of the country because Harrison was underage. The Bealtes went to Germany in 1961 and were recorded as back-up singers to Tony Sheridan, but then later released this as "new" Beatles material, very sneaky
. Sutcliffe left to persue an art career, but died of a brain hemmorage the next year. In 1961, The Beatles played clubs all over Britain becoming somewhat of an underground sensation. Soon, a record store owner, Brian Epstein, became the band's manager and tried to get them signed. On the 1st of January, 1962, The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records and got rejected because "guitar groups were on their way out." Then in May in the same year, they were signed with producer George Martin. Martin suggested that Pete Best be replaced, and the group brought in Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey) who was a well known local drummer. By October in the same year, their single, Love Me Do, hit the Top 20 in the U.K. It's rumored that this was because the manager bought 10,000 copies for himself to ensure they got some exposure. They soon became regulars on the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) and performed over fifty times between 1962-1964. In Febuary of 1963, The Beatles headed to the studio and recorded 10 songs in one day! This was all for their first album Please Please Me. Which was released in March, instantly becoming a hit staying at No.1 in Britain for 30 weeks. In November, after performing for the royal family, they released their 2nd album, With The Beatles. By the end of the year, they had sold over 2.5 million albums and had a lot of million-selling singles.
Word soon spread to the US about the Fab Four. The sister company to their label ignored their success, and instead their album re-titled Introducing the Beatles was picked up by Vee Jay Records and sold very well. But in 1964 their regular label was awarded all rights of Beatles' material, and production was stopped on the album, only to become one of the most counterfitted albums in history. In Jan of '64, Capitol released the first official American release Meet the Beatles. After a landmark 3 weekend stint on the Ed Sullivan show in Feb '64 (viewed by over 74 million people) "Beatlemania" had swept the nation. To captialize on their success, they released a comedy movie, then made the soundtrack to it. In July, they started their first North American tour, visiting 25 stadium dates. By the end of the year Beatles For Sale was in British, which was part of the label's plans to release a new album every 6 months. In 1965 they made yet another movie, Help! which naturally spawned the soundtrack album.
The Beatle's soon started taking their music more seriously, going from covers & upbeat pop love songs, to more experimental material, which was apparent in '65s Rubber Soul/i]. The next album uesterday...And Today was released in June of '66 and had a cover with the Fab Four surrounded by raw meat and butchered baby dolls. This was in protest against Capitols "butchery" of their albums in the U.S. market. Soon the cover was pulled and replaced with a tame one. The old ones are worth thousands though. More controversy came to them when Mr. Lennon claimed that they were "more popular than Jesus." Radio stations stopped playing their tunes, people began protesting. Meanwhile, the group was under the influence of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an indian guru. This relationship with eastern religion soon was common in '60s rock stars. This also led to experiment a bit with Indian music in their next few albums. Soon they started using drugs and all sorts of stuff.
After their release of Revolver in August 1966, they went on their final US tour. The band announced they were giving up on tours and concentrate on studio recordings. Rumors of a break up spread as they dissapeared from the public eye. They spent a lot of early 1967 in the studio then released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This groundbreaking album changed the way rock albums were created. It used all sorts of studio effects and placed an emphasis on the album as a whole, instead of singles. Later Sgt. Pepper's won 4 Grammys, including Best Album.
On August 27, 1967, their manager was found dead of a drug overdose. They didn't hire a new manager and were in complete control of themselves. Their first project without guidance from Epstein was The Magical Mystery Tour. Critics weren't too big on it, and this was the first sign of trouble for the group. They began recording a double album. The sessions were filled with tension as members often walked out, leaving the other members to record themselves. This ended up in what is almost always refered to as The White Album, but it's official title is The Beatles. In the same month Lennon released an album with his girl, Yoko Ono. An animated film was made after the song Yellow Submarine, but now the members were hardly speaking.
In January 1969, they began preparing to record their new album, tentatively titled Get Back. For an accompanying film, the Bealtes performed on the roof of their studio for their last live performance ever. Soon McCartney & Lennon got married. Despite conflict, they returned to the studio to record Abbey Road. By early 1970 each member was recording a solo album, but still denied rumors of a split. In America rumors spread that McCartney had been killed in a car accident, and was replaced by a look alike, but this was proved wrong soon enough.
They appointed a new buisness manager, Allen Kleink, who brought in Phil Spector to produce Get Back (Released in May 1970 as Let It Be). Specotr demanded that McCartney delay release of his solo efforts, and in anger, McCartney released his album, then announced he was quiting the group. This got the other 3 members upset because they wanted to record as a group while continuing their solo careers. McCartney sued and their label, Apple Records, became a financial & legal mess.
During the 70's they released their solo albums and not much else happened. Though in '73, they all contributed to Starr's song "I'm The Greatest" no reunion ever happened. All dreams of that were shattered when a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, shot and killed Lennon outside of his NY appartment.
Interest in the group remained high until the 90's. Soon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr & Ono settled contractual disagreements, permitting re-release of long unvailable material. In 1995 the remaining members came together for all sorts of documentries and whatnot. Then 3 1996 double-album releases, Beatles Anthology 1,2 & 3 sold over 15 million copies in less than a year.
Im looking foward to this sunday for the Grammys, since they are doing an all-star tribute to The Beatles which is bound to be great
anyways, i discovered their music, thanks to Suprnova, I downloaded The White Album, which is hailed as their greatest work, after hearing a lot about them over the years. At first it didn't sound like anything I had heard before, so I wasn't too fond of it the first listen. Then I listened to it more and more and it just got better everytime. So fast foward to a couple of weeks later and I got their entire collection. I've listened to I think every song (192 in total i believe) and it's all amazing stuff. I can see why these guys were so insanely popular. I don't think there is a single song that I don't like it's all great stuff.
So if for some reason, you've never heard their stuff, I would suggest a listen
I'm planning on slowly buying all of their albums to keep throughout the years
If you don't know who these fellas are, you seriously need to get your head checked. This group is probably the most influential rock group of all time. They changed Rock 'n' Roll from solo singers like Elvis & Frank Sinatra, to a recognizable group.
All the way back in 1957 in Liverpool, England, a man you may know, John Lennon, bought himself a nice little guitar and started a group, titled The Quarrymen. After lots of changes by 1959 the lineup consisted of Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & a drummer by the name of Colin Hanton. In 1960, one of Lennon's classmates, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined up and suggested a name of The Beatles, this was to be contrasted to Buddy Holly's group, The Crickets. They added yet another member, Pete Best, and were settling in Europe. They became a pretty popular local act, but got kicked out of the country because Harrison was underage. The Bealtes went to Germany in 1961 and were recorded as back-up singers to Tony Sheridan, but then later released this as "new" Beatles material, very sneaky
. Sutcliffe left to persue an art career, but died of a brain hemmorage the next year. In 1961, The Beatles played clubs all over Britain becoming somewhat of an underground sensation. Soon, a record store owner, Brian Epstein, became the band's manager and tried to get them signed. On the 1st of January, 1962, The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records and got rejected because "guitar groups were on their way out." Then in May in the same year, they were signed with producer George Martin. Martin suggested that Pete Best be replaced, and the group brought in Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey) who was a well known local drummer. By October in the same year, their single, Love Me Do, hit the Top 20 in the U.K. It's rumored that this was because the manager bought 10,000 copies for himself to ensure they got some exposure. They soon became regulars on the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) and performed over fifty times between 1962-1964. In Febuary of 1963, The Beatles headed to the studio and recorded 10 songs in one day! This was all for their first album Please Please Me. Which was released in March, instantly becoming a hit staying at No.1 in Britain for 30 weeks. In November, after performing for the royal family, they released their 2nd album, With The Beatles. By the end of the year, they had sold over 2.5 million albums and had a lot of million-selling singles.Word soon spread to the US about the Fab Four. The sister company to their label ignored their success, and instead their album re-titled Introducing the Beatles was picked up by Vee Jay Records and sold very well. But in 1964 their regular label was awarded all rights of Beatles' material, and production was stopped on the album, only to become one of the most counterfitted albums in history. In Jan of '64, Capitol released the first official American release Meet the Beatles. After a landmark 3 weekend stint on the Ed Sullivan show in Feb '64 (viewed by over 74 million people) "Beatlemania" had swept the nation. To captialize on their success, they released a comedy movie, then made the soundtrack to it. In July, they started their first North American tour, visiting 25 stadium dates. By the end of the year Beatles For Sale was in British, which was part of the label's plans to release a new album every 6 months. In 1965 they made yet another movie, Help! which naturally spawned the soundtrack album.
The Beatle's soon started taking their music more seriously, going from covers & upbeat pop love songs, to more experimental material, which was apparent in '65s Rubber Soul/i]. The next album uesterday...And Today was released in June of '66 and had a cover with the Fab Four surrounded by raw meat and butchered baby dolls. This was in protest against Capitols "butchery" of their albums in the U.S. market. Soon the cover was pulled and replaced with a tame one. The old ones are worth thousands though. More controversy came to them when Mr. Lennon claimed that they were "more popular than Jesus." Radio stations stopped playing their tunes, people began protesting. Meanwhile, the group was under the influence of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an indian guru. This relationship with eastern religion soon was common in '60s rock stars. This also led to experiment a bit with Indian music in their next few albums. Soon they started using drugs and all sorts of stuff.
After their release of Revolver in August 1966, they went on their final US tour. The band announced they were giving up on tours and concentrate on studio recordings. Rumors of a break up spread as they dissapeared from the public eye. They spent a lot of early 1967 in the studio then released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This groundbreaking album changed the way rock albums were created. It used all sorts of studio effects and placed an emphasis on the album as a whole, instead of singles. Later Sgt. Pepper's won 4 Grammys, including Best Album.
On August 27, 1967, their manager was found dead of a drug overdose. They didn't hire a new manager and were in complete control of themselves. Their first project without guidance from Epstein was The Magical Mystery Tour. Critics weren't too big on it, and this was the first sign of trouble for the group. They began recording a double album. The sessions were filled with tension as members often walked out, leaving the other members to record themselves. This ended up in what is almost always refered to as The White Album, but it's official title is The Beatles. In the same month Lennon released an album with his girl, Yoko Ono. An animated film was made after the song Yellow Submarine, but now the members were hardly speaking.
In January 1969, they began preparing to record their new album, tentatively titled Get Back. For an accompanying film, the Bealtes performed on the roof of their studio for their last live performance ever. Soon McCartney & Lennon got married. Despite conflict, they returned to the studio to record Abbey Road. By early 1970 each member was recording a solo album, but still denied rumors of a split. In America rumors spread that McCartney had been killed in a car accident, and was replaced by a look alike, but this was proved wrong soon enough.
They appointed a new buisness manager, Allen Kleink, who brought in Phil Spector to produce Get Back (Released in May 1970 as Let It Be). Specotr demanded that McCartney delay release of his solo efforts, and in anger, McCartney released his album, then announced he was quiting the group. This got the other 3 members upset because they wanted to record as a group while continuing their solo careers. McCartney sued and their label, Apple Records, became a financial & legal mess.
During the 70's they released their solo albums and not much else happened. Though in '73, they all contributed to Starr's song "I'm The Greatest" no reunion ever happened. All dreams of that were shattered when a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, shot and killed Lennon outside of his NY appartment.
Interest in the group remained high until the 90's. Soon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr & Ono settled contractual disagreements, permitting re-release of long unvailable material. In 1995 the remaining members came together for all sorts of documentries and whatnot. Then 3 1996 double-album releases, Beatles Anthology 1,2 & 3 sold over 15 million copies in less than a year.
Im looking foward to this sunday for the Grammys, since they are doing an all-star tribute to The Beatles which is bound to be great
anyways, i discovered their music, thanks to Suprnova, I downloaded The White Album, which is hailed as their greatest work, after hearing a lot about them over the years. At first it didn't sound like anything I had heard before, so I wasn't too fond of it the first listen. Then I listened to it more and more and it just got better everytime. So fast foward to a couple of weeks later and I got their entire collection. I've listened to I think every song (192 in total i believe) and it's all amazing stuff. I can see why these guys were so insanely popular. I don't think there is a single song that I don't like it's all great stuff.
So if for some reason, you've never heard their stuff, I would suggest a listen
I'm planning on slowly buying all of their albums to keep throughout the years 
