Biography of The Beatles

The most successful and significant rock group in history, The Beatles were formed in Liverpool, England, in the late '50s by John Lennon (b.Oct 9, 1940 - d.Dec 8, 1980), Paul McCartney (b.June 18, 1942), and George Harrison (b.Feb 25, 1943). Ringo Starr (b.July 7, 1940) joined the group in 1962 in time for their first formal recordings. The Beatles ingested every popular music style of their day -- the raucous rock & roll of Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, the more sophisticated pop/rock of Buddy Holly, the soul of Motown and the Phil Spector-produced girl groups, the pop/R&B of The Isley Brothers and Larry Williams, the country-rock style of Carl Perkins, the pop-schmaltz of Broadway show tunes -- and synthesized them into a style of their own. And that was only the beginning. By a year or so into their recording career, The Beatles had begun to throw off their influences and forge new directions in popular music.They were also, at the outset, the teenage heartthrobs of their day. "Beatlemania" struck Great Britain in 1963 and the rest of the world in 1964 and, in a sense, never let up throughout the rest of the '60s. Though the teen-phenomenon aspect of their career became less intense in 1966 (by which time, inevitably, new teen dreams had cropped up), The Beatles made a successful transition to an older audience without sacrificing longtime fans. In part this was because they were so successful that they redefined the terms of success in the music business, and in part it was because they managed to be on top of, if not ahead of, popular trends. Unlike even the most successful musical artists, who tend to achieve a number of hits in a given style and then base their reputations and their careers on that, The Beatles changed rapidly and went from success to success. Their early records were short, bouncy tunes of love, filled with harmony and exuberance. But by late 1964, melancholy and doubt had begun to surface, along with an increased musical sophistication and the use of different instrumentation. By 1965, their style had expanded to include the timeless ballad "Yesterday," performed with a string quartet, and the band that released the single "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" in 1967 was almost unidentifiable, in appearance as well as music, as the lovable moptops of 1964. The only thing the two had in common was that the music was still amazingly good.Though the Beatles defined yet another genre of music -- "art-rock" -- with their work of 1967, they returned to a simpler style in their final years of existence, albeit one that gave greater space to the individual talents of the band members. The formula sound of The Beatles was long gone by 1968, replaced by four different, imaginative musicians still moving in new directions. Unfortunately, the evident musical differences were mirrored in personal and business differences, and The Beatles broke up in 1970.The music, however, remains, and just as The Beatles absorbed the styles they heard while growing up, so a generation of musicians has grown up absorbing The Beatles, and their influence is palpable in virtually every rock record made since. ~ William Ruhlmann

Biography of Tony Hall

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