Everyone knows who the Beatles are, right? If you don't, think about the song Yellow Submarine. Yes that was done by The Beatles! Now that you have some idea of who The Beatles are, time for the Crash Course in The Beatles!
Richard "Ringo Starr" Starky was born on July 7th 1940, in the family home on 9 Madyrn Street, Dingle, in Liverpool. John Winston Lennon is the second oldest member of the band being born on October 9, 1940 at Oxford Maternity Hospital in Liverpool. The second youngest in the band was James Paul McCartney. He was born on June 18, 1942 at Walton General Hospital in Liverpool. The youngest, but still talented, member of The Beatles is George Harrison. Mr. Harrison was born on February 25, 1943 in the family home, 12 Arnold Grove, in Liverpool.
Although they were all born around the same time it was July 6th 1957 that John Lennon and Paul McCartney would meet at St. Peter's Church Garden Fete, when the Quarry Men, a group that Mr. Lennon formed. After meeting each other and talking for a while, they found that they shared many interests, music being one of them. Paul joined the band. In September of 1957, John Lennon started studying at the Liverpool College of Art.
When the Quarry Men preformed at the Winston Hall, in Liverpool, on February 6, 1958, George Harrison decided to join the Quarry Men. Three of the Beatles members have come together in a band. During the Audition period for the Carrol Levis show, they changed the name for the band to Johnny and the Moondogs. On October 31st, 1959, they lost the Carrol Levis finals. In May of 1960, the Quarry Men (A.K.A. Johnny and the Moondogs) change their name, once again, to The Silver Beatles. The Silver Beatles' first professional preformance wasn't until June 2nd of that same year. On August 18, 1960, the band changed its name once more. The Beatles are now in existence and preformed in Hamburg, Germany.
Between the time that Ringo Starr joined the band on August 18, 1962, a whole world opened up before the Beatles. They tried many record companies, only to be turned down. It's not until June 4th that they officially sign a record deal with Parlophone/E.M.I. On October 27th of that same year one of the Beatles singles, Love Me Do, enters the 48th spot on Melody Maker hit parade.
In December of 1963, the British Beatles Fan Club peaks at 80,000 members. Also in that time frame The Beatles get raving reviews like one London Times music critic names The Beatles "outstanding English composers of 1963." or The Sunday Times critic declares them "greatest composers since Beethoven."
In January of 1964, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" becomes the fastest selling British single in America: 500,000 units of the record are sold in the States within the first 10 days. On February 7th, Beatlemania is decared. If one had been listening to Juke Box around that time, one would have heard Beatles songs one after the other.
Everything was going well for The Beatles until Ringo Starr collapses from Tonsillitis and Pharyngitis. While Ringo was being treated Jimmy Nicol stepped in for the drummer. On December 1st Ringo Starr has his tonsils removed at the University College Hospital in London .
October 16, 1965 is a date that all of the Beatles fans will remember. It was then that the Beatles went to Buckingham Palace and received Member of the Order of British Empire medals.
It seemed that nothing could stop the storm that was the Beatles until August 27, 1967. On that date, Brian Epstein (the band's manager) dies due to a drug overdose of sleeping pills. John Lennon later lamented: "The Beatles were finished when Eppy died. I knew, deep inside me, that that was it. Without him, we'd had it."
The winding down of the group was slow. August 20, 1967 was the last date that the Beatles would record together as a group. August 22 was the last photo session of the group. The real kicker that sealed the groups disbandment was September 20th of that same year, when John Lennon left the group. Paul McCartney left the group April 10th, 1970. It wasn't until January 9th, 1975 that the band would be totally and utterly dissolved.
It seems that John Lennon was the one who started the Beatles with his Quarry Men. There aren't many bands that reach the status that the Beatles reached so it should only seem fitting that John Lennon gets the last say. The depth of the Beatles song writing, or of John and Paul's contribution to the Beatles, in the late sixties was more pronounced; it had a more mature, more intellectual -- whatever you want to call it -- approach. "We were different. We were older. We knew each other on all kinds of levels that we didn't when we were teenagers. The early stuff -- the "Hard Day's Night" period -- was the sexual equivalent of the beginning hysteria of a relationship. And the "Sgt. Pepper - Abbey Road" period was the mature part of the relationship. And maybe, had we gone on together, maybe something interesting would have come of it."-- Quoted directly from a Playboy interview: "John Lennon & Yoko Ono - the Final Testament" , August 1981, by G. Barry Golson, published by Berkley Publishers.
