The Beatles years of existence. The Beatles: brief biography, composition of The Beatles, history

The group was formed in 1959 in Liverpool, UK. John Lennon (full name John Winston Lennon, 10/09/1940, Liverpool - 12/08/1980, New York) - vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards Paul McCartney (full name James Paul McCartney, 06/18/1942, Liverpool) - vocals, bass -guitar, guitar, keyboards George Harrison (02/25/1943, Liverpool) - vocals, guitar, sitar, keyboards Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey, 07/07/1940, Liverpool) - vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards.

History biography of The Beatles

The lineup above is not the original lineup of the band, but is the lineup of those the world knows as The Beatles. Volumes have been written about the impact of this group not only on the minds, hearts and souls, but also on the politics, economics, morality and culture of mankind. The task of the encyclopedia is a comprehensive story about the creative path of the performer, regardless of its advantages and disadvantages.

First of all, it should be noted that the first drummer of the group was not Pete Best, as is commonly believed, but Tommy Moore, a close friend of Joe Lennon. True, he did not last long, but, nevertheless, historical justice must be restored. Moreover, John himself considered him the original drummer of his group.

The future Beatles were born and raised in Liverpool, a place where in the late fifties the influence of American popular music was almost stronger than in the British capital. John Lennon was already performing in the amateur skiffle group The Quarrymen when he met Paul McCartney at a picnic held on July 6, 1957 - formally, this day should be considered the date of birth of The Beatles. Paul was invited to the group, and from the very first days the couple began to write their own things (it was during that period that they composed “The One After 909”, included in the last studio album “Let It Be”), which was a phenomenon uncharacteristic for those years : usually performers used either ready-made material, or composers wrote music to order for them.

By the end of 1957, McCartney had persuaded Lennon to accept George Harrison into the group - whose name had by then changed to Johnny And The Moondogs. The following year, John invited Stu Sutcliffe, his art college classmate, to take over as bass player. Sutcliffe did not know how to play any musical instrument at all, but shortly before John’s invitation he successfully sold one of his paintings, and the proceeds went to purchase equipment for The Silver Beatles (a couple of months later the word “silver” was dropped from the name). And only in August 1960 Pete Best appeared on stage, replacing Tommy Moore on drums.

With this lineup, The Beatles make their first four trips to Hamburg. In December 1960, Harrison was deported from Germany: firstly, as a minor, and secondly, he did not have a work permit. But all this happens after the group performed more than thirty performances in Hamburg beer halls (their repertoire then consisted mainly of songs by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly). In January 1961, The Beatles made their debut at the Cavern Club in Matthew Street, Liverpool, and played more than 300 concerts there over two years.

In April 1961, the group performed again in Hamburg - the new hairstyles of the four musicians (Satcliffe was the first to wear it) have since been known as “classic Beatles”. At the end of the Hamburg concerts, Sutcliffe left The Beatles and found work in a local art gallery. The group returns to their homeland, and a year later Stu Sutcliffe dies of a cerebral hemorrhage (04/10/1962, Hamburg).

At the end of 1961, Brian Epstein accidentally wandered into one of The Beatles’ concerts at the Cavern. Discharged from the army for health reasons, Brian Epstein, also a native of Liverpool, studied for a year at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London), and upon returning home, became the manager of his father's record store. Shortly before visiting the Cavern, Epstein received a request for the single “My Bonnie” released in Germany (which The Beatles recorded in Hamburg as the backing band for singer Tony Sheridan - for this studio project they took the name The Beat Boys). Epstein decided to personally verify the quality of the group, and was quite surprised to learn that The Beatles were not only not German, but also the most popular group in Liverpool. A month later he became the manager of The Beatles. First of all, Epstein changed the image of the musicians: instead of black leather jackets, The Beatles wore collarless jackets from Pierre Cardin (referred to throughout the world as “Beatles”); and whipped “cokes” a la Elvis Presley replaced long bangs.

When almost all European record companies rejected the music of The Beatles, Brian Epstein managed to win a contract with Parlophone, then part of EMI. In June 1962, producer George Martin (01/03/1926) listened to the group and signed a contract with The Beatles for a month.
On August 17, 1962, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison came to the conclusion that Pete Best could not cope with the duties of a drummer, and Best - at that time the only and undisputed sex symbol of the group - voluntarily (that is, without scandal) left the group. Literally a few days after the first audition in the Parlophone studio, Ringo Starr, who played in the second most popular Liverpool band Ron/Storme And The Hurricanes, was invited to take the place of drummer. On September 11, 1962, The Beatles recorded their first rock-heavy album, which included “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You”, which entered the national Top 20 in October of the same year.

At the beginning of 1963, the song “Please Please Me” took 2nd place in the UK charts, and on February 11, 1963, The Beatles’ debut album was recorded in just 13 hours. When the band's third single, "From Me To You," hit number one on the charts, the UK record industry acquired a new term: Merseybeat, that is, "rhythms from the banks of the River Mersey." The fact is that most of the groups who worked in a style similar to that of The Beatles - Gerry And The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer And The Dakotas and The Searchers - came from Liverpool, located on the Mersey River.

In the summer of 1963, The Beatles, who were supposed to open Roy Orbison's British concerts, turned out to be an order of magnitude higher in ratings than the Americans - it was then that the first signs of the phenomenon that received the term “Beatlemania” appeared. At the end of their first European tour (October 1963), The Beatles and their manager Epstein moved to London. Pursued by crowds of fans, The Beatles appear in public only under police protection. At the end of October of the same year, the single “She Loves You” became the most circulated record in the history of the gramophone industry in Great Britain, and in November 1963, The Beatles performed in front of the Queen Mother.

Capitol Records, the American branch of EMI, was wary of the group's success and, just in case, did not release a single record dating back to 1963 (George Martin negotiated with independent companies Vee Jay and Swans, but did not achieve success). In the end, Capitol Records management risked reprinting The Beatles' fourth single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and also releasing a “long play.” So American listeners received the disc “Meet The Beatles” (identical to the second British album “ With The Beatles"), this happened in January 1964.

Capitol invested only $50,000 in The Beatles' American tour, and on February 7, 1964, the group was greeted by several thousand American fans at New York's Kennedy Airport, and on February 9 and 16, more than 70 million television viewers watched The Beatles perform on Ed Sullivan's program . In April 1964, the song "Can't Buy Me Love" simultaneously topped the charts in England and the United States - in the same month, The Beatles took all the top five lines on the Billboard chart (with the songs: "Can 't Buy Me Love", "Twist And Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me").

The premiere of the first film with the participation of The Beatles (Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester) took place in the United States in August 1964 - the first week of rental brought in revenue of $1.3 million. Everyone who could make money from the group - they produced Beatles wigs, sewed clothes a la the Beatles, stamped Beatles dolls - in short, everything to which the magic word "Beatles" could be attached turned into a horn abundance. However, “thanks to” Epstein’s financial inexperience, the musicians had virtually nothing to do with the frantic exploitation of their image. The Beatles spearheaded the "British Invasion" (see BRITISH INVASION), paving the way for groups such as the Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks to enter the American market.

By 1965, Lennon and McCartney were no longer writing songs together, although under the terms of the contract - and by mutual agreement - the song of each of them was considered a joint work. In 1965, The Beatles toured Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East. The second film with their participation, “Help!” (“Help!”, directed by Richard Lester) was filmed in England, Austria and the Bahamas in the spring of 1965; The film premiered in the United States in August of the same year. On August 15, 1965, The Beatles performed to 55,000 people at New York's Shea Stadium, setting a rock concert attendance record. Paul McCartney's composition “Yesterday” (1st month, 1965), written at that time, is still the most popular in the repertoire of more than 500 performers. In June 1965, “for their outstanding contribution to the prosperity of Great Britain,” Korolev awarded the musicians the Order of the British Empire - the event was received ambiguously, but on October 26, the award ceremony still took place at Buckingham Palace (in 1969, John Lennon returned his order).

The release of the album “Rubber Soul” marked new stage in the work of The Beatles and going beyond the pop formula, which then came down to the simplest equation: a beautiful melody + love lyrics = success. The Beatles and Bob Dylan attracted an adult audience to rock music, which previously considered it beneath their dignity to listen to simple songs “about love” - both The Beatles and Dylan became a kind of mouthpiece for the post-war generation, the group’s lyrics became more and more poetically mature and, often, more political.

In the summer of 1966, John Lennon caused a scandal by declaring: “Christianity will sooner or later become obsolete. It will shrink and disappear. There is no point in arguing about this - I am right, and the future will show that I am right. We are already more popular than Jesus Christ.” The last phrase led to mass burnings of the group's records, and, after some time, Lennon was forced to apologize to everyone whose feelings he had offended.

On August 29, 1966, in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, The Beatles gave their last concert and focused on experiments in the studio (the starting point, apparently, should be considered the composition “Norwegian Wood”, 1965, where the “exotic” instrument of the sitar was first heard ), the first result of which was “Rain” released backwards in front of the tracks. And such things as “Taxman” and “Love You To”, included in the album “Revolver”, testified to the growth of George Harrison as a composer.

To record the disc “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" required $75,000 and four months of painstaking studio work using such new technologies as four-track tape recorders and overdubbing devices. Released in June 1967, the album became a powerful argument in favor of the fact that rock is a very serious conceptual art, and the record itself - its harmonic scale, lyrics, superimposed noises - became the subject of study by serious scholars; some, however, looked for encrypted messages, and found them, for example, in such things as “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” or “A Day In The Life”. On June 25, 1967, The Beatles appeared on a teleconference broadcast that was watched by more than 200 million viewers.

And the recording of “Sergeant” itself deserves a separate story. How about we start it off with “It was thirty years ago today”? Because when you listen to “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club” today, it seems as if this particular record has preserved that glorious era: good, evil, illusions, self-deception - where else has all this found a clearer and more tangible embodiment?! Put a record on the player (or a tape on the tape recorder), and your room will be filled with cute ghosts, half-forgotten dreams; a secret closet of your memory will open, and Rita and Lucy will come out of it, another waltz round, and you are not yet sixty-four, and your shirt is immaculately white and crunchy like March snow... But we digress. So what is the value of "Sergeant"? This record is the Red Book of a vanished virtue - the virtue with which pop music began: love, friendship and, of course, musical progressiveness. This is precisely why The Beatles attract today's youth, who were born after the breakup of the group: the lack of soul in society is compensated for in magical land named The Beatles. By 1967, The Beatles were already fully formed musically and morally to make the Main Statement.

Even their very first works brought new chords and harmonies to rock; in this regard, they were so rich that by 1965 they began to be attracted to, so to speak, a large form, that is, a thematic album. The album “Help” was still, in fact, just a set of songs - great songs, to be sure, but “Rubber Soul” already offered the listener a structure that united all the compositions of the record, while the grace of its implementation spoke of a transition to true mastery. The record also testified to the complication of sound recording technology; subsequently, this symbiosis - the talent of the performers and technical advances studio employees - became a distinctive sign of The Beatles. Revolver, with its back-of-the-house guitar lines and other studio extravagances, heralded an era of technical wonders in pop music, and The Beatles themselves found themselves in the role of founding fathers. But, as it turned out, complicated studio recording also had its negative sides: while preparing for the next American tour, the musicians found out that it was not possible to adequately reproduce the new songs in a concert performance, and when the tour ended, The Beatles decided not to perform again. Having resolved the issue with concerts, The Beatles completely focused on studio work, and who at the end of 1966 could have guessed where their imagination would take them?

Recording of Sgt. Pepper began on November 24, 1966, when The Beatles gathered at the EMI complex at 3 Abbey Road in London. Producer George Martin and new sound engineer Geoff Imerick were present. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, The Beatles and the studio team recorded three new songs: "When I'm 64," "Strawbury Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane." The first was a typical music hall number and was written in the traditional McCartney style, with a “layer” of two clarinets and a bass clarinet. The other two were something new: both were born from childhood memories, and each vividly reflected the personality of its author. “Penny Lane,” which Paul wrote, was about a small street in the suburb of Liver Bullet - the composition is exquisitely casual and somewhat self-conscious, as if Paul was embarrassed by his nostalgia for childhood. "Strawbury Fields for the Ages" is John's work. This song is about the Strawberry Fields Asylum, located in a gloomy old house, the memories of which will live forever in the hearts of its former inhabitants. The composition also turned out to be gloomy - here The Beatles used a mellotron for the first time - but much more philosophical than “Penny Lane”. Nevertheless, both of these songs revealed a new layer of John and Paul's composing talent. “I was shocked by these things,” says George Martin. - It was absolutely clear that the boys had matured very creatively: “Revolver” was already very complex in musically, but these two songs testified to something fundamentally new.”

In mid-January 1967, the English hit parade was topped by the composition “I Believe!” American group Monkees, the phenomenal guitarist Jimi Hand Ricks appeared out of nowhere - his interpretation of the popular song “Hey Joe” gained worldwide fame. The Beatles, meanwhile, remained silent, which alarmed EMI executives, and the company decided to release a forty-five with two songs intended for the new album - they chose “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields” forever.” However, George Martin and Brian Epstein did not want these songs, already leaked into the broadcast system, to be duplicated on the album: “Listeners in those days were very frugal,” Martin recalls, “very reluctant to pay for songs they had already heard at forty-five. Today this seems absurd - any group includes a successful composition on a record, in fact, that’s why it exists - forty-five: it’s like a run-in of the song.” And yet, “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” were snatched from the very heart of “Sergeant”, and on February 17 the record went on sale. The Beatles never struggled in search of musical material; by the end of March they had written five more songs - at that stage they were called “Rita from the Gas Pump,” “One Day in the Life,” “Good Morning,” “She’s Leaving Home.” " and "Sgt. Pepper's Blues."

The first of those who did not participate in the recording to hear the new music was Alan Livingston, head of Capitol Records, the American branch of EMI. Livingston arrived in London for a regular meeting of the company's board of directors, he was invited to the studio on Abbey Road: “When I arrived, “The Day...” was playing. "What is this?! - I asked. -Who performs this?!” I couldn’t believe that this was possible, such beauty. I was shocked". “One Day in the Life” is truly stunning, although the five other tracks (including “When I’m 64”) are hardly album ballast - each of them represented a completely new take on the lyrics, musical harmonies, sound design. But, perhaps, the most important thing - especially from the “height” of the technically sophisticated nineties - is how naturally, easily, some would say - primitively - they were mounted. When recording “Sergeant,” they did not use synthesizers or devices for selecting harmonies and obtaining test recordings, but now they are included in the studio equipment of any group. The songs were recorded on four-track machines; now they seem ridiculous compared to the devices used even by amateurs. From the point of view of modern technology, when forty-eight-track machines are used to edit a record, the recording of “Sergeant Pepper” looks like a complete gamble, and yet the record contains music the like of which rock music has not yet created. “We had to invent our own devices,” recalls George Martin. - It was as if some frantic spirit of improvisation was hovering over the equipment. And it’s not that John and Paul wrote great things, it’s just that the inspiration from them ignited others, and vice versa.

Paul was always more specific than John when he talked about his ideas. John could spend hours discussing what effect this or that musical phrase should cause, while Paul simply sat down at the instrument and began to weave a lace of melodies. He asked: “Is this what you meant? No? Then maybe it’s like that?” - and continued to work until he found the most accurate solution. John's "quantitative" contribution to the record was not that big, but qualitatively, so to speak, it was huge. And Paul understood this. At that time the boys generally got along very well. And we all felt that we were participating in the creation of something truly great.” To achieve the quavering piano sound in McCartney's "Charming Rita" ("Gas Station Rita"), Martin wrapped the tonwallen in duct tape, resulting in a distorted recording. He then mixed it with a direct signal from the piano, thus creating a kind of “underwater” sound that later became characteristic of psychedelic compositions. To record Lennon's song " Good morning“Martin turned over the EMI music library and made a real orchestration of sounds... of domestic animals: the insert begins with a hound hunting and ends with the cackling of a chicken, which suddenly turns into a guitar chord. However, the core of the record was the composition “One Day in the Life,” the only Beatles song truly composed of two completely different songs - one written by Lennon, the other ( middle part) - McCartney. “The impressive orchestration was Paul's idea,” says Martin. “He was still so naive then that he suggested: “Let’s invite a symphony orchestra and let the guys play whatever they want.” I said that if ninety "guys" started playing whatever they wanted, it probably wouldn't sound good. Therefore, the nightmare has yet to be arranged.”

Unlike the carefree Paul, George Martin had an idea of ​​the budget and persuaded McCartney to cut the orchestra by at least half. After a long and tedious negotiation, Paul agreed to 42 musicians - the Beatles had never recorded with such a team. Paul hinted to Martin that the orchestra members would feel unusual in the atmosphere of complete chaos, which usually reigned in any place where Lennon and McCartney visited for at least five minutes. When Martin asked him to speak clearly, Paul said that it would be nice for the orchestra members to come in tails. Martin shrugged his shoulders, muttering that he had never encountered such idiocy, but he ordered the tailcoats.
And then respectable symphony musicians came to the studio, and they were asked to play a carefully thought-out abracadabra, that is, the exact opposite of what they had been performing their entire adult lives. At first they refused, but they were finally persuaded to try, and on the third attempt something impressive came out - such a cacophony had never been seen in pop music.

Mick Jagger, who was present at the recording, hugged Paul and said that he had never heard such a “chic nightmare”. The finale, which they recorded without mixing, was no less impressive: Martin and four Beatles sat down at concert grand pianos and simultaneously played the same chord. When the sound began to fade, Geoff Imerick, who was in the control room, increased the recording level - and the impression was created that the chord was floating in eternity, which rock storms to this day. But Paul’s whistle, which ends the record, is heard only by dogs (“We’ve never written anything for animals before,” he said later).

Somewhere in mid-February, the Beatles began to think about the design of the envelope. One of my friends suggested we try American artists Jane and Peter Blake. “By the time The Beatles had recorded about half the material,” Blake recalls, “it was already clear that the record would be called Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club.” The idea of ​​the album is a concert, a real concert with an overture and a finale, and each of the “Sgt. Pepper Bands” performed their own song. I think they even had a uniform ready - they decided that this is what Sgt. Pepper's band should look like. I thought it would be nice to photograph them against the backdrop of a huge crowd, consisting of great personalities, celebrities, literary characters, and heroes of folk tales...

I made a list of those I intended to photograph. The Beatles rejected everyone and began to make their own lists: John and Paul did not ignore the generals, and George wanted to be photographed in front of two hundred of his familiar gurus. Ringo messed around for two days, then said, “I approve of everyone else’s choices in advance.” At the end the list was ready. Lennon had to be persuaded for a long time to cross out Christ, because the company’s management was afraid of trouble from the church. Peter and Jane spent two weeks preparing the set: they cut out images from magazines and books, enlarged them to human height using a pantograph, and recreated accurate portraits. Then they were installed on special brackets, and the “heads” of the last row were glued onto a blue background. Then Blake asked everyone to bring their favorite items,” and Lennon brought out a portable television (“For some reason he decided that we could not do without a television,” says Blake), a rag snake and a heavy bust of an unknown Roman patrician. Harrison stood on a Buddhist idol, and Ringo somewhere got hold of a huge doll wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum kindly provided copies of the Beatles themselves and wax figure American boxer Sonny Liston.

Then we agreed on the delivery of flowers, which were to cover the entire foreground. At the very last moment Paul decided to give each of them a wind instrument. “The orchestra must have trumpets,” he said. The music store barely managed to avoid a scandal - there was only enough money for three trumpets, and Paul, in desperation, tried to pull off the horn. Thank God, the owner of the shop turned out to be a fanatical fan of The Beatles, and the case did not receive wide publicity. Then we got a bass drum, and we could start filming.

The first attempt ended in a complete fiasco: Ringo was attacked by a fit of laughter and could not be calmed down for a long time, but when he finally calmed down, it turned out that his mustache was of different lengths. This discovery amused Paul so much that he fell on Marilyn Monroe and broke her at the waist. The enraged photographer, it was the famous master Michael Cooper, said that this was the first time he had met such crazy clients. Then it turned out that the wrong flowers had arrived: Jane had agreed on field daisies, they turn out very bright in photographs and practically do not require retouching, in addition, daisies do not wither for a long time. Instead, faded forest hyacinths arrived, and the entire shipment had to be rejected. Finally they brought daisies, but there were too few of them to grow in the foreground. One of the assistants suggested laying them out in the shape of a guitar, and “the result was an object that didn’t look much like a bone,” Jane is still indignant. The shooting had to be postponed until the next day - all night George devoted Ringo to the secrets of Indian auto-training, and by morning Starr completely stopped reacting to reality. Finally, everyone gathered in the pavilion, the maestro clung to the viewfinder and... “Ringo broke into an idiotic smile,” Harrison recalls. - John didn’t hold back here: he raised his trumpet and played the royal anthem. The photographer automatically stretched out, tangled his head in his black rag and turned the camera over. It started like this... I thought he was going to kill John.”

On the third attempt, the shooting was a success - both sides of the envelope and the spread were photographed, but the unexpected happened: one of the real-life heroes of the crowd demanded a reward for reproducing his skinny figure. He was politely refused and the cardboard was replaced... with a living Cassius Clay - the famous boxer, who was traveling around England at that time, was as happy as a child, and was ready to pay extra for the opportunity to act with the Beatles. Rumors that The Beatles were recording a new album leaked to the press, and due to someone's heavy hand, everyone started talking about the drugs that the musicians allegedly used to spur their creative imagination. (When the record went on sale, the unusualness of the music, or its “weirdness”, as the most orthodox critics insisted, became for the gullible another argument in favor of drugs.) Martin speaks very categorically on this issue: “The co-authors of Sgt. Pepper were non-human hard work and true talent. There were no drugs, I’m saying this, George Martin, they were invented by those who still hate boys for their unconventional thinking.”

How were the other dogs or “Sergeant” created? Jenny Boyd, Harrison's daughter-in-law, was interested in Indian philosophers at that time; in one book she remembered the line: “Life goes on with you and without you.” The phrase flashed through a conversation with George, and, as they say, the rest was a matter of technique. Harrison's song "With You and Without You", which opens the second side of the record,
never liked Martin: “I respect George very much, but sometimes he gets carried away...”

But the musical challenge posed by the Indian school of harmony European traditions, attracted Martin the composer, and he decided to record: George himself played the sitar, and his two friends from the London Association of Indian Music played the tabla and dilruba (tabla is a type of Indian national drum, dilruba is an instrument somewhat reminiscent of a violin ). Martin rearranged the middle section of the composition, incorporating European instruments that carried a sense of Indian melody - the result was an amusing "mechanical mixture," as Martin says, of "Eastern exoticism and Western puritanism." The second song on the record, “With the Help of My Friends,” was sung by Ringo. “Ringo is not the most outstanding vocalist in the world,” Martin smiles, “but his voice has so much charm and those rafts... And then, his friends really helped him: the vocal three-part voice of John, Paul and George sounds great.”

When making the matrix, Martin made another, rather risky decision for those times: in order to create the impression of integrity of the record, he abandoned the traditional three-second pauses between compositions: “Everyone tried to dissuade me, citing the fact that the listener would not be able to find the beginning of the song he liked. I told everyone to go to hell and said: “They will listen to the entire record, from the first groove to the escape groove on the second side - the boys created real music, not a bag of Easter hits!” And who was right?!”

At the end of May, The Beatles invited journalists to audition new job. All the eminent feathers of musical England gathered in Brian Epstein's apartment, and while the control copy of the record was being brought to condition - it turned out that it had been stamped without a central hole - they tormented Paul with questions about what he thought about the ban on the radio broadcast of "One Day in the Life" . (Even before the record was released, the BBC radio station banned the song: it was allegedly written under the influence of drugs.) Paul laughed: “You might as well ban Mozart: they say he and Salieri were drunk.” Finally Ringo poked a hole in the record and they put it on the turntable.

This is how Derek Taylor, one of the leading biographers of The Beatles and a close friend of the musicians, recalls his first impressions: “I “went” into music, like John into a dream (a line from last song on the record). When the needle came off the plastic, I saw Goldley, the Melody Maker music columnist, crying. And it seemed to me that my whole life had passed before me, from childhood to the present day.” “Life is really a very complicated thing,” Taylor continues, “and anyway, what is our life? Can you answer this question? Me not. And they did it. The Beatles did more: they showed it, and it turned out that in life there is not only love, which was glorified by pop music of the 60s, but also friendship and some other important things. Man is a mystery, who can argue, but how long can one sing about it? Man is omnipotent, and the Beatles were not afraid to say it. What about the new era of studio expressionism? They too. Are you saying that Sergeant Pepper is much more aware of the state of affairs in our nineties than we are? And then, then people were not as cynical as they are now, and the phrase “All you need is love!” sounded very sincere - we really needed love. There seems to be no demand for this product right now.”

November 24, 1966. Recording "Strawberry Fields Forever" - the song talks about a Salvation Army shelter in the suburbs of Liverpool. As a child, John and his aunt Mimicha walked in the garden of the orphanage. The words "cran berry sauce", given Lennon's pronunciation, can be heard as "I buried Paul", which gave rise to rumors about McCartney's death and his replacement by an anonymous musician. By the way, in the published lyrics of the song there are no words “cranberry sauce” - this is a character not only for The Beatles, but also for many other rock musicians: printed lyrics often differ from the phonograms.

December 10."When I'm 64" Paul wrote this song at the age of sixteen and dedicated it to his father, who was then 64 years old. “I thought she might be suitable for some kind of musical,” Paul later said. January 14, 1967 "Penny Lane" Paul introduced piccolo trumpets - he really liked their sound in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. As mentioned, neither "Strawberry Fields Forever" nor "Penny Lane" were included on Sgt. Pepper, but were included on The Beatles' next disc, The Magical Mystery Journey.

January 19."One day of life". The story is about a car accident in which Tara Browney, a great friend of the Beatles, died. When talking about the film, Lennon is referring to the film “How I Won the War,” in which he starred. John took the words “four thousand potholes” from the Daily Mail: an editorial about the deplorable state of roads in Lancashire.

1st of February."Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" The history of its appearance is still unclear, although, according to cameraman Mal Evans, a song about “salt and pepper” (“pepper” in English is pepper) was originally conceived.

February 16."Good morning". Lennon saw a morning commercial that talked about cornflakes, and the story became the basis for the song.

February 17.“Everyone for Mr. Kite’s benefit!” Lennon ripped the words of this song from a century-old circus poster, which he found in a village library in Kent.

February 21 - 22.“Crawling in a Hole” and “Charming Rita.” Both dogs were written by Paul. The first is McCartney's impressions of a children's cartoon about a mole who hides in his hole, not wanting to come into contact with reality. The second is about a girl from a gas station, whom Paul courted for a long time and unsuccessfully (“Rita-meter” is an Americanism, that is, this is Rita watching the gas meter).

2nd of March."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Lennon's song. Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones was the first to come up with the abbreviation LSD, and for a long time it was believed that the song was dedicated to this drug. John has repeatedly stated that this is what his son Julian called an abstract work by an artist he knew.

9th of March."Better and better". Paul's song. During the last American tour, Ringo's chronic tonsillitis worsened, and drummer Jimmy Nichol, who for some time - and very unsuccessfully - replaced Starr, visited the sick Ringo several times a day, saying these words. John can be heard saying in the background, "It can't get any worse."

March 15th."With and without you." George's song. The bass guitar part is performed by Klaus Voormann (Vurmann is an artist by training, he designed the sleeve of The Beatles album “Revolver”),

March 17."She's leaving the house." Paul's song. It is based on an article from the Daily Mirror, which described the breakdown of a successful family. John wrote some of the text.

30th of March."With the help of my friends." Paul's song was originally called "Boogie for a Sore Thumb". John and Paul wrote the lyrics together. Performed by Ringo. McCartney's whistle (frequency of approximately 15 kHz) is recorded on the escapement on the second side - the human ear practically does not perceive this sound, but pets react to it magnificently. On the track next to the label, a fragment of a meaningless phrase is written backwards.

August 27, 1967 The musicians retire to Wales, where they begin a six-month experiment with transcendental meditation, a course taught to them by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (at the beginning of 1968, he took the four to India for two months). At this time, Brian Epstein died in his London apartment from an overdose of sleeping pills (the coroner ruled his death accidental). Shaken by the death of their manager and friend, The Beatles became close again and, under the direction of Paul McCartney, filmed the television film Magical Mystery Tour. The film was first shown by a BBC program on December 26, 1967. Despite the dissatisfaction of critics, fans of the band and the Queen herself with the film, the album of the same name was a phenomenal success - it included two of the band’s most mysterious compositions: “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am The Walrus” (both written by John Lennon), the meaning of which is being tried the third generation of fans of The Beatles is guessing.

At the end of 1967, the single “Hello Goodbye” took first place in the charts in the UK and the USA - that’s when the first Apple Records boutique opened in London, selling “branded” clothing a la The Beatles. Paul McCartney wanted to call the network of such stores a “model of Eurocommunism,” but the enterprise quickly went bankrupt, and in July 1968 the store had to be closed. The Beatles' next business venture was the establishment of the conglomerate Apple Corps Ltd (January 1968), which included the record company Apple Records - Apple Corps Ltd signed contracts with James Taylor, Mary Hopkin and Badfinger, but weak management led to the collapse of the company. organizations.

The end of “Beatlemania” should probably be considered July 1968, when fans of the group staged mass marches for the last time. This happened immediately after the premiere animated film"Yellow Submarine" by German artist Heinz Edelmann, which featured four new Beatles songs. In August 1968, the single “Hey Jude” (author Paul McCartney) was released, the second side of which included Lennon’s “Revolution” - by the end of 1968, the single sold more than six million and is still considered one of the “most commercial” records in the world.

All this time, the musicians worked intensively on the next studio album- it was called simply “The Beatles”, but throughout the world this double disc is known as the “White”, or “Christmas Album”: by the color of the sleeve and the release date. This work, like no other, showed the complete divergence of the creative directions of musicians - John Lennon followed the path of hard guitar riffs on which his confessional songs were built (Lennon’s influence on the formation of riff structures of hard rock has not yet been studied, although his role here more than obvious), Paul McCartney declared himself as an inimitable melodist, George Harrison professed oriental musical aesthetics, and only Ringo Starr remained the very “beater” that he had been from the very beginning of his stay in the group, although it was his creative growth during this period was most noticeable. John Lennon increasingly “fused” with Yo-ko Ono, moving away from the group’s problems (their first joint album “Two Virgins” was released in the same month as the double “The Beatles”, hence the accusations against McCartt, who released his the first solo album was a few days earlier than the “Let It Be” disc, which allegedly caused the breakup of The Beatles, seems at least unsubstantiated).

The musicians tried to peacefully resolve their creative differences and at the beginning of 1969 they spent many hours filming and photographing in the studio, which was later supposed to be edited into a documentary film. The audio material was transferred to producer Phil Spector, but hot on its heels only one single, “Get Back,” was released, which took first place in the charts in Europe and America in the same 1969. Released in the spring of 1970, the film “Let It Be” turned out to be, in fact, a chronicle of the collapse of The Beatles - the film presented an improvisation concert on the roof of the Apple Corps Ltd office, in fact, the group’s very last performance in front of the public.

By the spring of 1969, Apple Records was losing thousands of pounds every week. Despite McCartney's objections, the three other musicians invited American lawyer Allen Clay to be the manager of the firm - his first business step was the decision to release singles as a separate disc, which had not previously been included in any of the group's albums. This is how the record “The Beatles Again” appeared (second title “Hey Jude”). Having slightly improved their financial situation, The Beatles recorded the album “Abbey Road” in two months - July-August 1969, which included one of the most replicated songs of ours. time "Something" (by George Harrison). After the album's release, the "Paul McCartney is Dead" rumors began to circulate again (they first began to circulate after the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, on the back cover of which McCartney is depicted with his back to the viewer): Paul crosses Abbey Road barefoot, while the rest of the musicians shod - this was enough for the old gossip to find a second wind. But despite all the rumors and ridiculous speculation, “Abbey Road” turned out to be the most successful disc of The Beatles.

The contradictions in the group became irreversible, and in September 1969 John Lennon said: “I'm leaving the group, I've had enough. Give me a divorce,” but he was persuaded not to make a public statement until all joint issues were resolved. On April 17, 1970, Paul McCartney's first solo album was released, and on the same day the musicians officially announced the breakup of The Beatles.

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the collapse of this great group - throughout the seventies, rumors periodically circulated about a reunion of The Beatles, and each time one of the “magnificent four” resolutely denied them. On December 8, 1980, it became clear that The Beatles had forever become part of the history of music and culture, and there could be no talk of any revival. The group's albums are re-released in millions of copies - two double collections of The Beatles ("blue" and "red"), released in CD format, again shook the hit parades around the world, where they remain to this day. And the next step, after which fans of The Beatles all over the world once again lined up for records of their eternal idols, was the release of three double “Anthologies”. And it seems that it is too early to put an end to this story.

Singlography (two numbers in brackets after the year of entry into the popularity charts indicate places in the US and UK hit parades, respectively):

Albums of the group

Love Me Do- 1962 (1; 17)

Please Please Me - 1963 (3; 2)

From Me To You - 1963 (41; 1)

She Loves You - 1963 (1; 1)

I Want To Hold Your Hand - 1963 (1; 1)

Can't Buy Me Love - 1964 (1; 1)

I Saw Her Standing There - 1964(14;-)

Twist And Shout - 1964 (2;-)

Do You Want To Know A Secret - 1964(2;-)

P.S. I Love You - 1964(10;-)

A Hard Day's Night - 1964 (1; 1)

Ain't She Sweet - 1964 (19; 29)

And I Love Her -1964 (12;-)

Matchbox - 1964 (17;-)

I Feel Fine-1964 (I; 1)

She's A Woman - 1964 (4;-)

Eight Days A Week - 1965 (1;-)

Ticket To Ride - 1965 (1; 1)

Help - 1965 (1; 1)

Yesterday (1;-)

Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out -
1965 (-;1)

Day Tripper - 1965 (5;-)
We Can Work It Out — 1966 (1;-)
Nowhere Man - 1966 (3;-)
Paperback Writer - 1966 (1; 1)
Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby - 1966 (-;1)

Yellow Submarine - 1966 (2;-)
Eleanor Rigby - 1966 (11;-)
Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever-1967 (-; 2)

Penny Lane - 1967 (1;-)

Strawberry Fields Forever - 1967(8;-)

All You Need Is Love - 1967 (1; 1)

Hello Goodbye - 1967(1; 1)

Magical Mystery Tour (EP) - 1967 (-; 2)

Lady Madonna - 1968(1; 1)

Hey Jude-1968(1; 1)

Revolution -1968(12;-)

Get Back- 1969(1; 1)

Ballad Of John And Yoko - 1969 (8; 1)

Something/Come Together - 1969 (-; 4)

Come Together/Something - 1969(1;-)

Let It Be -1970 (I; 2)
Long And Winding Road - 1970(1;-)
Yesterday - 1976 (-; 8)
Got To Get You Into My Life - 1976 (7;-)
Back In The U.S.S.R.- 1976(-;19)
Beatles Movie Medley - 1982 (12;9)
Love Me Do - 1982 (-; 4)

Yesterdsy - 1986 (1; 1)

Lady Madonna/Paperback Writer -1986(2; 7)

Get Back/Old Brown Shoe - 1993(3; 14)

Discography (UK):

The Beatles And Tony Sheridan (Contour/Reprise) - 1962

The Beatles Hits EP (Parlophone) - 1963

Twist And Shout EP (Parlophone) - 1963
Beatles No 1 EP (Parlophone) - 1963
Please Please Me (Parlophone - 1963
With The Beatles (Parlophone) - 1963
All My Lovin' EP (Parlophone) - 1964
Beatles Vs. The Four Seasons (Vee Jay) - 1964 Long Tall Sally EP (Parlophone) - 1964
Beatles And Frank Ifeld On Stage (Vee Jay) - 1964
Beatles With Tony Sheridan (MGM) – 1964
Hard Day's Night EP (Parlophone) -1964
Introducing The Beatles (Vee Jay) - 1964
A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone) - 1964
Hard Day's Night 2 EP (Parlophone) -1964
Beatles For Sale (Parlophone) - 1965
Beatles For Sale EP (Parlophone) - 1965
Beatles For Sale 2 EP (Parlophone) -1965
Million Sellers EP (Parlophone) - 1965
Help (Parlophone) - 1965
Yesterday EP (Parlophone) - 1965
Rubber Soul (Parlophone) - 1965
Revolver (Parlophone) - 1966
Amazing Beatles (Clarion) - 1966
Nowhere Man EP (Parlophone) - 1966
A Collection Of Beatles' Oldies (ButGoldies) (Parlophone) - 1966

Club Band (Parlophone) - 1967

Magical Mystery Tour EP
(Parlophone) - 1967

The Beatles (Parlophone) – 1968

Yellow Submarine (Parlophone) - 1969
Abbey Road (Parlophone) - 1969

Let It Be (Parlophone) – 1970
Hey Jude/The Beatles Again (Apple) – 1970

Beatles' Christmas Album (Apple) - 1970
From Then To You (Apple) - 1970

The Beatles 1962 - 1966
(Parlophone) - 1973

The Beatles 1967 – 1970 (Parlophone) - 1973

The Early Years (Electrola/Contour) - 1973

The Beatles First (Polydor) - 1974

In The Beginning (Polydor) - 1974

This Is Where It Started (Parlophone) - 1975

Rock'N'RoU Music (Parlophone) - 1976

Magical Mystery Tour LP
(Parlophone) - 1976

Beatles Tapes (Polydor) - 1976

The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl
(Parlophone) - 1977

Live At The Star Club Hamburg
(Bellaphon/Atlantic/RCA) - 1977

Love Songs (Parlophone) - 1977

Beatles Collection (Parlophone) - 1978 HeyJude (Parlophone) - 1979

Rarities (Parlophone) - 1979

The Beatles Ballads (Parlophone) - 1980

Beatles Box (W. Rec. Club) - 1980
Beatles EP Collection (Parlophone) -1981 Reel Music (Parlophone) - 1982

20 Greatest Hits (Parlophone) - 1982

Beatles Collection (Mobile Fid.) - 1982

Beatles At The Beeb (BBC) -1982

Past Masters Vol. 1 (EMI) - 1987

Past Masters Vol. 2 (EMI) – 1987

Help/Rubber Soul/Revolver (EMI) -1987

The Singles (EMI)-1991

The Beatles 1962 - 1967 (Apple) - 1993

The Beatles 1967-1970 (Apple) - 1993.

From Us To You: Live At The BBC (EMI) - 1994

The Beatles Anthology 1 (EMI) - 1995

The Beatles Anthology 2 (EMI) - 1996

The Beatles Anthology 3 (EMI) - 1996

Breadbin (Parlophone) - 1997

(US - excluding boxed set’OB and “pirated” collections):
Introducing The Beatles (Capitol) - 1963

Meet The Beatles (Capitol) - 1964

The Beatles' Second Album (Capitol) -1964

A Hard Day's Night (Capitol) - 1964

Something New (Capitol) - 1964

The Beatles Story (Capitol) - 1964

Beatles '65 (Capitol) – 1965

The Early Beatles (Capitol) - 1965

Beatles IY (Capitol) 1965
Help (Capitol)-1965

Rubber Soul (Capitol) - 1965

Yesterday And Today (Capitol) - 1966

Revolver (Capitol) - 1966

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band (Capitol) - 1967

Magical Mystery Tour (Capitol) - 1967
The Beatles
(Capitol) -1968 Yellow Submarine (Capitol) - 1969

Abbey Road (Capitol) - 1969

Hey Jude (Capitol) - 1970

Let It Be (Capitol) - 1970
The Beatles 1962 – 1966 (Capitol) – 1973
The Beatles 1967 - 1970
(Capitol) -1973