AlokeKumar/music

THE BEATLES

(1960-1968 )

In the 1960s a new band known as the Beatles burst on the pop music scene and changed it forever.

Band members included George Harrison (1943-), John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney (1942-), and Ringo Starr (1940-). With the release of three anthologies in the mid-1990s, the group remained one of the best-selling of all time.

Founded in Liverpool during the late '50s by guitarists John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, with drummer Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe on bass, the Beatles were initially a skiffle band, playing a British variation of American folk music. The band -- which went under several names before arriving at the Beatles -- incorporated numerous American rock & roll, rhythm & blues, and pop music influences in their playing and songwriting, most notably the sounds of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Arthur Alexander.

They developed significant popularity in Hamburg, Germany, by the early '60s, where dozens of Liverpool bands were booked into local clubs, and this soon translated into success in their hometown. Sutcliffe left the band in 1961 and McCartney took over on bass. After finding their manager Brian Epstein -- who got them an audition with George Martin, the head of EMI Records' tiny Parlophone label -- the band was signed to a recording contract in 1962. Ringo Starr replaced Best on drums soon thereafter, and the group's lineup was set.

The.spring of 1963, saw the Beatles' singles and albums breaking sales records in England, and they were officially introduced to America in February 1964 with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show followed by a whirlwind tour. The group had been signed the year before to do a movie, and, through a stroke of good luck, they were turned over to director Richard Lester and together created A Hard Day's Night, probably the best rock & roll movie ever made.

The band's follow-up movie, Help! was made on a much bigger budget and in color, but it failed to repeat A Hard Day's Night's success. The group was generally as unhappy with the results as everyone else, although it has some entertaining moments. The Beatles tried directing and producing their own television film, 1967's Magical Mystery Tour, but the result were amateurish.

In 1968, they provided the songs for the psychedelic animated feature Yellow Submarine, and made a brief onscreen appearance at the movie's conclusion. The divisions that would eventually lead to the group's break-up were chronicled in the 1969 documentary Let It Be, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, with impressive results.


The Beatles soundtrack album 'Let It Be', stands as a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop music.

This spot is for Sunny from Arizona, USA. who likes the music of The Beatles. For more on her visit : sunnyschlenger.stumbleupon.com [sunnyschlenger.stumbleupon.com]