2. Meet The Beatles!
John Lennon Paul McCartney
๎ 9 October 1940โ8 December 1980 ๎ 18 June 1942โPresent
๎ Rhythm guitar, vocals; ๎ Bass guitar, vocals;
occasionally harmonica, occasionally piano, drums,
piano, and various others and various others
George Harrison Ringo Starr
๎ 25 February 1943โ29 November 2001 ๎ 7 July 1940โPresent
๎ Lead guitar, backing vocals; ๎ Drums; occasionally backing
occasionally vocals, sitar vocals, vocals
๎ Real name Richard Starkey
3. Albums
๎ Please Please Me (Parlophone, 1963)
With The Beatles (Parlophone, 1963)
A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone, 1964)
Beatles for Sale (Parlophone, 1964)
Help! (Parlophone, 1965)
Rubber Soul (Parlophone, 1965)
Revolver (Parlophone, 1966)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Parlophone, 1967)
๎ Magical Mystery Tour (Capitol, 1967)
The Beatles (Apple, 1968)
๎ Yellow Submarine (Apple, 1969)
Abbey Road (Apple, 1969)
Let It Be (Apple, 1970)
4. Films
A Hard Day's Night Help!
๎ 1964 ๎ 1965
๎ Purportedly a โday in ๎ A religious cult tries
the lifeโ of the group to steal Ringo's ring
Magical Yellow Let It Be
Mystery Tour Submarine ๎ 1970
๎ 1967 ๎ 1967 The break-up
๎
๎ A journey on ๎ A cartoon about and the making
an enchanted a submarine in of their last
tour bus a magical land album
5. Member History
๎ Founded as The Quarrymen in 1957 by John
and Paul, with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass
๎ Harrison joined the following February
๎ Pete Best joined on drums in August 1960, just
in time for a trip to Hamburg
๎ In April 1962, Sutcliffe died of a brain
haemmorhage with his fiancรฉe in Hamburg
๎ Best was fired and Ringo joined in June 1962,
the day first single โLove Me Doโ was recorded.
๎ The band broke up in 1970, following much
animosity
6. Major Events
๎ Founded in 1957
๎ โLove Me Doโ released, 1962; band's famous line-up
complete
๎ First UK #1 single, โFrom Me to Youโ released, 1963
๎ Please Please Me released, 1963
๎ โShe Loves Youโ becomes best-selling single of all time,
1963 (a record later broken by Paul McCartney's solo song
โMull of Kintyreโ)
๎ A Hard Day's Night released at the peak of the band's
popularity, 1964
๎ Band gives up touring in 1966 to focus on studio work
๎ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the group's
magnum opus, released, 1967
7. Major Events, contd.
๎ Manager Brian Epstein dies in 1967; group away in India
๎ Magical Mystery Tour film is a commercial and critical flop
๎ Apple Corps is founded to handle the band's affairs, 1968
๎ Release of double album The Beatles marks the group's
most experimental work yet, 1968
๎ Let It Be film documents the making of the album of the
same name, against a backdrop of animosity within the
group, 1968โ1969
๎ The band unofficially separates temporarily, but returns to
the studio to record Abbey Road
๎ The Let It Be album is produced by Phil Spector and
released, much to Paul's dismay, in 1970
๎ Paul McCartney officially quits, 1970. The band breaks up.
8. A Selection of Records Held
๎ Most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at once (12, inc. top 5)
๎ Most #1 albums in the British albums chart (15)
๎ Most #1 hits in the British singles chart (17)
๎ Most weeks in the British singles chart (456)
๎ Most weeks at #1 in the British singles chart (69)
๎ Most weeks at #1 in the British albums chart (174)
...and more
๎ Most top 10 hits in the British singles chart (28)
๎ Most consecutive weeks at #1 in UK albums chart (51)
๎ Most consecutive #1 hits in the UK singles chart (11)
๎ Most complete ever domination of the British charts
๎ Most weeks at #1 in UK albums chart in a year (40, 1964)
๎ Most no. 1 albums in the British albums in a year (3, 1965)
9. Statistics
๎ โCan't Buy Me Loveโ far surpassed all previous
records by selling 940,225 copies on the day of
its US release.
๎ They sold more than 25 million records in just
the US in 1964 alone.
๎ By the time Abbey Road was released in 1969,
the group had sold more than 300 million
records.
๎ To date, The Beatles' record sales are over 1.3
billion units worldwide.
10. Where Are They Now?
๎ John Lennon was shot five times in the back by
Mark David Chapman outside his New York
home on the night of 8 December 1980. He
died almost instantly. Chapman is currently
incarcerated.
๎ George Harrison died of throat and lung cancer
in December 2001.
๎ Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still
performing, and both have tours planned in the
near future.