Who doesn’t know about The Beatles. An English rock band that ruled the music Industry of Western World in the 1960s formed in England’s Liverpool. The group was active from 1960 till 1970.
It was essentially a group of four people, namely- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
The band had a huge impact, which is why people still remember their presence as the ‘Beatlemania’
Lets dig deep into some of the interesting facts about the Band-The Beatles
The name of the band was changed multiple times:
Before being permanently known as The Beatles, the band’s name was changed many times. It was known as the Quarrymen initially when Lennon first started the band.
The band, when it started, first had different members. The band’s different names were Johnny and the Moondogs, The Silver Beetles, and so on. The group ultimately went with the name The Beatles.
It was actually The Beetles but John Lenon changed the spelling to The Beatles-replacing the Beet of Beetle with Beat of Music.
Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best were the early members:
Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney were not in the band from the beginning. Stu Sutcliffe managed the bass duties, and Pete Best was the original drummer. After Sutcliffe left the band, Paul McCartney joined it. And it was long after the initial years that Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best.
Their debut album made several records:
Please Please Me, their debut album was greatly successful. It was also the album which spends the longest consecutive time at number one.
The first performance of The Beatles:
The Beatles first performed as a group on 17th December 1960, at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool.
Lennon wrote 2 true songs:
John Lennon mentioned that the only true songs written by him were “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Help.” Lennon mentioned that he wrote these two songs from real experiences in his life.
He usually projects himself into a situation and writes about it in his songs. But it was not the case with these two songs.
Their last album released and recorded was not the same:
Their album, which was recorded last, was Abbey Road. But it was not the last album that was released. Their last album that was released in 1970 was Let It Be.
The Beatles had several consecutive hit albums:
It was the only band to have Eight consecutive number one hit albums. Their albums became popular among the people, and they inspired a whole generation with their music.
The origin of the term Beatlemania:
Beatlemania was the fanatism for the band.
The Beatles did a show called the Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Val Parnell and their performance was witness by 15 million viewers live on TV.
‘Beatlemania’ was coined for the first time in an article in the Daily Mirror by the journalist Vincent Mulchorne on 21st October 1963 few days after the Sunday Night Show.
Only tracks credited to all the four members:
The songs “Dig It” and “Flying” are the only credited songs to all four members of the band.
Their extraordinary achievements:
The Beatles have a record of spending 1278 weeks on the Billboard charts. They are seven times the winner of the Grammy Awards and also got 15 Ivor Novello Awards. Rolling Stone declared The Beatles best artists of all times in 2004. Their success is incomparable, and they are evergreen artists. And their music is still listened to by people all over the world.
The untimely deaths of the two members:
George Harrison died in November 2001 die to Lung cancer. The death of John Lennon came as a shock to the whole world. He was shot and killed in 1980. The only two members of the band who are still alive are Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band original cover was a lyrical one:
The original back cover of this album had all the lyrics of the songs on it. It was a new and unique idea. And The Beatles was the first rock band ever to do it.
Their background lyrics were quite interesting:
Apart from their music, they were also known for their lyrics. McCartney and Lennon became quite the famous writing duo. They not only concentrated on the main lyrics but also on the background lyrics. For example, the background lyrics of “Paperback Writer” were the lyrics from “Frere Jacques,” a nursery rhyme.
Their first album was recorded in one day:
The band recorded their first album in a single day. The whole Please Please Me LP was recorded in just 12 hours, excluding “Twist and Shout.” They saved it to record at the end because of the difficult parts in it.
Frank Sinatra’s favorite song was a song by them:
Frank Sinatra often mentioned that his favorite love song was ‘Something’ from ‘Abbey Road’.It was one of their most famous songs which George Harrison wrote.
Use of different food names in their songs:
One funny fact is that The Beatles used many food items in their songs.
A few of the food items used in their songs were- strawberries, honey, eggs, pies, truffles, cornflakes, marshmallows, turkey, peppers, tangerine, coffee, marmalade, pineapple, onion, coconut fudge, cherry, ginger, and so on.
The members often wrote songs for other famous artists:
It is no doubt that they were not just musically talented but also lyrically great. They often penned down songs for other artists. One such example is the song Fame by David Bowie. Both Lennon and McCartney wrote on it.
The “Quiet Beatle” Harrison:
Even though Harrison was popularly called the “Quiet Beatle,” he was a talkative person.
The Beatles entirely wrote their album A Hard Day’s Night:
It was their first album to be entirely written by them. Lennon and McCartney wrote all the thirteen songs in this album.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had many famous people on the cover:
Almost seventy famous people were there on the cover of this album.
It included Bob Dylan, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Mae West, Diana Dors, Carl Jung, Stuart Sutcliffe, Marlene Dietrich, Aleister Crowley, Laurel, and Hardy, among many other famous people.
Only among the Top 2:
Eminem and The Beatles are the only Music Stars who have been on the Billboard 200 all hit No.1 back to back for 8 Albums.
The Roof –Top Concert:
The Beatles have always given something different to the world of music and its fans. The Beatles performance around 1400 concerts across the globe and ended the tour in 1966.
The Roof-Top unannounced performance at the Apple Corps Limited which happens to be the multimedia company of The Beatles is one of the most unique and most memorable performances of the band. The Roof-Top was held for 42 minutes on 30th January 1969 at the company Building located in London.
Cover Songs prove the popularity of Band
The popularity of any song can be simply judged by the number of times and number of artists from different parts of the world have sung it.
‘Yesterday’ from the Album ‘Yesterday and Today’ happens to be the most covered song of all time. It has been performed by singers worldwide including the stars like Boyz II Men, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis. The song was written by Paul McCartney and according to him the song cam in his dream.
Like many other bands even The Beatles found their Godfather in their Manager:
Brain Epstein believed in the power of the songs that the band could create and fought for the band till he made them a household success worldwide.
Infact, John Lennon said that The Beatles died with death of Brain Epstien.
The Beatles has their share of controversy:
The band has has its share of controversy along with the praise and accolades that they received.
Their songs ‘A day in the Life’, ‘Lucy on the Sky Diamonds’ and ‘Fixing the Hole’ were banned by the BBC because of the references to drugs. In fact, McCartney agreed that the song ‘Lucy in the Sky’ is inspired and written on LSD.
Read about the Hollywood Actor from England-the country The Beatles belonged to in the article