The Beatles were the most influential popular music group of the rock era, and the most successful, with global sales exceeding 1.1 billion records. Few artists of any sort have achieved a combination of popular success, critical acclaim and broad cultural influence that rivals that of The Beatles.
The Beatles were John Lennon (rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (bass), George Harrison (lead guitar), and Ringo Starr (drums), all from Liverpool, Merseyside, in England. Lennon and McCartney were the principal songwriters. For most of their career, their records were produced by George Martin.
The Beatles created a sensation in late 1963 in the UK (dubbed "Beatlemania" by the British press), notable for the hoardes of screaming and swooning young women the group inspired. Beatlemania came to North America in early 1964, and the band's popularity extended across much of the world. Within the space of five years, their music progressed from the apparent simplicity of their early hits (such as "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand") to artistically ambitious suites of songs (such as the albums Revolver and Abbey Road). By writing their own songs, exploring the possibilities of the recording studio, and striving for unprecedented quality in every recording they released, the Beatles had far reaching effects on popular music. The band made feature films, they were the subject of unprecedented press scrutiny, and they became symbolic leaders of the international youth counterculture of the 1960s, publically exploring Eastern mysticism, psychedelic drugs, and revolutionary politics. The group disbanded in 1970. John Lennon formed a skiffle group, The Quarrymen, in the summer of 1956. On July 6, 1957 he met Paul McCartney whilst playing at the Woolton Parish fete, and the two were soon playing music together. In 1958 the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which played under a variety of names. In 1960 they travelled to Hamburg, where they finally became the Beatles. Stuart Sutcliffe was part of the group in 1960-61 and influenced their appearance and sense of style. In 1962 they joined the EMI's Parlophone label; their drummer for the past two years, Pete Best, was jettisoned in favor of the more experienced Ringo Starr.
Beatlemania began in Britain on 13 October 1963 with a televised appearance at the London Palladium, and then exploded in the United States following three appearances of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, on 9 February, 16 February, and 23 February 1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans and angry denunciations by cultural commentators and established performers such as Frank Sinatra, sometimes on grounds of the music (which was thought crude and unmusical) or their appearance (their hair was scandalously long).
In 1964 they held the top five places on Billboard's Hot 100, a feat which has never been repeated.
In 1965 they were instated as Members of the Order of the British Empire. Lennon and Harrison also began experimenting with LSD in that year, and McCartney would do the same near the end of 1966. Lennon caused a backlash against the Beatles the following year when in an interview he claimed that Christianity was dying and he quipped that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." Eventually he apologised at a press conference, after being slammed by many religious groups, including the Holy See, having Beatles' records banned or burned across the American South, and receiving threats from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans in Candlestick Park in San Francisco, on 29 August 1966. They then concentrated on making recorded music, and their compositions and musical experiments raised their artistic reputations, while they retained their tremendous popularity. The Beatles' financial fortunes took a turn for the worse, however, when their manager, Brian Epstein, died in 1967 and the band's affairs began to unravel. The members began to drift apart. Their actual "last" concert is considered to be a live appearance on the roof at the Apple studios in London in January 1969, which was known as the "Get Back" sessions and featured on the "Let it Be" album. In 1969 they recorded their last album, Abbey Road (although in 1970 various songs recorded earlier were compiled into Let It Be). The band officially broke up in 1970, and any hopes of a reunion were crushed when Lennon was assassinated in 1980. However, a virtual reunion occurred in 1995 with the release of two original Lennon recordings which had the additional contributions of the remaining Beatles mixed in to create two hit singles: "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". Three albums of unreleased material and studio outtakes were also released, as well as a documentary and television miniseries, in a project known as The Beatles Anthology. Studio style evolution - George Martin |
The role of producer George Martin was one of the crucial elements in the success of the Beatles. He used his experience to bring out the potential in the group, where a lesser producer would have imposed his views and inhibited the creativity he recognised and nurtured. His earlier experience of producing recordings by acts ranging from Jimmy Shand to the Goons prepared him for the open-minded, experimental approach to the studio which the group began to develop as they became more experienced. Martin's connection with the Goons had been impressive to the group, who were fans.
At the height of their fame in the mid-sixties, bolstered by the two films Help! and A Hard Day's Night, the band discontinued touring. The difficulty of performing to thousands of screaming fans who typically made so much noise that the music could not be heard had led to the disillusion with touring, and the group retired from live performance in 1966, to concentrate on making records. Their final concert was in Candlestick Park, San Francisco. Their demands to create new sounds with every recording, the influence of psychedelic drugs and the studio techniques of recording engineer Geoff Emerick resulted in the albums Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), still widely regarded as classics. Particularly notable, along with the use of studio tricks such as sound processing, unconventional microphone placements, and vari-speed recording, was the Beatles' use of unconventional instruments for pop music, including string and brass elements, Indian instruments like the sitar, tape loops and early electronic instruments.
The group were increasingly taking charge of their own production, and Paul McCartney's increasing dominance in this role played its part in the tensions that eventually split the group.
The stress of their fame was beginning to tell and the band was on the verge of splitting at the time of the release of The Beatles ("The White Album"), with some tracks recorded by the band members individually, and Starr taking a two-week holiday — sometimes reported as a temporary break-up — in the middle of the recording session. By 1970, the band had split, with each of the members going on to solo careers with varying degrees of success.
In film:
Lead Guitarist truly emerged as a composer in his own right on , the Beatles' last album to be produced.
Lead Guitarist George Harrison truly emerged as a composer in his own right on Abbey Road, the Beatles' last album to be produced.
The Beatles also had a limited film career, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964). It was a comic farce (often compared to the Marx Brothers) directed in a black-and-white documentary style by the up-and-coming Richard Lester, then known for directing the television version of the Goon Show. In 1965 came Help!, a Technicolor extravaganza shot in exotic locations in the style of a James Bond spoof. The Magical Mystery Tour (the concept of which was adapted from Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters LSD-oriented bus tour of the USA), was critically slammed when it aired on British television in 1967, but is now considered a cult classic.
The animated Yellow Submarine followed shortly after, but had little input from the Beatles themselves, save for a live-action epilogue at the film's conclusion, and the contribution of four new songs for the film, including a holdover from the Sgt. Pepper sessions, "Only A Northern Song". Nonetheless, it was acclaimed for its boldly innovative graphic style and clever humour as well as the soundtrack.
Finally, the documentary of a band in terminal decline, Let It Be was shot over an extended period in 1969; the music from this formed the album of the same name, which although recorded before Abbey Road, was (after much contractual to-ing and fro-ing and significant tinkering by producer Phil Spector) their final release. Drummer Ringo Starr did not compose many songs on his own. He did however customarily sing one song on each Beatles album.
Throughout their relatively short time recording and performing together, the Beatles set a number of world records — most of which have yet to be broken. The following is a partial list.
* The Beatles are the best-selling musical group of all time, estimated by EMI to have over one billion discs and tapes sold worldwide.
* The Beatles have notched up the most multi-platinum selling albums for any artist or musical group (thirteen in the U.S. alone).
* The Beatles have had more number one singles than any other musical group (23 in Australia, 23 in The Netherlands, 22 in Canada, 21 in Norway, 20 in the U.S., and 18 in Sweden). Ironically, the Beatles could easily have had even more number ones, because they were often competing with their own singles. For example, the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were released as a "double A"-sided single, which caused sales and airplay to be divided between the two songs instead of being counted collectively. Even so, they reached number two with the singles. They even managed to hold separate releases by themselves off the top of the British chart in 1967 with Hello Goodbye at number 1 and Magical Mystery Tour E.P at number 2.
* The Beatles have had more number one albums than any other group (19 in the U.S. and 15 in the United Kingdom).
* The Beatles spent the highest number of weeks at number one in the albums chart (174 in the UK and 132 in the U.S.).
* The most successful first week of sales for a double album (The Beatles Anthology Volume 1, which sold 855,473 copies in the U.S. from 21 November to 28 November 1995).
* In terms of charting positions, Lennon and McCartney are the most successful songwriters in history, with 32 number one singles in the U.S. for McCartney, and 26 for Lennon (23 of which were written together). Lennon was responsible for 29 Number One singles in the UK, and McCartney was responsible for 28 (25 of which were written together).
* During the week of 4 April 1964, The Beatles held the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart. No one had ever done anything like this before, and it is doubtful that the conditions will ever exist for anyone to do it again. The songs were "Can't Buy Me Love", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me".
* The next week, 11 April 1964, the Beatles held fourteen positions on the Billboard Hot 100. Before the Beatles, the highest number of concurrent singles by one artist on the Hot 100 was nine (by Elvis Presley, 19 December 1956).
* The Beatles are the only artist to have 'back-to-back-to-back' number one singles on Billboard's Hot 100. Boyz II Men and Elvis Presley have succeeded themselves on the chart, but the Beatles are the only artist to 'three-peat'.
* The Beatles' "Yesterday" is the most covered song in history, appearing in the Guinness Book of Records with over three thousand recorded versions. It is also the most played song in the history of international radio.
In 1999 the released a postage stamp celebrating the release of a new print of the Beatles' 1968 animated movie .
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In 1999 the United States Postal Service released a postage stamp celebrating the release of a new print of the Beatles' 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine.
* The Beatles had the fastest selling single of all time with "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The song sold 250,000 units within three days in the U.S., one million in 2 weeks. (Additionally, it sold 10,000 copies per hour in New York City alone for the first 20 days.)
* The Beatles have the fastest selling CD of all time with 1. It sold over 13 million copies in four weeks.
* The largest number of advance orders for a single, at 2.1 million copies in the U.S. for "Can't Buy Me Love" (it sold 940,225 copies on its first day of release in the U.S. alone).
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the best selling album of all time in the UK (over 4.5 million copies sold).
* With their performance at Shea Stadium in 1965, The Beatles set new world records for concert attendance (55,600+) and revenue. This was the first time in the history of popular music anyone had played in a proper stadium as opposed to a theatre or concert hall.
* The Beatles broke television ratings records in the U.S. with their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show with over 70 million people viewing. Crime reportedly fell by a third during the duration of the transmission, although this eventually turned out to be false.
* On 12 June 1965, the Beatles were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen.
* On 30 June 1966, the Beatles became the first musical group to perform at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo. They performed five times in three days gathering audiences of about 10,000 per performance.
* The Beatles appear five times in the top 100 best-selling singles in the UK. No other group appears more than twice. Unlike their contemporaries the Rolling Stones, the Beatles were seldom directly influenced by blues. Though they drew inspiration from an eclectic variety of sources, their home idiom was closer to pop music. Their distinctive vocal harmonies were influenced by early Motown artists in the U.S. Chuck Berry was perhaps the most fundamental progenitor of the Beatles' sound; the Beatles covered "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock And Roll Music" early in their careers on record (with most other Berry classics heard in their live repertoire). Chuck Berry's influence is also heard, in an altered form, in later songs such as "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me And My Monkey" (1968) and "Come Together" (1969) (when "Come Together" was released, Chuck Berry sued John Lennon for copyright infringement of his song "You Can't Catch Me", after which the two reached an amicable settlement, the terms of which including that Lennon cover some Chuck Berry songs as a solo artist).
Some people claim The Beatles' biggest influence was Elvis Presley[1] (http://www.iol.ie/~beatlesireland/zBeatlesfactfiles/factfilesx2/Associatedwiththebeatles/ElvisPresley.htm). This is a matter of debate. Paul was quoted in an interview as saying that Elvis was the reason he picked up the guitar. John was also said to have loved Elvis' music. But others claim that, given that The Beatles sound little or nothing like Elvis, and little of his handprint can be seen in their catalog, and also given that they have so many other influences in chamber pop, R&B, soul, and early rock, Paul and John must have obviously gotten that feeling from a lot of other artists, and Paul would have surely picked up a guitar due to that feeling he got from any of the myriad other influences.
The Beatles were fond of Little Richard, and some of their songs — especially their early work — featured falsetto calls very similar to those Little Richard offered as punctuation in his own songs, notably Long Tall Sally. In 1962 he took the Beatles with him on a tour of Hamburg, and they performed together at the Star Club. Long Tall Sally was a permanent fixture on their concert performances and McCartney's effort on the album version is widely regarded as his all-time best rock vocal recording.
A significant and acknowledged musical composition influence on McCartney was Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who was, in turn, spurred on by the work of the Beatles. Brian Wilson acknowledges that Rubber Soul challenged him to make Pet Sounds, the album which in turn inspired McCartney's vision of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Another example is the song "Back in the USSR", which, based on a suggestion by Mike Love to McCartney, contains overt allusions to the Beach Boys' "California Girls".
The Everly Brothers were another major influence on the Beatles, with Lennon and McCartney consciously trying to copy Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies. Their vocals on two 1962 recordings, "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" owed much to the Everly's powerful vocal innovation on "Cathy's Clown" (1960), the first recording to ever reach number one simultaneously in the USA and in England.
The song-writing of Gerry Goffin and Carole King was yet another influence upon the Beatles, and it could be said that one of the Beatles' many achievements was to marry the relative sophistication of Goffin and King's songs (which used major-seventh chords, for example) with the simplicity of Buddy Holly, Berry and the early rock-and-roll performers. Lennon and McCartney's songwriting partnership had initially been inspired by Goffin and King; Lennon and McCartney's goal when they started was to become the next Goffin and King.
John Lennon's early style owed a huge debt to Buddy Holly and to Roy Orbison ("Misery" from 1963 and "Please Please Me" from 1963). "That'll Be the Day" was the first song Lennon learned to play and sing accurately, not to mention the first song the proto-Beatles ever put to vinyl. McCartney admitted that "At least the first forty songs we wrote were Buddy Holly influenced". Lennon offered that Holly "made it okay to wear glasses. I WAS Buddy Holly." The naming of the Beatles was, of course, Lennon's way of paying tribute to, and recognizing the name of Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets. The Beatles covered Holly's 'Words of Love' in their 'Beatles 65' album.
After becoming acquainted with the work of Bob Dylan, Lennon became influenced heavily by folk music ("You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "Norwegian Wood" from 1965). Lennon played the major role in steering the group toward psychedelia ("Strawberry Fields Forever" Tomorrow Never Knows and "I Am the Walrus" from 1967), and renewed his interest in earlier rock forms at the close of the Beatles' career ("Don't Let Me Down" from 1969).
Paul McCartney is perhaps best known as the group's romantic balladeer: beginning with "Yesterday" (1965), he pioneered a modern form of art song, exemplified by "Eleanor Rigby" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Meanwhile, McCartney maintained an affection for the driving R&B of Little Richard in a series of songs which John Lennon dubbed "potboilers", from "I Saw Her Standing There" (1963) to "Lady Madonna" (1968). "Helter Skelter" (1968) — arguably an early heavy metal song — is a McCartney composition. McCartney's mastery of the piano and keyboards played huge roles both in his role as a composer and as a versatile musician/composer in the studio. Neither McCartney nor Lennon ever learned to read music.
Originally, The Beatles' work focused around themes of optimistic, giddy, love akin to that of a boy who had just fallen in love, as typified by their performances of songs on The Ed Sullivan Show, such as "All My Loving", "" and "".
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Originally, The Beatles' work focused around themes of optimistic, giddy, love akin to that of a boy who had just fallen in love, as typified by their performances of songs on The Ed Sullivan Show, such as "All My Loving", "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".
George Harrison derived his early guitar style from 1950s rockabilly greats such as Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore (who worked with Elvis Presley), and Duane Eddy. "All My Loving" (1963) and "She's A Woman" (1964) are prime examples of Harrison's early rockabilly guitar work.
In 1965, George Harrison broke new ground in the West by recording with an Indian sitar on "Norwegian Wood". A result of his long and continued collaboration with Sri Ravi Shankar, a famous Hindustani musician, many of his following compositions were based on Hindustani forms, most notably "Love You To" (1966), "Within You, Without You" (1967), and "The Inner Light" (1968). Indian music and culture also influenced the band as a whole, with the use of swirling tape loops, droning bass lines, and mantra-like vocals on "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966) and "Dear Prudence" (1968). Harrison retained Western musical forms in his later compositions, where he emerged as a significant pop composer in his own right, occasionally reprising major themes that indicated his new relationship with Hindustani music and the Hindu god Krishna. His later guitar style, while not displaying the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, became distinctive with its use of clear melodic lines and subtle fills ("Something" [1969], "Let It Be" [1970]) in contrast to the increasingly distorted riffs and rapid-fire guitar solo work of his contemporaries.
Ringo Starr's contributions to The Beatles' sound are less known compared to the other Beatles, as Starr himself rarely actually wrote songs. While he is mostly appreciated for his gentle comic baritone ("Yellow Submarine" 1966, "Octopus's Garden" 1969), steady drumming, and everyman image, he was likely responsible for the group's occasional interest in surprisingly authentic country sounds ("What Goes On" 1965; "Don't Pass Me By" 1968) and his own performance on Buck Owens' "Act Naturally".
In the Beatles' later music, the pace of the songs tends to be moderate, with more of the interest usually (but not always) coming from the melody and the orchestration than the rhythm. "Penny Lane" (1967) is a good example of this style. Their earlier songs were often a bit faster paced. Throughout their career, their songs were rarely riff-driven. "Day Tripper" (1965) and "Hey Bulldog" (1969, recorded 1968) are among the exceptions.
There was an abrupt change in direction due to the Beatles' decision to stop touring in 1966. Reportedly stung by criticism of "Paperback Writer", the Beatles poured their creative energies into the recording studio in a determined attempt to produce material they could be proud of. There had already been a clear trend towards progressively greater complexity both in technique and style, but this now accelerated noticeably, as was evident on "Revolver". The subject matter of the post-touring songs was no longer you, I, love, boy meets girl, etc., and this took them very far from the days in 1963 when their material had shown some similarity with, say, the work of The Hollies. Now all manner of subjects were introduced, from home repair and circuses to nonsense songs and others that defied description.
The extreme complication evident on Sgt. Pepper's reached its height on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album. Parts of this, specifically "It's All Too Much" and "Only A Northern Song", were left over from 1967 and ended up being used only on Yellow Submarine in January 1969 apparently because the Beatles themselves weren't much interested in this as a project and didn't feel inclined to greatly exert themselves producing a lot of new material for it.
After the Revolver/Sgt. Pepper's phase, the creative surge seemed to exhaust itself, and their self-titled double album, largely written in India, reverted to a much simpler style and sometimes to simpler subjects (for example "Birthday"). Some of it (for example "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" and "Wild Honey Pie") were far less complex than much of their material from just a year or two before, and in 1969, the band began to disintegrate during sessions for the abortive Get Back project (which eventually emerged in 1970, much altered, as Let It Be) which had been intended to be a return to more basic songs, avoiding massive editing or otherwise artificial influences on the final output (ironically Let It Be was heavily overdubbed and edited by producer Phil Spector's wall of sound technique). Not wanting to leave things like that, the last album the Beatles recorded, Abbey Road, represented a mature attempt to integrate what they knew, and use recording studio techniques only to improve the songs, rather than to experiment to see what happened. It represented one final effort, as McCartney once put it, to "leave 'em laughing".
Beatle music is still performed in public by tribute bands such as the Bootleg Beatles, and shows like Beatlemania!. They are also the basis for Eric Idle's parody band, The Rutles (1978).
To many their real musical power was in the contrasting styles of John and Paul. A whole album of just John's music would be seen as too sarcastic and schizophrenic to tolerate for 45 minutes, and a whole album of Paul would come off as too sappy. However, when intertwined, the balance is like nothing else. Throw in a little Harrison style to spice it up even more, and the whole is greater than the sum of their parts. In 1963, the Beatles gave their publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by Brian Epstein, and a music publisher, Dick James. Northern Songs went public in 1965, and Lennon and McCartney each held 15% of the company's shares, while Dick James and the company's chairman, Charles Silver, held a controlling 37.5% of shares. In 1969, James and Silver sold Northern Songs and its assets to a British TV company named Associated Television Corporation (ATV).
In 1985, ATV's music catalogue was sold, and Michael Jackson was the highest bidder beating Paul McCartney with a reported $47 million for the publishing rights to approximately 159 to 260 Beatles songs. A decade later, Jackson and Sony merged their music publishing businesses. Since 1995, Jackson and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have jointly owned most of the Beatles songs.
While the Jackson-Sony collection includes practically all of the Beatles' greatest hits, they do not own the rights to every song. Paul McCartney bought the rights to "Love Me Do," "Please, Please Me," "P.S. I Love You," and "Tell Me Why" as Northern Songs never owned these early tunes and they were not included in the ATV deal.
Sony reports that Jackson used his half of the Beatles' catalogue as collateral for a loan from the music company.
However, the estates of Lennon and McCartney still receive royalties as the singers and song writers.
George Harrison created his own company, 'Harrisongs', which own the rights to his classics such as 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and 'Something'. * Ringo Starr, Paul and Linda McCartney, and George Harrison all guest starred on The Simpsons although not at the same time. This makes The Simpsons the only non-variety show to feature all the surviving Beatles.
* George Harrison cooperated with Eric Idle and Neil Innes in authoring and filming (for television) the fictitious story of the Rutles, a "Rutlandbeat" group affectionately satirising the Beatles. Innes proved able to parody particular Beatles songs with lyrics and titles (e.g. "Ouch!") only marginally less believable than those of the Fab Four. The Beatles released an impressive 13 albums in a mere seven years. This was an astonishing achievement considering the relatively small amount of time in which they made them.
The first four Beatles vinyl albums differ based on their location of release. Those released in the US were of lower sound quality and had some of their songs omitted. Additionally, even though the first four Beatles albums were originally released as both monaural and stereo recordings in the United Kingdom, stereo phonographs were quite rare in England at the time. Naturally, then, George Martin and The Beatles only spent a lot of time on the mono mixes. Many early songs were later remastered by Capitol Records for the US as artificial stereo with bass on one side and treble on the other side, with loads of added echo, much to the disgust of fans today.
When it came time to release the Beatles catalog on CD, the decision was made to use the original British versions of the albums, since those were the "way the Beatles originally intended them to be." The initial release of the first four CDs were of the original mono mixes. In 2004, Capitol Records released the first four American albums on CD and they represent the current official Stereo versions. No official stereo mix of the first four British albums had been released on compact disc, but there were plenty of "official looking" bootleg CDs floating around that include the US stereo mixes and even bear the "Apple" logo. Martin and the Beatles started to spend more time on stereo mixes by 1965.
In the UK:
Originally signed to Parlophone/EMI in the UK, the Beatles' (UK) official studio albums (not including compilations and the like) were:
* Please Please Me, March 22, 1963
* With the Beatles, November 22, 1963
* A Hard Day's Night, July 10, 1964
* Beatles for Sale, December 4, 1964
* Help!, August 6, 1965
* Rubber Soul, December 3, 1965
* Revolver, August 5, 1966
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, June 1, 1967
* Magical Mystery Tour (Double EP), December 8, 1967
* The Beatles ("White Album"), November 22, 1968
* Yellow Submarine, January 17, 1969
* Abbey Road, September 26, 1969
* Let It Be, May 8, 1970
Compilations and other releases in the UK:
* A Collection of Beatles' Oldies, December 10, 1966
* 1962-1966 (the "Red Album") and 1967-1970 (the "Blue Album"), April 19, 1973 (two double compilation albums, featuring as covers the photograph originally taken for Please Please Me and a re-creation of that photograph taken in 1969, originally for Get Back, which became Let It Be)
* Rock 'n' Roll Music, June 10, 1976
* The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, May 6, 1977 (Live performances from 23 August 1964 and 30 August 1965 at the Hollywood Bowl)
* Love Songs, November 19, 1977
* Rarities, December 2, 1978 (B-sides, songs in German ("Sie Liebt Dich" and "Komm Gibt Mir Deine Hand") and others)
* The Beatles' Ballads, October 13, 1980 (compilation)
* Reel Music, March 29, 1982 (compilation of tracks from the Beatles' films)
* 20 Greatest Hits, October 18, 1982
* Past Masters, Volume One, March 7, 1988 (singles from 1962-1965 and other songs that were left off earlier albums)
* Past Masters, Volume Two, March 7, 1988 (singles from 1965-1970 and other songs that were left off later albums)
Note: The reason for the Past Masters compilations are so that every song the Beatles released in 1962-1970 could be on a CD. They include singles and B-sides, two songs sung in German, the contents of an EP released in 1964 that had four additional songs, the "single" versions of the songs "Get Back" and "Let It Be", and a version of "Across the Universe" that had bird-like sound effects.
* Live at the BBC, November 30, 1994 (Contains 69 songs the Beatles recorded for various BBC radio shows that never were recorded for Capitol/EMI. This collection only emphasizes how much the Beatles as the #1 band on the globe worked like dogs in 1963 and 1964, sometimes recording 18 songs in a session for the BBC.)
* Anthology 1, November 21, 1995 (Containing early performances, live shows, demos, out-takes in the period 1958 to 1964 and the first "new" Beatles song since the band broke up in 1970)
* Anthology 2, March 18, 1996 (Containing unreleased tracks, live shows, demos, and out-takes from 1965 to 1968)
* Anthology 3, October 28, 1996 (Containing unreleased tracks, demos, and out-takes in the period 1968 to the End)
* Yellow Submarine Songtrack, September 13, 1999
* The Beatles 1, November 13, 2000 (A collection of the Beatles' #1 hits on the Billboard [US] and Melody Maker [UK] charts, including both sides of their double-A sided singles if both hit the top slot. The collection has 27 songs in it.)
* Let It Be... Naked, November 17, 2003 (Remastered and remixed cut from the original sessions, devoid of arrangements by original producer Phil Spector. The first copies released shipped with a 21-minute Fly on the Wall bonus disc.)
* The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1, November 15, 2004 (A re-issuing of the first four Beatles albums that Capitol released in the US)
Christmas records:
The Beatles also recorded annual Christmas records for their fan club members. From 1963 to 1969 these were released as 7" flexidiscs on LYN. In 1970 the 7 previous records were put onto a 12" vinyl record. These remain largely unavailable today, with the exception of one track, "Christmas Time Is Here Again", which was edited and released on the Free As a Bird CD single in 1994:
* The Beatles Christmas Record, LYN 492, 1963
* Season's Greetings From The Beatles, LYN 757, 1964
* The Beatles 3rd Christmas Record, LYN 948, 1965
* Everywhere It's Christmas, LYN 1145, 1966
* Christmas Time Is Here Again, LYN 1360, 1967
* Beatles 1968 Christmas Record, LYN 1743/4, 1968
* Happy Christmas 1969, LYN 1970/1, 1969
* From them to you - The Beatles Christmas Record 1970, (UK) Apple LYN 2154, (US) Apple SBC 100, 1970
In Canada:
The division of Capitol Records in Canada released three albums and a number of singles in 1963 and 1964 before aligning with the American division and releasing the same albums as in the US.
* Beatlemania! With the Beatles, Capitol Canada, November 25, 1963
* Twist and Shout, Capitol Canada, February 3, 1964
* The Beatles' Long Tall Sally, Capitol Canada, May 11, 1964
In the US:
In the United States, as noted above, the Beatles albums were rearranged, retitled and remixed. Some of the US releases were nearly identical to their UK counterparts, often times only varying by one or two songs. Most releases contained songs that were also found on other records, which made things difficult for the American Beatles fan trying to purchase the band's entire catalog. By 1967, all US releases matched the UK releases exactly. Some of the US releases included:
* Introducing... The Beatles, Vee-Jay, July 22, 1963
* Meet the Beatles!, Capitol, January 20, 1964 (1st Capitol Records release)
* The Beatles' Second Album, Capitol, April 10, 1964 (2nd Capitol Records release)
* A Hard Day's Night, United Artists, June 13, 1964
* Something New, Capitol, July 20, 1964 (3rd Capitol Records release)
* The Beatles' Story, Capitol, November 23, 1964
* Beatles '65, Capitol, December 15, 1964 (4th Capitol Records release)
* The Early Beatles, Capitol, March 22, 1965 (5th Capitol Records release)
* Beatles VI, Capitol, June 14, 1965 (6th Capitol Records release)
* Help!, Capitol, August 13, 1965
* Rubber Soul, Capitol, December 6, 1965
* "Yesterday" ... and Today, Capitol, June 20, 1966
* Revolver, Capitol, August 8, 1966
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Capitol, June 2, 1967
* Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol, November 27, 1967
* The Beatles ("White Album"), Capitol, November 25, 1968
* Yellow Submarine, Capitol, January 13, 1969
* Abbey Road, Capitol, October 1, 1969
* Hey Jude, Capitol, February 26, 1970
* Let It Be, Capitol, May 18, 1970
Compilations and other releases in the US:
* Rock 'n' Roll Music, Capitol, June 7, 1976
* The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, Capitol, May 4, 1977
* Live at the Star Club: 1962, Lingasong Records, 1977
* Love Songs, Capitol, October 21, 1977
* Rarities, Capitol, March 24, 1980
* Rock 'N' Roll Music Vol. 1, MFP, October 27, 1980
* Rock 'N' Roll Music Vol. 2, MFP, October 27, 1980
* Reel Music, Capitol, March 22, 1982
* 20 Greatest Hits, Capitol, October 11, 1982
* Past Masters, Volume One, Capitol, March 7, 1988
* Past Masters, Volume Two, Capitol, March 7, 1988
* Live at the BBC, Capitol, December 6, 1994
* Anthology 1, Capitol, November 21, 1995
* Anthology 2, Capitol, March 19, 1996
* Anthology 3, Capitol, October 29, 1996
* Yellow Submarine Songtrack, Capitol, September 14, 1999
* The Beatles 1, Capitol, November 14, 2000
* Let It Be... Naked, Capitol, November 18, 2003
* The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1, Capitol, November 16, 2004
Extended plays (EP's)
UK EP's:
* Twist and Shout, July 12, 1963
* The Beatles' Hits, September 6, 1963
* The Beatles (No. 1), November 1, 1963
* All My Loving, February 7, 1964
* Long Tall Sally, June 19, 1964
* A Hard Day's Night (Extracts from the film), November 4, 1964
* A Hard Day's Night (Extracts from the album), November 6, 1964
* Beatles for Sale, April 6, 1965
* Beatles for Sale (No. 2), June 4, 1965
* The Beatles' Million Sellers, December 6, 1965
* Yesterday, March 4, 1966
* Nowhere Man, July 8, 1966
* Magical Mystery Tour, December 8, 1967; #2
* The Beatles, December 12, 1981
US EP's:
* Four By The Beatles, May 11, 1964
* 4-By The Beatles, February 1, 1965
* Baby It's You, March 23, 1995 (Maxi-CD single)
* Free As A Bird, December 12, 1995 (Maxi-CD single)
* Real Love, March 5, 1996 (Maxi-CD single)
Singles
UK singles:
* My Bonnie / The Saints (by "Tony Sheridan & The Beatles"), January 5, 1962; #48
* Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You, October 5, 1962; #17
* Please Please Me / Ask Me Why, January 11, 1963; #2
* From Me To You / Thank You Girl, April 11, 1963; #1
* She Loves You / I'll Get You, August 23, 1963; #1
* I Want To Hold Your Hand / This Boy, November 29, 1963; #1
* Can't Buy Me Love / You Can't Do That, March 20, 1964; #1
* Ain't She Sweet / If You Love Me, Baby (B-side by "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan, vocal"), May 29, 1964; #29
* A Hard Day's Night / Things We Said Today, July 10, 1964; #1
* I Feel Fine / She's A Woman, November 27, 1964; #1
* Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is, April 9, 1965; #1
* Help! / I'm Down, July 23, 1965; #1
* We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper, December 3, 1965; #1
* Paperback Writer / Rain, June 10, 1966; #1
* Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine, August 5, 1966; #1
* Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane, February 17, 1967; #2
* All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man, July 7, 1967; #1
* Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus, November 24, 1967; #1
* Lady Madonna / The Inner Light, March 15, 1968; #1
* Hey Jude / Revolution, August 30, 1968; #1
* Get Back / Don't Let Me Down, April 11, 1969; #1
* The Ballad of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe, May 30, 1969; #1
* Something / Come Together, October 31, 1969; #4
* Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up The Number), March 6, 1970; #2
* Back in the USSR / Twist and Shout, June 29, 1976; #19
* Beatles Movie Medley (Magical Mystery Tour / All You Need is Love / You've Got to Hide Your Love Away / I Should Have Known Better / A Hard Day's Night / Ticket to Ride / Get Back / I'm Happy Just to Dance with You), May 24, 1982; #10
* Love Me Do (reentry), October 1982; #4
* Baby It's You / I'll Follow the Sun / Devil in Her Heart / Boys, March 20, 1995; #7
* Free as a Bird / Christmas Time (Is Here Again), December 4, 1995; #2
* Real Love / Baby's in Black, March 4, 1996; #4
US singles:
* Please Please Me / Ask Me Why - February 25, 1963
* From Me To You / Thank You Girl - May 27, 1963
* She Loves You / I'll Get You - September 16, 1963
* I Want To Hold Your Hand / I Saw Her Standing There - December 26, 1963
* My Bonnie / The Saints - January 27, 1964
* Please Please Me / From Me To You - January 30, 1964
* All My Loving / This Boy - February 8, 1964
* Roll Over Beethoven / Please Mister Postman - February 15, 1964
* Twist And Shout / There's A Place - March 2, 1964
* Can't Buy Me Love / You Can't Do That - March 16, 1964
* Do You Want To Know A Secret / Thank You Girl - March 23, 1964
* Why / Cry For A Shadow - March 27, 1964
* Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You - April 27, 1964
* Sie Liebt Dich (German She Loves You) / I'll Get You - May 21, 1964
* Sweet Georgia Brown / Take Out Some Insurance on Me - June 1, 1964
* Ain't She Sweet / Nobody's Child - July 6, 1964
* A Hard Day's Night / I Should Have Known Better - July 13, 1964
* I'll Cry Instead / I'm Happy Just To Dance With You - July 20, 1964
* And I Love Her / If I Fell - July 20, 1964
* Matchbox / Slow Down - August 24, 1964
* I Feel Fine / She's A Woman - November 23, 1964
* Eight Days A Week / I Don't Want To Spoil The Party - February 15, 1965
* Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is - April 19, 1965
* Help! / I'm Down - July 19, 1965
* Yesterday / Act Naturally - September 13, 1965
* We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper - December 6, 1965
* Nowhere Man / What Goes On - February 21, 1966
* Paperback Writer / Rain - May 30, 1966
* Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine - August 8, 1966
* Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane - February 13, 1967
* All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man - July 17, 1967
* Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus - November 27, 1967
* Lady Madonna / The Inner Light - March 18, 1968
* Hey Jude / Revolution - August 26, 1968
* Get Back / Don't Let Me Down - May 5, 1969
* The Ballad Of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe - June 4, 1969
* Something / Come Together - October 6, 1969
* Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) - March 11, 1970
* The Long And Winding Road / For You Blue - May 11, 1970
Filmography:
* A Hard Day's Night, 1964
* Help!, 1965
* Magical Mystery Tour, 1967
* Yellow Submarine, 1968 (animated film, art directed by Heinz Edelmann, allegedly influenced by the artwork of Peter Max, featuring songs by the Beatles but with dialogue voiced by actors)
* Let It Be, 1970 |
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