A short history of The Beatles

John Lennon formed a skiffle group at Quarry Bank High School in 1956, soon named the Quarrymen. On 6 July 1957, at the St Peter's Church garden fête in Woolton, Ivan Vaughan introduced fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney, who joined within weeks. George Harrison, a schoolfriend of McCartney's at the Liverpool Institute, began sitting in during 1958 and was accepted as lead guitarist despite Lennon's initial view that he was too young.

The lineup was unstable: tea-chest bass players, drummers, and banjoists came and went. A 1958 shellac disc of In Spite of All the Danger and That'll Be the Day, cut at Phillips' Sound Recording Services, is the earliest surviving Quarrymen record. By 1959 the skiffle boom had faded. Mona Best's Casbah Coffee Club, which opened on 29 August 1959 in the family cellar in West Derby, gave Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Ken Brown a regular room. Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from Liverpool College of Art, bought a bass with the proceeds of a painting sale and joined in early 1960.

In May 1960 they backed Johnny Gentle on a short Scottish tour as the Silver Beetles (and related spellings). Allan Williams, owner of the Jacaranda, began finding them work. After several rejected names they settled on The Beatles. A drummer was still a problem until Pete Best, Mona's son, joined in August 1960 so they could take a booking in Hamburg.

The Beatles opened at Bruno Koschmider's Indra Club on 17 August 1960, then moved to the Kaiserkeller. They played long nightly sets of rock and roll covers, sleeping in a cinema storeroom. In November 1960 McCartney and Best were deported after a small fire in their lodgings; Harrison had already been sent home for being under 18. They returned as a Liverpool attraction, notably after a 27 December 1960 show at Litherland Town Hall.

Further Hamburg residencies at the Top Ten Club (1961) and the Star-Club (1962) followed. In 1961 they backed Tony Sheridan on recordings for Polydor produced by Bert Kaempfert, including My Bonnie, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. Sutcliffe left the band that year to stay in Hamburg with photographer Astrid Kirchherr and paint; McCartney took over bass. Sutcliffe died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 10 April 1962, aged 21.

Back in Liverpool they became the leading group on the Merseybeat circuit, with a lunchtime and evening residency at the Cavern Club. A customer request at NEMS for My Bonnie brought them to Brian Epstein's attention.

Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles at a Cavern lunchtime session on 9 November 1961 and became their manager in January 1962. He imposed suits, bows, and a tighter stage routine, and he shopped a demo around London. Decca rejected them after an audition on 1 January 1962 ("guitar groups are on the way out" is the often-quoted verdict, though the precise wording is disputed).

George Martin of EMI's Parlophone label heard the Decca tape and a later demonstration and offered a recording contract. The first EMI session was on 6 June 1962. Martin was unhappy with Pete Best's drumming and said he would use a session player on records. The other three had already decided to change drummers; Best was dismissed on 16 August 1962 and Ringo Starr, from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, replaced him.

Love Me Do, recorded in September 1962 with Starr on one version and session drummer Andy White on another, was released on 5 October and reached the UK Top 20. Please Please Me, recorded in November and issued in January 1963, became their first UK number one on several charts. Martin produced every Beatles studio album that followed.

The debut album Please Please Me was recorded largely on 11 February 1963 and released on 22 March. From Me to You, She Loves You, and I Want to Hold Your Hand made them the dominant British pop act of 1963. With The Beatles followed in November. National television — Thank Your Lucky Stars, Sunday Night at the London Palladium on 13 October 1963, and the Royal Variety Performance on 4 November — took them beyond the teenage pop press. Newspapers adopted Beatlemania for the crowds outside the Palladium.

Capitol Records in the United States, which had passed on the early singles, released I Want to Hold Your Hand at the end of 1963. The group arrived at JFK Airport on 7 February 1964 and appeared live on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February to an audience of about 73 million. Concerts in Washington and New York, two further Sullivan broadcasts, and a return visit for a summer US tour completed the first American campaign.

A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester and released in July 1964, was both a feature film and a soundtrack of original songs. By then Lennon–McCartney originals had largely replaced covers, and the touring, recording, and filming schedule was continuous.

Between 1964 and 1966 The Beatles toured Britain, Europe, North America, Australasia, and Asia, often playing short sets to audiences that screamed throughout. Beatles for Sale (1964), Help! (film and album, 1965), and Rubber Soul (December 1965) were made in the gaps. The 15 August 1965 concert at Shea Stadium, New York, drew 55,600 people and was filmed for television.

Studio work was already pulling ahead of what they could reproduce on stage. Rubber Soul and the December 1965 single We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper pointed toward records as the main work. In 1966 they issued the Paperback Writer / Rain single and Revolver, recorded from April to June, which used tape loops, Indian instruments, and automatic double tracking as everyday tools.

The 1966 world tour was soured by the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in the American South, a row over not attending a reception in Manila, and poor sound. Their last scheduled UK concert was the NME Poll-Winners' show at the Empire Pool, Wembley, on 1 May 1966. The last date of the final tour was Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on 29 August 1966. They did not tour as a group again.

Freed from the road, they spent more than half a year on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning in late 1966 after the double A-side Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane. George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick treated Abbey Road as an instrument. The album was released in the UK at the end of May 1967.

On 25 June 1967 they represented the BBC on Our World, the first live global satellite television programme, performing All You Need Is Love from Studio One with guests in the room. Manager Brian Epstein died on 27 August 1967, aged 32. In the months that followed, McCartney pushed a self-directed television film, Magical Mystery Tour, filmed in September and shown on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967 in black and white. Critics disliked it; the music, issued in the UK as a double EP, fared better.

The period also included the BBC-banned A Day in the Life, the first use of an orchestra on that scale on a Beatles record, and Harrison's deepening interest in Indian music, already audible on Revolver's Love You To and Sgt. Pepper's Within You Without You.

Apple Corps was launched in 1968 as a tax-efficient company with record, film, publishing, electronics, and retail arms. Apple Records' first Beatles single was Hey Jude, recorded in July–August 1968 and promoted with a David Frost studio performance taped on 4 September. The same year they studied Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, where much of the next album was written.

The Beatles (the White Album), a double LP, was recorded from May to October 1968, often with the four working in separate rooms. Engineer Geoff Emerick walked out; Chris Thomas deputised as producer on some sessions. Ringo Starr left for two weeks in August and was persuaded back. The set mixed music-hall pastiche, hard rock, folk, and the tape collage Revolution 9. Yellow Submarine, the animated United Artists film directed by George Dunning, opened in July; the group appears only in a brief live-action ending.

Internal business disputes and Yoko Ono's presence in the studio became public. McCartney, Harrison, and Starr filmed promotional clips; Lennon and Ono began their own art and peace projects. Apple's Savile Row headquarters, bought in 1968, would be the setting for the next year's sessions.

In January 1969 Michael Lindsay-Hogg filmed rehearsals, first at Twickenham and then in Apple's basement, for a back-to-basics album and live show provisionally called Get Back. Harrison walked out on 10 January and returned after negotiations. Keyboard player Billy Preston was invited in, which eased the playing. On 30 January they performed on the roof of 3 Savile Row, their last public appearance. The tapes were shelved while they made another album.

Abbey Road was recorded from February to August 1969, with George Martin back in charge and the group using eight-track. Side two was built as a long medley. Harrison contributed Something and Here Comes the Sun. The cover, shot on 8 August 1969 on the zebra crossing outside the studio, became as famous as the music. It was the last album they recorded together, though Let It Be was released later.

Allen Klein was appointed to manage Apple over McCartney's preference for the Eastman family. Lennon privately told the others he wanted a divorce in September 1969. McCartney announced he was leaving on 10 April 1970, coinciding with his first solo album. Let It Be, finished by producer Phil Spector from the January 1969 tapes, was released in May 1970 with Lindsay-Hogg's documentary. Legal dissolution of the partnership dragged on until 1974–75.

Each of the four made solo records. Lennon was shot dead in New York on 8 December 1980. Harrison died of cancer on 29 November 2001. McCartney and Starr have continued to record and tour. Apple Corps, still controlled by the remaining members and the Lennon and Harrison estates, has managed the catalogue, the films, and the official site.

The Beatles Anthology television series, albums, and book (1995–2000) told the story in their own words and completed two Lennon demos, Free as a Bird and Real Love, with Jeff Lynne producing. The compilation 1 (2000) collected the UK and US number-one singles and became one of the best-selling albums of the 2000s. Remasters in 2009, the 2010s remixes by Giles Martin, and deluxe box sets of Sgt. Pepper, the White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, and Revolver reintroduced the studio archive.

Ron Howard's Eight Days a Week (2016) covered the touring years. Peter Jackson's Get Back (2021) restored the January 1969 footage as a three-part series and recast the Let It Be period. In 2023 McCartney and Starr finished Lennon's late-1970s demo Now and Then, using machine-assisted vocal separation and guitar parts Harrison had recorded in the 1990s. Released on 2 November 2023, it was presented as the last Beatles song.