Although the Beatles were a famous foursome consisting of
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr,
six men in total have been a Beatle. Stuart Sutcliffe was the
original bassist for the band from May 1960 to August 1961.
He left the band to pursue a career in art, then died only
8 months later on April 10, 1962. Pete Best was the original
drummer from August 1960 to August 1962, when he was dismissed
from the group and replaced with Starr.
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With The Beatles album cover |
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The Beatles' second studio album, With The Beatles ,
was released November 22, 1963. This was the same day that
U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas,
Texas.
On April 4, 1964, the top five positions on Billboard's Hot
100 were all occupied by the Beatles. The singles were "Can't
Buy Me Love", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to
Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me".
"Twist and Shout" was the only Beatles cover song to sell
over a million copies when released as a single.
Their song "Yesterday" started out with the working title
of "Scrambled Eggs." Written and performed by Paul McCartney,
it's the first official recording by The Beatles that only
one member of the band appeared on. A string quartet accompanies
McCartney on the record.
Two of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, are left
handed. It's fairly obvious that McCartney is because he plays
his bass left handed, while Starr plays his drums set up in
the configuration typically used by right handed players.
The song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was inspired by a
drawing that John Lennon's son Julian did of his classmate,
Lucy O'Donnell. Julian brought the drawing home from nursery
school in 1966, and explained to his dad that it was "Lucy
- in the sky with diamonds."
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The Beatles
depicted in Yellow Submarine |
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In the 1968 feature film Yellow Submarine, the animated characters
representing the Beatles were not actually voiced
by them. Instead, they were voiced by sound-alike actors. The
real Beatles only participated at the end of the film in the
closing scene.
The first solo album by a Beatle is George Harrison's Wonderwall
Music. Released late in 1968, the mostly instrumental
album is the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall.
The
Beatles very last public performance occurred on the rooftop
of Apple Records in London, England on January 30, 1969.
The event was an impromptu concert during the filming of their
movie Let It Be .
At just 23 seconds long, "Her Majesty" is the shortest song
in the official Beatles' repertoire. It is the final track
on the band's Abbey Road album.