The Beatles Become A Pop Craze Sensation
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It's Saturday, October 28th, 1961, and a Liverpool record store owner names Brian Epstein gets three requests, in one day, for a record called My Bonnie by "The Beatles", some group that he has never heard of. Epstein discovers that the group is performing at the nearby "Cavern Club", and takes a seat in the audience. On January 24, 1962, he signs on as the groups manager for a hefty 25% of the group's income. Brian remains the group's manager until his death due to an accidental drug overdose in 1967.

On June 4th, 1962, the group, who is now officially and forever known as "The Beatles" are invited to audition for George Martin of EMI/Parlophone Records. They perform Hello Little Girl. George is impressed but doesn't think much of Pete Best's drumming style and advises the group to find someone else. Pete's kicked out, and Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr, a drummer who covered for Pete, from time to time, is invited in as a replacement.

Under Epstein's guidance the Beatles become quite successful in Europe, but that success is but a drop in the pond compared to what is waiting for them in the United States.

January 20, 1964 marks the date that Meet the Beatles! is released in the U.S. and by February 15 it makes #1 on Billboard Magazine's chart, where it remains for 11 weeks.

On February 7, 1964 the "Fab Four" as the Press has started calling them, land at New York's Kennedy Airport and begins the launch of their U.S. fame as a result of both the success of their first album and their now legendary appearance on the wildly popular Ed Sullivan Show which provided an audience of an estimated 73 million viewers who saw and heard them perform their chart-smashing hits including All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Beatlemania was unleashed upon the children and the parents of those children and there was no stopping it.

This performance, as well as their February 11, 1964 live appearance at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and the February 12 performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City caused unprecedented reactions from their female fans including screaming so loudly that the music was lost in the noise. Girls fainted in their seats and threw themselves at their newfound idols. The group returned to the U.S. to play New York's Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965, and their last American Concert was at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966.

That did not dampen their success however. Sales of Beatles albums skyrocketed and were followed closely by two full-length Beatles movies: Hard Days Night which was released in the U.S. on August 11, 1964, and Help released exactly one year later on August 11, 1965.

All together, the Beatles released 48 albums in the U.S. and the U.K. Some of the best and most popular were:

Meet The Beatles 1964
Beatles '65 1964
A Hard Day's Night 1964
Something New 1964
Help! 1965
Beatles VI 1965
Rubber Soul 1965
Magical Mystery Tour 1967
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967
The Beatles (The White Album) 1968 (2 disc)
Abbey Road 1969
Yellow Submarine 1969
Let It Be 1970

The Beginning of the End

The Beatles continued to enjoy phenomenal success at least from the eyes of their fans. Within the group, however, another story was unfolding. On January 30th, 1969, the Beatles performed what was to be their last ever public performance. They played for the world from the roof of their world-famous "Apple Record Company" which they formed in 1968.

Unknown to the rest of the world, John makes up his mind to leave the group in September of 1969 but holds off on the announcement because of ongoing record contract negotiations. They release their last studio album, Abbey Road, during that same month.

Paul announces that he is leaving the group in 1970, John and his love, Yoko Ono, check into a London drug abuse clinic, and the Beatles go out with barely a whimper on October 9th, 1975.

The world mourned the murder of John Lennon outside of his New York City apartment on December 8th, 1980, when he was shot five times at point-blank range by David Chapman.

George Harrison died of brain cancer on November 29, 2001, at a friend’s home in Los Angeles. He was 58 years old. Exactly a year later, Eric Clapton and Olivia Harrison organized The Concert for George - a tribute performance that involved the remaining ex-Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as concert supervisor Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Leon Russell and Ravi Shankar. Proceeds went to Harrison’s Material World Charitable Foundation, which he’d founded back in 1973.

Paul continues his musical career and Ringo dabbles in music and acting.

And there you have it. A much condensed look into the history of what is probably the best known musical recording group that there ever was.

The Beatles inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.... 1988

John Lennon (vocals, guitar; born 10/9/40, died 12/8/80), Paul McCartney (vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, drums; born 6/18/42), George Harrison (guitar, vocals; born 2/25/43, died 11/29/01), Ringo Starr (drums, vocals; born Richard Starkey 7/7/40.

John Lennon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the ninth annual induction dinner, 1/19/92. Paul McCartney is his presenter, and Yoko Ono accepts the award on behalf of her late husband.

George harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004