Please Please Me
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Released: March 22, 1963 and April 26, 1963 (mono and
stereo respectively)
The Beatles were a pop and
rock music group from Liverpool, England, who continue to be held in
the very highest regard for their artistic achievements, their huge
commercial success, and their ground-breaking role in the history of
popular music. Consisting of John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney
(1942-present), George Harrison (1943-2001) and Ringo Starr
(1940-present), the group's innovative music, films, and style
helped define the 1960s. In July of 1957, John Lennon met Paul
McCartney while playing at the St. Peter's Church Garden Fete. In
February of 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison joined the
group. During this period, members continually joined and left the
line up. Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison were the only constant
members. In August 1962, Ringo Starr
joined the band. His real name is Richard Starkey. The Beatles were
the biggest musical act of the twentieth century, charting more than
fifty top 40 hit singles in the ten years they were together and
twenty-seven #1 hits in the USA & UK alone. EMI estimated that by
1985, the band had sold over one billion records worldwide.
Throughout their career, The Beatles balanced their huge popularity
with increasingly experimental and boundary-pushing music that took
cues from eclectic sources like folk, R&B, soul, classical,
electronic and Indian music while exploiting increasingly
sophisticated technology and innovative recording techniques. In
this way, they helped pioneer more advanced, multi-layered
arrangements in both rock and pop and were instrumental in the
development of some of 1960s rock's dominant styles, such as
folk-rock and psychedelia. To a significant extent, however, the
impact of The Beatles extended beyond music. Their clothes,
hairstyles, and choice of instruments made them trend-setters
throughout the decade, while their growing social awareness,
reflected in the development of their music, saw their influence
extend far beyond the music scene into the social and cultural
revolutions of the 1960s. In mid-1964 the band undertook their first
appearances outside of Europe and North America, touring Australia
and New Zealand. When they arrived in Adelaide, The Beatles were
greeted by what is reputed to be the largest crowd of their touring
career, when over 300,000 people, about one-third of the population
of the city turned out to see them. In September of that year,
baseball owner Charles O. Finley paid the band the unheard of sum of
$150,000 to play in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1968, the group spent
the early part of the year in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India
studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Upon their return, Lennon and McCartney took a trip to New York in
order to announce the formation of Apple Corps, an initially
altruistic business venture which they described at the time as an
attempt at "western communism." Their final live performance was on
the rooftop of the Apple building in Savile Row, London in January
1969 during the difficult Get Back sessions (later used as a
basis for the Let It Be album). Largely due to McCartney's
efforts, they recorded their final album, Abbey Road in the
summer of 1969. The band officially broke up in April 1970, and one
month later Let It Be followed as their last commercial album
release. After the breakup, each band member went on to a successful
solo career.
