Top 10 Interesting Facts About The Beatles

The legendary Liverpool Four are not just people. For music, they are akin to deities, because rock before and rock after The Beatles are two different genres. The whole industry was turned upside down by their work, and if not for the breakup of the group and the death of John Lennon, then modern music could be different. We will talk about this, as well as other interesting facts regarding the Beatles.

10 First name Quarrymen

The original name was coined by John Lennon, his school friend Peter Shotton and Eric Griffiths and the band was called The Blackjacks. Then, at the suggestion of Shotton, the group was renamed: the new name became a reference to Quarry Bank Grammar School — школе, в которой оба учились.

Most Beatles fans know that on July 6, 1957, 15-year-old Paul McCartney accompanied his friend Ivan Vaughn to St. Peter’s Church in Woolton. He went to see his friend’s group, quarrymenled by John Lennon. It was the historic day “when John met Paul”. A few weeks later, McCartney was invited to join the band and the groundwork was laid for The Beatles to emerge.

By 1960, the Quarrymen had collapsed while The Beatles had gained worldwide fame. The Beatles disbanded ten years later. But the Quarrymen are back on the scene, having reformed in 1997 and are still playing.

«Until the mid-80s, no one was interested in The Quarrymensays Rod Davis, who played banjo in the original Quarrymen and now plays guitar for the band. “I think people thought The Beatles just came out of nowhere. However, in the mid-80s, people started saying, “Well, wait a minute: what happened before we heard about the Beatles?” So of course they were interested in the Quarrymen.».

9. «I Wanna Be Your Man» для Rolling Stones написали Леннон и Маккратни

In 1963, the Rolling Stones were desperate for new material, and Paul McCartney and John Lennon had an unfinished song “I Wanna Be Your Man”, which they once sang to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Those liked the song, because it was in their style, so the Liverpool people just gave it away after finishing it.

It is noteworthy that Paul and John wrote the song literally in front of the members of the Rolling Stones.

8. Harrison sex and applause

When the band started playing all night long in clubs in Hamburg, they rented very small rooms with bunk beds. Harrison admitted in The Beatles Anthology that the tightness made things especially difficult when he was in bed with a woman. Lennon, McCartney and their then-drummer Pete Best all applauded him after sex. Harrison joked: “At least they were silent while I was doing it.”.

7. Almost bought a private island in Greece

In fact, in 1967 the group was set to buy an entire group of islands off the coast of Greece, primarily due to the persistence of John Lennon, who wanted to attract others. They planned to make the islands their mini-utopia, where they could live with their families and work at the same time.

They were to occupy a total of five islands, with the main island for work purposes, while the other four were to be the safe haven for every musician. The group, with the exception of Ringo, who had left for England earlier that day, toured the islands to southern Athens aboard a yacht.

Harrison recounts how that day went:We rented a boat and sailed up and down the coast from Athens looking at the islands. Someone said that we should invest some money, so we thought, “Well, let’s buy an island.” It was a great trip. John and I were on acid all the time, sitting on the front of the ship and playing the ukulele. Greece was on the left and the big island was on the right. The sun was shining and we sang Hare Krishna for hours».

The group was forced to buy special export dollars and obtain permission from the Greek government to purchase. The funds eventually came in, but the members were no longer interested in the venture. The dollars were sold back to the government, and in a favorable turn of events, the value rose during the negotiations. The Beatles made around £11 during the cancellation of the island deal.

6. Recorded the first album in 13 hours

After the success of the “Please Please Me” single, the record company wanted to release a full album as soon as possible. George Martin recorded the entire Please Please Me LP in less than 13 hours, saving “Twist and Shout” for last so that Lennon’s vocals would not be overstressed before recording other songs.

Their other iconic composition, “Yellow Submarine”, was recorded for almost a month, although it was only one song. This is because the sound became more experimental in the mid-1960s.

5. Frank Sinatra openly admired the work of the group

When George Harrison began composing his tender ballad “Something” on the piano in an empty Abbey Road recording studio in 1968, he probably had no idea what a great song he was creating. It was covered by everyone who could, including Elvis, Smokey Robinson, Shirley Bassey and others.

But it was especially loved by Frank Sinatra, who even changed one line in the middle when he adapted the song for himself. Sinatra did not hide his sympathy for The Beatles before, and after the release of “Something” he began to openly praise them.

4. Sold 178 million records

This impressive figure applies only to the United States. If we count the total number of records sold, that is, discs, tape cassettes and records, then their number has long exceeded 1 billion.

3. The Beatles stopped working together in 1970

Yoko Ono is considered by many to be one of the reasons for the breakup of the group, and there is a grain of truth in this. Tensions between the four musicians were already mounting long before Lennon met Yoko and refused to leave her even for recording sessions while working on “Let It Be”.

One of the hottest moments happened between Lennon and Harrison after Harrison noticed that Ono took his chocolate chip cookie without asking permission. For friends, such a trifle cannot serve as a reason for a quarrel, but at that time they no longer had the same relationship.

Lennon and McCartney had been working on their own projects since 1967, so the end of the Beatles wasn’t such a surprise..

2. John Lennon was killed by Mark Chapman

The murder of John Lennon was a shock not only for his fans, but for the whole world.. It had only been ten years since The Beatles broke up, and Lennon was already making a name for himself as a successful solo artist. His tragic death reminded everyone that he may be the god of music, but he’s basically just a man. And it was also a wake-up call for other musicians – fan obsession can be extremely dangerous.

The most shocking thing in this story is that on December 8, the day of the murder, Chapman was waiting for Lennon at the house where he lived. He talked for hours with the doorman and a few admirers. At the time, some of Lennon’s fans quite often waited for him at the building and asked for an autograph.

It was at 5 pm when Lennon was walking with his wife Yoko Ono to their limousine. After signing Chapman’s Double Fantasy album, Lennon even asked him, “Is that all you want?” Chapman only smiled in response. Photographer Paul Goresh even managed to photograph this fateful meeting.

1. Rolling Stone ranked the band #1 on their list of the greatest artists of all time.

This fact is known to many, but we could not ignore it. And here is what in 2010 The Vatican released its official list of the top 10 pop albums of all time and placed the Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver at number one. – об этом знают далеко не все.

It is noteworthy that Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan were among the other artists included in the rating, so the Vatican has good taste.