The History Of The Beatles Essay Research — страница 2

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was a baker and his mother was a housewife. Prior to the Beatles, Ringo was the drummer for The Hurricanes (Wiener, 6). The Beatles, with all their members permanently in place, began the attempt to become famous. With John on guitar and vocals, Paul on bass and vocals, George playing guitar and backup vocals, and Ringo drumming, they were destined to become a sensation. Their first recordings were of “That’ll be the Day” by Buddy Holly, and “Inspite of all the Danger,” one of Paul’s originals (Miles, 12). “Love Me Do” was the first single produced by George Martin. It was released on October 5, 1962 and got to number 17 in a matter of two weeks. It sold over 100,000 copies. “Please Please Me” came next, topping the charts. The boys cleaned up their acts,

started “to wash their mops more regularly” (Schaffner, 21), and dress more nicely. They then created their first ever full length album. Titled “Please Please Me,” the record included the title track, “Do You Want To Know a Secret?” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “From Me To You,” and a number of covers. In only a few years their popularity and influence grew tremendously. Many more albums were released, along with many chart-topping singles. John Lennon wrote a book called “In His Own Write” in March 1964. They created a movie “Hard Day’s Night,” featuring their original song, also in 1964. In this movie they recruited mobs of fans to run around chasing them. Newsweek stated the “The legitimacy of the Beatles phenomenon is finally inescapable…”

after the outcome of the movie. People became obsessed with the Beatles. At their concerts, the music was barely able to be heard because of the screaming fans. Many products, such as Beatles coloring books, Beatles harmonicas, Beatles pillows, Beatles costumes, and Beatles candy, not to mention a variety of other odd trinkets, began to be mass-produced and purchased. Even the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, knighted them and granted them the elite places as Members of the British Empire for bringing about a balance of trade in England (Wiener, 40). The Beatles created many movies in addition to “Hard Day’s Night.” These included “Help!” which cost twice as much as the former. It was a complete success. They also did a cartoon called “Yellow Submarine,” which

included many songs from Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This actually had a plot, although it was very fictional. This movie spawned a whole new line of products featuring the cartoons of the Beatles. Key chains and magnets were among some of the most popular items. Recently in 1999, the cartoon has be restored and the “Yellow Submarine” action figures of John, Paul, George, and Ringo were rereleased (Schaffner, 50). Soon after creating the album Rubber Soul, the largest controversy surrounding the Beatles arose because of a quote John made. He stated, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that, I’m right and will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don’t know which will go first,

rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” This quote caused many parents to forbid their children from buying Beatles albums, and mass burnings of Beatle’s records were held. The Beatle’s manager, Brian Epstein, tried to insist that John only meant it to express his “deep concern” in the decline of religion. People did not buy this story, and sales declined severely. John decided to apologize to the public, and did so at a Chicago Press Conference. “I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I’m sorry I opened my mouth. I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying

we are greater or better.” The Vatican accepted the apology, and many people went back to their Beatle-loving ways (Schaffner, 57-59). During this time George Harrison began to be interested in Eastern Religions. He and the rest of the Beatles went on a retreat with Maharishi Yogi to study his teachings. This retreat was called “Rishikesh.” The Beatles got so wrapped up in magic and mysticism that they began to use a sitar, a giutar-like stringed instrument from India in their music. They also discussed producing J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit with Paul as Frodo the Dwarf, Ringo as the dwarf Sam, George playing the wizard Gandolf, and John as the antagonist, Gollum. This endeavor fell through, however. Just before this they had begun to experiment with LSD. This mind-warping