My Ticket To Ride
Why The Beatles Are Perhaps The Most Impactful Musicians In History
by Rick Margin
Paul McCartney…Ringo Starr… John Lennon…George Harrison
Introduction
The Beatles were good musicians, performers and songwriters. I am not claiming that the Beatles were the best musicians — they weren’t. But, I believe their impact on music is unparalleled and a worthy and potentially provable claim.
So, how do I define and/or measure impact? My use of the word has multiple meanings including: to influence or have profound effect on and/or forceful contact of one thing striking another (re: traditional music industry and culture). Additionally, I am using three music-specific qualifying criteria including the longevity of their impact, the breadth of their impact and the depth of their impact. At the end of this essay you will find a document that provides over 45 specific sub-criteria tied to those three just mentioned qualifiers, many of which are quantifiable.
The earliest music would likely have been inspired by the endless, melodic sounds of nature — from birdcalls to the whistling wind. So maybe Mother Nature should be the defining artist to get the credit as having the most impact on the creation of music. However, my focus is on people, rather than nature. So I say the Beatles, more than any other artist(s), have had the most direct and/or indirect impact on the creation of music proceeding them.
Let me add my first qualifier. Initially, I thought it would take about a dozen pages to state my point-of-view as an eyewitness to the Beatles phenomenon. But my original intent morphed into an admittedly obsessive subjective/objective undertaking. I did make an effort as the document grew to mention my information sources. But for those purists expecting an abundance of footnotes, I plead guilty to my unintended negligence of standard editorial practice. However, I have noted many of my broader information sources at the end of the essay and began to include sources when I realized their necessity as the project grew.
Like any 1960’s alum, I have had many discussions with younger and older music lovers on the subject of identifying who is the best musician, performer, or songwriter. As I’ve already stated, best is almost always subjective when dealing with artistic issues. It finally occurred to me that it would be more effective if I created a document and let it make my case.
My final qualifier is regarding historic numeric comparisons such as record unit sales, most albums sold and many other top this and that aren’t going to be my focus until toward the end. And, I will dive deep into relevant comparisons. The bulk of my content will focus on the tangibles and intangibles that drove those incomparable results, many of which will offer new perspectives on how you hear their music after reading this essay.
Generations from now, who knows how music “experts” will judge the Beatles. It’s my wish that this essay be passed along to ensure that the real version of the Beatles’ impact is better understood by future generations, as assessed from the perspective of someone who witnessed the events first-hand. For the record, I was 13 in 1964 when the group first exploded on the global-music scene, and 19 in 1970 when they broke up. To my great fortune, my entire teenage experience perfectly coincided with the Beatles as the band. I had a front row seat. And I would like to share my insights as to why the Beatles’ fans so deeply connected with the group, and continue to do so today some 60 years later.
My focus here is primarily the mid-to-late 20th century, based on rooted mainstream music genres. The impact of electricity on the manner in which music was presented to the masses exploded during this time period. Arguably, the impact of electricity on the evolution of music became culturally more significant than ever before. For the first time, a musician could impact millions of listeners in minutes. Prior to the radio, it would have taken many years to reach a big audience. And, that “big” audience wouldn’t have been in the millions. This point is very much at the root of my thesis regarding impact comparisons, but I’ll return to it in later.
The lasting impact of the great European and Russian classical composers from both 18th and 19th centuries, such as Johann Sebastian Bach,
Peter Tchaikovsky, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Giuseppe Verdi can’t be ignored. However, their social/musical impact was generally confined to upper-class patrons. The masses were entertained by local musicians performing local folk songs. It was a very small world.
Given that electricity wasn’t yet a factor, they were limited to live performances in small venues. Bach, was arguably the most impactful composer prior to the arrival of the subjects of my essay. Both the intellectual and melodic components of his music are quickly recognizable, and as you’ll read later, his baroque style influenced the Beatles. However, Bach was not a groundbreaker — he mostly adhered to the accepted music standards of the period. Innovation was less valued than mastery of technique in his generation. 265+ years later his music lives on. There are many great 20th-century, genre-confined composers also worth noting, including [but not limited to] Irving Berlin, Count Basie, Robert Johnson, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Woody Guthrie, Ray Charles, Benny Goodman, and Burt Bacharach (with co-writer Hal David), among others. Electricity provided them with the means to reach much larger audiences than previous generations.
The availability and quality of consistently manufactured musical instruments — and their required components (e.g. guitar strings, drum sticks, reeds, etc.) — was a late 19th-century phenomenon. In the early 20th century, the piano was the first instrument of choice in most homes. As an entertainment magnet, it rivaled the television fifty years later. However, broad access to and widespread home ownership of affordable instruments such as guitars, brass instruments and drums was definitely a post-World War II happening. Not surprisingly, this also coincides with the exponential growth of numerous musical genres including country, bluegrass, blues, folk, rockabilly, and eventually rock ’n’ roll. The electric guitar also was introduced during the same period.
Most musicians had no formal training and could not read or write music. This was an era of self and/or peer-taught musicianship. Among the Beatles, no one could read music, and only Paul McCartney had regular access to musical instruments during his early youth. In the mid-1950s, the others in the group had to persuade struggling parent(s) and/or a guardian to purchase a cheap, first instrument for them.
Before I lay out my case for why the Beatles are the most impactful, a brief, contextual-period overview will be helpful.
For those readers who are deeply rooted in the 1960’s culture because you lived it, you might want to jump ahead to the next section titled “Their Music” where the basis for my claim begins.
Within the music industry prior to the mid-1950s, targeting young listeners was a low priority. Adults, by far, were the main record buyers. And, they controlled what was played on the family’s [typically] lone record player. As a result, teenagers generally listened to the same music as their parents — until the birth of rock ’n’ roll beginning slowly in the mid-to-late ’50s.
Let’s briefly touch on demographics. Businesses of all types knew that between 1960 and 1965, 50 million leading-edge American baby boomers (born between 1946–64) would be moving through their teen-spending stage. They would represent an estimated [and astounding] 24 percent of the total U.S. population during that period. And, for savvy businesses, the news got even better. By 1975, this demographic would represent roughly one third of the total population. Coupling this population dynamic and with increased post-war household wealth,would result in a huge down-aging shift in global consumerism. This explains the many new media products bursting on the scene from the late ’50s to early ’60s, which included magazines, TV programming, and radio stations — all targeting teens. Parents were losing their ironclad grip on both listening and viewing what was deemed relevant.
TV was still in its infancy. Beginning in 1956, Dick Clark hosted the nationally telecast late-afternoon program American Bandstand, where popular artists performed their new hit songs. (Technically, they lip-synced their songs.) Small, independent-radio stations targeting teens began to pop up all across the United States and Europe in the late ’50s. Music-based retail stores selling a broad selection of records, musical instruments/accessories, and sheet music mushroomed. The early tremors of a quickly approaching “youthquake” were being felt. The initial burst of talent that accelerated the credibility of rock ’n’ roll was a diverse and impressive list of young artists including Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, Ricky Nelson, and many more. It also was socially notable because this genre opened the door for black artists to be mainstreamed in all media alongside white artists.
A new form of free-form musical expression was clearly being born. Importantly, the genesis of the Beatles began in 1958 and evolved over a five-to six-year period prior to their becoming a worldwide phenomenon. They were rooted in the very early days of rock ’n’ roll. At the time, primetime TV produced the largest viewing audience — and as a result, the most efficient promotional option. Today’s TV-industry practice of narrowcasting (e.g. cable networks) was not a factor in the 1960s. In the United States there were three networks and they all produced similar programing. In the United Kingdom., the BBC was the network. The programing during primetime was broadcast to appeal to the entire family. The Beatles understood the value of presenting a broad range of music when they performed on live-televised variety shows, such as Sunday Night at The London Palladium (November, 1963) and The Ed Sullivan Show (February, 1964). They never attempted to shock their audiences with controversial apparel, lyrics, or messages. For instance, “Till There Was You” — a song on their playlist on both of the before-mentioned TV shows — was a cover song from The Music Man, a very recent American Broadway musical. They intentionally presented TV audiences with a family-oriented entertainment experience.
A quick review of music-listening technology is also relevant. The three most notable technological innovations of the ’60s were: 1) the widespread use of the portable transistor radio;
2) the introduction of stereophonic recordings beginning in the mid-to-late ’60s; and 3) emerging availability of FM radio in the late ’60s. Contrast this to the technological revolution that has accelerated from roughly the mid-1970s to today — all of which have been remarkable for music lovers. From product innovations such as the 8-track tape, the Sony Walkman, the cassette tape, and the CD to the numerous digital formats and devices of today — it’s been a dizzying period to experience first-hand. But, other than the transistor radio, none of these electronics existed in the ’60s.
We only had vinyl records for all of our personal listening — just like our parents and grandparents. That’s a telling example of how the pace of innovation has accelerated! Can you imagine three generations using the same music-listening technology today? By today’s standards, our record players — typically kept and listened to in our bedrooms — were generally poor-quality. Most homes had a better quality stereo-record player in the main living area — and parents controlled its use. If they didn’t care for your music, you were limited to using it when they weren’t in listening distance. It’s worth noting that record companies began targeting college radio stations in the late 1960’s for airplay due to their consistent use of much higher quality FM signals. But, their listener numbers paled in comparison to those of the traditional AM stations.
So, we listened to our music almost exclusively on local AM radio and scratched-up vinyl records — 45 rpm singles and 33 1/3 rpm LP (Long Play) albums — throughout most of the 1960s. In contrast to the then existing technologies that provided relatively poor listening quality, all of the instrumentation was real vs. being digitally created. So, the production expense was a big consideration when adding classical brass and string instruments to the studio mix. Stereo recording was just becoming available in the mid-sixties and was sold at a premium. I purchased my mono version of an album for $2.99 and the same album produced in stereo was available for $3.99. Incidentally, in 2022 dollars, those album versions cost $28 and $36 respectively.
Finally, the first major electronic keyboard introduction, the Moog (rhymes with “vogue”) synthesizer, was introduced in the late 1960’s and had no ability to replicate traditional instruments — it had it’s own sound.
If you hear classical instruments in 1960’s music of all genres, they are real. As you might imagine, the studio costs soared with their addition to a song. The ability to substitute a much lower cost electronic keyboard to create those same sounds didn’t come until much later.
By all measures, the Beatles dominated their era like no artists of any era. Consider the 1960s explosion of both talent and genre diversity ranging from pop, pop/rock, folk, psychedelic, soul, doo-wop, and blues. Here’s an abbreviated list:
· The British Invasion: Rolling Stones, Who, Kinks, Dave Clark Five, Yardbirds, Tom Jones, David Bowie, Moody Blues, Animals, Herman’s Hermits.
· Motown: Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Supremes, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Jackson Five, Four Tops, Martha & The Vandellas.
· West Coast: Beach Boys, Doors, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone.
· Other U.S. Performers: Four Seasons, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, James Brown, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Mamas and the Papas, 5th Dimension, Aretha Franklin, Peter, Paul & Mary, Glen Campbell, Johnny Rivers, Righteous Brothers, Barbara Streisand, among others. Even older performers, such as Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin — all in their prime — competed on the same Billboard pop chart.
And finally, there was a confluence of events that might have aided the ascension of the Beatles. This was both an exciting and frightening period. In August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, six months before the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964. Just two days after their third and final February appearance on this same show, a new brash and charismatic heavyweight-boxing champion named Cassius Clay burst on the scene. Almost immediately, he renounced his “slave” name and became Muhammad Ali, introducing the American public to the Nation of Islam (the Black Muslims at the time).
The Civil Rights Movement and the accompanying racial violence began moving from the South and into big cities across the country. As a result, the topic of race relations was talked about on every evening-news show. In the summer of 1964, about 36 African-American churches were burned down in Mississippi alone. The Space Race and The Cold War (U.S. vs. U.S.S.R.) also were routine and typically very unsettling story lines. The Cuban Missile Crisis had occurred a little over a year before their arrival. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated just two months before the Beatles landed in the United States. These were tension filled years and Americans were yearning for an upbeat, happy story. The Beatles represented that, and much more.
For listeners who grew up after the 1980’s, it is impossible to really feel the obvious superiority of the Beatles cultural impact vs. the music that preceded them or even their 1960’s peers. The 1980’s heralded in MTV music videos, high-quality home stereo sound systems and much more complex studio recording techniques. In 1980, most homes had at least one color TV. To imagine that in a short 15–20 years, music presentation took a great leap forward leaving behind the 1960’s era of black & white TV’s, scratchy play-worn records and AM radio. I wish that all future generations had just a small taste of how ground breaking the Beatles were in the 1960s. Of course, their continuing popularity of their music speaks to their greatness, but their total impact in other areas (for which I detail in this essay) is more difficult to understand.
I’ve divided my essay into five sections: Their Music, Pop Culture, The Music Business, The Numbers (where I support my claim regarding numeric dominance), and the Post-Beatle era (where I review their success after 1970, as a group and solo artists). Here’s my case for why the Beatles are the most impactful musicians of all time.
Their Music
1.Most people know the Beatles’ No. 1 hits. But, unlike any previous or future musicians, many of their album and B-side songs became equally as famous as their A-side hits. The breadth of their really good material, which was either released as a B-side single or not released as a single at all in the United States, was matchless. A few examples include: “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “Birthday”, “A Day in The Life”, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Helter Skelter”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Here Comes The Sun”, “I’ll Follow The Sun”, “In My Life”, “I’ve Got A Feeling”, “Day Tripper”, “I’ve Just Seen A Face”, “Girl”, “Across The Universe”, “Rain”, “Revolution”, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, “If I Fell”, “She’s A Woman”, “I Should Have Known Better”, “Martha My Dear”, “Norwegian Wood”, “Oh! Darling”, “Rocky Raccoon”, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, “Taxman”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “When I’m Sixty Four”, “With A Little Help From My Friends”, “You Won’t See Me”, “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”, “I Am The Walrus”, and “You’re Going To Lose That Girl.” “Eleanor Rigby”, a №8 hit, was the B-side for “Yellow Submarine”, which was a №2 hit. Seven years after their first single was released, “Something”, the A-side, and “Come Together”, the B-side, both went to №1. In total, 16 of their B-side singles became Top 100 Billboard hits on their own merit.
2. Unlike any popular, mainstream music to date, their music was genre-diverse and many of their catalog of 188 original songs defied easy classification. Most popular, youth-oriented music was created for dancing. Of course, it could be listened to, but that was not its primary purpose. Listening (vs. dancing) to many Beatles songs, especially during their mid-to-later period, was the primary intent. Try to dance to “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Martha My Dear”, “Fixing A Hole”, “I’m A Loser”, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, “I Am The Walrus”, or “A Day In The Life.” These songs were created for listening, not dancing. They provided many danceable songs, which typified their raw and extremely contagious energy, but others were a dancing challenge. Examples include “Ticket To Ride”, “Nowhere Man”, “Rain”, “Penny Lane”, “Hey Jude”, and “Come Together”.
More personal evidence of the Beatles’ artistry and originality — during this period, whenever I attended a dance event that had a live band (vs. the more common recorded music), the band rarely attempted to cover original Beatles songs. The instrumentation, lead vocals, and harmonies were too complicated to perform authentically. The audience wouldn’t have tolerated anything but a solid cover performance — and, I never witnessed one try. The bands covered songs by other groups — but the Beatles were considered untouchable.
3. The Beatles pioneered innovative-engineering techniques and unusual instrumentation. The group’s first two №1 global mega-hits “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” were discernibly unique. The high energy and tight harmonies, lead and back-up vocals, melodies, and song structure represented a huge contrast to the status quo. Their creative growth with new sounds and previously untried recording ideas was matchless. The use of the harmonica on roughly 10 of their 1962 through 1964 songs was an early sign of their determination to sound different. A few examples include “Love Me Do”, “Please, Please Me”, and ”I Should Have Known Better.” The harmonica wasn’t a pop/rock ’n’ roll instrument — its traditional use was for blues and folk music. But, the Beatles made it work. I recently published an article which goes into more detail on this point.
Another example, the instantly recognizable chord played at the opening of “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) was a groundbreaking sound. In fact, that mysterious single chord actually consisted of five different instruments blended to create instant recognition. Forty-eight years later, in 2012, a British mathematician using sophisticated software isolated the separate instruments and unlocked the secret to the chord’s uniqueness. The simultaneous release of the movie and soundtrack assured that moviegoers would first experience the song in a theater, a far superior listening environment. I experienced firsthand the thrill of hearing “A Hard Day’s Night” as it was intended and can attest to the brilliance of the decision. The Beatles totally owned their audience just one split second into the film. This is but one example of the group’s genius.
From the creation of Rubber Soul (1965), every new album amped-up a couple of notches.
Their shallower 1962–65 pop phase had ended. Listening to these new songs for the first time often evoked a “what was that?” reaction. For instance, the addition of a sitar in “Norwegian Wood” planted the seed for its widespread use by other musicians. Shocking the listener wasn’t their intent. Rather, seamless integration was always the final result. The odd sounding fuzzbox Paul used with his bass guitar on “Think For Yourself” became an instant success. George began experimenting with “violining” with a volume pedal on “I Need You” and added a distortion pedal on “Wait”, which he would use on later albums. He also used a Greek bouzouki on “Girl”. The combination described by one reviewer, of Ringo’s “jagged, whack & thump” drum pattern used on “Ticket To Ride” juxtaposed against Harrison’s distinctive riff on his 12-string guitar, instantly grab your attention. A harmonium was the unusual sound on “We Can Work It Out” and a clavioline was used on “Baby You’re A Rich Man”. They were just getting started with studio experimentation, most of which could never be replicated in a live performance in this era. To that point, they never incorporated any of the new material on their 1966 tour. Standard industry practice was always to promote your new album. Revolver (1966) provided further evidence that their creativity in the studio was resulting in unheard of musical innovations. It featured the first use Artificial Double Tracking (ADT), which was invented by an Abbey Road engineer at the Beatles request and is now in use in studios worldwide. ADT saved the then chore of having to manually double track their voices or instruments, an effect they frequently requested. Other techniques included the use of limiters, compressors, jangle boxes, Leslie speakers, tape machines deliberately running faster or slower than usual and variable speed. “Tomorrow Never Knows” exemplifies the finished result. By this time, they all owned Brennel tape machines which allowed them to experiment with creating unique musical and non-musical noises, speed changes and layering.
These tapes proved to be useful in a variety of their future studio work.The use of a backwards-lead vocal at the end of their 1966 song “Rain” was a first. A mellotron, the precursor of the synthesizer, was used in the famous intro of “Strawberry Fields Forever” to mimic the sound of a flute. Their next two albums — Revolver and Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band — were loaded with many new, creative ideas. The White Album’s incredible sampling of individual diversity and Abbey Road’s B-side served as additional innovation milestones.
The contribution of George Martin (producer) and the studio engineers including Geoff Emerick, Norman Smith, Ken Scott can’t be understated. The Beatles initiated the creative ideas, but the studio staff brought them to life. In many cases, their groundbreaking recording solutions were industry firsts and set the stage for studio production artistry for generations to follow. Until the Beatles, the studio was operated and controlled by the professional staff. The artists were at the mercy of what the producer could or would cost-effectively create using both a well-defined and very staunch completion deadline and budget. The Beatles successfully challenged this traditional industry practice and evolved into a [at times] stressful technical partnership with their staff.
A few examples include the Indian inspired and single chord based “Tomorrow Never Knows” (John: “I want my voice to sound like the Dalai Lama chanting from the hilltop”); heavy bass vibe of “Paperback Writer” (Paul wanted more of a Motown sound); the splicing together of two separate previously and heavily edited recorded takes in “Strawberry Fields Forever”; the circus-like audio atmosphere of “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” (John’s request for the sound atmosphere: “I want to smell the [circus] sawdust”); the vaudevillian feel of both the vocals and instrumentation of “When I’m Sixty Four” (Paul: “I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty…”) the middle 24 bar instrumental connecting bridge involving a 40 piece orchestra of two separate songs in “A Day In The Life” (Paul: “It should sound like a musical orgasm”) the execution of the 42 second final chord on the same song. These examples don’t attempt to explain how the final results were accomplished. For that level of technical detail, I suggest that you seek out any one of great reference books mentioned at the end of the essay — you will be impressed by the artistic (vs. scientific) creativity demonstrated by the staff.
Contrasting all of the technical innovations that both the Beatles and their studio producer/engineers brought forward, Abbey Road [their primary recording studio] used only 4-track recording until the very late 1960’s. Their 1967 groundbreaking album Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded with a 4-track system. Contrast this to Capitol Records in the U.S. who had introduced 8-track recording several years previously. Interestingly, Capitol Records was a fully owned American subsidiary of UK based EMI Music. They were also the corporate owner of Abbey Road studio. The Beatles were very aware of EMI’s disinterest in having a state-of-the-art recording reputation, but they continued to produce there until their break-up. They developed a much deserved love/hate relationship with the facility. One can only imagine what a difference a higher quality recording process might have delivered. And, their albums were always initially mixed and mastered in mono…stereo was an afterthought throughout their recording career as Beatles.
They were deeply competitive, both inside and outside of the band, and viewed every new song as an opportunity to inject something unheard of previously. In the band it was viewed as “climbing a ladder”…getting to that next innovation step…never doing the same old things.
George Martin also provided instrumental support on early songs including “In My Life” (Piano), “I Wanna Be Your Man” (Organ), “Money” (Piano), “A Hard Day’s Night” (Piano), “The Word” (Harmonium), “Penny Lane” (Piano), “All You Need Is Love” (Piano), “Rocky Raccoon” (Piano) and numerous others.
If ever there was a deserving “Fifth Beatle” tag, it undeniably belonged to him. He died in 2015 at the age of 90.
Another defining point — the Beatles listened to other musicians for ideas, but they weren’t copiers. But, their innovations were widely and overtly copied.
4. Songwriters and producers commercial success has always depended on the use of “hooks” that emotionally engage the listeners. They can take a variety of forms including individual vocals, vocal harmonies, instrumental solos and song lyrics. The Beatles learned from years of live stage performances that audiences really responded to great melodies and well-crafted lyrical hooks. But, the compelling use of intros and outros provided another unique nuance of Beatle music. They raised this song component to a new art form.
Regardless of the genre, DJ’s were instructed to talk over the beginning and the end of a song in order to create a seamless audio track for selling commercial airtime to sponsors. And, they were instructed so for good reason — their radio shows commercial success depended on it. As a result, record producers regarded intros and outros as dead airspace. For instance, the often used outro technique called “fade” was popularized by the recording industry to be DJ friendly.
The Beatles recognized that intros and outros represented another artistic opportunity to control their airtime and competitively differentiate their music. It started early. Their initial 1964 worldwide hits, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” were intentionally produced with the value of intros and outros in mind. The outros of both songs feature the unusual sounding use of a 6th type chord on the guitars. The opening drum roll and immediate 3-part harmony introduces you to the high energy chorus of “She Loves You”. And, the intro for “I Want To Hold Your Hand” features the entire band playing in double time with the heavy use of a guitar technique called hammering. The B-side of of that same single had the instantly recognized “1–2–3–4” count in for “I Saw Her Standing There”. Listeners expected to hear that count in on radio…they loved it. “All My Loving”, was the opening song on their first February appearance on the Ed Sullivan song. It opens with a straight-in fast-paced 4/4 rhythm with no intro. Their first movie’s title track “A Hard Days Night” begins with one of the most iconic intros (See previous point # 3). All of these intro examples occurred in just their first 4 months on the worldwide record charts and conveyed raw energy to the rest of the songs.
A few other examples include: “I Feel Fine” has the original guitar feedback intro; “Eight Days A Week” represents a great intro and outro example; ”Help” is a high-energy full band straight out of the blocks intro; “Taxman” has a spoken count in intentionally out of sync with the song that follows; “Nowhere Man” features an harmonized 3-part acapella intro; “Hello, Goodbye” has the memorable Indian influenced “Hela heba helloa” outro; “Here Comes The Sun”, “Blackbird” and “I’ve Just Seen A Face” feature elaborate acoustic intros; “Strawberry Fields Forever” is another instantly recognized intro featuring a mellotron. The list of other examples is lengthy, but they really elevated the structural importance of intros and outros.
5. From the early 20th century, the traditional band was composed of a lead singer/instrumentalist with other musicians who provided back-up vocal and/or instrumental support. Yes, we have early radio-based family examples, such as the Mills Brothers, Lennon Sisters, McGuire Sisters, Carter Family, and the Everly Brothers in the late ’50s. Their songs were typically performed as a harmonic set where they all sang in unison and they were not the songwriters or the instrumentalists. Lennon and McCartney were outstanding lead vocalists on their own self-composed songs. But, all of the Beatles were credible lead singers, each one having his own distinctive style. Contrast Harrison’s early contributions on songs such as “Roll Over Beethoven”, “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You”, and “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” to his own compositions such as “Here Comes The Sun”, “Something” and “Taxman.” And, Starr’s delivery on songs like “Boys”, “Octopus’s Garden”, “Act Naturally”, “Matchbox”, “Yellow Submarine”, “With A Little Help From My Friends” and “Honey Don’t” were all first-class performances. At the time, no other group could make such a claim.
Groups of multiple singers, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Eagles, were directly influenced by the Beatles.
6. The depth and breadth of the Beatles’ original material was extraordinary. From 1963 through 1966, they led a seemingly endless hectic life touring, writing, acting, and recording. Their free time was both rare and considered precious. Writing books and creating film soundtracks were unknown territories for young musicians. By 1965, Lennon published two books (In His Own Write, A Spaniard In The Works). In 1966, McCartney co-composed [with their producer George Martin] his first film soundtrack (The Family Way), and in 1968, Harrison issued his first film soundtrack (Wonderwall Music).
They were also involved creatively, to varying degrees, with their movies, including A Hard Days Night, Help, Let It Be, and Magical Mystery Tour. The latter two movies were mostly their productions and not commercially successful. Magical Mystery Tour, like their previous album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band, was McCartney’s idea and he also filled the ad hoc role as movie director. Let It Be was a well-intentioned but poorly executed documentary. The press correctly panned both efforts as amateurish and demonstrations that the mighty Beatles were actually human after all.
Contrast these below average efforts to their first two films. A Hard Day’s Night was a groundbreaking smash hit. Both the black & white movie and its soundtrack album enjoyed great numbers, and both were produced by United Artists. Management pushed hard to get both the movie and album on the market in the Summer of 1964 because they were convinced the bands appeal would begin to decline soon afterwards. For United Artists, the idea was to use the movie as a loss leader and make their money on the soundtrack. Forty years after its release, Time magazine rated it as one of the 100 all-time great films. The album sold over a million units in just four days spent 14 weeks at No1 and a total of 51 weeks on the charts, including 28 in the top ten. As a personal aside, this movie gave the audience a very useful insight into each of their individual personalities and to what Brian Epstein once described as “their charm”. I, like most of the packed movie theater worked hard to understand their Liverpool Scouce dialect for maybe the first thirty minutes. I recall people around me asking each other “what did he just say?”. But, once we began to settle in and get use to their quick speaking rhythm, it was a moving experience. They were believable actors and clearly a tight little “family”.
The movie and soundtrack album Help were released in 1965 and both were a financial success. The movie plot was fun but felt forced in comparison to their previous very natural attempt. Their recent introduction to marijuana also might have contributed to their mechanical acting performances. They all confessed to being stoned for much of the shooting. On the other hand, the album was nominated in the category of Album of the Year at the 1966 Grammy Awards, marking the first time that a rock band had been recognized in this category. It was No1 album in all of the global markets and contained 3 No1 singles including “Help”, “Yesterday” and “Ticket to Ride”.
Beginning in 1966, the Beatles pioneered the music video, giving them new visual artistry. And finally, their original music reflected real personal intimacy and intellect. Their growth was on full display with examples such as “Nowhere Man”, “In My Life”, “Yesterday”, “She’s Leaving Home”, “Something”, “I’m A Loser”, “Michelle”, “Eleanor Rigby”, and “Here, There and Everywhere” The Beatles openness gave other musicians the green light to to both bare their souls and write their own music. It’s also worth noting the band’s average age was only 21 when Ringo joined the group and 29 when they broke up. I challenge anyone to name any artist, in any area, who accomplished so much in so few years.
7. In the early- ‘60’s, the Beatles were a straightforward four-piece band with occasional keyboard support from George Martin. But many other young and older entertainers used traditional orchestration to create a fuller pop music formula driven sound. That wasn’t what the Beatles wanted, and George Martin respected that important early direction. However, given no point of view on this subject, he would have very likely produced something very traditional as exhibited by his work with another Liverpool band, Gerry and The Pacemakers. Both bands were concurrently produced by George and the finished results were completely different. And, both approaches produced hit records, but the Beatle sound was more compelling because of their unique blend of simple, more granular instrumentation, great harmonies, and a consistent underlying backbeat.
By the mid-’60s, much earlier than their peers, they began to very selectively introduce traditional brass and string instruments but doing it their way. They were no longer prisoners of formula-driven production — every song was created with full artistic freedom. They had broken loose from traditional studio controls. Because of the very limited post-war BBC radio selection, they grew up being exposed to classical music and developed a great respect for it. As a result, the provocative use of classical elements became very meaningful to some of their best works.
They subtly injected classical baroque influences in a number of songs beginning in 1965 with string arrangements in “Yesterday”, then again a year later in “ Eleanor Rigby” and a year later on “She’s Leaving Home”. Others include the piano-altered sound of a harpsichord used for “In My Life”, “Fixing A Hole” and “Because”. Listen to the piccolo/trumpet fill in “Penny Lane” or the Bach derived tonal guitar harmonics used in “Blackbird”. They used heavy brass on “Got To Get You Into My Life” and “Good Morning, Good Morning.” and a tasteful dose of both strings and brass in the classic “I Am The Walrus.” The French horn solo and clavichord in “For No One” are other great examples. Give a close listen to the tasteful and very sophisticated bounty of supporting instruments used on the acoustic guitar based “Mother Nature’s Son”. Most of all, they proved that they were not fearful of diluting their rock ’n’ roll roots or image to create their brand of ground-breaking new music. And, as a result, their songs resonated very broadly.
By 1968, the seeds were planted for other artists/producers to, as usual, follow their lead. Meanwhile, the Beatles moved on to more engaging sounds while the industry filled tracks with elaborate orchestration combining traditional string and brass instruments such as Elvis Presley (“Suspicious Minds”), Grass Roots (“Midnight Confession”), Bee Gees (“I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You”), Neil Diamond (“ Sweet Caroline”), Glen Campbell (“Rhinestone Cowboy”), and Spiral Staircase (“I Love You More Today Than Yesterday”), among many, many others. Even the Doors, an anti-establishment band (“Touch Me”) followed their lead. Virtually all music genres were using this “more-sophisticated” approach. Some record companies referred to it as “lush” production.
The Beatles’ distain for this over-the-top, late ’60’s orchestration is best expressed by their decision to release the Let It Be…Naked album in 2003. The original Let It Be album was released in 1970 and produced by Phil Spector (without all of the composer’s present) and illustrates this overdone, schmaltzy approach. At the time, the band was fractured and in deep chaos. McCartney oversaw the revisions of all of their songs on this album to their original intent. Gone were orchestral embellishments and in many cases, different recording takes were used. To my ears, it’s a far superior album. The 1970 album was globally a smashing success scoring №1 or 2 in all major markets. The revised album was released 33 years later and topped out at No5 in the US. Not bad given that the original album was already widely owned, John and George were dead, and they had not performed live in concert in 36 years.
8. Ringo was the least likely crowd choice to be noted as a broadly influential musician. Rather, his reputation was a cool laid-back character who always delivered the goods on the drums and in very humble manner. During the sixty’s, he received very little acclaim for his innovations and skillset. The most common critique almost always included a comment about his ability to maintain a steady backbeat, which held the band together on the road at the peak of their unbelievably noisy live performance fame. All his bandmates have echoed this same point. However, when narrowly examined, his contributions to both the Beatles and future drummers were much more profound.
His style lacked ego, which is rare among famous drummers. For instance, he hated drum solos. Afterall, he had the benefit of supporting the best show on earth. His contribution as a solid pocket drummer, while true, misses his brilliance. He chose either through instinct or team sensibility, when to increase his role in the band’s sound mix. That’s art. Yes, he had George Martin’s seasoned input and his bandmate Paul’s suggestions, who is a very impressive drummer himself, but he played what his he thought sounded best. And, another noteworthy point, he was left-handed and played a right-handed drum kit, making him difficult imitate.
This short list of songs exemplifies the diversity of his subtle contributions: “Please Please Me”, “She Loves You”, “I Feel Fine”, “Ticket To Ride”, “She Said, She Said”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “A Day In The Life”, “Rain”, “Come Together”, “Something” and, of course, “The End”, featuring his only solo. Both what and how he played it sounded deceivingly simple, but his choices were both impeccable and ageless. If one reviews his body of work, it’s fair to say the Beatles wouldn’t have been what they were without Ringo’s undervalued contributions. And he paved the way for future drummers who chose both his less athletic and more artistic approach, as well as his endorsement of a smaller drum set. Even today he continues to play on a modest drum set.
9. When all of the songs on an album are created to support a common theme, it’s called a concept album and they existed prior to the Beatles. However, these albums were rare and creatively one-dimensional. Topics, such as the travails of 1930s migrant labor (Woody Guthrie) and late-night saloon loneliness (Frank Sinatra), are examples of a few offerings. It’s safe to conclude that the concept album was not viewed as a commercially safe bet or an artistic credibility requirement.
However, the Beatles redefined the concept album the concept album with the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in 1967. Not only did all tracks tie loosely to a central idea — the Beatles’ took it to a new, more holistic level. For instance, the songs were presented seamlessly — without the traditional long, quiet spacer between tracks. The opening song introduced you to the next “act” [song] and the next-to-the-last song was a reprise of the opening song — thanking the “audience” [listeners] and alerting them that “it’s getting very near the end”. Like a TV variety show, the Beatles gave the listener a broad selection of musical influences, including a circus-based tune, Indian classical, vaudevillian ditties, traditional rock, psychedelic rock, and a sweet ballad. The Beatles composed all the songs, and all the songs are distinctly different from one another (e.g. “Within You Without You”, “A Little Help From My Friends”, “Being For The Benefit For Mr. Kite”, and “When I’m Sixty Four”).
The album packaging, as did their attire for the photo, supported the imagery with original art and promotional pullouts. For the first time, lyrics were added to the album sleeve. Previously, the sheet-music industry controlled this domain. Interestingly, not one of the album’s songs was released as a single [by the Beatles]. Analogous to art, you don’t divide up a painting. Not to rest on their much-deserved accolades, accompanying the album’s hugely successful launch, a mere 30 days later they released their next single “All You Need Is Love”, which put the icing on the 1967 Summer-of-Love cake. Their second concept album was Magical Mystery Tour. Many artists quickly followed their lead, including the Who’s Tommy, Moody Blues’ Days Of Future Passed, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. The concept album was now in the artistic mix of credible recording options for both musicians and the studio producers.
10. The music industry traditionally began constructing an album with the artist’s most-recent hit single [or two] as an absolute must-have(s) and then built around it with other songs. The Beatles viewed their albums as a discreet creative product. From the beginning, their philosophy was to give the buyer more value. Their opinion was based on simple logic — why release a song twice (i.e. single & album), making the fan pay twice? As a result, because they had more control of their record company (EMI) in England (vs. in the United States), their hits generally weren’t the center point of their albums. This was another first.
On the other hand, their U.S. record company (Capitol Records, which was also owned by EMI) built the Beatles’ LP releases in the traditional American manner, whenever possible, and always included hit singles. This explains why there are numerous differences in song lists on albums sharing the same name from 1963 to 1966. In late 1966, their U.K. label released A Collection Of Beatles Oldies, which was designed to provide listeners with an LP loaded with mostly hit singles. Capitol Records chose to never release it in the United States, but finally conceded to stop tampering with the Beatles’ album song lists, commencing with the 1967 release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band. Recipients of the group’s earlier U.K.-released LPs were clearly receiving the superior listening experience, just as the Beatles intended it should be. “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” were both released as a single record six months prior to the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and possessed the same innovative recording techniques and musical sensibilities as any of that albums tracks, but they wanted the album to contain material that was all new. Songs like “All You Need Is Love”, Baby, You’re A Rich Man”, “Hello Goodbye”, “Lady Madonna” were all single releases between their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and The White Album, but none of these very successful songs released as singles were included on The White Album or the very scant (re: 6 original songs) Magical Mystery Tour album. So, especially in England, there albums sold on the merit of new material minus the songs that were previoiusly successfully released as a single. Very different from industry standards. From 1967 on, that was true in the U.S as well.
The U.S. based Capitol Records team couldn’t change the Beatles song sequence, but that didn’t stop their sound engineers from thinking their ears were superior to both the Beatles and British EMI staff. This is a very recently discovered and hard to fathom story which has been corroborated by numerous qualified sources. It involves their 1968 album titled simply The Beatles, but better known as the White Album. The Capitol Records staff had compression and limitations added that resulted in noticeable sound difference to many of that albums new songs. Luckily, George Harrison had scheduled a trip to Los Angeles to visit Capitol Records for a different and unrelated project. When he arrived, he requested a copy of newly mastered album so he could give it a listen. He received one of the first 33 albums that had been produced waiting for the final pre-production approval. George was horrified by what he heard and personally oversaw the re-mastering of the entire album, returning it back to its intended origins. The 33 original albums and aluminum lacquers, which were used to produce the initial records, were ordered to be trashed and new ones urgently needed to be re-produced to meet the now very tight release window for the Christmas season. But the debacle doesn’t end there. Capitol had mis-titled 7 of the albums 29 songs including “Rocky Racoon” (vs. Raccoon), “Bungalow Bill” (vs. “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”), “Obladi Oblada” (vs. “Ob-la-di Ob-la-da”) and so forth.
The authenticity of this story isn’t disputable, because a few of the original albums have turned up on the open market. More on this important album later.
11. The Beatles loved Black American music and they recorded many cover songs on their early 1963–65 albums. Notable covers include The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman”, Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Rock and Roll Music”, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me”, Barrett Strong’s “Money”, Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”, The Shirelles’ “Boys” and “Baby It’s You”, The Cookies’ “Chains”, and the Isley Brothers “Twist And Shout”. Other than “Twist and Shout,” which went to №2 on the U.S. Billboard pop chart, none of these covers were released as singles. The Beatles’ versions of these songs were very competitive with the original recordings. In fact, some were better. And, unlike the Beatles, singers performed most of these songs. They had no role in either writing the song or playing any of the instruments.
The Beatles energy and musicianship on “Money”, “Long Tall Sally” and “Please Mr. Postman” best exemplify my point. Compare these for yourself. They truly “knock it out of the ballpark” with their performances. Both Beatles’ versions of “Twist and Shout” and “Rock and Roll Music,” remain standards at athletic events today, some 50-plus years after their release. No other white artists had so credibly crossed this racial line. The Beatles made no attempt to sing or play like the original recording. To many listeners, the Beatles covers of Black American artists’ songs were “new” to them, due to the unfortunate lack of radio airtime that the original recordings received. So, the success the Beatles had with these cover songs provided positive benefits for all parties, because the original songwriter(s) received increased and unexpected royalty income. It’s anyone’s guess how much the Beatles’ genuine respect for this music increased the Beatles’ appeal to Black American listeners. But, it certainly didn’t hurt. Incidentally, I published an article on this subject titled The Beatles Best Cover Songs.
Since some readers might argue that Elvis Presley accomplished this in the 1950s, it’s worth a quick comparison. It’s no secret that the founder of Sun Records (Elvis’s record label), Sam Phillips, used Elvis to overtly introduce Black American music to white audiences. But, for the most part, he didn’t cover well-known songs by Black American artists. Rather, most of his early top hits were originals provided to him by professional songwriters or were covers of songs by white artists such as “Blue Suede Shoes”, which was written by one of his studio mates, Carl Perkins.
Another interesting and relevant aside regarding both Beatle cover song activities and Carl Perkins is noteworthy. The Beatles highly admired his music and covered much of it in their very early years. In 1964, they were the hottest entertainers on the planet and had many options for their album content. Obviously their original works took first priority. The traditional industry practice for filling out the song list would have been to include a few original songs composed by other professional songwriters. This practice was completely discarded, in favor of honoring Carl Perkins’ music. Plus, the Beatles had complete disdain for sourcing material from professional songwriters. So, this red-hot band chose to cover three of Perkins’ songs on two separate 1964 albums.
As an aside, in 1981, a year after Lennon’s death Perkins was asked by Paul to record material for a new album. Perkins played a new song he had just written, an emotionally soaked song titled “My Old Friend” as a tribute to their friendship. One of the lines in his song went “Think about me every now and then, my old friend”. Paul broke down crying because up until this moment, only two people knew the last words John had said to Paul (his wife Linda was the other). Minus the word “my”, those were the words. Perkins also recorded the song “Get It” with McCartney. The song was on Paul’s chart-topping 1982 album Tug of War. Paul and Carl remained great friends and he gigged with Perkins in 1997, a year before his death.
They continued the practice of covering American music until 1965.Their final recording of a cover song was Buck Owen’s 1963 country hit “Act Naturally” in 1965, which ended up on the B-side of their smash single of “Yesterday”. Country music was not a popular genre in the mid-Sixties with younger listeners.This exemplifies their willingness to always be unpredictable and non-traditional.
Finally, as a powerful gesture to their American Black fans, they issued a statement 5 days before their 1964 Jacksonville, FL concert that was selling tickets for segregated seating “we will not appear unless Negroes are allowed to sit anywhere”. John Lennon is quoted as having said at the time “I’d sooner lose our appearance money.” This was a bold decision to make in the American deep South at the time. The promoter reversed his posture, and the show went on. From that date on, the band added language to their contract requiring integrated seating.
12. The Beatles set the gold standard for artfully structured harmonics, which added an additional technical element that increased their innovation leadership. One of their most overlooked strengths was their crafting of incredible use of harmonized backing vocals. Anyone getting their first listening dose of an early Beatle album would have been struck by the infectious energy, songwriting originality and the tight harmonies. With a lot of probable input from George Martin, they instinctively knew when and how to enhance their completed tracks with harmony. And, it took many forms. For instance, in many songs, their voices mimicked string ensembles exemplified in “Here,There And Everywhere”, “She’s Leaving Home”, “Let It Be” and “Michelle”. Try listening to those tracks and imagine how they likely would have been produced by lesser artists and producers. They would likely have been recorded with real strings versus vocals and the result would have flattened the song’s texture and lofted the lead singer as if he was singing alone on stage. Then there were their numerous tracks that were thick with rhythmic harmony that elevate songs that were probably otherwise ordinary. Examples include “You Won’t See Me”, “Nowhere Man”, “Please, Please Me”, “You’re Going To Lose That Girl”, “You Can’t Do That”, “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, “Back In The U.S.S.R.” and “With A Little Help From My Friends”. And finally, there are many examples tightly harmonized two- and three-part melodies exemplified by “If I Fell”, “Baby’s In Black”, “This Boy”, “Yes It Is”, “The Word”, “Because” and “There’s A Place”. They have been very forthcoming about the influence the Everly Brothers played in their early harmonic development. But, by 1963 they had evolved to a whole new creative level. The Everly’s exemplify the consistent use of a single easily recognized harmony structure called a parallel third, which over time becomes too predictable to most listeners. By contrast, the Beatles intentionally varied their technical harmony structures on every song. You never new instinctively where they were going next. They took advantageous of every harmony structure available and even improvised country and blues bends into songs like “Baby, You Can Drive My Car” and “Doctor Roberts” to name but a few.
13. The Beatles introduced Indian-music influences to mainstream audiences worldwide. The sitar’s first appearance was in “Norwegian Wood,” and the group used it very selectively afterwards. Harrison’s “Within You Without You” delves into the spiritual arena. Lennon created an innovative single-chord, Indian-rock vibe on “Tomorrow Never Knows,” demonstrating how the influence could be applied to a chord structure vs. just using Indian instruments. The resulting surrealistic atmosphere was based on John’s inspiration involving the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist monk and spiritual leader of Tibet, chanting on a hilltop.
The Beatles interest in India was sincere. Beginning in 1966, Harrison engaged in a lifelong relationship with Indian-musician Ravi Shankar . Together they released several post-Beatles albums. Harrison’s initial interest in transcendental meditation spurred the others to experience it first-hand. In 1968, the Beatles traveled, individually and as a group, to India on several occasions, where they spent extensive time as the guest of Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Unfortunately, it didn’t end well for the Maharishi, as he was accused of unethical behavior with some of the females in their group. But, that aside from that, the Beatles remained very impressed with both the music and the spiritual benefits.
14. Mainstream, dance-oriented music was greatly amped-up by the swing bands of the 1930s through the very early 1950s. Unfortunately, these 10-to-15-member bands suffered from unwieldy economics causing their eventual demise — too many people to pay and too many mouths to feed. From the mid-1950s on, band size and instrument content varied greatly. There was no standard band size.
With their incredible success, the Beatles galvanized the four-piece pop/rock band configuration with drums, and three guitars (re: rhythm, lead, and bass). The classic, upright bass was widely used in the pre-electrification era and by numerous genres, including 1950s pop groups (e.g. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly) and in 1960s Motown recording sessions. But it is a very different instrument than a bass guitar. The Beatles’ tight, four-piece new look became the starting configuration for most new bands.
15. The Beatles introduced the 12-string guitar into the pop/rock mainstream. The 12-string had been confined to folk and some old blues music (i.e. Leadbelly used it occasionally), until it’s widespread use by the Beatles beginning in early 1964 and lasting into 1965.
The opening chord of “A Hard Days Night” introduced the world to the 12-string’s powerful sound. Other bands quickly added it to their repertoire. For instance, the Beach Boys picked up the 12-string guitar later in 1964 on tracks such as “Dance, Dance, Dance” and it became the essence of the jingle-jangle sound of the Byrd’s in 1965 for tracks such as “Mr. Tambourine Man.” In the ’70s, it was the big, full sound on “Stairway To Heaven” played by Jimmy Page, and in the ’80s it was widely used by Tom Petty on tracks such as “Free Falling” and “Into The Great Wide Open” to name a few.
16. The Beatles elevated the bass guitar to be a much more artistically accepted pop/rock instrument and, because of the influence of McCartney, a bass player could now be a band front man. Before, bass players were generally not very creative and tended to be the band’s weakest instrumentalist. Certainly, none of them sang other than back-up vocals.
McCartney still remains the most notable left-handed bass playing lead singer. For aspiring bass players in the 1960's, McCartney was viewed as the Gold standard. Try singing the lead vocal while playing his bass line on early hits like “All My Loving.” Good luck. Listen to his heavy playing on “Paperback Writer” or “Don’t Let Me Down.” Or his softer, yet very melodic approach, on “Something.” Additional examples of McCartney’s distinctive, melodic, even jazz-like bass style are lengthy indeed. During the 1960s, he was consistently awarded as the best bass player by the highly regarded [at the time] annual best-musicians poll by Playboy magazine. In 1973, Playboy recognized him for his bass playing as the winner of their All-Star Jazz and Pop Poll. McCartney single-handedly elevated the role of the bass guitar.
For a more technical and professionally performed explanation, go to YouTube and search for Legends Of The Bass Part 1 & 2 — Paul McCartney. The examples chosen make for some very entertaining viewing. And, don’t make the mistake of diminishing Paul’s talent because some of today’s bass players exhibit similar physical creativity. That’s the point of the essay — he impacted all future generations of aspiring bass players. He raised the bar substantially for this position in a band.
17. In 1964, The Beatles introduced guitar feedback into the mainstream (“I Feel Fine”). To my previous point, they chose to use it at start of the intro, which made it a real attention getter or hook. This technique, which occurs when the guitar microphone [or pick-up] interacts with the loudspeaker on the amplifier causing a loud, buzzing sound, has been widely used by many guitarists. Within two years, the Who, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix adopted it. Guitar feedback continued to be used by other artists and eventually mainstreamed into a regular guitar technique.
18. From the early stages of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership, the 2 had developed a masterful sense of applying lyrics that conveyed disguised double meanings and ambiguity. They consciously designed some of their songs to have secrets that, in many cases, only they understood. This was a common practice in late 19th century/early 20th-century black American blues, whose original use was to hide their intended meaning from slaveowners. But it certainly was not in use in mainstream pop music. A few examples include: The revengeful burning down of the girls’ apartment in “Norwegian Wood”…the symbolism of the American black female’s struggle in “Blackbird”…the main character in “Baby You Can Drive My Car” has no car…the sexual undertones of “Day Tripper”…the Lewis Carroll-influenced mind game they played with “I Am The Walrus”…the over-the-top, hard drug self-confessional “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey”…singing about their newly found love of marijuana in “Got To Get You Into My Life”…the tribute to working-class women in “Lady Madonna”…the cloaked putdown of Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in “Sexy Sadie”…the provocative “love to turn you on” line in “A Day In The Life”…the opening carnival barker calling out “roll up, roll up” referring to a marijuana joint in “Magical Mystery Tour”…the anti-Pakistani immigration parody “Get Back”… referring to their miserable business situation at Apple Records in “You Never Give Me Your Money”.
Do your own research — additional examples are almost endless. As was always the case with the Beatles’ success, many future artists were inspired to use their own lyrics more creatively. The art form was best summed up by the 1960’s expression “Man, you’re messin’ with my head”.
19. They successfully demonstrated the use of unorthodox song structures as early as 1964’s “And I Love Her”. Modulations in key changes are overwhelmingly going to go from low to high — the only variable would be the number of keys the song increases to. In this song, they go down three keys, and they accomplish it in a very quiet non-dramatic manner on just the final chord. Unlike others songwriters, they used key changes very sparingly. This type of key change modulation can add a powerful injection for emotional lift, but in many cases, it’s a lazy technique to create energy where there isn’t any left due to the repetitve use of lyrics and/or instrumentation. It’s another supportive example about the power of their total music package.
Their two most noteworthy examples of breaking away from the traditional musical structure are “A Day In The Life” on Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band and the 16-minute B-side medley on Abbey Road. The first example melded two completely different songs and used a provocative 24 bar orchestral connector to achieve the finished work. They then returned to the beginning song seamlessly at the end. Another similar example of successfully blending different tracks is “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” in which they integrate four discreet tracks.
In the case of the Abbey Road medley, eight short and completely disjointed songs were blended into a single non-ending 16 minute masterpiece. No record company would have permitted their client to use valuable studio time in this purely artistic manner. After all, the objective was to produce radio-friendly songs, which could result in theoretical profits for everyone involved. A 16-minute medley would never get airtime, thereby wasting both studio time and lost sales for more commercial material, which could have filled that same side-B space. Early FM college stations did play it in its entirety, but that clearly wasn’t a business opportunity they would have imagined at the time. As an aside, the song “The End” was one of their last recording sessions together and features their first and only guitar solo duel involving Paul, George and John (in that order) and was completed in a single spontaneous take followed by Ringo’s first and only drum solo. And, the end was clearly approaching.
Fortunately, the Beatles decisions about studio time usage at this stage of their career was not questioned. Abbey Road went on to become a huge commercial success, debuting at №1 worldwide and remained in the Top 100 charts for 81 weeks in the UK, 83 weeks in the U.S. and astounding 298 weeks (5.7 years!) in Japan. In the US, the album spent 12 weeks at number one. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969 and was number four on Billboard magazine’s top LPs of 1970 year-end chart. Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum. In 2011(42 years after the original release), it was iTunes ninth most downloaded album a week after it’s debut. So, artistry correctly ruled.
20. The Beatles pioneered what was described in 1962 as the Liverpool “Mersey Sound”, which was the earliest version of what would famously be called “The British Invasion”. For a brief 2–3 years, the traditional music capitol in the south (London) was eclipsed by this northern phenomenon. Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakota’s and the Searchers are examples of other better-known groups to popularize it, but the Beatles sparked it. Unfortunately, like other art forms, there doesn’t exist a broad consensus on the exact characteristics of the Mersey Sound. For me, what made it distinctive was the driving back beat and the frequent usage of unusual guitar chords. The backbeat, in many cases, was defined by a heavy 4/4 rhythm. A great example would be “All My Loving”. Listen to the 4/4 synching of the bass guitar and the drums. Additionally, John’s banjo-like strumming is a derivative of the overlapping late ‘50’s British “Shuffle” period and is considered, by some, a characteristic of the Mersey sound.
Speaking specifically to chord usage, examples include consistent major to minor changes and the addition of augmented, suspended and diminshed chords. These chords had been successfully used before, but not to the extent or where they were employed with this new sound. For instance, the accepted industry songwriting practice would generally avoid the use of a minor chord in an upbeat happy love song — by their very nature they invite a darker, more disturbing message. The Beatles early success as songwriters allowed them the unprecedented freedom to go where the music took them. And, the studio executives avoided attempts at teaching them the traditional songwriting techniques. For instance, in their very early upbeat mega-hit “She Loves You” they successfully employ three different minor chords in the verse alone. Other examples include “If I Fell”, “She Loves You”, “Can’t By Me Love”, “Michelle” and “She’s A Woman”. In many cases, they added warm vocal harmony to make the minor chord not just acceptable, but more emotionally engaging. Once they successfully demonstrated the proper usage of these chord changes, the industry followed along.
21. Most of their songs conveyed a positive message. Like most songwriters, the subject of love dominated most of their discography. They explored it from many different perspectives, each of which provides numerous examples. Here is a representative song in each category including secrecy (“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”); frustration (“I’m Down”); reaching out (“We Can Work It Out”); affirmation (“Here, There And Everywhere”); parenting (“She’s Leaving Home”); community (“All You Need Is Love”); maternal (“Julia”); yearning (“Honey Pie”); craving (“Long And Winding Road”); discarded (“For No One”); frustration (“Girl”); discovery (“I’ve Just Seen A Face”); jealousy (“Run For Your Life”); pleading (“Don’t Let Me Down”); discontent (“Help”) and the list goes on.
They also wrote numerous songs covering other areas including depression (“I’m A Loser”); joy (“Here Comes The Sun”); politics (“Taxman”); reminiscing (“Penny Lane”); friendship (“With A Little Help From My Friends”); youthful imagery (“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”); adult imagery (“Tomorrow Never Knows”); materialism (“I Me Mine”) and tongue-in-cheek humor (“Back In The USSR”). There are probably categories I’ve overlooked, but this list hopefully makes my point. Their messaging was broad, deep and overwhelmingly positive.
Finally, it is also very notable that the Beatles were clearly the most impactful artists on the planet at the height of both the racial strife in America and the angst regarding the Vietnam War. Given their lofty cultural and industry position, they chose to take the high road and offered up “Revolution”, which went totally counter to the majority thinking of their fan base. It was a gutsy move on their part to offer a mature and peaceful message.
Pop Culture
1.The Beatles defined ’60s cool. Genuinely polite [but very obvious] irreverence was their signature approach to broadening their appeal to both counter-culturists (e.g. Rolling Stones fans) and their polar-opposite “straights” representing the more establishment based, respectful group. Their confidence and control regarding media interviews provided a fresh, edgy wit and sarcasm. They even introduced a new lexicon. Words like fab (fabulous), grotty (grotesque), and gear (cool) all impacted their British fans maybe more so than their fans in the United States. But words like Beatlemania, Beatlesque, mop-tops, and Beatle cut (as in hairstyle) have had much more universal usage. Statements like John’s “we’re more popular than Jesus” or Paul’s admission that they had all used LSD pushed the edges of social acceptability. But, even in controversy, they strived to be honest with their audience. Finally, unlike many musicians in the 1960’s, they weren’t overtly political and never used their lofty platform to push their opinions about politicians or political matters. A great example would be their song “Revolution” which was released at the peak of the Vietnam War. Instead of doing what was culturally in vogue, they chose to go against the grain and advocated a more deliberate rebuke to those wanting to destroy the current establishment. The lyrics “we all want change the world’ and “you say you got a real solution…we’d all love to see the plan” and “when you talk about destruction…don’t you know you can count me out” were very thoughtful and provocative. This B-side single topped the U.S. charts at No12 in 1968 and would have served as a great platform for a protest song, but they chose a higher road, Interestingly, their long-time manager, Brian Epstein, had always guided them through controversial subjects in order to maintain their clean image. He had died the year before, but he would have approved of their very adult-like choice. As an aside, the A-side, “Hey Jude” became a global No1 hit and remained in that position for 9 weeks, a new record for any U.S. best seller. Their audience was everyone and they intentionally didn’t want to disenfranchise anyone.
2.These four musicians single-handedly revolutionized styling globally by popularizing the longer-hair look for men, and to a lesser degree, shorter cropped styles for females. Their “mop-top” hairstyle required the hair length to be increased on all sides, hence the forehead and ears are covered. For them, the idea of altering their hair style to what was widely known as ‘the Beatle-cut” began in 1961. One of the friends, Astrid Kirchherr, they met during their second multi-month gig in Hamburg, Germany introduced the new look to them. Initially the idea provoked mostly laughter from them, but they grew to like the look. It’s almost impossible to overstate their global impact on the length of male hairstyles. In 1964, the length of men’s hair was very short regardless of age. Look at photos from the 1960s and you will note the abrupt contrast between the Beatles’ appearance and the masses.
It took years for the eventual longer styles to gain a cultural foothold across all age groups. By the 1970s the trend was no longer just fashionable — it became the norm. But, it’s an absolute fact — the Beatles were the original stimulant. They also influenced millions of males worldwide to grow facial hair. Mustaches were not considered a popular mainstream option in the early ’60s. When the Beatles appeared for the first time in 1967 with long sideburns and mustaches, the gates of acceptability opened for future generations. McCartney’s classic vested three-piece suit in their 1964 movie A Hard Days Night created a surge in their popularity for years afterwards.
With Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the group laid the foundation for what would become the psychedelic 1967 Summer of Love of mind exploration.
They not only gave you the music to get you there — they showed you what clothes to wear, how to style facial hair, and popularized new eyewear designs. The album cover for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band defined the psychedelic movement and featured the look along with their Nehru jackets, which became a very hot unisex fashion. The Beatles lead this style revolution and opened the door for men to dress with more fashion and flair. And, Lennon’s signature wire-rimmed glasses style carries his name still today.
3. Along with the influence of Indian music, the Beatles introduced spiritualism into 1960s mainstream culture. Through their involvement with the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, they greatly stimulated the interest in transcendental meditation. Even apparel was impacted with the Indian-influenced addition of powerful patterns and color.
4. Wherever the Beatles went, the earth shook! They created a seismic increase in extemporaneous crowd hysterics, which became known around the world as Beatlemania. Yes, Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, caused the first audience eruption in the late 1930s, and the 1940s bobbysoxers fawned over Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Elvis’ 1950s teenybopper fans were rabid, as well. But, Beatles fans took it to a level never previously seen. Unlike those earlier mentioned artists, the Beatles weren’t viewed as a single entity. Rather, they were four distinct personalities who not only performed their music, but wrote it as well. Their distinctive music and tight harmonies were infectious. They were British, which provided further intrigue to audiences — historically, popular music had only emanated from America. And, they were very engaging performers, right down to the iconic bow at the end of their songs. Their unique audience connection was first sparked at one of their first dances in Liverpool directly after they returned from their first multi-month 1960 gig in Hamburg, Germany. Five hundred hours of live stage performance there had dramatically increased their confidence and music delivery. This late December show was the introduction of their new audience engagement style that was going to evolve into an organic worldwide phenomenon. A combination of factors explains a lot about their impact on live crowds. Multiple sources have claimed that Beatles shows were known for the post-show smell of urine. Notably, the son of the owner of a U.S. venue where the Beatles played told The Washington Post that after the show, the concert hall “smelled like the pee of over-excited girls”. Based on many other accounts, his observation was not unique.
Another point worth noting, their transportation routing for any show was well known and staked out with lots of security. The normal logistical steps in all cities were similar and began with their arrival at an airport/train station, their ground transport and arrival at a hotel, transport to their venue and then a reversal of all of the previous steps. The local radio/TV stations gave listeners not just the routing info, but they also provided the approximate timing. From the moment they arrived, they were the lead story until they departed. Fans amassed wherever they could get a view. This was Beatlemania, for which they very quickly became literal prisoners from 1963–late 1966 due to their fame.
The only reason it ended was their decision to stop performing live. No other entertainer(s) have ever created this level of mass hysteria. Unfortunately, the recorded videos showing hysterical fans, whether on the street or in the actual concert venue, have been legally used by numerous film producers to falsely embellish other 1960’s performers. For instance, the screaming fans at future Ed Sullivan shows were noisy, but not generally spontaneous to the degree they were when the Beatles performed. The audiences had become conditioned performers in their own right. They knew the cameras were on them, so they acted their role. As time passed, the crowds were expected to be noisy and were intentionally stirred up during the pre-show for that perceived need by the shows producer. None of this prompting was needed for a Beatle show.
5. At the time, it was customary for artists to record foreign-language versions of their hit singles. Due to their global success, the Beatles were able to influence the final demise of this standard practice. For example, the group’s record distributor in Germany said that the German people only would be interested in Beatles music recorded in their native language.
The Beatles reluctantly released German versions of “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in early 1964. But their exploding global sales in many non-English speaking countries made that the last time the group would bow to a demand of that sort. The Beatles played a large role in making English the official global language of most popular-music genres.
6. Movie makers continue to include their songs in movie and TV soundtracks, which will help keep the Beatles’ legend alive for future generations. A brief sampling of their movie credits include Shampoo (1975), Coming Home (1978), The World According To Garp (1982), Once Upon A Time In America (1984), Mask (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Rainman (1988), A Bronx Tale (1993), Mad Dogs And Englishmen (1995), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Pleasantville (1998), Armageddon (1998), American Beauty (1999), I Am Sam (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Cat In The Hat (2003), Radio (2003), Across The Universe (2007), American Gangster (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), and Not Fade Away (2012).
There are many independent documentary films, as well, including The Complete Beatles (1984), Imagine (1988), Beatles: The Journey (2003), Beatles’ Biggest Secrets (2004), The Beatles Explosion (2007), Rare And Unseen; The Beatles (2008), George Harrison: Living In A Material World (2011) and Yesterday (2019). In 2021, the 3-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back was released globally providing roughly 8 hours of never before film footage of them creating and recording original songs for a new album. It thankfully provided a much better insight into their relationships nearing the end of their epic career as Beatles.
7. Their American success proved to be the irrefutable watershed event for foreign music artists in all-musical genres. With the exception of the opera and classical music, American artists had a virtual monopolistic lock on the American music scene. Occasionally, artists like Anthony Newley experienced some success (re: his was on Broadway). However, many very successful international artists bombed in the U.S. and many stayed away for that reason. The Beatles were keenly aware of this phenomenon and vowed not to agree to a U.S. tour until they had a hit record on the American charts. When they arrived in February of 1964, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was №1 and “She Loves You” was right on its heels at №7, reaching the No 1 spot shortly thereafter. At the end of 1964, the Beatles had spent a stunning 35% of the year at №1 and three other English bands combined to increase the total foreign share of top sellers to 46%. In my article How Did The Beatles Dominate The American Music Scene So Quickly, I describe this phenomonon in more detail.
8. Their White Album unfortunately was at the center of a heinous 1969 crime spree in which a total of 6 people were brutally murdered in two different locations. Charles Manson and his group of crazed killers chose to write “DEATH TO PIGS”, “RISE” and “HELTER SKELTER” on the walls in blood. It’s no coincidence that Manson, a huge Beatles fan, interpreted several of their songs on this album supported his demented view of the world. “Blackbird” was encouraging Blacks to RISE and violently revolt; “Piggies” encourages DEATH TO PIGS [the establishment; “Revolution No9” predicted the apocalypse and “Helter Skelter” was the term that he thought the Beatles used to describe the revolt. Obviously, none of these associations were intended, but their connection to the White Album received a lot of media attention including a 1976 two-night TV-movie titled “Helter Skelter”. Outside of the US a highly rated story was shown in movie theaters. When broadcasted, it was the most viewed TV-movie ever. Incidentally, in England, a helter skelter is a spiral playground slide and McCartney has acknowledged that it was his inspiration.
The Music Business
1. Due to their meteoric worldwide success, the Beatles put an end to another age-old business model that governed popular music. Historically, original songs came from professional songwriters working in song mills (e.g. Denmark Street, Tin Pan Alley, New York’s Brill Building) in New York City and London. There was an accepted and almost required divide between performers and writers. This model produced many good and bad songs. By contrast, the Beatles composed and performed. The 70-year-old, song-mills business model that ran the music business both in the U.S. and Britain quietly faded away forever.
As a related aside, the Beatles initial reason to write their own songs was partially driven by normal youthful creativity, as well as, to assure that they were performing non-competitive original music when auditioning for local shows. They had experienced being upstaged by the prior act before them too many times that would perform the same material they had intended to use. As a result, they lost the audition and the much needed income. So, both creative and commercial motivation was at work. Keep in mind that most of their important early rock‘n’roll influences including Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Everly Brothers barely wrote any of their hits. On the other hand, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly were prolific songwriters, which provided them with the inspiration to give it a try. The results weren’t bad!
Once established as competent songwriters, their creative influences were numerous including Smokey Robinson in the early pop period, Bob Dylan in the more introspective years beginning in 1965 and the Beach Boys complex harmonic melodies in the non-touring studio period beginning in 1967. Both John and Paul where highly appreciative of many of the melodies that were staples of their parents’ generation. The influence for a specific song was virtually unnoticeable. For instance, songs like “Ask Me Why”, “This Boy” and “In My Life” where Smokey influenced. Dylan influences are barely noticeable other than the more acoustic balance of the Rubber Soul album, but they recognize him as background thought in their songwriting. The Beach Boys beautiful song “God Only Knows” influenced Paul’s song “Penny Lane”. Even a diehard Beach Boys fan would be hard pressed to hear the connection.
2. Artists traditionally were managed by record companies to be genre-constrained in order to maximize their success. Focus on what you do best was the imperative. The Beatles ignored that practice by composing and performing in numerous genres. This includes pop (“Yesterday”), rock (“Birthday”), folk (“I’ve Just Seen A Face”), ballads (“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”), country (“What Goes On”), blues, lullabies (“Good Night”), Indian music (“Within You Without You”), ditties (“Honey Pie”), cowboy music (“Rocky Raccoon”), and Broadway show tunes (“Till There Was You”). This also helps to explain their mass appeal. Because of their genre diversity, adults found some of their music appealing. Today, any aspiring new artist feels entitled to stray into a variety of genres if so inspired.
3. The Beatles broke the “made in America” mold. American’s liked American music. Pop music by foreign artists never worked in the States. The Beatles singlehandedly opened the door for all of the forthcoming Brit bands/artists. But, unlike previous “new” performers, the Beatles landed in the United States with two very new №1 Billboard hits (“She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand”). Two months later, they occupied Billboard’s top-5 pop positions, a feat never again accomplished by any artist. And, they oozed on-stage confidence, which was extraordinary for four young men in their early 20s acquiring this level of self-assurance. They had crafted their act for five, hard years prior to setting foot in the United States. There was nothing “new” about them as a band. In his 2008 book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell makes a compelling case that mastery [in any field of endeavor] requires at least 10,000 hours of practice and uses the Beatles as one of his examples. Give it a read. In his own words, “By 1964, the year they burst on the international scene, the Beatles had played over 1,200 concerts together. For instance, on their second U.S./Canada tour in 1964, they performed 26 concerts in 27 days in 26 locations! By way of comparison, most bands today don’t play 1,200 times in their entire career.”
4. The Beatles retained a portion of their publishing rights. Again, this was a major development for young, “non-professional” songwriters in the early 1960s. Unfortunately, based on bad, but well-meaning advice from their manager, their initial publishing contract was a poor one for them. They achieved legal protection, but signed away the majority of their royalty rights. The result was the eventual loss of hundred’s of millions of dollars of income to Lennon and McCartney. Even so, the group had paved the way for future artists to recognize the value in controlling their own publishing rights. By the mid-to-late-’60s, it became an accepted business practice for other songwriters.
In 1985 Michael Jackson outbid McCartney for the majority of the Beatles song-list publishing rights. As a result, the original writers received only half of their share of licensing royalties. Because of the severe indebtedness of Jackson’s estate upon his death in 2009, Sony Music ended up buying his 50% share of the publishing rights for $750 million. Ironically, this single property sale saved the Jackson estate from an embarrassing and very expensive bankruptcy. At least the Copyright Act of 1976 will allow the Beatles to reclaim their song rights in 2026.
5. The Beatles were the accelerant for the explosion of youth-focused TV programming. In late 1963, Ready, Steady, Go was launched on British television in response to the increased interest in youth-based music programming.
Beatlemania was already raging in England. In January 1964, Top of The Pops was launched. In the United States, the impact of the Beatles historic three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, provided irrefutable proof that there existed a new, fertile opportunity for youth-focused TV programing featuring live performances (vs. American Bandstand’s lip-synched format). For a brief period, The Ed Sullivan Show had a monopoly and took full advantage of it. Sullivan routinely introduced numerous British artists (e.g. British Invasion) and a fair balance of American talent. Just three months after the Beatles’ February appearances, he was already showcasing the Dave Clark Five, the Searchers, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, and Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas. During the same three-month period in 1965, The Ed Sullivan Show featured 14 similar youth-focused performances vs. just six in 1964. And in 1966, that number rose to 19.
Clearly, the TV network powers had discovered a highly responsive audience to target. New programming exploded in 1964. The British-television special, Around The Beatles was aired in April.
In September, the first U.S. prime-time show to air was Shindig, which was followed in the same month by the nationally syndicated after-school show, The Lloyd Thaxton Show. In 1965 the floodgates opened further with the launch of other nationally syndicated programs, including Hullabaloo, Hollywood A Go-Go, Shiveree, and Where The Action Is. In September, the British-television special The Music of Lennon and McCartney aired. What is clear today is that February 9, 1964, was a major, watershed moment in television and music history.
In 2020, Apple released a new podcast in their Speed of Sound series titled How The Beatles Swept America in Six Weeks, which describes how they went from a virtual unknown band to the hottest and most demanded band in America in a little over a month. The podcast provides a compelling timeline from the Fall of 1963 to their explosive TV debut in February 1964.
It begins with the inexplicable decision made by the head of Capitol Records to reject releasing the Beatles music in the U.S. 4 times in late 1963. This resulted in Capitol Records London-based parent, EMI, to allow five American very small record labels to exclusively market Beatles music in America including Capitol, Swan, Vee-Jay, Tollie and MGM. Swan Records released “She Loves You” and Vee-Jay Records released “From Me To You”, “Please, Please Me”, “I Saw Her Standing There” and numerous others.
Unfortunately, tragedy also played an important role in their American success. President Kennedy had been assassinated in November 1963 and broadcasters were looking for positive news that would raise America’s spirits. The genuine grassroots fervor for this new band provided a very welcome lift. But let’s go back a bit earlier in their very limited history on American TV.
Although the Beatles never performed on Dick Clark’s very popular American Bandstand TV show, he did play their records. Clark first played “Please Please Me” in March of 1963. It was played along with four others in his popular show segment titled “Rate a Record” in which a teen panel assigned a score of 1 to 99 to song after they listened to it. It didn’t score well. In September 1963, Clark played “She Loves You” and they rated it a 73, which scored it in third place. And, when he held up a photo of the band, the teen crowd giggled and snickered. Their hair style caused derisive laughter. In a few short months they would be worshiping this band.
On November 16, 1963, all three of the US television networks sent a film crew to capture a Beatle concert in England. The concert captured the standard (for England anyway, as the Beatles were already a huge phenomenon) clips of the Beatles singing, strumming their guitars, shaking their mop tops, and the girls in the audience screaming, dancing, and almost fainting in a wild frenzy. The footage was aired on the NBC evening news on the highly rated Huntley-Brinkley Report on November 18th, 1963.
CBS waited until November 22nd, and an interview of the Beatles was shown on that soon-to-be fateful Friday morning. The clip had been scheduled to be re-broadcast later, that same evening. But, by an unbelievable coincidence, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated mid-day. Obviously, the Beatles clip was shelved. Almost three weeks later, the clip and interview were finally shown on The CBS Evening News.
Let’s move on to an extremely fascinating and little-known part of their success. A 15-year-old Marsha Albert contacted her local Washington, DC radio station WWDC-AM and asked them to play “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. She was aware of the song because a friend heard it while visiting England, where Beatlemania was raging, and the song had rocketed to No1. The radio station management was so impressed with her enthusiastic request that they asked her to come to the station and personally introduce the record on-air, for which she did on December 17, 1963.
The fuse was just lit on what would be a remarkable 6 weeks, culminating in their first live American performance on February 9, 1964.
The response from DC listeners was overwhelmingly positive, which caused the radio station to begin playing it constantly, which succeeded in creating a firestorm of interest for the song. Carroll James, the Washington, DC station DJ began to send tapes of the song to his DJ contacts all over the country who played it and they experienced the same over-the-top reaction from their listeners. What the radio station didn’t know was that, due to intense pressure from top management at EMI, Capitol Records had reluctantly agreed to begin marketing that song in the U.S. beginning in mid-January three weeks prior to the groups debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. By the time Capitols Records tried to find an expedient legal resolution to have these radio stations to stop playing the record, it was too late. They had to trash their own previously planned marketing campaign and play catch up to the massive demand from music stores for the record and impressively released it December 26th, only 10 days after 15-year-old Marcia introduced the song!
Technology also played an important role in stimulating demand at the exact same time that all these other seemingly unrelated events were sparking. As mentioned earlier in this article, the most demanded Christmas gift for teenagers was the transistor radio, which allowed them to listen to their music without parental interference. This was the first portable personal music listening device and millions of these were Christmas gifts in 1963. Trust me, adults marginalized rock n’ roll in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s and controlled the use of the single record player/radio that was in most homes. The transistor radio transformed that dynamic forever.
After the unusual happenings in December, January didn’t disappoint either. The Jack Paar Show was a popular adult targeted Friday night primetime show. Upon learning that Ed Sullivan had succeeded in booking the band for 3 shows covering most of the month of February, Jack decided that he’d show a video clip of them performing during his January 3rd show and labeling it “their first U.S. TV appearance” just to stick it to Sullivan. He hated rock n’ roll and proceeded to mock them with “humorous” comments as the video played. His ratings for this show jumped by 13 million “new” viewers, who were all likely young Beatle fans. He only succeeded in increasing the building mania.
Now, enter the Keystone cops. Remember Vee-Jay and Swan? With the music industry buzz dominated by the Beatles for the last 2 weeks, both small record companies, who had very little success with Beatle records in 1963, suddenly were overwhelmed by demand from DJ’s and music stores. Capitol Records had successfully moved up sales of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by almost 3 weeks and was assuming they would be able to methodically market the song, watch the demand slow for it, market another song and so on. Afterall, that was the traditional industry formula. Apparently, Vee-Jay and Swan didn’t get the memo. “She Loves You”, “Please, Please Me”, “From Me To You” and “I Saw Her Standing There” all flooded the airwaves beginning in mid-January.
No new artist ever was introduced to the American music market with this level of “instant” success, nor will it likely ever occur again.
And the results were truly historic. Unit sales of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” were over a million in January alone. In New York City, the single was reported to be selling at a rate of 10,000 an hour. In total, the band sold 2.6 million records in that same month. By February, they held the No1 and No7 positions and 2 others in the Billboard Top 100. By March, they held the Top 3 positions and had 4 songs in the Top 15. And, in April they captured the Top 5 positions, as well as 7 other positions in the Top 100. These were new music industry sales records for any artist in any musical genre, which have never been challenged in nearly 60 years.
Thank you, Marsha Alberts, for both your good taste and tenacity. And the same goes for Carroll James and his instinctive business networking skills. I suggest that you Google this podcast.
6. In 1965, the Beatles introduced a new business model: the outdoor-concert stadium — a viable performance venue that would increase audience size by a multiple of 2 to 3 times. At the time, no performer/artist of any genre could have filled Shea Stadium, a brand-new baseball stadium in New York City. Packing 55,000 paying fans into a stadium (the concert sold out in 17 minutes!) to see one band/performer was unimaginable. It took 7 years, but eventually the industry economics of the outdoor-concert stadium would change forever.
The technical capabilities for of amplification of their instruments and vocals at Shea Stadium were amateurish — the sound quality was terrible. But, the Beatles proved the viability of this business model by repeatedly playing at large, outdoor venues for their final year prior to retiring from live performances.
As a relevant aside, the music business began experimenting with the much less risky outdoor-festival concept (vs. single-act concert) three years later. The first was the very successful 1967 Monterey Pop Festival featuring 33 big acts over three days/nights. It drew 25,000–90,0000 people, most of who had paid and ushered in the Summer of Love. A year later in July, the Atlanta International Music Festival kicked off with 22 big acts drawing an estimated crowd of 150,000. In August, the legendary Woodstock music festival attracted an astounding 400,00 fans (most didn’t pay) to see 32 different acts. A few months later, the disastrous free Altamont Speedway Free Concert, staged in California, featured six very popular counter-culture bands including the Rolling Stones and several veteran Woodstock bands — it attracted 300,000. Unfortunately, the Hells Angels, who were hired for security, turned violent; the Grateful Dead departed due to safety concerns; and one of the members of the Jefferson Airplane was knocked unconscious. When a concertgoer was killed just a few feet from the stage, all hell broke loose. The melee was unknowingly serenaded with the Rolling Stones playing “Under My Thumb.” But even with this unfortunate setback, the outdoor-concert venue continued to be refined and used selectively throughout the 1970s.
By the ’80s, various large-scale, big-stadium outdoor music events (a.k.a. Arena Rock) began to demonstrate the venue’s feasibility. Some forty years after the Shea Stadium event, due to the penetration of internet-based music sharing/streaming websites, most performer/musician income from purchased music has been severely impacted. As a result, the business model for mega-successful artist(s) has evolved to being reliant on a combination of large indoor and outdoor-stadium venues.
7. The Beatles smashed the rules for song length on popular radio, increasing the standard 2-to-3 minutes to up to 7 minutes (“Hey Jude”). Much to the consternation of the radio industry, “Hey Jude” spent a record 23 weeks on the Top 100 charts in 1968. The extraordinary power of the Beatles forced this industry change. In a short few years, artists, radio stations, and record companies were finally endorsing the idea with such notables as Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (4:50), Don McLean’s 1971 “American Pie” (8:33), Led Zeppelin’s 1971 “Stairway To Heaven” (8:02), The Who’s 1971 “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” (8:32), Queen’s 1975 “Bohemian Rhapsody” (5:55) and the Eagle’s 1976 “Hotel California” (6:30). Richard Harris’ much less impactful 1968 “MacArthur’s Park” (7:21) never reached №1 and spent little comparative time on the charts.
8. The Beatles were the first major artists to abruptly quit live performances (August, 1966) in favor of relying solely on studio production. And, as one might naturally suspect, the timing of their decision did not mean they had reached the downside of their career. Rather, the group was only halfway into the band’s timeline from their first №1 U.K. single (“Please, Please Me,” January, 1963) until their final №1 U.S. single (“The Long And Winding Road,” June, 1970). In other words, they spent half of their career as a band without performing live. And, during this studio-only period, they produced eight №1 singles and five №1 albums. No one other than the Beatles could ever have pulled this off. And 50 years later, no one has even tried.
9. In 1966, leveraging their popularity with The Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles introduced the concept of the music video. To more efficiently respond to global requests for personal appearances in 1966, they released “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” with a promotional video. It was another Beatles first. And, as a result of their decision in August of that same year to stop performing live, they promoted “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane” as videos the following year.
This second round was decidedly more artistically creative and well received. In total, they released 10 promotional videos. Fourteen years later, MTV (the original music-cable channel) was launched, providing artists with an entirely new more artistic option for showcasing their work.
10. They created a holistic artistic revolution that touched virtually every profession in the music industry, and was the arguably the most dramatic watershed event since the introduction of electricity. This included roles as diverse as songwriters, performers, producers, engineers, art designers, marketing/public relations consultants and record company executives. For instance, George Martin for whom I mentioned glowingly earlier in this essay raised the bar for all producers in any musical genre. He successfully demonstrated how a collaborative process between all studio personnel, which included the artists, engineers and other technicians, could produce consistent record-breaking results.
No previous producer pushed aside studio traditions like him. He smartly sensed when the Beatles studio sensibilities had matured enough to lengthen the leash. As the results of this unique and increasing responsibility shift continued to produce record sales, he gave them more and more artistic autonomy. From their 1965 Rubber Soul album, their sixth (based on the UK releases), their active participation in all facets of the creative output was in high gear. For instance, the genesis of creative design ideas regarding their album covers quickly evolved to being their province. The final decision was all theirs, but now the ideas were as well. More on this important subject is coming up. Successful performers and singer/songwriters began to expect more input in the creative process at all of these levels, so all of the involved parties had to re-think their role in the existing industry paradigm.
This extremely significant and mostly unintended consequence of their work style receives very little attention when discussing the Beatles true impact. But, in my opinion, it’s probably close to the top of my list. This recently published article goes into more detail on this point.
11. The Beatles transformed the creative process between record companies and their artist(s) on the development of album covers. The album cover was traditionally always the domain of the record company. The industry standard was not intended to be provocative — covers were typically designed to feature the smiling artist(s), maybe with their instrument(s), or pictured in an appropriate location. The Beatles slowly took over the creative process and completely controlled it by late 1965 — another industry first. Their first U.S. album in 1964, Meet The Beatles, with their dark, half-lit headshots, was a simple yet compelling start. The group was portrayed as reflective and serious, not the usual for an introductory album.
Their black-and-white, slide-show approach to A Hard Day’s Night was new, fun, and creative. The distorted, leather-jacketed photo and pre-psychedelic font style on Rubber Soul conveyed a double meaning. Revolver was an award-winning cover. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band is probably one of the most iconic album covers in music history. Contrast the multifaceted artistry of Sgt. Pepper to the simplicity of The Beatles (also known as the White Album).
The Beatles, their tenth album (based on their UK release order) is a very significant in many ways. It was the band’s most-certified album (24-times platinum in the US), first album release from their new company, Apple Records and the iconic Apple logo and their first stereo-only release in America. They wanted the depth of their songs audio content to be heard. FM radio stations were beginning to open on university campuses and stereo record players were in many US homes.
The albums very striking plain white cover was intentionally designed to be a stark contrast to their previous covers of Sgt. Pepper’s Heart Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. It also contained subtle touches including The Beatles album name embossed off center and a serial number stamped towards the lower right corner as if it were a piece of art. Richard Hamilton, a pop artist, was hired to create an artistic result to all of the print items.
The White Album was released in November 1968 and very quickly became a #1 global album. It is by far the bands top seller at 24 million copies sold. By comparison, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has sold 11 million units. And, the White Album was more than double the price! It contained 30 new original songs & became the record industries fastest selling double album.
It retailed in the US for $11.98 vs. $5.98 for a typical single album. It spent 186 weeks on the Billboard 200. In 2020 dollars, it would be selling for $90! But music is much more affordable today. Case in point, the minimum hourly wage in 1968 was $1.60, which implies it would take 7.5 hours of work at that wage to own the album. Today, you can purchase a new The Beatles album on Amazon for roughly $25, which requires the owner to work 3.5 hours at the $7.25 federal 2020 minimum wage. A $15 minimum hourly wage, which is reality in many areas of America in 2020 would require fifty minutes to acquire the album.
As was the band’s normal practice of delivering maximum value to they’re listeners, the album contained no previously released #1 songs. Hey Jude & Revolution, were both recorded during the same White Album recording sessions and were both released a few months in advance of the White Album. Most of those previously mentioned successful double albums by other artists typically contained many already released hit songs to insure their commercial viability. For instance, a greatest hits album made them a perfect platform. Contrast that with the White Album. When the new owner put the vinyl disc on the turntable, every track was a first-time musical experience. I, like many, invited friends to a very quiet listening session and then discussed their impressions. It was considered a very content-rich album.
The Beatles album is the band’s most-certified album, at 24-times platinum in the US, first album release from their new company, Apple Records, first album to feature the iconic Apple logo and the first stereo-only release in America. They wanted the depth of their songs audio content to be heard. FM radio stations were beginning to open on university campuses and stereo record players were in many US homes.
The albums very striking plain white cover was intentionally designed to be a stark contrast to their previous covers of Sgt. Pepper’s Heart Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. It also contained subtle touches including The Beatles album name embossed off center and a serial number stamped towards the lower right corner as if it were a piece of art. Richard Hamilton, a pop artist, was hired to create an artistic result to all of the print items.
Each song took an average of 30 hours to record. This is an astounding number, because it implies the album took 900 hours to produce. To put that in perspective, if you calculated those hours over a typical eight-hour workday, it would total 112 consecutive days without a break! In 1968, no record company would have invested this much valuable studio time in producing an album. And, in most cases, because studio time was a charged expense to the performers, they could never afford it. For both Abbey Road Studio and EMI, their owner, the Beatles were considered an investable sure thing.
Another important and very telling example of the bands evolving individuality was their intentional lack of in-person full band studio participation on this album. This occurred for the first time in 1965’s recording of “Yesterday”, in which Paul was alone on the recording. But this was hardly their studio norm. In contrast, roughly 40% of the songs for this album were recorded without full band attendance. Paul did five alone, including “Mother Nature’s Son”, “Blackbird” and “Martha My Dear”. He handled all of the required instrumentation (excluding strings) and backing vocals. Ringo didn’t play on seven tracks, including “Back in the U.S.S.R.” in which Paul drummed.
According to ChartMasters, a non-profit music industry data tracking company, The Beatles album is ranked #2 as the most streamed album of the 1960’s music as of 10/26/2020. It’s only eclipsed by their Abbey Road album. Out of the Top 33 albums featured on their website, 9 are from the Beatles. Another indication of their greatness: Using their Beatle controlled UK released albums as a guide, they released 13 albums in 8 years and 9 showed up on this 2020 list! Here’s what they say about the The Beatles album:
“The White Album of the Beatles has one of the most atypical streams distribution of the list. It has no song over 100 million, its peak is realized by Blackbird at 85 million. Then, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is the only other song to break 40 million, with 65 million. Still, the album reaches an insane 473 million streams in total. It does so thanks to an extensive list of 30 songs, all of which hit at least 4 million. In all fairness, the album is full of classic songs. Revolution #9, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, Dear Prudence, Back In The U.S.S.R, Helter Skelter, etc… They are all huge tracks. One may argue that their individual streams aren’t higher precisely because the album is too crowded with popular songs, limiting their usage on various playlists. It doesn’t matter though since what’s important is that the total is just so big.”
The cover of Abbey Road became so iconic that the then-named EMI Recording Studio — the group’s primary recording studio — changed its name to Abbey Road. Other examples are worthy, but redundant to my point.
The Beatles understood how cover artwork reinforced the imagery, attitude, and message of the band and the group’s music. Creating an album’s cover deserved the same amount of creative effort as the original music it contained.
12. The Beatles disbanded at their peak, when they only were 27-to-30 years old. There was never a reunion. Anecdotally, their final song on their final album said it all — “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” The Beatles simply closed the book on their final chapter. What a classic, storybook ending.
13. The Beatles breathed new life into old musical instrument brands such as Rickenbacker, Epiphone, Gretsch, Ludwig and Hofner. On many occasions, they played a variety of brands in the studio, including the best known (e.g. Fender, Gibson, Martin, etc.).
But, the iconic, on-stage image of the four older brands became synonymous with the Beatles.
14. The sales of guitars of all types exploded after their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was primarily a male phenomena and it seems as if it hasn’t subsided. For instance, in 2014 the industry sold 2.6 million guitars in the United States alone. In 2005, the peak year for American musical-instrument sales, guitars remained №1 with sales of $1.4 billion. Another coincidental set of sourced data from Gapminder, indicates that sales per capita per million people increased from 200 in 1962 to 11,000 in 2014. It’s fair to conclude that during the course of several generations, the Beatles directly and indirectly influenced the birth of millions of self-made guitarists. They were the initial stimulus for recreational players, 99.9% who would never perform professionally.
15. Due to their early exclusive relationship with Vox, a young, upstart British manufacturer of guitar amplifiers, the Beatles revolutionized live-performance technology. With a significant increase in the size of the audiences they were playing to and the decibel level of the crowd’s enthusiasm, the group required enhanced volume controls.
Prior to 1963, the most powerful guitar amplifier was 30 watts. Vox realized that a significant power increase was needed for their instruments to be heard. They introduced the new 50- and 100-watt amps in January 1964 for the Beatles multi-date booking in Paris prior to their upcoming American tour. Their only controls were volume, treble and bass. They were simple and loud. These oversized, on-stage amplifiers were marketed in the United States as the Super Beatle. Many 1960s bands including the Rolling Stones, Kinks, and Yardbirds quickly transitioned into these amplifiers. Twenty years later, artists such as Queen and U2 used this same equipment.
16. They opened the gate for the British invasion of not only America, but the world. None of the band’s or entertainers mentioned in point #5 possessed the compelling package of assets of the Beatles including their stage charisma and showmanship, musicianship, original songs, their natural unrehearsed humor and their obvious confidence. Many of the British bands were covering songs written by American artists. For instance, the Rolling Stones first American release, England’s Newest Hit Makers had one original song and 11 covers. It was released five months after the Beatles arrival on the American record charts and only reached #11. Their second album, 12 x 5 contained 3 originals and 9 covers. None of the originals were notable and would be accurately described as album fillers. They didn’t score a number one US album until the Fall of 1965, by which time the Beatles had scored 5 No1 albums, 2 No2's, 11 No1 singles and stared in two very successful movies. As would be the case with other UK talent, success would have unquestionably been fleeting without the Beatles lead. The British music business industry quickly recognized the opportunity to re-package themselves, write a few songs and jump on the Beatles bandwagon. They all have expressed their gratitude to the band.
A “By The Numbers” Summary
All of the information below is sourced from Google, Neilson, Wikipedia, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and many other websites and books. Fact-checking these claims proves challenging due to variables such as:
· Unit and dollar sales in the United States (vs. worldwide). In the case of dollar sales, the numbers are not consistently adjusted for inflation. In the 1960’s, a vinyl 45rpm single record cost $1 and a 33rpm album cost between $3 and $3.50. Adjusted for inflation, those same products would cost $5.60 and $16.80-$17.50. However, in 2015 actual dollars, downloading a single A-side song still costs $1-$1.29 and an album $12-$15. Source: www.bbhq.com/prices.com .
Using another metric, the 1965 minimum wage was $1.25 per hour, slightly more than the cost of a 45rpm single record. An hour of work and one 45rpm single record were roughly equivalent. The 2015 minimum wage is $7.25, which will buy you seven downloaded singles! This simple exercise illustrates the dramatic affordability of music in 2015 versus 1965.
· In the early years, many of the same Beatles’ U.K. and U.S albums contained different songs. For example, Meet The Beatles was different depending on where you bought it. (See Their Music Item #8) And to further add to the complexity, their studio releases were also somewhat different, depending on the country of release. For instance, between 1963 and 1970, they released 13 U.K. albums and in the United States they released 17. My article The Best Beatles Cover Songs goes into more detail on this point.
· Tracking physical sales vs. digital downloads also is tricky. Obviously, the ease and affordability of downloading music favors newer artists beginning in the last 10 to 15 years. For instance, from 2011 to 2014, the top-selling digital single each year sold more than five million units. By comparison, from 1992 to 2004, only one year [out of 13] had physical sales exceed that amount.
And it was just this year that Rihanna became the biggest-selling single artist with 100 million units. Historically speaking, the digital age has made unit comparisons very challenging.
· The fragmenting of the Billboard charts creates an uneven playing field for older artists. Scoring a №1 pop song in the 1960s was more competitive vs. later years. Beginning in 1989, the Annual Billboard Music Awards show aired on national television. As a result, many new charts were created. For instance, by 2014 there were 30 different Billboard lists for Pop Music alone (Source: www.Billboard.com). More lists intentionally creates more winners.
· Beginning around 2010, the 100-year-old business model of selling music to buyers was disrupted in favor of giving listeners access via streaming data sources. Prior to the early 2000s, consumers bought music at a retail store or an Internet site — and they owned the music. By 2013, streaming music hit a record of 118.1 billion streams. For context, there were 7 billion people on the planet in the same year! Streamed and purchased music are counted equally in both unit and dollar sales.
· Since the mid-’60s, the U.S. population has grown from 195 million to 320 million in 2015. That equates to an increase in potential buying power of 65 percent, assuming that the key demographic groups remain roughly proportionate — and they do. Hypothetically, one could inflate the 1965 metrics by a factor of 65% to equalize the 1965 metrics to the 2015 levels. For example, when a hot new performer releases a song in 2015, there are an additional 125 million potential buyers compared to the prime era of the Beatles. For the record, none of my claims that follow have been manipulated with this formula. This implies my claims that follow are severely understated [against the Beatles] due to this non-adjustment.
1. According to Billboard, the Beatles had a record 20 №1 singles in an era prior to the fragmentation of genre divisions, when there was just one major Billboard pop chart that mattered. Their record still stands. And, many of these №1 A-side singles had a great B-side song (e.g. “Penny Lane” A-side; “Strawberry Fields Forever” B-side…“I Feel Fine” A-side; “She’s A Woman” B-side…”I Want To Hold Your Hand” A-side; “I Saw Her Standing There” B-side…”If I Fell” A-side; “And I Love Her” B-side…”Hey Jude” A-side; ”Revolution” B-side, etc.). They also hold the record for the most №1 Gold Singles at 23. If you combine their №1 post-Beatles’ singles, the combined total is 36 №1 hits! That includes McCartney & Wings (9), Harrison (3), Lennon (2) and Starr (2).
Here are the №1-singles rankings of other notables: Mariah Carey (18), Elvis Presley (17), Michael Jackson (13), Jackson 5 (4), Rihanna (13), Madonna (12), Hank Williams (11), Taylor Swift (11), Stevie Wonder (10), Elton John (9), Rolling Stones (8), Four Seasons (5), Prince (5), Eagles (5), Beach Boys (3), Frank Sinatra (3) and 7 as singer for several 1940’s big bands, but he was not the headliner), and Frankie Valli (2). Even a prolific songwriter like Burt Bacharach (most songs were co-written with Hal David) only scored 6.
2. In the United States alone, the Beatles sold a record 1.6 billion single units and well over 2 billion units worldwide. This includes 2.8 million downloads on iTunes, (Source: Infoplease.com, RIAA, Apple Records & EMI)
3. In 1964, the Beatles had 12 singles on the Billboard’s Hot 100 at the same time, and held the top five positions on the Billboard Top 40 singles in United States. Both achievements are historic firsts that have never been challenged (Source: www.Beatlebible.com). They also reportedly were responsible for 60% of all record sales in the first few months of 1964.
4. As of 2014, the Beatles come in first with a record 2 billion albums sold worldwide. This figure includes 585,000 downloaded albums. Garth Brooks comes in second with 135 million albums sold, followed by Elvis Presley at №3 with 120 million. (Source: Statisticbrain.com, RIAA, Apple Records & EMI) According to Billboard, 26% of all albums sold in 2019 were vinyl, led by the Beatles with 471,000 units. Abbey Road was the No1 seller.
5. The Beatles were prolific album makers. In the United Kingdom, which provides the purest comparison for reasons mentioned previously and is considered their core catalogue, they released 13 albums in 8 years and all but two failed to make it to №1. That’s an 85% success rate of capturing the top position! The exceptions are Yellow Submarine (№4) and A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (№4), neither of which provided listeners with much new material. In the United States, they released 20 albums in just eight years. Of those 1960’s releases, 14 became №1 top-sellers and four reached №2. That equates to a U.S. success rate of 70 percent at attaining No1 and a 90% success rate combining their No1 and No2 positions.! This speaks to the unparalleled quality of their original work.
The comparisons noted above are specific to only the 1960’s when they were active as performers. Broadening the comparisons to their album sales outside of this era, they are still #1 all-time with 19. The next closest performers are Jay Z (13), Bruce Springsteen (10), Elvis Presley (10), Barbra Streisand (10), Garth Brooks (9), Rolling Stones (9), Madonna (8)…Frank Sinatra (5).
6. According to Billboard, the Beatles are the №1 most frequent Top 10 Artists of All Time (1958–2013), followed, in order, by Madonna, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and the Rolling Stones. They placed 35 songs in the Top 10 and 72 in the Top 100. This means that they have placed more songs in the Top 10 than any other performers during this period. And, of these 10 highest-ranking artists, none had a career shorter than 20+ years vs. the Beatles eight years.
7. Unlike other major artists, unit-sales volume of their albums never decelerated. Here’s a quick sampling of just a few of their U.S. releases. In 1964, their first album, Meet The Beatles, remained №1 for 11 weeks. And, it didn’t contain the group’s first two №1 songs — “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”! A few months later, they released A Hard Days Night, which topped the charts for another 14 weeks. In 1967, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band held the top spot for 15 weeks and Magical Mystery Tour remained №1 for another eight weeks. In 1968, the White Album was №1 for an amazing 30 weeks! And, in 1969, the Beatles’ final-recorded album, Abbey Road, held the top spot for 11 weeks.
8. Regarding releases after they broke up, the Beatles have had more №1 albums than any other artist(s) in history: 19 in the United States and 15 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, this compares to Jay Z (13), Bruce Springsteen (10), Elvis Presley (10), Barbra Streisand (10), Garth Brooks (9), and the Rolling Stones (9). Note that point №5 represents only their 1960s activity. (Source: Billboard)
9. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the Beatles logged six or more weeks at №1 with seven consecutive studio albums — from Beatles ’65, which spent its sixth week at №1 in February 1965, to Abbey Road in December 1969. The next closet artist(s) are the Kingston Trio (4), Taylor Swift (4), and Garth Brooks (3).
10. According to Billboard, The Beatles are the only performers with six diamond albums (10 million units).
11. The 1995 TV documentary, The Beatles Anthology, was released 25 years after the Beatles break-up. In the United States, ABC estimated that 20 million viewers watched the entire six hours of the anthology.
12. According to Billboard 200, the Beatles have the most “Biggest Jumps to №1” best-selling albums. A “Biggest Jump” is defined by the numeric difference from №1 to the song’s previous week ranking. They have 3 of the top 10 with no other artist(s) having any more than one.
13. According to Billboard 200, the Beatles have a record 132 most-cumulative weeks at №1, which compares to Elvis Presley (67), Michael Jackson (51), Garth Brooks (51), Whitney Houston (46)……Prince (24).
14. As of 2015, the Beatles are involved with three of the top-10, most-valuable collectable albums: Yesterday and Today — the so-called “Butcher Cover” — that was initially authorized and manufactured for release in 1966 for the North American market only, but was quickly recalled by Capitol Records prior to commercial distribution due to the immediate public outcry and negative response to the outrageous cover art. It’s meaning remains unclear;
A 1958 Quarrymen acetate disc recording of “That’ll Be The Day”/”In Spite Of All The Danger,” which includes all of the eventual band members — except Starr; and Lennon’s 1980 Double Fantasy album that Lennon autographed for his murderer several hours before Lennon was assassinated. (Source: www.entertainment.howstuffworks.com).
15. The few Grammy Awards won by the Beatles, though, is puzzling. From 1965 though 1971, the group were nominated 18 times for a variety of categories. But in that time period, they only won 5 Grammys. Yes, you read that right — 5. By comparison, Michael Jackson won eight Grammys in one year! Consider this: the possible number of nominating categories could have been at least eight: Song of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, Album of the Year, Vocal Group Performance, Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture, Contemporary Vocal Group, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists, Best Pop Performance, for example. The possibility existed that the Beatles could have theoretically had about 64 wins in 8 years. Instead, they won 5. The low number of Grammys won by the Beatles is incredibly out of sync with the group’s other off the chart achievements. Through 2014, the Beatles have still only won 11 Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award (2014). Other ’60s groups like the Beach Boys, the Who, Frank Zappa, and the Grateful Dead were recognized for Lifetime Achievement awards earlier in their careers than the Beatles!
My opinion — the Grammy Committee made a deliberate decision to avoid “going with herd.” Given that their awards program was in its infacy (it began in 1959), the committee assumed that they could ignore the otherwise consensus-industry status regarding the Beatles and thereby benefit from the self-created controversy. The committee would appear less affected by mass hysterics and more focused on art. Another theory: The Grammy Committee probably aspired to be what Academy Awards are to movies and have that same level of prestige. So, the Academy Awards business model would be worth studying. In the 1960’s, the Academy Awards rewarded mostly adult offerings targeting the over 30-year-old filmgoer, because they bought the bulk of the movie ticket sales. The Academy demonstrated little interest in movies targeting just the young consumers. So, if my theory is correct, that would explain why 1960’s Grammy winners were dominated by artists like Henry Mancini (16 times), Roger Miller (11 times) and Ray Charles (9 times). Other recipients included Barbra Streisand, Jack Jones and Frank Sinatra. Maybe it was a combination of the two, but these are the only logical explanations I can provide.
16. In 2000, 30 years after their break-up, the Beatles released the compilation album titled 1, which reached №1 in more than 35 countries. According to Nielsen SoundScan, it became the highest-selling album of 2000, and remained so for the rest of the decade selling 31 million units. This achievement made the Beatles the first and only artist(s) to have THE best-selling album of the decade twice, because they also had the best-selling album of the 1960s (Sgt. Pepper’s). As of 2015, they have had a №1 album in the United States in five non-consecutive decades (1960s, 1970s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s).
17. On a somewhat related subject, their 2019 release of Abbey Road Anniversary scored a No1 in the UK almost 50 years after the original 1969 Abbey Road was released. To be more precise, it was 49 years and 252 days since their initial worldwide No 1 album was released. This represents the largest gap for an album re-claiming the No 1 spot. The previous record was also theirs for the 2017 release of the iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band which had a 49-year, 125-day gap.
18. The Beatles’ first February, 1964, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show drew a record 73.7 million viewers and a 45.3 percent TV rating, also a record. According to the Nielsen rating service, it was “the largest audience that had ever been recorded for any American television program.”
In perspective, at that time The Ed Sullivan Show averaged 14 million viewers and was the eighth most-watched program on American TV. The Beatles’ first appearance increased Sullivan’s already impressive viewership by a factor of more than five. During their 14-day trip, the Beatles appeared live on one more Ed Sullivan show (the third show was taped), and maintained their outrageous ratings — both shows had 43 percent ratings. They were paid a paltry $10,000 ($75,000 in 2015 dollars) for their performances.
19.According to the Guinness Book of Records, the most-covered song in history is “Yesterday” — by more than 3,000-plus artists. BMI, a prominent performing rights organization, estimates that the song has been performed over 7 million times in just the 20th Century!
20. The Beatles were the composers for most of their massive 8-year song catalog: they recorded 188 original songs and 25 covers. They released a new original song every 2 weeks for 8 years!
21. Their early period live concert touring schedule was insane. Their live performance track record was hard to believe. But, like so many other historic details of their band years stretching from 1957 to 1970, it too has been outlined in finite detail in Mark Lewisohn’s The Complete Beatles Chronicle. For instance, they played 2 months, 7 days a week for 37 hours a week on their first Hamburg, Germany gig in 1960. They returned in 1961 for 3 months, 7 days and played live for 51 hours a week. In total, they were booked 5 times in Hamburg from 1960–1962 and performed roughly 800 grueling hours. As demand for them increased in 1962, they were both double and triple booked on the same date many times. In January, they were booked for 23 dates and 32 performances. February provided no relief with 24 booked dates and 35 performances. And, so went the year. The Cavern Club, their favorite Liverpool venue, was the site of 292 performances from 1961–1963. This punishing apprenticeship with an estimated 1,200 bookings and 10,000 plus hours proved useful for what was to come. According to rarebeatles.com, their first long North American tour in the summer of 1964 covered 26 cities in 32 days with 2 concerts in 6 sites for a total of 43 performances. They played in front of more than 450,000 fans with an average audience of 14,000 and an average ticket price of $5, which equates to $40 in 2015. Compare that to todays average ticket price for an act that can’t be compared to witnessing the Beatles live. In total, they performed 75 concerts in just North American between 1964–1966. Their tours to other countries included England, Wales, West Germany, Sweden, Ireland, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Philippine. Another example of their frenzied work pace, a month after returning home from their 1964 North American tour, they commenced on a 29-day, 27 performances UK tour. According to Setlist, they played live 230 times in 1964. By 1965, they began to slow their pace to only 85 dates and their touring days ended in 1966 with only 35 concert performances.
During just their prime touring years from 1963–1966, the appeared live on 98 TV programs in numerous countries according the Beatlesource.com. In between all of these engagements, they were writing and recording their music, releasing 9 albums, filming 2 movies, creating 2 promotional films, conducting endless media interviews, writing 2 books (John Lennon), 2 weddings (Ringo, George), 2 sons (Julian Lennon, Zach Starr) and otherwise lived a normal life for 4 young men in their late teens/early 20’s.
22. More than 3 million video games titled “The Beatles: Rock Band” have been sold through 2011. When introduced, it was named Best Music/Rhythm Game by several game websites and nominated for Best Music or Rhythm game by the Game Critics Awards. Source: Wikipedia)
23. As impressive of every year during their global reign from 1964–1970, 1967 stands out as an exceptional year. It began with the release of their single containing “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields”. The latter was considered as groundbreaking which featured numerous new recording innovations and began to usher in the psychedelic era. They both scored Top 10 hits with Penny Lane ranking №1. Both were supported with a very high-quality promotional video. In June, they released hugely innovative Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band album. It ranked №1 for 27 weeks in England and 15 weeks in America. It featured 13 original songs, a highly artistic album cover and many new recording techniques. It won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, the first rock album to receive this honor. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time. Later that same month, they represented England in the Our World broadcast, which was the first live global satellite event. It was viewed by an estimated 400 million people in 25 countries. They chose to sing another new song, “All You Need is Love” which, when released in July, went №1 virtually everywhere in the world and became the anthem for the youth-driven counterculture movement. In November, they released their next single containing “I Am the Walrus” and “Hello Goodbye” along with separate promotional videos of both songs. The latter ranked №1 globally. In the same month, the released their next album Magical Mystery Tour featuring 11 original songs. It represented an important content change regarding their choice of album songs because they included several previously released 1967 hit singles. This one-time decision negatively impacted album sales globally. While it ranked №1 in America, it failed to reach that important pedestal in many important markets. In December, and only in England, they released their first self-produced television film which was broadcast nationally during the Christmas holiday. All said, this was a pretty incredible year by any measure for 4 guys in their mid-30's..
24. Probably the most important benchmark for establishing who are the most influential composers is the number of times that an artist’s song has been covered by other notable artists. The Beatles are the most-covered artists of all time. According to www.whosampled.com, Beatles songs have been covered 2,848 times. The №2 most-covered artist is Bob Dylan (575 times). The group’s recorded songs were covered by just about anyone you can think of, including artists as diverse as Aerosmith, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bee Gees, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, James Taylor, U2, Judy Collins, Dave Matthews, Grateful Dead, and Nirvana to Tony Bennett, George Benson, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Perry Como, Count Basie, Sammy Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Ramsey Lewis, Liberace, Sinatra (Frank and Nancy), and Sara Vaughn … and the list goes on.
25. In their prime, the Beatles wrote top hits for numerous artists including Peter & Gordon (4 Top 20 U.S. Billboard hits — 1 №2),
Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas (3 Top 30 U.S. Billboard Hits), the Rolling Stones (№12 on U.K. Billboard), Joe Cocker (№1 on the U.K. Billboard), Celia Black (№7 on the U.K. Billboard), Badfinger (No7 on the US Billboard, No4 on the UK Billboard) and many other mostly-British performers. With the exception of Cocker’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” and the Rolling Stones’ “I Wanna Be Your Man,” no other song that the group wrote for other performers was ever recorded by the Beatles. Rather, these songs were composed with the other artists in mind.
In 1969, the Steve Miller Band recorded a McCartney written song “My Dark Hour” with him preforming on bass and backing vocals using the pseudonym Paul Ramon on the album credits.
Apple Records, their fully owned record company, was founded in 1968 to provide the Beatles with more control of their music and to facilitate an opportunity for them to work with other aspiring artists. For instance, McCartney wrote and produced Badfinger’s initial Top 10 hit “Come and Get It” in 1969. Later that same year, George Harrison produced “Day After Day” for the same group. The public was unaware of the Beatles connection with the band. Another example was McCartney’s work with Mary Hopkins, a young unknown performer. In 1968, she scored the worldwide №1 hit “Those Were The Days” which he produced. In 1969, he wrote her follow-up top 10 hit “ Goodbye” and also produced her first album, which reached №2 in the UK. They worked with numerous other burgeoning artists, most notably James Taylor and Billy Preston. McCartney played bass and Harrison did background vocals on Taylor’s “Carolina on My Mind” in 1968.
26. The Beatles’ income is very complex to compare due to 1) currency inflation; 2) the greatly inflated industry economics (2015 vs. the 1960s); and 3) tax changes. To be fair, they and their manager were naïve and overwhelmed by their unprecedented global success. The Beatles had no business model. And, they received no legal advice when they signed their most important long-term contracts! In 2014, it was estimated that their annual 1960’s income of $25 million would equate to $250 million today. While impressive, that doesn’t come close to telling the whole story.
The British tax system subjected the Beatles to a 98 percent rate, which was the inspiration for Harrison’s “Taxman” (re: “One for you, nineteen for me… .”). Hence, their income was greatly diminished compared to future generations of musicians.
Additionally, their manager Brian Epstein made many mistakes that, while well intentioned, negatively impacted their income. For instance, in 1963, taking Epstein’s advice for them to get control of their own publishing rights was a disaster. The group made what many consider the biggest business blunders of their entire career — they signed away what should have been the majority interest for their song rights to a struggling music publisher with no relevant track record. He and a silent partner ended up with 50% of their very lucrative publishing income. Not only did these two “business partners” receive more income than the songwriters, (both of whom received only 20% each) and their manager (who received 10%), they had the ability to block any important decisions regarding how the Beatles music was to be used. It's a very conservative assumption that Lennon and McCartney should have pocketed at least twice the publishing income they received. Bitter, you bet.
Likewise, their business contract with Brian Epstein was equally as bad. Brian received an agent’s fee of 25% on all of their gross income (10% was the agent norm) and the Beatles additionally paid all of their own expenses, which included Brian’s as well. The four-band members received an equal share of what remained.
Many of their manager’s negotiations on their behalf for their movies, concerts, and promotional merchandise were disasters. For instance, it is estimated that $50 million worth of Beatles merchandise was sold in just 1964 — they received nothing. That’s right — nothing! In 2020 dollars, that’s close a half billion in 1 year! Epstein was never convinced that these products would generate any meaningful income.
Another very telling example — Brian blindly entered into negotiations with United Artists for the Beatles share of the film receipts for A Hard Days Night without researching industry fee standards. United Artists came into the meeting intending to begin negotiations with starting point of 25% of gross income for the Beatles and going up from there. Naively, Brian stupidly showed his cards first and then double downed on his stupidity by stating firmly that he wouldn’t accept anything less than 7.5%. Obviously, United Artists quickly and happily agreed.
In 1967, Brian renegotiated a new 10-year management contract with the Beatles just prior to his death. The terms, while more lucrative to the Beatles, had a major flaw — they were legally bound to each other financially for any and all musically derived income, regardless if it origin. Which meant, they were required to equally share income from both their Beatle and non-Beatle individual efforts. The lawyers spent many lucrative years after their breakup attempting to craft a mutually acceptable disbandment of this contract because it clearly benefited the least productive band members at the expense of the moneymakers.
Finally, the innovative formation of Apple Records proved to be huge money drain during the latter period of their career [as a band] and after their break-up. This one cannot be blamed on Brian Epstein who had died in 1967. No reasonable estimate exists for their Apple-related losses, but it’s safe to assume that it was many, many millions of dollars. One can only imagine what the group’s net worth might have been given the benefit of a real business plan. Granted, they still have made a fortune, but try to imagine making two cents out of every dollar of their British-based income during the 1960s.
One final relevant income item is the face value of tickets in the 1960’s versus 2015. The Beatles were the undisputed hottest concert ticket from 1964 to 1966. Conduct your own Google search to confirm my point. You could attend a small or large venue concert for $5 or less, which in 2015 inflated dollars represents a cost of $38. Compare that to Taylor Swift’s $380 average US ticket price for the world tour promoting her 1989 album. Simply stated, the Beatles were being paid 10% of what todays hot artists receive. And, that’s in comparable 2015 dollars.
27. Las Vegas and musicians have always matched up well with a simple qualification — the musician is present and performs their music. In 2006, Cirque du Soleil created the one-of-a-kind theatrical production titled The Beatles Love, exclusively focused on the group’s 1960s imagery and music legacy. The custom-built 2,000-plus-seat theatre featuring 360 degree viewing, 28 projectors and 6,341 speakers is said to have cost $100 million to create. According to Circus du Soleil, the show has an average ticket price of $200 and grosses an average of $60 million a year. A unique 30-song soundtrack and documentary of the show were also released. As of 2015 it remains a top-five ranked show (Source: MGM) and has played to 10 million people.
28. The Beatles and Abbey Road Studios are forever linked, placing it firmly on the map as (probably) the most famous recording facility in the world. There are certainly other legendary studios for similar consideration. Examples include Hitsville (Motown), Chess Records (Chicago), Sun Records (Memphis), Electric Lady Studios (NYC), Muscle Shoals Sound Studios (Alabama), Studio One (Jamaica), Trident Sound Studio (London) and Capitol Studios (Los Angeles) to name a few of the most prominent.
The Beatles recorded roughly 90% of their music here and their best selling album, Abbey Road, features the famous cover shot of the band striding across the zebra crossing outside the studio. Millions of visitors have imitated the album shot and shared their adulation in the form of arty graffiti adorning the properties fencing (including yours truly).
Originally opened in the 1930’s, many notable artists recorded here including Paul Robeson, Pink Floyd, Oasis and John Williams & The London Symphony Orchestra to mention but a very few of the thousands of artists to record here. The latter scored four Star Wars and three The Lord Of The Trilogy film soundtracks. In 2010, the British Government the studio and crosswalk English Heritage Grade 2 status and in 2015, Google introduced the first on-line video tour of the facility titled “Inside Abbey Road”.
29. In 1965, Queen Elizabeth awarded the Beatles the distinguished Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (M.B.E.), which stirred controversy among previous recipients. The M.B.E. was typically awarded for a significant achievement or outstanding community service. Prior recipients of the MBE were primarily much older and generally in the military. The decision to award the MBE to the Beatles represented a real departure and a recognition the definition of “outstanding community service” has been rightly corrected.
30. Six years after the band’s breakup, Capitol Records began re-packaging their previously released material into themed albums. The first was a double album titled Rock ’N’ Roll Music, which was released in 1976 and contained 22 songs that were generally described as not being their big hits, but rather well-known favorites. Even though the album had no new material, it charted in the No2 spot behind Paul McCartney’s latest album release titled “Wings at the Speed of Sound”. His new single release “Silly Love Songs” also occupied the No1 position at the same time. Rock ’N’ Roll Music remained in the charts for 30 weeks and sold a million plus units.
In the 1977, two separate themed albums were released. The first was titled “The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl”, which was a compilation of 13 songs recorded during several live 1964 and 1965 performances at the famous venue. Again, the album contains no new material, but it too reached the No2 spot and remined on the charts for 17 weeks. Six months later, the second album was released titled “Love Songs”. The double album contains 25 previously released songs and reached No24 and spent 31 weeks on the charts. In 2019, they had the #7 best-selling Billboard Rock album, the re-issue “Abbey Road: 50TH Anniversary Edition”, which reached #1 in the US. It also reached the Top 5 in most large global markets. Their first No 1 album, Introducing The Beatles was released in 1964, 55 years before this 2019 release.
31. In 2021, they were featured in a 3-part and nearly 7 hour documentary titled “The Beatles: Get Back” based on some 60 hours of video footage and more than 150 hours of audio that was recorded in 1969 for the original 1970 documentary “Let It Be”. It was released during Thanksgiving week by Disney and was viewed by people primarily (54%) over the age of 55. According to Nielsen, it wrapped up in impressive 503 million minutes streamed between the three episodes over the first four days. Those 500,000,000+ minutes streamed placed “The Beatles: Get Back” seventh among original streaming programs that week.
32. According to Amazon-subsidiary Goodreads, the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, there have been more books written about the Beatles than any other musician(s). The site allows you to search for books with the musician(s) name in the title or by the author’s name. Here’s a ranking for only the books that are not authored by the musician(s): Beatles (7,277), Elvis Presley (3,011), Taylor Swift (3,038), Bob Dylan (2,285), Rolling Stones (2,139), Michael Jackson (1,619), Beyonce (1,134), Bruce Springsteen (1,046), Frank Sinatra (790) and Mariah Carey (651). Some single name artists like Drake, Prince and Madonna have too many alternative uses to sort through.
Post-Beatle Era
- John Lennon: In 1971, Lennon released his best-selling song “Imagine.” Rolling Stone magazine ranked it №3 on their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” The song has been heavily covered by many artists, preformed at multiple Olympic Games opening-and-closing ceremonies, and is played prior to the New Year’s Eve ball-dropping ceremony in New York City. Surprisingly, the single only reached №3 on the U.S. Billboard pop chart. His final album, Double Fantasy, was released in 1980, just three weeks prior to Lennon’s murder by an insane fan.
The album was a global №1 best seller and eventually went platinum. It was Lennon’s first album in five years and clearly demonstrated that he had rediscovered his artistry. In a two-hour radio interview (easily accessed online) — his last interview, just two days prior to his murder — Lennon’s renewed enthusiasm and passion for creating music is evident. There’s no doubt that he would have delivered great music for future generations.Based on several recently released movies, Lennon still remains a fascinating person 45 years after his death. His 1963 controversial vacation with Beatle-manager Brian Epstein was fictionalized in the 1992 film, The Hours and Times. A John and Paul “bury the hatchet” story is told in the 2000 film, Two of Us. In 2009, his teen years were chronicled in the movie, Nowhere Boy, and his late Beatle-period was the focus of the 2010 television biographical-film, Naked Lennon. His music was the sole focus for the soundtrack of 2015 film, Danny Collins. According to Wikipedia, Lennon released 31 albums (11 studio albums, two live albums, 14 compilation albums, and four boxed sets) and 21 singles as a solo artist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously as a solo artist in 1994.His solo album sales exceed 14 million units as of 2012. He had 25 №1 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart as a writer, co-writer or performer. This places him in 2nd place, behind his bandmate Paul McCartney.
2. Paul McCartney: In April of 1970, McCartney released his first solo album titled McCartney, controversially timed with the official break-up of the Beatles. It ranked №1 on the U.S. Billboard list and represented another big first. McCartney not only composed all of the music, he played all of the instruments and performed most of the vocals (his wife, Linda McCartney, did some background vocals). The list of instruments McCartney played included organ, piano, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and Mellotron — along with unusual sounds produced by playing on wine glasses and other objects. The album track “Maybe I’m Amazed” was not released as a single until 1977 — it reached №10 on the U.S. Billboard pop chart. McCartney wrote and performed the theme song for the 1973 James Bond movie, Live and Let Die. As the best James Bond songs go, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #2, Variety #5 and Esquire #1.
The song reached №2 on the U.S. Billboard chart and was the first James Bond theme song nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was his second Academy Award nomination. In 1971, the Beatles won for Best Original Or Adaptation Score for the documentary movie and song, Let It Be. He was nominated a third time in 2001 for Best Original Song for “Vanilla Sky”. In 1984, he wrote and starred in the movie Give My Regards To Broad Street.In that same year, he wrote the final hit recorded for the Everly Brothers titled “On the Wings of a Nightingale” which charted at №9 on Billboard.
McCartney formed several successful bands beginning in 1973 with Wings. In 1977, he co-wrote “Mull of Kintyre” with band mate Denny Laine. The song became the first single to sell 2 million units in England. He has scored №1 Top Billboard Hits with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, and in 201 he charted №4 along with Kanye West and Rihanna. Since the Beatles break-up, McCartney has toured 30 times and played 787 concerts (as of February 2022). His 1990 World Tour visited 49 cities and in Rio de Janeiro, played to a world-record 180,000 fans over two nights.
In 1991, his first major co-composed foray into classical music titled Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio entered the UK classical charts at №1. The performance commemorated the 150th anniversary of The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and involved roughly 500 musicians, singers and actors.
He is the author of at least 20 books ranging in subjects as varied as cooking, children, his art, poetry and his music. His latest release in 2021 “The Lyrics” is a New York Times No1 Best Seller.
According to the 2014 Washington Post article “Be grateful the Beatles broke up”. No songwriter/performer has ever gotten close to both the depth and breadth of his body of work. McCartney alone holds the Guinness All-Time Most Successful Songwriter Award, with a combined 60 gold records with the Beatles and as solo artists. He wrote or co-wrote 129 songs that cracked the Billboard Hot 100 chart and 91 of them made the Top 10. As of 2018, he has hit the №1 spot on the singles charts 32 times in United States alone, his only competition being John Lennon, with 30. McCartney also has won 18 Grammy Awards for both his solo and Beatles careers and one Academy Award as a member of the Beatles .In the UK, he has charted 188 times and has 91 Top Ten hits as both a Beatle and non-Beatle. was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Beatles’ in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1999. Sir Paul McCartney was knighted in 1997.
He is also the 5-time recipient of the highly prestigious Ivor Novello Award,which remains the only award ceremony that is not influenced by publishers and record companies, but judged and presented by the writing community. As of 2021, he has released 61 albums (including 26 studio albums, 9 live albums, 4 compilation albums, 7 classical albums, 37 video albums, and 5 electronic albums), 77 singles, and 79 music videos as a solo artist. In total, he has sold over 100 million albums and 111 million singles. As a soloist, he has had 8 No1/16 Top 5 albums and 6 No1 singles. In total, he has 22 No1 albums combined. He has also collaborated with many musicians on their songs including Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Brian Wilson, Tony Bennet, George Benson, All Jarreau, Billy Joel and many others.
3. George Harrison: In 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, which reached №1 in the United States and in Europe. It contained the №1 hit “My Sweet Lord” and the Top 10 hit “What Is Life.”
In 1971, he pioneered the first-ever benefit concert to bring awareness to the plight of the people of Bangladesh. The concert played to two sold-out audiences of 40,000 at Madison Square Garden and featured numerous big names. Millions of dollars were raised and distributed through UNICEF. It was the charity-based business model that became commonplace beginning in the 1980s with Live Aid, Farm Aid, Live 8, and The Wall, among others. He won a Grammy for the Album of the Year in 1972.
Harrison went on to have a successful second career as a performer, composer, and producer. In 1987, he released the double-platinum album Cloud Nine featuring “Got My Mind Set On You,” which reached №1 in the United States. He also had great collaborative success with the Traveling Wilburys in 1988, scoring platinum-level sales for two albums.
He collaborated vocally and instrumentally with many artists on their work, including Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, Tom Petty, Del Shannon, Duane Eddy, Mick Fleetwood, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison, among others.
In total, Harrison released 23 albums (including 12 studio albums, two live albums, four compilation albums, two video albums, three boxed sets) and 35 singles as a solo artist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously as a solo performer in 2004. He died of lung cancer in 2001. For privacy purposes, he chose to die at a newly purchased home of Paul McCartney’s in Beverly Hills, CA.
4. Ringo Starr: By 1974, Starr had seven consecutive Top 5 U.S. Billboard hits, including “It Don’t Come Easy”, “Back Off Bugaloo”, “Photograph”, Oh My My”, Only You”, and “You’re Sixteen.” Not bad for a guy who didn’t like to sing. Starr has had a long career as a performer and composer. Beginning in 1989, he formed Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, which is a rotating compilation of various performers.
Starr’s group does a world tour every year or so, with a slightly different mix of artists. He also has been involved with studio work with all of the former Beatles.
As of 2022, Starr has released 37 albums (20 studio albums, 11 live albums, 6 compilation albums, and two other albums), 25 music videos, 31 guest appearances on other artists’ albums, and 46 singles as a solo artist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Beatles in 1988, and for his individual career in 2015. Since 2004, he written 3 books.
Defining “Impact”
Objectivity and the use of specific criteria should be the basis for any claim regarding an artist(s) impact superiority. I base my claim on 3 broad points 1.) the longevity of their impact, 2.) the depth of their impact, and 3.) the breadth of their impact and then support each with facts.
Perspective really matters. Keep in mind that the Beatles existed ed for just 8 years and released 16 US studio albums during those years. James Brown had 71 albums, Sinatra had 59, Johnny Cash 55, Miles Davis 48, Pete Seeger had 52, Ray Charles 55, Prince 39, Bob Dylan has 36, the Rolling Stones have 36 and Taylor Swift has 10. And, most all of these musicians have performed and recorded for more than 50 years. So quantitatively, the Beatles are in a comparatively tough spot. Maybe…
Allow me to provide you with a few examples of how this works. Artist(s) who post record downloads/sales numbers without having been the songwriter don’t make my cut. By this measure, great singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti and Barbra Streisand are less relevant.
And, great instrumentalists like Art Tatum, Vladimir Horowitz, Duke Ellington, Sergei Rachmaninov, Louie Armstrong, and Yo-Yo Ma heavily impacted their musical genre(s) and future generations of similar instrumentalists, but they lacked the required impactful breadth and depth as detailed in my essay.
Les Paul meets many of the criteria. He was a highly honored singer/songwriter, an instrumental and engineering [genius] inventor, and he performed in multiple musical genres. But in many other areas I have previously outlined, his achievement comparisons vs. the Beatles are not either significant enough or simply inapplicable.
On the other hand, Benny Goodman exhibited many of the required attributes. He had huge record sales; wrote much of his own music; was the centerpiece of one of the iconic concerts in music history (1938 Carnegie Hall); had worldwide success in multiple musical genres (e.g. Jazz, Bebop, Swing, Classical, and Pop) — so much so that he earned the well-deserved title of the “King of Swing”; performed both live and on studio albums with many notable musicians at the peak of their careers; was the bandleader in different configurations including his historic quartet; played a cameo role in a 1944 movie; he and his band appeared in eight movies; was the subject of a successful 1956 biographical movie 30 years prior to his death (Goodman was played by Steve Allen); broke the racial barrier by adding Black American musicians to his ensembles beginning in the 1930s; preformed/recorded for nearly 60 years; and was the recipient of virtually all of the relevant industry awards and honorary doctorates.
If you don’t know much about him or his music, he’s worth your time investment. Goodman exemplifies longevity, depth, and breadth.
Numerous black musicians deserve mention including:
Sam Cooke, who died mysteriously at the age of 34 in 1964, who was both a great performer and songwriter. Between 1957 and 1964 he scored 16 Top 20 Pop hits and was one of maybe two, the other being Nat King Cole, who were early crossover pioneers to white mainstream audiences. He was a huge influence on future black songwriting performers including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.
Smokey both wrote and performed, sold many records but had only 2 No1 hits and no top selling albums.
Stevie both wrote and performed, had 10 No1 singles and 9 No1 albums out of a total of 23 studio albums released. He recorded a No1 single with Paul McCartney.
Michael who both wrote and performed, had 13 No1 singles and 5 No1 albums out of a total of 10 studio albums released. He too recorded both a No1 and No2 single with Paul McCartney.
Contrasting these relative performances, the Beatles released 13 U.K. albums and achieved an 85% success rate of capturing the No1 position and in the U.S., they released 16 studio albums (same songs, but different sequence). Of those album releases, 14 became №1 top-sellers and two reached №2. That equates to a U.S. success rate of 87 percent for scoring a No1 album! And, it took the Beatles only 8 years vs. the combined mega-star recording careers of Smokey Robinson (60 years and counting), Stevie Wonder (60 years and counting) and Michael Jackson (35 years) to just tie the Beatles №1 album record. That exemplifies impact!
It’s a safe assumption that a current and/or future musician(s) will eclipse the Beatles accomplishments. For instance, as I write this document, Taylor Swift is building a very impressive résumé. She has released 10 albums in 16 years, 9 of which have very impressively reached No1. But, she’s 5 No1 albums short of the Beatles who existed for half as many years. More about her later. Madonna also had similar impact.
In the relatively new digital age of more-affordable and much more conveniently accessed downloaded music, combined with exorbitantly higher inflation-adjusted live performance ticket prices, which result in equally inflated net worth and other metric-based comparisons will always favor today’s musicians. But remember, don’t confuse impact with non-relatable metrics.
My Decision Criteria
Longevity + Breadth + Depth = Impact. Those are my broad categories defining impact and they’re supported by specific criteria. So, here’s my generic checklist.
So, let’s see how many of the criteria The Beatles achieved.
Longevity
1. They have an historical record-high level of continuing music sales 50+ years after they stopped performing & producing new material.
2. They are the most covered artists of all time.
3. They composed & released the most covered song of all time.
4. They had all Top 5 Hot Billboard positions at the same time — an industry first that was unchallenged until the advent of the streaming Era, nearly 40 years later.
5. They charted 10 song positions in the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time — another industry first.
6. They are the most frequent artists that charted in the Top 10 of the Billboard’s Hot 100 all-time.
7. They experienced no sales deceleration from their first to their final album.
8. They achieved all-time record album & single sales during their decade.
9. They have the most №1 selling albums of all-time.
10. They have the most №1 single record releases of all-time.
11. They have the record for number of Diamond level albums sold.
12. Excluding Super Bowls, they performed for the largest TV viewing audience of all time.
13. They have the most cumulative weeks at №1 on the Billboard 200.
14. They have 3 of the Top 10 most collectable albums.
15. They have the decade’s best selling album in 2 different decades separated by 40 years.
16. They have a very successful and still-running theatrical tribute to their music produced by a legendary third party 30+ years after they disbanded.
17. Their music & story continues to be featured in movie/TV soundtracks.
18. They are the recipients of all of the music industry awards for excellence multiple times.
Breadth
1. They successfully composed numerous songs in at least 10 musical genres.
2. They composed & recorded 188 original songs in only 8 years and shattered the traditional songwriter/artist business model.
3. They stared & assisted in the production of multiple commercially successful movies.
4. One band member authored several books.
5. They revolutionized Western youth fashion & personal styling.
6. One band member co-wrote an award-winning soundtrack for an independent movie.
7. They introduced existential spiritualism into mainstream Western culture.
8. They pioneered both live performance technology & established the commercial viability of using large public venues for music concerts.
9. They introduced a new musical media format, the music video.
10. They composed original Top 10 hits for numerous other artists.
11. They have [by far] the most books written about them than any other musician(s).
12. They broke the long standing US-centric music industry monopoly.
13. They elevated the market status of several guitar & amplifier brands.
Depth
1. They set the benchmark for the number of A-side & B-side Top 10 hits of their original songs.
2. They pioneered numerous important industry instrumentation innovations.
3. All 4 band members were credible lead singers and had high-charting Billboard hits.
4. Three of the band members were credible lead guitarists.
5. They pioneered multiple important recording/engineering innovations and changed the artist/producer relationship to be more artist-centric.
6. They created an industry-changing concept record album that was a more holistic TV variety show influenced multi-music genre product.
7. They galvanized the striped-down basic 4-piece band configuration.
8. They recorded commercially successful cover songs of other artists and, in most cases, produced a superior version.
9. They introduced Indian music influences to the Western pop music culture.
10. They re-defined the musicians role in the creation of their album cover.
11. They dramatically advanced the future business model for artists publishing their own songs.
12. They turned the mundane subject of song intro’s and outro’s into a compelling addition of distinctive songwriting.
13. They commercially succeeded in employing the frequent use of seamless time meter shifts without disrupting the listener.
14. They were the first major artists to quit touring and successfully evolve into a studio-only business model.
That’s my 45 point case for my claim. Even when accounting for the seemingly unsurmountable comparison of years as a band and their music production, they still remain king’s of the hill 50+ years later! I’d love to hear from you if you disagree.
Summary
The numbers say it all. Whether you measure the Beatles’ impact based on their music, the music industry and/or pop culture, I stand firmly on my claim about their impact superiority. Could any artist succeed in surpassing them? In my opinion, the answer is a very firm no, primarily because of viral nature of social media. The Beatles were a ticking time bomb who had years to shape themselves into the seasoned professional act that Americans first witnessed in 1964. This kind of talent doesn’t go unnoticed for long today.
I would also be remiss to not recognize the outstanding contributions of George Martin, who produced virtually all of their Beatle-era songs. I’m convinced that his consistent studio presence and leadership was second to none in creating their music.
Given that the two surviving members of the Beatles still record and perform, and that their music sales continue to add to their established industry benchmarks, I will update this document periodically.
Finally, during the Beatles’ very early years, when times weren’t great (1958–62), John Lennon would rhetorically ask his tired and depressed band mates, “Where are we goin’ to, fellas?” In unison, they would respond: “We’re going to the toppermost of the poppermost, Johnny!”
This cheerleading exercise was intended as a playful lift to their spirits, and as a team builder. It also reminded the group of the lofty career goal they had set for their band — to be THE BEST. I think it worked.
Thanks for your time.
Information Sources
Books
The following books proved very helpful and most are highly recommended reading. This is but a short list of the available inventory of applicable Beatle related books. Like any other scholarly exercise with this many books describing the same short-lived subject, the stories, names and timelines align with an expected result. It’s only in a few rare cases, where the author had a very unique perspective on actual live events that genuine high-valued facts are unveiled. I have ranked them in their order based on my perceived value.
· The Beatles by Bob Spitz
· Here, There And Everywhere by Geoff Emerick
· The Complete Beatles Chronicles by Mark Lewisohn
· The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn
· Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles
· The Beatles by Hunter Davis
. You Never Give Me Your Money by Peter Doggett
· A Cellarful Of Noise by Brian Epstein
· All The Songs by Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin
· All You Need Is Years by George Martin
· Last Interview: All We Were Saying by David Sheff
· Lennon Legend: An Illustrated Life of John Lennon by James Henke
· Harrison by The Editors of Rolling Stone
· The Beatles Anthology by The Beatles
· The Beatles: From Yesterday to Today by Charles Hirshberg
· The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines
· The Beatles by Bill Yenne
· The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple by Bruce Spizer
· Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Ban On The Run by Paul McCartney
· Paul McCartney: I Saw Her Standing There by Jorie B. Gracen
· The Beatles Album by Geoff Guliano
· Life Magazine: From Yesterday to Today
· The Beatles Companion by Ted Greenwald
· The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple by Bruce Spizer
· The Beatles Swan Song by Bruce Spizer
· The Beatles — Complete Scores by Hal Leonard (For Musicians)
General Resources
· The Beatles Bible.com
· Songfacts.com
· RareBeatles.com
· NY Times (re: A Song-by-Song Look at What Made George Martin the Fifth Beatle)
· John Lennon: The Final Interview (2 Hour Radio Interview)
· Wikipedia, YouTube & Google — Hundreds of Searches…maybe more.
· All of their movies including A Hard Day’s Night, Help, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine and Let It be.
· Numerous fictionalized movies including Nowhere Boy, Birth of The Beatles, Two of Us, Backbeat, Lennon Naked and others.
Documentaries
· The Compleat Beatles
· The Beatles at Shea Stadium
· The Beatles Anthology
· The Beatles: The First U. S. Visit
· All Together Now
· The Beatles: Eight Days A Week
. The Beatles: Get Back
About The Author
Rick Margin is retired, having spent 33 years in a variety of businesses where he was fortunate to have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S. meeting many great people along the way. He served as the senior marketing executive in two global consumer product companies and several years in the real estate business.
He is a self-taught recreational musician and songwriter. As of 2024, he’s composed over 100 songs. His song “The Faces Of Thousands” was inspired by the events surrounding 2001 World Trade Center attacks and his slideshow is featured on the official 9/11 Memorial Museum site. Additionally, he composed the music and produced several other slideshows including “Better Than Before” inspired by the events of Superstorm Sandy, “A Fool in America” which satirically deals with todays divides political culture and and “Poets And Their Simple Songs” which deals with musicians who died too soon. These slideshows can be viewed on YouTube.
In 1965, he acquired his first instrument, a $35 Sears Silvertone acoustic f-hole guitar — the first of several guitars he has owned. Several years later, he added piano to his repertoire. In 1972, as the result of a serious car accident, he lost the ability to continue playing the guitar right-handed — so he re-learned as a lefty. In 1990 he acquired and totally refurbished a beautiful 1901 6’ 2” Knabe grand piano.
An unabashed lifelong Beatle fan, he was one of 3 final bidders for the acoustic guitar John Lennon was playing the day he met Paul McCartney in 1957.
The Gallotone Champion, which Sotheby’s billed as the earliest Beatles-related guitar to come to market, was Lennon’s first and finally sold for $260,000 in 1999. Regrettably, Rick’s bid fell slightly short.
He and his wife were married in 1974 and are residents of St. James Plantation, North Carolina. They also enjoy intimate cruising to anywhere. The couple has twin sons, both of whom are excellent musicians. Rick also co-founded an award winning 7 member band in 2019 called the Salty Dawgs.
The Beatles at their final formal photo session on Aug. 22, 1969, just two days after their last Abbey Road studio session where they were all present.
A month later, John Lennon told his band mates of his decision to leave the group. However, the official public break-up occurred 7 months later in 1970 and their formal legal separation occurred in 1974.
For those readers who might be interested, I recently published an article comparing the Beatles accomplishments vs. Taylors Swift. To access it, click here .
Another Medium writer published an excellent article in March 2024 which explores the same subject from a very compelling and different perspective. It’s a great read. Here’s the link.
Thanks for reading my article. If you enjoyed it, please click on the clapping hands below. If you’d like to sign up to become a regular member, it will cost you only $5 per month and provides unlimited access to all the content on Medium. Here’s a link for you to sign up: https://medium.com/@ric62551/membership
