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I Want To Hold Your Hand

I Want to Hold Your Hand

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is the title of the hit 1963 Beatles song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney that led the British Invasion of the United States music charts. It was the first Beatles record to be made using 4-track equipment and in real stereo, and the Beatles' first number one song on the Billboard magazine charts, heralding 19 more number one singles from the Beatles in the United States. It also held the top spot in the United Kingdom charts, where a million copies of the single had already been ordered by its release. McCartney and Lennon did not have any particular inspiration for the song, unlike their later hits such as "Yesterday", "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be". Instead, they had received specific instructions from manager Brian Epstein to write a song with the American market in mind, and the result was "I Want to Hold Your Hand". It was also recorded in German as "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand", one of the very few times the Beatles recorded a song in a language other than English.

Writing in a basement

Lennon and McCartney were ordered by manager Brian Epstein to sit down and write something intended to cater to the interests of American listeners. The two Beatles sat at a piano they found in the basement of a house, and began jamming with it. However, whose house it was is in contention. Most sources state that "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was composed in the cellar of Jane Asher's home in Wimpole Street; she was McCartney's girlfriend at the time. This story was supported by Lennon; in September 1980 (the interview was published in the month of his death, December of the same year), he told Playboy magazine: "We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, 'Oh you-u-u/ got that something...' And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, 'That's it!' I said, 'Do that again!' In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that—both playing into each other's noses." McCartney, however, disagreed, saying only a year after writing the song: "Let's see, we were told we had to get down to it. So we found this house when we were walking along one day. We knew we had to really get this song going, so we got down in the basement of this disused house and there was an old piano. It wasn't really disused, it was rooms to let. We found this old piano and started banging away. There was a little old organ too. So we were having this informal jam and we started banging away. Suddenly a little bit came to us, the catch line. So we started working on it from there. We got our pens and paper out and just wrote down the lyrics. Eventually, we had some sort of a song, so we played it for our recording manager and he seemed to like it. We recorded it the next day." In 1994, McCartney stated he agreed with Lennon's description of the circumstances surrounding the composition of "I Want To Hold Your Hand", but did not specifically mention Lennon's claim that it had been written in Asher's home: "'Eyeball to eyeball' is a very good description of it. That's exactly how it was. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was very co-written." As is obvious from McCartney's and Lennon's statements, they did not have a specific inspiration for the song. However, they were considerably impressed by the song, and so was Epstein, who had been in a state of worry after several of the Beatles' earlier singles in the United States had flopped in the charts. Upon hearing the song, goes the legend, Epstein confidently booked several venues in America for Beatles performances, a full two months before the song came out on a single. The Beatles took the story further when they arrived in America, declaring that they refused to go to America until they had a number one there. However, in reality, Epstein first booked a venue for a Beatles performance in America before "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was even recorded. United States

At the studio

The Beatles started recording "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at Abbey Road Studios in Studio 2 on October 17 1963. Notably, this marked the end of the Beatles using two-track recording; from then until 1968, all Beatles releases were recorded in four-track. The song was also the first Beatles song to be recorded in true stereo; beforehand, their releases had been released in mono, although some record labels in the United States tried remixing some Beatles songs in a fake stereo. A stereo recording does not a stereo release make, however — both the British and American single releases were in mono. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was also one of the very few Beatles songs to be recorded in German. The German arm of EMI (the parent company of the Beatles' then record label, Parlophone Records) was convinced that the Beatles' releases would not sell unless they were in German. The Beatles detested the idea, but George Martin managed to persuade them to give it a try. However, when they were due to record the German version on 27 January 1964, they were nowhere to be seen. Martin later recounted his anger at the Beatles' rudeness: "The boys were enjoying their new life. They were very busy and they were tasting their first fruits of success. I had asked them to appear at the EMI studios one afternoon and I got there with this German fellow, who came to coach them with this language and when the time came, I think it was four o'clock, there was no sign of them, at all! I was a bit puzzled by this, and thought, 'I wonder what has happened to them?' So I rang their hotel and I spoke to Neil Aspinall, who said, 'Oh, they are having tea. They're not going to come.' And so I said, 'But, why?' And he said, 'Well they don't want to. They've decided they don't want to make a record in German, after all.' I was absolutely livid! So, I hopped in a cab, together with the German, and I tore to the George V hotel and I burst in on the scene and they were all having tea there, the four Beatles, the two road managers, and the only woman present was Jane Asher. It was rather like the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice In Wonderland because Jane was pouring tea from a China tea pot with her long gold hair and the others sitting around, rather like the March Hare. And as I burst into the room, and yelled at them, they all fled to corners of the room. The place disintegrated. There wasn't anyone left at the table except Jane Asher pouring tea. The four mop-tops were in each corner of the room, just looking over a cushion, or a chair, pretending to hide, and laughing. I said, 'Look, you really owe this fellow a great apology. He's come all this way, over from Germany, so, say you're sorry.' And they, in their cheeky Liverpool way, said, 'Oh, sorry, so sorry!' After that, they came and did the German record in the studio. They still didn't like doing it very much, but they did it. That was the very first time I had a row with them, and probably the only time." Two days later, the Beatles recorded "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" at the Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, the only time in their entire career that they recorded outside London.

Launching the invasion

On November 29 1963, Parlophone Records released to the United Kingdom "I Want To Hold Your Hand", with "This Boy" joining it on the single's B-side. Demand had been building for quite a while before, as evidenced by the one million advance orders for the single. When it was finally released, the response was phenomenal. A week after it entered the British charts, on December 14 1963, it knocked "She Loves You", another Beatles' song, off the top spot, the first such instance of the same act taking over from itself at number one in British history, clinging on to it for a full five weeks. It stuck around the charts for another fifteen weeks afterwards, and incredibly made a one week return to the charts on May 16 1964. Beatlemania was peaking around the period; during the same period, the Beatles set an incredible record by owning the top two positions on both the album and single charts in the United Kingdom. In the United States, EMI and Brian Epstein successfully convinced Capitol Records that the Beatles could make an impact on American music, leading to the release of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" with "I Saw Her Standing There" on the B-Side as a single on December 26 1963. Epstein, seizing the opportunity, demanded a gigantic US$40,000 to promote the single from Capitol. The largest the Beatles had ever spent on an advertising campaign before was a paltry US$5,000. The single had actually been intended for release in mid-January of 1964, coinciding with the planned appearance of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. However, a 15-year old fan of the Beatles, Marsha Albert, was determined to get hold of the single earlier. Later she said: "It wasn't so much what I had seen, it's what I had heard. They had a scene where they played a clip of 'She Loves You' and I thought it was a great song. I wrote that I thought [the Beatles] would be really popular here, and if [deejay]] Carroll James] could get one of their records, that would really be great." James was the deejay for WWDC, a [[radio station in Washington, D.C. Eventually he decided to pursue Albert's suggestion to him, and asked the station's promotion director to get BOAC, a now-defunct airline, to ship in a copy of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" from Britain. Albert related what happened next: "Carroll James called me up the day he got the record and said 'If you can get down here by 5 o'clock, we'll let you introduce it.'" Albert managed to get to the station in time, and introduced the record with: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time on the air in the United States, here are the Beatles singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.'" The song proved to be a huge hit, a surprise for the station, as they catered mainly to a more staid audience, which would normally be expecting songs from singers such as Andy Williams or Bobby Vinton instead of rock and roll. James took to playing the song repeatedly on the station, often tuning down the song in the middle to make the declaration, "This is a Carroll James special," to avoid theft of the song by other stations. Capitol threatened to get a legal injunction banning airplay of "I Want To Hold Your Hand", which was already being spread by James to a couple of deejays in Chicago and St. Louis. James and WWDC ignored the threat, and Capitol came to the conclusion that they could well take advantage of the publicity, releasing the single two weeks ahead of schedule. St. Louis The demand was insatiable; in the first three days alone, a quarter million copies had already been sold. In New York City, 10,000 copies flew off the shelves every hour. Capitol was so overloaded by the demand, it contracted part of the job of pressing copies off to Columbia Records and RCA. By January 18, the song had started its 15-week chart run, and on February 1, the Beatles finally achieved their first number one in America; only four other British artists had ever done so, the last being Lonnie Donegan in 1956. They finally relinquished the title after seven weeks, passing the baton to the very song they had knocked off the top in Britain — "She Loves You". This was the first time since Elvis Presley in 1956, with "Love Me Tender" beating out "Don't Be Cruel", that an act had dropped off the top of the American charts only to be replaced by another of their releases. With that, the British invasion of America had been launched, and the music scene there would never be the same. Throughout the whole year of 1964, only British artists were flying high at the top of the American charts; besides the Beatles, other dominant British acts of the same period included the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Hollies and Herman's Hermits. Interestingly, the American single's front and back sleeves featured a photograph of the Beatles with one of them holding a cigarette. In 1984, Capitol Records airbrushed it out for their rerelease of the single. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was also released in America on Meet the Beatles!, which groundbreakingly altered the American charts by actually outselling the single. Beforehand, the American markets were more in favour of hit singles instead of whole albums; however, two months after the album's release, it had shipped more than three-and-a-half million copies, a little over a hundred thousand ahead of the "I Want To Hold Your Hand" single.

The aftermath

As mentioned, the song was greeted by raving fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, but dismissed by more than a few critics as nothing more than just another fad song that would not hold up to the tests of time. Cynthia Lowery of the Associated Press expressed her exasperation with Beatlemania by saying of the Beatles: "Heaven knows we've heard them enough. It has been impossible to get a radio weather bulletin or time signal without running into 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.'" Another critic declared that the Beatles were "really pretty boring to listen to. Their act is absolutely nothing," and that "[t]heir greatest asset is that they look like rather likable, almost innocent young fellows who have merely hit a lucky thing". Bob Dylan was impressed by the Beatles' innovation, saying, "They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid." Interestingly, for quite a while, Dylan thought the Beatles at one point were singing "I get high" instead of "I can't hide". He was understandably surprised when he met them and found out that at the time, none of them had actually smoked marijuana. Even the Beatles could be unsure of the lyrics; some concert recordings of theirs indicate that Lennon sometimes sang "I want to hold your head". Although the song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, the award went to Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz for "The Girl from Ipanema". However, in 1998, the song won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. It has also made the list in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In addition, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Endowment for the Arts and Scholastic Inc. have named "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as one of the Songs of the Century. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was not subject to numerous cover versions like other Beatles' songs such as "Yesterday" or "Something", although Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops Orchestra did attempt an instrumental version in 1964, which actually rose as high as number 55 in the American charts. Another notable cover was by The Moving Sidewalks who did a psychedelic version in the late 1960s. French parodic band Odeurs covered the song as a military march sung with a strong German accent.

Melody and lyrics

Reminiscent of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building techniques and an example of modified thirty-two-bar form (Covach 2005, p.70), the song is written in a two-bridge model, with only an intervening solo to connect them. The original song has no real lead singer, nor is it a duet, with both Lennon and McCartney singing in harmony with each other, though it could be argued Lennon is leading McCartney. The song opens with a few stuttering guitar chords, then in true Beatles fashion, lunges upward, relying on an surprising minor chord, joined by George Harrison's guitar riffs. At the end of each verse, the singers make a sudden jump a whole octave higher with the word "hand". The song is about a man expressing his feelings for his lover, and at first, the singing is done in a seemingly shy and bashful manner, with the singer pausing every few words: "Oh yeah, I (pause) tell you something (pause) I think you'll understand". However, when the chorus is reached and the singers make the octave-long jump, there is no hiding their feelings, with an uninterrupted "I want to hold your hand". The lyrics are straightforward and simple compared to later works of the Beatles. A sample from the song is available.

References


- [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/16/entertainment/main593654.shtml Beatles' 'Helping Hand' Shuns Fame] (Jan. 16, 2004). CBS News.
- [http://www.beatles.com/html/iwanttoholdyourhand/index.html The Beatles Official Website]. Retrieved Sept. 1, 2004.
- [http://www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1/dba02with.html The Beatles Ultimate Experience]. Retrieved Sept. 1, 2004.
- Giuliano, G., Giuliano, B. & Leary, T. (1995). The Lost Beatles Interviews. Penguin USA. ISBN 0452270251.
- Goldsmith, Martin (2004). The Beatles Come To America. Turning Points. ISBN 0-471-46964-5.
- Gundersen, Edna. (Jan. 16, 2004). [http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-01-15-beatles-fans_x.htm Found: The teen who became Beatles' first fan]. USA Today.
- Harrington, Richard. (Feb. 5, 2004). [http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-040201beatles-story,1,6537796.story?coll=chi-homepagenews-utl It was 40 years ago . .] . Chicago Tribune.
- Miller, J. (Ed.) (1980). Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. Random House. ISBN 0394739388.
- [http://beatles.ncf.ca/timeline.html Ottawa Beatles Site's Timeline]. Retrieved Sept. 9, 2004.
- [http://beatles.ncf.ca/beatlenuts.html Will We All Become Beatle Nuts?] (Feb. 10, 1964). The Ottawa Journal.
- Covach, John. "Form in Rock Music: A Primer", in Stein, Deborah (2005). Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195170105.

External links


- [http://letssingit.com/beatles-i-want-to-hold-your-hand-cm3blgf.html Lyrics]
- [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/iwthyh.html Alan W. Pollack's analysis of "I Want to Hold Your Hand"] Category:The Beatles songs Category:The Beatles singles Category:1963 singles Category:Number one singles Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Awards

1963

1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February


- January 1 - CSIRO scientist Dr Gilbert Bogle and Mrs Margaret Chandler are found dead, believed to have been poisoned, in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney. Known as the Bogle-Chandler case.
- January 11 - The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened.
- January 14 - George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama.
- January 22 - Elysée treaty between France and Germany
- January 28 - Black student Harvey Gantt enters Clemson College in South Carolina, the last US state to hold out against racial integration
- January 29 - Charles De Gaulle vetos United Kingdom's entry into the EEC
- February 8 - Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
- February 11 - CIA Domestic Operations Division is created.
- February 21 - An earthquake in Libya destroys the village of Barce - 500 dead
- February 27 - Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.
- February 27 - Female suffrage in Iran

March-April

Iran
- March 1 - Yoko Ono's marriage to American Christian fundamentalist filmmaker Tony Cox is annulled
- March 4 - In Paris six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.
- March 16 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali - 11,000 dead
- March 18 - Court decides poor must have lawyers (Gideon vs. Wainwright Supreme Court trial)
- March 21 - Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of Attorney General Robert F Kennedy.
- March 27 - In Britain Dr Beeching issues report calling for huge cuts to the UK's rail network.
- April 7 - Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a Socialist republic and Josip Broz Tito is named President for life
- April 10 - The US nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 miles east of Cape Cod with all hands - 129 dead
- April 15 - 70,000 marchers arrive in London from Aldermarston to demonstrate against nuclear weapons
- April 16 - Martin Luther King composes "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
- April 20 – In Quebec, Canada, members of the Quebec terrorist group, the Front de libération du Québec, bomb the Canadian Armed Forces recruitment center, killing night watchman, Wilfred V. O'Neill.
- April 22 - Lester B. Pearson becomes Canada's fourteenth prime minister.
- April 21 thru April 23 - First election of the Supreme Institution of the Bahá'í Faith, known as the Universal House of Justice whose Seat is at the Bahá'í World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

May-June


- May 1: The Coca-Cola Company debuts its first diet drink, TaB cola. Instead of sugar it is sweetened with saccharin and cyclamates. Later (after cyclamates were banned) TaB became a sugar-and-saccharin soft drink. Today it uses a blend of aspartame (NutraSweet) and saccharin.
- May 2 - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a rocket with three stages with a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
- May 15 - Mercury program: NASA launches the last mission of the program, Mercury 9 (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb told Congress the program was complete)
- May 23 - Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union
- May 25 - The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- June 1 - Kenya gains autonomy.
- June 2 - Slavery declared illegal in Saudi Arabia
- June 5 - Profumo Affair - British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal
- June 11 – Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc publicly sets himself on fire in Saigon, Vietnam, to protest against Ngo Dinh Diem's policies
- June 11 - Prime Minister of Greece Constantine Karamanlis resigns in protest of king's visit to Britain
- June 12 - Byron de la Beckwith shoots civil rights leader Medgar Evers in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
- June 16 - Vostok 6: Valentina Tereshkova (USSR) becomes the first woman in space.
- June 17 - The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
- June 21 - Pope Paul VI is elected by College of Cardinals.
- June 30 - Ciaculli Massacre - mafia car bomb explodes in Ciaculli, Sicily, killing 7 police officers

July-August


- July 1 - ZIP Codes introduced in the USA
- July 5 - Diplomatic relations between the Israeli and the Japanese governments are raised to embassies' level.
- July 5 - The Catholic Church accepts cremation as a funeral practice
- July 26 - Earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia - 1800 dead
- July 26 - Syncom, the world's first geostationary (synchronous) satellite is orbited by NASA
- July 27 – Indonesian president-for-life Sukarno declares that he will crush Malaysia – official start of Indonesian Confrontation
- July 30 - Soviet newspaper Izvestia reports that Kim Philby has been given asylum in Moscow
- August 5 - United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
- August 8 - The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England
- August 18 - American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi
- August 28 - Martin Luther King jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

September-October


- September 5 - Christine Keeler arrested for perjury. On December 6 she is sentenced to nine months in prison.
- September 6 - The Centre for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.
- September 7 - The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
- September 10 - Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is indicted for murder. He goes on the run and, as of 2005, is still a fugitive.
- September 15 - American civil rights movement: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing results in 4 deaths and 22 injuries.
- September 16 – Federation of Malaysia formed through the merging of the Federation of Malaya and the British crown colony of Singapore, North Borneo (renamed Sabah) and Sarawak.
- September 18 – Rioters burn down British embassy in Jakarta to protest formation of Malaysia
- September 23 - King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals was was established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals
- September 25 - Denning Report on Profumo affair
- September 29 - Opening of second period of Second Vatican Council in Rome.
- October 9 - Uganda becomes a republic.
- October 9 - In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.

November

Vajont Dam]]
- November 2 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated following a military coup
- November 6 - Vietnam War: Coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam
- November 7 - Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, 11 miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days
- November 9 - 1963 Miike coal-mine explosion: In Japan, a coal mine explosion kills 458 and sends 839 carbon monoxide poisoning victims to the hospital
- November 14 - A volcanic eruption under the sea near Iceland creates a new island, Surtsey
- November 16 - Newspaper strike begins in Toledo, Ohio
- November 18 - Dartford Tunnel opens
- November 22 - John F. Kennedy assassination: In Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn-in as the 36th President of the United States.
- November 23 - The first episode of the BBC television series Doctor Who is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
- November 24 - John F. Kennedy assassination: Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is mortally shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television.
- November 24 - Vietnam War: Newly sworn in U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically
- November 25 - John F. Kennedy assassination: The late U.S. President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
- November 29 - John F. Kennedy assassination: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
- November 29 - Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all 118 on board (for many years this was the worst air disaster in Canada's history).

December


- December 4 - Closing of second period of Second Vatican Council
- End of the Mercury program of United States manned spaceflight
- December 5 - The Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH demonstrates rockets for military use to representatives of the military of non-NATO-countries near Cuxhaven. Although these rockets landed via parachute at the end of their flight and no allied laws were violated, this action led to protests by the Soviet Union.
- December 12 – Kenya becomes independent with Jomo Kenyatta as a prime minister
- December 22 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives
- December 24 - Cyprus Emergency - A brief civil war in Cyprus between Greek and Turkish Cypriots erupts
- December 31 - Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland formally dissolved

Unknown date


- David. H. Frisch and J. H. Smith prove radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion. (See Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).
- Full deployment of SAGE, the semi-automated ground environment.
- TAT-3 cable goes into operation.
- Arecibo Observatory officially begins operation.
- Ostankino Tower in Moscow begins construction.
- The divorce case of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll causes scandal in the United Kingdom
- Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley
- One of the most spectacular years for vintage Port in the 20th Century.

Births

January-February


- January 1 - Laura Ingraham, American talk show host and author
- January 2 - David Cone, baseball player
- January 2 - Edgar Martinez, baseball player
- January 14 - Steven Soderbergh, American film director
- January 21 - Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian basketball player
- January 21 - Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
- January 23 - Gail O'Grady, American actress
- January 24 - Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
- January 26 - José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
- January 26 - Andrew Ridgely, English musician
- January 30 - Thomas Brezina Austrian author
- February 8 - Vince Neil, American musician, Motley Crue
- February 9 - Travis Tritt, American singer
- February 11 - Diane Franklin, American actress
- February 11 - Todd Benzinger, baseball player
- February 17 - Michael Jordan, American basketball player
- February 19 - Seal, English singer
- February 20 - Charles Barkley, American basketball player
- February 21 - William Baldwin, American actor
- February 22 - Vijay Singh, Fiji golfer

March-April


- March 1 - Dan Michaels, American record producer and saxophonist (The Choir and The Swirling Eddies)
- March 4 - Jason Newsted, American bassist (Metallica)
- March 6 - D.L. Hughley, American actor and comedian
- March 10 - Neneh Cherry, Swedish musician
- March 12 - Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian runner
- March 14 - Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer
- March 17 - Michael Ivins, American bassist (The Flaming Lips)
- March 18 - Vanessa L. Williams, American beauty queen, actress, and singer
- March 20 - Paul Annacone, American tennis player and coach
- March 20 - Kathy Ireland, American model and actress
- March 21 - Ronald Koeman, Dutch football player and manager
- March 23 - Kyogoku Natsuhiko, Japanese writer
- March 27 - Quentin Tarantino, American actor, director, writer, and producer
- March 27 - Xuxa, Brazilian television personality
- April 4 - Jack Del Rio, American football player and coach
- April 4 - Graham Norton, Irish talk show host
- April 9 - Joe Scarborough, American newscaster
- April 11 - Chris Ferguson, American poker player
- April 13 - Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
- April 17 - Joel Murray, American actor
- April 18 - Conan O'Brien, American television entertainer
- April 21 - Ken Caminiti, baseball player (d. 2004)
- April 21 - Roy Dupuis, Canadian actor
- April 26 - Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
- April 27 - Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
- April 30 - Michael Waltrip, American race car driver

May-August


- May 9 - Barry Douglas Lamb, English musician, author, and preacher
- May 11 - Natasha Richardson, English-born actress
- May 12 - Vanessa A. Williams, American actress
- May 16 - Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
- May 23 - Wally Dallenbach Jr., American race car driver and announcer
- May 24 - Joe Dumars, American basketball player
- May 25 - Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
- June 6 - Jason Isaacs, English actor
- June 9 - Johnny Depp, American actor
- June 13 - Bettina Bunge, German tennis player
- June 17 - Greg Kinnear, American actor
- June 18 - Bruce Smith, American football player
- June 23 - Colin Montgomerie, Scottish golfer
- June 25 - George Michael, English singer
- June 27 - Meera Syal, English comedian, writer, singer, and actress
- July 4 - Christopher George Kennedy , son of Robert F.Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy
- July 16 - Phoebe Cates, American actress
- July 24 - Karl Malone, American basketball player
- July 30 - Lisa Kudrow, American actress
- August 3 - James Hetfield, American singer (Metallica)
- August 6 - Kevin Mitnick, computer hacker
- August 9 - Whitney Houston, American singer
- August 19 - Joey Tempest, Swedish singer (Europe)
- August 19 - John Stamos, American actor
- August 22 - Tori Amos, American singer
- August 23 - Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
- August 23 - Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
- August 24 - Hideo Kojima, Japanese video game director
- August 30 - Paul Oakenfold, British disc jockey

September-December


- September 6 - Geert Wilders, Dutch politician
- September 9 - Lauren Allen, American Porn Star,Adult Model
- September 10 - Randy Johnson, baseball player
- September 18 - Rob Brettle, English historian
- September 21 - Cecil Fielder, baseball player
- September 23 - Jackie Pearcey, English politician
- September 29 - Dave Andreychuk, Canadian hockey player
- September 29 - Les Claypool, American bassist and singer (Primus)
- October 1 - Mark McGwire, baseball player
- October 3 - Tommy Lee, American musician, Motley Crue
- October 10 - Anita Mui, Hong Kong singer (d. 2003)
- October 10 - Daniel Pearl, American journalist (d. 2002)
- October 10 - Jolanda de Rover, Dutch swimmer
- October 22 - Brian Boitano, American figure skater
- October 26 - Natalie Merchant, American singer, songwriter, and musician
- October 30 - Kristina Wagner, American actress
- October 31 - Fred McGriff, baseball player
- November 1 - Rick Allen, British musician (Def Leppard)
- November 4 - Lena Zavaroni, Scottish entertainer (d. 1999)
- November 13 - Vinny Testaverde, American football player
- November 15 - Benny Elias, Australian rugby player
- November 18 - Dante Bichette, baseball player
- November 19 - Terry Farrell, American actress
- November 19 - Jon Potter, British field hockey player
- November 21 - Nicolette Sheridan, English actress
- November 23 - Troy Hurtubise, Canadian inventor
- December 3 - Terri Schiavo, American right-to-die cause célèbre (d. 2005)
- December 14 - Cynthia Gibb, American actress
- December 16 - Benjamin Bratt, American actor
- December 18 - Brad Pitt, American actor
- December 23 - Jim Harbaugh, American football player
- December 29 - Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiard player
- December 29 - Dave McKean, English artist and filmmaker

Unknown date


- Andrew Weatherall, English disc jockey

Deaths


- January 2 - Dick Powell, American actor (b. 1904)
- January 3 - Jack Carson, Canadian actor (b. 1910)
- January 5 - Rogers Hornsby, baseball player (b. 1896)
- January 18 - Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (b. 1899)
- January 29 - Robert Frost, American poet (b. 1874)
- January 30 - Francis Poulenc, French composer (b. 1899)
- February 11 - Sylvia Plath, American poet and novelist (suicide) (b. 1932)
- February 28 - Eppa Rixey, baseball player (b. 1891)
- March 4 - William Carlos Williams, American writer (b. 1883)
- March 5 - Patsy Cline, American singer (b. 1932)
- April 6 - Otto Struve, Russian-born astronomer (b. 1897)
- April 9 - Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (b. 1891)
- May 11 - Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
- May 12 - Bobby Kerr, Canadian runner (b. 1882)
- May 31 - Edith Hamilton, German-born author (b. 1867)
- June 3 - Pope John XXIII (b. 1881)
- June 11 - Thich Quang Duc, Vietnamese Bhuddist monk (suicide)(b. 1897)
- June 18 - Pedro Armendariz, Mexican actor (suicide)(b. 1912)
- August 5 - Theodore Roethke, American poet (b. 1908)
- August 23 - Glen Gray, American saxophonist and conductor (b. 1906)
- August 31 - Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)
- September 11 - Suzanne Duchamp, French painter (b. 1889)
- October 11 - Edith Piaf, French singer (b. 1915)
- October 11 - Jean Cocteau, French writer (b. 1889)
- November 2 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam (b. 1901)
- November 15 - Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (b. 1888)
- November 22 - Aldous Huxley, English novelist (b. 1894)
- November 22 - John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917)
- November 22 - C.S. Lewis, Irish writer (b. 1898)
- November 24 - Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin of John F. Kennedy (shot) (b. 1939)
- November - Luis Cernuda, Spanish writer (b. 1902)
- December 2 - Thomas Hicks, American marathon runner (b. 1875)
- December 5 - Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (b. 1905)
- December 5 - Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji, Hindu saint (b. 1828)
- December 28 - shaun gantz]], deemed coolest in america (b. 1895)

Prize in Physics|Physics]] - Eugene Paul Wigner, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, J. Hans D. Jensen
- Chemistry - Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta
- Medicine - Sir John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Fielding Huxley
- Literature - Giorgos Seferis
- Peace - International Committee of the Red Cross, League of Red Cross Societies Category:1963 ko:1963년 ms:1963 ja:1963年 simple:1963 th:พ.ศ. 2506

The Beatles

The Beatles were a British pop and rock group from Liverpool, England. The group shattered many sales records and charted more than 50 top 40 hit singles, including 20 #1 hits in the USA alone, becoming arguably the most famous musical act of the 20th century. EMI Records estimates that the band has sold over a billion records worldwide[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/gwr5/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=50910]. The band's songs covered many genres, from ballads to reggae, and from psychedelic music to blues to heavy metal, and opened the door for many new musical styles. The Beatles influence extended beyond music into the social and cultural revolutions of the '60s. Dubbed "The Fab Four", The Beatles were John Lennon (1940 - 1980), (James) Paul McCartney (born 1942), George Harrison (1943 - 2001), and Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey in 1940). Lennon and McCartney were the principal songwriters, with Harrison making a significant contribution, particularly in the band's later years. After giving the group their first break as a recording outfit, George Martin went on to produce all of The Beatles' seminal recordings; in this role, his influence in their musical development was of critical importance. The Beatles created a sensation in late 1963 in the UK (the phenomenon was dubbed "Beatlemania" by the British press), notable for the hordes of screaming and swooning young women the group inspired. Beatlemania came to North America in early 1964, and the band's popularity extended across much of the world. Like many of the so-called "British Invasion" bands, they started by covering songs by American rock 'n' roll and R&B pioneers. They admired both white artists such as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins, and black musicians such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Ray Charles. Their own compositions in their early days emulated the musical styles of their heroes. After a while their own innate musical ideas started to emerge and their music developed its own distinctive hallmarks. Within the space of five years, their music evolved from the simple exuberance of their early hits (such as "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand") to artistically ambitious suites of songs (such as the albums Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road). By writing their own songs, exploring the possibilities of the recording studio, and striving for unprecedented quality in every recording they released, The Beatles had far-reaching effects on popular music. The Beatles starred in two feature films. They were subjected to unprecedented press scrutiny which included criticism of their later role as symbols of 1960s youth counterculture. The group disbanded in 1970. Thirty-five years later, in 2005, the American entertainment industry magazine Variety named them the most iconic entertainers of the 20th century.

History

20th century", "Help!", "In My Life", "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "Across the Universe".]] Main article: History of the Beatles John Lennon formed a group, The Quarrymen, in March 1957. On July 6 that year, John met Paul McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete, and the two were soon playing music together, with Colin Hanton on drums, and Len Garry on "Tea-Chest" bass. In February of 1958 the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which played under a variety of names, including, "The Blackjacks". Recordings of John, Paul and George from that year still exist. During this period, members constantly joined, and left the line up. John, Paul and George were the only, constant members. Hanton left in 1959. The first regular gigs for the group were at a club created by Mona Best in the basement of her family's home, a large Victorian House with a vast complex of cellars at 8 Haymans Green in the West Derby area of Liverpool. Mona had noticed the number of young friends visiting her son, Pete, at the house and decided to turn part of the cellar into a private club. A more ambitious plan - a club for young people with live groups - developed. It was one of the first cellar clubs in Liverpool to present rock 'n' roll groups exclusively, as opposed to the strict policy of jazz for venues such as the Cavern and the Cat A Coombs. The Casbah Coffee Club opened in August 1959, and the resident group was the Quarrymen - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown, who would soon be cast off. The Quarrymen went through a progression of names: Johnny and The Moondogs, The Silver Beetles, eventually arriving at The Beatles. The Beatles, dreamed up by John Lennon who said,"a man in a flaming pie appeared and said you shall be Beetles with an a". In 1960 their manager, Allan Williams, arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany. In August 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's drummer. In Hamburg (particularly at the infamous Kaiserkeller club) they honed their skills as performers and broadened their reputation. Stuart Sutcliffe was part of the group in 1960-61 and influenced their appearance and sense of style. While in Hamburg, The Beatles were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961. On October 23 Polydor published the song "My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which made it into the German charts (#5, according to a Paul McCartney interview). They were deported from Germany on one occasion in 1960, when their work permits had expired, and it was discovered that George was under age. Upon their return from Hamburg the group was enthusiastically promoted by Sam Leach, who presented them over the next year and a half on various stages in Liverpool 49 times, including the famed “Operation Big Beat in 1961”, at which 3000 people paid to see The Beatles perform along with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, Gerry and the Pacemakers and others at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton. Brian Epstein, manager of the record department at NEMS, his family's furniture store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and intensified The Beatles' quest for a British recording contract. After one last session for Polydor in May 1962, Epstein and Kaempfert jointly agreed to cancel the group's contract with the German label. On June 6th, and having been rejected by almost every other record company in the UK, he brought the quartet to London's Abbey Road studios, having secured the interest of George Martin, principal producer with EMI's Parlophone label, then noted for its production of novelty records. After considerable thought he decided to grant The Beatles their first UK recording contract. Pete Best was fired in favour of Ringo Starr. It was rumoured that this was because Pete was the best looking member of the group, and was receiving too much attention from the female following. The reason given at the time was that, whilst he looked the part, his drumming was poor. This did not convince his army of fans back home in Liverpool. The new line-up recorded their first broadcast interview on the hospital station Radio Clatterbridge. The Beatles' first sessions in September 1962 produced a minor UK hit, "Love Me Do", which likely charted in part because Epstein had ordered a large quantity of the singles from EMI for his family's stores, a relatively common practise among pop artist managements in the UK in that era. ("Love Me Do" subsequently reached the top of the US singles chart in May 1964.) This was swiftly followed by the recording of their second single Please Please Me. Three months later they recorded their first album (also titled Please Please Me), a mix of original songs by Lennon and McCartney along with some covers. The band's first televised performance was on a programme called People and Places broadcast live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October 1962 and presented by Bill Grundy (who John 'dubbed' "Big Grunty" in his first book of poetry and prose, "In His Own Write"). Beatlemania reached a new crescendo in Britain on 13 October 1963 with a televised appearance at the London Palladium. Although the band experienced great popularity in the record charts in Britain from early 1963 onwards, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol Records (which was owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You" in the United States, partly because no British act had ever had a sustained impact on American audiences beyond one-off hits. VeeJay Records, a small Chicago label, is said by some to have been pressured into issuing these singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please Please Me" into rotation in late February 1963, making it possibly the first time a Beatles' record was heard on American radio. KRLA in Los Angeles played "From Me To You" and other US stations played Beatles records sporadically but to no real effect. In August 1963 the Philadelphia-based Swan label (partly owned by Dick Clark) tried again with The Beatles' "She Loves You", which again failed to receive airplay. A testing of the song on his TV show American Bandstand resulted in laughter and scorn from American teenagers when they saw the group's unusual haircuts. Meanwhile, it is said that British airline stewardesses and others were bringing single copies of Beatles records into major US cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to share with friends. Following Brian Epstein's success in early November in persuading Ed Sullivan to commit to presenting The Beatles on three editions of his show in February (even though the group had no American record label at the time of Sullivan's committment), Epstein parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with Capitol Records. He by-passed Dave Dexter, the A&R executive who had rejected the group four times by now, and dealt directly with Capitol president Alan Livingstone, who was impressed by what Epstein had lined up. He committed to a mid-January release for "I Want To Hold Your Hand", with the expectation that by the date of The Beatles' first appearance on Sullivan (scheduled for February 9) the disc might have reached the Hot Hundred and thus be boosted higher up the charts by the consecutive TV appearances. There was obviously no expectation that a completely unknown foreign artist could climb to the number one position just three weeks after the scheduled mid-January release. However a series of unplanned events converged and triggered Capitol Records into moving the release date up by three weeks and rush-releasing the record on December 26. The disc was an immediate success on radio, especially with school children who, because they were on Christmas break, heard the record more frequently in daytime than they would otherwise have done. The record sold one million copies in just 10 days, and by January 16 Cashbox Magazine had certified The Beatles record #1 (in the edition with the cover-date January 23). The airing of a 5-minute film report about Beatlemania in the UK on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite on Tuesday, December 10th, 1963, is now understood to have been the trigger that led to a Washington DC radio station extensively playing a specially imported copy of the single, which in turn led to Capitol's decision to to rush-release the disc. The record being number one for three weeks prior to The Beatles' arrival in America is what led to the hysterical fan reaction at JFK Airport on February 7, 1964. This also contributed to the public fascination with The Beatles, as manifested by the record-breaking 73 million viewers - approximately 40% of the US population at the time - who tuned in to the first Sullivan appearance on February 9. This remains one of the largest viewing audiences ever in the US. The Beatlemania that had gripped the United States since late December was immeasurably boosted with the three consecutive national television appearances by the group on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February, 16 February and 23 February, 1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon, with worshipful fans and angry denunciations by cultural observers and established performers such as Frank Sinatra, sometimes on grounds of the music (which was thought crude and unmusical) or their appearance (their hair was considered 'scandalously long'). Many commentators have theorized that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a depressed America was on the lookout for a way out of gloom and despair. So in effect, The Beatles were in the right place at the right time (with a unique combination of talent, stage presence and exuberant optimism) to provide an enthusiastic jolt to a grieving nation. This theory applies to a media keen to have a fresh positive story to counter-balance the sadness of the post-assassination period - and to a public that sought a balm for the national wound. During the week of April 4, 1964, they held the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat that has never been repeated. In mid-1964 the band undertook their first world tour, which included Australia and New Zealand. Just before the tour began, Ringo was briefly hospitalised with a severe attack of pharyngitis, so drummer Jimmy Nicol was drafted in for several concerts on the Australian leg. When they arrived in Adelaide, The Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the largest crowd of their touring career, when over 300,000 people -- about one-third of the entire population of the city at that time -- turned out to see them. In 1965 they were instated as Members of the Order of the British Empire, sparking some conservative MBE recipients to return their awards in protest. August 15 of that year, The Beatles performed at the first stadium concert in modern rock, playing at Shea Stadium to a crowd of 56,000. Lennon, Harrison, and Starr began experimenting with LSD later that year. Lennon and Harrison were given their first dose unknowingly at a dinner party when their host (a dentist) 'spiked' their drinks, while Starr took his first trip at a party with Peter Fonda and members of The Byrds). McCartney followed suit in November 1966. In July 1966 an out-of-context comment caused a backlash against The Beatles from religious and social conservatives, when in a serious interview Lennon offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that the group was "more popular than Jesus." Many religious groups, including the Holy See, voiced strong objections, and Beatles' records were banned and burned in cities and towns across America and around the world. These events, along with threats from racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, eventually forced Lennon to apologise for his remarks several times, including at a Chicago press conference. Lennon tried to point out that he was merely commenting on the Beatlemania phenomenon, not trying to literally equate the group to Jesus, saying about his own comment that "It was wrong, or it was taken wrong." Ku Klux Klan The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans in Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August, 1966. From this time until the group dissolved in early 1970, The Beatles concentrated on making some of the most remarkable recorded popular music of the 20th century. The group's compositions and musical experiments raised their artistic reputations while they retained their tremendous popularity. However, The Beatles' financial situation took a turn for the worse when their manager Brian Epstein died in 1967 at the age of thirty-two, and the band's affairs began to unravel. That same year, The Beatles became the first band ever globally broadcast on television, in front of over 200 million people worldwide. Their final live performance was on the rooftop of the Apple offices in London in January 1969 during the difficult "Get Back" sessions (later used as a basis for the Let It Be album). Largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded their final album, Abbey Road. The band officially broke up in April 1970, and one month later Let It Be followed as their last commercial album release. Any hopes of a reunion were dashed when Lennon was murdered by a deranged fan on December 8th 1980. However, a virtual reunion occurred in 1995 with the release of two original Lennon recordings which had the additional contributions of the remaining Beatles mixed in to create two hit singles, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". Three volumes (six CDs in total) of unreleased material and studio out-takes were also released, as well as a documentary and television miniseries, in a project known as The Beatles Anthology.

Studio style evolution

The Beatles Anthology, frequently praised for his exceptional melodic gifts, penned the most frequently recorded song in history, the ballad "Yesterday". Some of his other notable compositions for the group include "Eleanor Rigby", "Hey Jude", and "Let It Be".]] Many observers have noted that understanding the success of The Beatles and their music begins and ends with an appreciation for the diverse ways in which they (especially Lennon and McCartney) blended their voices as instruments. The role of producer George Martin is often cited as a crucial element in the success of The Beatles. He used his experience to bring out the potential in the group, recognizing and nurturing their creativity rather than imposing his views. His earlier production experience ranged through acts such as Jimmy Shand to comedy recording with members of The Goons, that is said to have prepared him for the open-minded, sometimes experimental studio approach the group developed as they became more experienced. Martin's work on solo projects with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan of the Goons impressed The Beatles, who were fans. He later said he was initially attracted to the group because they were "very charming people." In 1966, at the height of their fame and bolstered by the two films A Hard Day's Night and Help!, the band stopped touring. Performing for thousands of screaming fans who typically made so much noise the music could not be heard had led to disillusionment and they decided to concentrate on making records. Their demands to create new sounds with every recording, personal experiments with psychedelic drugs and the studio techniques of recording engineer Geoff Emerick influenced the albums Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), still frequently regarded as two of the best albums ever made. Along with studio tricks such as sound processing, unconventional microphone placements and vari-speed recording The Beatles used instruments considered unconventional for pop music at the time, including bowed string and brass elements, Indian instruments such as the sitar and the swarmandel, tape loops and early electronic instruments. The group gradually took greater charge of their own productions and McCartney's growing dominance in this role, especially after the death of Epstein, played a part in the eventual split of the group. Their unprecedented fame caused its own stresses and the band was already on the verge of splitting up when The Beatles ("The White Album") was released in late 1968. Some songs were recorded by the band members as individual projects with other invited musicians and Starr took a two-week holiday (sometimes reported as a temporary break-up) midway through the sessions. McCartney finished some of the drum tracks on the album, including "Back in the USSR", after Starr had angrily stormed out of the studio. By 1970 the band had split and each Beatle went on to solo careers.

In film

1970 The Beatles had a limited but largely successful film career, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964), a loosely scripted comic farce, sometimes compared to the Marx Brothers in style. It focused on Beatlemania and their hectic touring lifestyle, and was directed in a quasi-documentary style in black-and-white by an up-and-coming Richard Lester, who was known for having directed a television version of the successful BBC radio series The Goon Show as well as the offbeat short film The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film - written, produced by and starring one of The Goons - Peter Sellers. In 1965 came Help!, a Technicolor extravaganza, also directed by Lester, shot in exotic locations (such as Salisbury Plain, with Stonehenge visible in the background; the Bahamas; and Salzburg and the Tyrol region of the Austrian Alps) in the style of a James Bond spoof along with even more Marx Brothers-style zaniness. For example, the film is dedicated "to Elias Howe, who in 1846 invented the sewing machine". Both of their first two films contained frequent show-stoppers when The Beatles would gather and sing their songs, which often (aside from the title tracks) had nothing whatsoever to do with the plot of the movie, defying the conventional approach of musical films. In 1966, Lennon "went solo", as a supporting character in a film called How I Won the War, again directed by Lester, a satire of World War II movies. (Lester described the film as "not an anti-war film but an anti-war-film film.") The dry, ironic "British humour" of this film may have been a bit over the heads of the American audience in those pre-Monty Python times, as it was not nearly as well received as the American-made Korean War satire MASH would be a few years later. Magical Mystery Tour was essentially Paul McCartney's idea, outlined as he returned from a trip the U.S. in the late spring of 1967, loosely inspired by press coverage McCartney had read about Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters' LSD-fueled American bus odyssey. McCartney envisaged taking this idea and blending it with the peculiarly English working class tradition of charabanc mystery tours. The film was critically slammed when it aired on the BBC's premier television network, BBC-1, the day after Christmas, Boxing Day – a day primarily for traditional cosy family entertainment. The film appeared radically avant-garde by those standards, and instead of showcasing the lovable moptops The Beatles had been up till recently, it showed them as part of the hippie counter-culture of 1967 that was at odds with the British establishment of the era. Compounding this culture clash was the fact that BBC-1 at that time still only transmitted programs in black & white, while Tour was in colour, and the colour was integral to appreciation of the film. The film was repeated a few days later on the BBC's secondary channel (BBC-2) in colour, receiving more appreciation, but the initial media reaction is what is most remembered. With the passage of time (and the fact that so many mainstream films subsequently incorporated many of the film's unusual filming and editing motifs) it is now considered a cult classic. The animated Yellow Submarine followed in 1968, but had little direct input from The Beatles, save for a live-action epilogue and the contribution of four new songs (including one holdover from the Sgt. Pepper sessions, "Only A Northern Song"). Nonetheless it was acclaimed for its boldly innovative graphic style and clever humour, along with the soundtrack. The Beatles are said to have been pleased with the result and attended its highly publicised London premiere. Let It Be was an ill-fated documentary of the band shot over a four-week period in January 1969. The documentary – which was originally intended to be simply a chronicle of the evolution of an album and the band's possible return to live performance – instead captured the prevailing tensions between the band members. In this respect it unwittingly became a document of the beginning of their break-up. The band initially shelved the film and album both, instead recording and issuing Abbey Road, but with so much money spent on the project, it was decided to finish and release the film and album (the latter with considerable post-production by Phil Spector) in the spring of 1970. When the film finally appeared, it was after the break-up had been announced, and it was viewed by disappointed fans through the prism of that recent news. In many respects the "warts and all" approach of the film showing disagreements and tension was more reality than devout fans wanted to see.

Influences and music

1970" and "Something". He is also known for introducing some exotic elements into the group's sound, including Indian instruments such as the sitar.]] As youths, the members of The Beatles were enthusiastic followers of British rock-and-rollers, notably Cliff Richard and The Shadows, whose stage presence and female following were often cited by the band as one of their inspirations to begin performing publicly. In their early days as performers, the band took some cues from local Liverpool favourites Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, who Ringo played with prior to joining The Beatles. Many of the band's influences were American in origin, including Chuck Berry. They recorded covers of "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock And Roll Music" early on and also performed many other Berry classics in their live repertoire. Chuck Berry's influence is also heard (in altered form) on later recordings such as "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" (1968) and "Come Together" (1969). After "Come Together" was released, music publisher Morris Levy sued John Lennon for copyright infringement of his song "You Can't Catch Me", ultimately resulting in the recording of his solo album Rock'n'Roll. George Harrison had a fondness for American rockabilly music, particularly that of Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. The band's early stage show featured several Perkins tunes; some of these (notably "Honey Don't" featuring an early Ringo vocal) would eventually make it to vinyl. Moreover, Harrison's guitar work remained highly influenced by rockabilly styles throughout the band's tenure. The Beatles' distinctive vocal harmonies were also influenced by those of early Motown artists in America; early Beatles staples included faithful versions of Barrett Strong's Motown recording of "Money (That's What I Want)" and The Marvelettes' hit "Please Mr. Postman". While many of these American influences drew from the blues music form, The Beatles, unlike their contemporaries the Rolling Stones, were seldom directly influenced by the blues. Drawing inspiration from an eclectic variety of sources, their home idiom was closer to pop music (during their early fame they were sometimes referred to as a mod band, a label they seem to have resisted). At the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon declared "Before Elvis, there was nothing." In comments recorded for the Anthology TV series all four band members spoke of him in glowing terms, with George Harrison (showing his knack for religious allusions) saying "Seeing Elvis was like seeing the messiah arrive." They also recorded a number of Presley covers at Abbey Road studios, and although these were not released officially until after the group split, bootleg copies have existed since the late 1960s. It has been argued Presley's musical influence on The Beatles may have been indirect, with opinion somewhat split; although few deny there was an influence, the extent of it has been the subject of debate among fans and music historians. The Beatles were also fond of Little Richard and some of their songs (especially in the early repertoire) featured falsetto calls similar to his, notably on their version of his song "Long Tall Sally". In 1962 he socialised with The Beatles around Hamburg and they performed together at the Star Club. "Long Tall Sally" became a permanent fixture in The Beatles' concert performances, and McCartney's singing on their recorded version is widely regarded as among his best rock and roll vocal performances. Apart from the up-beat, optimistic rock and roll sound of Little Richard and others, McCartney's influences include ragtime and music hall, owing much to his father's musical interests. Their impact is apparent in songs like "When I'm Sixty-Four" (composed during The Quarrymen period), "Honey Pie", and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". Of their early single, "From Me to You", McCartney said, "It could be done as an old ragtime tune... especially the middle-eight. And so we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom." His songwriting was also influenced in part by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who was in turn spurred on by The Beatles' work. Wilson acknowledged that the American version of Rubber Soul challenged him to make Pet Sounds, an album which then inspired McCartney's vision of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song "Back in the USSR" was based on a suggestion by Mike Love to McCartney and contains overt allusions to the Beach Boys' "California Girls". The song "Here, There and Everywhere" is said to have been written the evening that Lennon and McCartney first listened to Pet Sounds. The Everly Brothers were another influence. Lennon and McCartney consciously copied Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies. Their vocals on two 1962 recordings, "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" were inspired by the Everlys' powerful vocal innovation on "Cathy's Clown" (1960), the first recording to ever reach number one simultaneously in the USA and in England. "Two of Us", the opening track on Let It Be is overtly composed in the Everly style and McCartney acknowledges this in the recording with a spoken "Take it Phil." The song-writing of Gerry Goffin and Carole King was yet another influence. Some say that one of The Beatles' many achievements was to marry the relative sophistication of Goffin and King's songs (which used major-seventh chords, for example) with the straightforwardness of Buddy Holly, Berry and the early rock-and-roll performers. Lennon and McCartney's goal when they first began writing together was to become "the next Goffin and King." John Lennon's early style has clear relationships to Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison ("Misery" from 1963 and "Please Please Me" from 1963). "That'll Be the Day" was the first song Lennon learned to play and sing accurately and the first song the proto-Beatles ever put to vinyl. McCartney admitted, "At least the first forty songs we wrote were Buddy Holly influenced." Lennon said that Holly "made it okay to wear glasses. I WAS Buddy Holly." The naming of The Beatles (originally the Silver Beetles) was of course, Lennon's way of paying tribute to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets. The Beatles covered Holly's "Words of Love" on their album Beatles for Sale. After hearing the work of Bob Dylan Lennon was heavily influenced by folk music ("<