On Jan. 1, 1962, The Beatles flunked an
audition at Decca Records in London. Label executive Dick Rowe's brush-off:
"Guitar groups are on the way out."
It was an inauspicious start for the group that would soon
dominate global society and a downbeat Day 1 in the year that saw the scrappy
Liverpool lads evolve into the Fab
Four who forever altered the course of pop music.
No other entertainers in history have been as popular, as
influential, as important or as groundbreaking. The best-selling act ever sold
600 million albums worldwide and racked up 20 No. 1 U.S. singles,
a Billboard record that still stands. The band hijacked the
entertainment media and transcended music to become a chapter in world history.
Its members had political clout, spiritual authority, cultural sway and the
ears of the planet.
· VIDEO: The Beatles
through the years
· MORE: USA TODAY picks
the 20 best Beatles songs
Fifty years later, the melodic, instantly memorable tunes of
The Beatles are ingrained in the DNA of modern civilization. On this golden
anniversary, their golden oldies sound as vital and fresh as ever and continue
to bewitch new generations.
How did The Beatles become so profoundly enormous and
enduring? Even the players couldn't fathom such sovereignty. Paul
McCartney expected a brief joy ride when Beatlemania struck.
"Oh, yeah, we
thought a couple years, that would be it," he told USA TODAY in 2009, when
The Beatles' remastered catalog reignited international excitement. "We never
thought it would last at all. You've got to ask, 'Why did it last?' I think the music is
very well-structured, like a good house. It's going to stand for a long time.
It's nice that I can sit back now and be proud of what we did."
The Beatles sprang from
a perfect storm of timing, chemistry, luck, key support and, most critically,
talent. And many of those essential factors fell into place 50 years ago.
John Lennon and McCartney met in 1957. George Harrison joined their band in 1958, when they
were busking in Liverpool. They adopted the name The Beatles in 1960.
The pivotal year of
1962 saw a rapid coalescence: "Fifth Beatle" Brian Epstein became
their indefatigable manager in January. He sent The Beatles, performing in
Hamburg, this telegram on May 9: "Congratulations, boys. EMI requests
recording session. Please rehearse new material."
On June 4, they
signed a contract with Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI. And on June 6, they
entered Abbey Road Studios with producer George Martin for the first time, recording demos of
cover tune Besame Mucho and Lennon-McCartney compositions Love Me Do,P.S. I Love You and Ask
Me Why. Martin, mildly impressed, lectured the band about its lousy
equipment, then asked whether they had any complaints.
Harrison quipped,
"I don't like your tie."
In August, drummer Pete Best was
fired and replaced byRingo Starr. First single Love Me Do was recorded on Sept. 4 and released
in the U.K. on Oct. 5, setting the stage for a musical and cultural revolution.
World was ready for
them
"An incredible
convergence of factors contributed to The Beatles' breakthrough and to
sustaining their growth," says Beatles scholar Martin Lewis, who since 1967 has worked as
a writer, producer, strategist and consultant on numerous Beatles-related
projects, including The Beatles Anthology.
"They would have
been successful at any time, but the speed and magnitude of that success owes
in large part to the times. Britain was so poor after World War II. In
Liverpool, which had been heavily bombed, the atmosphere was great poverty and
sterility and gloom. The Beatles grew up in that, and their first awakenings
came from the distant sounds of rock in America."
Inspired by U.S. rock
pioneers, The Beatles began to blaze a trail, first with yeah yeah yeahs,
moptops and a cheeky air.
"The prevalent
attitude among the elite ruling class was that young people had no say in their
own lives," Lewis says. "The Beatles made rebellion constructive,
articulating it with joyous, giddy exuberance. At a time when cigar-chomping
moguls paid people in cubicles to write factory-farm pop songs for teenagers,
The Beatles were completely authentic, and kids instinctively understood
that."
Their camaraderie,
self-deprecating wit, effervescence and non-conformist hair and fashion also
appealed to a growing youth culture. Radio, formerly a fixed object in homes,
proliferated in transistor form, and an improving economy gave teens a
disposable income to buy records.
Lewis also credits
integral contributions of "three wise men" guiding The Beatles:
producer Martin, who nurtured rather than imposing his vision; publicist Derek
Taylor, a perceptive propaganda minister who shaped the band's narrative; and Epstein,
a tireless advocate.
Talent, while
abundant, was not enough to take The Beatles to the toppermost of the
poppermost, to borrow Lennon's pep phrase.
"Unlike vast
legions of entertainers before and since, The Beatles' objective in forming a
group was not to become famous or rich or have their pick of the opposite
sex," Lewis says. "They were motivated by the love of music. It
colors your approach. How many kids today make a record on their Mac with Pro Tools and
expect it to be No. 1 in 10 minutes?
"From 1957 to
1962, The Beatles played hundreds of live shows in front of very few people,
making no money, sleeping in disgusting locales. They had no sense of
entitlement. Just drive and commitment."
From Liverpool with
love
Only war-battered
Liverpool and its sociopolitical dynamics could have produced The Beatles, says David Bedford, author of Liddypool: Birthplace of The
Beatles and founder of the
new online Beatles Social Network. Yet he marvels that any disruption of the
chance meetings and coincidences critical to the band's formation could have
foiled destiny. At every turn, circumstance favored The Beatles' rise.
"Just as the
U.K. charts were growing tired and predictable, the United States, which had
taken the lead with the great rock 'n' roll artists of the '50s, was in need of
something new. What happened in Dallas in November (1963) sent the public into
mourning for the loss of a president who promised so much. How could the
country rise again? Four lads from Liverpool, who were funny, charming and
different, came over to try their luck."
They came, they
conquered, drawing 73 million viewers with their first appearance onThe Ed
Sullivan Show on Feb. 9,
1964.
"Will we ever
see the stars align this way again? Unlikely," Bedford says. "In the
end, it all comes back to one thing: the music. The songs are as good today as
when they were written."
The bulk of those
songs, arguably history's most influential, grew from the imagination and
combustible chemistry of Lennon and McCartney, says Dennis Mitchell, host
for 21 years of syndicated radio show Breakfast
With The Beatles.
"The odds are
incredible that two individuals with that kind of musical acumen met and made
all this music together," he says. "What they created was totally
original, a starting point for so many bands that followed. Millions of fans
and musicians were inspired and motivated to a degree we've never seen."
The genius of
Lennon-McCartney
Though various
junctures and backdrops fleshed out the Beatles phenomenon, Lennon and
McCartney were the only two crucial components, says Mark Shipper, author ofPaperback
Writer, a satiric revisionist history of The Beatles.
"Working
together, they were absolute geniuses," Shipper says. "The other two
Beatles were little more than journeymen who spent most of their time
desperately trying to keep up.
"Doubt this?
Ringo certainly does. He seriously thinks he's the world's greatest living
drummer. To those who share his opinion, I say, put Ringo in the Rolling
Stones. There could be no Stones. And yet Charlie Watts, if he really needed a
paycheck, could have played in The Beatles.
"As for George,
he ruined every early album with his incessant clankers on guitar and the later
ones with that god-awful sitar. He sang very good harmony with Paul. But that's
it."
Lewis disagrees,
arguing that all four brought skill, personality and grit to the unorthodox
ensemble, a leaderless gang of musical omnivores.
An important key to
their longevity was "the sheer eclecticism of the music, cultural and
literary influences they absorbed," he says. "Unlike many musicians
today, who narrowcast what they listen to, The Beatles had a voracious appetite
for an incredibly diverse range of music. Their initial heroes were the Everly Brothers and Little Richard, but they
drew from the American songbook. They listened to folk, Gershwin, Cole Porter, vaudeville. They were
sponges."
Had The Beatles not
used their influences and curiosity to push boundaries, they might have had the
shelf life of a hula-hoop craze, Lewis says.
"What added
depth to their credibility was a continuing thirst to break new ground. This
was in an era when it was the norm to lay the same golden egg over and over.
You were not expected to become more polished. But The Beatles set out on a
voyage of discovery."
Historical events and
the cultural climate didn't matter much, says Steve Marinucci, Beatles
columnist on Examiner.com and webmaster for AbbeyRd's Beatles Page
(abbeyrd.best.vwh.net). The Fab Four were unstoppable.
"The older
generation scorned rock 'n' roll at that time, and for The Beatles to make it
through on that level was a heck of an achievement," he says. "It's
astonishing how everything revolved around them. That's all you heard between
1964 and 1969. Nobody can have that kind of impact again. It was a different
world. We didn't have the Internet, and people weren't so jaded."
Analyzing
Beatlemania, Harrison once said, "The world used us as an excuse to go
mad."
'No one can explain
it'
Perhaps the band's
unprecedented exploits simply defy logic, says Matt Hurwitz, Beatles historian
and Mix magazine contributing editor.
"I've never
figured it out, and I don't think anyone has ever been able to," he says.
"Even their publicist Derek Taylor told me, 'It's something I've never
been able to put a finger on. They just had an inexplicable charisma.'
"There's never
been an experience like Beatlemania before or since. No one can explain it. We
all just love it. It's exciting, and it makes us happy."
One momentous aspect
tends to be overlooked in theories of Beatle magnitude, undiminished since the
band's acrimonious 1970 split or the deaths of Lennon in 1980 and Harrison in
2001.
"They had the
good sense to break up at the height of their creativity," Lewis says.
"It wasn't planned, but it was the best move ever. The result is we never
had to endure the embarrassment of The Beatles going disco or getting a
middle-age paunch.
"They left seven
years of brilliantly recorded music and a perfect corpse that kept the mystique
and beauty of The Beatles intact."
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