The Beatles on Apple Music. Biography. So much has been said and written about the Beatles - - and their story is so mythic in its sweep - - that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clich. This is where the magic begins! Watch your adventurers delight in games, movies and more featuring favorites like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins.To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 2. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Move your mouse over a highlighted or double-underlined word or phrase of interest to view relevant advertiser information; For further information. WALT DISNEY'S MOVIE TIMELINE 1937-1966 1937 Snow White and the. 1948 Melody Time 1948 So Dear to my Heart 1949 The Adventures of Icabod and Mr, Toad 1950. IMDb > Beloved White Mouse (1964) Own the rights? More at IMDb Pro Discuss in Boards Update Data. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1. They synthesized all that was good about early rock & roll, and changed it into something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for the self- contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none, and key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R& B- based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral. As singers, both John Lennon and Paul Mc. Cartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock; the group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As performers, they were (at least until touring had ground them down) exciting and photogenic; when they retreated into the studio, they were instrumental in pioneering advanced techniques and multi- layered arrangements. They were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an international phenomenon. Their phenomenal cohesion was due in large degree to most of the group having known each other and played together in Liverpool for about five years before they began to have hit records. Guitarist and teenage rebel John Lennon got hooked on rock & roll in the mid- '5. Quarrymen, at his high school. Around mid- 1. 95. Quarrymen were joined by another guitarist, Paul Mc. Cartney, nearly two years Lennon's junior. A bit later they were joined by another guitarist, George Harrison, a friend of Mc. Cartney. The Quarrymen would change lineups constantly in the late '5. Lennon's art college friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass, but finding a permanent drummer was a vexing problem until Pete Best joined in the summer of 1. He successfully auditioned for the combo just before they left for a several- month stint in Hamburg, Germany. Playing grueling sessions for hours on end in one of the most notorious red- light districts in the world, the group was forced to expand its repertoire, tighten up its chops, and invest its show with enough manic energy to keep the rowdy crowds satisfied. When they returned to Liverpool at the end of 1. Liverpudlian . They consolidated their following in 1. Merseyside area, most often at the legendary Cavern Club, the incubator of the Merseybeat sound. Mc. Cartney took over on bass, Harrison settled in as lead guitarist, and Lennon had rhythm guitar; everyone sang. In mid- 1. 96. 1, the Beatles (minus Sutcliffe) made their first recordings in Germany, as a backup group to a British rock guitarist/singer based in Hamburg, Tony Sheridan. The Beatles hadn't fully developed at this point, and these recordings - - many of which (including a couple of Sheridan- less tracks) were issued only after the band's rise to fame - - found their talents in a most embryonic state. The Hamburg stint was also notable for gaining the Beatles sophisticated, artistic fans such as Sutcliffe's girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr, who influenced all of them (except Best) to restyle their quiffs in the moptops that gave the musicians their most distinctive visual trademark. He used his contacts to swiftly acquire a January 1, 1. Decca Records that has been heavily bootlegged (some tracks were officially released in 1. After weeks of deliberation, Decca turned them down as did several other British labels. Epstein's perseverance was finally rewarded with an audition for producer George Martin at Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary; Martin signed the Beatles in mid- 1. By this time, Epstein was assiduously grooming his charges for national success by influencing them to smarten up their appearance, dispensing with their leather jackets and trousers in favor of tailored suits and ties. In August 1. 96. 2, drummer Pete Best was kicked out of the group, a controversial decision that has been the cause of much speculation since. There is still no solid consensus as to whether it was because of his solitary, moody nature; the other Beatles' jealousy of his popularity with the fans; his musical shortcomings (George Martin had already told Epstein that Best wasn't good enough to drum on recordings); or his refusal to wear his hair in bangs. What seems most likely was that the Beatles simply found his personality incompatible, preferring to enlist Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey), a drummer with another popular Merseyside outfit, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. Starr had been in the Beatles for a few weeks when they recorded their first single, . Both sides of the 4. Lennon- Mc. Cartney originals, and the songwriting team would be credited with most of the group's material throughout the Beatles' career. The Beatles phenomenon didn't truly kick in until . This was the prototype British Invasion single: an infectious melody, charging guitars, and positively exuberant harmonies. The same traits were evident on their third 4. Although it was mostly recorded in a single day, Please Please Me topped the British charts for an astonishing 3. U. K. Since the Quarrymen days, they had been steeped in the classic early rock of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and the Everly Brothers; they'd also kept an ear open to the early- '6. Motown, Phil Spector, and the girl groups. What they added was an unmatched songwriting savvy (inspired by Brill Building teams such as Gerry Goffin and Carole King), a brash guitar- oriented attack, wildly enthusiastic vocals, and the embodiment of the youthful flair of their generation, ready to dispense with postwar austerity and claim a culture of their own. They were also unsurpassed in their eclecticism, willing to borrow from blues, popular standards, gospel, folk, or whatever seemed suitable for their musical vision. Producer George Martin was the perfect foil for the group, refining their ideas without tinkering with their cores; during the last half of their career, he was indispensable for his ability to translate their concepts into arrangements that required complex orchestration, innovative applications of recording technology, and an ever- widening array of instruments. All of their subsequent albums and singles would show remarkable artistic progression (though never at the expense of a damn catchy tune). Even on their second LP, With the Beatles (1. After some celebrated national TV appearances, Beatlemania broke out across the British Isles in late 1. Capitol took up its option on . The Beatles' television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1. Beatlemania (and the entire British Invasion) on an even bigger scale than it had reached in Britain. In the first week of April 1. Beatles had the Top Five best- selling singles in the U. S.; they also had the first two slots on the album charts, as well as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 1. No one had ever dominated the market for popular music so heavily; it's doubtful that anyone ever will again. The Beatles themselves would continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albums until their 1. The group ensured this wouldn't happen by making A Hard Day's Night in early 1. The soundtrack was also a triumph, consisting entirely of Lennon- Mc. Cartney tunes, including such standards as the title tune, . The Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the U. S. To some degree, that's true. Touring and an insatiable market placed heavy demands upon their songwriting, and some of the originals and covers on these records, while brilliant by many groups' standards, were filler in the context of the Beatles' best work. John Lennon in particular was beginning to exhibit a Dylanesque influence in his songwriting on such folky, downbeat numbers as . By this time, though, the Beatles had nothing to prove in commercial terms; the remaining frontiers were artistic challenges that could only be met in the studio. They rose to the occasion at the end of 1. Rubber Soul, one of the classic folk- rock records. Lyrically, Lennon, Mc. Cartney, and even Harrison (who was now writing some tunes on his own) were evolving beyond boy- girl scenarios into complex, personal feelings. They were also pushing the limits of studio rock by devising new guitar and bass textures, experimenting with distortion and multi- tracking, and using unconventional (for rock) instruments like the sitar. Drugs (psychedelic and otherwise) were fueling their already fertile imaginations, but they felt creatively hindered by their touring obligations. Revolver, released in the summer of 1. Hazy hard guitars and thicker vocal arrangements formed the bed of these increasingly imagistic, ambitious lyrics; the group's eclecticism now encompassed everything from singalong novelties (. Some would complain that the Beatles had abandoned the earthy rock of their roots for clever mannerism. But Revolver, like virtually all of the group's singles and albums from . A 1. 96. 6 summer worldwide tour was particularly grueling: the group's entourage was physically attacked in the Philippines after a perceived snub of the country's first lady, and a casual remark by John Lennon about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ was picked up in the States, resulting in the burning of Beatles records in the Bible Belt and demands for a repentant apology. Their final concert of that American tour (in San Francisco on August 2. Disney Characters Set #2.
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