The  Beatles
    The  English  ROCK  MUSIC  group  The  Beatles  gave  the   1960s   its
characteristic musical flavor and had a profound influence on the course  of
popular music, equaled by  few  performers.   The  guitarists  John  Winston
Lennon, Oct.  9, 1940;  James Paul McCartney, June  18,  1942;   and  George
Harrison, Feb. 25, 1943;  and the  drummer  Ringo  Starr,  Richard  Starkey,
July 7, 1940, were all born and raised in Liverpool.  Lennon  and  McCartney
had played together in a group called The Quarrymen.   With  Harrison,  they
formed their own group, The Silver Beatles, in 1959, and Starr  joined  them
in 1962.  As The Beatles, they developed  a  local  following  in  Liverpool
clubs, and their first recordings, «Love Me Do» (1962)  and  «Please  Please
Me» (1963), quickly made them Britain's top rock group.  Their  early  music
was influenced by the American rock singers Chuck BERRY and  Elvis  PRESLEY,
but they infused a hackneyed musical  form  with  freshness,  vitality,  and
wit.
    [pic]
    The release of «I Want to Hold Your Hand» in 1964 marked the  beginning
of the  phenomenon  known  as  «Beatlemania»  in  the  United  States.   The
Beatles' first U.S. tour aroused a universal mob adulation.  Their  concerts
were scenes of mass worship, and their records sold in the millions.   Their
first  film,  the  innovative  A  Hard  Day's  Night  (1964),  was  received
enthusiastically by a wide audience that included many who had never  before
listened to rock music.
    Composing their own material  (Lennon  and  McCartney  were  the  major
creative forces), The Beatles  established  the  precedent  for  other  rock
groups to play their own music.  Experimenting with new musical forms,  they
produced an extraordinary variety of songs:  the childishly  simple  «Yellow
Submarine»;  the bitter social commentary of «Eleanor Rigby»;   parodies  of
earlier pop styles;  new electronic  sounds;   and  compositions  that  were
scored  for  cellos,  violins,  trumpets,  and  sitars,  as  well   as   for
conventional guitars and drums.  Some enthusiasts  cite  the  albums  Rubber
Soul (1965) and  Revolver  (1966)  as  the  apex  of  Beatle  art,  although
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967),  perhaps  the  first  rock
album designed thematically as a single musical entity,  is  more  generally
considered their triumph.  The group disbanded in 1970,  after  the  release
of their final album, Let It Be, to pursue individual careers.  On  Dec.  8,
1980, John Lennon was  fatally  shot  in  New  York  City.   In  1991,  Paul
McCartney's classical composition Liverpool Oratorio was performed  to  some
acclaim in Britain and the United States.
                                                           Igor Popov gr.3.1