Page 39 - Great Elizabethans

MAKING THE BEATLES
When Paul was 15, he met a boy called John Lennon at a church festival, playing in a band called The Quarrymen, and impressed him with his skill on the guitar. Eventually, John asked Paul to join the band. They played a combination of rock’n’roll and a kind of music called ‘skiffle’, which was a mix of jazz, folk and blues. George Harrison, a younger friend of Paul’s, also joined, in 1958. After this, they changed their name a few times before coming up with The Beatles. They began to play more and more shows, at clubs
in Liverpool and then in Hamburg, Germany. When their drummer left, in 1962, they replaced him with Ringo Starr and the legendary line-up was finally complete!
When he first heard them play “She Loves You”, Paul’s father suggested John and Paul should change the lyrics from “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” to “Yes, Yes, Yes”! They didn’t take his advice . . .
HIT AFTER HIT
The band released their first album, Please Please Me, in 1963. After that, ‘Beatlemania’ began to take over the world, as the band racked up hit after hit, from “Love Me Do” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “A Hard Day’s Night”. Their singles and albums soon sold thousands of copies worldwide. When The Beatles appeared, in their trademark ‘moptop’ matching haircuts and sharp suits, their fans shrieked and mobbed them! As the band developed musically, they changed their look and sound, making albums with different influences, like Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour.
Even today, The Beatles are the bestselling musical act of all time.
THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED
But by the time The Beatles released The Beatles (also known as
The White Album) in 1968, there were tensions in the band – all of its
members wanted different things. After one last show in 1969, the group broke up,
and its members began to make music on their own.
Paul formed a group called Wings with his wife, Linda, releasing
Over the whole of albums like Band on the Run and Wings at the Speed of Sound,
his career, Paul has sold 100 million copies of his singles!
which were hugely successful.
The Beatles never reunited. Ten years later, in 1980, John was
tragically shot and killed, and George died of cancer in 2001. Paul’s wife also died of cancer in 1998. But Paul never stopped making music, playing concerts or experimenting with sound. In fact, he released a new album
in 2020, at the age of 78!