The Beatles
Overview
The Beatles were an English rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

 (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

 (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

 (drums, vocals). Rooted in skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...

 and 1950s rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, the group later worked in many genres
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

 ranging from pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s to psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

, often incorporating classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 and other elements in innovative ways.
Quotations

Got a good reason for taking the easy way out Got a good reason for taking the easy way out now. She was a day tripper, a one way ticket yeah It took me so long to find out, and I found out.

Day Tripper|Day Tripper

Try to see it my way Do I have to keep on talking 'til I can't go on? While you see it your way Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone We can work it out We can work it out.

We Can Work It Out|We Can Work It Out

My love don't give me presents, Turn me on when I get lonely, People tell me that she's only foolin', I know she isn't. She's a woman, she's a woman.

She's a Woman|She's a Woman

Baby's good to me, you know, She's happy as can be, you know, She said so. I'm in love with her and I feel fine.

I Feel Fine|I Feel Fine

Lady Madonna children at your feet Wonder how you manage to make ends meet. Who finds the money when you pay the rent? Did you think that money was heaven sent?

Lady Madonna|Lady Madonna

Without going out of my door I can know all things on earth Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of Heaven The farther one travels The less one knows.

The Inner Light|The Inner Light

Whatever happened to the life that we once knew Can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch That seemed to mean so much? It always made me feel so Free as a bird.

Free As A Bird|Free As A Bird

When the rain comes they run and hide their heads. They might as well be dead, If the rain comes, if the rain comes.

Rain (song)|Rain

Christ! You know it ain't easy, You know how hard it can be. The way things are going, They're going to crucify me.

The Ballad of John and Yoko|The Ballad of John and Yoko

Hey Jude don't make it bad, Take a sad song and make it better, Remember, to let her into your heart, Then you can start to make it better.

Hey Jude|Hey Jude

 
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