I love all the Beatles Quotes because The Beatles were one of my favorite bands back in the 60’s and were one of the most successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of pop music.
In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen formed a band with friends from school ,The Blackjacks, they changed their name to The Quarrymen after discovering that a another local band was already using that name. Next fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a guitarist and shortly after invited George Harrison, then fourteen-year-old who joined as lead guitarist.
By 1960, Lennon had begun studies at the Liverpool College of Art and the founding members of the original band had moved on leaving the three guitarists to play rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. John met Stu Sutcliffe at school and he joined as a bass player. It was Sutcliffe who suggested changing the band name to “The Beetles” as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets. After briefly using other names such as “Johnny and the Moondogs”, “Long John and The Beetles” and “The Silver Beatles”, the band finally became “The Beatles” in August of 1960.
The Beatles still did not have a full-time drummer which became a problem when the group got a resident band booking in Hamburg, Germany. So by the end of August they auditioned and hired Pete Best, and the five-piece band left for Gremany four days later. They were contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider, for a 48-night residency.
Since Hamburg did not have rock ‘n’ roll music clubs at that time. Bruno had the idea of bringing in rock groups to play in various clubs. He had this formula. There were huge never ending shows; bands would rotate in and out hour after hour. Bruno had gone to England to hire bands so there other bands from Liverpool.
In 1960 George Harrison was only seventeen so he lied to German authorities to be allowed to stay in Hamburg. Bruno Initially placed the group at the Indra Club, and then he moved them to the Kaiserkeller in October after the Indra was closed down. When he learned they were also performing at competing club, “The Top Ten Club”, he reported the underage Harrison to the authorities, and he was deported. McCartney, Best and Lennon were all back in Liverpool by mid-December, but Stu Sutcliffe stayed in Hamburg with his new German fiancée, Astrid Kirchherr, until January. Astrid cut Sutcliffe’s hair in the German “exi” (existentialist) style of the time, a look that later became “the Beatle cut” when it was adopted by the other Beatles.
Stu Sutcliffe left the band in 1961 to resume his art studies in Germany, so Paul McCartney took up the bass. Bert Kaempfert, a producer in Germany signed what was now a four-piece group as a backup band for Tony Sheridan and they made a few recordings as “Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers”.
Back home in Liverpool the Beatles, during one of the band’s frequent appearances at the Cavern Club, met Brian Epstein who was a local record store owner and music columnist. They appointed Epstein their manager in January 1962. The first thing Epstein did was to get them released from their contract with Bert Kaempfert Productions. By spring he had reached an agreement with Kaempfert to provide one last recording session, at the end of May, during their next visit to Hamburg.
Brian then contacted various record labels without success. An executive from Decca Records is quoted as saying while rejecting the band “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein”. George Martin however felt that the Mersey beat movement was gathering force on the music scene so he signed the group to EMI’s Parlophone label.
The Beatles had their first recording session at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London in June 1962 under the direction of George Martin. Martin didn’t like Drummer Pete Best so he told Epstein to replace him he was replacing him with one of the studio session musicians drummer Andy White He played on the single “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” which were released in October and “Love Me Do” was a top twenty hit, peaking at number seventeen on the U K charts.
Brian decided to replace Pete Best with a drummer that The Beatles had used in Hamburg, Ringo Starr and the band finally had a permanent drummer for the duration of their career
After a studio session that they recorded what would be their second single, “Please Please Me”, The Beatles had their TV debut with a live performance on a local news program” People and Places.”
Epstein, sensing their potential, told them to adopt a professional attitude when performing. Brian is quoted as saying “Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places, you’re going to have to change—stop eating on stage, stop swearing, and stop smoking.” Lennon is quoted as saying “We used to dress how we liked, on and off stage. He’d tell us that jeans were not particularly smart and could we possibly manage to wear proper trousers, but he didn’t want us suddenly looking square. He’d let us have our own sense of individuality … it was a choice of making it or still eating chicken on stage.”
As The Beatles were molded into a professional act by management skills of Brian Epstein, their musical styles and talent was improved by the creativity of producer George Martin, they continued to gain popularity in the U K after their first hit in late 1962, and got the moniker the “Fab Four”. By 1963 Beatlemania spread over Britain and by early 1964 they had become international recording stars, and lead the “British Invasion” of the United States pop music market.
I remember seeing their first movie ”A Hard Days Night” in the theater in 1964 which was based loosely on Brian Epstein’s efforts to get them from gig to gig on time.
The band toured the world until 1966 and then for the rest of their career only did studio recordings. The music they created during these years is considered by many music critics to be their best work.
The Beatles, even after over four decades since their break-up, are the bestselling musical group in history. They have sold more albums in the U.K. and the U.S. and had more number one albums than any other musicians in history.
They received 7 Grammy Awards from the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and they were to be perceived as the personification of ideals of the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
After their break-up in 1970, All four of the members of The Beatles went forward with their music careers until in 1980 John Lennon was murdered outside his home in New York City and George Harrison died in Los Angeles of metastatic lung cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr Still perform.
I have gathered a few quotes from the music and the members of The Beatles:
Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend. – The Beatles, We Can Work It Out
That guitar is okay but you’ll never make a living with it – John’s Aunt Mimi
We thought that if we lasted for two to three years that would be fantastic. – Ringo Starr
Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans – John Lennon
I’m really glad that most of our songs were about love, peace and understanding.
Paul McCartney
The nicest thing is to open the newspapers and not to find yourself in them. –
George Harrison
All You Need is Love – The Beatles
I hope you have enjoyed The Beatles Quotes. I enjoyed putting them together for you.