Rock and roll seemed indestructible.<\/p>\n\n
Until, all of a sudden, it began to run out of heroes.<\/p>\n\n
Buddy Holly died.<\/p>\n\n
Elvis Presley joined the army.<\/p>\n\n
Little Richard found God.<\/p>\n\n
Chuck Berry had run-ins with the law.<\/p>\n\n
Jerry Lee Lewis was tarnished by the scandal.<\/p>\n\n
Eddie Cochran died in an accident.<\/p>\n\n
In the late 1950s, the music that had terrified parents, teachers, and politicians seemed to be losing its edge.<\/p>\n\n
The industry had survived the revolution.<\/p>\n\n
He had learned how to sell it.<\/p>\n\n
And then something happened that almost no one expected.<\/p>\n\n
The next revolution did not come from the United States.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n He came from a port city in northern England.<\/p>\n\n Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n And it all began with four young men who were obsessed with precisely that American music that seemed to be disappearing.<\/p>\n\n To understand The Beatles, you first have to understand where they grew up.<\/p>\n\n Liverpool was a port city.<\/p>\n\n It wasn’t just goods that came through its docks.<\/p>\n\n Records were coming in.<\/p>\n\n Blues.<\/p>\n\n Rhythm & blues.<\/p>\n\n Rock and roll.<\/p>\n\n Country.<\/p>\n\n Soul.<\/p>\n\n Young Britons could discover music from the United States there that wasn’t always easy to find in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n\n And John Lennon was one of those young people.<\/p>\n\n In 1956, he formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n A year later, she met Paul McCartney<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n Paul knew how to play.<\/p>\n\n But there was something even more important.<\/p>\n\n He knew some songs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Shortly afterward, an even younger guitarist appeared.<\/p>\n\n George Harrison.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n He was only 15 when he started playing with them.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles didn’t exist yet.<\/p>\n\n But three of them were already there.<\/p>\n\n Mythology often begins in Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n But musically, The Beatles came of age elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n Hamburg.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n In the early 1960s, they traveled to Germany to play in clubs in the St. Pauli neighborhood. <\/p>\n\n The conditions were brutal.<\/p>\n\n Endless performances.<\/p>\n\n Whole nights.<\/p>\n\n Challenging Audiences.<\/p>\n\n Alcohol.<\/p>\n\n Fatigue.<\/p>\n\n Rock and roll.<\/p>\n\n The repertoire had to last for hours, so they learned hundreds of songs.<\/p>\n\n Chuck Berry.<\/p>\n\n Little Richard.<\/p>\n\n Carl Perkins.<\/p>\n\n Buddy Holly.<\/p>\n\n Elvis.<\/p>\n\n The Coasters.<\/p>\n\n Motown.<\/p>\n\n Rhythm & blues.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles didn’t learn about rock by reading about it.<\/p>\n\n They learned it by playing it for hours in front of people who could stop listening at any moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n By the time they returned to Liverpool, they were a different band.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles’ official website notes that they would go on to perform about 292 times at The Cavern Club between 1961 and 1963<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n The stage had become his school.<\/p>\n\n On November 9, 1961, another one of those small events took place that later seem inevitable.<\/p>\n\n Brian Epstein walked into The Cavern.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Epstein ran a record store.<\/p>\n\n He wasn’t a musician.<\/p>\n\n I had never before discovered a band that was destined to change the world.<\/p>\n\n But he saw something.<\/p>\n\n John.<\/p>\n\n Paul.<\/p>\n\n George.<\/p>\n\n A loud band.<\/p>\n\n Fun.<\/p>\n\n Magnetic.<\/p>\n\n Still a little wild.<\/p>\n\n And he decided to become their manager. The band’s official chronology dates that first meeting to November 1961. <\/p>\n\n Epstein began to transform the group’s stage presence.<\/p>\n\n More discipline.<\/p>\n\n Better image.<\/p>\n\n Suits.<\/p>\n\n Professionalism.<\/p>\n\n But they needed something much more difficult.<\/p>\n\n A record deal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n And the companies didn’t seem particularly interested.<\/p>\n\n The phrase has become one of the great legends of the music industry.<\/p>\n\n Decca turned down The Beatles after an audition held on January 1, 1962.<\/p>\n\n The story is often summed up by that supposed claim that guitar bands were \u201con their way out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Whatever the exact wording used at the time, what really matters is what happened afterward.<\/p>\n\n Decca said no.<\/p>\n\n Others didn’t see the future either.<\/p>\n\n Until George Martin<\/strong> came along.<\/p>\n\n George Martin worked for Parlophone, a label owned by EMI.<\/p>\n\n He had produced comedy, classical music, and various recordings outside the realm of rock.<\/p>\n\n On paper, he didn’t seem like the man destined to form the most important rock band of the century.<\/p>\n\n But he heard something.<\/p>\n\n On June 6, 1962<\/strong>, The Beatles recorded a session for Parlophone at EMI Studios on Abbey Road.<\/p>\n\n George Harrison would later recall that Martin still found them \u201craw and rough,\u201d but sensed something interesting about them. <\/p>\n\n That was the beginning of one of the most significant relationships in the history of popular music.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles had songs.<\/p>\n\n George Martin knew how to turn ideas into albums.<\/p>\n\n There was still one piece missing.<\/p>\n\n Drummer Pete Best left the band.<\/p>\n\n In August 1962, Ringo Starr<\/strong> joined the band.<\/p>\n\n John Lennon.<\/p>\n\n Paul McCartney.<\/p>\n\n George Harrison.<\/p>\n\n Ringo Starr.<\/p>\n\n At last, all four of them were there.<\/p>\n\n And just a few weeks later, the first album was released.<\/p>\n\n On October 5, 1962<\/strong>, Parlophone released:<\/p>\n\n \u201cLove Me Do\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n It didn’t seem like the beginning of a revolution.<\/p>\n\n It was a simple song.<\/p>\n\n A little over two minutes.<\/p>\n\n A harmonica.<\/p>\n\n Two voices.<\/p>\n\n A primal rhythm.<\/p>\n\n An almost childlike declaration of love.<\/p>\n\n But there was one crucial thing.<\/p>\n\n They had written it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n John Lennon and Paul McCartney.<\/p>\n\n Nowadays, it seems normal for a band to write its own songs.<\/p>\n\n So it wasn’t that big of a deal.<\/p>\n\n Many performers depended on professional composers.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles were going to change that, too.<\/p>\n\n \u201cLove Me Do\u201d reached No. 17 in the United Kingdom. The official discography confirms that it was their first British single and that it was released on October 5, 1962. <\/p>\n\n They didn’t take over the world that week.<\/p>\n\n But they had come in through the door.<\/p>\n\n John Lennon and Paul McCartney had begun writing songs together long before they became famous.<\/p>\n\n And they worked out an extraordinarily simple agreement.<\/p>\n\n The songs they wrote\u2014whether together or individually\u2014would bear the signature:<\/p>\n\n Lennon\u2013McCartney.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n But what was truly revolutionary wasn’t credit.<\/p>\n\n It was the speed.<\/p>\n\n \u201cPlease Please Me\u201d.<\/p>\n\n \u201cFrom Me to You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cShe Loves You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n One song after another.<\/p>\n\n Instantly recognizable melodies.<\/p>\n\n Vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n\n Choruses.<\/p>\n\n Energy.<\/p>\n\n And an almost instinctive understanding of how long a pop song should be before the listener would want to hear it again.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles didn’t invent rock and roll.<\/p>\n\n They had learned from Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Carl Perkins, and African American music<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n But they were beginning to turn all of that into something else.<\/p>\n\n On February 11, 1963<\/strong>, The Beatles entered EMI Studios in London.<\/p>\n\n They needed to record their first album.<\/p>\n\n They did it almost all at once.<\/p>\n\n The band’s official chronology confirms that ten songs from *Please Please Me*<\/em> were recorded that same day<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n There were no months of study.<\/p>\n\n Not even hundreds of clues.<\/p>\n\n Not even computers.<\/p>\n\n The intention was to capture, more or less, what happened when The Beatles took the stage.<\/p>\n\n In the end, they saved \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d for last.<\/p>\n\n John Lennon’s throat was in terrible shape.<\/p>\n\n They knew they would have practically only one chance to try.<\/p>\n\n He did it.<\/p>\n\n And that raspy voice we hear on the album isn’t a production effect.<\/p>\n\n He’s a singer pushing himself to the limit.<\/p>\n\n Please Please Me<\/strong><\/em> was released on March 22, 1963.<\/p>\n\n In May, it reached number one on the British charts.<\/p>\n\n He stayed there for 30 weeks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n Until another album replaced it.<\/p>\n\n Whose?<\/p>\n\n By The Beatles.<\/p>\n\n With The Beatles<\/em>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n Beatlemania had begun.<\/p>\n\n There are moments in The Beatles’ recordings when it’s almost hard to hear the music.<\/p>\n\n Because the crowd is cheering.<\/p>\n\n He doesn’t clap.<\/p>\n\n Yell.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Thousands of teenagers discovered something that seems obvious to us today but was much more unsettling back then:<\/p>\n\n They could have their own idols.<\/p>\n\n Their own tastes.<\/p>\n\n Their own money.<\/p>\n\n Their own culture.<\/p>\n\n And they were able to express it.<\/p>\n\n Beatlemania was not just a musical phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n It was a social phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n The Beatles had bangs.<\/p>\n\n Humor.<\/p>\n\n Liverpool accent.<\/p>\n\n They didn’t look like stars made by adults.<\/p>\n\n They seemed to belong to the young people.<\/p>\n\n And that was extraordinarily powerful.<\/p>\n\n The United Kingdom had already surrendered.<\/p>\n\n Europe was beginning to do so.<\/p>\n\n But to truly become the world’s biggest band, they still had to conquer the country that had invented the music they loved.<\/p>\n\n United States.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n At first, U.S. record labels didn’t seem to know what to do with them.<\/p>\n\n That changed with:<\/p>\n\n \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n On January 25, 1964, the song reached number one on the U.S. charts.<\/p>\n\n And two weeks later, something happened that changed the course of popular culture.<\/p>\n\n An American family turns on the TV.<\/p>\n\n Then another one.<\/p>\n\n And another one.<\/p>\n\n And another one.<\/p>\n\n Until you reach approximately:<\/p>\n\n 73 million people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n John.<\/p>\n\n Paul.<\/p>\n\n George.<\/p>\n\n Ringo.<\/p>\n\n Four young people from Liverpool performing in front of an audience representing a huge portion of the country.<\/p>\n\n The program recorded the following viewership<\/strong> figures: 73 million viewers<\/strong>, approximately 60% of the televisions that were turned on that night. <\/p>\n\n Ed Sullivan delivers an introduction that would go down in history.<\/p>\n\n And it begins:<\/p>\n\n \u201cAll My Loving.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The shouting almost drowned out the song.<\/p>\n\n Then they perform \u201cTill There Was You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cShe Loves You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Later:<\/p>\n\n \u201cI Saw Her Standing There.\u201d<\/p>\n\n And finally:<\/p>\n\n \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n In less than an hour, the United States realized that something had changed.<\/p>\n\n There is a context that makes that night even more powerful.<\/p>\n\n Only 77 days<\/strong> had passed since the assassination of John F. Kennedy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n The United States continued to experience one of the most traumatic periods in its recent history.<\/p>\n\n And suddenly, four English boys showed up.<\/p>\n\n Fun.<\/p>\n\n Irreverent.<\/p>\n\n Noisy.<\/p>\n\n With songs you just can’t get out of your head.<\/p>\n\n Of course, that alone doesn’t explain Beatlemania.<\/p>\n\nLiverpool was listening to Am\u00e9rica<\/h2>\n\n
Before they took over the world, they had to survive in Hamburg<\/h2>\n\n
A man walked into The Cavern and saw something that the others couldn’t see yet<\/h2>\n\n
\u201cGuitar bands are a thing of the past\u201d<\/h2>\n\n
The fifth Beatle didn’t know it yet<\/h2>\n\n
And then Ringo arrived<\/h2>\n\n
It all started with a harmonica<\/h2>\n\n
Lennon and McCartney had just invented a song-making machine<\/h2>\n\n
An album recorded practically in a single day<\/h2>\n\n
And suddenly the girls started screaming<\/h2>\n\n
But there was a problem: the United States wasn’t interested<\/h2>\n\n
February 9, 1964, 8:00 p.m.<\/h2>\n\n
The country was still mourning Kennedy<\/h2>\n\n