A LARGE LOT OF 24 PHOTOGRAPHS OF RINGO STAR IN ORIGINAL FOLDER. SOME ON THIN PAPER. MANY IMAGES 

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Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known as Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of four others. Out of the classic lineup of the Beatles, and as of 2025, Starr is the longest-living member of the band.

Starr was afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during childhood, with periods of prolonged hospitalisation. As a teenager Starr became interested in the skiffle craze and developed a fervent admiration for the genre. In 1957, he co-founded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, which earned several local bookings before the fad succumbed to American rock and roll around early 1958. When the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. After achieving moderate success in the UK and Hamburg, he quit the Hurricanes when he was asked to join the Beatles in August 1962, replacing Pete Best.

In addition to the Beatles' films, Starr has acted in numerous others. After the Beatles disbanded, he released several successful singles including the US top-ten hit "It Don't Come Easy", and number ones "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen". His most successful UK single was "Back Off Boogaloo", which peaked at number two. He achieved commercial and critical success with his 1973 album Ringo, which was a top-ten release in both the UK and the US. Starr has also featured in numerous documentaries, hosted television shows, narrated the first two series of the children's television animated programme Thomas & Friends and portrayed "Mr. Conductor" during the first season of its American spin-off Shining Time Station. Since 1989, he has toured with thirteen variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

Starr's playing style, which emphasised feel over technical virtuosity, influenced many drummers to reconsider their playing from a compositional perspective. He also influenced various modern drumming techniques, such as the matched grip, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings.[2] In his opinion, his finest recorded performance was on the Beatles' "Rain".[3] In 1999, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.[4] In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named him the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. He was inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a Beatle in 1988 and as a solo artist in 2015,[5] and appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music.[6]
Early life
A colour photo of a red-bricked house with boarded up windows and doors
Starr's birthplace in Madryn Street, Dingle, Liverpool, in May 2013

Richard Starkey[7] was born on 7 July 1940 at 9 Madryn Street in Dingle, an inner-city area of Liverpool. He is the only child of confectioners Richard Starkey and Elsie Gleave.[8] Elsie enjoyed singing and dancing, a hobby that she shared with her husband, an avid fan of swing.[9] Prior to the birth of their son, whom they called "Ritchie", the couple had spent much of their free time on the local ballroom circuit, but their regular outings ended soon after his birth.[10] Elsie adopted an overprotective approach to raising her son that bordered on fixation. Subsequently, "Big Ritchie", as Starkey's father became known, lost interest in his family, choosing instead to spend long hours drinking and dancing in pubs, sometimes for several consecutive days.[10]

In an effort to reduce their housing costs, his family moved in 1944 to another neighbourhood in the Dingle, Admiral Grove; soon afterwards his parents separated, and they divorced within the year.[11] Starkey later stated that he has "no real memories" of his father, who made little effort to bond with him, visiting as few as three times thereafter.[12] Elsie found it difficult to survive on her ex-husband's support payments of thirty shillings a week, so she took on several menial jobs cleaning houses before securing a position as a barmaid, an occupation that she held for twelve years.[13]
A colour photo of a white and pink cladded house
Starr's childhood residence at 10 Admiral Grove, Dingle, Liverpool, in 2010

At the age of six, Starkey developed appendicitis. Following an appendectomy he contracted peritonitis, causing him to fall into a coma that lasted days.[14] His recovery spanned twelve months, which he spent away from his family at Liverpool's Myrtle Street children's hospital.[15] Upon his discharge in May 1948, his mother allowed him to stay at home, causing him to miss school.[16] At age eight, he remained illiterate, with a poor grasp of mathematics.[16] His lack of education contributed to a feeling of alienation at school, which resulted in his regularly playing truant at Sefton Park.[17] After several years of twice-weekly tutoring from his surrogate sister and neighbour, Marie Maguire Crawford, Starkey had nearly caught up to his peers academically, but in 1953, he contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium, where he remained for two years.[18] During his stay the medical staff made an effort to stimulate motor activity and relieve boredom by encouraging their patients to join the hospital band, leading to his first exposure to a percussion instrument: a makeshift mallet made from a cotton bobbin that he used to strike the cabinets next to his bed.[19] Soon afterwards, he grew increasingly interested in drumming, receiving a copy of the Alyn Ainsworth song "Bedtime for Drums" as a convalescence gift from Crawford.[20] Starkey commented: "I was in the hospital band ... That's where I really started playing. I never wanted anything else from there on ... My grandparents gave me a mandolin and a banjo, but I didn't want them. My grandfather gave me a harmonica ... we had a piano – nothing. Only the drums."[21]

Starkey attended St Silas, a Church of England primary school near his house where his classmates nicknamed him "Lazarus", and later Dingle Vale Secondary modern school, where he showed an aptitude for art and drama, as well as practical subjects including mechanics.[22] As a result of the prolonged hospitalisations, he fell behind his peers scholastically and was ineligible for the 11-plus qualifying examination required for attendance at a grammar school.[23] After the extended hospital stay following Starkey's recovery from tuberculosis, he did not return to school, preferring instead to stay at home and listen to music while playing along by beating biscuit tins with sticks.[24] On 17 April 1954, Starkey's mother married Harry Graves at the register office on Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.[25] He was an ex-Londoner who had moved to Liverpool following the failure of his first marriage. Graves, an impassioned fan of big band music and their vocalists, introduced Starkey to recordings by Dinah Shore, Sarah Vaughan and Billy Daniels.[26] Graves stated that he and "Ritchie" never had an unpleasant exchange between them; Starkey later commented: "He was great ... I learned gentleness from Harry."[27]

Beatles biographer Bob Spitz described Starkey's upbringing as "a Dickensian chronicle of misfortune".[28] Houses in the area were "poorly ventilated, postage-stamp-sized ... patched together by crumbling plaster walls, with a rear door that opened onto an outhouse."[28] Crawford commented: "Like all of the families who lived in the Dingle, he was part of an ongoing struggle to survive."[28] The children who lived there spent much of their time at Prince's Park, escaping the soot-filled air of their coal-fuelled neighbourhood.[28] Adding to their difficult circumstances, violent crime was an almost constant concern for people living in one of the oldest and poorest inner-city districts in Liverpool.[29] Starkey later commented: "You kept your head down, your eyes open, and you didn't get in anybody's way."[30]

After his return home from the sanatorium in late 1955, Starkey entered the workforce but was lacking in motivation and discipline; his initial attempts at gainful employment proved unsuccessful.[31] In an effort to secure himself some warm clothes, he briefly held a railway worker's job with British Rail, which came with an employer-issued suit. He was supplied with a hat but no uniform and, unable to pass the physical examination, he was laid off and granted unemployment benefits.[32] He then found work as a waiter serving drinks on a day boat that travelled from Liverpool to North Wales, but his fear of conscription into military service led him to quit the job, not wanting to give the Royal Navy the impression that he was suitable for seafaring work.[33] In mid-1956, Graves secured Starkey a position as an apprentice machinist at Henry Hunt and Son, a Liverpool school equipment manufacturer.[34] While working at the facility Starkey befriended Roy Trafford, and the two bonded over their shared interest in music.[35] Trafford introduced Starkey to skiffle, and he quickly became a fervent admirer.[35]
Career
First bands
See also: Rory Storm

Soon after Trafford piqued Starkey's interest in skiffle, the two began rehearsing songs in the manufacturing plant's cellar during their lunch breaks. Trafford recalled: "I played a guitar, and [Ritchie] just made a noise on a box ... Sometimes, he just slapped a biscuit tin with some keys, or banged on the backs of chairs."[35] The pair were joined by Starkey's neighbour and co-worker, the guitarist Eddie Miles, forming the Eddie Miles Band, later renamed Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares after a Liverpool landmark.[36] The band performed popular skiffle songs such as "Rock Island Line" and "Walking Cane", with Starkey raking a thimble across a washboard, creating primitive, driving rhythms.[37] Starkey enjoyed dancing as his parents had years earlier, and he and Trafford briefly took dance lessons at two schools. Though the lessons were short-lived, they provided Starkey and Trafford with an introduction that allowed them to dance competently while enjoying nights out on the town.[37]

On Christmas Day 1957, Graves gave Starkey a second-hand drum kit consisting of a snare drum, bass drum and a makeshift cymbal fashioned from a rubbish bin lid. Although basic and crude, the kit facilitated his progression as a musician while increasing the commercial potential of the Eddie Clayton band, who went on to book prestigious local gigs before the skiffle craze faded in early 1958 as American rock and roll became popular in the UK.[38]

In November 1959, Starkey joined Al Caldwell's Texans, a skiffle group who were looking for someone with a proper drum kit so that the group could transition from one of Liverpool's best-known skiffle acts to a full-fledged rock and roll band.[39][nb 1] They had begun playing local clubs as the Raging Texans, then Jet Storm and the Raging Texans before settling on Rory Storm and the Hurricanes shortly before recruiting Starkey.[41] About this time he adopted the stage name Ringo Starr; derived from the rings he wore and also because it implied a country and western influence. His singing solos were billed as Starr Time.[42]

By early 1960, the Hurricanes had become one of Liverpool's leading bands.[43] In May, they were offered a three-month residency at a Butlins holiday camp in Wales.[44] Although initially reluctant to accept the residency and end his five-year machinist apprenticeship that he had begun four years earlier, Starr eventually agreed to the arrangement.[45] The Butlins gig led to other opportunities for the band, including an unpleasant tour of US Air Force bases in France about which Starr commented: "The French don't like the British; at least I didn't like them."[46] The Hurricanes became so successful that when initially offered a highly coveted residency in Hamburg, they turned it down because of their prior commitment with Butlins.[47] They eventually accepted, joining the Beatles at Bruno Koschmider's Kaiserkeller on 1 October 1960, where Starr first met the band.[48] Storm's Hurricanes were given top-billing over the Beatles, who also received less pay.[49] Starr performed with the Beatles during a few stand-in engagements while in Hamburg. On 15 October 1960, he drummed with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, recording with them for the first time while backing Hurricanes singer Lu Walters on the song "Summertime".[50][nb 2] During Starr's first stay in Hamburg he also met Tony Sheridan, who valued his drumming abilities to the point of asking Starr to leave the Hurricanes and join his band.[52]
The Beatles
Main article: The Beatles
Replacing Best
Starr performing with the Beatles in 1964

Starr quit Rory Storm and the Hurricanes in January 1962 and briefly joined Sheridan in Hamburg before returning to the Hurricanes for a third season at Butlins.[53][nb 3] On 14 August, Starr accepted Lennon's invitation to join the Beatles.[55] On 16 August, Beatles manager Brian Epstein fired their drummer, Pete Best, who recalled: "He said 'I've got some bad news for you. The boys want you out and Ringo in.' He said [Beatles producer] George Martin wasn't too pleased with my playing [and] the boys thought I didn't fit in."[56] Starr first performed as a member of the Beatles on 18 August 1962, at a horticultural society dance at Port Sunlight.[57] After his appearance at the Cavern Club the following day, Best fans, upset by his firing, held vigils outside his house and at the club shouting "Pete forever! Ringo never!"[54] Harrison received a black eye from one upset fan, and Epstein, whose car tyres they had flattened in anger, temporarily hired a bodyguard.[58]

Starr's first recording session as a member of the Beatles took place on 4 September 1962.[55] He stated that Martin had thought that he "was crazy and couldn't play ... because I was trying to play the percussion and the drums at the same time, we were just a four-piece band".[59] For their second recording session with Starr, on 11 September 1962, Martin replaced him with session drummer Andy White while recording takes for what would be the two sides of the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do", backed with "P.S. I Love You".[60] Starr played tambourine on "Love Me Do" and maracas on "P.S. I Love You".[55][61] Concerned about his status in the Beatles, he thought: "That's the end, they're doing a Pete Best on me."[62] Martin later clarified: "I simply didn't know what Ringo was like and I wasn't prepared to take any risks."[63][nb 4]

By November 1962, Starr had been accepted by Beatles fans, who were now calling for him to sing.[64] He began receiving an amount of fan mail equal to that of the others, which helped to secure his position within the band.[65] Starr considered himself fortunate to be on the same "wavelength" as the other Beatles: "I had to be, or I wouldn't have lasted. I had to join them as people as well as a drummer."[66] He was given a small percentage of Lennon and McCartney's publishing company, Northern Songs, but derived his primary income during this period from a one-quarter share of Beatles Ltd, a corporation financed by the band's net concert earnings.[65] He commented on the nature of his lifestyle after having achieved success with the Beatles: "I lived in nightclubs for three years. It used to be a non-stop party."[67] Like his father, Starr became well known for his late-night dancing and he received praise for his skills.[67]
Worldwide success
Starr at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on 7 February 1964

During 1963, the Beatles enjoyed increasing popularity in Britain. In January, their second single, "Please Please Me", followed "Love Me Do" into the UK charts and a successful television appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars earned favourable reviews, leading to a boost in sales and radio play.[68] By the end of the year, the phenomenon known as Beatlemania had spread throughout the country, and by February 1964 the Beatles had become an international success when they performed in New York City on The Ed Sullivan Show to a record 73 million viewers.[69] Starr commented: "In the States I know I went over well. It knocked me out to see and hear the kids waving for me. I'd made it as a personality ... Our appeal ... is that we're ordinary lads."[70] He was a source of inspiration for several songs written at the time, including Penny Valentine's "I Want to Kiss Ringo Goodbye" and Rolf Harris's "Ringo for President".[71] Cher released her first single, "Ringo, I Love You" in 1964 under the pseudonym Bonnie Joe Mason.
Starr (far left) in 1965

In 1964, "I love Ringo" lapel pins were the best-selling Beatles merchandise.[71] The prominent placing of the Ludwig logo on the bass drum of his American import drum kit gave the company such a burst of publicity that it became the dominant drum manufacturer in North America for the next twenty years.[72] During live performances, the Beatles continued the "Starr Time" routine that had been popular among his fans: Lennon would place a microphone in front of Starr's kit in preparation for his spotlight moment and audiences would erupt in screams.[73] When the Beatles made their film debut in A Hard Day's Night, Starr garnered praise from critics, who considered his delivery of deadpan one-liners and his non-speaking scenes highlights.[74] The extended non-speaking sequences had to be arranged by director Richard Lester because of Starr's lack of sleep the previous night; Starr commented: "Because I'd been drinking all night I was incapable of saying a line."[75] Epstein attributed Starr's acclaim to "the little man's quaintness".[76] After the release of the Beatles' second feature film, Help! (1965), Starr won a Melody Maker poll against his fellow Beatles for his performance as the central character in the film.[77]

During an interview with Playboy in 1964, Lennon explained that Starr had filled in with the Beatles when Best was ill; Starr replied: "[Best] took little pills to make him ill".[78] Soon after, Best filed a libel suit against him that lasted four years before the court reached an undisclosed settlement in Best's favour.[79] In June, the Beatles were scheduled to begin their world tour of Denmark, the Netherlands, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Before the start of the tour,[80] Starr was stricken with a high-grade fever, pharyngitis and tonsillitis, and briefly stayed in a local hospital, followed by several days of recuperation at home.[81] He was temporarily replaced for five concerts by 24-year-old session drummer Jimmie Nicol.[82] Starr was discharged from the hospital and rejoined the band in Melbourne on 15 June.[83][nb 5] He later said that he feared he would be permanently replaced during his illness.[86] In August, the Beatles were introduced to American songwriter Bob Dylan, who offered the group cannabis cigarettes. Starr was the first to try one but the others were hesitant.[87]

On 11 February 1965, Starr married Maureen Cox, whom he had met in 1962.[88] By this time the stress and pressure of Beatlemania had reached a peak for him. He received a telephoned death threat before a show in Montreal, and resorted to positioning his cymbals vertically in an attempt to defend against would-be assassins. The constant pressure affected the Beatles' performances; Starr commented: "We were turning into such bad musicians ... there was no groove to it."[89] He was also feeling increasingly isolated from the musical activities of his bandmates, who were moving past the traditional boundaries of rock music into territory that often did not require his accompaniment; during recording sessions he spent hours playing cards with their road manager Neil Aspinall and road manager Mal Evans while the other Beatles perfected tracks without him.[90] In a letter published in Melody Maker, a fan asked the Beatles to let Starr sing more; he replied: "[I am] quite happy with my one little track on each album".[90]
Studio years

In August 1966, the Beatles released Revolver, their seventh UK LP.[91] It included the song "Yellow Submarine", their only British number-one single with Starr as the lead singer.[92] Later that month, owing to the increasing pressures of touring, the Beatles gave their final concert, a 30-minute performance at San Francisco's Candlestick Park.[93] Starr commented: "We gave up touring at the right time. Four years of Beatlemania were enough for anyone."[94] By December he had moved to a larger estate called Sunny Heights, 3 acres (1.2 ha) in size, at St George's Hill in Weybridge, Surrey, near to Lennon.[95] Although he had equipped the house with many luxury items, including numerous televisions, light machines, film projectors, stereo equipment, a billiard table, go-kart track and a bar named the Flying Cow, he did not include a drum kit; he explained: "When we don't record, I don't play."[96]

For the Beatles' seminal 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Starr sang lead vocals on the Lennon–McCartney composition "With a Little Help from My Friends".[97] Although the Beatles had enjoyed widespread commercial and critical success with Sgt. Pepper, the long hours they spent recording the LP contributed to Starr's increased feeling of alienation within the band; he commented: "[It] wasn't our best album. That was the peak for everyone else, but for me it was a bit like being a session musician ... They more or less direct me in the style I can play."[98][nb 6] His inability to compose new material led to his input being minimised during recording sessions; he often found himself relegated to adding minor percussion effects to songs by McCartney, Lennon and Harrison.[100] During his downtime, Starr worked on his guitar playing, and said: "I jump into chords that no one seems to get into. Most of the stuff I write is twelve-bar".[101]

Epstein's death in August 1967 left the Beatles without management; Starr remarked: "[It was] a strange time for us, when it's someone who we've relied on in the business, where we never got involved."[102] Soon afterwards, the band began an ill-fated film project, Magical Mystery Tour. Starr's growing interest in photography led to his billing as the movie's Director of Photography, and his participation in the film's editing was matched only by that of McCartney.[103] In February 1968, Starr became the first Beatle to sing on another artist's show without the others. He sang the Buck Owens hit "Act Naturally", and performed a duet with Cilla Black, "Do You Like Me Just a Little Bit?" on her BBC One television programme, Cilla.[104]

In November 1968, Apple Records released The Beatles, commonly known as the "White Album".[105] The album was partly inspired by the band's recent interactions with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.[106] While attending the Maharishi's intermediate course at his ashram in Rishikesh, India, they enjoyed one of their most prolific writing periods, composing most of the album there.[107] It was here that Starr completed his first recorded Beatles song, "Don't Pass Me By",[108] but he left after 10 days and later compared his time there to a stay at Butlin's.[109] The long-lasting health problems that began in his childhood had an impact on his time in India, causing him to experience allergies and sensitivities to the local food; when the band travelled there, he resorted to taking his own food with him.[110]

Relations within the Beatles deteriorated during the recording of the White Album,[111] and there were occasions where only one or two members were involved in the recording of a track.[112] Starr had become tired of McCartney's increasingly overbearing approach, Lennon's passive-aggressive behaviour, and the near-constant presence of Lennon's wife Yoko Ono.[112] After one particularly difficult session which included McCartney harshly criticising his drumming, Starr briefly quit the Beatles and went on holiday to Sardinia, where he and his family stayed on a boat loaned to them by actor Peter Sellers.[113] During a lunch there, the chef served octopus and Starr refused to eat it; an ensuing conversation with the ship's captain about the animal inspired Starr's song "Octopus's Garden" from the Beatles' album Abbey Road, which he wrote using a guitar during the trip.[114] Two weeks later,[115] he returned to the studio to find that Harrison had covered his drum kit in flowers as a welcome-back gesture.[116]

Despite a temporary return to friendly interactions during the completion of the White Album, production of the Beatles' fourth feature film Let It Be and its accompanying album further strained band relationships.[117] On 20 August 1969, the Beatles gathered for the final time at Abbey Road Studios for a mixing session for "I Want You".[118] At a business meeting exactly one month later, Lennon told the others that he was leaving the band, effective immediately.[119] However, the band's break-up would not become public knowledge until McCartney's announcement on 10 April 1970 that he was also leaving.[120]
Solo career
1970s
A black and white photo of about a dozen musicians performing on a stage.
Starr (rear centre) drumming with Bob Dylan and the Band in November 1976, from the concert film The Last Waltz

Shortly before McCartney announced his exit from the Beatles in April 1970, he and Starr had a falling out due to McCartney's refusal to cede the release date of his eponymous solo album to allow for Starr's debut, Sentimental Journey, and the Beatles' Let It Be.[121] Starr's album – composed of renditions of pre-rock standards that included musical arrangements by Quincy Jones, Maurice Gibb, George Martin and McCartney – peaked at number seven in the UK and number 22 in the US.[122] Starr followed Sentimental Journey with the country-inspired Beaucoups of Blues, engineered by Scotty Moore and featuring renowned Nashville session musician Pete Drake.[123] Despite favourable reviews, the album was a commercial failure.[124] Starr subsequently combined his musical activities with developing a career as a film actor.[125]

Starr played drums on Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Ono's Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970), and on Harrison's albums All Things Must Pass (1970), Living in the Material World (1973) and Dark Horse (1974).[126] In 1971, Starr participated in the Concert for Bangladesh, organised by Harrison, and with him co-wrote the hit single "It Don't Come Easy", which reached number four in both the US and the UK.[127] The following year he released his most successful UK hit, "Back Off Boogaloo" (again produced and co-written by Harrison), which peaked at number two (US number nine).[128] Having become friends with the English singer Marc Bolan, Starr made his directorial debut with the 1972 T. Rex documentary Born to Boogie.[129]

In 1973 and 1974, Starr had two number one hits in the US: "Photograph", a UK number eight hit co-written with Harrison, and "You're Sixteen", written by the Sherman Brothers.[130] Starr's third million-selling single in the US, "You're Sixteen" was released in the UK in February 1974 where it peaked at number four.[131] Both tracks appeared on Starr's debut rock album, Ringo, produced by Richard Perry and featuring further contributions from Harrison as well as a song each from Lennon and McCartney.[132] A commercial and critical success, the LP also included "Oh My My", a US number five.[133] The album reached number seven in the UK and number two in the US.[134] Author Peter Doggett describes Ringo as a template for Starr's solo career, saying that, as a musician first rather than a songwriter, "he would rely on his friends and his charm, and if both were on tap, then the results were usually appealing".[135]

Goodnight Vienna followed in 1974 and was also successful, reaching number eight in the US and number 30 in the UK.[136] Featuring contributions from Lennon, Elton John and Harry Nilsson, the album included a cover (suggested by Lennon) of the Platters' 1954 hit "Only You (And You Alone)", which peaked at number six in the US and number 28 in the UK, and Hoyt Axton's "No No Song", which was a US number three and Starr's seventh consecutive top-ten hit.[137] The Elton John-written "Snookeroo" failed to chart in the UK, however.[138] In mid-November 1974, a music video for the song and promotional film for the album was filmed on the rooftop of the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles, designed to resemble a stack of discs. Lennon provided a voiceover as Starr's spacecraft landed on the building and Starr boarded it before taking off over the city. Starr, Nilsson, and Keith Moon were among the cast, along with a forty-foot robot named 'Gort' placed on the building.[139] During this period Starr became romantically involved with Lynsey de Paul.[140] He played tambourine on a song she wrote and produced for Vera Lynn, "Don't You Remember When", and he inspired another De Paul song, "If I Don't Get You the Next One Will", which she described as being about revenge after he missed a dinner appointment with her because he was asleep in his office.[140]

Starr founded the record label Ring O' Records in 1975.[141][nb 7] The company signed eleven artists and released fifteen singles and five albums between 1975 and 1978, including works by David Hentschel, Graham Bonnet and Rab Noakes.[143] The commercial impact of Starr's own career diminished over the same period, however, although he continued to record and remained a familiar celebrity presence.[144] Speaking in 2001, he attributed this downward turn to his "[not] taking enough interest" in music, saying of himself and friends such as Nilsson and Keith Moon: "We weren't musicians dabbling in drugs and alcohol; now we were junkies dabbling in music."[145] Starr, Nilsson and Moon were members of a drinking club, the Hollywood Vampires.[146]

From the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, Starr and the designer Robin Cruikshank ran a furniture and interior design company, ROR.[147] ROR's designs were placed on sale in the department stores of Harvey Nichols and Liberty of London.[147] The company designed the interiors of palaces in Abu Dhabi and Oman, and the apartments of Paul Raymond and Starr's friend Nilsson.[148][149][150]
Starr and film director Ken Russell in 1975

In November 1976, Starr appeared as a guest at the Band's farewell concert, featured in the 1978 Martin Scorsese documentary The Last Waltz.[151] Also in 1976, Starr issued Ringo's Rotogravure, the first release under his new contract with Atlantic Records for the North American market and Polydor for all other territories.[152] The album was produced by Arif Mardin and featured compositions by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.[144] Starr promoted the release heavily, yet Rotogravure and its accompanying singles failed to chart in the UK.[153] In America, the LP produced two minor hits, "A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll" (number 26) and a cover of "Hey! Baby" (number 74), and achieved moderate sales, reaching a chart position of 28.[144] Its disappointing performance inspired Atlantic to revamp Starr's formula;[154] the result was a blend of disco and 1970s pop, Ringo the 4th (1977).[155] The album failed to chart in the UK and peaked at number 162 in the US.[156] In 1978 Starr released Bad Boy, which reached number 129 in the US and again failed to place on the UK albums chart.[157]

In April 1979, Starr became seriously ill with intestinal problems relating to his childhood bout of peritonitis and was taken to the Princess Grace Hospital in Monte Carlo. He almost died and during an operation on 28 April, several feet of intestine had to be removed.[158][159] Three weeks later he played with McCartney and Harrison at Eric Clapton's wedding.[159] On 28 November, a fire destroyed his Hollywood home and much of his Beatles memorabilia.[159]
1980s

On 19 May 1980, Starr and Barbara Bach survived a car crash in Surrey, England.[160]

Following Lennon's murder in December 1980, Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had originally written for Starr, "All Those Years Ago", as a tribute to their former bandmate.[161] Released as a Harrison single in 1981, the track, which included Starr's drum part and overdubbed backing vocals by McCartney, peaked at number two in the US charts and number 13 in the UK.[162] Later that year, Starr released Stop and Smell the Roses, featuring songs produced by Nilsson, McCartney, Harrison, Ronnie Wood and Stephen Stills.[163] The album's lead single, the Harrison-composed "Wrack My Brain", reached number 38 in the US charts, but failed to chart in the UK.[164] Lennon had offered a pair of songs for inclusion on the album – "Nobody Told Me" and "Life Begins at 40" – but following his death, Starr did not feel comfortable recording them.[163] Soon after the murder, Starr and his girlfriend Barbara Bach flew to New York City to be with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono.[165][nb 8]

Following Stop and Smell the Roses, Starr's recording projects were beset with problems. After completing Old Wave in 1982 with producer Joe Walsh,[169] he was unable to find a record company willing to release the album in the UK or the US.[170] In 1987, he abandoned sessions in Memphis for a planned country album, produced by Chips Moman, after which Moman was blocked by a court injunction from issuing the recordings.[171] Starr narrated the 1984–1986 series of the children's animated television series Thomas & Friends, a Britt Allcroft production based on the books by the Reverend W. Awdry.[172] For a single season in 1989, Starr also portrayed the character Mr. Conductor in the American Thomas & Friends spin-off, Shining Time Station.[173]

In 1985, Starr performed with his son Zak as part of Artists United Against Apartheid on the protest song "Sun City",[174] and, with Harrison and Eric Clapton, was among the special guests on Carl Perkins' TV special Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session.[175] In 1987, he played drums on Harrison's Beatles pastiche "When We Was Fab" and also appeared in Godley & Creme's innovative video clip for the song.[176][177] The same year, Starr joined Harrison, Clapton, Jeff Lynne and Elton John in a performance at London's Wembley Arena for the Prince's Trust charity.[178] In January 1988, he attended the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in New York, with Harrison and Ono (the latter representing Lennon), to accept the Beatles' induction into the Hall of Fame.[179]

During October and November 1988, Starr and Bach attended a detox clinic in Tucson, Arizona; each received a six-week treatment for alcoholism.[180] He later commented on his longstanding addiction: "Years I've lost, absolute years ... I've no idea what happened. I lived in a blackout."[181][nb 9] Having embraced sobriety, Starr focused on re-establishing his career by making a return to touring.[183] On 23 July 1989, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band gave their first performance to an audience of ten thousand in Dallas, Texas.[184] Setting a pattern that would continue over the following decades,[185] the band consisted of Starr and an assortment of musicians who had been successful in their own right at different times.[186] The concerts interchanged Starr's singing, including selections of his Beatles and solo songs, with performances of each of the other artists' well-known material, the latter incorporating either Starr or another musician as drummer.[186]
1990s

The first All-Starr excursion led to the release of Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band (1990), a compilation of live performances from the 1989 tour.[187][nb 10] Also in 1990, Starr recorded a version of the song "I Call Your Name" for a television special marking the 10th anniversary of John Lennon's death and the 50th anniversary of Lennon's birth. The track, produced by Lynne, features a supergroup composed of Lynne, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh and Jim Keltner.[191]
Starr during an interview in 1992

The following year, Starr made a cameo appearance on The Simpsons episode "Brush with Greatness" and contributed an original song, "You Never Know", to the soundtrack of the John Hughes film Curly Sue.[192] In 1992, he released his first studio album in nine years, Time Takes Time, which was produced by Phil Ramone, Don Was, Lynne and Peter Asher and featured guest appearances by various stars including Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson.[193] The album failed to achieve commercial success,[194] although the single "Weight of the World" peaked at number 74 in the UK, marking his first appearance on the singles chart there since "Only You" in 1974.[195]

In 1994, Starr began a collaboration with the surviving former Beatles for the Beatles Anthology project. They recorded two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by Lennon and gave lengthy interviews about the Beatles' career.[196] Released in December 1995, "Free as a Bird" was the first new Beatles single since 1970.[197] In March 1996, they released a second single, "Real Love". The temporary reunion ended when Harrison refused to participate in the completion of a third song.[198] Starr then played drums on McCartney's 1997 album Flaming Pie. Among the tracks to which he contributed, "Little Willow" was a song McCartney wrote about Starr's ex-wife Maureen, who died in 1994, while "Really Love You" was the first official release ever credited to McCartney–Starkey.[199]

In 1998, Starr released two albums on the Mercury label. The studio album Vertical Man marked the beginning of a nine-year partnership with Mark Hudson, who produced the album and, with his band the Roundheads, formed the core of the backing group on the recordings. In addition, many famous guests joined on various tracks, including Martin, Petty, McCartney and, in his final appearance on a Starr album, Harrison. Most of the songs were written by Starr and the band. Joe Walsh and the Roundheads joined Starr for his appearance on VH1 Storytellers, which was released as an album under the same name. During the show, he performed greatest hits and new songs and told anecdotes relating to them.[200] Starr's final release for Mercury was the 1999 Christmas-themed I Wanna Be Santa Claus. The album was a commercial failure, although the record company chose not to issue it in Britain.[201]
2000s
Starr is on stage with two guitarists and two microphones. He is wearing sunglasses and a black and silver T-shirt, and both of his arms are raised. His right arm forms a V-shaped peace symbol.
Starr (left) on stage in New York City in 2005

Starr was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2002, joining an elite group of drummers and percussionists that include Buddy Rich, William F. Ludwig Sr. and William F. Ludwig Jr.[202] On 29 November 2002 (the first anniversary of Harrison's death), he performed "Photograph" and a cover of Carl Perkins' "Honey Don't" at the Concert for George held in the Royal Albert Hall, London.[203] Early the following year, he released the album Ringo Rama, which contained a song he co-wrote as a tribute to Harrison, "Never Without You".[204] Also in 2003, he formed Pumkinhead Records with All-Starr Band member Mark Hudson.[205] The label was not prolific, but their first signing was Liam Lynch, who produced a 2003 LP entitled Fake Songs.[206]

Starr served as an honorary Santa Tracker and voice-over personality in 2003 and 2004 during the London stop in Father Christmas's annual Christmas Eve journey, as depicted in the annual NORAD tracks Santa program. According to NORAD officials, he was "a Starr in the east" who helped guide North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa-tracking tradition.[207]
A colour photo of Starr, who is holding two fingers up in the style of a "peace sign". He is a wearing a dark beret, sunglasses and a grey windbreaker with several patches on the front.
Starr as an Honorary Santa Tracker in 2004

His 2005 release Choose Love eschewed the star-guests approach of his last two studio albums[208] but failed to chart in the UK or the US.[209] That same year, Liverpool's City Council announced plans to demolish Starr's birthplace, 9 Madryn Street, stating that it had "no historical significance".[210] The LCC later announced that the building would be taken apart brick by brick and preserved.[211]

Starr released the album Liverpool 8 in January 2008, coinciding with the start of Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture.[212] Hudson was the initial producer of the recordings, but after a falling out with Starr, he was replaced by David A. Stewart.[188] Starr performed the title track at the opening ceremony for Liverpool's appointment, but thereafter attracted controversy over his seemingly unflattering comments about his city of birth.[213] Later that year, he was the object of further criticism in the press for posting a video on his website in which he harangued fans and autograph hunters for sending him items to sign.[214][nb 11]

In April 2009, he reunited with McCartney at the David Lynch Foundation's "Change Begins Within" benefit concert, held at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Having played his own set beforehand, Starr joined McCartney for the finale and performed "With a Little Help from My Friends", among other songs.[216] Starr also appeared on-stage during Microsoft's June 2009 E3 press conference with Yoko Ono, McCartney and Olivia Harrison to promote The Beatles: Rock Band video game.[217]
2010s
Starr performing in 2013

In 2010, Starr self-produced and released his fifteenth studio album, Y Not, which included the track "Walk with You" and featured a vocal contribution from McCartney.[218] Later that year, he appeared during Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief as a celebrity phone operator.[219] On 7 July 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday at Radio City Music Hall with another All-Starr Band concert, topped with friends and family joining him on stage including Ono, his son Zak, and McCartney.[220]

Starr recorded a cover of Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" for the 2011 tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly.[221] In January 2012, he released the album Ringo 2012. Later that year, he announced that his All-Starr Band would tour the Pacific Rim during 2013 with select dates in New Zealand, Australia and Japan; it was his first performance in Japan since 1996, and his debut in both New Zealand and Australia.[222]

In January 2014, Starr joined McCartney for a special performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, where they performed the song "Queenie Eye".[223] That summer he toured Canada and the US with an updated version of the Twelfth All-Starr Band, featuring multi-instrumentalist Warren Ham instead of saxophonist Mark Rivera. In July, Starr became involved in "#peacerocks", an anti-violence campaign started by fashion designer John Varvatos, in conjunction with the David Lynch Foundation.[224][225] In September 2014, he won at the GQ Men of the Year Awards for his humanitarian work with the David Lynch Foundation.[226]
Starr performing in 2017

In January 2015, Starr tweeted the title of his new studio album Postcards from Paradise. The album came a few weeks in advance of Starr's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was released on 31 March 2015 to mixed to positive reviews.[227][228] Later that month, Starr and his band announced a forthcoming Summer 2016 Tour of the US. Full production began in June 2016 in Syracuse.[229]

On 7 July 2017 (his 77th birthday), Starr released "Give More Love" as a single, which was followed two months later by his nineteenth studio album, also titled Give More Love and issued by UMe.[230] The album includes appearances by McCartney, as well as frequent collaborators such as Joe Walsh, David A. Stewart, Gary Nicholson and members of the All-Starr Band.[231]

In June 2018, Starr embarked on a 44-date tour across Europe and North America with his All-Starr Band.[232] As part of the tour, he performed two consecutive concerts at the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, where he shared a message of "peace and love" with his fans.[233][234] These shows marked his first performances in Israel, making him the second former Beatle to play in the country after Paul McCartney's 2008 concert in Tel Aviv.[235]

On 13 September 2019, Starr announced the upcoming release of his 20th album, What's My Name, to be released by UMe on 25 October 2019. He recorded the album in his home studio, Roccabella West in Los Angeles.[236]
2020s

In celebration of his 80th birthday in July 2020, Starr organised a live-streamed concert featuring appearances by many of his friends and collaborators including McCartney, Walsh, Ben Harper, Dave Grohl, Sheryl Crow, Sheila E. and Willie Nelson. The show replaced his annual public birthday celebration at the Capitol Records Building, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[237]

On 16 December 2020, Starr released the song "Here's to the Nights". An accompanying video was released on 18 December. The song of peace, love and friendship was written by Diane Warren and features a group of his friends, including McCartney, Joe Walsh, Corinne Bailey Rae, Eric Burdon, Sheryl Crow, Finneas, Dave Grohl, Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz, Jenny Lewis, Steve Lukather, Chris Stapleton and Yola. The song was the lead single from his EP Zoom In, which was released on 19 March 2021 via UMe.[238]

On 16 March 2021, Starr stated in an interview with Esquire that it was unlikely that he would record another full-length album, preferring to release EPs instead.[239] On 24 September that year, he released the EP Change the World, a sequel to the previous EP Zoom In.[240]
Starr and Paul McCartney performing together in London, 2024

On 7 February 2022, Starr announced his intention to return to touring with his band for the first time since 2019. The tour was announced to run from 27 May to 26 June,[241] though several concerts held in June would end up being postponed till October due to two members of the band catching COVID-19. These postponed events were added to the band's previously announced tour to be held in September and October.[242] On 1 October, he cancelled a concert at the Four Winds New Buffalo casino due to an unspecified illness affecting his voice. Another concert to be held at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel the following day was also postponed.[243] On 3 October, it was confirmed that Starr had tested positive for COVID-19, after which several shows in Canada were cancelled.[244][245]

On 16 September 2022, Starr released the EP EP3.[246] On 12 January 2023, Starr announced that he and the All-Starr Band would be touring in the US from 19 May to 17 June.[247][248] In May 2023, a further series of tour dates was also announced, from 17 September to 13 October.[249] Another EP by Starr, Rewind Forward, released on 13 October.[250] Another, Crooked Boy, was initially released as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2024,[251] with digital and physical releases on 26 April and 31 May, respectively.[252] Despite previous statements that he would no longer release full albums, a country and roots album, Look Up, produced by T Bone Burnett, was released on 10 January 2025.[253]
Artistry
Influences

During his youth, Starr had been a devoted fan of skiffle and blues music, but by the time he joined the Texans in 1958, he had developed a preference for rock and roll.[254] He was also influenced by country artists, including Hank Williams, Buck Owens and Hank Snow, and jazz artists such as Chico Hamilton and Yusef Lateef, whose compositional style inspired Starr's fluid and energetic drum fills and grooves.[255] While reflecting on Buddy Rich, Starr commented: "He does things with one hand that I can't do with nine, but that's technique. Everyone I talk to says 'What about Buddy Rich?' Well, what about him? Because he doesn't turn me on."[256] He stated that he "was never really into drummers", but identified Cozy Cole's 1958 cover of Benny Goodman's "Topsy Part Two" as "the one drum record" he bought.[257]

Starr's first musical hero was Gene Autry, about whom he commented: "I remember getting shivers up my back when he sang, 'South of the Border'".[258] By the early 1960s he had become an ardent fan of Lee Dorsey.[259] In November 1964, Starr told Melody Maker: "Our music is second-hand versions of negro music ... Ninety per cent of the music I like is coloured."[260]
Drums
A colour photograph of Starr playing a dark coloured drum kit on a stage. The background is yellow.
Starr with his All-Starr Band in Paris, 26 June 2011

Starr said of his drumming: "I'm no good on the technical things ... I'm your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills ... because I'm really left-handed playing a right-handed kit. I can't roll around the drums because of that."[261] Beatles producer George Martin said: "Ringo hit good and hard and used the tom-tom well, even though he couldn't do a roll to save his life", but later said, "He's got tremendous feel. He always helped us to hit the right tempo for a song, and gave it that support – that rock-solid back-beat – that made the recording of all the Beatles' songs that much easier."[261] Starr said he did not believe the drummer's role was to "interpret the song". Instead, comparing his drumming to painting, he said: "I am the foundation, and then I put a bit of glow here and there ... If there's a gap, I want to be good enough to fill it."[256]

In 2011, Rolling Stone readers voted Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time.[262] Journalist Robyn Flans wrote for the Percussive Arts Society: "I cannot count the number of drummers who have told me that Ringo inspired their passion for drums".[2] Drummer Steve Smith said:

    Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for the Beatles' songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song.[2]

Starr said his favourite drummer is Jim Keltner,[263] with whom he first played at the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.[264] The pair subsequently played drums together on some of Harrison's recordings during the 1970s,[265] on Ringo and other albums by Starr, and on the early All-Starr Band tours.[266] For Ringo's Rotogravure in 1976, Starr credited himself as "Thunder" and Keltner as "Lightnin'".[265]

Starr is widely known for sitting behind the drum kit in a higher position than most drummers. This position gives him better access to the tom-tom and cymbals as well as doing the rimshot.[267][268]

Starr influenced the Genesis drummer Phil Collins,[269] who said: "I think he's vastly underrated, Ringo. The drum fills on 'A Day in the Life' are very, very complex things. You could take a great drummer from today and say, 'I want it like that', and they really wouldn't know what to do."[270] Collins said his drumming on the 1983 Genesis song "That's All" was an affectionate attempt at a "Ringo Starr drum part".[271]

In an often-repeated but apocryphal story, when asked if Starr was the best drummer in the world, Lennon quipped that he "wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles". The line actually comes from a 1981 episode of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Radio Active,[272] and gained more prominence when it was used by the television comedian Jasper Carrott in 1983, three years after Lennon's death.[273] In September 1980, Lennon told Rolling Stone that Starr was a "damn good drummer" whose talent would have surfaced even without the Beatles.[274]

Tjinder Singh of the indie rock band Cornershop said Starr was a pioneering drummer: "There was a time when the common consensus was that Ringo couldn't play. What's that all about? He's totally unique, a one-off, and hip hop has a lot to thank him for."[275] In his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn says there were fewer than a dozen occasions in the Beatles' eight-year recording career where session breakdowns were caused by Starr making a mistake, while the vast majority of takes were stopped due to mistakes by the other Beatles.[276] Starr influenced various modern drumming techniques, such as the matched grip, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings.[2] According to Ken Micallef and Donnie Marshall, co-authors of Classic Rock Drummers: "Ringo's fat tom sounds and delicate cymbal work were imitated by thousands of drummers."[277]

In 2021, Starr announced a ten-part MasterClass course called "Drumming and Creative Collaboration".[278]
Vocals

Starr sang lead vocals for a song on most of the Beatles' studio albums as part of an attempt to establish a vocal personality for each band member. In many cases, Lennon or McCartney wrote the lyrics and melody especially for him, as they did for "Yellow Submarine" from Revolver and "With a Little Help from My Friends" on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[279] These melodies were tailored to Starr's limited baritone vocal range. Because of his distinctive voice, Starr rarely performed backing vocals during his time with the Beatles, but they can be heard on songs such as "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Carry That Weight".[280] He is also the lead vocalist on his compositions "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".[281] In addition, he sang lead on "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Boys", "Matchbox", "Honey Don't", "Act Naturally", "Good Night" and "What Goes On".[282]
Songwriting

Starr's idiosyncratic turns of phrase or "Ringoisms", such as "a hard day's night" and "tomorrow never knows", were used as song titles by the Beatles, particularly by Lennon.[283] McCartney commented: "Ringo would do these little malapropisms, he would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical ... they were sort of magic."[284] Starr also occasionally contributed lyrics to unfinished Lennon–McCartney songs, such as the line "darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there" in "Eleanor Rigby".[285]

Starr is credited as the sole composer of two Beatles songs: "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", the latter written with assistance from Harrison.[286] While promoting the Abbey Road album in 1969, Harrison recognised Starr's lyrics to "Octopus's Garden" as an unwittingly profound message about finding inner peace, and therefore an example of how "Ringo writes his cosmic songs without knowing it."[287] Starr is also credited as a co-writer of "What Goes On", "Flying" and "Dig It".[288][nb 12] On material issued after the band's break-up, he received a writing credit for "Taking a Trip to Carolina" and joint songwriting credits with the other Beatles for "12-Bar Original", "Los Paranoias", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", "Suzy Parker" (from the Let It Be film), "Jessie's Dream" (from the Magical Mystery Tour film), "Free as a Bird" and "Now and Then".[289]

In a 2003 interview, Starr discussed Harrison's input in his songwriting and said: "I was great at writing two verses and a chorus – I'm still pretty good at that. Finishing songs is not my forte."[290] Harrison helped Starr complete two of his biggest hit songs, "It Don't Come Easy" and "Back Off Boogaloo",[290] although he only accepted a credit for "Photograph", which they wrote together in France.[291] Starting with the Ringo album in 1973, Starr shared a songwriting partnership with Vini Poncia.[292] One of the pair's first collaborations was "Oh My My".[292] Over half of the songs on Ringo the 4th were Starkey–Poncia compositions, but the partnership produced just two more songs, released on Bad Boy in 1978.[293]
Personal life

In the same week Starr joined the Beatles in 1962, he met 16 year old hairdresser Maureen Cox. They married at Caxton Hall on 11 February 1965.[294][295] Starr's stepfather Harry Graves and fellow Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon were all witnesses, while Beatles manager Brian Epstein served as best man.[294][296] Their marriage became the subject of the novelty song "Treat Him Tender, Maureen" by the Chicklettes.[297] The couple had three children: Zak (b. 13 September 1965), Jason (b. 19 August 1967) and Lee (b. 11 November 1970).[298] In 1971, Starr purchased Lennon's home Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill in Berkshire and moved his family there.[299] The couple divorced in 1975 following Starr's repeated infidelities, alcoholism, and volatile behaviour.[300][301] Cox died from leukaemia at the age of 48 in December 1994.[302][303]

In 1985, he was the first of the Beatles to become a grandfather upon the birth of Zak's daughter Tatia Jayne Starkey.[304] Zak is also a drummer, and he spent time with the Who's Keith Moon during his father's regular absences;[305] he has performed with his father during some All-Starr Band tours.[306] Starr has eight grandchildren: two from Zak, three from Jason, and three from Lee.[307] In 2016, he was the first Beatle to become a great-grandfather.[308]
Barbara Bach in 1978

Starr met actress Barbara Bach in 1980 on the set of the film Caveman, and they were married at Marylebone Town Hall on 27 April 1981.[309][310] Starr and Bach split their time between homes in Cranleigh in Surrey, Los Angeles, and Monte Carlo.[311] He was listed at number 56 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2011 with an estimated personal wealth of £150 million.[312] In 2012, he was estimated to be the wealthiest drummer in the world.[313] In 2014, Starr announced that his 200-acre (81 ha) Surrey estate at Rydinghurst at Cranleigh was for sale, with its Grade II-listed Jacobean house.[314][315] However, he retains a property in the London district of Chelsea off King's Road, and he and Bach continue to divide their time between London and Los Angeles.[316]

In December 2015, Starr and Bach auctioned some of their personal and professional items via Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles.[317] The collection included Starr's first Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl drum kit, instruments given to him by Harrison, Lennon, and Marc Bolan,[317] and a first-pressing copy of the Beatles' White Album numbered "0000001".[318] The auction raised over $9 million,[319] a portion of which was set aside for the Lotus Foundation, a charity founded by Starr and Bach.[320]

In 2016, Starr expressed his support for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. "I thought the European Union was a great idea," he said, "but I didn't see it going anywhere lately."[321] In 2017, he described his impatience for Britain to "get on with" Brexit, declaring that "to be in control of your country is a good move".[322]

In October 2021, Starr was named in the Pandora Papers, which alleged secret financial deals among politicians and celebrities using tax havens in an effort to avoid the payment of owed taxes.[323]

Starr is a vegetarian. Mary McCartney confirmed he is allergic to garlic and onions.[324][325] He meditates daily,[326] and his catchphrase and motto for life is "peace and love".[325]
Awards and honours
Further information: List of awards and nominations received by the Beatles
A colour photograph of Starr wearing sunglasses and singing into a microphone. The background is blue and purple.
Starr performing in Paris, June 2011

Starr and the other members of the Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1965 Birthday Honours;[327][328] they received their insignia from Queen Elizabeth II at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 26 October.[329] He and the other Beatles were collectively nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer for their performances in the 1964 film A Hard Day's Night.[330] In 1971, the Beatles received an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be.[331] The minor planet 4150 Starr, discovered on 31 August 1984 by Brian A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named in Starr's honour.[332] Starr was nominated for a 1989 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his role as Mr. Conductor in the television series Shining Time Station.[333]

In 2015, 27 years after he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the Beatles, Starr became the last Beatle to be inducted for a solo career.[334] Unlike the other three Beatles who were inducted within the "Performers" category, Starr was inducted within the "Musical Excellence" category.[335] During the 50th Grammy Awards, Starr, George Martin and his son Giles accepted the Best Compilation Soundtrack award for Love. On 9 November 2008, Starr accepted a Diamond Award on behalf of the Beatles during the 2008 World Music Awards ceremony in Monaco. On 8 February 2010, he was honoured with the 2,401st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. It is located at 1750 North Vine Street, in front of the Capitol Records building, as are the stars for Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.[336]

Starr was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music.[337] He was knighted in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on 20 March 2018.[338]

In 2022, Starr received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music for his "immeasurable impact on music, film and television, and popular culture".[339][340]
Film career
Main article: Ringo Starr filmography

Starr has received praise from critics and movie industry professionals regarding his acting; director and producer Walter Shenson called him "a superb actor, an absolute natural".[75] By the mid-1960s, Starr had become a connoisseur of film.[341] In addition to his roles in A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help! (1965), Magical Mystery Tour (1967) and Let It Be (1970), Starr also acted in Candy (1968), The Magic Christian (1969), Blindman (1971), Son of Dracula (1974) and Caveman (1981).[342] In 1971, he starred as Larry the Dwarf in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels and was featured in Harry Nilsson's animated film The Point![343] He co-starred in That'll Be the Day (1973) as a Teddy Boy and appeared in The Last Waltz, the Martin Scorsese documentary film about the 1976 farewell concert of the Band.[344]

Starr played the Pope in Ken Russell's Lisztomania (1975), and a fictionalised version of himself in McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street in 1984.[345] Starr appeared as himself and a downtrodden alter-ego Ognir Rrats in Ringo (1978), an American-made television comedy film based loosely on The Prince and the Pauper.[346] For the 1979 documentary film on the Who, The Kids Are Alright, Starr appeared in interview segments with fellow drummer Keith Moon.[347]
Discography
Main article: Ringo Starr discography
See also: The Beatles albums discography, The Beatles singles discography, and List of songs recorded by Ringo Starr

Since the breakup of the Beatles, Starr has released 21 solo studio albums:[348]

    Sentimental Journey (1970)
    Beaucoups of Blues (1970)
    Ringo (1973)
    Goodnight Vienna (1974)
    Ringo's Rotogravure (1976)
    Ringo the 4th (1977)
    Bad Boy (1978)
    Stop and Smell the Roses (1981)
    Old Wave (1983)
    Time Takes Time (1992)
    Vertical Man (1998)
    I Wanna Be Santa Claus (1999)
    Ringo Rama (2003)
    Choose Love (2005)
    Liverpool 8 (2008)
    Y Not (2010)
    Ringo 2012 (2012)
    Postcards from Paradise (2015)
    Give More Love (2017)
    What's My Name (2019)
    Look Up (2025)

Bibliography

    Postcards from the Boys (2004)
    Octopus's Garden (2014)
    Photograph (2015)

See also

    Outline of the Beatles
    The Beatles timeline

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band in Western popular music and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form.[2][3] Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.[4]

Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, starting in 1960. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four".

By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced albums of greater sophistication, including Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). They enjoyed further commercial success with The Beatles (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). The success of these records heralded the album era, increased public interest in psychedelic drugs and Eastern spirituality, and furthered advancements in electronic music, album art and music videos. In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1970, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists. While some partial reunions occurred over the next decade, the four members never reunited. Lennon was murdered in 1980 and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001; McCartney and Starr remain musically active.

The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide.[5][6] They are the most successful act in the history of the US Billboard charts,[7] with the most number 1 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart (20), and they hold the record for most number 1 albums on the UK Albums Chart (15) and most singles sold in the UK (21.9 million). The band received many accolades, including eight Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people.
History
History of the Beatles

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1956–1963: Formation
The Quarrymen and name changes
Main article: The Quarrymen

In November 1956, sixteen-year-old John Lennon formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They were called the Quarrymen, a reference to their school song "Quarry men old before our birth".[8] Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957 and joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after.[9] In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison, then aged fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus,[10] and they enlisted him as lead guitarist.[11][12]

By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art.[13] The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs,[14] were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer.[15] They also performed as the Rainbows. Paul McCartney later told New Musical Express that they called themselves that "because we all had different coloured shirts and we couldn't afford any others!"[16]

Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.[17][18] They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles and by the middle of August simply the Beatles.[19]
Early residencies and UK popularity
Left to right: Pete Best, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Stuart Sutcliffe at Hamburg Funfair in 1960, photographed by Astrid Kirchherr. Sutcliffe left the Beatles in 1961 and Ringo Starr replaced Best in 1962.

Allan Williams, the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg. They auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3+1⁄2-month residency.[20] Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn writes: "They pulled into Hamburg at dusk on 17 August, the time when the red-light area comes to life ... flashing neon lights screamed out the various entertainment on offer, while scantily clad women sat unabashed in shop windows waiting for business opportunities."[21]

Koschmider had converted a couple of strip clubs in the red light Reeperbahn district of St. Pauli into music venues and initially placed the Beatles at the Indra Club. After closing Indra due to noise complaints, he moved them to the Kaiserkeller in October.[22] When he learned they had been performing at the rival Top Ten Club in breach of their contract, he gave them one month's termination notice,[23] and reported the underage Harrison, who had obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age.[24] The authorities arranged for Harrison's deportation in late November.[25] One week later, Koschmider had McCartney and Best arrested for arson after they set fire to a condom in a concrete corridor; the authorities deported them.[26] Lennon returned to Liverpool in early December, while Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg until late February with his German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr,[27] who took the first semi-professional photos of the Beatles.[28]

During the next two years, the Beatles were resident for periods in Hamburg, where they used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances.[29] In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles.[30][31] Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany. McCartney took over bass.[32] Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings for Polydor Records.[18][33] As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year.[34] Credited to "Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart.[35]

After the Beatles completed their second Hamburg residency, they enjoyed increasing popularity in Liverpool with the growing Merseybeat movement. However, they were growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night.[36] In November 1961, during one of the group's frequent performances at the Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record-store owner and music columnist.[37] He later recalled: "I immediately liked what I heard. They were fresh, and they were honest, and they had what I thought was a sort of presence ... [a] star quality."[38]
First EMI recordings

Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they appointed him as their manager in January 1962.[39] Throughout early and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually negotiated a one-month early release in exchange for one last recording session in Hamburg.[40] On their return to Germany in April, a distraught Kirchherr met them at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from a brain haemorrhage.[41] Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording contract. To secure a UK record contract, Epstein negotiated an early end to the band's contract with Polydor, in exchange for more recordings backing Tony Sheridan.[42] After a New Year's Day audition, Decca Records rejected the band, saying, "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein".[43] However, three months later, producer George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI's Parlophone label.[41]
A flight of stone steps leads from an asphalt car park up to the main entrance of a white two-story building. The ground floor has two sash windows, the first floor has three shorter sash windows. Two more windows are visible at basement level. The decorative stonework around the doors and windows is painted grey.
Main entrance at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios, pictured 2007)

Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at EMI Recording Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 6 June 1962.[44] He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested they use a session drummer in his place.[45] Already contemplating Best's dismissal,[46] the Beatles replaced him in mid-August with Ringo Starr, who left Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join them.[44] A 4 September session at EMI yielded a recording of "Love Me Do" featuring Starr on drums, but a dissatisfied Martin hired drummer Andy White for the band's third session a week later, which produced recordings of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "P.S. I Love You".[44]

Martin initially selected the Starr version of "Love Me Do" for the band's first single, though subsequent re-pressings featured the White version, with Starr on tambourine.[44] Released in early October, "Love Me Do" peaked at number 17 on the Record Retailer chart.[47] Their television debut came later that month with a live performance on the regional news programme People and Places.[48] After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster tempo,[49] a studio session in late November yielded that recording,[50] of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No. 1".[51]

In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg residency at the Star-Club.[52] By 1963, they had agreed that all four band members would contribute vocals to their albums – including Starr, despite his restricted vocal range, to validate his standing in the group.[53] Lennon and McCartney had established a songwriting partnership, and as the band's success grew, their dominant collaboration limited Harrison's opportunities as a lead vocalist.[54] Epstein, to maximise the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to adopt a professional approach to performing.[55] Lennon recalled him 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, stop smoking ...".[43][nb 1]
1963–1966: Beatlemania and touring years
Main article: Beatlemania
Please Please Me and With the Beatles
The logo of the English rock band the Beatles
The band's logo was designed by Ivor Arbiter.[56]

On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. It was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles. Martin considered recording the LP live at The Cavern Club, but after deciding that the building's acoustics were inadequate, he elected to simulate a "live" album with minimal production in "a single marathon session at Abbey Road".[57] After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please Me" was released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album. It reached number 1 on every UK chart except Record Retailer, where it peaked at number 2.[58]

Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day", AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins."[59] Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant."[60]
"She Loves You"
Duration: 13 seconds.0:13
Sample of "She Loves You". The song's repeated use of "yeah" exclamations became a signature phrase for the group at the time.[61][62]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Released in March 1963, Please Please Me was the first of eleven consecutive Beatles albums released in the United Kingdom to reach number 1.[63] The band's third single, "From Me to You", came out in April and began an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number 1 singles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six years.[64] Issued in August, their fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks.[65] It became their first single to sell a million copies and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978.[66][nb 2]

The success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest.[67] The band toured the UK three times in the first half of the year: a four-week tour that began in February, the Beatles' first nationwide, preceded three-week tours in March and May–June.[68] As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. On 13 October, the Beatles starred on Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the UK's top variety show.[69] Their performance was televised live and watched by 15 million viewers. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans who greeted the band – and it stuck.[69][70] Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts Tommy Roe and Chris Montez during the February engagements and assumed top billing "by audience demand", something no British act had previously accomplished while touring with artists from the US.[71] A similar situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison.[72]
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and John Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In in 1963
McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In, 30 October 1963[73]

In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962.[74] On their return to the UK on 31 October, several hundred screaming fans greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around 50 to 100 journalists and photographers, as well as representatives from the BBC, also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events.[75] The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks.[76] In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.[77] On 4 November, they played in front of The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret during the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre.[78]

Please Please Me maintained the top position on the Record Retailer chart for 30 weeks, only to be displaced by its follow-up, With the Beatles,[79] which EMI released on 22 November to record advance orders of 270,000 copies. The LP topped a half-million albums sold in one week.[80] Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor.[81] It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks.[82] Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original".[83]

In a reversal of then standard practice, EMI released the album ahead of the impending single "I Want to Hold Your Hand", with the song excluded to maximise the single's sales.[84] The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963".[81] The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability.[85] With the Beatles became the second album in UK chart history to sell a million copies, a figure previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack.[86] When writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band's press officer, Tony Barrow, used the superlative the "fabulous foursome", which the media widely adopted as "the Fab Four".[87]
First visit to the United States and the British Invasion
For broader coverage of this topic, see British Invasion.
A black-and-white image of four men standing in front of a crowd of people at the bottom of an aeroplane staircase
The Beatles arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964

EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles' releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles. Concurrent negotiations with the independent US label Vee-Jay led to the release of some, but not all, of the songs in 1963.[88] Vee-Jay finished preparation for the album Introducing... The Beatles, comprising most of the songs of Parlophone's Please Please Me, but a management shake-up led to the album not being released.[nb 3] After it emerged that the label did not report royalties on their sales, the licence that Vee-Jay had signed with EMI was voided.[90] A new licence was granted to the Swan label for the single "She Loves You". The record received some airplay in the Tidewater area of Virginia from Gene Loving of radio station WGH and was featured on the "Rate-a-Record" segment of American Bandstand, but it failed to catch on nationally.[91]
A newspaper clipping from 8 February 1964 covering "Beatlemania"

Epstein brought a demo copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to Capitol's Brown Meggs, who signed the band and arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign. American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station WWDC, in Washington, DC, obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air.[92] Taped copies of the song soon circulated among other radio stations throughout the US. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to bring forward the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by three weeks.[93] Issued on 26 December, with the band's previously scheduled debut there just weeks away, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold a million copies, becoming a number 1 hit in the US by mid-January.[94] In its wake Vee-Jay released Introducing... The Beatles[95] along with Capitol's debut album, Meet the Beatles!, while Swan reactivated production of "She Loves You".[96] The Odeon label, an EMI subsidiary, pressed Beatles LPs to be shipped out and distributed abroad.[97] After the Beatles' US trip, MGM Records released the single "My Bonnie" backed with "The Saints" in the US on 27 January 1964 as a Beatles single,[98] and Atco followed in issuing the recordings the Beatles had made in Germany with Tony Sheridan in 1961 and 1962.[99]
The Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, February 1964

On 7 February 1964, the Beatles departed from Heathrow with an estimated 4,000 fans waving and screaming as the aircraft took off.[100] Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them.[101] They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households,[102] or 34 per cent of the American population. Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program".[103] The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US,[104] but a day later at their first US concert, Beatlemania erupted at the Washington Coliseum.[105] Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall.[102] The band flew to Florida, where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a second time, again before 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February.[106]

The Beatles' first visit to the US took place when the nation was still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the previous November.[107] Commentators often suggest that for many, particularly the young, the Beatles' performances reignited the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the wake of the assassination and helped pave the way for the revolutionary social changes to come later in the decade.[108] Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults,[18] became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture.[109]

The group's popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and many other UK acts subsequently made their American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion.[110] The Beatles' success in the US opened the door for a successive string of British beat groups and pop acts such as the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, Petula Clark, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones to achieve success in America.[111] During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five.[112][nb 4]
A Hard Day's Night
Main article: A Hard Day's Night (film)

Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go unnoticed, and a competitor, United Artists Records, encouraged its film division to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the US.[114] Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a musical comedy.[115] The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing a comparison with the Marx Brothers.[116]

United Artists released a full soundtrack album for the North American market, combining Beatles songs and Martin's orchestral score; elsewhere, the group's third studio LP, A Hard Day's Night, contained songs from the film on side one and other new recordings on side two.[117] According to Erlewine, the album saw them "truly coming into their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies."[118] That "ringing guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's 12-string electric Rickenbacker, a prototype given to him by the manufacturer, which made its debut on the record.[119][nb 5]
1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan and stand on civil rights
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles performing on Dutch TV in 1964
McCartney, Harrison and Lennon performing on Dutch TV in 1964

Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.[120][nb 6] In August and September, they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities.[122] Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 people to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York.[122]

In August, journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet Bob Dylan.[123] Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis.[124] Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with their fans, "veritable 'teenyboppers' – kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialised popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines and teen fashion. To many of Dylan's followers in the folk music scene, the Beatles were seen as idolaters, not idealists."[125]

Within six months of the meeting, according to Gould, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona"; and six months after that, Dylan began performing with a backing band and electric instrumentation, and "dressed in the height of Mod fashion".[126] As a result, Gould continues, the traditional division between folk and rock enthusiasts "nearly evaporated", as the Beatles' fans began to mature in their outlook and Dylan's audience embraced the new, youth-driven pop culture.[126]

During the 1964 US tour, the group were confronted with racial segregation in the country at the time.[127][128] When informed that the venue for their 11 September concert, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated.[129][127][128] Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now ... I'd sooner lose our appearance money."[127] City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show.[127] The group also cancelled their reservations at the whites-only Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville.[128] For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated.[128][130]
Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul

According to Gould, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, Beatles for Sale, evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions.[131] They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964,[132] to continue the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs.[131] They had nearly exhausted their backlog of songs on the previous album, however, and given the challenges constant international touring posed to their songwriting efforts, Lennon admitted, "Material's becoming a hell of a problem".[133] As a result, six covers from their extensive repertoire were chosen to complete the album. Released in early December, its eight original compositions stood out, demonstrating the growing maturity of the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership.[131]

In early 1965, following a dinner with Lennon, Harrison and their wives, Harrison's dentist, John Riley, secretly added LSD to their coffee.[134] Lennon described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two."[135] He and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realised a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music."[136][137] McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966.[138] He became the first Beatle to discuss LSD publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society".[139]
The Beatles performing music in a field. In the foreground, the drums are played by Starr (only the top of his head is visible). Beyond him, the other three stand in a column with their guitars. In the rear, Harrison, head down, strikes a chord. In the front, Lennon smiles and gives a little wave toward camera, holding his pick. Between them, McCartney is jocularly about to choke Lennon.
The US trailer for Help! with (from the rear) Harrison, McCartney, Lennon and (largely obscured) Starr

Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen Elizabeth II appointed all four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award.[140] In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia.[141]

In July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was released, again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond",[142] it inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. McCartney said: "Help! was great but it wasn't our film – we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong."[143] The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride".[144]

The Help! album, the group's fifth studio LP, mirrored A Hard Day's Night by featuring soundtrack songs on side one and additional songs from the same sessions on side two.[145] The LP contained all original material save for two covers, "Act Naturally" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"; they were the last covers the band would include on an album until Let It Be's brief rendition of the traditional Liverpool folk song "Maggie Mae".[146] The band expanded their use of vocal overdubs on Help! and incorporated classical instruments into some arrangements, including a string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday".[147] Composed and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording[148] – "Yesterday" has inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written.[149] With Help!, the Beatles became the first rock group to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[150]
The Beatles at a press conference in August 1965
The Beatles at a press conference in Minnesota in August 1965, shortly after playing at Shea Stadium in New York

The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description.[151] A further nine successful concerts followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback system of on-stage monitor speakers.[152] Towards the end of the tour, they met with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills.[153][154] Presley later said the band was an example of a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse.[155][156]

September 1965 saw the launch of an American Saturday-morning cartoon series, The Beatles, that echoed A Hard Day's Night's slapstick antics over its two-year original run.[157] The series was the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people.[158]

In mid-October, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments.[159] Until this time, according to George Martin, "we had been making albums rather like a collection of singles. Now we were really beginning to think about albums as a bit of art on their own."[160] Released in December, Rubber Soul was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music.[161] Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy, a development that NEMS executive Peter Brown attributed to the band members' "now habitual use of marijuana".[162] Lennon referred to Rubber Soul as "the pot album"[163] and Starr said: "Grass was really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the writers. And because they were writing different material, we were playing differently."[163] After Help!'s foray into classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As the lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning.[164]
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
Duration: 15 seconds.0:15
Sample of "Norwegian Wood" from Rubber Soul (1965). Harrison's use of a sitar on this song is representative of the Beatles' incorporation of unconventional instrumentation into rock music.[161]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

While some of Rubber Soul's songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting,[165] the album also included distinct compositions from each,[166] though they continued to share official credit. "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue.[167] Harrison called Rubber Soul his "favourite album",[163] and Starr referred to it as "the departure record".[168] McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand."[169] However, recording engineer Norman Smith later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right".[170]
Controversies, Revolver and final tour

Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format,[88] compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles.[171][nb 7] In June 1966, the Capitol LP Yesterday and Today caused an uproar with its cover, which portrayed the grinning Beatles dressed in butcher's overalls, accompanied by raw meat and mutilated plastic baby dolls. According to Beatles biographer Bill Harry, it has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions of the band's albums.[173] Thousands of copies of the LP had a new cover pasted over the original; an unpeeled "first-state" copy fetched $10,500 at a December 2005 auction.[174] In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on the instrument.[175]

During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and Today furore, the Beatles unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected them to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace.[176] When presented with the invitation, Epstein politely declined on the band members' behalf, as it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations.[177] They soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to taking no for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they escaped the country with difficulty.[178] Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time.[179]

    We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity.

– John Lennon, 1966[180]

Almost as soon as they returned home, the Beatles faced a fierce backlash from US religious and social conservatives (as well as the Ku Klux Klan) over a comment Lennon had made in a March interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave.[181] "Christianity will go", Lennon had said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right ... Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."[182] His comments went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine Datebook printed them five months later, it sparked a controversy with Christians in America's conservative Bible Belt region.[181] The Vatican issued a protest, and bans on Beatles records were imposed by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service.[183] Epstein accused Datebook of having taken Lennon's words out of context. At a press conference, Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it."[184] He claimed that he was referring to how other people viewed their success, but at the prompting of reporters, he concluded: "If you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry."[184]
"Eleanor Rigby"
Duration: 13 seconds.0:13
Sample of "Eleanor Rigby" from Revolver (1966). The album involves innovative compositional approaches, arrangements and recording techniques. This song, primarily written by McCartney, prominently features classical strings in a novel fusion of musical styles.
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Released in August 1966, a week before the Beatles' final tour, Revolver marked another artistic step forward for the group.[185] The album featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelia.[185] Abandoning the customary group photograph, its Aubrey Beardsley-inspired cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – was a monochrome collage and line drawing caricature of the group.[185] The album was preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain".[186] Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos",[187] they aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June.[188]

Among the experimental songs on Revolver was "Tomorrow Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Its creation involved eight tape decks distributed about the EMI building, each staffed by an engineer or band member, who randomly varied the movement of a tape loop while Martin created a composite recording by sampling the incoming data.[189] McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; Gould describes it as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of song".[190] Harrison's emergence as a songwriter was reflected in three of his compositions appearing on the record.[191] Among these, "Taxman", which opened the album, marked the first example of the Beatles making a political statement through their music.[192]
San Francisco's Candlestick Park in the 1960s
San Francisco's Candlestick Park (pictured in the early 1960s) was the venue for the Beatles' final concert before a paying audience.

As preparations were made for a tour of the US, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30 amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers, specially designed for them by Vox, as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, these were still inadequate. Struggling to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown increasingly bored with the routine of performing live.[193] Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, and shaken up from the recent incident in the Philippines, they decided to make the August tour their last.[194][195]

The band performed none of their new songs on the tour.[196] In Chris Ingham's description, they were very much "studio creations ... and there was no way a four-piece rock 'n' roll group could do them justice, particularly through the desensitising wall of the fans' screams. 'Live Beatles' and 'Studio Beatles' had become entirely different beasts."[197] The band's concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August was their last commercial concert.[198] It marked the end of four years dominated by almost non-stop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally.[199]
1966–1970: Studio years
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Main article: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The album artwork of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Front cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "the most famous cover of any music album, and one of the most imitated images in the world"[200]

Freed from the burden of touring, the Beatles embraced an increasingly experimental approach as they recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning in late November 1966.[201] According to engineer Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours.[202] He recalled the band's insistence "that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck together upside down and the wrong way around."[203] Parts of "A Day in the Life" featured a 40-piece orchestra.[203] The sessions initially yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967;[204] the Sgt. Pepper LP followed with a rush-release in May.[205] The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists.[200] Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal.[206] Gould writes:

    The overwhelming consensus is that the Beatles had created a popular masterpiece: a rich, sustained, and overflowing work of collaborative genius whose bold ambition and startling originality dramatically enlarged the possibilities and raised the expectations of what the experience of listening to popular music on record could be. On the basis of this perception, Sgt. Pepper became the catalyst for an explosion of mass enthusiasm for album-formatted rock that would revolutionise both the aesthetics and the economics of the record business in ways that far outstripped the earlier pop explosions triggered by the Elvis phenomenon of 1956 and the Beatlemania phenomenon of 1963.[207]

In the wake of Sgt. Pepper, the underground and mainstream press widely publicised the Beatles as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries".[4] The album was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover.[208][209] Those lyrics were the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and professor of English Richard Poirier, who observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy".[210][nb 8] The elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study.[211] A collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, it depicted the group as the fictional band referred to in the album's title track[212] standing in front of a crowd of famous people.[213] The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of the hippie movement,[214] while cultural historian Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment" display.[215]

Sgt. Pepper topped the UK charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number 1 in the period through to February 1968.[216] With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release,[217] Sgt. Pepper's initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums.[218] It was the first rock album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[219] It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records.[220]
Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine
Main articles: Magical Mystery Tour (film) and Yellow Submarine (film)

Two Beatles film projects were conceived within weeks of completing Sgt. Pepper: Magical Mystery Tour, a one-hour television film, and Yellow Submarine, an animated feature-length film produced by United Artists.[221] The group began recording music for the former in late April 1967, but the project then lay dormant as they focused on recording songs for the latter.[222] On 25 June, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single "All You Need Is Love" to an estimated 350 million viewers on Our World, the first live global television link.[223] Released a week later, during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem.[224] The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs was at its height during that summer.[225] In July and August, the group pursued interests related to similar utopian-based ideology, including a week-long investigation into the possibility of starting an island-based commune off the coast of Greece.[226][227]

On 24 August, the group were introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London. The next day, they travelled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. On 27 August, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein had died.[228] The coroner ruled the death an accidental carbitol overdose, although it was widely rumoured to be a suicide.[229][nb 9] His death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future.[231] Lennon recalled: "We collapsed. I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn't really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought, 'We've ' had it now.'"[232] Harrison's then-wife Pattie Boyd remembered that "Paul and George were in complete shock. I don't think it could have been worse if they had heard that their own fathers had dropped dead."[233] During a band meeting in September, McCartney recommended that the band proceed with Magical Mystery Tour.[222]

The Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play (EP) in early December 1967.[88][234] It was the first example of a double EP in the UK.[235][236] The record carried on the psychedelic vein of Sgt. Pepper,[237] though in line with the band's wishes, the packaging reinforced the idea that the release was a film soundtrack rather than a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper.[234] In the US, the soundtrack appeared as an identically titled LP that also included five tracks from the band's recent singles.[113] In its first three weeks, the album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP and is the only Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums.[238]

Magical Mystery Tour first aired on Boxing Day to an audience of approximately 15 million.[239] Largely directed by McCartney, the film was the band's first critical failure in the UK.[240] It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the Daily Express, the Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit" and The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience".[241] Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus".[241] Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film.[242]

The group were less involved with Yellow Submarine, which featured the band appearing as themselves for only a short live-action segment.[243] Premiering in July 1968, the film featured cartoon versions of the band members and a soundtrack with eleven of their songs, including four unreleased studio recordings that made their debut in the film.[244] Critics praised the film for its music, humour and innovative visual style.[245] A soundtrack LP was issued seven months later; it contained those four new songs, the title track (already issued on Revolver), "All You Need Is Love" (already issued as a single and on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP) and seven instrumental pieces composed by Martin.[246]
India retreat, Apple Corps and the White Album
Main articles: Beatles in India, Apple Corps, and The Beatles (album)
The Beatles pictured in February 1968

In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a three-month meditation "Guide Course". Their time in India marked one of the band's most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album.[247] However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later.[248] For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as Magic Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them.[249] When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him.[248] In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues. McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was."[249]

In May, Lennon and McCartney travelled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles' new business venture, Apple Corps.[250] It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism and education.[251] McCartney described Apple as "rather like a Western communism".[252] The enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects[253] handled largely by members of the Beatles' entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience.[254] Among its numerous subsidiaries were Apple Electronics, established to foster technological innovations with Magic Alex at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived Apple Boutique in London.[255] Harrison later said, "Basically, it was chaos ... John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it."[252]
The album artwork of the Beatles' self-titled 1968 album, also known as "the White Album"
The Beatles, known as "the White Album" for its minimalist cover, conceived by pop artist Richard Hamilton "in direct contrast to Sgt. Pepper", while also suggesting a "clean slate"[256]

From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became The Beatles, a double LP commonly known as "the White Album" for its virtually featureless cover.[257] During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive.[258] Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums.[259] Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney,[260] whose contribution "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit".[261] Tensions were further aggravated by Lennon's romantic preoccupation with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the sessions despite the group's well-established understanding that girlfriends were not allowed in the studio.[262] McCartney has recalled that the album "wasn't a pleasant one to make".[263] He and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band's break-up.[264][265]

With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles[266] and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre.[267] During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the album a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort.[268] Describing the double album, Lennon later said: "Every track is an individual track; there isn't any Beatle music on it. [It's] John and the band, Paul and the band, George and the band."[269] The sessions also produced the Beatles' longest song yet, "Hey Jude", released in August as a non-album single with "Revolution".[270]

Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings.[271] The record attracted more than 2 million advance orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations.[272] Its lyrical content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture.[273] Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album's content and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that Sgt. Pepper had.[272]
Abbey Road, Let It Be and separation
See also: Break-up of the Beatles

Although Let It Be was the Beatles' final album release, it was largely recorded before Abbey Road. The project's impetus came from an idea Martin attributes to McCartney, who suggested they "record an album of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before a live audience for the very first time – on record and on film".[274] Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called Beatles at Work, in the event much of the album's content came from studio work beginning in January 1969, many hours of which were captured on film by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.[274][275] Martin said that the project was "not at all a happy recording experience. It was a time when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb."[274] Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell ... the most miserable ... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time".[276] Irritated by McCartney and Lennon, Harrison walked out for five days. Upon returning, he threatened to leave the band unless they "abandon[ed] all talk of live performance" and instead focused on finishing a new album, initially titled Get Back, using songs recorded for the TV special.[277] He also demanded they cease work at Twickenham Film Studios, where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished Apple Studio. His bandmates agreed and it was decided to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film.[278]
American musician Billy Preston in 1971
The American soul musician Billy Preston (pictured in 1971) was, for a short time, considered a fifth Beatle during the Get Back sessions.

To alleviate tensions within the band and improve the quality of their live sound, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate in the last nine days of sessions.[279] Preston received label billing on the "Get Back" single – the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release.[280] After the rehearsals, the band could not agree on a location to film a concert, rejecting several ideas, including a boat at sea, a lunatic asylum, the Libyan desert and the Colosseum.[274] Ultimately, what would be their final live performance was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969.[281] Five weeks later, engineer Glyn Johns, whom Lewisohn describes as Get Back's "uncredited producer", began work assembling an album, given "free rein" as the band "all but washed their hands of the entire project".[282]
A terrace house with four floors and an attic. It is red brick, with a slate roof, and the ground floor rendered in imitation of stone and painted white. Each upper floor has four sash windows, divided into small panes. The door, with a canopy over it, occupies the place of the second window from the left on the ground floor.
Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, site of the Let It Be rooftop concert

New strains developed between the band members regarding the appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon, Harrison and Starr favoured Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke;[283] McCartney wanted Lee and John Eastman – father and brother, respectively, of Linda Eastman,[284] whom McCartney married on 12 March.[285] Agreement could not be reached, so both Klein and the Eastmans were temporarily appointed: Klein as the Beatles' business manager and the Eastmans as their lawyers.[286][287] Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost.[283] On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band,[288] the Eastmans having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' lawyers. McCartney refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles.[289]

Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce another album, as the Get Back sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us".[290] The primary recording sessions for Abbey Road began on 2 July.[291] Lennon, who rejected Martin's proposed format of a "continuously moving piece of music", wanted his and McCartney's songs to occupy separate sides of the album.[292] The eventual format, with individually composed songs on the first side and the second consisting largely of a medley, was McCartney's suggested compromise.[292] Emerick noted that the replacement of the studio's valve-based mixing console with a transistorised one yielded a less punchy sound, leaving the group frustrated at the thinner tone and lack of impact and contributing to its "kinder, gentler" feel relative to their previous albums.[293]
The photo session for the Abbey Road album cover, on 8 August 1969, turned out to be the band's penultimate one. From left: Lennon, Starr, McCartney and Harrison

On 4 July, the first solo single by a Beatle was released: Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", credited to the Plastic Ono Band. The completion and mixing of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20 August was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were together in the same studio.[294] On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretence and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas.[295] On 20 September, Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group but agreed to withhold a public announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album.[296]

Released on 26 September, Abbey Road sold four million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of seventeen weeks.[297] Its second track, the ballad "Something", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition that appeared as a Beatles A-side.[298] Abbey Road received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim.[297] Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record".[299] Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley.[300] Martin singled it out as his favourite Beatles album; Lennon said it was "competent" but had "no life in it".[293]

For the still unfinished Get Back album, one last song, Harrison's "I Me Mine", was recorded on 3 January 1970. Lennon, in Denmark at the time, did not participate.[301] In March, rejecting the work Johns had done on the project, now retitled Let It Be, Klein gave the session tapes to American producer Phil Spector, who had recently produced Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!"[302] In addition to remixing the material, Spector edited, spliced and overdubbed several of the recordings that had been intended as "live". McCartney was unhappy with the producer's approach and particularly dissatisfied with the lavish orchestration on "The Long and Winding Road", which involved a fourteen-voice choir and 36-piece instrumental ensemble.[303] McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were ignored,[304] and he publicly announced his departure from the band on 10 April, a week before the release of his first self-titled solo album.[303][305]

On 8 May 1970, Let It Be was released. Its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was expected to be the Beatles' last; it was released in the US, but not in the UK.[186] The Let It Be documentary film followed later that month and would win the 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.[306] Sunday Telegraph critic Penelope Gilliatt called it "a very bad film and a touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings".[307] Several reviewers stated that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks.[308] Describing Let It Be as the "only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews", Unterberger calls it "on the whole underrated"; he singles out "some good moments of straight hard rock in 'I've Got a Feeling' and 'Dig a Pony'" and praises "Let It Be", "Get Back" and "the folky 'Two of Us', with John and Paul harmonising together".[309]

McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on 31 December 1970.[310] Legal disputes continued long after their break-up and the dissolution was not formalised until 29 December 1974,[311] when Lennon signed the paperwork terminating the partnership while on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.[312]
After the breakup
See also: Collaborations between ex-Beatles
1970s
Lennon in 1974 and McCartney in 1976

Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the other members;[313] Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only album to include compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles, albeit on separate songs. With Starr's participation, Harrison staged the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971.[314] Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74, Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again.[315]

Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962–1966 and 1967–1970, were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint.[316] Commonly known as the "Red Album" and "Blue Album", respectively, each has earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the US and a Platinum certification in the UK.[317][318] Between 1976 and 1982, EMI/Capitol released a wave of compilation albums without input from the ex-Beatles, starting with the double-disc compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music.[319] The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours.[320][nb 10]

The music and enduring fame of the Beatles were commercially exploited in various other ways, again often outside their creative control. In April 1974, the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert, written by Willy Russell and featuring singer Barbara Dickson, opened in London. It included, with permission from Northern Songs, eleven Lennon–McCartney compositions and one by Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun". Displeased with the production's use of his song, Harrison withdrew his permission to use it.[322] Later that year, the off-Broadway musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road opened.[323] All This and World War II (1976) was an unorthodox nonfiction film that combined newsreel footage with covers of Beatles songs by performers ranging from Elton John and Keith Moon to the London Symphony Orchestra.[324] The Broadway musical Beatlemania, an unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions.[325] In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages.[325] Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham.[326]

Accompanying the wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the US during the 1970s, several entrepreneurs made public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert.[327] Promoter Bill Sargent first offered the Beatles $10 million for a reunion concert in 1974. He raised his offer to $30 million in January 1976 and then to $50 million the following month.[328][329] On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live, producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's apartment at the Dakota in New York, which was within driving distance of the NBC studio where the show was being broadcast. The former bandmates briefly entertained the idea of going to the studio and surprising Michaels by accepting his offer, but decided not to.[330]
1980s

In December 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan. Harrison rewrote the lyrics of his song "All Those Years Ago" in Lennon's honour. With Starr on drums and McCartney and his wife, Linda, contributing backing vocals, the song was released as a single in May 1981.[331] McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War album in April 1982.[332] In 1984, Starr co-starred in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street,[333] and played with McCartney on several of the songs on the soundtrack.[334] In 1987, Harrison's Cloud Nine album included "When We Was Fab", a song about the Beatlemania era.[335]

When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by EMI and Apple Corps in 1987, their catalogue was standardised throughout the world, establishing a canon of the twelve original studio LPs as issued in the UK plus the US LP version of Magical Mystery Tour.[336] All the remaining material from the singles and EPs that had not appeared on these thirteen studio albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation Past Masters (1988). Except for the Red and Blue albums, EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the Hollywood Bowl record – from its catalogue.[320]

In 1988, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the ceremony with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and Sean.[337][338] McCartney declined to attend, citing unresolved "business differences" that would make him "feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion".[338] The following year, EMI/Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit filed by the band over royalties, clearing the way to commercially package previously unreleased material.[339][340]
1990s

Live at the BBC, the first official release of unissued Beatles performances in 17 years, appeared in 1994.[341] That same year McCartney, Harrison and Starr collaborated on the Anthology project. Anthology was the culmination of work begun in 1970, when Apple Corps director Neil Aspinall, their former road manager and personal assistant, had started to gather material for a documentary with the working title The Long and Winding Road.[342]

During 1995–96, the project yielded a television miniseries, an eight-volume video set and three two-CD/three-LP box sets featuring artwork by Klaus Voormann. Documenting their history in the band's own words, the Anthology project included the release of several unissued Beatles recordings. Alongside producer Jeff Lynne, McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to songs recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s,[343] resulting in the release of two "new" Beatles singles, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". A third Lennon demo, "Now and Then", was also attempted, but abandoned due to the low quality of the recording.[344] The Anthology releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400 million people.[345] A book, The Beatles Anthology, followed in October 2000. In 1999, to coincide with the re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, an expanded soundtrack album, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was issued.[346]
2000s

The Beatles' 1, a compilation album of the band's British and American number 1 hits, was released on 13 November 2000. It became the fastest-selling album of all time, with 3.6 million sold in its first week[347] and 13 million within a month.[348] It topped albums charts in at least 28 countries.[349] The compilation had sold 31 million copies globally by April 2009.[350]

Harrison died from metastatic lung cancer in November 2001.[351][352][353] McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who performed at the Concert for George, organised by Eric Clapton and Harrison's widow, Olivia. The tribute event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on the first anniversary of Harrison's death.[354]

In 2003, Let It Be... Naked, a reconceived version of the Let It Be album, with McCartney supervising production, was released. One of the main differences from the Spector-produced version was the omission of the original string arrangements.[355] It was a top-ten hit in both Britain and America. The US album configurations from 1964 to 1965 were released as box sets in 2004 and 2006; The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2 included both stereo and mono versions based on the mixes that were prepared for vinyl at the time of the music's original American release.[356]

As a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Beatles stage revue, Love, George Martin and his son Giles remixed and blended 130 of the band's recordings to create what Martin called "a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period".[357] The show premiered in June 2006 and the Love album was released that November.[358] In April 2009, Starr performed three songs with McCartney at a benefit concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall and organised by McCartney.[359]

On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four years.[336] Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with Magical Mystery Tour and the Past Masters compilation, were released on compact disc both individually and as a box set.[360] A second collection, The Beatles in Mono, included remastered versions of every Beatles album released in true mono along with the original 1965 stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul (both of which Martin had remixed for the 1987 editions).[361] The Beatles: Rock Band, a music video game in the Rock Band series, was issued on the same day.[362] In December 2009, the band's catalogue was officially released in FLAC and MP3 format in a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives.[363]
2010s

Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among the last major artists to sign deals with online music services.[364] Residual disagreement emanating from Apple Corps' dispute with Apple, Inc., iTunes' owners, over the use of the name "Apple" was also partly responsible for the delay, although in 2008, McCartney stated that the main obstacle to making the Beatles' catalogue available online was that EMI "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them".[365] In 2010, the official canon of thirteen Beatles studio albums, Past Masters and the "Red" and "Blue" greatest-hits albums were made available on iTunes.[366]

In 2012, EMI's recorded music operations were sold to Universal Music Group. In order for Universal Music to acquire EMI, the European Union, for antitrust reasons, forced EMI to spin off assets including Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, managed by Capitol Records under its Capitol Music Group division.[367] The entire original Beatles album catalogue was also reissued on vinyl in 2012; available either individually or as a box set.[368]

In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings, On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, was released. That December saw the release of another 59 Beatles recordings on iTunes. The set, titled The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963, had the opportunity to gain a 70-year copyright extension conditional on the songs being published at least once before the end of 2013. Apple Records released the recordings on 17 December to prevent them from going into the public domain and had them taken down from iTunes later that same day. Fan reactions to the release were mixed, with one blogger saying "the hardcore Beatles collectors who are trying to obtain everything will already have these."[369][370]

On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed together at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.[371] The following day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles television special was taped in the Los Angeles Convention Center's West Hall. It aired on 9 February, the exact date of – and at the same time and on the same network as – the original broadcast of the Beatles' first US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, 50 years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival footage and interviews with the two surviving ex-Beatles carried out by David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater.[372][373] In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming on various streaming music services including Spotify and Apple Music.[374]

In September 2016, the documentary film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week was released. Directed by Ron Howard, it chronicled the Beatles' career during their touring years from 1961 to 1966, from their performances in Liverpool's the Cavern Club in 1961 to their final concert in San Francisco in 1966. The film was released theatrically on 15 September in the UK and the US, and started streaming on Hulu on 17 September. It received several awards and nominations, including for Best Documentary at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.[375] An expanded, remixed and remastered version of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was released on 9 September, to coincide with the release of the film.[376][377]
McCartney and Starr, with Ronnie Wood in 2018

On 18 May 2017, Sirius XM Radio launched a 24/7 radio channel, The Beatles Channel. A week later, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was reissued with new stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary.[378] Similar box sets were released for The Beatles in November 2018,[379] and Abbey Road in September 2019.[380] In October 2019, Abbey Road returned to number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. The Beatles broke their own record for the album with the longest gap between topping the charts as Abbey Road hit the top spot 50 years after its original release.[381]
2020s

In November 2021, The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary directed by Peter Jackson using footage captured for the Let It Be film, was released on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries.[382] A book by the same title was released on 12 October.[383] A super deluxe version of the Let It Be album was released on 15 October.[384] In January 2022, the album Get Back (Rooftop Performance), consisting of newly mixed audio of the Beatles' rooftop performance, was released on streaming services.[385]

In 2022, McCartney and Starr collaborated on a new recording of "Let It Be" with Dolly Parton, Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood, which was released on Parton's album Rockstar in November 2023.[386][387] In October, a special edition of Revolver was released, featuring unreleased demos, studio outtakes, the original mono mix and a new stereo remix using AI de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson's WingNut Films, which had previously been used to restore audio for the documentary Get Back.[388] New music videos were produced for "Here, There and Everywhere" and "I'm Only Sleeping", the latter of which won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.[389]
Starr joined McCartney's 19 December 2024 solo show as a guest performer for two Beatles songs.

In June 2023, McCartney announced plans to release "the final Beatles record" later in the year, using Jackson's de-mixing technology to extract Lennon's voice from an old demo of a song that he had written as a solo artist.[344] In October 2023, the song was revealed to be "Now and Then", with a physical and digital release date of 2 November 2023.[390][391] The official music video for "Now and Then" was released the following day, garnering upwards of 8 million views in its first 12 hours,[392] as the song arrived on Spotify's rankings as one of the most-streamed current songs.[391] "Now and Then" debuted simultaneously across music, alternative, news/talk and sports stations. The song's premiere achieved the record for the most radio stations to simulcast a music track.[393] The song became their first UK number 1 single since 1969.[394] It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, and was also nominated for Record of the Year.[395] The nominations were also historically significant for making "Now and Then" the first artificial intelligence-assisted track to be nominated for a Grammy award, and first to win.[396]

On 8 May 2024, the 1970 film Let It Be was released on Disney+, following a digital restoration by Jackson's Park Road Post; it was the first time it was publicly screened since its original theatrical release.[397]
Artistry
See also: Lennon–McCartney
Development

In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever, Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles' musical evolution:

    In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work.[398]

In The Beatles as Musicians, Walter Everett describes Lennon and McCartney's contrasting motivations and approaches to composition: "McCartney may be said to have constantly developed – as a means to entertain – a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally agreed-upon common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely, Lennon's mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic sensibility."[399]

Ian MacDonald describes McCartney as "a natural melodist – a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody lines are characterised as primarily "vertical", employing wide, consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism". Conversely, Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a "horizontal" approach featuring minimal, dissonant intervals and repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic accompaniment for interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies close to the rhythms and cadences of speech, colouring his lyrics with bluesy tone and harmony rather than creating tunes that made striking shapes of their own."[400] MacDonald praises Harrison's lead guitar work for the role his "characterful lines and textural colourings" play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts and describes Starr as "the father of modern pop/rock drumming".[401]
Influences

The Beatles' earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent.[402][403] During the Beatles' co-residency with Little Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg, from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs.[404] Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been the Beatles."[405] Chuck Berry was particularly influential in terms of songwriting and lyrics. Lennon noted, "He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. We all owe a lot to him."[406] Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison,[407] the Everly Brothers[408] and Jerry Lee Lewis.[409]

The Beatles continued to absorb influences long after their initial success, often finding new musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their contemporaries, including Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Who, Frank Zappa, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose 1966 album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney.[410][411][412][413][414] Referring to the Beach Boys' creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]."[415] Ravi Shankar, with whom Harrison studied for six weeks in India in late 1966, had a significant effect on his musical development during the band's later years.[416]
Genres

Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre,[417] and their repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music.[418] Reflecting the range of styles they explored, Lennon said of Beatles for Sale, "You could call our new one a Beatles country-and-western LP",[419] while Gould credits Rubber Soul as "the instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into the camp of pop".[420]
Two electric guitars, a light brown violin-shaped bass and a darker brown guitar resting against a Vox amplifier
A Höfner "violin" bass guitar and Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar, models played by McCartney and Harrison, respectively; the Vox AC30 amplifier behind them is the model the Beatles used during performances in the early 1960s.

Although the 1965 song "Yesterday" was not the first pop record to employ orchestral strings, it marked the group's first recorded use of classical music elements. Gould observes, "The more traditional sound of strings allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as composers by listeners who were otherwise allergic to the din of drums and electric guitars."[421] They continued to experiment with string arrangements to various effect; Sgt. Pepper's "She's Leaving Home", for instance, is "cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad", Gould writes, "its words and music filled with the clichés of musical melodrama".[422]

The band's stylistic range expanded in another direction with their 1966 B-side "Rain", described by Martin Strong as "the first overtly psychedelic Beatles record".[423] Other psychedelic numbers followed, such as "Tomorrow Never Knows" (recorded before "Rain"), "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Am the Walrus". The influence of Indian classical music was evident in Harrison's "The Inner Light", "Love You To" and "Within You Without You" – Gould describes the latter two as attempts "to replicate the raga form in miniature".[424]

Innovation was the most striking feature of their creative evolution, according to music historian and pianist Michael Campbell:

    'A Day in the Life' encapsulates the art and achievement of the Beatles as well as any single track can. It highlights key features of their music: the sound imagination, the persistence of tuneful melody and the close coordination between words and music. It represents a new category of song – more sophisticated than pop ... and uniquely innovative. There literally had never before been a song – classical or vernacular – that had blended so many disparate elements so imaginatively.[425]

Philosophy professor Bruce Ellis Benson agrees: "The Beatles ... give us a wonderful example of how such far-ranging influences as Celtic music, rhythm and blues, and country and western could be put together in a new way."[426] Author Dominic Pedler describes the way they crossed musical styles:

    Far from moving sequentially from one genre to another (as is sometimes conveniently suggested) the group maintained in parallel their mastery of the traditional, catchy chart hit while simultaneously forging rock and dabbling with a wide range of peripheral influences from country to vaudeville. One of these threads was their take on folk music, which would form such essential groundwork for their later collisions with Indian music and philosophy.[427]

As the personal relationships between the band members grew increasingly strained, their individual tastes became more apparent. The minimalistic cover artwork for the White Album contrasted with the complexity and diversity of its music, which encompassed Lennon's "Revolution 9" (whose musique concrète approach was influenced by Yoko Ono), Starr's country song "Don't Pass Me By", Harrison's rock ballad "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and the "proto-metal roar" of McCartney's "Helter Skelter".[428]
Contribution of George Martin
The Beatles with George Martin in the studio in the mid-1960s
George Martin (second from right) in the studio with the Beatles in the mid-1960s

George Martin's close involvement in his role as producer made him one of the leading candidates for the informal title of the "fifth Beatle".[429] He applied his classical musical training in various ways and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing songwriters, according to Gould.[430] Martin suggested to a sceptical McCartney that the arrangement of "Yesterday" should feature a string quartet accompaniment, thereby introducing the Beatles to a "hitherto unsuspected world of classical instrumental colour", in MacDonald's description.[431] Their creative development was also facilitated by Martin's willingness to experiment in response to their suggestions, such as adding "something baroque" to a particular recording.[432] In addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ and brass.[433]

Collaborating with Lennon and McCartney required Martin to adapt to their different approaches to songwriting and recording. MacDonald comments, "while [he] worked more naturally with the conventionally articulate McCartney, the challenge of catering to Lennon's intuitive approach generally spurred him to his more original arrangements".[434] Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting styles and his stabilising influence:

    Compared with Paul's songs, all of which seemed to keep in some sort of touch with reality, John's had a psychedelic, almost mystical quality ... John's imagery is one of the best things about his work – 'tangerine trees', 'marmalade skies', 'cellophane flowers' ... I always saw him as an aural Salvador Dalí, rather than some drug-ridden record artist. On the other hand, I would be stupid to pretend that drugs didn't figure quite heavily in the Beatles' lives at that time ... they knew that I, in my schoolmasterly role, didn't approve ... Not only was I not into it myself, I couldn't see the need for it; and there's no doubt that, if I too had been on dope, Pepper would never have been the album it was. Perhaps it was the combination of dope and no dope that worked, who knows?[435]

Harrison echoed Martin's description of his stabilising role:

    I think we just grew through those years together, him as the straight man and us as the loonies; but he was always there for us to interpret our madness – we used to be slightly avant-garde on certain days of the week, and he would be there as the anchor person, to communicate that through the engineers and on to the tape.[436]

In the studio
See also: Recording practices of the Beatles

Making innovative use of technology while expanding the possibilities of recorded music, the Beatles urged experimentation by Martin and his recording engineers. Seeking ways to put chance occurrences to creative use, accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle, a tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards – any of these might be incorporated into their music.[437] Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from Rubber Soul and, especially, Revolver onwards.[437]

Along with innovative studio techniques such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops, double tracking and vari-speed recording, the Beatles augmented their songs with instruments that were unconventional in rock music at the time. These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood" and the swarmandal in "Strawberry Fields Forever".[438] They also used novel electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro,[439] and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby, You're a Rich Man".[440]
Legacy
Main article: Cultural impact of the Beatles
Statue in Liverpool
The Beatles statue at Pier Head in Liverpool, their home city
Road crossing in London
Abbey Road crossing in London is a popular destination for Beatles fans. In December 2010 it was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.[441]

Former Rolling Stone magazine associate editor Robert Greenfield compared the Beatles to Picasso, as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original ... [I]n the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive ..."[362] The British poet Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism" and "the first advance in popular music since the War".[442]

In 1964, the Beatles' arrival in the US is credited with initiating the album era;[443] the music historian Joel Whitburn says that LP sales soon "exploded and eventually outpaced the sales and releases of singles" in the music industry.[444] They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US,[445] they became a globally influential phenomenon as well.[446] From the 1920s, the US had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood films, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, and later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee.[348] The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people whom they most associated with UK culture.[447][448]

Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide.[446][449] Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs.[450] On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's WABC radio station forbade his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music, marking the defining line of what would be considered oldies on American radio.[451] They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler",[452] and they were primary innovators of the modern music video.[453] The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people,[151] then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business".[454] Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion.[109]

According to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism.[455] According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness".[175]

Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their sociocultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the US, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness.[107][456] Referring to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the beginning of a cultural revolution ... The Beatles were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964."[456] According to Gilmore:

    Elvis Presley had shown us how rebellion could be fashioned into eye-opening style; the Beatles were showing us how style could have the impact of cultural revelation – or at least how a pop vision might be forged into an unimpeachable consensus.[107]

Established in 2009, Global Beatles Day is an annual holiday on 25 June each year that honours and celebrates the ideals of the Beatles.[457] The date was chosen to commemorate the date the group participated in the BBC programme Our World in 1967, performing "All You Need Is Love" broadcast to an international audience.[458]
Awards and achievements
See also: List of awards and nominations received by the Beatles

In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).[140] The Beatles won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be (1970).[306] The recipients of seven Grammy Awards[459] and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards,[460] the Beatles have six Diamond albums, as well as 20 Multi-Platinum albums, 16 Platinum albums and six Gold albums in the US.[317] In the UK, the Beatles have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold albums and one Silver album.[318] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.[337]

The best-selling music act in history, the Beatles have sold more than 600 million units as of 2012.[461][nb 11] From 1991 to 2009 the Beatles sold 57 million albums in United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[463] They have had more number 1 albums on the UK charts, fifteen,[464] and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act.[465] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the most significant and influential rock music artists of the last 50 years.[466] They ranked number 1 on Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, released in 2008 to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary.[467] As of 2017, they hold the record for most number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with twenty.[468] The Recording Industry Association of America certifies that the Beatles have sold 183 million units in the US, more than any other artist.[469] They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people.[470] In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[471] In 2004 and 2011, Rolling Stone named them the greatest artist of all time.[472]

On 16 January each year, beginning in 2001, people celebrate World Beatles Day under UNESCO.[473][474] In 2007, the Beatles became the first band to feature on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.[475] Earlier in 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp dedicated to the Beatles and Yellow Submarine.[476]
Band members
Further information: List of members of bands featuring members of the Beatles

Principal members

    John Lennon – vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica, bass (1960–1969; died 1980)
    Paul McCartney – vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards, drums (1960–1970)
    George Harrison – guitars, vocals, sitar, keyboards, bass (1960–1970; died 2001)
    Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, vocals (1962–1970)

Early members

    Stuart Sutcliffe – bass, vocals (1960–1961; died 1962)
    Pete Best – drums, vocals (1960–1962)

Temporary members

    Tommy Moore (died 1981) and Norman Chapman (died 1995) preceded Best as temporary drummers in the Silver Beetles/Beatles before Best joined in August 1960.[477][478]
    Chas Newby (died 2023) performed bass with the Beatles for a short span of live shows in December 1960, filling in for Sutcliffe when he remained in Hamburg.[479][480]
    Jimmy Nicol temporarily replaced Starr during June 1964 for five dates of the Beatles' 1964 world tour.[121]
    Billy Preston (died 2006) played keyboards with the Beatles during 1969.

Timeline
Discography
Main articles: The Beatles albums discography, The Beatles singles discography, and List of songs recorded by the Beatles

The Beatles' core catalogue consists of thirteen studio albums and one compilation album which collects all the UK non-album singles and EP tracks:[481][nb 12]

    Please Please Me (1963)
    With the Beatles (1963)
    A Hard Day's Night (1964)
    Beatles for Sale (1964)
    Help! (1965)
    Rubber Soul (1965)
    Revolver (1966)
    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
    Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
    The Beatles ("The White Album") (1968)
    Yellow Submarine (1969)
    Abbey Road (1969)
    Let It Be (1970)
    Past Masters (1988, compilation)

Song catalogue

Until 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively by Northern Songs, formed in February 1963 by music publisher Dick James specifically for Lennon and McCartney, though it later acquired songs by other artists. The company was organised with James and his partner, Emmanuel Silver, owning a controlling interest, variously described as 51% or 50% plus one share. McCartney had 20%. Reports again vary concerning Lennon's portion – 19 or 20% – and Brian Epstein's – 9 or 10% – which he received in lieu of a 25% band management fee.[482][483][484] In 1965, the company went public. 5 million shares were created, of which the original principals retained 3.75 million. James and Silver each received 937,500 shares (18.75% of 5 million); Lennon and McCartney each received 750,000 shares (15%); and Epstein's management company, NEMS Enterprises, received 375,000 shares (7.5%). Of the 1.25 million shares put up for sale, Harrison and Starr each acquired 40,000.[485] At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to Northern Songs until 1973.[486]

Harrison created Harrisongs to represent his Beatles compositions, but signed a three-year contract with Northern Songs that gave it the copyright to his work until March 1968, which included "Taxman" and "Within You Without You".[487] The songs on which Starr received co-writing credit before 1968, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying", were also Northern Songs copyrights.[488] Harrison did not renew his contract with Northern Songs when it ended, signing instead with Apple Publishing while retaining the copyright to his work from that point on. Harrison thus owned the rights to his later Beatles songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". That year, as well, Starr created Startling Music, which holds the rights to his Beatles compositions, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".[489][490]

In March 1969, James arranged to sell his and his partner's shares of Northern Songs to the British broadcasting company Associated Television (ATV), founded by impresario Lew Grade, without first informing the Beatles. The band then made a bid to gain a controlling interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding.[491] The deal collapsed over the objections of Lennon, who declared, "I'm sick of being about by men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the City".[492] By the end of May, ATV had acquired a majority stake in Northern Songs, controlling nearly the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue, as well as any future material until 1973.[493] In frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late October 1969.[494]

In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), led it to attempt to sell its music division. According to authors Brian Southall and Rupert Perry, Grade contacted McCartney, offering ATV Music and Northern Songs for $30 million.[495] According to an account McCartney gave in 1995, he met with Grade and explained he was interested solely in the Northern Songs catalogue if Grade were ever willing to "separate off" that portion of ATV Music. Soon afterwards, Grade offered to sell him Northern Songs for £20 million, giving the ex-Beatle "a week or so" to decide. By McCartney's account, he and Ono countered with a £5 million bid that was rejected.[496] According to reports at the time, Grade refused to separate Northern Songs and turned down an offer of £21–25 million from McCartney and Ono for Northern Songs. In 1982, ACC was acquired in a takeover by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court for £60 million.[497]

In 1985, Michael Jackson purchased ATV for a reported $47.5 million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other copyrights.[498] In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110 million, Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony, creating a new company, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he held a 50% stake. The merger made the new company, then valued at over half a billion dollars, the third-largest music publisher in the world.[499] In 2016, Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million.[500]

Despite the lack of publishing rights to most of their songs, Lennon's estate and McCartney continue to receive their respective shares of the writers' royalties, which together are 331⁄3% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%.[501] Two of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs – "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" – were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before they signed with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore[502] in 1978,[503] and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by McCartney's company MPL Communications.[504] On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in the United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in 2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56 years.[505][506] McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017.[507][508]
Selected filmography
Main article: The Beatles in film

Fictionalised

    A Hard Day's Night (1964)
    Help! (1965)
    Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
    Yellow Submarine (1968) (brief cameo)

Documentaries and filmed performances

    The Beatles at Shea Stadium (1966)
    Let It Be (1970)
    The Compleat Beatles (1982)
    It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (1987) (about Sgt. Pepper)
    The Beatles Anthology (1995)
    The Beatles: 1+ (2015) (collection of digitally restored music videos)
    The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (2016) (about Beatlemania and touring years)
    The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
    Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song (2023) (short film about the creation of "Now and Then")
    Beatles '64 (2024) (about the cultural impact of the Beatles' first US visit in 1964)

Concert tours
Main article: List of the Beatles' live performances

Headlining

    1963 UK tours (winter–autumn)
    Autumn 1963 Sweden tour
    Winter 1964 North American tour
    Spring 1964 UK tour
    1964 world tour
    1964 North American tour
    1965 European tour
    1965 US tour
    1965 UK tour
    1966 tour of Germany, Japan and the Philippines
    1966 US tour

Co-headlining

    Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour
    Spring 1963 Tommy Roe/Chris Montez UK tour
    Roy Orbison/The Beatles Tour

See also