The Beatles
were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool,
in 1960. With John Lennon, Paul
McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr,
they became widely regarded as the greatest and most influential act of the
rock era. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll,
the Beatles later experimented with several genres,
ranging from pop
ballads
to psychedelic and hard rock,
often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways. In the
early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania",
but as their songwriting grew in sophistication they came to be perceived as an
embodiment of the ideals shared by the era's sociocultural revolutions.
From 1960, the Beatles built their reputation playing
clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period. Manager Brian Epstein
moulded them into a professional act and producer George Martin
enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom
after their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. They acquired
the nickname "the Fab Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the
following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading
the "British Invasion" of the United States pop
market. From 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced what many critics consider their
finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Rubber Soul
(1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(1967), The Beatles (commonly known as the White Album,
1968) and Abbey Road
(1969). After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed
successful musical careers. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and
Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr, the
surviving members, remain musically active.
According to the RIAA, the Beatles are the best-selling
band in the United States, with 177 million certified units. They
have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in
the UK than any other act. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazine's list of the all-time
most successful "Hot 100" artists; as
of 2014, they hold the record for most
number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with twenty. They have received
ten Grammy Awards,
an Academy Award
for Best Original Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. Collectively included in Time
magazine's compilation of the twentieth
century's 100 most influential people, they are the best-selling band in
history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. In 2004, Rolling Stone
ranked the Beatles as the greatest artist of all time.