Who were the Beatles?
The Beatles were an English rock band from Liverpool formed in 1960, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are the best-selling music act of all time.
The band grew from Lennon's group The Quarrymen. They built their skills playing in clubs in Hamburg, Germany, and at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. Ringo Starr replaced drummer Pete Best in 1962, shortly before they began recording with producer George Martin at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London.
Beatlemania swept Britain in 1963, and the band conquered America in 1964, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show to an estimated 73 million viewers. They moved from catchy pop songs to groundbreaking albums like Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, experimenting with new studio techniques.
Breakup and legacy
The Beatles broke up in 1970, and all four had solo careers. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died in 2001. Now and Then, a final Beatles song completed using a Lennon demo, was released in 2023 and won a Grammy in 2025.
Did You Know?
The Beatles have more number-one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 than any other act, with 20.