After John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison met each other in the late 1950s, coming together for the latter’s skiffle band The Quarrymen, the world would never be the same. The band faced two notable lineup changes: first, with former bassist Stuart Sutcliffe departing for art school, and then with manager Brian Epstein booting drummer Pete Best in favor of Ringo Starr — and The Beatles as the world knows them were born.
After two years of diligently working and releasing singles, The Beatles made their debut in America, appearing on the The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, to an estimated audience of 73 million, and performed five songs — “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”; the performance would change the trajectory of their career. Just two months after The Beatles’ appearance on the show, the group dominated the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first act ever to occupy the top five spots on the chart, and giving birth to Beatlemania in the process.
The remainder of the ’60s would continue to be successful for the band, as it released three movies, sent 13 albums to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and played one of the first stadium concerts in the United States. Of course, The Beatles’ history isn’t without bumps in the road — see their retirement from touring, bubbling tensions toward final album Let It Be or Lennon’s persecution by the FBI — but the soaring highs firmly cemented the group in rock n’ roll history.
From the Beatlemania of the 1960s and the band’s long streak of No. 1s, to the post breakup years and the release of the group’s final single, “Now and Then,” Billboard takes a look back at The Beatles’ most memorable moments below.
Paul McCartney, 15, joined the Quarrymen, a skiffle band led by 16-year-old John Lennon. The following March, 15-year-old George Harrison joined as lead guitarist. With Stuart Sutcliffe joining on bass in 1960, the band becomes known as the Beatals, which he suggested in honor of Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
After a short stint as the Silver Beatles, the band finally settled on The Beatles as its name, booked a residency in Hamburg, Germany, and filled out its lineup by hiring drummer Pete Best. During the group’s second stint in the city, all adopt Sutcliffe’s new mop-top hairstyle. McCartney later takes over bass duties when Sutcliffe quits to return to art school.
After getting rejected by the Decca label, which told Brian Epstein that “guitar groups are on the way out,” The Beatles get signed by George Martin to Parlophone, a sub-label of EMI. The producer disapproved of Best’s performance during a record session, leading to the firing of the drummer in August 1962. They soon hire Ringo Starr, the drummer for fellow Liverpool band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Fans of Best hold vigils outside of his house and protest his removal from the band during The Beatles’ appearance at the Cavern Club. Harrison sustains a black eye from an angry fan and Epstein hires security for the group.
The Beatles recorded their harmonica-laden first single “Love Me Do” with Martin, but re-recorded it using professional drummer Andy White, with Ringo only adding tambourine.
The Beatles’ first album arrives and spawns two hits: The new version of “Love Me Do” goes to No. 17 on the U.K. singes charts, and hits No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 30, 1964. The single “Please Please Me” becomes their first U.K. No. 1 and hits No. 3 on the Hot 100.
Before the release of their first album, Martin asked the band to bring him another single as good as “Please Please Me.” They answer with “From Me to You,” and the song quickly goes to No. 1 on many British charts. It peaked at No. 116 in the “Bubbling Under” portion of the Hot 100, marking the first time the Beatles appear on an American chart.
Meet the Beatles! marked the group’s first American album to be released through Capitol Records in both mono and stereo formats. The LP charted at No. 1 for 11 total weeks on the Billboard 200, and spent a cumulative 74 weeks on the tally.
Beatlemania hits the U.S. at the end of 1963, and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” becomes a success and tops the Billboard singles chart on Feb. 1. The band leaves Britain with about 4,000 fans bidding them farewell at London’s Heathrow airport, and arrives to the screams of 3,000 devotees at New York’s JFK. The “British Invasion” is officially in full swing.
Epstein, ever the shrewd manager, made a deal for The Beatles to appear on three consecutive episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show. Following Sullivan’s intro, the first episode begins with the band performing “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You” (which includes a “Sorry girls, he’s married” caption superimposed over John Lennon) and “She Loves You.” The group returns to play “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The episode is seen by 73 million viewers, over a third of the American population.
The following week, they tape an episode in Miami Beach, where they also meet Muhammad Ali, and barely make it through a thick crowd surrounding the stage to play “This Boy,” “All My Loving,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “From Me to You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Their final appearance was previously taped before the Feb. 9 show, and featured “Twist and Shout,” “Please Please Me” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
On the Hot 100 dated April 4, 1964, The Beatles made history by becoming the only act to monopolize the chart’s top five positions. “Can’t Buy Me Love” blasts to the top, followed by “Twist and Shout” at No. 2, “She Loves You” at No. 3, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at No. 4 and “Please Please Me” at No. 5. The Beatles eventually score 20 No. 1 singles throughout their career and still hold the record for most No. 1s in the Hot 100’s history.
With Beatlemania in full swing, the group took advantage and releases their first feature movie, a musical comedy titled A Hard Day’s Night. The film, written by Allum Owen, follows McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr and they prepare for a television performance. The movie debuts to critical acclaim.
Rock n’ roll history was made on Aug. 28, 1964 after The Beatles’ show at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York. Following the concert, the Fab Four met Bob Dylan and their mutual journalist friend, Al Aronowitz, at The Delmonico Hotel for the first time. The pair, in turn, introduce them to marijuana.
The Beatles fourth album, Beatles for Sale. The set arrived just 21 weeks after A Hard Day’s Night and marks the quartet’s fourth album release in less than two years, but the hustle was worth it — the LP spawns yet another No. 1 with “Eight Days a Week.”
The Beatles headline one of the first major stadium concerts in history, performing in front of 55,600 screaming fans at Shea Stadium in Queens, N.Y. The band rode a helicopter, then an armored truck to the venue and were introduced by Ed Sullivan. The noise from the crowd and PA is so loud that the awestruck band members were even sure how the concert sounded, and a documentary that comes out in 1966 has to use overdubs and re-recordings because of the audio problems. The concert’s gross is $304,000, then the highest of all time.
The Beatles’ movie releases continue with the arrival of 1965’s comedy adventure Help! in the U.S., which sees the gang attempting to escape the evil clutches of a cult that kidnaps them. The film becomes a smash, raking in more than $12 million at the box office, with its original motion picture soundtrack spending nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
A near calendar year after the arrival of Beatles for Sale, the quartet followed up the release with its fifth album, Rubber Soul. A clear pivot in the way the muscians’ approach to making music, the record served as a key work in the psychedlic rock movement and would inspired their peers. The set fared well on the charts, too, peaking once again at No. 1 for six weeks on the Billboard 200, and spending a total of 70 weeks on the chart.
As many of the Beatles’ albums had different track lists in the U.K. and the States, its American label Capitol often created compilation albums that included the omitted songs and singles. Bored by the standard humdrum photo shoots, the band let Robert Whitaker pose them in butcher coats, covered in meat and dismembered doll parts, with Lennon and McCartney associating the imagery with the Vietnam War. Public backlash leads to Capitol recalling and destroying many copies of the album, and then re-releasing it with an inoffensive pasted-on cover. Original pressings are still sold for thousands of dollars.
The Beatles’ seventh studio set, Revolver, is released and accompanied by the double single “Eleanor Rigby” and “Yellow Submarine.” Considered by fans as the true start of the group’s psychedelic era, the album reflects the quartet’s budding interests in LSD and Eastern philosophy. The set hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200, spending six weeks in the top spot and 94 weeks on the chart overall. The album marks the group’s final release before deciding to stop touring.
Lennon does an interview with The Evening Standard and says that the band is “more popular than Jesus.” The comments were published in the United States by July — which coincided with the group’s 1966 tour and release for Revolver — and incited protests and people burning their albums in the Bible Belt. Lennon later apologized for his comments.
Jarred by the “Jesus” backlash and frustrated after years of being drowned out by screaming fans — not to mention the inability to perform their complex new songs in a live setting — The Beatles decided to cease performing live following a 14-show tour. Winding down at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, the group only manages to sell 25,000 tickets at the 42,500-capacity stadium. They played 11 songs and set up a camera to commemorate the event. Audio of the show is still available thanks to a cassette recording McCartney had their press officer Tony Barrow make.
While working on a new album, they release the double A-side single of Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” and McCartney’s “Penny Lane,” both written about their childhoods in Liverpool. Because the BBC treats both sides as individual releases, the single is the Beatles’ first since “Love Me Do” not to reach No. 1 on the U.K. charts. Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Release Me” tops them, despite the Fab Four selling nearly twice as many records.
The Summer of Love arrives and comes with a soundtrack courtesy of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Heralded as one of the first true art rock releases due to its interpretations of Western and Indian classical music, plus is vaudeville, circus and avant-garde influences, the set soared on the Billboard charts and logged 15 weeks at No. 1 the Billboard 200.
The Beatles participated in the television program Our World, which marked the first satellite uplink performance to be broadcast to 24 countries across the world. The two-hour program saw the Fab Four perform “All You Need Is Love” from London.
While the band studies Transcendental Meditation at a Welsh retreat with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, manager Brian Epstein is found dead from an overdose of the sleeping pill Carbritral. The coroner ruled it accidental due to the low dose, but Epstein’s assistant Peter Brown later claimed that Epstein had previously written a suicide note. In order to give Epstein’s family privacy, The Beatles declined to attend his funeral. Lennon later said Epstein’s death was a turning point in the band’s career, preceding its eventual breakup.
Originially meant to be completed sooner — the set was started in April 1967, but remained static until after the death of Epstein — Magical Mystery Tour is completed and gets its release in late 1967. The album served as the sountrack for a telelvision movie of the same name (released the following month in December), and peaked at No. 1 for eight weeks.
Interest in meditation and spirituality led The Beatles to Rishikesh, India, for a meditation training program led by the Maharishi. Other attendees include Mike Love of the Beach Boys and Mia Farrrow and her sister Prudence, about whom Lennon famously wrote the song “Dear Prudence.” The band penned over 20 songs, including Starr’s first solo composition, “Don’t Pass Me By.” Ringo left first, missing his family and hating the food. McCartney returned to England due to business engagements. Lennon, growing distrustful of the Maharishi’s supposed interests in financial gain and his young female students, later left with Harrison and penned “Sexy Sadie” about the guru.
Though notably absent from any of The Beatles’ respective albums, “Hey Jude” arrived and marked the band’s first single as part of the band’s Apple record label, serving as one of the label’s first four single releases as well as its launch into the public eye. The track is one of the band’s most successful on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 1 for nine weeks and spending 19 cumulative weeks on the chart.
Following their sojourn to India, The Beatles worked on a double album, their most experimental yet. The unfocused sessions led to tensions between the band members and their regular collaborators. McCartney and Lennon worked separately, and Starr quit the band for two weeks. With each Beatle working alone, the record stretches to 30 tracks of varying styles, culminating in the polarizing, 8-minute 22-second-long avant-garde composition “Revolution 9.” The cover is completely white save for a serial number, with the band’s name embossed in small print. The album spends nine weeks on top of the Billboard 200 during its 155 weeks on the chart.
Following The White Album, the Beatles worked on a number of songs with the intention of premiering them during an audience-attended live taping. Group tensions marred the rehearsals, and Harrison left the band for five days. As filming of the sessions progressed, The Beatles ultimately decided to salvage whatever they could of the project and staged a concert on the roof of Apple Corps’ London headquarters. They film the five-song, nine-take performance while fans and passersby gathered in the street below until the police showed and shut the party down. It’s the last time the Beatles performed together.
Following Lennon and Ono’s marriage on March 20, 1969,the couple used the press from their wedding to call attention to world peace in light of the Vietnam War. The pair invited members of the press to their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel for their version of a “sit in” nonviolent protest.
The Beatles’ last recorded album, Abbey Road, arrived. Primarily recorded throughout recorded in April, July, and August of 1969, it’s the group’s most succesful record to date, not including a compilation album. Following its release, the album charted 11 weeks at No. 1 and has spent nearly 500 weeks on the Billboard 200.
Rumors of McCartney’s death started swirling around college campuses in September 1966, with a theory circulating that the Beatle died in a car crash and was quietly replaced with a lookalike for band promotional materials and interviews. The rumors gained enough traction that The Beatles denied it in October 1969 (“The story has been circulating for about two years – we get letters from all sorts of nuts but Paul is still very much with us”). McCartney put the rumors to rest on Nov. 7, 1969, by appeareing on the cover of Life alongside his family and addressing the false reports. “Perhaps the rumour started because I haven’t been much in the press lately. I have done enough press for a lifetime, and I don’t have anything to say these days. I am happy to be with my family and I will work when I work.”
McCartney fueled rumors of him leaving the band after holding an April 9 Q&A with journalists, stating his “break from The Beatles” and revealing that he had no plans to continue working with the group or writing music with Lennon in the future. During the Q&A, he handed out advance copies of his debut solo album, McCartney.
McCartney was recorded largely in secret at his home in England, and was released to the ire of his bandmates and the press for leading to the breakup of the band. Nevertheless, the album spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Released in tandem with the documentary film of the same name, Let It Be serves as The Beatles’ final album. During the band’s sessions — which largerly took place in early 1968, 1969 and 1970 — McCartney wanted the band to get back to a classic rock n’ roll sound amid conflicts within the band. The LP became another No. 1 effort for the group, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Harrison released his third solo album — his first that’s not almost entirely instrumental. Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr, as well as future members of Derek and the Dominoes, performed on the record, which was produced by Phil Spector. The triple-LP produced the hit singles “My Sweet Lord,” which stayed at No. 1 for four weeks, and “What Is Life.”
Lennon and Ono teamed up to form their Plastic Ono Band, which was equal parts a music project and art collective. Rotating members were frequent, and included former Beatles bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr as well as Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, Billy Preston and more. Lennon and Ono’s debut solo albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, both arrived in December of 1970, with the set peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.
Harrison and sitar great Ravi Shankar organized what was then the biggest benefit concert in history, raising money for the residents of East Pakistan following a tropical cyclone and civil war genocide. Starr, Clapton, Dylan and Leon Russell took part in the two shows at Madison Square Garden, which featured a number of hits by each performer. It culminated in a live album and film, which raises $12 million for UNICEF.
As Lennon worked on a follow-up to Double Fantasy with Ono, he was shot and killed outside the Dakota, his New York City apartment building, by obsessive fan Mark David Chapman. Fans the world over mourned the 40-year-old singer. Soon after, “(Just Like) Starting Over” becomes a No. 1 single. Double Fantasy also jumps to the top of the charts, landing at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 that same month.
The concept for Traveling Wilburys — a rock supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty — is formed between Harrison and Lynne while the former Beatle was recording his 1987 album, Cloud Nine, with Harrison announcing the group’s existence during an interview with Bob Coburn. The supergroup releases two albums: 1988’s Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 and 1990’s Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during its first year of eligibility. Harrison, Starr, Ono and Lennon’s sons — Julian and Sean — attended the ceremony. Due to the band’s continued legal squabbling, McCartney refused to go, saying he would “feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion.”
After a fruitful ’70s solo career that produced the hit singles “Photograph,” “You’re Sixteen,” “Only You (And You Alone)” and “No No Song,” Ringo formed his namesake group in 1989. Members include the Band’s Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson; the Eagles’ Joe Walsh; Dr. John’ the E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons and Nils Lofgren; and Ringo’s drummer son Zak Starkey, among many others. The group performs songs by Ringo and The Beatles, the members’ famous releases and covers. The All-Starr Band has undergone multiple lineup changes and continues to tour today.
The first album in The Beatles’ anthology series, Anthology 1, was released Nov. 20, 1995. The set featured 60 tracks, including outtakes, rarities and live performances from 1958 to 1964 that notably included original bass player player Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best before they left the band.
Harrison died following his battle with lunger cancer in one of McCartney’s Beverly Hills propeties, surrounded by wife Olivia, their son Dhani, Ravi Shankar and his wife and daughter, and friends Shyamasundar Das and Mukunda Goswami. Olivia and Dhani revealed in a statement that his last words were “Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.”
Following the Fab Four’s arrival on the music downloading service, they sold more than 450,000 albums and 2 million individual songs worldwide by Nov. 23, Apple confirmed.
The 56th annual Grammy Awards got Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr back on stage together and saw them perform a Beatles tribute. The group received the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award that night.
Sixty years after the arrival of their debut studio album, the band’s new song “Now and Then” arrived, billed as the “last Beatles song.” Prior to its release, McCartney explained that they used AI to help finish the track, but emphasized that “it’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years.”
Less than a day after the track’s release, it had already debuted at No. 37 on Billboard‘s Rock & Alternative Airplay and No. 1 on Digital Song Sales charts dated Nov. 11, 2023.