The Beatles were one of the most influential music groups
of the rock era, and many consider them the best musical
group on Earth. Initially they affected the post-war baby
boom generation of Britain and the U.S. during the 1960s,
and later the rest of the world. Certainly they were the most
successful group, with global sales exceeding 1.1 billion
records.
While they were originally famous for light-weight pop music
(and the extreme hysterical reaction they received from
young women), their later works achieved a combination of
popular and critical acclaim perhaps unequaled in the 20th
century.
Eventually, they became more than recording artists,
branching out into film and — particularly in the case of
John Lennon — political activism. They achieved an iconic
status beyond mere celebrity, with far reaching effects
difficult to exaggerate.
The members of the group were John Lennon, (James)
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (Richard
Starkey), all from Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Original
drummer Pete Best was asked to leave the group just
before it started recording. Stuart Sutcliffe was with them in
Hamburg but also left.
Beatlemania began in the UK and exploded following the
appearance of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in the
United States, on February 9, 1964. The pop-music band
became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans,
hysterical adulation, and denunciations by culture
commentators and others such as Frank Sinatra.
Some of this was confusion over the sources of their music
(a similar confusion was evinced in 1956 over Elvis Presley
by commentators who were unaware of the tradition of
blues, R&B and gospel out of which Presley emerged), and
some of it was simply an incredulous reaction to the length
of their hair. At any rate, it was regarded by the band
members with both awe and resentment.
