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The Sixties: The Beatles

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

A Beatles Overview

You can break up the Rock and Roll era that was 1954-1975, and popular, music into three periods: pre-Beatles, mid-Beatles, and post-Beatles. From 1964-1970, the Beatles were the ones other musicians measured themselves by. In that short time, no other musician came close to what they were doing. They recorded almost two hundred original songs, some of which would be covered by hundreds of other musicians. Twenty of these songs charted at number one. All of their albums charted at number one. The Beatles transformed Rock & Roll in such a way that they took the music from a fun-loving teenage experience to a piece of art that adults listened to.

10 Reasons Some People Thought Paul McCartney Was Dead

After Abbey Road was released, some fans believed that the cover was sending them the message that Paul McCartney had died in 1966:

  1. On the cover of Abbey Road, Paul is barefoot. If dead, he wouldn't need shoes.
  2. On the cover of Abbey Road, Paul is walking out of step.
  3. On the cover of Abbey Road, Paul holds a cigarette in his right hand. Paul is left handed.
  4. On the cover of Abbey Road, John, Ringo and George look like they are in a funeral procession: John in white (a clergyman), Ringo in black (a mourner), George in jeans (a gravedigger).
  5. On Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, there were a number of references to death.
  6. Fans thought that Paul was replaced by Billy Shears on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  7. The younger Beatles dressed in black on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  8. Slow down Strawberry Fields Forever and some think you can hear John say, "I buried Paul."
  9. Listening to Revolution # 9 on the White Album, some heard, "He hit a pole! Better get him to see a surgeon."
  10. Some theorists believe the black walrus on Magical Mystery Tour symbolizes death

​Sources: Time Magazine's article, "Conspiracy Theories" and Rolling Stone Magazine's "Paul McCartney Is Dead."

Biographies

Beatles Movies

Movies Featuring the Beatles
  • Yellow Submarine (1968)
  • Let It Be (1970)
Movies Featuring Beatles Music

Abbey Road Recording Studio

Abbey Road Studio

Photograph: Abbey Road Recording Studio door

Door to Abbey Road Studios
The Beatles recorded their music here.
Photo By Carlos Leiva - Own work,
CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73276374

The Beatles: The Long & Winding Story

A Beatles Top 10

  1. A Day in the Life (1967)
  2. I Want to Hold Your Hand (1963)
  3. Strawberry Fields Forever (1967)
  4. Yesterday (1965)
  5. In my life (1965)
  6. Something (1969)
  7. Hey Jude (1968)
  8. Let It Be (1970)
  9. Come Together (1969)
  10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (1968)

Source: Rolling Stone Magazine's Picks for the 10 Greatest Beatles Songs.
Songs found on Spotify

Beatles Albums

Release Date Albume Peak Chart Position Weeks on Chart
March 22, 1963. Please Please Me 1 70
November 22, 1963. With the Beatles 1 51
June 26, 1964. A Hard Day's Night. 1 51
December 4, 1964. Beatles For Sale. 1 46
August 13, 1965. Help! 1 44
December 6, 1965. Rubber Soul. 1 59
August 8, 1966. Revolver. 1 77
June 2, 1967. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 1 175
November 27, 1967 Magical Mystery Tour. 1 91
November 25, 1968. The White Album. 1 155
January 13, 1969. Yellow Submarine. 2 25
October 1, 1969. Abbey Road. 1 129
May 28, 1970. Let It Be. 1 59

Source: The Beatles: The Ultimate Album-by-Album Guide

 

Influences

In additional to the early Rock & Roll artists, here are some of the people who had an important influence on the Beatles:

  1. Lonnie Donegan, skiffle musician
  2. Bob Dylan, lyricist and musician
  3. Astrid Kirchherr, photographer
  4. Barry Miles, writer and art gallery
  5. Cliff Richard, musician
  6. Ravi Shankar, Hindu sitar musician
  7. Phil Spector, record producer
  8. Tony Sheridan, musician
  9. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, musician
  10. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru

Fifth Beatles

A number of close associates and musician who were instrumental it the Beatles career as a band:

  1. Pete Best, drummer
  2. Eric Clapton, guitarist
  3. Geoff Emerick, recording engineer
  4. Brian Epstein, manager
  5. Richard Lester, film director
  6. George Martin, record producer
  7. Jimmy Nicol, drummer
  8. Billy Preston, keyboardist
  9. Stu Sutcliffe, bass

References

Babiuk, Andy. (2015).. Beatles gear: all the Fab Four's instruments from stage to studio--the ultimate edition. Backbeat Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation. 2015.
Covach, J. R., & Flory, A. (2015). What's that sound?: An introduction to rock and its history. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.. 2016.
Crampton, L., & Rees, D. (2003). Rock & roll year by year. Dorling Kindersley.
Davies, Hunter, et al. (2019).  The Beatles Book. Ebury Press..
Guesdon, Jean-Michel, and Philippe Margotin. (2013). All the Songs: the Story behind Every Beatles Release. Black Dog & Leventhatl, 2013.
Lewisohn, M. (2016). The Beatles: all these years. Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
McCleary, J. B., & McCleary, J. J. (n.d.). The hippie dictionary: a cultural encyclopedia (and phraseicon) of the 1960s and 1970s. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
Rolling Stone (2019). The Beatles: The Ultimate Album-by-Album Guide. Rolling Stone LLC, 2019.
Strodder, C., & Phillips, M. (2007). The encyclopedia of sixties cool: A celebration of the grooviest people, events, and artifacts of the 1960s. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.
Ward, E. (2019). History of Rock and Roll, Volume 2: 1964-1977: the Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock. New York: Flatiron Books.