The Beatles' influence on rock music and world culture was – and remains – immense. Their huge commercial success started an almost immediate wave of changes including: a move from US global dominance of rock and roll to UK acts; from soloists to groups; from professional songwriters to self-penned songs, and changes in fashion. They also provided the template for the self-contained four-piece guitar group.
Before their emergence, it was common for singers to rely on professional songwriters for their material (such as the Brill Building in New York City, which was a source of many hit singles in the early 1960s) as well as relying heavily on studio musicians for their recordings.
In October 2005, the US Variety magazine named The Beatles the #1 icons of the 20th Century, beating Louis Armstrong and Lucille Ball.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were recently (2006) named by more than a third (34 per cent) of those surveyed as the "Best of British" - with The Queen (18%), Harry Potter (14%) and the BBC (14%) behind them.[1]. In second place - after The Beatles - came the local English public house - 32% - which was followed by the British countryside - 27%. Shakespeare was named as the "Best of British" by only 13 per cent. "Posh and Becks" (David Beckham and Victoria Beckham) were chosen as the "Worst of British"; even less popular than "a rainy day" - in second place.
TV & Film
Although Elvis Presley used the medium of television in the 1950s in America to attract a wider audience (rather than just performing live or being heard on the radio) The Beatles had the advantage of being seen in the USA as well as on British TV in the early sixties, just as the sale of television sets increased dramatically (although only in black & white). Their influence on the medium of TV - and its rising importance - paved the way for presenters of programmes to utilise their fame, and performers/actors to include references to The Beatles in their own writing.
They also used film to present themselves to the public, as had Presley with his string of Hollywood mucials. The Beatles would - later in their career - move away from main-stream films to make more experimental movies - such as the Magical Mystery Tour - which influenced directors, such as the young Steven Spielberg, when he was in directing school (Anthology) and Tom Hanks - the film.
Absolutely Fabulous
The hit UK TV show Absolutely Fabulous, is better known as "Ab-Fab" was with Jennifer Saunders (born July 6, 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire) and Joanna Lumley, OBE, FRGS (born May 1, 1946 in Srinagar, Kashmir, India).
They filmed a whole episode with Robert Lindsay, who played a fictional tape engineer who used to work at Abbey Road during the time that The Beatles worked there, and who had found some unreleased tapes. The supposed "lost tapes" of The Beatles were never really lost; they are just a collection of BBC recordings that accumulated over the years in its archives. They have recently been released on CD. The Lost Tapes
The Ab-Fab episode: Schmoozin' - 28 Nov 03: A long scene was filmed in the Abbey Road number two studio: Joanna Lumley pressed the record button by mistake on the reel-to-reel recorder whilst she was looking for a second bottle of champagne in the control room, and Jennifer Saunders unknowingly sang over the tapes, and so they were lost forever.
This episode also starred Elton John, who was invited to a party to celebrate the finding of the tapes. He was invited because he had worked with Lennon, but was not invited for that reason. He was expected to "tinkle the ivories" (play piano) in the background, to which he strongly objected. This was one of Elton´s rare forays into the acting world. Robert Lindsay played the tapes at the party, and, after realising that they were lost forever, promptly collapsed on the floor.
Ed Sullivan
In 1964, their first live American TV appearance was on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles first appearance, on February 9, 1964, was the most-watched program in TV history to that point. An estimated 73 million people watched The Beatles that night, in 1964. [2] and remains one of the most-watched TV programs of all time.
John Lennon was so nervous before the show that he taped the song lyrics to the back of his guitar, and George Harrison threw-up before their appearance.
This coup by Sullivan swiftly raised the ratings of his show, although he had showcased Elvis Presley before The Beatles, when he famously denied the cameras to film Presley below the waist. This was because of Elvis's famous hip movements, that were deemed to be too suggestive by Sullivan.
The Beatles appeared, either in person or on video tape, nine times on the Sullivan Show. For their first visit, and the next two, The Beatles received $10,000, plus their expenses.
The Beatles appeared on February 16, 1964. This was a live performance from their hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. In preparation for this appearance, The Beatles played to a live audience during the afternoon at the hotel, and then at 8 p.m., they performed live for the Sullivan Show via satellite. The Beatles sang six songs; She Loves You, This Boy, All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You, and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
The next performance was on February 23, 1964. This was (technically) their first performance, because The Beatles recorded this performance on February 9, 1964, before their historic "first" appearance. That program was taped that afternoon for broadcast three Sundays after. The Beatles played three songs: Twist and Shout, Please Please Me, and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Ed Sullivan thanked The Beatles for being “four of the nicest youngsters."
On Sunday, May 24, 1964, The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast an interview with The Beatles where they talked about their new movie, "A Hard Day's Night." Combined with this interview was a tape of The Beatles singing, You Can't Do That, from the movie. Although seen that night, this video section did not make it into the final film cut. When The Beatles went back to America, in 1965 (and also whilst preparing for their famous concert at Shea Stadium in New York) they taped six songs on August 14, to be aired on the Sullivan Show on September 12, 1965. The Beatles played six songs; I Feel Fine, I'm Down, Act Naturally, Ticket To Ride, Yesterday and Help! Although taped, this would be the last "live" performance The Beatles did for The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Beatles appeared a few more times, via tape. On June 5, 1966, the show aired two music "videos." They were: Rain and Paperback Writer.
More than a year later, The Beatles appeared again on video. On November 26, 1967, The Beatles sent a video of The Beatles performing Hello Goodbye. The Beatles had two more appearances on the Sullivan Show via music videos. The next came on February 12, 1967 with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, and the final performance was on February 15, 1970. In this they played Two Of Us, and Let It Be [3].
Sullivan´s show was not a music programme, but was based on a cabaret format, which meant that not only musicians performed on it, but clowns, dancers, comedians, jugglers, and even Britain´s Pinky and Perky (two pig puppets) had a chance to be seen by American audiences.
Free as a Bird video
The Beatles "Free as a Bird" video: The video deliberately included many references to Beatles songs, such as:
John, Paul, George, and Ringo in the "rain" outside the Liverpool docks with people coming from a "hard day's night" of work, and people waiting to see The Beatles play in the Cavern. It's followed by a shot of "Strawberry Field" with a "Nowhere Man" wandering around. Then an empty tree is shown ("No-one I think is in my tree"). There is a very quick shot of a "Silver Hammer" hardware store and then an 'Egg & Co' van, whom the owner of was (presumably) known as "The egg man".
On the left of the next shot you can see a "barrow in the marketplace", and, on the right, a barber’s shop, which is in "Penny Lane". There is a sign in a shop window that says, "Help". The camera then pans across a car showing two people making love "in the road", followed by showing a cake shop window which has a "birthday" cake behind it. The numbers on the cake are "64" ("When I´m 64").
As George walks up to the door of the Apple office the brass sign was changed — on the left — to read "Dr. Robert".
The car accident that John is looking at was obviously just part of "a day in the life" of the firemen who have a "very clean machine". The policemen standing nearby are all "standing in a row". The camera moves from a "Helter Skelter" to a view of a kite, which was for "the benefit of Mr. Kite".
In the back alley, you can see a step ladder leading up to a bathroom window, probably because "she came in through the bathroom window", whilst in the back garden/yard some sunflowers are growing "so incredibly high". A group of small children run down the alley wearing masks that make them look like little "piggies". As the camera pans up and into a room, on the windowpane you can glimpse the sight of a "lizard on a window pane". Inside the room a "paperback writer" is typing near a clock which reads 10:10, which is, logically, "one after 9.09".
Outside, a "blue meanie" pops up from "a hole" in the roof, which a man is "fixing". Then, down in the street, a "newspaper taxi" pulls up as a girl walks out of a door. Maybe she is "leaving home". Two people are carrying a large portrait of "Chairman Mao" in the background, which is obviously part of the "revolution". In the foreground, John Lennon is "happy just to dance" with Yoko, and far away, you can see a coach passing that is possibly going on a "magical mystery tour"...
The scene changes, and we see "Bungalow Bill" with his gun, and, "in case of accidents, he always took his Mum", who is behind him. The camera moves through the crowd — past an Indian playing a sitar — and we see Brian Epstein putting his scarf on to leave because he "doesn't want to spoil the party". The camera pans over to a bass drum with "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" painted on it.
The graveyard: "Mother Mary" — a statue — turns her head to face the camera. "Eleanor Rigby's" gravestone is in full shot, and then "Martha" the dog runs across the graveyard, with "Father McKenzie" in the background. Paul is seen dancing like "the fool on the hill", with a girl who is "leaving home", on the road. A "long and winding road" can be seen in the distance.
The shot before last is the "Abbey Road" zebra crossing.
At "the end", an actor, playing George Formby, is finishing a song playing the ukelele on a stage in front of an audience, and Lennon (played backwards) says, “It´s turned out nice again”, which was Formby´s catch-phrase.
That Thing You Do!
Tom Hanks wrote and directed the film, and it was seen as a copy, or an obvious homage/tribute to, The Beatles, albeit from a USA viewpoint. Hanks wrote himself into the script as the manager of the band. His appearance in the film strongly resembles Brian Epstein.
Apart from the music being very similar to that of the Beatles, there are several references to The Beatles, such as the names of the band: the "Oneders" (pronounced as "The Wonders") and "The Heardsmen" — "Misspelt, just like The Beatles".
Comparisons with The Beatles:
The original drummer was replaced on the verge of the band's stardom (as was Pete Best) and their hit song was a faster version of a slower ballad (as was the Beatles' "Please Please Me"). "Jimmy" threw-up before their TV debut — as George Harrison had done before The Ed Sullivan Show). (John Lennon often used to be ill before Beatles shows). The set-up for The Hollywood Showcase had a caption under "Jimmy" that read, "Careful girls, he's engaged", which was very similar to the one John Lennon — on The Ed Sullivan Show — also had that read, "Sorry girls, he's married").
Tom Hanks' character said that the Wonders would invade the UK (referring to the British invasion of the USA).
Asked how he would sell That Thing You Do! if he were a theatre owner, Hanks said,
"Well, I'd utilize my name somehow — you know, that megalomaniacal writer/director/actor! I would try to pretend there's something called Wondermania that is sweeping the country, and say, here they are, in all of their rip-snortin', rock 'n' rollin', foot-stompin', hand-clappin' glory — live and well, in their first action movie!" [4]
Hanks spent a lot of time and money on the film, but it was not a commercial success.
The Rutles
The Rutles was a parody of The Beatles, and was jointly created by Eric Idle (from Monty Python) and Neil Innes (from The Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band). George Harrison would later produce Monty Python films.
This fictional group is best known for its "mock-umentary" film about The Beatles in 1978, entitled All You Need Is Cash (often referred to as The Rutles). Its promotional line was, "The musical legend which will last a lunchtime." A follow-up was made: The Rutles 2 - Can't Buy My Lunch, in 2002, but was not released for over a year. It is still unavailable in Britain.
- Ron Nasty (based on John Lennon) played by Neil Innes;
- Dirk McQuickly (based on Paul McCartney) played by Eric Idle (the singing was primarily Ollie Halsall);
- Stig O'Hara (based on George Harrison) played by Ricky Fataar;
- Barry Wom (born Barrington Womble) (based on Ringo Starr) played by John Halsey (the character's truncated last name was an affectionate play on how Ringo had changed his real surname of 'Starkey' to 'Starr');
- (Hamburg only) 'Leppo, The Fifth Rutle' (based on Stu Sutcliffe) seen only in a still photograph in the film — the photo showed Ollie Halsall, who actually played and sang on the soundtrack. (Halsall, in real life, was one of the four musicians who performed all The Rutles' music, the others being Innes, Halsey and Fataar. Idle did not actually play or sing on the soundtrack, as he was recuperating from an appendectomy.)
The Simpsons
In the 14th season of The Simpsons — episode EABF16 which was originally aired on 05/18/03 — has Bart and Millhouse breaking into Ned Flanders's house when chasing after their fly-on-a-string and stumbling into Ned's private collection of Beatles memorabilia.
The items in Ned´s collection included the following: A DIY book titled Learn Carpentry with the Beatles (with John Lennon on the cover saying 'I'm filling a hole ... in my drywall!'); a poster advertising 'Beatles Shampoo'; a set of drums like the ones Ringo Starr played; four mop-top wigs resembling those of The Beatles; a Beatles Junior Guitar record; a Beatles metal lunchbox; a Beatles mug; a Yellow Submarine standing cardboard cut-out; a Mop-Top-Pop featuring the flavors 'John Lemon,' 'Orange Harrison,' 'Paul McIced Tea' and 'Mango Starr'; a photo of The Beatles (autographed); figurines of The Beatles; The Beatles' Ed Sullivan Show suits; knee-high Beatles figures; a Beatles wastepaper basket; a movie poster for A Hard Day's Night; a Blue Meanie doll; a Help! movie poster; a Help! advertising display with gloved hands that reads "Help Is Here"; a turntable; a juke box; a Beatles-themed pinball machine; an assortment of framed Beatles LP covers; a gold record; a park bench; an electric guitar; a Peter Max–style poster of John Lennon; and bobble-head dolls.
Bart later takes a drink of a 'John Lemon' flavored can of Mop-Top-Pop and and sees a psychedelic transformation of Milhouse through John Lennon's career; from the early years of a suit and mop-top to the "Sergeant Pepper"-era uniform to a more rebellious hippie-look with grannie-glasses to the controversial Rolling Stone magazine cover with a nude John Lennon next to Yoko Ono.
After going through the psychedelic phase, Bart quotes : 'Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye' from "I Am The Walrus" from The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour album.
After Bart and Millhouse total The Beatles' room, Ned and Homer have a conversation, at one point saying:
Homer: "I never knew you were such a Beatles fan."
Ned: "Of course I am! They were bigger than Jesus. But your boy went ´Yoko Ono´ and broke up my collection."
This is a reference to the infamous 'We're bigger than Jesus,' quote of John Lennon and the common belief that the separation of The Beatles was due to John Lennon's involvement with Yoko Ono.
The music
Composition and recording
Whilst by no means the first to do so (Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry composed their own hits, for example), the Beatles' example made self-composition the standard for rock bands then and since. Although they did not necessarily invent all the new ideas they incorporated in their music, they often competed with and played off the developing ideas of other prominent acts of the period (such as Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and the Beach Boys). As such, they spurred rock music, which hitherto had been largely looked down upon by older music fans, towards becoming an accepted art form. When the Sgt. Pepper album was released, it was hailed by music critics of the time as a major work, and was even compared favorably to classical musicians such as Schubert and Schumann. Within days of its release, the album's title song was being covered by artists like Jimi Hendrix.
The Beatles were known for utilizing extensive multitrack recording to layer their arrangements, much like how Brian Wilson recorded Pet Sounds. The Sgt. Pepper album was clearly influenced much by the production of Pet Sounds, but a significant difference is the Beatles' use of Stereo panning (Pet Sounds was mixed in mono). The stereo panning was very important to the sound of their records, as it featured rather unconventional placements of sounds in the stereo field (such as placing the bass all the way to the left, when it had been considered a "rule" to keep the bass centered).
The Beatles' use of various instruments is regarded as highly innovative. With the help of George Martin, they made wide use of string and brass overdubs for a variety of different musical effects and experimented with some more unconventional instruments. An early example is the string arrangement on "Yesterday"; other notable examples include the use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood", the exclusive accompaniment of a string octet on "Eleanor Rigby", and the amusing orchestral arrangement (with an initial reference to "La Marseillaise") of "All You Need Is Love".
Instrumentation
The popularity of the individual Beatles combined with their considerable instrumental skills led to a better knowledge in the general public of the musical contributions made by lead guitar, rhythm guitar, drums, and particularly bass guitar. Paul McCartney was a very melodic bassist and listeners learned to listen more carefully because of it.
Ringo Starr's drumming was tasteful, precise, and imaginative. Ringo also changed the traditional way of holding drum sticks. Before Ringo, nearly all drummers held drum sticks with the "traditional" grip, with the left hand stick held like a chopstick. Now, most percussionists play holding the drum sticks in the "matched" grip, like Ringo. Ringo used Ludwig drum sets, which quickly became the standard brand of drum sets in rock and roll bands. [citation needed]
The Beatles were legendarily rejected by Decca Records because "Guitar bands are on the way out", but John Lennon and George Harrison disproved that. Even the brand of instruments used by the band became more popular because of the band. Rickenbacker guitars have been widely used by rock and roll bands since the mid 1960s, thanks in part to Lennon's heavy use of the guitar. [citation needed]
George Harrison was also the first musician of a pop group in the sixties to make use of the sitar. Because of its psychedelic sound, the instrument would soon be used by many other bands, such as The Rolling Stones, Love and Donovan. Ravi Shankar, who taught the sitar to George Harrison, would even be part of the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
The Hofner violin bass that McCartney played was styled after one of the very first Gibson electric basses: the EB-1. The Hofner version of the violin bass was popular among the bands playing in Germany in the early 1960s, largely because it was cheap. [citation needed] McCartney's use of the instrument led bassists all over the world to buy Hofners, [citation needed] in spite of the fact that at the time, it was generally not considered a high quality instrument and was difficult to keep in tune. To this very day, it is quite common to see a Hofner being used by up-and-coming bands on MTV and in concert, which probably would not have happened without the Beatles. [citation needed] A large number of guitar manufacturers have copied the iconic design of the 'violin bass', such as Tanglewood, Cort and Epiphone.
McCartney returned to using his original iconic violin bass in later years (1988 onwards) and features it regularly on tour, where it gets almost as much applause as he does.
In later years, from around the time of Revolver, Paul McCartney was to be seen sporting a fine-looking fireglo-finish Rickenbacker 4001 bass (see "Hello Goodbye" video, where it was given a psychedelic paintjob). The use of this bass is not as well remembered, as The Beatles ceased touring not long after McCartney took delivery of it. Paul later used it quite extensively on the road with Wings, the paint-job had been removed and the bass was sanded down to a natural finish.
Length of Songs
The Beatles, along with several other artists such as The Doors and Iron Butterfly, pushed the boundary for just how long a standard single could be, recording songs of up to 4 or 5 minutes, which for the time, was almost twice the length of the average single, and seemed gargantuan by most people's standards. The Doors released a standard 3-4 minute version of "Light My Fire but the album version ran to seven minutes eight seconds. By the end of the decade 3-4 minute singles became quite common. This is generally accepted as being due to the influence of the Fab Four as evidenced by the nearly-eight minute number one hit, Hey Jude, which stayed on the charts at number one for nine weeks.
The album format
Prior to The Beatles, record albums were of secondary consideration to 45s in mass marketing. Albums largely contained filler material along with one or two worthwhile singles. The Beatles, with the ability to produce albums with consistently well-regarded material and the desire to rarely use singles as part of full albums, helped to define the album as the preferred mechanism for releasing popular music, which in turn resulted in the development of new FM radio formats such as Album-oriented rock (AOR) in the 1970s. The Beatles' song "Hey Jude" was memorable in its time for helping to break down the barriers around pop music. [citation needed]
To conform with the preferences of commercial radio, most (though not all) songs released as singles up to that time were about three minutes in length; "Hey Jude" clocked in at over seven minutes and helped make it acceptable for a single to be longer than standard length. Even album covers changed during this period, becoming increasingly artistic -- works of art in their own right. (The Beatles seemed to rebel against this in 1968 when they released their plain white album The Beatles, known as the White Album.) While they were not alone in promoting these developments, they were clearly at the forefront of them.
The Beatles' album covers themselves were well-thought-out designs that have been copied and imitated hundreds of times by everyone from The Simpsons and The Muppets to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This has especially been the case with the covers of With the Beatles, which featured the four band members' faces half-darkened with shadows; The White Album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. Abbey Road in London has become a popular tourist attraction with countless numbers of tourists taking their photo walking along the crosswalk in front of Abbey Road studios.
One of their most experimental and personal cover designs was released and then recalled shortly thereafter. This was the 'Butcher Sleeve', photographed by Robert Whitaker. Originally intended by Whitaker to be one of a triptych of allegorical studies of the group, the photo was selected for the cover of the US version of the album Yesterday & Today; thousands of covers were printed, but the "Butcher Sleeve" version of the album was famously withdrawn from sale before release because of complaints from retailers. It has since become one of the rarest and most valuable of all Beatles collectibles.
Photos and music videos
Their rapid ascent to vast international fame quickly made the four Beatles among the most photographed people in history. As part of the assiduous image management of the band overseen by manager, Brian Epstein, the group was assigned a succession of leading photographers -- most notably Dezo Hoffmann and Robert Whitaker -- who helped Epstein to carefully sculpt the group's visual image. Whitaker took many of the best known photographs of the band during their heyday as a touring act between 1964 and 1966, including the famous photographs of their legendary Shea Stadium concert.
One other notable photographer who worked with the band was Richard Avedon, who photographed them for a famous and much reproduced series of psychedelic portraits in 1967, as well as the four portrait shots included as inserts with their 1968 album The Beatles ('The White Album').
The Beatles began filming promotional music videos for their songs in the middle of the 1960s, mainly because they wanted to send them to television programs so they wouldn't have to appear in person. This began the now common practice of releasing a video clip to go along with singles.
Perhaps the single most influential of all the visual representations of The Beatles was their first film A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester. It pioneered many now-standard techniques including the cutting of images to the beat of the music, and it is arguable that this film became the basic template from which the music video as a genre emerged. Especially notable is the "Can't Buy Me Love" segment, which features creative camera work, and the band running and jumping around in a field -- a device which almost immediately has become de rigeur for virtually every pop band since. (George Harrison of The Beatles and Michael Nesmith of The Monkees went on to become pioneering music video directors). Beatles promo videos include "Day Tripper," "Help!," "We Can Work It Out," "Ticket To Ride," "Paperback Writer," "Rain," "I Feel Fine," "Hello Goodbye," "Penny Lane," "A Day in the Life", "Revolution," "Lady Madonna," "Hey Jude," "The Ballad of John and Yoko," and "Something."
Their most innovative film-clip, which remains one of the landmarks of the genre, was that made in 1967 for the single "Strawberry Fields Forever". Shot in the late winter, in the afternoon and early evening, on Salisbury Plain, it depicted the group at the peak of their psychedelic phase, with long hair, colourful clothes, moustaches and what was soon to become Lennon's trademark, his 'granny glasses'. It used many techniques previously only seen in experimental film, including intricate jump-cuts that rapidly alternated between night and day, reversed film and other avant-garde devices.
Legacy
The Beatles' influence on rock music and world culture was – and remains – profound. The Beatles' legacy is of course tremendous, and they are popularly conceived to be one of the most influential artists of the last century.
Their clothes, hairstyles and choice of musical instruments made them trendsetters throughout the decade; their growing social awareness, reflected in the development of their music, saw their influence extended far beyond the music scene into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s; and their enduring popularity with successive generations of both fans and musicians has cemented their reputation for being one of the most influential music artists of all time. [citation needed]
Even decades after the band broke up, The Beatles have become a yardstick to which nearly all new rock and roll bands are compared. It is extremely common for new bands to be promoted as being "the next Beatles" or "the new fab four". It is also quite common for record reviewers and members of the media to refer to musical acts as being "Beatlesque" given The Beatles impact on Baby-Boomer culture. To this day, no new artist or band has quite lived up to the hype of being compared to The Beatles. Inspiring the same degree of popularity as The Beatles may be unattainable now due to the splintering of popular tastes in music. [citation needed]
The influence of The Beatles even extended beyond their music. Perhaps the most notable was their influence on male fashion. Their relatively long hair, when they burst onto the scene in 1964, was a shocking fashion statement, one that was quickly adopted by other rock bands of the time, and by the 1970s, long hair became standard fashion for men. The hair styles even led toy manufactures to begin producing plastic "Beatle Wigs". In the early Beatle-mania years, the Beatles would occasionally wear grey, collarless suits. These unusual suits eventually became extremely common for new bands after 1964. In fact, it was not unusual for bands to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show or another similar program wearing the suits made popular by the band. [citation needed]