Beatles FAQ

  Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash Until the late 1960s singles by The Beatles singles far outsold their LPs . This was the standard pattern of record sales at that time. LPs were considered a luxury item and generally beyond the reach of most teenagers.  That said, The Beatles did have an unusual multi-generational appeal. And the kids who bought their singles would later come back to buy not just the studio albums but various compilations. From  Statista Studio Albums The Beatles officially released  13  studio  albums between 1962 and their break up. Over time  the biggest selling has been  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band  (1967). This has sold an estimated 32 million In the 1990s they released three anthology albums. Compilations The best selling was  Number 1s,  a compilation of singles. This was only released in 2000, thirty years after the band last recorded together.  Two double albums summarising their career:...

  None of it was written down by us. It’s basically notation. That’s the bit I can’t do. Paul McCartney (2018 ) The Beatles did not read or write music . Musical scores were of little functional use to them, but Paul McCartney did put one to practical use. In 1968 he was visiting the house he had bought for father on the Wirral. His step-sister had left some sheet music on the piano. Paul was, of course, unable to decode ‘the dots on the page’ but the title of the piece intrigued him. Cradle Song? It suggested a lullaby, so Paul began creating a new melody, which he memorised. This was the foundation for Golden Slumbers in the medley on Abbey Road. Why did The Beatles never learn to read or write music?

  The name change from the original The Quarry Men to The Beatles went through many stages and spellings. Some ludicrous options were considered or even used on occasion. : Johnny and the Moondogs, the Beatals, the Silver Beetles, the Silver Beats are notorious examples.  None of these monikers was as bad as The Beat Brothers. Yet this was the name that appeared on the first records John, Paul, George (and Pete) recorded for Polydor in 1961.  German Polydor producer (and celebrated musician) Bert Kaempfert wanted to cash in on Tony Sheridan's (modest) fame.  Sheridan, very shrewd in most musical matters, had old-school preconceptions about showbiz names.  He dropped his own real surname (McGinnity) when first appearing on Ready Steady Go. The Beat Brothers, he argued, would have more market appeal than the weird sounding The Beatles. Subsequent record-sales spectacularly refuted this thesis.