It started in 1957 when a John Lennon began the Quarrymen. Sometime later that year John and Paul McCartney met and Paul joined the group. They began to work together on songwriting in 1958 George Harrison became a member of the group. During the fall they were known as Johnny and the Moondogs. In 1959 they renamed their band to the Silver Beetles but they had no drummer. George's friend Pete Best then joined the band. They then traveled to Hamburg, Germany because was not as hard to get shows there but when they got there they were told they needed a fifth person.
They traveled to Liverpool and got John's friend Stuart Sutcliffe to join. But Pete Best decided to leave the band so in 1962 Ringo Starr joined. Ringo Starr was the oldest member and had been in previouse bands before. The same year Sutcliffe died in Hamburg so Paul started playing the bass. They had since changed their name to The Beatles.
Their first show was at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. In October 1962 their first single Love Me Do came out and hit the top 20. Their second single, Please Please Me, was very popular. It went to number one on the charts and started the beatles franchise in England. Their first album was Please Please Me and it too was a hit. Other number ones included She Love You and From Me To You.
Now the USA wanted them but they said that they would not go to America until they had a number one song there. After they got a number one they went to America. After touring America including an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show they went back to England and begin making their first movie A Hard Day's Night. They then made another movie with a great soundtrack called Help! another excellent song. In late 1965 they played at Shea Stadium to a then record crowd of 55,000. They were touring the world and everyone loved them. In late 1966 they played their last official concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Now they had time to make records. In 1967 they released Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the singles All You Need Is Love and Strawberry Fields forever. as well as the title song, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, also A Day In The Life. Next they did the Magical Mystery Tour with songs such as I Am The Walrus. They then had the white album.
They also did recording in Hamburg a the Get Back sessions but the songs were not released until 1970 on the album Let It Be. The producer for this album was Phil Specter instead of their regular producer George Martin. Paul claimed that Specter ruined his song The Long And Winding Road with overdubs. Their last studio album which came out before Let It Be was Abbey Road one of their best.
In April 1970 Paul announced that he was leaving the group. The others followed. In 1994 they discovered some Lennon demos and released the first of three parts in Anthology I with their Grammy winning single Free As A Bird along with their television special. They were the most popular band in history.