The Beatles

Members: George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

Active: 1960 - 1970

HISTORY

John Lennon formed a skiffle group, The Quarry Men, in March 1957. On July 6 that year, he met Paul McCartney whilst playing at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete and the two were soon playing music together. In February of 1958 the young guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which played under a variety of names.

The first regular gigs for the group were at a club created by Mona Best in the basement of her family's home, a large Victorian House with a large complex of cellars at 8 Haymans Green in the West Derby area of Liverpool. She had noticed the number of young friends visiting her son, Pete, at the house and decided to turn part of the cellar into a private club. A more ambitious plan, a club for young people with live groups developed. It was one of the first cellar clubs in Liverpool to present rock 'n' roll groups exclusively, as opposed to the strict policy of jazz for venues such as the Cavern and the Cat A Coombs. The Casbah Coffee Club opened in August 1959 and the resident group was the Quarry Men - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown, who would soon be cast off.

The Quarry Men changed their name to The Beatles and in 1960 their manager, Allan Williams, arranged for them to perform in strip clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany. In August, 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's drummer. In Hamburg (particularly at the infamous "Kaiserkeller" club) they honed their skills as performers and broadened their reputation. Stuart Sutcliffe was part of the group in 1960-61 and influenced their appearance and sense of style. While in Hamburg, The Beatles were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961.

Upon their return from Hamburg the group was enthusiastically promoted by Sam Leach who presented them over the next year and a half on various stages in Liverpool 49 times, including the famed ?Operation Big Beat in 1961?, at which 3000 people paid to see the Beatles perform along with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, Gerry and the Pacemakers and others at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton.

Brian Epstein, manager of the record department at NEMS, his family's furniture store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and renewed The Beatles quest for an English recording contract. After one last session for Polydor in May 1962, Epstein and Kaempfert jointly agreed to cancel the group's contract with the German label. Having been rejected by almost every other record company in England, he secured them a contract with EMI's Parlophone label. Pete Best was fired in favour of the more experienced Ringo Starr. The new line-up recorded their first broadcast interview on the hospital station Radio Clatterbridge. The Beatles' first sessions in September 1962 produced a minor UK hit, Love Me Do, which likely charted partly because Epstein ordered a large quantity of the singles from EMI for his family's record stores. (Love Me Do subsequently reached the top of the US singles chart in May 1964.) This was quickly followed by the recording of their first album, Please Please Me, a mix of original songs by Lennon and McCartney along with some covers. The band's first televised performance was on a programme called People and Places broadcast live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October 1962 and presented by Bill Grundy (who later became "Big Grunty" in Lennon's first book "In his own write").

Beatlemania began in Britain on 13 October 1963 with a televised appearance at the London Palladium. Although the band was experiencing great popularity in the record charts in England by early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol Records (which was owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles Love Me Do, Please Please Me and From Me To You in the United States, the reason being that no British act had ever made any impact on an American audience.

VeeJay Records, a small Chicago label, is said to have been pressured into issuing these singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed Please Please Me into rotation in late February 1963, making it the first and last time a Beatles' record was heard on American radio until December 1963 (it lasted a few weeks at the bottom of the charts this first time around). Veejay issued a corresponding album that summer in America, which also went nowhere.

In August 1963 the Swan label (partly owned by Dick Clark) tried again with the Beatles' She Loves You, which again failed to receive airplay. A testing of the song on his TV show American Bandstand resulted in laughter and scorn from American teenagers when they saw the group's unusual haircuts. Meanwhile, it is said that British airline stewardesses and others were bringing single copies of Beatles records into major US cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to share with friends. In December 1963, during the weeks immediately following the Kennedy assassination, their music began slowly filling the American airwaves.

Beatlemania exploded in the United States with three national television appearances by the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February, 16 February and 23 February 1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans and angry denunciations by cultural observers and established performers such as Frank Sinatra, sometimes on grounds of the music (which was thought crude and unmusical) or their appearance (their hair was considered 'scandalously long').

Some commentators have speculated that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy a depressed America was searching for a way out of gloom and despair. So in effect, the Beatles were in the right place at the right time (with a unique combination of talent and stage presence) to provide an enthusiastic jolt to a saddened nation.

During the week of April 4, 1964, they held the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat that has never been repeated.

In mid-1964 the band undertook their first world tour, which included Australia and New Zealand. Just before the tour began, Ringo was briefly hospitalised with a severe attack of pharyngitis, so drummer Jimmy Nicol was drafted in for several concerts on the Australian leg. When they arrived in Adelaide, The Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the largest crowd of their touring career, when over 300,000 people --about one-third of the entire population of the city at that time -- turned out to see them.

In 1965 they were instated as Members of the Order of the British Empire, sparking some conservative MBE recipients to return their awards in protest. Lennon and Harrison began experimenting with LSD that year (they were given their first dose unknowingly at a party, when their dentist 'spiked' their drinks) and McCartney followed suit the end of 1966.

In July 1966 Lennon caused a backlash against The Beatles when he claimed during an interview that Christianity was dying, quipping that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." Eventually he apologised at a Chicago press conference, acquiescing to objections by many religious groups including the Holy See as Beatles' records were banned or burned across the American South along with threats from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. He tried to point out that he was commenting on the Beatlemania phenomenon, not trying to literally equate the group to Jesus, saying about his own comment that, "It was wrong, or it was taken wrong."

The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans in Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. From this time until the group dissolved in early 1970, the Beatles concentrated on making some of the most remarkable recorded pop music of the 20th century. The group's compositions and musical experiments raised their artistic reputations while they retained their tremendous popularity. The Beatles' financial situation took a turn for the worse however, when their manager Brian Epstein died in 1967 and the band's affairs began to unravel. That same year, The Beatles became the first band ever globally broadcast on television but the members were drifting apart. Their final live performance was on the roof at the Apple studios in London in January 1969 during the difficult "Get Back" sessions (later used as a basis for the Let It Be album). Also in 1969, largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded their final album, Abbey Road. The band officially broke up in 1970 and a few months later Let It Be followed as their last commercial album release. Any hopes of a reunion were crushed when Lennon was assassinated in 1980.

However, a virtual reunion occurred in 1995 with the release of two original Lennon recordings which had the additional contributions of the remaining Beatles mixed in to create two hit singles: Free as a Bird and Real Love. Three volumes (six CDs in total) of unreleased material and studio out-takes were also released, as well as a documentary and television miniseries, in a project known as The Beatles Anthology.

MUSIC AND INFLUENCES

As youths, the members of The Beatles were enthusiastic followers of British rock-and-rollers, notably Cliff Richard and The Shadows, whose stage presence and female following were often cited by the band as one of their inspirations to begin performing publicly. In their early days as performers, the band took some cues from local Liverpool favourites Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who Ringo played with prior to joining the Beatles.

Many of the band's influences were American in origin, including Chuck Berry. They recorded covers of "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock And Roll Music" early on and also performed many other Berry classics in their live repertoire. Chuck Berry's influence is also heard (in altered form) on later recordings such as "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" (1968) and "Come Together" (1969) (when "Come Together" was released, the owner of Chuck Berry's copyrights sued John Lennon for copyright infringement of his song "You Can't Catch Me", after which the two reached an amicable settlement, the terms of which included an agreement that Lennon cover some Chuck Berry songs as a solo artist).

George Harrison had a fondness for American rockabilly music, particularly that of Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. The band's early stage show featured several Perkins tunes; some of these (notably "Honey Don't" featuring an early Ringo vocal) would eventually make it to vinyl. Moreover, Harrison's guitar work remained highly influenced by rockabilly styles throughout the band's tenure.

The Beatles' distinctive vocal harmonies were also influenced by those of early Motown artists in America; early Beatles staples included faithful versions of Barrett Strong's Motown recording of "Money (That's What I Want)" and The Marvelettes' hit "Please Mr. Postman".

While many of these American influences drew from the blues music form, The Beatles, unlike their contemporaries the Rolling Stones, were seldom directly influenced by the blues. Drawing inspiration from an eclectic variety of sources, their home idiom was closer to pop music (during their early fame they were sometimes referred to as a mod band, a label they seem to have resisted).

At the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon declared "Before Elvis, there was nothing." In comments recorded for the Anthology TV series all four band members spoke of him in glowing terms, with George Harrison (showing his knack for religious allusions) saying "Seeing Elvis was like seeing the messiah arrive." They also recorded a number of Presley covers at Abbey Road studios, although these were not released officially until after the group split, although bootleg copies have existed since the late 1960s. It has been argued Presley's musical influence on the Beatles may have been indirect, with opinion somewhat split; although few deny there was an influence, the extent of it has been the subject of debate among fans and music historians.

The Beatles were also fond of Little Richard and some of their songs (especially in the early repertoire) featured falsetto calls similar to his, notably on their version of his song "Long Tall Sally". In 1962 he socialised with the Beatles around Hamburg and they performed together at the Star Club. "Long Tall Sally" became a permanent fixture in the Beatles' concert performances, and McCartney's singing on their recorded version is widely regarded as among his best rock and roll vocal performances.

Apart from the up-beat, optimistic rock and roll sound of Little Richard and others, McCartney's influences include ragtime and vaudeville, owing much to his father's musical interests. Their impact is apparent in songs like "When I'm Sixty-Four" (composed during The Quarry Men period), "Honey Pie", and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". Of their early single, "From Me to You", McCartney said, "It could be done as an old ragtime tune... especially the middle-eight. And so we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom." His songwriting was also influenced in part by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who was in turn spurred on by the Beatles' work. Wilson acknowledged that the American version of Rubber Soul challenged him to make Pet Sounds, an album which then inspired McCartney's vision of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song "Back in the USSR" was based on a suggestion by Mike Love to McCartney and contains overt allusions to the Beach Boys' "California Girls". The song "Here, There and Everywhere" is said to have been written the evening that Lennon and McCartney first listened to Pet Sounds.

The Everly Brothers were another influence. Lennon and McCartney consciously copied Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies. Their vocals on two 1962 recordings, "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" were inspired by the Everlys' powerful vocal innovation on "Cathy's Clown" (1960), the first recording to ever reach number one simultaneously in the USA and in England. "Two of Us", the opening track on Let It Be is overtly composed in the Everly style and McCartney acknowledges this in the recording with a spoken "Take it Phil."

The song-writing of Gerry Goffin and Carole King was yet another influence. Some say that one of the Beatles' many achievements was to marry the relative sophistication of Goffin and King's songs (which used major-seventh chords, for example) with the straightforwardness of Buddy Holly, Berry and the early rock-and-roll performers. Lennon and McCartney's goal when they first began writing together was to become "the next Goffin and King."

John Lennon's early style has clear relationships to Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison ("Misery" from 1963 and "Please Please Me" from 1963). "That'll Be the Day" was the first song Lennon learned to play and sing accurately and the first song the proto-Beatles ever put to vinyl. McCartney admitted, "At least the first forty songs we wrote were Buddy Holly influenced." Lennon said that Holly "made it okay to wear glasses. I WAS Buddy Holly." The naming of the Beatles (originally the Silver Beetles) was of course, Lennon's way of paying tribute to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets. The Beatles covered Holly's "Words of Love" on their album Beatles for Sale.

After hearing the work of Bob Dylan Lennon was heavily influenced by folk music ("You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" from 1965). Lennon is said to have been stunned by Dylan's song Subterranean Homesick Blues, and made to wonder at how he could ever outdo it.

Lennon also played the major role in steering the Beatles towards psychedelia ("Tomorrow Never Knows" from 1966, and "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus" from 1967) and then renewed his interest in earlier, "good old rock and roll" forms towards the close of the Beatles' career ("Don't Let Me Down" from 1969).

Paul McCartney is perhaps best known as the group's romantic balladeer. Beginning with "Yesterday" (1965), he pioneered a modern form of art song, exemplified by "Eleanor Rigby" (1966), "Here, There and Everywhere" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Meanwhile McCartney kept his affection for the driving R&B of Little Richard in a series of songs Lennon dubbed "potboilers", from "I Saw Her Standing There" (1963) to "Lady Madonna" (1968). "Helter Skelter" (1968), arguably an early heavy metal song, is also a McCartney composition.

George Harrison derived his early guitar style from 1950s rockabilly figures such as Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore (who worked with Elvis Presley) and Duane Eddy. "All My Loving" (1963) and "She's a Woman" (1964) are prime examples of Harrison's early rockabilly guitar work.

In 1965 Harrison broke new ground in the West by recording on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" playing an Indian sitar. His long collaboration with Sri Ravi Shankar, a famous Hindustani Musician, influenced several of his compositions, some of which were based on Hindustani forms ? most notably "Love You To" (1966), "Within You Without You" (1967) and "The Inner Light" (1968). Indian music and culture also influenced Lennon and McCartney, with the use of swirling tape loops, droning bass lines and mantra-like vocals on "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966) and "Dear Prudence" (1968).

Harrison retained Western musical forms in his later compositions, emerging as a significant pop composer in his own right, although occasionally reprising major themes indicating his relationship with Hindustani music and the Hindu god Krishna. His later guitar style, while not displaying the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, was distinctive with its use of clear melodic lines and subtle fills as in "Something" (1969) and "Let It Be" (1970), contrasting with the increasingly distorted riffs and rapid-fire guitar solo work of his contemporaries.

Ringo Starr rarely wrote songs but he is often noted for his gentle comic baritone on "Yellow Submarine" (1966) and "Octopus's Garden" (1969) along with his steady drumming and everyman image. Given his own performance on Buck Owens' "Act Naturally", Starr was likely responsible for the group's occasional interest in surprisingly authentic country sounds in songs such as "What Goes On" (1965) and "Don't Pass Me By" (1968).

Later Beatles material shifted away from dance music and the pace of the songs is often more moderate, with interest tending to come from melody and harmonic texture rather than the rhythm ("Penny Lane" from 1967 is an example). Throughout their career the Beatles' songs were rarely riff (or ostinato)-driven; "Day Tripper" (1965) and "Hey Bulldog" (1969, recorded 1968) are among the notable exceptions.

The decision to stop touring in 1966 caused an abrupt change in direction. Reportedly stung by criticism of "Paperback Writer", the Beatles poured their creative energies into the recording studio, making a determined attempt to produce material they could be proud of. They had already shown a clear trend towards progressively greater complexity in technique and style but this accelerated noticeably in Revolver. The subject matter of the post-touring songs was no longer you, I, love, boy meets girl and so on, taking them far from the days in 1963 and similarities with bands such as The Hollies. All manner of subjects were introduced, from home repair and circuses to nonsense songs and others defying description.

The extreme complexity of Sgt. Pepper's reached its height on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album, parts of which (for example "It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song") were left over from 1967 and were apparently used because the Beatles themselves weren't much interested in the animated film as a project and weren't inclined to exert themselves by producing much new material for it.

The iconic Abbey Road album cover.After the Revolver/Sgt. Pepper's phase, came a double LP known at the time as The White Album (though recently often called The Beatles album), partly written in India. It involved some simpler subjects (for example "Birthday"), and some of the songs (for example "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" and "Wild Honey Pie") were far less complex than their material of just a year or two before. In 1969 the band became less united during sessions for the abortive Get Back project (which eventually emerged in 1970, much altered, as Let It Be). This had been intended as a return to more basic songs and an avoidance of thorough editing or otherwise "artificial" influences on the final output. Ironically Let It Be was heavily overdubbed and edited by producer Phil Spector in his wall of sound technique. With Get Back behind them, George Martin was asked to produce the last album the Beatles recorded, Abbey Road, representing a mature attempt to integrate what they knew and use recording studio techniques to improve the songs rather than experiment to see what happened. It represented a final effort, as McCartney once put it, to "leave 'em laughing."

Beatles music is still performed in public by tribute bands such as the Bootleg Beatles, and in shows like Beatlemania!. The Beatles were also the inspiration for the spoof documentary The Rutles (1978) created by Neil Innes and Eric Idle that featured affectionate musical pastiches of Beatles songs written by Innes.

For many, the group's musical appeal lay in the interaction of Lennon and McCartney's voices and musical styles. It is sometimes said they not only supplied missing bits and pieces for each other's songs, but shared a competitive edge that brought out the best in them both. George's lead guitar and vocals along with Ringo's understated and faithful drumming contributed their own chemistry. Finally, the Beatles' stage presence and charm as a group kindled their live shows, as well as relationships with key people in their careers. After the group dissolved some critics cited their solo releases as a demonstration of how important this group collaboration had been: together they sparked each other to reach heights rarely attained on the later solo releases.

BREAKUP AND END OF TOURING

On April 10, 1970, McCartney announced that the band had officially broken up. The cause of the breakup has been debated by fans and historians ever since that day, and ultimately they came up with several factors that could have easily contributed to the breakup. It is likely that the world will never know what caused the break-up, following are some theories.

On August 29, 1966, the Beatles played their final live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It was the concluding concert in a series of short tours in the summer of 1966 that had several unhappy incidents. Viewed in hindsight, the occurrences were perhaps not as grave as they seemed at the time, but for a band that had toured almost without negative incident throughout 1964 and 1965, the existence of troubles during their tours was a straw that broke the camel's back. Performing live was becoming a stressful chore rather than the satisfying experience it had been in their earlier days.

The problems started during their tour of Japan, where they were scheduled to play at the famous Budokan Hall. The performance was in front of a very quiet audience. This was a change from the band's usual audience of screaming girls. (Ironically, the Beatles later complained that it was frustrating for them in their 1965 and 1966 tours to be perfoming their newer more sophisticated material in front of screaming fans that couldn't hear the music.)

Only days later, the band went on tour in the Philippines. Problems started with the band being denied permission to leave the hotel by the police. Then, shortly after their concert, the First Lady Imelda Marcos 'invited' them to a social event for her family and friends; however, neither the band nor manager Brian Epstein had been informed of this invitation in advance, and Epstein sent away the guards sent to escort the band to the First Lady. This was perceived as a snub by Marcos.

The next morning the local newspaper headlines proclaimed that the Beatles had stood up the First Lady. Angry riots broke out as the band tried to escape the country, and drummer Ringo Starr received rib injuries trying to reach their airplane. Numerous other Beatles touring crew members were also injured. Their instruments were lost, they were 'taxed' all the money they were due to have received from their concert, and several members of the touring party were left behind in the airport scuffles.

After the band's summer tour of the US ended, George Harrison by some accounts informed Epstein that he was quitting the band. If this conversation did occur, his decision was obviously rescinded. The thought behind it may be attributed to the growing discontent arising from the conflict between the desire to create music and the technical limitations of playing music live in the mid-1960's owing to the primitive amplification equipment of the era. The Beatles decided to make a wholesale change in their lives.

Instead of continuing the standard pattern of an endless succession of recording and touring, they decided to give up live performance in favor of focusing on recording and other projects. Given the growing sophistication in their composing and recording, as evidenced by the albums "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver", they regarded this as a step forwards - an opportunity to devote whatever time was needed to creating music in the studio, without the usual pressures to record swiftly in order to meet commercial deadlines, or to have 'product' ready to promote on tour. The first results of this new philosophy were the single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" and their 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". The new music resulting from this commitment to spend unlimited time on creating music in the studio was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

The decision to give up live performance was quite a revolutionary step for successful musical performers in the 1960's, and was probably alarming to those who had a traditional view of how entertainers should conduct their careers. However the Beatles were clearly forging a new path as creative artists in which fulfilling their artistic urges was more important than toiling unhappily just because it was expected of them, or simply to make money. This approach was followed by many musical artists in the late 1960's and thereafter.

Eventually, the lack of live performance did lead to strains within the band. Paul McCartney in particular started to miss the positive aspects of playing live. This lead to conflicts, especially with George Harrison, who came to believe that the Beatles iconic status with pop fans was incompatible with the band being able to play live as serious musicians in the same way as some of the newer progressive rock bands. Harrison wanted the Beatles to be appreciated for their newer music. He felt that live performances would be marred by fans screaming for their 'moptop' era pop songs. McCartney, however, felt that the essence of the band lay in live performance. Lennon and Starr oscillated between support of McCartney's and Harrison's viewpoints. After the issue of a possible return to live performance first surfaced, in late 1968, there was never a time that all four Beatles were in agreement on the topic. This factor probably contributed to their eventual break-up.

BRIAN EPSTEINS'S DEATH

Brian Epstein, the Beatles' Manager and a force behind the group's early success.On August 27, 1967, the group's longtime manager Brian Epstein died of an overdose of Carbitol, a sleeping pill.

This marked the end of an era for the band; he had kept them together through the years of touring, and kept them doing something. From the time of his death onwards, the band was mostly aimless and drifted apart as a power vacuum was left open for who decided what the Beatles did, and when. This resulted in a struggle between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Lennon himself stated that this was a major factor in the breakup of the band in a series of interviews for Rolling Stone magazine (1970):

"We got fed up with being side men for Paul, after Brian died that's what began to happen to us you know ... after Brian died we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us, but what is leading us when we went around in circles. We broke up then"

APPLE CORPS

The Beatles started their own company to handle their finances, Apple Corps, namely its record division Apple Records.

Shortly after its founding, due to the band's lack of experience at business matters, John Lennon announced it would go broke in six months. The level of work required to run the company resulted in a lot of stress, frustration, and fracturing of their friendships as the company wasted money almost nonstop.

When they decided to find someone experienced enough to run Apple, the band was divided. Paul McCartney wanted to hire Lee Eastman, but the other three wanted to hire The Rolling Stones' manager, the notorious Allen Klein. Klein won, but it was evidently too little and too late as the company stopped releasing records in 1975. Aside from the release of a few Beatles disks in the 1990s, the company remained unproductive.

THE GET BACK SESSIONS

In January of 1969, Paul McCartney came up with the idea for the band to spend hours in Twickenham Studios being filmed rehearsing material for what would become the Let It Be album. They originally planned a TV special, a live performance, and other things but these were never realized and after a month of work the original project ended in failure. The band was forced to work together as relationships strained to the breaking point, George Harrison's songs were thoroughly ignored, and at one point he stormed out of the sessions claiming he was quitting.

NEGLECT OF HARRISON AND STARR'S SONGS

Often cited as a large factor of the breakup is when Lennon and McCartney limited Harrison's song contributions down to one or two tracks per album. By 1967, Harrison was writing a good deal of music that was then pushed back in favour of Lennon/McCartney tracks.

An example of this is when Harrison contributed songs like "Hear Me Lord" and "Let It Down" during the Get Back sessions. The bootlegs show that he ran through the songs on a guitar a few times and then it was dropped when band members decided to do something else. A similar thing happened to "All Things Must Pass" when they performed it several times during the sessions and then completely dropped it.

Ringo Starr was in a similar situation. According to him, he had written "Don't Pass Me By" as shown by the Top Gear program on the BBC promoting A Hard Day's Night. The chatter introduction to "And I Love Her" includes an exchange between McCartney and Starr in which McCartney sings an early and unmistakable rendition of the song, as well as Starr chiding McCartney for promising to record it. He begged the band to record it every time a new album was recorded. It wasn't until the White Album. Also, another observation of the Get Back session bootlegs would reveal that the band often expressed minimal interest in another Starr song, "Octopus's Garden".

DISCOGRAPHY

IN THE UK:

1963 Please Please Me

1963 With the Beatles

1964 A Hard Day's Night

1964 Beatles for Sale

1965 Help!

1965 Rubber Soul

1966 Revolver

1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

1967 Magical Mystery Tour

1968 The Beatles

1969 Yellow Submarine

1969 Abbey Road

1970 Let It Be

In the Us:

1963 Introducing... The Beatles, Vee-Jay Records

1964 Meet the Beatles!, Capitol Records

1964 The Beatles' Second Album, Capitol Records

1964 A Hard Day's Night, United Artists

1964 Something New, Capitol Records

1964 The Beatles' Story, Capitol Records

1964 Beatles '65, Capitol Records

1965 The Early Beatles, Capitol Records

1965 Beatles VI, Capitol Records

1965 Help!, Capitol Records

1965 Rubber Soul, Capitol Records

1966 "Yesterday" ... and Today, Capitol Records

1966 Revolver, Capitol Records

1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Capitol Records

1967 Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol Records

1968 The Beatles ("White Album"), Capitol Records

1969 Yellow Submarine, Capitol Records

1969 Abbey Road, Capitol Records

1970 Hey Jude, Capitol Records

1970 Let It Be, Capitol Records

Compilations and other releases in the Uk:

1966 A Collection of Beatles' Oldies

1973 1962-1966 (the "Red Album")

1973 1967-1970 (the "Blue Album")

1976 Rock 'n' Roll Music

1977 The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

1977 Love Songs

1978 Rarities

1980 The Beatles' Ballads

1982 Reel Music

1982 20 Greatest Hits

1988 Past Masters, Volume One

1988 Past Masters, Volume Two

1994 Live at the BBC

1995 Anthology 1

1996 Anthology 2

1996 Anthology 3

1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack

2000 The Beatles 1

2003 Let It Be... Naked

2004 The Capitol Albums, Volume 1

Compilations and other releases in the Us:

1973 1962-1966 (the "Red Album")

1973 1967-1970 (the "Blue Album")

1976 Rock 'n' Roll Music

1977 The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

1977 Live at the Star Club: 1962

1977 Love Songs

1980 Rarities

1980 Rock 'N' Roll Music Vol. 1, Music For Pleasure

1980 Rock 'N' Roll Music Vol. 2, Music For Pleasure