The Beatles were commonly referred to as The Fab Four- but who were they? Are they humans with superhuman talents? Maybe if we go into a little more detail about each one we can come up with an answer. The four members, John Winston Lennon, James Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr), didn't all begin in the same band. In fact, The Beatles weren't always known as The Beatles. There are also some other people who participated in The Beatles before the group formed as we know it today. There was an original bassist by the name of Stuart Sutcliffe. He died shortly after quitting the band. They also had another drummer before Ringo named Pete Best, who was fired and Ringo was hired. This all helped mold The Beatles into the greatest band of all time.
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The Beatles first started out as John's little group known as "The Quarry Men." This group was started by Lennon and his best friend Pete Shotton. It also contained other local boys. After Paul and George both joined the band, the group soon changed their name to "The Silver Beatles." Thereafter, they dropped the silver and were just The Beatles. Soon after, Ringo joined.
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The song titled "Love Me Do" was the Beatles' first single and hit. Soon to follow was "Please Please Me." What song really caught people's ears, or this case eyes too, was "I Want to Hold Your Hand," performed on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. This was The Beatles' first live appearance in the United States, and this event still holds the record for largest viewing audience. This song marked the start of the phenomenon known as "Beatlemania."
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John Winston Lennon, born October 9, 1940, wasn't always a nice guy. In fact, he was pretty much a terror as a kid. In his childhood, John enjoyed dangling from a rope that was knotted to a lofty tree above Menlove Avenue in the suburb of Woolton in Liverpool. He would swing out into the path of double-decker buses and would swing away at the last second. John also liked "slapping leather," or what he called shoplifting. Another interest of young John was taunting nuns. He was a choirboy at St. Peter's church, still only 11, when he was permanently barred from Sunday service after repeatedly changing the hymns around and using obscene and impious lyrics. He was caned for squirting his schoolmasters with a bicycle pump filled with ink! John also did other things which I care not to mention.
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John got his first guitar in 1956. It was a second-hand model from Hessy's Music Store. He formed a group with his best friend Pete Shotton. The group was dubbed "The Quarry Men" by Shotton. After their first significant public appearance on July 6, 1957, John met Paul, an accomplished guitarist (he could actually tune one!). Paul soon joined the band. After that, George started hanging around. Shotton, who had stage fright, left r feeling that John didn't care too much for him anymore when he busted his tin washboard over Shotton's head. The Quarry Men broke up a bit after John's mother died. They then re-formed in 1959 as The Silver Beatles (in waggish emulation of Buddy Holly's Crickets). The group now included John, Paul, and George on guitars, art student Stu Sutcliffe on bass, and forklift driver Tommy Moore as a sometime drummer, who was eventually replaced by Pete Best. In 1961, while in Germany, the (no longer "Silver") Beatles recorded "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." Paul played bass now since Sutcliffe quit the band. Best was dropped and Ringo was added in 1962. BACK TO TOP

Ringo Starr, who's real name was Richard Starkey, was born on July 7, 1940. He didn't have that great of a childhood. He was named after his father, the only child of Richard Starkey Sr. His father left home while little Richard, who was now called Ritchie, was only three. He started school at the age of five at St. Silas Infants School. At the age of six Ritchie developed appendicitis. His appendix ruptured resulting in peritonitis and a 10 week coma. His mother Elsie was told several times her boy would not live. But eventually to people's surprise, he slowly was on his way to recovering. After six months, recovery was in sight. But then a disaster struck. He fell out of the hospital bed, causing him to have an extra six months there. He was now so far behind in school and couldn't read or write. They recruited Marie Maguire to help teach him. Ritchie never did like school so being behind didn't help at all. In 1953 Elsie married Harry Graves. The same year Ritchie developed pleurisy. He was again hospitalized, but this time for two years! He got out of the hospital at 15 and knew returning to school was out of the question since he had missed so much.
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After a recuperatory period at home, Ritchie had to find a job. He took a messenger job for the British Railroad but had to quit because he failed the medical exam. His next job was as a barman on a boat that traveled between Liverpool and Wales. He was fired when he showed up in an inebriated state and mouthed off to his boss. At the age of 17, he took a job at Henry Hunt and Son's engineering firm as an apprentice joiner. Ritchie and Eddie Miles, another apprentice at H. Hunt and Son, started the Eddie Clayton skiffle group. Ritchie handled the percussion, and they and their employees entertained the workers at lunch time. After only hours, this purely amateur group played at parties and local competitions.
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In 1957, Harry Graves bought his stepson his first real set of drums. They were a second-hand set costing 10 pounds, which Harry carried from London to Liverpool by train. These were then replaced by a new black Premier kit, which he borrowed half of the cost from his grandfather. He then joined the Darktown Skiffle group. In 1959, he joined Al Caldwell's Texans, who later changed their name to Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Rory, who had already changed his name, told Ritchie he needed to adopt a flashier name for the stage. Because of his penchant for wearing rings, Ritchie naturally evolved into "Rings." This quickly morphed into "Ringo." Starkey then quickly shortened to Starr. In 1962, Ringo was offered two jobs, one from King Size Taylor and the Dominos, the other from The Beatles. You know which one he chose.
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James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942. When he was invited to join The Quarry Men, he and John passed entire afternoons and evenings in Paul's living room mastering their instruments. Paul, instead of John, was the real prime time mover of the group. He suggested they use formal uniforms, counseled (and was overruled) against giving its manager equal pay, and stressed the importance of long rehearsals and esprit de corps. Paul had a long hoax about him being dead. This hoax was spread by radio stations and newspapers in the Midwest United States. He supposedly died in 1966 by a car crash. Indeed there was a crash around the same period of time in which a young dark haired male was disfigured beyond recognition. Although Paul still wasn't in a car crash, he was in a motorcycle crash in 1965 in which he chipped a tooth. Perhaps this is where the car crash part started. 
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George Harrison, the youngest, was born on February 25, 1943. He quit school in 1959. By then, he, John, and Paul had already played in the Casbah Coffee Club. In 1962, the Beatles cut their first single "Love Me Do." It was recorded in EMI's studio in St. John Wood. The producer, George Martin, asked, "Anything your not happy about with us?" Harrison replied, "Yes, I don't like your tie." Several million records later, on November 1, 1968, the first outside LP project by a Beatle took place. It was George's Wonderwall Music, issued on Apple Records. In 1969, shortly after the song "Something" hit the number one spot, the dissension grew grievous. In 1970, The Beatles disbanded. 
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The Beatles are the only band to ever hold the top five positions on the chart for singles all at the same time. They also have the most number one songs, 20, and 16 number one albums. This was in the United States alone. They have sold over 70 million albums in the United States.

To sum it up, The Beatles are considered to be the best rock band ever. They have influenced most of the stars today and will continue to influence people in the future.
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