Photo of the Day: Beatlemania Outside Buckingham Palace.

Fans get held back by police as the Beatles show up to get their MBE's, 1965.

A Lifelong Obsession with a Musical Group Known as The Beatles

Conquering the USA: The Beatles during their US TV Debut in 1964.

From their humble beginnings in Liverpool, England in the late 1950's to their heavily publicized and somewhat acrimonious split in 1970, the Beatles' comparatively short 8 year recording career that officially began in 1962 when they were signed to the EMI label 'Parlophone' yielded 12 studio albums, 13 EP's (Extended Plays) and 22 singles. They starred in 4 feature films and 1 TV film from 1964 to 1969 and during the 1960s had 27 Number One singles worldwide.

They changed the musical world as we know it today. They spearheaded a change in fashion and popular culture, touched and changed millions of lives and left a rich, wonderful musical legacy that will live till the end of time and perhaps even beyond that.

They are, to put it simply, abso-bloody-lutely brilliant.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) are simply four of the most talented people to walk this Earth.

Whether you are a die-hard fan like me or are in the minority that claim they cannot stand them or their music you cannot deny their influence on the world. Those that I'm willing to wager that in the Afghanistan mountains there's bound to be someone who will know at least one Beatles song.


From those of my readers who know me personally or even just have had a few conversations with me they know that my Beatles obsession runs deep. When I was around 8 years old I saw them on TV. It was their Royal Command Performance from 1963 and they were performing 'Twist & Shout' then I seen clips of the mania surrounding the 1965 Shea Stadium concert and it absolutely fascinated me. Something about the music reached me in a way that nothing else has before or since.

They fueled my musical passion and when I was in my early teens I taught myself guitar and played and sang along to the Beatles."Getting Better" every day and it's "Something" I still do today with my wife whom I met on a Beatles forum and we enjoy discussing the Beatles' music and themselves as individual people at length. Actually, not a day goes by when we don't discuss them. Does that make us crazy? Maybe so.


Here are the Beatles Through the Years.....

Leathered: The Beatles with Pete Best on drums in 1961. Pete was replaced by Ringo in 1962.

John, Paul, Ringo and......Neil? Road manager Neil Aspinall has a go at being a Beatle. (George had a fever and so Neil had to stand in for the Ed Sullivan camera crews to get their positions right)

Paul teaches Ringo the Basics of Guitar during a break in filming 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1964.

Fab Four: The Beatles in Liverpool, 1962. From L-R: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr & John Lennon.

Recording: During sessions for their fourth album 'Beatles For Sale', 1964.

Evolving: The Beatles in 1967. During this year they released the critically acclaimed 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and also the critically slated 'Magical Mystery Tour' film.

The End: The Beatles gathered for their final photo session in August 1969. The expressions on their faces say it all. They officially split up in April 1970, ending the greatest Rock group the world will ever know.

The Beatlemania Years (1960 - 1966)

It's hard to put a specific time frame on when the press-coined term 'Beatlemania' started and ended. Some would say it began in 1963 when the Beatles appeared on 'Val Parnell's Sunday Night at The London Palladium'. Some might say it began in 1960 at the Litherland Town Hall in Liverpool when the band debuted their new sound "direct from Hamburg". It didn't all start at once that's for sure. It probably began at the Litherland Town Hall that cold December night. It's equally hard to pinpoint when the mania ended. Some would say when the Rolling Stones became more prominent, some would say when the Beatles stopped touring and some people like myself would say that it never did end.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: Beatlemania in full swing in 1964.

Worldwide Beatlemania erupted in 1964. The band wanted to be at the "toppermost of the poppermost" but this was going over the top into a hail of women screaming and throwing themselves at them wherever they went. The press too were always there with their pencils and notepads writing down everything they said and did and were snapping endless photographs to prove it. There was no outlet for them except to each other and their music. In those days, John Lennon couldn't tweet from his iPhone; "Just landed at New York, so many fans here to greet us, good to be in America!" or tweet pictures from the set of 'A Hard Day's Night' like so many pop stars can do today. It is generally agreed that the crazy aspect of Beatlemania largely ended when they played their last tour concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29th 1966. After the Beatles disappeared for the last few months of 1966. Press speculated that they had split up and pondered the future without them. Many parents heaved a sigh of relief and others shook their heads and told their confused children "You see? I told you they wouldn't last!" and the teenyboppers who were madly into the mania turned their attention to other bands who were around; Herman's Hermits, The Who, The Hollies, The Kinks and, of course, The Rolling Stones.

The Beatles performing 'She Loves You' live in Manchester, 1963.