Any true music fan will eagerly rattle off the names of the four men that comprised The Beatles, perhaps the most popular and influential band the world of music has ever seen. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Many fans will even take it the next step and give credit to original drummer Pete Best. But there’s more to their story than the band’s wild success in the 1960’s.
It all began in 1957. John Lennon was just a boy of 17 when he started his first band, The Black Jacks, with a childhood friend. After playing a few local gigs, they then changed their name to The Quarry Men. Later that year, another friend would introduce John to a promising young guitarist named Paul McCartney, who was only 15 at the time. Paul joined The Quarry Men, but gigs were few and far between as the boys returned to school in the fall.
John would enter Art College, and Paul would return to high school where he would become friends with a fellow music-obsessed student named George Harrison. George followed The Quarry Men from show to show for several months before John would invite him to join the band in 1958. By then, The Quarry Men had grown to include seven members.

In 1959, a lack of gigs combined with the changing interests of the seven teenage members led The Quarry Men to disband, but John, Paul, and George continued to play various venues under the name of Johnny and the Moondogs. By May of 1960 they were calling themselves The Beetles. Their name and additional band members would change over the next couple months, until August when they acquired Pete Best as a drummer and settled on the name they are known for today—The Beatles.
In 1961 they acquired their first serious manager, Brian Epstein, and by the beginning of 1962 had recorded with Tony Sheridan for Polydor Records. Getting a recording contract of their own would prove difficult though, and Epstein approached several representatives of both Decca and EMI, only to be turned down as many times. Finally, in mid-1962, the Beatles received a one-year contract with the Parlophone division of EMI. Later that year, they would record what would become their first hit, “Love Me Do,” and they would also replace drummer Pete Best with Richard Starkey (who would later be known as Ringo Starr).
And so The Beatles as we know them today had begun. By 1963, they had released their first album Please Please Me, with singles hitting #1 on both the UK and American charts. From there forward their popularity exploded, and in less than a decade they would release ten albums, creating one of the most valuable music catalogues in the world. The later disintegration of the band and the relationships between its members is infamous.

The irony of course is that these British kids started their band with the intention of playing “American Rock and Roll,” but the sound and style of their music would ultimately revolutionize the genre.

Alana Morgaine
Our Vintage Records