Looking back on the accomplishments of the Beatles one could say it was fantastic for their time, but their continued popularity to this day attests to their hard earned admiration of fans past as well as present. To be able to comprehend what they did in terms of record breaking achievements, let’s have a look:

• In only 8 years the Beatles had 21 chart topping hits more than any other recording artists.
• Of the top 10 popular songs of the 20^th Century 5 of those are by the Beatles as a band or as solo recording artists.
• Between 2021 and 2023 recording sales for the Beatles rose from the unapproachable all-time sales record of 600,000 units worldwide to 800, 000 units a 200, 000 thousand unit increase in just 2 years!
• The Beatles have the all-time sales record for the initial one week release of an LP. That was the Album entitled “1” in the year 2000, a rerelease of all 21 top hits throughout their career which introduced them to a completely new audience who even today find their music relevant and entertaining. In one week the Album 1 sold 3.3 million copies far exceeding bands like INXS or Fleetwood Mac.

George Martin the EMI producer for the Beatles was once asked if allegations that the Beatles were just front men for his own musical genius he laughed and stated that although it would be quite flattering if this had been true that it was truly the innovativeness of “The Boys” as he affectionately referred to them. While in the recording studio the Beatles experimented with new technical effects, sped up and slowed down tape recording for unique sounds, and many times against EMI engineering standards, took control of the engineering themselves.

Artistic control

Had Capitol Records had their way, the Beatles would have ended up as a superficial boy band with the record company using only their vocals and adding session musicians for background music, much like the Monkeys were handled in the US, completely engineered hit making without a soul,  but the Beatles resisted. They wanted to record their own songs, play their own instruments, and have artistic control over their sound. This would prove to be the very essence of their memorable work. Besides, Capitol Records were completely wrong when they predicted that guitar bands were on their way out! The precision guitar work of the Beatles was yet another trademark of their songs.

Intelligent composition

Not only was Beatle music beloved for its harmonies and infectious musical content, but as time went on they injected social commentary into their lyrics which made many sociological analysts worry about the impact of the Beatle’s music on a generation of minds. Often weekend talk shows would address the latest release of a Beatle song such as “Revolution” and analyze the lyrical content worried that the Beatles might incite some kind of rebellious reaction, but that was not their prerogative and their fans were generally not radical.

Fine tuning masterpieces

From George Martin’s clever string arrangements, even playing an excellent harpsichord solo in John Lennon’s Song entitled “In My Life” to the Beatles own choices of orchestral accompaniment as in the song “She’s Leaving Home” from the album “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” their constant desire to enhance the sound and dynamics of their music was evident. Paul brought in a harp musician, a young woman, who was called in suddenly, and almost couldn’t make the recording session because she had an early morning arrangement the next day. Paul wrote the musical chart for her to follow.

https://youtu.be/3D0nMzHjMR8

Converting loss to inspiration

The Beatles drew upon personal experiences to be the inspiration of their songs that came from personal hardship to deep introspection. John Lennon lost his mother at an early age and was abandoned by his father as a baby. This made him an agnostic. These events had a profound effect upon him personally and even in his song writing. Underground rock and roller Lou Reed said he generally dismissed the Beatles, but when John Lennon’s first solo album came out with the song entitled “Mother”, Lou considered it to be one of the best songs ever written in the history of music. John sings about how his parents left him. George Harrison once proclaimed that John was a pain in the ass, but he loved him anyway.

From a dream

Paul like John, lost his mother at an early age and explained that during the making of the album “Let it Be” he was having some problems emotionally, but his deceased mother came to him in a dream and Paul found inspiration in that. Many people think in the song “Let it Be” Paul was referring to “Mother Mary” as the virgin saint of Catholicism. During the making of that LP John considered his best lyrical work to be in the song he wrote, “Across the Universe”. Drummer, Richard Starkey, who was already a star when the Beatles invited him into the band over Pete Best suffered from chronic illnesses growing up and had to reinvent himself in order to rise to the occasion and succeed as being a rock’n’roll drummer and singer.

Their talents complimented each other

Ringo had little interest in doing drum solos even though at times the rest of the Beatles begged him to do one, yet his signature drum style was a major part of many of their songs. George Harrison became known for his creative lead guitar style and was partially influenced by the Sitar lessons he took from Ravi Shankar, the guru of the Beatles at one time. In the movie “Let it Be” a release of hundreds of hours of studio recording footage George Harrison sings the beginning of a huge hit he will later release on his first 2 record solo album “All Things Must Pass” but McCartney seems disinterested. George actually quit the Beatles before being asked to come back for their legendary rooftop performance not long before they broke up.

A future that never happened

Even though in 1976 John Lennon, in an interview, said that the Beatles would never re-unite and play for money again while Paul was recording a Wings LP in New Orleans the two considered recording some songs together. Art Garfunkel recalls comically how John took him aside during a get together at the Dakota Apartment in New York that when he heard Paul Simon and Art were going to get back together he had a question. Art recalls that John asked him what it was like getting back together with his Paul because John was thinking about recording with his Paul (McCartney) again. Which is quite funny. Art reassured John that if he and Paul had such a good time working with each other that this would come back and their chemistry would flow once again. Sadly, Lennon died of five 38 caliber bullets to the chest from the revolver of Mark David Chapman in 1980 before John and Paul could collaborate. Amazingly President Obama granted a pardon to a cold blooded murderer, Chapman in 2010, a travesty of justice!

Thinking of their fans first

Few people realize that one of the most pivotal transition period LP’s for the Beatles “Rubber Soul” was recorded in just one month as Capitol Records were pushing the Beatles for a Christmas season album to hit the market. Being exhausted from touring and previous long hours in the studio, somehow they made a great effort to complete the album in that short time frame and the rest is history.

The music still lives on

Once the Beatles all went into very successful solo careers they all played as guest musicians on each other’s albums with the exception of John playing on any of Paul’s records. A few Beatle songs were resurrected. These songs were written and partially recorded by John Lennon before his death. Making arrangements with Yoko, Paul took four songs that were fully accompanied by Paul, George, and Ringo, one of these songs receiving an MTV annual best video award “Free as a Bird” in 1995. The Beatles still have another song scheduled for release this year which once again is a partially completed John Lennon song that Chat GPT constructed from using john Lennon’s voice and replicating it to finish the song, a complex engineering feat by human recording technicians much lass an artificially intelligent program.