The Beatles are widely regarded as possibly the greatest and most influential band in popular-music history. In barely a decade, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr moved from exhilarating Liverpool rock-and-roll to music that continually redrew the boundaries of songwriting, recording and what a band could mean to its audience.
The Lennon–McCartney partnership stands among the world’s great songwriting teams, while Harrison’s emerging voice and Starr’s distinctive musicianship completed a genuinely collective sound. Their unprecedented chart success, studio innovations and cultural reach changed popular music forever; the remarkable part is that beneath all the history remain songs of directness, invention and enduring emotional power.
