The impact that the Beatles would ultimately have on '60s popular culture is hard to overstate. ![]() Best's fans protested, swearing they'd never listen to The Beatles again, but the furor soon faded away as the group became increasingly popular. They ultimately settled on Starr, already popular thanks to his work with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. When producer George Martin signed them to EMI, they had to do one thing: replace their drummer. Epstein refined their look and their onstage performance, and worked himself to the bone trying to get them a record deal. McCartney missed their first meeting with him, as he had decided to take a bath instead, but eventually they all connected and a partnership was born. He went to see them perform, knew star power when he saw it, and offered to manage them. While in Hamburg, the Beatles recorded their first tracks, garnering the attention of Brian Epstein, a music columnist who managed his family’s record store. Sutclliffe left the band, moved in with Astrid, and McCartney was finally free to take over the bass, a position he had been lobbying for. While there, Sutcliffe fell in love with local Astrid Kirchherr, an artist and photographer who helped create the Beatles' look, influencing their wardrobe and cutting and styling their hair. Their local fame earned them an offer to play in Hamburg, and off they went, spending the next three years honing their touring skills, drinking, carousing, and occasionally getting into trouble with the law. They became regular fixtures at Liverpool's Cavern Club, frequently pulling in over 500 people to see them in the 200-person capacity club. The Beatles (L-R): Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon Photo: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Imagesīy 1960, the group had settled on a new moniker, the Beatles, and Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best rounded out the line-up. Early on, they agreed that all of their songs would be credited to Lennon-McCartney, no matter who had taken lead or, as happened occasionally, written the songs entirely on their own. The two quickly became the group's songwriters, ushering it through many name changes and a few personnel changes as well. In 1957, he met Lennon at a church festival where Lennon’s band, the Quarrymen, were performing and was soon invited to become a member. By age 16, he had already written "When I'm Sixty-Four," in hopes of eventually selling it to Frank Sinatra. Though he took formal music lessons as a boy, the future star preferred to learn by ear, teaching himself the Spanish guitar, trumpet and piano. His future bandmate, John Lennon, also lost his mother at a young age - a connection that would create a close bond between the two musicians.Įncouraged by his father to try out multiple musical instruments, McCartney began his lifelong love affair with music at an early age. Tragically, when McCartney was only 14 years old, his mother died of complications after a mastectomy. The young McCartney was raised in a traditional working-class family, much the same as his future fellow Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison. His mother was a maternity nurse, and his father a cotton salesman and jazz pianist with a local band. James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, in Liverpool, England, to Mary and James McCartney. He is also one of the most popular solo performers of all time, in terms of both sales of his recordings and attendance at his concerts. ![]() Paul McCartney's work as a singer/songwriter with the Beatles in the 1960s helped transform popular music into a creative, highly commercial art form, with an uncanny ability to blend the two.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |