II.

Early Years

All the members of the band were born in Liverpool, England, in the early 1940s. The core songwriting pair, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, met in 1957 while Lennon was performing with his skiffle band, the Quarry Men. The two teenagers discovered they shared a love of American rhythm-and-blues and rock music. McCartney joined the group later in 1957 and the following year guitarist George Harrison became a member. In January 1960 an art-school acquaintance of Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined as bass player, and the band changed its name, after several variations, to the Beatles.

Drummer Pete Best accompanied the group to Hamburg, Germany, in August 1960, where for more than three months they played an arduous schedule of club dates. The group returned to Hamburg four more times in the following three years, and in this demanding environment the Beatles forged many of their dynamic traits: rousing three-part harmonies, a witty on-stage repartee, and a large repertoire of American rock-and-roll songs, supplemented by original material.

Sutcliffe left the band in early 1961, causing McCartney to change from rhythm guitar to bass. Later that year a local businessman, Brian Epstein, became the Beatles’ manager. After a number of rejections, he secured the group a record deal with Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI Records, in June 1962. Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey) replaced Best as the group's permanent drummer in August 1962, completing the Beatles’ famous lineup. The band released their debut hit single, “Love Me Do,” in England in October, and followed that with “Please Please Me” in early 1963. Other early hits included “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963), “She Loves You” (1963), and “I Saw Her Standing There” (1963).