History: Early Years Of The Beatles

With an early five-piece line-up Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums), the Beatles built their reputation in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs over a three-year period from 1960. Sutcliffe left the group in 1961, and Best was replaced by Starr the following year. Moulded into a pressional outfit by music store owner Brian Epstein after he fered to act as the group's manager, and with their musical potential enhanced by the hands-on creativity producer George Martin, the Beatles achieved mainstream success in the United Kingdom in late 1962 with their first single, "Love Me Do". Gaining international popularity over the course the next year, they toured extensively until 1966, then retreated to the recording studio until their break-up in 1970. Each then found success in an independent musical career. Lennon was murdered outside his home in New York City in 1980, and Harrison died cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain active.
During their studio years, the Beatles produced what critics consider some their finest material including the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), widely regarded as a masterpiece. Four decades after their break-up, the Beatles' music continues to be popular. The Beatles have had more number one albums on the UK charts, and held down the top spot longer, than any other musical act. According to RIAA certifications, they have sold more albums in the United States than any other artist. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list the all-time top-selling Hot 100 artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with the Beatles at number one. They have been honoured with 7 Grammy Awards, and they have received 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy Songwriters, Composers and Authors. The Beatles were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation the 20th century's 100 most influential people.