The Beatles (An Alternate Beatles)

The Beatles
The Beatles in 1964 where they arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport; from left and right: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Background information
Origin	Liverpool, England
Genres	Rock, Pop, Merseybeat, Psychedelic rock, Progressive rock, New wave
Years active	1960-1976, 1980-1981, 1985, 1994-1997, 1999, 2004, 2012
Labels	Parlophone - Capitol - Apple
Associated acts	The Quarrymen Tony Sheridan Buddy Holly Roy Orbison Bob Dylan Elvis Presley The Rolling Stones Billy Preston Wings Lennon–McCartney
Website	thebeatles.com
Past members
John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr Linda Eastman

The Beatles were an English-American rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and later Linda Eastman. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat, and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting, and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.

Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI Records and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or another member of the band's entourage was sometimes informally referred to as a "sixth Beatle".

By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced records of greater sophistication, including the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), and Strawberry Fields Forever (1967). They also enjoyed further commercial success with Revolution (1968), Get Back (1969), and All Things Must Pass (1971).

The remaining Beatles focused on solo career after the release of All Things Must Pass and performing a charity concert, The Concert for Bangladesh, two years later, they hiring new member, Linda Eastman and creating a new, five-man, jam-rock oriented Beatles, which kickstarted a renaissance of albums and a new age of Beatlemania with albums such as Band on the Run (1973), Venus, Earth & Mars (1975), and Beatles at the Speed of Sound (1976) as the Beatles started touring again for the first time in almost a decade. This renaissance was stopped to a screeching halt after Lennon goes on hiatus after the birth of his son. The band went on hiatus until 1980. The Beatles then reformed to create the comeback album, Double Fantasy (1980), was initially received negative reviews, but achieved cult status and critical acclaim years later, and later the group would take an indefinite break in 1981. Four years later, the Beatles reunited at Live Aid in 1985 and planning to comeback as a reunion. However, it got scrapped due to financial issues. During the Anthology project, finished multiple tracks along with original compositions, and released the final album, Flaming Pie (1997) until the band went to separate ways.

The success of these records heralded the album era, as albums became the dominant form of record use over singles. These records also increased public interest in psychedelic drugs and Eastern spirituality and furthered advancements in electronic music, album art, and music videos. In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1981, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists. Eastman died of breast cancer in 1998, and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2003. Lennon, McCartney and Starr remain musically active.

The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 850 million units worldwide. They hold the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15), most number-one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (33), and most singles sold in the UK (49.2 million). The band received many accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and each principal member was inducted individually between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people.

History

1956–1963: Formation

The Quarrymen and name changes

John, Paul and George in the Quarrymen, the first group formed by Lennon.

In November 1956, sixteen-year-old John Lennon formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to The Quarrymen after discovering that another local group were already using the name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957, and joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after. In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison, then fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, and they enlisted him as lead guitarist.

By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art. The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to ‘Beatals’, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles, and by the middle of August simply The Beatles. They would continue to use this name from then on out.

Early residencies and UK popularity

The Beatles in Hamburg featuring original member Stuart Sutcliffe.

Allan Williams, The Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg. They auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3-month residency. During the next two years, the Beatles were resident for periods in Hamburg, where they used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles. Later on, Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany. McCartney took over bass. Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings for Polydor Records. As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year. Credited to "Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart.

The Beatles in 1961 right after Sutcliffe leave.

After The Beatles completed their second Hamburg residency, they enjoyed increasing popularity in Liverpool with the growing Merseybeat movement. However, they were growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night. In November 1961, during one of the group's frequent performances at the Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record-store owner and music columnist. He later recalled: "I immediately liked what I heard. They were fresh, and they were honest, and they had what I thought was a sort of presence ... [a] star quality."

First EMI recordings

Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they appointed him as their manager in January 1962. Throughout early and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually negotiated a one-month early release in exchange for one last recording session in Hamburg. Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording contract. To secure a UK record contract, Epstein negotiated an early end to the band's contract with Polydor, in exchange for more recordings backing Tony Sheridan. After a New Year's Day audition, head of Decca Records, Dick Rowe, rejected the band, saying, "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein. "Three months later, producer George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI's Parlophone label, beginning what would become "the most prestigious producer-and-group collaboration in all of modern history."

Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at EMI Recording Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 6 June 1962. He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested they use a session drummer in his place. Already contemplating Best's dismissal, the rest of the Beatles persuaded Epstein to replace Best.

Epstein decided that "If the group was to remain happy, Pete Best must go." Epstein summoned Best to his office and dismissed him on Thursday, 16 August, ten weeks and a day after the first recording session. Best played his last two gigs with the Beatles on 15 August at the Cavern Club, Liverpool. He was due to play his last show on 16 August at the Riverpark Ballroom, Chester, but never turned up; Johnny Hutchinson of the Big Three was rushed in as a substitute.

Best has said he saw the Beatles after his dismissal but "we never acknowledged each other or exchanged a word." The Beatles replaced Pete Best in mid-August with Richard Starkey (who went by Ringo Starr), who left The Hurricanes to join them. George Martin initially refused to let Starr play, in that he was unfamiliar with Starr, and wanted to avoid any risk of his drumming not being up to par. On 11 September 1962, at the third EMI recording session, Martin used session musician Andy White on the drums for the whole session instead of Starr, as Martin had already booked White after the first session with Best. Starr played tambourine on some songs, while White played drums. Starr told biographer Hunter Davies years later that he had thought, "That's the end. They're pulling a Pete Best on me." The sessions with Andy White produced recordings of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "Chains", and "Misery".

Martin initially selected the Starr version of "Love Me Do" for the band's first single, though subsequent re-pressings featured the White version, with Starr on tambourine. Released in early October, "Love Me Do" peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart. Their television debut came later that month with a live performance on the regional news programme People and Places. After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster tempo, a studio session in late November yielded that recording, of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No. 1."

In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg residency. By 1963, they had agreed that all four band members would contribute vocals to their albums including Starr, despite his restricted vocal range, to validate his standing in the group. Lennon and McCartney had established a songwriting partnership, and as the band's success grew, their dominant collaboration limited Harrison's opportunities as a lead vocalist. Epstein, to maximize the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to adopt a professional approach to performing. Lennon recalled him saying, "Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places, you're going to have to change – stop eating on stage, stop swearing, stop smoking ...."

1963–1966: Beatlemania and touring years

Off The Beatle Track! and With the Beatles

The Beatles recording in 1963 at EMI Recording Studios (later Abbey Road Studios).

On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, Off The Beatle Track!. It was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles. Martin considered recording the LP live at The Cavern Club, but after deciding that the building's acoustics were inadequate, he elected to simulate a "live" album with minimal production in "a single marathon session at Abbey Road". After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please Me" was released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album. It reached number one on every UK chart except Record Retailer, where it peaked at number two.

Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Off The Beatle Track! in a day", AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins." Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant."

Released in March 1963, Off The Beatle Track! was the first of twenty-five consecutive Beatles albums released in the United Kingdom to reach number one. The band's third single, "From Me to You", came out in April and began an almost unbroken string of over thirty British number-one singles. Issued in August, their fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks. It became their first single to sell a million copies, and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978.

The band with Buddy Holly in 1963.

The success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest. The band toured the UK three times in the first half of the year: a four-week tour that began in February, the Beatles' first nationwide, preceded three-week tours in March and May–June. As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. Greeted with riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans, the press dubbed the phenomenon "Beatlemania". Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American singer and musician Buddy Holly during the February engagements and assumed top billing "by audience demand", something no British act had previously accomplished while touring with artists from the US. A similar situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison.

McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In, 30 October 1963.

In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962. On their return to the UK on 31 October, several hundred screaming fans greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around 50 to 100 journalists and photographers, as well as representatives from the BBC, also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events. The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks. In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.

Off The Beatle Track! maintained the top position on the Record Retailer chart for 30 weeks, only to be displaced by its follow-up, With the Beatles, which EMI released on 22 November to record advance orders of 270,000 copies. The LP (including songs from three singles, She Loves You, This Boy and I Want to Hold Your Hand) topped a half-million albums sold in one week. Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor. It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks. Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original".

In a reversal of then standard practice, EMI released the album ahead of the impending second single of the album, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", with the song excluded to maximize the single's sales. The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963". The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability. With the Beatles became the first album by a rock group to sell a million copies, and the second album overall in UK chart history to sell a million copies (a figure previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack). When writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band's press officer, Tony Barrow, used the superlative the "fabulous foursome", which the media widely adopted as "the Fab Four".

First visit to the United States and the British Invasion

EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles' releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles. After months of refusal by Capitol, Epstein brought a demo copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to Capitol's Brown Meggs, who signed the band and arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign. American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station WWDC, in Washington, DC, obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air. Taped copies of the song soon circulated among other radio stations throughout the US. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to bring forward the Beatles’ Capitol debut, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", by three weeks. Issued on 26 December, with the band's previously scheduled debut appearance there just weeks away, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold a million copies, becoming a number-one hit in the US by mid-January. In its wake, Capitol released the debut American album, Meet the Beatles!.

The Beatles arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964.

On 7 February 1964, the Beatles departed from Heathrow with an estimated 4,000 fans waving and screaming as the aircraft took off. Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them. They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households, or 34% of the American population. Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program". The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US, but a day later at their first US concert, Beatlemania erupted at the Washington Coliseum. Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall. The band flew to Florida, where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a second time, again before 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February.

The Beatles' first visit to the US took place when the nation was still in shock after the assassination attempt of President John F. Kennedy the previous November. Commentators often suggest that for many, particularly the young, the Beatles' performances reignited the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the wake of the assassination attempt, and helped pave the way for the revolutionary social changes to come later in the decade. Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults, became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture.

The group's popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and many other UK acts subsequently made their American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion. The Beatles' success in the US opened the door for a successive string of British beat groups and pop acts such as the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Petula Clark, the Kinks, and the Rolling Stones to achieve success in America. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five.

A Hard Day's Night, 1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan, and stance on civil rights

Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go unnoticed, and a competitor, United Artists Records, encouraged their film division to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the US. Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a musical comedy. The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing a comparison with the Marx Brothers.

United Artists released a full soundtrack album for the North American market, combining Beatles songs and Martin's orchestral score; elsewhere, the group's third studio LP, A Hard Day's Night, contained songs from the film on side one and other new recordings on side two. According to Erlewine, the album saw them "truly coming into their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies." That "ringing guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's 12-string electric Rickenbacker, a prototype given to him by the manufacturer, which made its debut on the record.

McCartney, Harrison and Lennon performing on Dutch TV in 1964.

Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. In August and September, they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities. Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 fans to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York.

In August, journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet Bob Dylan. Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis. Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with their fans, "veritable 'teenyboppers' – kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialized popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. To many of Dylan's followers in the folk music scene, the Beatles were seen as idolaters, not idealists."

Within six months of the meeting, according to Gould, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona"; and six months after that, Dylan began performing with a backing band and electric instrumentation, and "dressed in the height of Mod fashion". As a result, Gould continues, the traditional division between folk and rock enthusiasts "nearly evaporated", as the Beatles' fans began to mature in their outlook and Dylan's audience embraced the new, youth-driven pop culture.

During the 1964 US tour, the group were confronted with racial segregation in the country at the time. When informed that the venue for their 11 September concert, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated. Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now ... I'd sooner lose our appearance money." City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show. The group also canceled their reservations at the whites-only Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville. For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated.

Eight Days A Week, first usage of LSD, and MBE controversy

The Beatles with their MBEs.

According to Gould, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, Eight Days A Week, evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions. They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964, to continue the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs and contained all original material save for one cover, "Words of Love"; this was the last cover the band would include on because they had nearly exhausted their backlog of songs on the previous album, however, and given the challenges constant international touring posed to their songwriting efforts, Lennon admitted, "Material's becoming a hell of a problem". As a result, only one cover from their extensive repertoire were chosen to complete the album. Released in early December, its ten original compositions stood out, demonstrating the growing maturity of the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership.

In early 1965, following a dinner with Lennon, Harrison and their wives, Harrison's dentist, John Riley, secretly added LSD to their coffee. Lennon described the experience in an interview in 1985:

“	A dentist in London laid it on George, me, and our wives without telling us at a dinner party at his house. He was a friend of George’s, and our dentist at the time… And he just put it in our coffee or something, y’know? He was saying “I advise you not to leave”, and we thought he was trying to keep us for an orgy in his house and we didn’t want to know, y’know… It was insane what was going on [in London] at the time… But, uh, we thought… when we went to the club, we thought it was on fire, and we were cackling in the street… and then people were shouting “let’s break a window!”... We were just insane! Finally, we got in the lift, and we thought there was a fire in the lift! It was just a little red light, and we were all screaming like that. The lift stops, the door opens, and we go “Ahhhhhhh!”, and we just see that it’s the club… We walk in, y’know, and sit down… and the table’s elongated! It was only a table, not very long… but it went for miles and miles and miles! And then some singer came up to me and said, “Can I sit next to you?”, and I go, “Only if you don’t talk!” (laughing)... ‘cause I just couldn’t think! And then George, somehow or another, managed to drive us home in his Mini… but we were really only going about ten miles an hour. It seemed like a thousand… I was getting all this sort of hysterical jokes coming out with like, speed… ‘cause I was always on that. And George is going “Don’t make me laugh!” (imitates laughing)... And God, it was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. And then George’s house seemed to be just like a big submarine… they had all went to bed and I was carrying on on my own… it seemed to float above his wall, which is about eighteen foot, and I was right driving it. And uh, that’s how it happened.	”
–John Lennon

Lennon and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He later commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realized a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music." McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966. He became the first Beatle to discuss LSD publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society".

Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen Elizabeth II appointed all four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award. In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia.

Help! and Shea Stadium

In July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was released, again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of [James] Bond", it inspired a mainly positive response among both reviewers and the band, yet failed to reach the massive levels of success as its predecessor. McCartney said: "Help! was great but it wasn't our film – we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong." The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride".

The Help! album, the group's fifth studio LP. The band expanded their use of vocal overdubs and instrumentation on Help!, with the flute solo on “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”, the thunderous reverb on “That Means A Lot”, and the electric piano used throughout the album being examples of this further experimentation.

The Beatles also began to incorporate classical instruments into some arrangements, including a string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday". Composed by and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording – "Yesterday" has inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written. With Help!, The Beatles became the first rock group to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

The Beatles at a press conference in Minnesota in August 1965, shortly after playing at Shea Stadium in New York.

The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description. A further nine successful concerts followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback system of on-stage monitor speakers. Towards the end of the tour, they met with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills.

September 1965 saw the launch of an American Saturday-morning cartoon series, The Beatles, that echoed A Hard Day's Night's slapstick antics over its two-year original run. The series was a historical milestone as the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people.

Rubber Soul and further growth

In mid-October, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments. Until this time, according to George Martin, "we had been making albums rather like a collection of singles. Now we were really beginning to think about albums as a bit of art on their own." Preceded by the band’s first single to feature two non-album tracks (‘Drive My Car’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’), Rubber Soul was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music. Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy, a development that NEMS executive Peter Brown attributed to the band members' "now habitual use of marijuana". Lennon referred to Rubber Soul as "the pot album" and Starr said: "Grass was really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the writers. And because they were writing different material, we were playing differently." After Help!'s foray into classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As the lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning.

While some of Rubber Soul's songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting, the album also included distinct compositions from each, though they continued to share official credit. "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue. Harrison, who’s composition ‘Think For Yourself’ earned him his first A-side spot, called Rubber Soul his "favourite album", and Starr referred to it as "the departure record". McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand." However, recording engineer Norman Smith later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right". In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Rubber Soul fifth among "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and AllMusic's Richie Unterberger describes it as "one of the first classic folk-rock records".

Revolver and final tour

The Beatles preforming in 1966 at Budokan.

Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format, compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles. In June 1966, Capitol released Yesterday and Today. In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on the instrument.

During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and Today furore, the Beatles unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected them to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Epstein politely declined on the band members' behalf, as it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations. They soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to taking no for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group, and they escaped the country with difficulty. Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time.

Released in August 1966, Revolver marked another artistic step forward for the group. The album featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation, and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelia. Abandoning the customary group photograph, its Aubrey Beardsley-inspired cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – was a monochrome collage and line drawing caricature of the group. Short promotional films were made for "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos", they aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June.

Among the experimental songs on Revolver was "Tomorrow Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Its creation involved eight tape decks distributed about the EMI building, each staffed by an engineer or band member, who randomly varied the movement of a tape loop while Martin created a composite recording by sampling the incoming data. McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; Gould describes it as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of song". Harrison's emergence as a songwriter was reflected in three of his compositions appearing on the record. Among these, "Taxman", which opened the album, marked the first example of the Beatles making a political statement through their music. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Revolver at #11 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

As preparations were made for a tour of the US, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30 amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers, specially designed for them by Vox, as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, these were still inadequate. Struggling to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown increasingly bored with the routine of performing live. Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August tour their last.

The band performed none of their new songs on the tour. In Chris Ingham's description, they were very much "studio creations ... and there was no way a four-piece rock 'n' roll group could do them justice, particularly through the desensitizing wall of the fans' screams. 'Live Beatles' and 'Studio Beatles' had become entirely different beasts." The band's concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August was their last commercial concert for over seven years. It marked the end of four years dominated by almost non-stop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally.

1966-1971: Studio years

Rivalry with the Beach Boys and Strawberry Fields Forever

Freed from the burden of touring, the Beatles embraced an increasingly experimental approach in the studio as they recorded their next album. Initially set to be a concept album (one of the first at the time), the album would have explored a live band playing a set for an audience. Dubbed early on as ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’, recording began in late November 1966.

However, across the Atlantic, the Beach Boys (often seen as the American equivalent to the Beatles) had been recording their latest album. Ever since the release of their 1965 album Today!, the two bands had been in a friendly back-and-forth rivalry. In response to Today!, the Beatles released Rubber Soul, which featured more melodic bass playing from McCartney, as well as more intricate harmonies. This spurred the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson to conceive Pet Sounds, which put them at the number one spot above the Beatles in multiple year-end polls. This, in hand, strongly inspired elements of Revolver, and, at the time, the future record Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beach Boys, however, decided they’d be the ones to get ahead of the game. Brian Wilson commented on this in an interview in 1973: "I had been telling the others that we can’t let them get ahead of us. It was a constant cycle of them, then us, then them again, etc. We had to jump ahead… and I had noticed that English music had started shaping into that sound… the staccato piano chords, just a very… like, sunshiney, happy sound. The lyrics mentioned very British things that only they would understand. Almost a love letter to England… American music had been blues and rock n’ roll… that more hard-edged, bitter sound. And so I had thought… what if we could take that love letter idea… and bring it into America. Write music that people here could understand. Music about the history and the culture… And so… that was really the idea behind Smile."

The Beatles, having been greatly surprised at the complex lyrical and musical themes throughout Smile, were spurred to change the course of the current album. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours. He recalled the band's insistence "that everything on [Strawberry Fields Forever] had to be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck together upside down and the wrong way around. It was pure madness."

Lennon during Strawberry Fields Forever sessions.

Brian Epstein, was introduced to the double album concept by Paul one evening in the studio. Paul was enthusiastic about the idea, eager to try and branch outside of the studio once more. Parts of the title track featured a 40-piece orchestra providing two orchestral crescendos and sound of the some songs were also considerably darker, such as the tracks I Am The Walrus and Only A Northern Song, some of the more chaotic songs the band recorded that Lennon described as "a tremendous build-up, from nothing up to something absolutely like the end of the world". Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history; Lennon, McCartney, Starr and Evans shared three different pianos, with Martin on a harmonium, all playing an E-major chord simultaneously. The chord was made to ring out for over forty seconds by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded out. Towards the end of the chord, the recording level was so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair. In author Jonathan Gould's commentary on "A Day in the Life", he describes the final chord as "a forty-second meditation on finality that leaves each member of the audience listening with a new kind of attention and awareness to the sound of nothing at all".

Preceded by the single "Getting Better/Fixing A Hole" (which, due to wanting to preserve as much as possible for the album itself, featured McCartney compositions on both sides. Lennon later commented he ‘didn’t really mind’, as ‘the great stuff is on the album, anyways’), Strawberry Fields Forever, a double LP was released in July. The musical complexity of the record, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists. Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal.

The Beatles at the Strawberry Fields Forever launch party, held at Brian Epstein's house on 19 July 1967.

In the wake of Strawberry Fields Forever, the underground and mainstream press widely publicized the Beatles as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries". The album was the first major pop/rock double LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared inside the gatefold packaging. Those lyrics were the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and professor of English Richard Poirier, who observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy". The elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study. A collage designed by pop art collective The Fool, it depicts the supposed ‘dream world’.

In September 1967, the Beach Boys' landmark double album Smile was released to near-universal acclaim. The album, which explored multiple aspects of American history and culture, was constructed entirely from different sections of music, much like their previous singles "Good Vibrations", "Heroes & Villains" and "Darlin'". While a major hit in the United States, the majority of praise and sales were coming from the United Kingdom, the undisputed psychedelic-pop scene at the time. The critical and financial success of Pet Sounds and Smile in Europe began a phenomenon similar to that of Beatlemania in the United States, and the gap between the Beatles and the Beach Boys was shrinking.

“	Yeah, I think. We went in the studio with Pet Sounds fresh on our minds. We were thinking of all these ways to try and get on top of them… And then it… it must’ve been about a month in… they release Good Vibrations... and then Heroes & Villains... and later Darlin' after that. And we said… ‘now hang on, there's a lot of cuts and sections in these songs… these module things… what the hell are they doing…?’ We figured their next album would’ve made use of these splices, and not much else... So we did ‘Strawberry Fields [Forever]’, which had some of that splicing in it… and then… the very next week after that, ‘Smile’ is out without a warning. And we were just… absolutely speechless. It was unlike anything we had ever heard before, really. You would think the module thing would get old, but they had just… ran with it! So we all sat down one day and said ‘right, they’ve done a record about America, let’s do one about England. We'll build off of Strawberry [Fields Forever], and we'll toss the ball right back at them’. And that’s where we switched courses to try and get back ahead.	”
–Paul McCartney, 1968

Strawberry Fields Forever topped the UK charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number one in the period through to February 1968. With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release, Strawberry Fields Forever's initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums. It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Strawberry Fields Forever at number one on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, with Smile coming in at a close second.

Magical Mystery Tour film and Epstein’s departure

The Beatles in 1967; clockwise from left: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr.

Two Beatles film projects were conceived within weeks of completing Strawberry Fields Forever: Magical Mystery Tour, envisioned as a one-hour television film, and Yellow Submarine, an animated feature-length film produced by United Artists. On 12 August, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single "All You Need Is Love" to an estimated 350 million viewers on Our World, the first live global television link. Released a week later, during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem. The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs was at its height during that summer. In July and August, the group pursued interests related to similar utopian-based ideology, including a week-long investigation into the possibility of starting an island-based commune off the coast of Greece.

On 24 August, the group was introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London. The next day, they traveled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. On 27 August, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein had departed became a manager. This left the group disoriented and fearful about the future. Lennon recalled: "We collapsed. I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn't really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought, 'We've fuckin' had it now.'" Harrison's then-wife Pattie Boyd remembered that "Paul and George were in complete shock. I don't think it could have been worse if they had heard that their own fathers had dropped dead." During a band meeting in September, McCartney recommended that the band proceed with Magical Mystery Tour film.

Magical Mystery Tour first aired on Boxing Day to an audience of approximately 15 million. Largely directed by McCartney, the film was the band's first critical failure in the UK. It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the Daily Express; the Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit"; and The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience". Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus". Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film.

The group then quickly began their (somewhat less involved) work on Yellow Submarine. The only work the band themselves partook in was the first nine minutes of the film, which was filmed in live action, as well as the final live-action sequence, where the band return from the film's setting, ‘Pepperland’. Premiering in July 1968, the film featured cartoon versions of the band members and a soundtrack with eleven of their songs, including three unreleased studio recordings that made their debut in the film (two of which were from the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions, while one of them are from Revolver). Critics praised the film for its music, humor and innovative visual style. A soundtrack EP was issued seven months later; it contained those three new songs. A proper soundtrack was given an official release in 1999, with the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, including every song appearing in the film, as well as a bonus disc comprising of the entire film score, composed by George Martin.

India retreat, Apple Corps, and Revolution

In February 1968, the Beatles traveled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a three-month meditation "Guide Course". Their time in India marked one of the band's most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album. However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as ‘Magic Alex’ suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them. When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues. McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was."

In May, Lennon and McCartney traveled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles' new business venture, Apple Corps. It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism, and education. McCartney described Apple as "rather like a Western communism". The first years of the enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects handled largely by members of the Beatles' entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience. Among its numerous subsidiaries were Apple Electronics, established to foster technological innovations with ‘Magic Alex’ at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived Apple Boutique in London. Harrison later said, "Basically, it was chaos ... John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it."

From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became their next album: Revolution, a second double LP, released only months apart. Having been restricted to just acoustic guitars during their stay in India, the record would have heavily employed acoustic instruments and softer folk sounds.

A promotional photo of Revolution.

During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive. Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence" as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums. Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney, whose contributions “Honey Pie” and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit". Tensions were further aggravated by Lennon's romantic preoccupation with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the sessions despite the group's well-established understanding that girlfriends were not allowed in the studio. McCartney has recalled that the era "held some of the darker times of the band". Lennon has identified the sessions as the start of his temporary departure from the band about a year later.

With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre. During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the albums a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort. Describing the double album, Lennon later said: "Every track is an individual track; there isn't any Beatle music on it. [It's] John and the band, Paul and the band, George and the band." The sessions also produced the Beatles' longest song yet, Hey Jude, released in October with Revolution II (an alternate, slower version of the track Revolution, from the titled album).

Issued in November, Revolution was the band's first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings. The record attracted more than 2 million advance orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations. Its lyric content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture. Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album's content, and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that Strawberry Fields Forever had.

The Rooftop Concert and John Eastman

Before Revolution's release, John Lennon enthused to music journalist Jonathan Cott that the Beatles were "Coming out of our shell, [...] kind of saying: remember what it was like to play?" George Harrison welcomed the return to the band's roots, saying that they were aiming "to get as funky as we were in the Cavern". Concerned about the friction over the previous year, Paul McCartney was eager for the Beatles to perform live again. In early October 1968, he told the press that the band would soon play a live show for subsequent broadcast in a TV special. The following month, Apple Corps announced that the Beatles had booked the Roundhouse in north London for 12–23 December and would perform at least one concert during that time. When this plan came to nothing, Denis O'Dell, the head of Apple Films, suggested that the group be filmed rehearsing at Twickenham Film Studios, in preparation for their return to live performance, since he had booked studio space there to shoot The Magic Christian.

The Beatles during the Get Back sessions.

The initial plan was that the rehearsal footage would be edited into a short TV documentary promoting the main TV special, in which the Beatles would perform a public concert or perhaps two concerts. Michael Lindsay-Hogg had agreed to direct the project, having worked with the band on some of their promotional films. The project's timeline was dictated by Harrison being away in the United States until Christmas and Starr's commitment to begin filming his role in The Magic Christian in February 1969. The band intended to perform only new material and were therefore under pressure to finish writing an album's worth of songs. Although the concert venue was not established when rehearsals began on 2 January, it was decided that the 18th would serve as a potential dress rehearsal day; the 19th and 20th would serve as concert dates.

The Beatles in the rooftop concert, the first concert performance since three years ago.

George Martin said that the project was "not at all a happy recording experience. It was a time when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb." Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell [...] the most miserable [...] on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time". Irritated by McCartney and Lennon, Harrison walked out for five days. Upon returning, he threatened to leave the band unless they "abandoned all talk of live performance" and instead focused on finishing a new album, titled Get Back, using songs recorded for the TV special. He also demanded they cease work at Twickenham Film Studios, where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished Apple Studio. His bandmates agreed, and it was decided to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film.

To alleviate tensions within the band and improve the quality of their live sound, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate in the last nine days of sessions. Preston received label billing on the Get Back single, the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release. After the rehearsals, the band could not agree on a location to film a concert, rejecting several ideas, including a boat at sea, a lunatic asylum, the Tunisian desert, and the Colosseum. Ultimately, what would be their final live performance with Lennon for over four years was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969. Five weeks later, engineer Glyn Johns, whom Lewisohn describes as Get Back's "uncredited producer", began work assembling an album, given "free rein" as the band "all but washed their hands of the entire project".

New strains developed between the band members regarding the appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon favored Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke; McCartney, Harrison and Starr wanted John Eastman – brother of Linda Eastman, whom McCartney married on 12 March. An agreement could not be reached, so both Klein and Eastman were temporarily appointed: Klein as the Beatles' business manager and Eastman as their lawyer. Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost. On 8 May, John Eastman was named sole manager of the band, with Allen Klein having been dismissed as the Beatles' business manager. Lennon refused to sign the management contract with Eastman, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles.

Get Back, Lennon's crash, ended the Lennon–McCartney partnership, and Toronto Rock Revival Festival

Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce album, as the Get Back sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us". On 22 February 1969, the group recorded a backing track for I Want You (She's So Heavy) with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian (a film which featured the Lennon composition Madman, performed by Badfinger, one of Apple’s more prominent acts. Madman gave the group their first number one, and helped them rise to a wider level of recognition).

After a small amount of work that month and a session for ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for ‘Because’, was taped on 1 August. McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the single The Ballad of John and Yoko in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Get Back sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and reportedly clashed with other members. However, though there was significant tension, the band seemed to be healing from the previous years of hardship.

Lennon and Ono with the crashed car.

Halfway through recording in June, Lennon was involved in a severe car accident while holidaying in Scotland with Yoko Ono, her daughter Kyoko and his son Julian. Lennon was a notoriously bad driver who had rarely been behind the wheel since passing his test in 1965. He was poor at navigating roads and often failed to notice other traffic. The roads were narrow, the weather was poor, and while driving back to the cottage they had been staying at after heading out for a drink, Lennon panicked after spotting a foreign tourist driving towards him. Lennon lost control of his Austin Maxi, driving it off the road, down a hill, and, subsequently, causing the vehicle to roll over multiple times before slamming into a tree at high speed.

Lennon was thrown from the vehicle before hitting the tree (an act of fate that doctors later said saved his life). He proceeded to roll down the rocky terrain of the hillside before coming to a stop at the foot of the hill. The multiple injuries to his head from the ground and intense centripetal motion caused Lennon to lose consciousness. Emergency services arrived approximately nine minutes later, where Lennon was then rushed to Golspie’s Lawson Memorial Hospital. After several emergency procedures, Lennon regained consciousness and his vitals began stabilizing. After four days in intensive-care, he was transferred to a primary care unit, before leaving against his doctor’s wishes two days later. From there, Lennon would return to London with his family, before rejoining the Beatles back at Abbey Road Studios.

On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretense and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a single around Christmas. Four days later, Lennon received a call from John Brower, organizer of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival (set to occur the following day), offering Lennon free attendance to the festival in order to boost its profile. They offered instead to perform at the festival. Brower agreed, and Lennon quickly assembled them. The band rehearsed on the plane to Toronto, and performed rock songs sung by themselves. A recording of the show was released in 29 May 1970 as Live Peace in Toronto 1969, their first live album. On 20 September, after weeks of incidents, Lennon conveyed his three-weeks departure to the rest of the group during the middle of a session. After recording a take of The End in silence, Lennon reportedly unplugged his guitar, turned to the others, and announced "I’m out now". He then gathered his things and left, leaving the band confused as to what happened. Once it was apparent that Lennon returned three weeks later, McCartney and John Eastman filed suit for the dissolution of the Lennon-McCartney partnership on 14 November 1969, with Lennon signing the paperwork terminating the partnership a month later.

Released on 26 September, Get Back sold six million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of nineteen weeks. Harrison's two songs on the album, the ballad Let It Be and Something, the ode to sunshine Here Comes the Sun and the folky Two of Us, have been regarded as some of the best they wrote for the group, and some of the Beatles' greatest work. As an album, however, Get Back received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim. Richie Unterberger considers it "on the whole underrated", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record". Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley. Martin singled it out as his favorite Beatles album; Lennon later said it was "competent" but had "no life in it".

The Everest sessions, press conference, releasing solo albums by each members, All Things Must Pass, and The Concert for Bangladesh

Harrison and Starr in 1970.

A meeting between the Beatles and Martin took place behind locked doors at Harrison's home in Esher during the winter. They re-entered the studio on 4 February 1970 to begin their next project after a short break to recuperate. Lennon agreed to stay on the group, under the circumstance any further recordings he made with the Beatles would not appear on later releases. The main goal behind these initial sessions was to determine whether. Martin would later describe the atmosphere in the studio as 'awkward', with McCartney reluctant to regain control of the band after being seen as overbearing during the sessions for Get Back, and Lennon and Harrison not wanting to clash with McCartney.

These early sessions would eventually known as Everest, the songs such as aggressive blues-rock number, Another Day, Oh Woman, Oh Why, Theme #9/Miss America/Oo You (which features Martin on piano), My Sweet Lord, and Mother. These songs featured a notable departure from the lush, warm production of Get Back, with less-complex arrangements and a much sparser sound. A notable change to the band's repertoire around this time, however, was the inclusion of slide guitar, courtesy of Harrison. A technique he had recently acquired, Harrison would later be recognized as one of the most prolific slide-guitarists of the century.

Around this time, an independent article accusing the band of turning publicity around supposed break-up into profits would prove to be a massive trouble for the group. Submitted by an anonymous source to multiple newspapers and magazines, NME would eventually pick up the article and publish it in their August 1970 issue. The article would receive worldwide attention and speculation, with multiple music magazines and tabloids running with the theory. A significant portion of the public began believing the rumors, and public support of the group dropped considerably, namely those who were fans of the Beatles. In an attempt to ease public relations and address the went on a break-up, a press conference was held at Apple's headquarters on 24 August 1970. The conference lasted for hours, with multiple protestors situated outside of the building. After relentless questions about if finances had anything to do with the continuation of the band, Harrison stated: "We just don't feel like we're done yet, but we discussed it between the four of us, and figured out that we still have more music to play."

The press conference was considered a success in easing tensions with the public. The crowds that gathered outside the studios grew noticeably smaller, and the tabloids that attempted to spread more rumors gradually died out. While not fully mended, public relations with the band grew stable, as many began dispelling the rumors and believing the band’s word. What was, for a brief moment, a negative view of the band, slowly turned into a cautious optimism as the public and critics alike eagerly awaited the next release by the group, silently hoping it would prove those still in doubt to be wrong.

Lennon at his Primal Scream therapy.

While McCartney, Harrison, and Starr had been busy for their sessions, Lennon was in the beginning of a personal era that would come to be known as his first 'lost weekend'. Since his car crash, Lennon's mental health had been declining. Mood swings and memory trouble were frequent, and he slowly began to experience difficulty playing guitar, eventually having to utilize simple chord shapes. Among all of this, Lennon would often complain of weakness in his left shoulder and intense migraines that would last for days. With his health deteriorating and his marriage becoming strained, Lennon, with Yoko, would undergo primal therapy, an expiramental form of psychotherapy founded by Arthur Janov that would involve screaming and other unorthodox ways of dealing with past traumas. During intense sessions, Lennon would often burst into fits of rage, sometimes even passing out. When he was going to primal therapy, he advised for Lennon to cease further sessions and undergo a much more 'usual' form of therapy, but Lennon refused. This would incite Klein (his manager at the time) to spread false rumours to Lennon through a third party that Janov had a history of assaulting women. Lennon and Yoko would become estranged from Janov after a confrontation between the three during a session, ultimately ending with Lennon refusing any further sessions, calling him 'another fucking Maharishi.'

With the crowds usually swarming Abbey Road Studios having been dispersed, the Beatles were finally able to properly record and perform within the studio. Having proven that recording with just three members was possible from a technical standpoint, the band agreed that they should focus on proving they could hold their own solo albums and scrapped the Everest sessions when it came to the depth and subject matter of the music. With this in mind, the band began sharing demos and rough drafts of songs they had created with each other.

Harrison was the first Beatle to release a solo album, which being known as his self-titled debut solo album released on 27 November 1970 with two discs, which first of his songs and the second of recordings of Harrison jamming with friends. The album was regarded by many as his best work, and it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The number-one hit single "My Sweet Lord" and the top-ten single "What Is Life" were taken from the album. Lennon released his solo album being known as Lennon two weeks later, it was received with praise by many music critics, but its highly personal lyrics and stark sound limited its commercial performance. McCartney would released his first solo album, McCartney, two months later. Apart from some vocal contributions from Linda, McCartney is a one-man album, with McCartney providing compositions, instrumentation and vocals. Starr released his debut solo album, Sentimental Journey, which is a cover album release two months later, peaked at number seven in the UK and number 22 in the US.

McCartney, being overwhelmed and stressed by the events of the preceding months, utilized songwriting as an escape to clear his head and retreat to a calmer mentality. While taking a break with his family from the noise and chaos at his farm in Scotland, McCartney penned the Eleanor Rigby-esque Another Day; an observational song about a lonely woman and her day-to-day routine. At this point, all McCartney had was the basic chords for most of the song, as well as the lyrics. McCartney was initially hesitant to pursue recording Another Day, feeling it was "a bit bare and a bit silly". Fearing the public would react negatively to the then-simplistic composition, McCartney nearly shelved the song. Upon hearing McCartney's home demo of the song, however, Starkey persuaded him to not abandon it, finding it 'charming'. In an attempt to assist with finishing the song, Harrison and McCartney toyed around with a short chord segment Harrison had made a demo of a few days prior.

Sessions started back up again between the four, and eventually Another Day, backed with Oh Woman, Oh Why, would be released as the Beatles' next single on 19 February 1971. Public reception was highly positive, while critical reception was warm. Many critics, while collectively agreeing that the two songs were still weaker than their earlier compositions, nearly unanimously agreed that the Beatles were heading in the right direction, and that it was a much welcomed step up from their previous single.

With Klein scheduled to be away for two months, and the album finished in under two weeks, an erratic Lennon met with executives at Apple to arrange a rush release of the album, to which they hesitantly agreed. Lennon wanted to release the album before Klein returned, determined to go it alone. This would result in one of the most rushed releases of an album in music history; promotion was essentially nil, copies of the album were sent out in bulk anywhere and everywhere, and the first time the public really knew of the album's existence was three days before its release. The album was so rushed in fact, that somewhere along the way, the album’s title was forgotten about, leading pressing plants to assume it was intentionally left untitled in an attempt to be experimental. Eventually, a manager of one of these plants phoned Apple, who in turn phoned Lennon, who was 'ecstatic' at the mistake, and told them to leave it. This officially led to the album being known as All Things Must Pass.

Released on 18 June 1971 and debuted at #9 on the UK charts, where slowly over the course of the month, it would rise to #1. Critical reception was positive and it was a commercial success, with journalists praising it as a ‘visionary’ album. In 2012, the album was voted 80th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album has been reissued multiple times, including in 2018 as The Ultimate Collection, a six-disc box set containing previously unreleased demos, rare studio outtakes, "evolution documentaries" for each track, and isolated track elements along with surround mixes.

George Harrison preforming at the Concert for Bangladesh, 1 August 1971.

Harrison responded to a request from Ravi Shankar by organising a charity event, the Concert for Bangladesh, which took place on 1 August 1971. The event drew over 40,000 people to two shows in New York's Madison Square Garden. The goal of the event was to raise money to aid starving refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Shankar opened the show, which featured popular musicians such as Dylan, Clapton, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Preston, Zion, the Who, the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Klaus Voormann, Jim Horn, Jim Keltner, Jessie Davis and more.

A quadruple album, The Concert for Bangladesh, was released by Apple in December, followed by a concert film in 1972. Credited to "The Beatles and Friends", the album topped the UK chart and peaked at number 2 in the US, and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Tax troubles and questionable expenses later tied up many of the proceeds, but Harrison commented:

“	Mainly the concert was to attract attention to the situation... The money we raised was secondary, and although we had some money problems... they still got plenty... even though it was a drop in the ocean. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended.	”
–George Harrison

1971–1976: Reformative years

18 months break, Band on the Run and return to touring

John Lennon in New York City, pictured in 1974.

After the Concert for Bangladesh wrapped, the individual members of the band took a much-needed break throughout to late 1971. Lennon and his wife Ono moved to New York in August 1971 and immediately embraced US radical left politics. The couple released their "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single in December. McCartney was formed Wings who found moderate success with the release of Wild Life (1972) and Red Rose Speedway (1973). Harrison was honoured by UNICEF along with Shankar and Klein, with the "Child Is the Father of Man" award at an annual ceremony in recognition of their fundraising efforts for Bangladesh. Starr purchased Lennon's home Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill in Berkshire and moved his family there. The public were certain that any hope for a future Beatles release was in vain. But as the rest of 1972 came and went, nobody could have guessed what happened next. It would be known as the 18 months break of the band.

In April 1973, Lennon met McCartney at EMI Studios and to tell each separately came to realize how much they had missed touring together. After multiple phone calls, and meetings with the other Beatles, the warmth and joy surrounding the subsequent sessions could not be overstated.

For the first time, Paul McCartney introduced a new member and a wife of McCartney, Linda. This leading the band effectively creating a five-piece band. The album is notable for its transition from experimental sounds from their previous LP All Things Must Pass to more straightforward rock and jam-oriented music, achieved by the guitar works of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. The thicker harmonies on a few tracks were also achieved by utilizing the five members' vocal abilities.

Lennon in studio during Band on the Run sessions.

As Lennon was about to do a new record in 1973, he decided to separated by Ono. With the band reduced to a quintet, Lennon, the McCartneys, Harrison and Starr cut what turned out to be their another most successful album, Band on the Run, at EMI's recording studio in London, England. The album went to number 1 in both the US and UK and spawned four hit singles: the rockers "Mind Games", "Jet" and "Photograph" and the title track, a suite of movements recalling a part two of Get Back. Band on the Run enjoyed a highly favourable response from music critics, started touring again for the first time in almost a decade and kickstarted a renaissance and a new age of Beatlemania.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney on Los Angeles in 1974.

Due to the start of the next generation of Beatlemania, three double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962–1966, 1967–1970, and 1971–1974 were released in 1974, at first under the Apple Records imprint. Commonly known as the "Red Album", "Blue Album", and "Green Album", respectively, each has earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the US and a Platinum certification in the UK.