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"There were three ways that John and I would write. We would sit down with nothing and two guitars, which was like working with a mirror. I could see what he was doing, and he could see me. We got ideas off each other. In fact, it was better than a mirror because if he was plunking away in D, I could see where his fingers might go and then I could suggest something."--Paul McCartney
Beatles
Beatles
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Beatlemania!
The Beatles were heavily influenced by Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and Buddy Holly. They loved Chuck Berry, and covered his hit "Roll Over Beethoven." They modeled their sound after Elvis and the "Old Sun Records" sound. Their name came from Buddy Holly's band The Crickets. John said "I was looking for a name like the Crickets that meant two things. From Cricket I went to Beatles.. When you said it, people thought of crawly things, when you read it it was beat music."
The Beatles, with the help of Manager Brian Epstein, became perhaps the most popular rock group of music history. Already huge in England, when the Beatles came to America there were thousands of screaming teens waiting for them. The craze, called "Beatlemania," produced things like Beatles hats, shirts, pants, cookie, dolls, books, ice cream, and soft drinks.
The Beatles' success and image changed the meaning of rock and roll. Their songs had more meaning and they gained respect from adults. They did a lot of experimenting and their music went through a lot of changes. In "Norwegian Wood," they experimented with the harmonium, a fuzz bass, an electric piano and a sitar. This was off their album "Rubber Soul" released in 1965. On a following album, "Revolver," released in '66 they used heavy classical precedents in a song called "Eleanor Rigby." While writing in the album "Sgt. Pepper" in '67 the Beatles used the help of electric composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhauser, Indian Sitarist Ravi Shankar, and a 42 piece orchestra. They spent about 900 hours in the recording studio. Some songs that came out of this album were "A Day in The Life" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
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