The Beatles (band)/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Four guys from Liverpool got together a few years back and made some of the best pop music in history. 'Nuff said.

Oh, you want more?

  • Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band routinely tops various critical Top Albums Of All Time lists.
    • As do Abbey Road, Revolver, and A Hard Day's Night.
    • Even when the band was at their most fractious, they made albums like Let It Be and The White Album.
  • The band broke up in 1970, that's over 40 years ago. They are still winning Grammys.
  • During their touring years, there was multiple instances where the combined Squee of their fans was so loud it managed to completely drown out the sound of a jet engine taking off.
  • The final chord of "A Day In The Life".
    • According to Songfacts, the chord was made by all 4 Beatles and George Martin banging on 3 pianos simultaneously.
  • T-Mobile managed to get together a 15,300-person sing along of Hey Jude in the Trafalgar Square in London. The awesomeness especially kicks in during the 'Na Na Na Na' coda.
  • The rooftop concert.
  • The fact that they nailed the recording of their cover of "Long Tall Sally" in a single take (having performed it so many times before, they were pretty good at it by that point, to say the least).
  • "Twist and Shout" was also recorded in a single take. What's more, a second take would have not been possible because John's voice was shot. And it was recorded as the last song of the session for their first album. Which (except the four songs from their previous singles) was recorded in a single day. And this while they still were abiding to the normal studio time schedule. While they had a cold.
  • Until The Beatles broke through in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the winter of 1964, only three other songs by British performers had topped the Billboard pop charts since its inception in 1940. Those songs were the ballad "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn (nine weeks in 1952), the instrumental "Stranger on the Shore" by Acker Bilk in 1962 and the synth-heavy instrumental "Telstar" by the Tornadoes in early 1963. British popular music had its occasional appeal in the United States through the early 1960s, but the Beatles made British pop music the most dominant style, and began a run of dominance that has yet to be equaled. In 1964 alone, nine songs by British artists reached No. 1 (out of that year's 24 songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100), and by the end of the 1960s, 39 songs from the UK had gone No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with nearly half (18) by the Fab Four (with The Rolling Stones the next closest at five).

Awesome Music

  • While they had many, many examples, one of the best has to be the medley on Side Two of Abbey Road, mostly starting with "You Never Give Me Your Money," taking it up a notch at "Carry That Weight," which contains all four Beatles singing loudly (with Ringo's at the lead), then segues into a epic-sounding reprise of the earlier mentioned song, finally working into "The End," charged with a drum solo from Ringo, guitar solos from Paul, George, and John, and capped off with the simple line "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make," flourished with a beautiful harmony of their voices and a last guitar tune. Knowing this was their final album as a band makes it all the more epic.
    • And then, well after the fadeout, they toss in "Her Majesty", ending things with a laugh.
      • In a startling subversion, if you view it as such, the Beatles: Rock Band starts this medley--which you can play as a package from "You Never Give Me Your Money"--with all 4 Beatles in a studio, performing each song. As The End fades out, there is a pause and then Her Majesty fades in. At the end of the song, the camera zooms out and Paul is alone in the studio. It's open to interpretation but once you compare how this songlist starts, and then how it ends, it's rather saddening.
    • Fittingly, "The End" is the last song in Story mode in The Beatles: Rock Band.
  • While the medley is an epic moment of glory and a fitting way to end the band's career, we must also mention the final chord of "A Day In The Life", possibly the ultimate moment representing the band at the height of their creativity.
    • "I've got blisters on my fingers!!" anyone? The fact that they kept Ringo's cry of exasperation into the song is Awesome on its own, too.
      • Some people went as far as to call Helter Skelter "The first proto-Metal roar" or even "The first Heavy Metal song".
    • All of Abbey Road is Awesome Music. You have the individual works of four different musicians with differing styles all mixed into one album, that if you truly listen to it you can see it is all one song. "The End" just adds the final touch, as it fits its placement and usage. It is the last song on their last album, and it sums up the message they've been spreading their whole career, and all four Beatles have a solo. It is no wonder many consider it to be their greatest work.
      • People, please, you only need three words for this: All of it.
  • "Here Comes the Sun". Play hookie from work, hang out in Clapton's (!) garden, write a sunshine and flowers ditty, and get covered by everybody, forever.
  • Don't forget "Yesterday". That came to Paul in a dream. He literally dreamt up the most covered song ever. The melody came so easily to him that he felt the need to play it for almost everyone he met to make sure he wasn't just remembering a song he already knew. If any songwriter could have five minutes in the mind of Paul McCartney, they'd be very lucky indeed.
  • Little more needs to be said about "Hey Jude" – the song Paul wrote to help Julian Lennon cope with his parents' imminent divorce – except that the video for the song features a crowd coming onstage to join John, Paul, George and Ringo during the closing "Na Na Na Na" coda. Even more awesome: Despite its seven-plus minute length, no single edit was ever made ... and radio stations routinely played the entire song, in an era where songs rarely topped three minutes. And, the song was played as the finale for the segment where Paul was honored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2010 ... with dozens of performers in all genres, including jazz, rap, country, mainstream pop and R&B and anything else joining in on the "Na Na Na Na" coda (including Ringo, taking his customary place on drums), causing Paul to visibly be moved as he graciously accepted the honor.
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