The Beatles (band): Difference between revisions

* [[Christmas Episode]]/[[Missing Episode]]: The Beatles sent flexidiscs with holiday greetings and [[Sketch Comedy]] to their fan club between 1963 and 1969, which were compiled onto an LP (also a fan club exclusive) in 1971. All these releases are long out of print. They've never been legally available to the general public, except for the first one, which is unlockable content in ''The Beatles: [[Rock Band]]''.

** An edited version of the 1967 message ("Christmas Time Is Here Again", the closest they ever came to doing an actual [[Christmas Songs]]) was, however, officially released as a B-side of the "Free as a Bird" single in 1995.

*** Paul McCartney apparently has the recording and keeps making noises about releasing it. George Harrison supposedly vetoed it when he was still alive, but a decade later and it's still nowhere to be found. With as many leaked studio sessions and bootleg albums as there are out there, it'a arguably one of the last truly rare Beatles recordings left.

* [[Christmas Rushed]]: ''Rubber Soul'' was rushed into production before Christmas 1965. ''Beatles For Sale'' was also rushed (hence the name and the presence of a few covers after the all-original ''Hard Day's Night'').

* [[Distinct Double Album]]: ''The Beatles'' ("[[The White Album (Music)|The White Album]]").

* [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]]: I don't care how horrible [[Misogyny Song|the sentiments]] expressed in "Run For Your Life" are, John Lennon just makes them sound ''so damn cool''.

* [[Dreadful Musician]]: The two Beatles that didn't make the cut, [[The Pete Best]] himself (the only condition George Martin gave to hire the band was to replace him) and Stu Sutcliffe (who only bought a bass to join the band at John's insistance, and usually was facing backwards on stage to hide his lack of skill).

* [[Dr. Feelgood]]: "Doctor Robert".

* [[Fading Into the Next Song]]: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" → "With a Little Help from My Friends". Then the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise → "A Day in the Life". "Back In the U.S.S.R." → "Dear Prudence" on ''[[The White Album (Music)|The White Album]]''.

** Also, the B Side Medley on ''Abbey Road'', aside from "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" → "Golden Slumbers". SCITTBW fades out completely before GS starts up.

* [[Falling Bass]]: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

* [[Fan Service]]: Pretty much the entire point of ''[[Help]]!''

** "Can You Take Me Back", the song fragment on Side 4 of ''[[The White Album (Music)|The White Album]]'' (included at the end of "Cry Baby Cry" on modern CD tracks), which to this day doesn't even have an official title.

* [[Hot and Cold]]: Although male, John had a personality similar to this.

* [[I Am the Noun]]: "I Am the Walrus".

* [[Idol Singer]]: They were in the beginning a cute-looking mass-marketed pop band with screaming female fans. [[George Harrison]] referred to the band in the Beatles Anthology movie as "[[Spice Girls (Music)|The Spice Boys]]". The success they had at becoming a [[Doing It for The Art|pioneering art-rock band]] [[Vindicated By History|might have been looked over for a long while]] as a result; even by 1966-67 the [[Spear Counterpart]] they had on TV, ''[[The Monkees (Music)|The Monkees]]'', was based on the 1964-era Beatles.

* [[Jukebox Musical]]: Three of note, not counting ''Yellow Submarine''.

** ''[[Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (Film)|Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' (1978) -- [[All-Star Cast]] fantasy that tries to wrap a storyline around Beatles songs and characters in them, as a vehicle for popular acts of the time: Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, etc. While Aerosmith's take on "Come Together" and Earth Wind & Fire's cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" are well-regarded, this movie also gave us George Burns singing "Fixing a Hole" and Steve Martin performing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". The silly story and frequent poor match-ups of songs to situations render it all [[So Bad It's Good]] ''at best'', and it was a major flop.

** ''[[Across the Universe (Film)|Across the Universe]]'' (2007) -- Director Julie Taymor brings us a movie that uses cover versions of Beatles songs to recount the love lives, political exploits, and other adventures and misadventures of 1960s youths. Very much a [[Love It or Hate It]] experience.

*** Having said that, if you are a big fan of The Beatles in general and don't mind a few lyrical changes, you're bound to at least enjoy the songs.

* [[Ode to Intoxication]]: Did you think "Got to Get You Into My Life" was a love song? It is. A love song about how much [[Paul McCartney]] loved to smoke marijuana.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: [[Eric Clapton]] came to the studio at his friend George's request to play on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He delivered probably the best guitar solo to ever appear on a Beatles record.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: "The Fool on the Hill". The [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Oop North]]: They're from Liverpool, after all.

* [[Parody]]/[[Affectionate Parody]]: The song "Back in the USSR" is both a parody of Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA" and a decent imitation of the Beach Boys' distinctive "Surfing Sound".

* [[Performance Video]]: The Beatles were among the first to make music videos, and some of them are basically the band pretending to perform, such as the video for "Ticket to Ride."

* [[Please Select New City Name|Please Retain Old Street Name]]: Penny Lane in Liverpool is named not after the coin but after an 18th-century slave trader of that name. Were it not for the Beatles' song, it would have been renamed years ago.

* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!" was pretty much John just reading out a Victorian circus poster to a tune, and "A Day in the Life" was based on the headlines from a single day's newspaper.

** "She's Leaving Home" was also based on a newspaper article, about a girl running away.

* [[Sad Clown]]: Ringo.

** "Although I laugh and I act like a clown/Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown..."

** [[Mind Screw|"Revolution 9"]] is a better example, and a lot more infamous.

** Also, the first few seconds of "Strawberry Fields Forever" are made up of flute samples.

* [[Scare Chord]]: At the beginning of "A Hard Day's Night" and "Her Majesty", and at the end of "A Day in the Life".

** The end of "Strawberry Fields Forever". The song fades out, and after a few seconds comes in a dissonant flute riff, some [[Scare Chord]] horns, and someone repeating "Cranberry Sauce" several times into another fade.

** There's also a ''negative'' one at the end of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (where a sudden silence in the middle of a riff has this effect).

* [[Scatting]]: "La la la la la la" chanting on the otherwise wordless "Flying" (off ''Magical Mystery Tour''). More famously, "Hey Jude" with it's four minute coda of "Na na na na na na na, na na na na, hey Jude".

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: During many, many press conferences at the height of Beatlemania, all four members of the band frequently joked that they expected to flop at any moment. George Harrison also referred to himself and Ringo Starr as "economy-class Beatles," and in the 1980s freely described himself as "a middle-aged ex-pop star."

* [[Self-Titled Album]]: ''The Beatles'', although pretty much everyone knows it better as [[The White Album (Music)|The White Album]].

** Perhaps the ultimate case of [[Serious Business]] is the fact that John was murdered by one crazed fan, and George and his wife nearly stabbed to death by another.

** Speaking of whom, this trope is what he was really, genuinely talking about when he uttered the famous words destined to be taken out of context: "more popular than Jesus". Anyone who has heard more than that one sentence fragment of the interview will tell you that he was talking about what [[Serious Business]] the Beatles were becoming for the fans, to the point of absurdity, and how he was ''not'' comfortable with being taken so seriously.

** The very name of the band was a Shout Out to [[Buddy Holly (Music)|Buddy Holly]] and the Crickets.

** The reference in "In My Life" to "lovers and friends/I still can recall/some are dead and some are living" is a Shout Out to Lennon's close friend and former bandmate, Stuart Sutcliffe, who died in 1962.

** "Julia"--guess what the Japanese for [[Yoko Ono|"ocean child"]] is?

** "Martha My Dear" is a Shout Out to Paul McCartney's dog.

* [[Siamese Twin Songs]]: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "With a Little Help From My Friends".

** "Polythene Pam" and "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" were recorded together as a single performance. You can hear John Lennon saying "Oh look out!" right before the change.

* [[Silly Love Songs]]: Literally ''every last original song'' on their first ''five'' albums counts. Not that there weren't plenty later on; "Paperback Writer" was the result of Paul's aunt telling him to ''please'' find a new subject.

** Paul McCartney composed the trope namer, "Silly Love Songs", during his career with [[Wings (Music)|Wings]] after The Beatles, as an answer to the critics. That says a lot about the reputation he had acquired during The Beatles.

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: At the beginning of their career they were far down the idealistic side, and if "Here Comes the Sun" is any indication, they missed it at the end. The rest of their career is [[Your Mileage May Vary|open to interpretation on this point.]] But then that shouldn't be surprising.

* [[Smarter Than You Look]]: George felt that Ringo's second song, "Octopus' Garden", was this. He described it as accidentally deep and spiritual.