You know them, you know their rise and their ending in the middle of a wave of success. There isn’t a thing about the Beatles history you probably don’t know if you’re hearing this, but I’ve unearthed a few weird and interesting pieces about the Fab 4 you might enjoy.
- Before deciding on the Beatles, the band called themselves the Quarrymen, then Johnny & the Moondogs, and then, The Silver Beetles
- If you’ve ever wondered why the band spells the name B-E-A-T-L-E-S instead of the insect spelling of B-E-E-T-L-E-S, it’s because John Lennon wanted to put the word “beat” into the name, while playing off of Buddy Holly’s backup band name, The Crickets
- You know all about the band’s huge appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, but did you know crime dropped “noticeably” during the time they were on the air, according to police across America? And especially crimes committed among juvenile offenders
- The cover of Sgt. Pepper would have looked a lot different had John Lennon gotten his way. Lennon suggested the album would have had Jesus, Gandhi and Hitler on the cover had he not stated that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus,” which earned him enough criticism for the band and the record company to consider changing it
- It was said that all four Beatles members were unable to actually read music on a page, even though they very apparently didn’t have a hard time writing it. All of the members learned to play their instruments and sing by ear
- You may notice that they are always introduced as John, Paul, George and Ringo, and there’s a reason for that very specific order: it’s the order in which each member joined the band
- And, in 1976, a little tiny sketch comedy show by the name of Saturday Night Live was playing on TV in John Lennon’s house, and Lennon and McCartney were watching when Lorne Michaels suggested that he would pay the band $3000 to reunite on the show. Lennon lived in New York City at that time, and McCartney recalls that they seriously considered going down to Rockafeller Center to the studio, but they were too tired to go.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
