On February 9, 1964, a quartet of four young men from the northern port city of Liverpool, England, made their American television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. By April 4 of that year, that same band would hold ten of the top 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including the entire top 5. Heavily bootlegged, widely covered and deemed the best selling artist of all time by Billboard, the Beatles remain a musical phenomenon unparalleled in popular music history. As troubadours and rock stars, they wrote an enduring collection of romantic modern classics. As trendsetters and influencers, they also placed an emphasis on universal love that had been rarely explored in popular music to that time.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met on July 6, 1957, after John’s band The Quarrymen had finished playing a show at a local church. John was 16 and Paul had just turned 15 years old. The two of them connected over a shared love of American music, particularly rock and roll and rhythm and blues but a number of other genres as well, and began playing together throughout the Liverpool area. When they decided they needed a better guitar player, Paul mentioned his schoolmate George Harrison, who was 14 years old. The three of them formed the core of what became the Beatles, adding drummer Ringo Starr in 1962.
While early songs focused on more conventional romantic tropes, such as She Loves You, Love Me Do and Can’t Buy Me Love, they quickly evolved their musical repertoire to encompass self- doubt, conflict, and anti-establishment sentiments. Yet it is their treatment of love on a worldwide scale that may be among their more important contributions to songwriting. Beginning in 1965 with The Word, the group began composing and recording songs that reflected a deeper, more emotionally resonant worldview that allowed everyone to participate.
Although songs like “Within You Without You” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” both feature a sense of camaraderie and human connection, “All You Need is Love” is probably the most triumphant example of a song focused on all-encompassing fellowship and peace. While the song was intended to be recorded entirely live as part of the groundbreaking Our World satellite broadcast on June 25, 1967, drums and some of the orchestration had been recorded ahead of time for technical reasons. John wrote the song especially for the broadcast, which went to #1 in both the US and the UK in the summer of 1967. Other songs that feature this same sense of love include Across the Universe, Come Together and All Together Now.
The Beatles broke up in 1970-after recording eight albums and 213 songs, yet their impact on popular music is indelible and long-lasting. On February 2, 2025, they earned their most recent Grammy for Best Rock Performance for their single Now and Then. Their work together and individually has influenced countless artists, and their rapid growth and demonstrated experimentation remains unparalleled. Interested in learning more about the Beatles? Want to gain insight into popular music of the 1960s? Curious about how the British Invasion affected American music? Ask us! iueref@iu.edu.