How the Beatles won the West

By: Nick Sherm

In 1964 during the height of the “beatlemania” in the world, a film titled A hard days night was released starring the Beatles. It was a black and white comedy film that was directed by Richard Lester who also is known for such works as Superman 2 and 3 as well as Butch and Sundance: the Early days. The film a Hard days night portrayed a few days into the lives of the Beatles themselves, which instantly became the most fascinating thing in the world to the fans of these artists.  Being one of the first inside look films made of its kind, this movie gave people the experience of “hanging out” with the beatles and seeing what they actually do in their time not making great music.  

In the movie the Beatles are going to another city in England to make it to a tv show, They are instantly rushed up to by a group of crazed fans they must escape from.  This showed how the Beatles were treated in real life, huge celebrities. Everyone loved the Beatles back then, especially after their american tour in 1964 where an estimated four thousand Beatles fans were present to greet them when the plane landed and two times that at the concert its self.  

This movie gave a comedic, fun and cool view to how the bands crazy lives and schedules paned out when they had to do them.  Very goofy and interesting I’m sure every time.  The Beatles were the most popular band in the world at the time and possibly still are.  With 1.6 billion singles sold in the U.S alone, 600 million albums sold world wide, and countless number one hits they have a good argument to go toe to toe with anyone they want.  Dominating the entertainment industry as a group for over 10 years and individually after the break up for over 30.

In my opinion the Beatles are one of the best bands ever made, this is a popular opinion obviously but the way i see it they were the pioneers of many processes in the album creating process introducing new sound elements to each of their albums thus redefining their own style each time. This was a we don’t want to make the same thing twice mentality that true artists strive to do. From first to last Please Please Be, to Let it be 1963 to 1970, they always managed to keep the fans interested with their change. Making music at a rate of about 2 albums a year you can really tell that was their passion.

During the week of April 4, 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Bilboard Hot 100 singles chart. The top 2 positions on the albums chart, the number 1 position in the British singles chart, the first two positions in the British albums chart and the number 1 position in the British EP chart,  the most complete domination of the British and American charts in history. Today, you’re lucky to have one top 10 album and single at the same time. This was the kind of power the band had, no one else could do this.

Another thing the Beatles pioneered was stadium concerts and mass entertainment that way.  The Beatles were highly successful in selling out their early concerts in 1963, 1964 and 1965 they were only playing shows booked in auditoriums, theaters and amphitheaters that seated anywhere between 1000 and 10,000 ticket holders imagine how much it would cost to see Kanye West or Jay z in an a small theater. The Beatles took popularity over as fast as they took the charts.  

The bands break up is as much of a story as their career its self. Of the 4 members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Many McCartney acknowledged that The Beatles had effectively disbanded in a November 1969 interview conducted by Life magazine. At the beginning of 1970 McCartney Harrison and Starr briefly joined to complete recordings for the final album Let it Be.  It is said that John Lennon who is arguable the most popular or the band members aside from Paul McCartney was the reason for the bands break up and his wife Yoko Ono.

The reason i chose this film was because obviously the beatles are one of my favorite bands.  The film is funny and its great to see the band together in the height of their popularity. It gives you a sense of nostalgia even watching it thinking about what was in the future for the guys so early into their creative process.  The beatles will forever be one of the most amazing bands of all time, everything starts somewhere and that just happened to have been England