Beatles FAQ

Before The Beatles broke up in 1970 ,  their singles  outsold their LPs . Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash This was the standard pattern of record sales at that time. LPs were considered a luxury item and priced beyond the reach of most teenagers.  The Beatles did have an unusual multi-generational appeal. And the kids who bought their singles would later come back to buy not just the studio albums but various compilations. From  Statista Studio Albums The Beatles officially released  13  studio  albums between 1962 and their breakup. Over time,  the biggest seller has been  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band   ( 1967 ), with an estimated 32 million The first three Anthology albums have sold more than 13 million. Later acts, like Fleetwood Mac and Elton John , benefited from the increasing availability of affordable stereo systems . Older fans were now buying Beatles albums in large numbers, but these sales were dwarfed by those of...

  photo b y   Nick Fewings  on  Unsplash Worldwide sales of physical singles are difficult to estimate accurately, and the following are estimates based on available data.

Warning! Not exactly to scale This is a surprisingly controversial question. The Beatles fan club and other 'official' sources stated  that Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison as the same height: 5'11" (180cm), with Ringo Starr 5'8" (172cm) Early publicity photos emphasise a certain height uniformity. This harmonised with the identical suits and ‘Beatle’ hair styles. It was as if you could walk over their heads without breaking step. Late 60s photos tended to emphasise individual difference rather than collective branding. They revealed that Paul was/is fractionally taller than John, who in turn had the slightest of edges over George. Ringo was/is closer to  5'6"  (168cm) Great Hoax? A belief that the real (small) Paul was replaced by a taller 'fake Paul' or Faul is a key component of the (bonkers)  'Paul is Dead' conspiracy theory .   'Evidence' of an alleged height disparity  McCartney brazenly maintains that he is still ver...

The first British Beatles LP Please Please Me (1963) We didn’t sing our own songs in the early days — they weren’t good enough   John Lennon We started as a little covers band  Paul McCartney