Fastest selling single?
Two months after their first US public appearance, The Beatles held all the top five positions in the Billboard Hot 100.
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On Tour in Japan 1966
The Beatles only visited Japan once, arriving in the early hours of June 1966 and departing three days later. They played five concerts at the Nippon Budokan Arena . The tour faced serious challenges.
Who had 'difficulty with words'?
At Abbey Road, George Harrison had a reputation for taking a long time to write songs. The biggest issue was completing lyrics with 'beautiful words'.
What were the biggest concerts The Beatles ever played?
The Beatles had started by playing church halls, coffee halls, and even private homes. Their Ed Sullivan appearance in February 1964 opened a huge new market. This was now only confined by the size of the concert venues available.
Why did the Beatles stop performing live?
We were the best live band in the world before we were famous. Nobody could touch us John Lennon.
Which Beatle supposedly 'died' in 1966?
One of the most enduring legends surrounding The Beatles is that the Fab Four became the Fab Three in November 1966.
When do we first hear an Indian influence on a Beatles record?
In June 1966 the great Indian musician Ravi Shankar visited George Harrison at his Surrey home - and played for the assembled Beatles. Two months later they recorded George's composition I WANT TO TELL YOU. Harrison later explained that the song expressed 'an avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say' and Ian Macdonald spots the 'underlying Hindi outlook in the lyric - a karmic reference to time in the final lines ... confirmed by a descending melisma in the fade out'. Neil Innes - who later collaborated with George Harrison on the celebrated Beatles spoof mockumentary The Rutles - happened to be in Abbey Road Studio as they were recording. He tells the story here: