Remembering The Beatles

 I have been watching "The Beatles Anthology" series that was recently released on Disney+.

Source: https://www.thebeatles.com/beatles-anthology-series-2025

It is quite a walk down memory lane for someone who was in the 8th grade when The Beatles first burst on the scene in the United States and Beatlemania swept the country in early 1964.

Nothing has matched that music mania since. Chances are it never will again.

What remains astounding all of these years later are the number of incredible songs The Beatles produced most of which were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

I still remember the week back in April, 1964 when The Beatles had the first 5 singles on the Billboard charts.

That same week they also had 7 songs in the top  10, 11 of the top 20 songs and 14 songs on the Hot 100 on Billboard.

Source: Grok

Source: Grok

The story of The Beatles reinforces three lessons underlying success I have written about previously in BeeLine. 

The fast ascent of The Beatles in the United States in 1964 led many to believe that they were overnight sensations.

The reality is that John, Paul and George had been working tirelessly together at their craft since their teen years.

They spent many nights performing at skanky clubs and bars in Liverpool. Their manager at the time occasionally was able to book them with third or fourth billings in Scotland or other venues in the UK but they were never the headliners.

Two long engagements in Hamburg, Germany at bars in the red light district were where they really perfected their act. They were often on the stage 6-8 hours a night during that time.

When I was in Hamburg this past September I was on the street and in the area where The Beatles spent so much time during those couple of years.

This street art commemorates Hamburg's role in the band's history.

Source: https://www.hamburg.com/visitors/sights/memorials/beatles-platz-19372

Those early years of The Beatles show how important passion, practice and perseverance are to success. These were all key factors underlying the ultimate success of the group.

Yes, talent is important but without these three attributes it is almost impossible to find success.

I have written about the science of success before in these pages here and here.

Ringo was not in the band in Hamburg but he was developing his own skills in Liverpool as well.

Returning to Liverpool from Hamburg, John, Paul and George realized that their skills had grown while those of their drummer, Pete Best, had not kept pace.

However, it was not easy telling someone you had worked and palled around with for several years that he had to go.

What happened next for The Beatles put them on a completely different trajectory.

Brian Epstein was a giant in the Liverpool music scene and he took an interest in the group and in becoming their manager when they returned from Hamburg.

Interestingly, Epstein liked the music of The Beatles but what really appealed to him was their sense of humor on stage and the personal charm of the group when he met with them off stage.

Epstein also had what The Beatles needed. He had a substantial network of contacts in the music business and the business savvy to go with it.

Being able to connect--both personally and professionally--is often the key differentiator in reaching success. 

This is especially true in fields of endeavor where there is very little differentiation in talent levels or where the determination of who is top level has no objective measure.

This is especially true in fields such as the arts and entertainment.

However, it is also the case with attorneys, accountants, doctors and dentists.

Most people determine who is best based on their connectivity or who has "the best bedside manner".

I wrote about this in a blog post "The Formula for Success" in 2019 which drew heavily on the book The Formula by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.

From that blog post.

There are a lot of people who can perform at a high level. There are a lot of great singers, winemakers, actors, attorneys and accountants. Why do some find more success than others?

This is answered by the First Law of Success in The Formula.

Performance drives success, but when performance can't be measured, networks drive success.

In my words, competence drives success but the most successful have used their connections to separate themselves from the masses. Their personal connection with people and connections with networks of people puts them at another level compared to the competition.

This proved so true with The Beatles both with their personal appeal but also getting a man like Epstein to guide their careers with his network of connections.

Epstein cleaned the band up by making them get rid of their leather jackets and jeans and told them to not use profanity, to smoke or eat on stage as they often did in their bar engagements.

In short, he broadened their appeal and connectivity to a larger potential audience.

It ultimately fell to Epstein to also deliver the news to Pete Best that he would no longer be the drummer of the group. Epstein liked Best but the group had decided his skills were holding them back and that view was reinforced by George Martin the record producer that Epstein had connected The Beatles with to get them into the record business.

Upon getting their record deal it was not long before The Beatles were the toast of the British music scene.

However, they had a very difficult time getting traction in the American market.

The American subsidiary (Capitol Records) of their British label (EMI) declined to release their three #1 hits in the UK ("Please, Please Me", "From Me To You" and "She Loves You").

Epstein worked around Capitol and got deals with a couple of smaller record labels but the music of The Beatles was not getting played or noticed in America.

Epstein finally convinced Capitol Records to sign The Beatles to its label in late 1963 for their recording of  "I Want To Hold Your Hand".  That deal included the promise that Capitol would also spend $40,000 on a US marketing campaign.

The record took off in the U.S. and so did The Beatles

The Beatles set U.S. TV records on February 9, 1964 in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that produced what was the largest television audience to that point in history with 73 million viewers.

The rest is history.

I remember watching that appearance like it was yesterday.

Events like this sear into your memory.

The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show-February 9, 1964
Photo Credit: Harry Benson
Source: https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/photos-the-beatles-1964-debut-the-sullivan-show/43Ln5bfxa6u2PLiC3cNxXK/

The final lesson that comes from the history of The Beatles is that the greatest content in the world means nothing without great distribution.

The Beatles were also able to feed the distribution network quickly with a lot of content as they had so many recordings they had already done in the UK. 

All of those great songs by The Beatles might never have been heard if those songs had not gotten on the radio to be heard.

I wrote a blog post in 2017  on why some songs became hits and others did not. 

The biggest factors were exposure and repeated repetition.

The greatest song in the world means nothing if it is not heard a lot...and by a lot of people.

We have always heard that "content is king". Yes, you need content.

However, content means nothing without distribution.

Derek Thompson, the author of the book "Hit Makers" said it this way.

"Content may be king, but distribution is the kingdom".

Tom Cruise might be the same actor performing in a community theatre in New Jersey as he is in Top Gun.

Cruise might be the same guy performing at the community theater but how many would see him and how many would care?

His fame and his fortune is due to the distribution of his films, not his acting ability.

The sad postscript to the story is that Brian Epstein passed away in the summer of 1967 from a reported accidental overdose of sleeping pills.

Two years later The Beatles were breaking up to go their separate ways.

The last live performance of The Beatles was in 1966 when they told Epstein they no longer wanted to do tours. In addition to the fact that the travel wore on them, a principal reason was that there was so much screaming and noise at their concerts that they could not even hear their own music. 

As a result, they believed their music was suffering as they could play poorly and no one in the audience would even know it.

The band spent the rest of their time together in the studio doing new records supported by music videos and an occasional tv session or movie.

The Beatles entered the 1960's as an unknown bar band in Liverpool band.

1970 saw the band break up and each of the four going their separate ways.

However, that 10 year period was quite a ride for John, Paul, George and Ringo.

All in all, The Beatles had 35 songs that reached the Top 10 and 20 that hit #1 on the charts.

Source: Grok

It remains to be seen whether Brian Epstein could have persuaded the  group to keep the band together if he had lived.

All talks of a reunion ended on December 8, 1980---exactly 45 years ago today---when John Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman on that night in New York City. Lennon was only 40 years old.

George Harrison passed away in 2001 at age 58 from lung cancer.

Paul McCartney is still alive at age 83

Ringo Starr is still with us at age 85.

Both were still doing music tours on their own this year.

I guess that girls are not screaming at concerts featuring 80 year olds.

Take some time and watch The Beatles Anthology.

There will probably never again be a band with the impact The Beatles had.

They are worth remembering even if you were not alive to see them perform live.