The Beatles are probably one of mankind's greatest success stories.
Four working-class English lads came together to play music and became the most influential
band of all time.
While they hit incredible heights, their career was also fraught with difficulty.
Here's the Beatles' tragic story.
None of the Beatles had particularly easy beginnings, but John Lennon's childhood was
especially rough.
His father Alfred was barely present during his early years, but the adults who were around,
like his mother Julia and his Aunt Mimi, were the sources of plenty of conflict.
These two women, who were vastly different in both temperament and social status, vied
for control of young John for much of his youth.
Perhaps the most well-known story about John's childhood took place when he was 5, when his
father forced him to choose between him and his mother.
John first chose Alfred, but then he ran up the street to his mother in tears when she
left.
Alfred disappeared after that, and he didn't reappear until after the Beatles found fame.
These experiences had an effect on the young Lennon.
As a boy, he led gangs, shoplifted, and bullied fellow students and teachers alike.
This rebellious streak famously continued into adulthood.
While Lennon's childhood was certainly troubled, Ringo Starr's was downright nightmarish.
Born Richard Starkey, his father walked out on him when he was just four.
He also fell victim to a host of diseases throughout his childhood, including tuberculosis,
which forced him to spend two years in a sanatorium.
Luckily, things started to look up from there.
Starkey's stepfather began to encourage the young boy's interest in music during his time
in the sanatorium, and he was given his first drum kit for Christmas in 1957, two years
after his release.
Only a few years later he joined his first proper band and changed his name to Ringo
Starr.
Then while touring in Germany, he met a group of talented young musicians on residency who
were calling themselves the Beatles.
The Beatles are renowned for leading the so-called "British Invasion" of America, firmly establishing
themselves as one of the most successful groups to ever cross the Atlantic.
That success, however, didn't come easy.
At first, they couldn't even land a contract with their own label's American counterpart.
When their music was finally issued in America, they saw very little circulation and their
first imprint in the country even spelled the band's name incorrectly by adding an extra
"T."
The Beatles finally received some American news coverage thanks to a morning segment
on CBS.
Alas, it aired on November 22, 1963, which is now better remembered as the day John F.
Kennedy was assassinated.
Radio DJs in the US managed to get their hands on some British 45’s of the songs "Please
Please Me," "From Me to You," and "She Loves You" - but they initially didn’t get any
traction with American audiences, with some listeners phoning in to stations to try to
get them to stop playing the band's music.
All that changed in 1964 when "I Want To Hold Your Hand" hit #1 on February 1st. 8 days
later, The Beatles played the first of their legendary slots on The Ed Sullivan Show and
cemented their superstar status throughout America.
Compared to some of the raucous rockers who arrived just after them, the Beatles can easily
be seen as the do-gooders of '60s pop music.
And to an extent, that's actually true.
They had some brushes with the law, but most of them were due to their love of soft drugs.
Still, that doesn't mean their record was entirely unblemished during their heyday.
For example, McCartney and original drummer Pete Best were deported from Germany for setting
fire to a condom.
The homes of various Beatles were also frequently raided by the police thanks to the efforts
of a draconian sergeant named Norman Pilcher, who headed a British drug enforcement group.
If that name sounds familiar, you are correct - the name Pilcher made it into the song "I
Am The Walrus" as a sly putdown.
But it was the Swedish police who would finally nab a Beatle for drug possession, as Paul
and his wife Linda were charged a $2,000 fine for holding marijuana in 1972.
The couple would be brought in on the same charge quite a few times over the next few
years, including in Japan and Barbados.
"I would like to see it decriminalized, 'cause I don’t think in the privacy of my own room
I was doing anyone any harm, whatsoever."
On the night of December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono ate out for dinner near their
apartment in New York City.
Afterward, they returned home to say goodnight to their 5-year-old son Sean.
They stepped out onto the street, where a man named Mark David Chapman was waiting for
them with a .38 handgun.
He shot Lennon four times in the back.
By the time the police arrived, it was too late.
Despite the efforts of a team of doctors and nurses, Lennon died just before midnight at
a local hospital.
This assassination shocked the world.
Although Ono declined to hold a funeral for her husband, a wave of mourning took over
the world.
Tens of thousands gathered in Liverpool and New York to commemorate the late Beatle with
a 10-minute silence.
The violent death cemented Lennon's status as an icon.
"The shooting happened.
Does it ever make sense?
Does anything like that ever?"
"No I mean it’s just a very sudden thing."
In 1997, George Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer, an illness most likely caused
by his many years of smoking.
In 2001, he was treated for a brain tumor in Switzerland, and later that year he began
radiotherapy treatment in New York for the lung cancer that had spread to his brain.
Harrison was a very spiritual man, and according to his close friend, Monty Python comedian
Michael Palin,
"Death held no terrors for George at all.
He'd got all that worked out."
On November 29, 2001, Harrison died at the age of 58 in Los Angeles.
He was remembered by McCartney as his, quote, "baby brother."
Ringo Starr, whose daughter was then undergoing similar treatment for a brain tumor, also
visited Harrison in the hospital shortly before his death.
With the passing of Harrison, two Beatles now remain: Ringo, and Paul - who both continue
to tour today.
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