Beatles, The
Revolver, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, In His Own Write
a popular music group from Liverpool consisting of George Harrison (1943– ), John Lennon (1940–80), Paul McCartney (1942– ), and Ringo Starr (1940– ), which enjoyed enormous international acclaim from 1963 until it disbanded in 1970. Lennon and McCartney composed most of the group's repertoire, showing increasingly innovative melodic and lyrical abilities as their careers progressed. In 1965 each of the members was awarded the MBE. Their work took on a markedly experimental character in the Revolver album of 1966. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) set new artistic standards for popular music, drawing favourable responses from serious cultural commentators for the poetic and compositional achievements it represented. Lennon, whose idiosyncratic literary talent is evident in his books In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard in the Works (1965), was murdered in New York in 1980. Harrison, McCartney, and Starr have remained individually successful as entertainers since The Beatles broke up. Shout! (1981) by Philip Norman is the best of numerous histories of the group.
Additional topics
- Ann Beattie Biography - (1947– ), Distortions, Chilly Scenes of Winter, Falling in Place, Love Always, New Yorker, Secrets and Surprises
- Beat Generation, The - Esquire, beat, On The Road, Howl, Ghost Tantras, Scratching the Beat Surface, The Beat Vision
- Other Free Encyclopedias
Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern FictionEncyclopedia of Literature: Houston A. Baker (Houston Alfred to Sally Beauman Biography