The Beatles were a British popular music group from Liverpool, England held in very high regard for both its artistic achievements and its considerable commercial success. They have amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day. The group shattered many sales records and charted more than fifty top 40 hit singles. They were the first British pop act to achieve major and ongoing success in the United States, scoring twenty #1 hits in the USA alone, becoming the biggest musical act of the twentieth century. EMI estimated in 1985 that the band had sold over a billion records worldwide[1]. One composition recorded by the Beatles "Yesterday" - written and sung by Paul McCartney (though officially credited as written by Lennon-McCartney) - is the most-covered song in the history of recorded music.
The Beatles were one of the first major pop acts to compose most of their own material, and their evolving repertoire spanned many genres (including ballads, ska, psychedelic music, blues, heavy metal and country music). They opened the door for many new musical styles, pioneered many innovative production techniques and their epoch-making 1967 LP Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP is often cited as one of the first concept albums. Their clothes, hairstyles and choice of musical instruments made them trendsetters throughout the decade; their growing social awareness, reflected in the development of their music, saw their influence extended far beyond...