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Formation
Aged sixteen, singer and guitarist John Lennon formed the group The Quarrymen with some Liverpool schoolfriends in March 1957. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a guitarist after he and Lennon met that July. When McCartney invited George Harrison to watch the group the following February, the fourteen-year-old joined as lead guitarist. -
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The Beatles as a group
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the Beatles
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The name Beatles
By 1960, the three guitarists were playing rock and roll whenever they could get a drummer. Joining on bass in January, Stuart Sutcliffe suggested changing the band name to "The Beatles" as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets. Before the end of August they auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best, -
The famous haircut
In mid-December 1960, Sutcliffe's fiancée, supposedly cut Sutcliffe's hair in the moptop style that was later adopted by the other Beatles. -
Ringo Starr
June 1962. Martin complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested the band use a session drummer in the studio. Instead, Best was replaced by Ringo Starr. -
She Loves You
On its release in August, the band's fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks -
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Renaissance
