Line #91 YMMV/TheBeatles


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2	%% Do not add Broken Base for "Now and Then" until six months after the song's release (May 2, 2024).
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4	Being one of the most famous bands in the world, Music/TheBeatles are definitely prone to people with a myriad of opinions. These are some of them.
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6	'''Note''': For examples pertaining to the [[WesternAnimation/TheBeatles1965 cartoon]], go [[YMMV/TheBeatles1965 here]].
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12	* AccidentalInnuendo:
13	** The chorus from "Come Together" (though it's debatable exactly how accidental it might be):
14	---> ''Come together\
15	Right now\
16	Over me''
17	** The bridge to "I've Got a Feeling" opens with these lyrics:
18	---> ''Everybody had a hard year\
19	Everybody had a good time\
20	Everybody had a wet dream''
21	* AdaptationDisplacement: Who can listen to "Nowhere Man" and not think of Jeremy Hillary Boob, [=PhD=].? Only someone who's never seen ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''.
22	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
23	** At the time of its release, the general public (and apparently the other Beatles) all believed that “Help!” was just a standard pop song written for the upcoming movie. However, John later went on to say that the song was [[WhatItSaysOnTheTin literally him crying out for help.]]
24	** A popular interpretation of "She Loves You" is that the narrator is in love with the girlfriend, and is trying to act as a ShipperOnDeck with her and his friend in a spirit of IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy, with the subtext of "she loves you, and if you don't want her love, ''I'll'' gladly take it." That would make "You're Going to Lose That Girl" a SpiritualSuccessor that just says the quiet part out loud.
25	** "Hey Jude", while well-known today to be written by Paul to Julian Lennon (John's son who he had with his first wife Cynthia), got lots of this in its day, with John believing the song was meant for him and even a journalist believing the song to be about herself.
26	** John also had a theory that song "Get Back" was specifically about Yoko, claiming that Paul tended to look in her direction when he sang it.
27	** In "Eleanor Rigby", the fact that the Beatles say "Eleanor Rigby ''died'' in a church and was buried" rather than "Eleanor Rigby was buried in a church" has been taken by some to indicate that the priest in the song murdered Eleanor.
28	** In "A Day in the Life", "I'd love to turn you on" has often been interpreted to be about drugs, but can also be taken to mean sexual arousal. John said it was supposed to mean "spiritual insight", which could also overlap with the drugs interpretation.
29	* AluminumChristmasTrees: The 1966 fan club Christmas record has a bit set aboard ''HMS Tremendous''. Given the wacky absurdist humour used throughout the disc, this sounds like something they made up, but there really was a Royal Navy ship called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Tremendous_(1784) that]].
30	* AmericansHateTingle: Yes, even The Beatles were victims of this in a few different places back in 1966.
31	** After John's comment that the band was "[[BiggerThanJesus more popular than Jesus]]" ([[QuoteMine taken out of context]]) and publicized, it led to a big backlash centered in the [[DeepSouth Bible Belt]], with things like mass Beatle record burnings and objects getting thrown at them onstage (most notoriously a firecracker at a show in Memphis that they initially mistook for a gunshot). They received no backlash of that sort in their homeland of Britain, where the comment was generally more acknowledged in context and less of an exaggerated blasphemous scandal. On the other hand, their records still sold just as well in America after the controversy as they had before, as for the record sales booming despite the controversy, John himself rather sardonically noted that in order to burn their albums, one had to purchase them first. There are also numerous anecdotes of kids publicly burning their Beatles albums before then secretly sneaking into record stores and replacing them. And, of course, despite all the hoopla this was mainly happening in one region of the country. The Lennon interview had previously been printed in places like New York and Detroit without incident.
32	** There were also some American rock and roll fans, particularly in the very early stages of Beatlemania, who resented the group for displacing the more home-grown sounds of rockabilly, doo-wop, surf music, etc. from the pop charts.
33	** The Philippines are an even better example. Brian Epstein's fumbling of an invitation to visit First Lady Imelda Marcos when the Beatles played in Manila for one night only in 1966 led to [[http://991.com/Buy/TopItems/LennonGlasses/Stiffed.aspx violent anger]] from Filipinos (though a bizarre incident after they landed where they were essentially kidnapped at gunpoint and forced to attend a party held by the son of a wealthy industrialist had started off their Philippines visit on a bad note). The resulting chaos played no small part in the group's decision to stop playing live concerts.
34	** "From Me to You" was their second #1 hit in the UK, but has always been somewhat overlooked in America, thanks to its bizarre release history there. Vee-Jay records issued it as a single in the summer of 1963, pre-Beatlemania, and it managed to become a modest hit in some parts of the US, but a simultaneous CoverVersion by Del Shannon (who picked up the song when the Beatles opened for him on a UK tour) stunted its performance. Vee-Jay re-released it in 1964, but only as the BSide to their re-release of "Please Please Me". Then Vee-Jay gave it an album release on the notorious ''Jolly What! The Beatles and Frank Ifield on Stage'', a BillingDisplacement effort that placed four Beatles tracks amid songs by English crooner Ifield. That album went quickly out of print, and once Capitol secured the rights for the song from Vee-Jay for good, they never saw fit to release it on an album. If you wanted "From Me to You", you had to buy the Capitol Starline catalog version of the "Please Please Me" single. It wasn't until the Red Album (''Beatles 1962-1966'') in 1973 that it got a proper US album release.
35	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail:
36	** Music/JohnLennon's Aunt Mimi told him as a teenager, "Guitar is a good hobby, John, but you'll never make a living of it." In 1964, a group of fans had that quote put on a plaque and sent it to her.
37	** In his autobiography, Creator/RogerMoore recalls Music/PaulMcCartney's then-girlfriend Jane Asher making a guest appearance on ''Series/TheSaint''. She was talking about his budding music career, to which Moore quipped, "What career?"
38	** They were turned down by Creator/{{Decca\|Records}}, Creator/{{Pye\|Records}}, [[Creator/EMIColumbiaRecords Columbia]], and [[Creator/HisMastersVoiceRecords HMV]], and that was just among the recording companies. Decca executive Dick Rowe, in particular, claimed that "groups are out", especially four-person ones with guitars. It's been suggested that the executive who told them about guitars being on the way out was taking a polite out and that it just wasn't a very good audition. Records show that their setlist was mostly covers, which wasn't where they were strongest, and the few Lennon/[=McCartney=] originals weren't songs that featured on their later albums. Decca was embarrassed when The Beatles became successful, and after a hearty recommendation from George Harrison, Dick Rowe signed a band from London called Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}.
39	** When "Penny Lane" became their first single in four years to not hit #1 in England (it got to #2, kept out of the top by Music/EngelbertHumperdinck's "Release Me"), the British press concluded that their successful run as artists was finally coming to an end. Then they released a little thing called ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.
40	* {{Applicability}}: Paul's mom was the inspiration for the "Mother Mary" lyric from "Let It Be". When asked if the song referred to the Virgin Mary, Music/PaulMcCartney has typically answered the question by assuring his fans that they can interpret the song however they would like.
41	* AudienceColoringAdaptation: Their early "Moptop" pop rock era was so popular and iconic that it's the first thing a lot of people think of when you bring up the band. This is likely what causes several classic rock fans to label The Beatles as either a "{{boy band}}" or a bubblegum TeenPop group and are confused as to why the band are considered rock. These people usually ignore how the band have released heavier, more {{Hard Rock}}ing material like "Helter Skelter", "Revolution", "I Want You (She’s So Heavy)", and "Paperback Writer".
42	* BrokenBase:
43	** Experimental rock aficionados dismiss their entire "Fab Four" era. Conversely, some fans of the earlier stuff dismiss their post-''Music/RubberSoul'' output. And modern Beatles fans disagree over the merits of any work that was created after the band officially broke up -- not just all the post-Beatles solo projects, but ''any'' music ''ever'' recorded by ''anyone at all'' after 1970. There are fans of nearly every genre of music out there who like The Beatles; thus, merely knowing someone likes them gives one ''no clue'' as to their taste in general.
44	** Ringo Starr's drumming is a contentious point amongst Beatles fans. Some call him a creative drummer, others call him a terrible drummer, others find his drumming competent but boring. Some people have, however, acknowledged his [[BoringButPractical competent-but-boring-ness as his greatest strength.]] In a band with three artists trying to go in different directions, Ringo was able to mould to their style and provide a solid backbone to whatever the other three cooked up. He allegedly mucked up ''two'' takes in all the years the band was together. And he only got ''one'' solo (on "The End", from ''Music/AbbeyRoad'') to show what he can do.
45	*** Opinion on Ringo's abilities as a drummer tends to be divided between musicians and non-musicians. Non-musicians tend to think that he was a terrible drummer; musicians tend to think otherwise. Drummers in particular hold Ringo's drumming in ''very'' high regard, receiving particular praise for his groovy style, his emphasis on feel over displays of technical proficiency, and his creative, stylistic drum fills (most notably "Come Together" and "A Day in the Life"). He also popularized the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matched_grip matched grip]] that's ubiquitous today, and numerous high profile drummers like Music/PhilCollins, Music/DaveGrohl, and [[Music/GreenDay Tre Cool]] cite him as a big influence.
46	*** The true reason why there's only one drum solo in the whole of Ringo's work with the Beatles is that he hated solos. The others had to persuade him to take one on "The End", because they were all going to take guitar solos and they didn't want it to look like he was being left out. Ringo's opinion, which is shared by most musicians who have an opinion on the topic, is that he more than "showed what he could do" with his steady, selfless, and rock-solid support of the band's music, which was based on precision and balance and not flashy musicianship. In an era that saw the rise of the hot drummer, from [[Music/TheWho Keith Moon]] via [[Music/JimiHendrix Mitch Mitchell]] and [[Music/{{Cream}} Ginger Baker]] to [[Music/DeepPurple Ian Paice]] and [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer Carl Palmer]], Ringo knew well that he wasn't in that kind of band. In any case, he'd already inspired a generation of kids to take up the drums in the first place, so, legacy intact.
47	*** The reason Ringo (supposedly) only messed up two takes is that he kept perfect time, which is a rarer commodity among drummers than one might think. It was common practice at the time (and even now) for bands to use studio drummers for recording, but with the exception of the single version of "Love Me Do," Ringo did all the drumming. He was a human drum machine, capable of playing every take at the same tempo without rushing or dragging.
48	** Mono vs. stereo. This is, believe it or not, SeriousBusiness. There is a substantial contingent of fans that applies FanonDiscontinuity to the stereo versions of all albums before ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum''. They have a point, since the Beatles themselves and George Martin both seem to have regarded stereo as [[ItWillNeverCatchOn a gimmick that wouldn't last]] and had little to no involvement with them. Even then, they weren't completely involved with the process; ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' was, in fact, the only album for whose stereo mixes they were completely involved, with the result that it's by far their most modern-sounding stereo mix. The earlier Beatles stereo mixes were also made before modern stereo mixing practices became widespread, meaning that you have things like [[GratuitousPanning all vocals on the left and all drums on the right]], both of which are regarded as serious no-nos in modern mixing. The ''White Album'' stereo mixes do this to a certain extent too, but not as flagrantly, and it is regarded as the first album on which the stereo mix surpasses the mono in quality.
49	*** One reason why ''The White Album'' is regarded as being such an improvement with regards to stereo mixing is that it's the first album on which the band deployed an eight-track recording machine (these had just become available in British studios although they had been in use in American ones for several years). This, along with the more stripped-down atmosphere of the album, essentially allowed each instrument to be recorded on its own track, and the resulting mix feels very real and live-in-the-studio. (Compare this with the layers of lush instrumentation sitting awkwardly on one track in the original stereo mix of ''Sgt. Pepper.'')
50	*** Similarly, the Giles Martin remixes are very contentious, with some fans preferring them for their greater clarity and lesser GratuitousPanning compared to the original stereo mixes while others dislike them for their more modern sound/[[LoudnessWar additional compression]] and mixing mistakes and fear the possibility of them "replacing" the original mixes in the public consciousness.
51	** The remixes on ''LOVE'' are either excellent to the point of being better than the originals or a tacky cash-in on their popularity.
52	*** However, most people agree that the "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" mashup is fantastic, as is the ''devastating'' transition to "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" at the end of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite."
53	** Although the belief that Music/YokoOno was responsible for the dissolution of the Beatles has largely died down in recent years (especially since the release of ''Series/TheBeatlesGetBack'' makes it clear how little she interfered in the band's recording process), she continues to be a semi-controversial figure in the band's history, with some fans accusing her of poor treatment of John's first wife Cynthia and their son Julian.
54	** Nobody doubts that Brian Epstein's dedication to the Beatles and influence on their presentation was enormously helpful in their rise to success; however, some have questioned his decisions as a manager, noting that several of his merchandising deals were less than advisable and ultimately cost the band millions.
55	*** It's worth noting that Epstein was a novice manager when he took on the Beatles; his main job prior to his discovery of the band had been running a Liverpool music store.
56	** Is ''Sgt Pepper'' or ''Revolver'' the band's best album? For decades common wisdom said ''Pepper'' but many fans have argued that it is overrated, instead making impassioned claims of the superiority of ''Revolver.'' On the other hand, others think that the "''Pepper'' is overrated" trope has itself been done to death (as evidenced by its unceremonious drop to 25th place from first place on a recent album ranking compiled by ''Rolling Stone'') and that the album is actually now ''under''rated.
57	*** In more recent years, ''Abbey Road'' has quietly surpassed both of these in the eyes of many critics and fans, making the incessant ''Sgt Pepper'' / ''Revolver'' debate a largely moot point anyway.
58	*** There have also been arguments made that ''Rubber Soul'', or even ''A Hard Day’s Night'', are the group’s best. Diehard fans of the raw Hamburg sound say that they never got closer to it than in their debut album, ''Please Please Me''. Fans of experimental music will often cite ''The White Album'' as the creative peak. It often depends on the personal music taste of the person you ask. As others have mentioned, the Beatles covered a vast array of genres and styles that could appeal to almost anyone.
59	** Fans can't agree on whether the "aahs" in the middle of "A Day In The Life" were sung by John or Paul. You can find (quite literally) hundreds of pages of debate on this subject on various Beatles-related forums, concerning such minutia as whether the vocal track was edited or not, what the sharp intake of breath heard on isolations just prior to the "aahs" is indicative of (if anything), whether varispeed was involved, and whether it makes more sense for it to be Paul or John with regards to the song's narrative.
60	*** A less contentious example is the lead guitar on "It's All Too Much"--while several sources credit John, some fans feel that it is Paul instead (George was occupied with singing and playing Hammond organ).
61	*** The question of who played the guitar solo on "Hey Bulldog" is also pretty debatable. Most believe it to be George as he is shown playing a Gibson SG in the music video and the techniques and phrasing used in the solo(such as the sudden slide into a high note) sounds a lot like George's playing. Others believe that it's John, because of it's raw, and bluesy sound. Lastly, a lot of people think it's Paul, because it's aggressive sound is reminiscent of Paul's guitar solos on "Taxman" and "Good Morning Good Morning".
62	** Which of the the "Let It Be" guitar solos is the best? And more generally, which is superior: Phil Spector's original ''Let It Be'' or the reworked ''Let It Be: Naked''? Or was the entire project beyond being salvageable? The official release of Glyn Johns' 1969 ''Get Back'' mixes in 2021 adds a third option, and Giles Martin and Sam Okell created a ''fourth'' mix of the album for the 2021 release that sort of takes a middle ground between Spector's mixes and the ''Naked'' mixes.
63	* CoveredUp:
64	** Who remembers Music/TheIsleyBrothers' version of "Twist and Shout" anymore? Hell, who even remembers the ''original'' recording by the Top Notes?
65	** This could apply to many of the band's cover versions. It's easier to list the exceptions ("Please Mr. Postman" and "Till There Was You"; the Music/ChuckBerry versions also qualify, to a lesser extent).
66	** "With a Little Help from My Friends" is kind of fifty-fifty. It's certainly not an obscure Beatles tune; it's one of the more prominent songs from probably their most famous album. But a lot of younger people probably only know Music/JoeCocker's version as the opening theme to ''Series/TheWonderYears''. Also, Marmalade's cover of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," at least in some circles, as is Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s rendition of "Come Together," particularly due to the fact that it is in heavy rotation on many classic rock radio stations.
67	** Country music fans can be forgiven for thinking Music/JohnDenver wrote "Mother Nature's Son," since it's such a perfect fit.
68	** Inverted with the Beatles’ cover of the Donays “Devil In Her Heart” (originally “Devil In His Heart”) in that the girls’ version was already such an obscure song (the BSide of their [[OneBookAuthor only single]]) that the Beatles cover of it actually boosted the profile of the original, and while the song is still virtually unknown outside of the Beatles fandom, there will always be curious Fab 4 fans checking out the original version, and that’s way more than the Donays could have ever dreamed of at the time.
69	** Music/EarthWindAndFire's rendition of "Got to Get You Into My Life" charted more successfully than the Beatles' original (hitting #1 on the Soul charts in the U.S.) and became a mainstay of their concert performances.
70	* CreatorWorship: The Beatles are still the most famous, recognizable, popular, most covered and influential band of all time, far above any other band before or after them. They are a timeless and universally beloved musical act, adored by people of all ages and from all kinds of layers of society. Both pop fans as well as rock fans love them, not to mention fans of alternative rock. Every rock and pop artist looks up to them and hopes to achieve the same kind of success or artistic appreciation. Within the Beatles John Lennon has reached similar levels of worship. During his lifetime he was seen as a voice of rebellion and the "smart and cool one" of the Beatles. His murder actually increased his status and nowadays he is seen as according to many, a symbol of pacifism and intellectualism, the coolest Beatle to like and, to many, he most important musician of the 20th century. It got to the point that he is the only musician within the '100 Greatest Britons' election in 2002 to enter the top 10.
71	* CriticalBacklash: Not towards the band as a whole of course, but towards Ringo. After all the jokes about his lack of talent, more and more people have praised him for actually being a great drummer who just takes a much simpler approach to his music in comparison to the other Beatles. This in turn has been noted as an enormous strength of his, as he remained stable while letting the others go wild, acting as a rock of sorts that helped keep the team in check.
72	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: It doesn't matter how horrible [[MisogynySong the sentiments]] expressed in "Run for Your Life" are; John Lennon just makes them sound ''so damn cool''.
73	* DracoInLeatherPants: Invariably occurs during some of the arguments about whose fault it is the band broke up, usually taking the form of "Beatle X was a jerk whose solo material was completely worthless"/"Beatle X was the only sane member of the group and the others would have been nothing without him." John is a frequent DracoInLeatherPants, Yoko a RonTheDeathEater, and Paul is both.
74	* EnsembleDarkHorse:
75	** "Quiet Beatle" George Harrison, who was generally overshadowed by the Lennon-[=McCartney=] songwriting partnership, released the triple album ''Music/AllThingsMustPass'' after the band broke up. To this day, it's the top selling album by any solo Beatle. His record company was even named Dark Horse Records, after the TitleTrack of one of his albums. Additionally, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun," his two contributions to the ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' album, are regarded as being among the finest of the band's songs, not to mention his beloved works on ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'', most notably "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
76	** Brian Epstein is often very respected by fans due to being a sort of TeamDad for the Beatles and being a complete subversion of the stereotypical bad band manager. It's often speculated that Brian's death was one of the key factors in the Beatles' eventual break up.
77	** Ringo Starr [[MemeticLoser may be the butt of jokes among the four]], but he's still quite beloved nonetheless, with many noting his level headed, [[NiceGuy easy going nature]] was an instrumental part of the band's success, allowing for the others to go nuts while having someone to rein them in.
78	* EpicRiff:
79	** John’s extremely catchy harmonica riffs in “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me” are the ones that started it all. They became so popular that the harmonica was featured as a regular part of the Beatles’ singles throughout 1963, and even continued to see use on a few album tracks in 1964.
80	** The riff from "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" may have accidentally predicted HeavyMetal, and since it's [[EpicRocking seven minutes]] they pound it into your head pretty hard.
81	** "Norwegian Wood" helped bring the sitar to national attention, and it was probably pretty easy to do with that beautiful riff.
82	** "Day Tripper" has a riff so strong they more or less build the whole arrangement around it.
83	** "Ticket to Ride" makes excellent use of George's 12-string.
84	* EpilepticTrees:
85	** The "Paul Is Dead" theory, that Paul died in November 1966 and was replaced by a look-and-sound-alike Scotsman named William Shears Campbell. Initially, the "clue hunting" for this was based around finding hidden messages in the band's songs and album artwork. However, eventually believers in the theory began alleging that Paul had differences in his facial structure and voice post-1966 that proved the death. Many fans joke that if anything, the supposed death was a good thing because the fake Paul was the ''superior'' musician.
86	** Believe it or not, there's an even more extreme version of this theory out there, which states that ''all'' the Beatles were regularly replaced with clones over the course of their career.
87	** While "[=McLennon=]" is a fairly common ship (see below), there exists a small number of fans who legitimately believe that John and Paul were in an extended romantic relationship for the majority of the sixties, despite the fact that--intense emotional bond notwithstanding--there's no evidence for it.
88	* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Some fans try to find symbolism in every song. The worst was UsefulNotes/CharlesManson, who used ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'', most famously "Helter Skelter" and "Piggies," to mobilize his murders.
89	** John even lampshaded this with “I Am The Walrus”, a song explicitly written as gibberish, essentially daring people to try to find some kind of greater cosmic symbolism in that. Hilariously enough, “I Am The Walrus” is itself actually one of the [[InsultBackfire most analyzed]] Beatles songs, with entire articles breaking down every aspect of it being written to this day.
90	* FairForItsDay: While the description of Loretta Martin in "Get Back" is rather [[ValuesDissonance tasteless]] by today's standards, saying she "thought she was a woman / but she really was another man", it was actually a rather progressive stance on UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} people back in TheSixties and TheSeventies, detailing how despite her being scorned by other women seeing her as a pretender, she's fully willing to embrace her gender identity as a woman.
91	* FandomEnragingMisconception: Do NOT call the Beatles a BoyBand, as some fans will jump down your throats if you do so. This is often because of their iconic Fab Four teenybopper era which really ''was'' boy band-like. However, fans are quick to point out that they eventually changed their sound and genre. Even then, their early years are often billed by fans as simply "60s rock n' roll" rather than TeenPop.
92	* FanficFuel:
93	** Lo, it is written that where two or three fans are gathered together in the name of The Beatles, they shall discuss which songs would have made the cut if ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' had been a single disc. Another popular AlternateHistory scenario is to suppose the group had not split up in 1970, and use the members' solo albums to assemble plausible tracklists for subsequent Beatles [=LPs=].
94	** There are a number of fans who ship Lennon and [=McCartney=]. It's called "[=McLennon=]."
95	** There's also [=McStarr=], Starrison, and so forth....
96	** ...not to mention fan ''art,'' especially those inspired by [[NaughtyTentacles "Octopus's Garden."]]
97	*** The movies, especially ''Film/{{Help}}'', do not help.
98	** The "Paul is Dead" conspiracy theory has inspired quite a few angst fics.
99	* FandomRivalry:
100	** With Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}, ever since the sixties. Although quite an overlap has built (it helps that the musicians were friends in real life).
101	** During their psychedelic period, Music/TheBeachBoys. This rivalry is arguably more heated than the one with The Stones fanbase, who has a more FriendlyRivalry with Beatles fans. Go find any ''Music/PetSounds'' song on Website/YouTube and read all of the comments arguing over who is better/was the most influential. It gets ugly real fast. It's also pretty ironic because the two groups are massive fans of each other's work, with Music/BrianWilson acknowledging ''Music/RubberSoul''[='=]s influence on ''Pet Sounds'' and Music/PaulMcCartney in turn acknowledging ''Pet Sounds''[='=] influence on ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.
102	** There's some with Music/BobDylan, as both The Beatles and Dylan are considered among the most influential popular music artists of all time and icons for their respective countries of origin. Naturally, this leads to competitiveness on who was more influential.
103	** Some with Music/VelvetUnderground fans. None other than Music/DavidBowie felt that despite The Beatles being such massive music icons, more bands actually sounded like the Velvet Underground. This had led to contentious debate on which band was more influential.
104	* FanNickname:
105	** The "Fab Four", the "Fabs". During the 1994-95 PuttingTheBandBackTogether era, fans often referred to Paul, George and Ringo by the PunnyName "The Threetles".
106	** "Macca" for Paul.
107	** Their only double album is seldom known by its official name, ''The Beatles''; even the Beatles themselves call it ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum''.
108	** The compilations ''The Beatles 1962-66'' and ''The Beatles 1967-70'', known as "The Red Album" and "The Blue Album" respectively.
109	* FriendlyFandoms: Despite the initial (and still present but smaller) FandomRivalry, Beatles fans and Music/BobDylan fans will respect each other. This is likely due to The Fab Four and Dylan mutually influencing each other; Dylan inspiring the band to [[GrowingTheBeard maturing their sound]] and The Beatles influencing Dylan to pick up the electric guitar and incorporate rock into his sound.
110	* GatewaySeries: To both '60s pop music and pretty much all pop music recorded in the second half of the 20th century.
111	* GeniusBonus:
112	** "Revolution 9" from ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' includes samples of various classical works, including those by Music/JeanSibelius, Music/RalphVaughanWilliams, Music/RobertSchumann and Music/LudwigVanBeethoven. Though "Revolution 9" in general is something of a GeniusBonus; usually only those who've been exposed to avant-garde electronic music and ''musique concrete'' before will find it listenable. (Believe it or not, it's probably one of the more accessible works in the genre.)
113	** There is also the snippet of a dramatic reading of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/KingLear'' at the end of "I Am the Walrus."
114	** The line "I'll have another cigarette/and curse Sir Walter Raleigh: he was such a stupid git" in "I'm So Tired". Raleigh was the 16th century British admiral who was the first to import tobacco from North America into Europe.
115	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
116	** "Eight Days a Week", considered just another ''Music/BeatlesForSale'' album track in Britain, was released as a single in the US and became a huge #1 hit, and is still one of their best-loved songs in America.
117	** "I Should Have Known Better" reached number one in Norway.
118	** They became popular enough in Jamaica in 1964 that [[{{Ska}} The Skatalites]] recorded instrumental [[CoverVersion Cover Versions]] of "This Boy" and "I Should Have Known Better".
119	** In Russia, the Beatles, along with most other Western rock bands, were very popular because they were seen as rebellious against Soviet Communism. A very interesting documentary ''How The Beatles rocked the Kremlin'' was made in the 2000s about their popularity there.
120	** In Japan, the song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is extremely popular due to its usage in teaching English to elementary school students within the country. This is in contrast to reception of the song within Western countries, where it is highly polarizing (either being good or bad).
121	* GrowingTheBeard: ''Music/{{Help}}'' was the band's first album to be widely recognized as a work of art, with many critics comparing it to the works of preestablished ClassicalMusic composers. Subsequent albums would only see further comparisons in this vein, spurring the artistic legitimization of rock music as a whole.
122	* HarsherInHindsight:
123	** In a 1964 concert in Australia, John was approached by [[https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx2Q2IVXlpi9I6kzRlsmod9KhogEwJo0hd this fan]] and gleefully greeted him without a care in the world or seemingly any concern for his own safety. Sadly, what should be a heartwarming moment now seems very eerie and tragic when one considers that John would, within a couple of years, face very real threats on his life, and of course, was eventually killed by a deranged “fan”.
124	** "We Can Work It Out" (available on ''Music/PastMasters''). Despite the optimism of the title, ultimately none of Beatles could see the problems of their comrades their way and thus could not work it out.
125	*** Furthermore, the song was written about Paul’s relationship with Jane Asher, which was going through a rough patch at this time (as evidenced by the songs “You Won’t See Me” and “I’m Looking Through You”, written at around the same time). At first, it seemed like Paul and Jane would indeed work it out, as they announced their engagement a couple of years after this song was written. Within a few months, however, the relationship was over for good. In the end, the differences between them were too great to overcome.
126	** "Back in the USSR" mentions Ukraine and Georgia by name. Both states were quite happy to ''leave'' the USSR and are currently having major problems with a Russia that wants at least part of them back.
127	** Plenty of songs referencing or evoking the image of John or George dying, from "Come Together" ("Shhhhoot me!") to "Yer Blues" ("Feel so lonely, gonna die") to the ending of "Long Long Long" (a dirgy, mournful song with an unearthly moan from George at the end, which one writer described as sounding like a "wounded ghost"), in the wake of John and George's deaths.
128	*** John singing "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is kinda creepy too.
129	*** Even creepier - If you look in the booklet included in the ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour'' album, there is a picture of John as he's leaving a small corner store. Just behind him is a sign that reads, "The best way to go is M. & D. Co". Obviously not related, but M.D.C. are the initials of Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman. shudder
130	*** A mid-'60s interview featured John being asked how he thought he would die. His response? "I'll probably be popped off by some loony."
131	*** In the ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' animated movie, the Beatles accidentally TimeTravel to the 2000s (it's a setup for "When I'm 64") and see their future selves out the window of the submarine. Ringo remarks, "There's only two of us."[[note]]In context, he was talking about two submarines with four Beatles apiece, though.[[/note]]
132	*** One scene in ''Film/{{Help}}'' has John being held at gun point. Ditto ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''.
133	*** John had a supporting role in Richard Lester's satirical 1967 film ''How I Won The War.'' His character, Musketeer Gripweed, is mortally wounded near the end of the film. [[BreakingTheFourthWall He looks up to the camera]] and tells the audience, "I knew this was going to happen...you knew it too." ''Brrrrrrr.'' (There is a story that Cynthia Lennon, on seeing this at the premiere, burst into tears and said that it was how John would look when he died.)
134	** In one of their early interviews in America, John is asked what kind of girls he likes, to which he responds, "My wife." Seconds later, George is asked the same question, and he says "John's wife!", much to the amusement of the other three. This becomes decidedly less funny after you find out that George actually had an affair with Ringo's wife years later.
135	** The video for "Something" from ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', on ''so'' many levels:
136	*** It's made up of cute footage of the then-current Beatles couples (John and Yoko, Paul and Linda, George and Pattie, and Ringo and Maureen) and contains lines like "I don't want to leave her now" and "she knows / That I don't need no other lover". John, George ''and'' Ringo would later cheat on their wives, and Ringo left his. Oh, and Pattie left George for [[Music/EricClapton his best friend.]]
137	*** Maureen and Ringo riding together on motorbikes. After Ringo left Maureen, she was so upset that she drove a motorbike into a wall (in what most biographers believe was a failed suicide attempt) and had to have full facial reconstruction surgery.
138	** During their first, and most famous, appearance on ''Series/TheEdSullivanShow'', there are captions introducing all four band members, and in a funny moment, underneath John's name it says "Sorry girls, he's married." Funny at the time; not so funny now that we know it [[DomesticAbuse wasn't exactly the happiest marriage.]]
139	** The song "All My Loving", whose opening lines are "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you / tomorrow I'll miss you...", was said to have begun playing right after Music/JohnLennon was pronounced dead.
140	** The infamous "Butcher" album cover in light of Paul's later vegetarianism and animal rights activism.
141	** The below-mentioned "When I'm Sixty-Four":
142	*** Paul's divorce with Heather Mills was announced a mere few weeks before his 64th birthday. She didn't still need him, she wouldn't still feed him, when he was 64...
143	*** Paul apparently heard that song so much during his 64th year he once said he [[CreatorBacklash regretted ever writing it]] to begin with.
144	*** Alas, neither John nor George would live to be that old[[note]]John was murdered at 40 and George passed away from lung cancer at 58[[/note]].
145	** In the 1965 fan club Christmas record, John starts singing the chorus of "It's the Same Old Song" by The Four Tops before George stops him: [[YouWannaGetSued "Copyright, Johnny!"]] A decade later, George became painfully aware of how much trouble can be caused by copyright infringement accusations with the "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" lawsuit. There was also Music/MichaelJackson outbidding them for publishing rights to their songs.
146	* HilariousInHindsight:
147	** "When I'm Sixty-Four" became quite appropriate when Paul actually turned 64. Many radio stations played said song on said birthday. It's even funnier when you learn that Paul wrote the song back when he was a teenager, and he arbitrarily picked 64 as a ridiculously high age that he had no intention of living to. (Thankfully, he's since developed a healthier outlook on growing old.)
148	** The disguises in ''Film/{{Help}}''. The members of the band look almost ''exactly'' like they would a few years hence, particularly Ringo (who sports whiskers and a more bouffant hairstyle) and John (who has a long beard and suspiciously familiar round glasses).
149	** "Helter Skelter" sounds an awful lot like the sort of material you'd expect from Music/LedZeppelin a few months before they actually started releasing material! It is sometimes cited as being the first metal song.
150	* HoYay: Repeated references by the former Beatles to the bond between them having been akin to a marriage, not to mention likening the band's breakup to a divorce, can have this effect.
151	* HypeBacklash: John Lennon wasn't too far off about the whole "BiggerThanJesus" thing. Even in their heyday, the band themselves felt like all of the teenage girls screaming for them or mobbing them was a bit much, and more than a few teenage boys shared the sentiment (buttons which read "Beetles Suck" [sic] were somewhat trendy for a while) and since the 1980s, an entire generation has had to listen to almost every person at least 30 years their senior talk about how the Beatles are objectively the greatest band in the world, compounded by the more unpleasant aspects of Lennon's personal life being treated with more open scrutiny as time goes on. It was inevitable, really. Having said that, this is still part of the younger generations, but there are just as many, if not more, from those same generations who still get into their music.
152	** The Beatles have suffered from this partly because they've been ''so'' famous for ''so'' long among ''such'' a wide variety of people that some of the claims made about them by their less sane or informed fans are frankly ridiculous, e.g. that they "invented heavy metal"[[note]]They certainly did help popularize the genre with "Helter Skelter", but The Fab Four were not ones who started the genre as other bands like Music/BlueCheer, and Music/{{Cream}}, and Music/TheJimiHendrixExperience were already making music as heavy as that song beforehand[[/note]] or that (as Timothy Leary said) they were brought to Earth to raise humanity to a new level of evolution. Stuff like this obscures the real nature of the Beatles' talent (which was, basically, that they had loads and loads of good songs) and ends up praising the band for things they didn't do, and didn't try to do. '''Any''' band that had got as much praise as they've got would have ended up getting absurd amounts of hype. That's how hype works.
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder:I-Z]]
156	* ItsEasySoItSucks: ''Music/TheBeatles: VideoGame/RockBand'' didn't have that great a reception among the more hardcore RhythmGame enthusiasts and ''VideoGame/RockBand'' fans due to their belief that it was too easy. The meager song list (45 songs out of hundreds of possible songs by the band) and the inability to import the songs to another ''Rock Band'' game certainly didn't help matters.
157	* {{Macekre}}:
158	** An {{urban legend\|s}} sprang up that the Beatles arranged for ''Yesterday... and Today'' to have the infamous "Butcher Cover" as a protest over Creator/CapitolRecords mangling their UK albums]. Go to [[http://snopes.com/music/hidden/butcher.asp the entry]] at Website/{{Snopes}} for in-depth info.
159	** Music/PaulMcCartney also accused Music/PhilSpector of "ruining" the ''Music/LetItBe'' album (his intention had originally been to have the album feature a more stripped down, rootsy production). Spector was acting as the album's producer at the insistence of Allen Klein.
160	* MemeticLoser: Ringo's gotten his fair share of mockery over the years mostly due to being overshadowed by his bandmates. Common points of mockery include being in the background for many music videos, being the only one who doesn't play guitar, and not having tons of people who name him as their favorite Beatle. With that said, it's a loving kind of teasing, with even the man himself joining in. If someone has legitimately critical words for the man, you better believe fans will speak up about how Ringo is actually awesome.
161	* MemeticMutation:
162	** How else do you explain a large chunk of the fanbase believing not only that Paul died in a car crash, but the band replacing him with a double? This makes this trope OlderThanTheNES.
163	** The suits and moptop hairdos from the early Sixties. May induce high pitched squeals.
164	** x-mania (Rollermania, [[PunkRock Punkamania]], [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Hulkamania]], [[Music/SpiceGirls Spicemania]]) This is OlderThanTheyThink, going back to the 19th century's Lisztomania.
165	** "Number nine... Number nine... Number nine..."
166	** “I GOT BLISTERS ON MAH FINGERS!!”
167	** Paul telling the story of how he wrote "Let It Be" in [=every=] interview has become a joke among Beatles fans, who can quote it word-for-word: "Well, I was sleeping, y'know"...
168	** The disturbing coda from “Strawberry Fields Forever” is the first thing people mention when talking about LastNoteNightmare.
169	** Paul's frequent use of the phrase "y'know" has become this amongst some fans, as has the story of George exploding because Yoko ate his biscuits.
170	** "HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!"
171	** In 2008, Ringo filmed himself announcing that after the 20th of October he would not sign any more fanmail. The bizarre video, and the threatening phrase "I'm warning you with peace and love" are often quoted amongst fans.
172	*** That said, the phrase "Peace and love" itself has become this, given how often Ringo says it.
173	** After a Website/YouTube user uploaded [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZd3R2iw4cA a compilation of Beatles outtakes]], "Your Face!" has become one amongst fans and it makes the fairly somber song "No Reply" a ''lot'' funnier than it's supposed to be. Also worth mentioning is "Paul's Broken a Glass" [[note]]Originally from the ''Anthology 2'' version of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"[[/note]] from the same compilation.
174	** The fake Beatles song "It's Okay to Leave Your Dog in a Hot Car," which arose from an image of a text conversation in which a person is apparently duped into believing that the band had actually recorded a track with this title. The meme spread quickly around certain corners of the band's fanbase, with some even attempting to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwCL3HahgS8 make the song]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAB-5l5km2E into a reality]].
175	** "They weren't just musical geniuses, they were troping geniuses."[[note]]A RunningGag on the comment section for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45cYwDMibGo the video for Come Together]] is to use this snowclone meme, preceded by a relevant lyric.[[/note]]
176	* MisaimedFandom:
177	** The Paul Is Dead urban legend theories based on supposedly hidden messages in the Beatles' songs.
178	** "I Am the Walrus" and "Glass Onion" were intended as sarcastic attacks on all those Beatle fans who sought for hidden messages and meanings in their songs. Beatles fans "found" hidden messages in them, too.
179	** Sadly, American serial killer UsefulNotes/CharlesManson managed to interpret the lyrics of the songs "Piggies", "Revolution 1", "Revolution 9", "I Will", "Honey Pie", "Blackbird" and "Helter Skelter" as a message to start murdering other people. For his {{Cloudcuckoolander}} interpretations, see [[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/manson/mansonbeatles.html here.]]
180	* MisBlamed:
181	** In keeping with the simplistic "Lennon was the deep, creative one/[=McCartney=] was the fluffy, inconsequential one" truism, many of the later innovations and artistic achievements of the Beatles in the later years of the band, such as ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', are credited as being down to Lennon. Most of them, in fact, were [=McCartney=]'s ideas, and he was arguably the key creative driving force for the band from about 1966 onwards.
182	** Very few, even Lennon fans, would attribute Sgt. Pepper as being a Lennon idea, to be fair. Even John himself said it was Paul’s baby and the others were just along for the ride. However it is true that despite his lower creative output, John did manage to contribute two the most beloved tracks to this album, being “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “A Day In The Life”. And George arguably had the best two songs on Abbey Road as well (“Something” and “Here Comes The Sun”), so it’s not quite as simple as giving Paul all the credit either, although he did take over as the defacto leader post-1966.
183	** Five words: "Who broke up the Beatles?" Suffice it to say that most people try to pin the blame on one particular person or another, typically either [=McCartney=] (for driving the rest of the band nuts with his perfectionism and bossiness), Lennon (for spending too much time with Yoko Ono and bringing her into the studio against the wishes of the other members), Ono herself (for giving unsolicited musical advice or for simply being there at all), or Allen Klein (for strong-arming his way into the band's business empire and then using a divide-and-conquer strategy to alienate Paul from the other three). However, the truth is that there were too many factors involved in their slow march towards disintegration for any one of them to be the sole cause (or for all of them to be the sole responsibility of one person).
184	** Ringo Starr wasn't happy with [[TooDumbToLive his portrayal]] in the cartoon and complained to Creator/LancePercival. Lance kindly explained that he just did the voices and pointed Ringo in the direction of the writers.
185	** Creator/DeccaRecords executive Dick Rowe has gone down in history as "the man who turned down the Beatles." In the wake of their phenomenal popular and artistic success, Rowe's decision not to sign the band seems shocking and ludicrous. But the audition tape, which has long [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes circulated among fans]], and parts of which were released on the ''Anthology 1'' album, honestly isn't very good. The band, not too familiar with the recording process, plays stiffly, with Pete Best's limitations as a drummer very apparent. The song selection is odd and disjointed, blending three Lennon[=/=][=McCartney=] originals with a whole bunch of [[CoverVersion Cover Versions]] of early RockAndRoll numbers, then peppered with cabaret-style selections like "The Sheik of Araby" and "Bésame Mucho". The three originals ("Hello Little Girl", "Love of the Loved", "Like Dreamers Do") are only SoOkayItsAverage. John and Paul seem nervous, and only George really rises to the occasion. When George Martin finally signed them at Parlophone, he demanded that they find another drummer, and he also wasn't too sold on John and Paul's songwriting, trying to get them to release Mitch Murray's "How Do You Do It?" as their first single before going with "Love Me Do". Notably, they never attempted any of the three Decca originals at Parlophone.
186	* MorePopularReplacement: Famously, ''The Beatles'' replaced Pete Best with the more talented Ringo Starr as drummer right before getting big. Needless to say, most fans agree that it's not The Fab Four without Ringo.
187	** Interestingly enough, this was actually inverted at first in the Beatles hometown of Liverpool. Pete Best was arguably the most popular member of the group at that time, so when he was fired, the fans were furious and refused to embrace Ringo as the new drummer. Many of them shouted and waved signs saying “Pete Forever, Ringo never!”
188	* MyRealDaddy: As noted under TropeMaker; While Rock N' Roll had already existed for over a decade by that point, the Beatles are often seen as the point where a lot of the most common rock music tropes were established. Many young artists who saw The Beatles on the Series/TheEdSullivanShow in 1964 were truly motivated to pick up guitars, start bands in their garage, and write their own songs. In other words, it established rock music's image as a band-centric music and art form that was accessible to almost everyone.
189	* NeverLiveItDown: Their endeavor into drugs and LSD in the late 60s. It was only for a few albums when they delved into psychidelic territory, but you'd think it was their entire career based on how much it's talked about. In fact, they only recorded two full length albums in which psychedelic music was the primary focus, those being Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. Magical Mystery Tour was not intended to be a full length album, and the White Album, while containing some psych, is too scattershot to be called a truly psychedelic themed album. By comparison, they actually wrote more folk / country oriented albums (Beatles For Sale, Help!, and Rubber Soul), yet this aspect of their songwriting is rarely brought up compared to the psychedelic era.
190	* NewerThanTheyThink: Some popular cliches about Beatle music actually derive from the members' post-breakup solo careers. These include John as a ProtestSong writer ("Revolution" is the only straight Beatle example) and George's slide guitar (which he picked up from [[Music/{{Traffic\|Band}} Dave Mason]] when they toured together in the backing band of Delaney & Bonnie at the end of 1969).
191	* OlderThanTheyThink: The band wasn't shy about remaking unreleased older songs if they needed filler for an album or were just feeling nostalgic. This was the case for most of their cover versions (which were part of their pre-fame live set) but there are also several notable originals that were:
192	** "I'll Follow The Sun" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" were both written in the late 50s by [=McCartney=]; during the Cavern Club years, Paul would occasionally play "Sixty-Four" on piano if the band's amplifiers stopped working. The former came out in 1964 on ''Beatles For Sale'' and the latter on ''Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' in 1967.
193	** "One After 909", written in the late 50s, which they first attempted in studio in 1963 but didn't release, was remade in 1969 and released in 1970 on "Let It Be". The 1963 version eventually appeared on ''Anthology 1.''
194	** "What Goes On" was also written in 1963 and almost recorded at the same session as "One After 909". It ended up being recorded for ''Rubber Soul'' in 1965 in order to give Ringo a vocal spot.
195	** "Yesterday" was written in early 1964, but not recorded until 1965 because [=McCartney=] was convinced that he'd copied the song from somewhere. He was convinced by the band to record it, but insisted on not releasing it as a single in the UK (although it did get an EP release).
196	** "Michelle" was written by Paul [=McCartney=] in the 50s when he was still at school in order to attract girls with his guitar playing. When recorded for ''Rubber Soul'' in 1965, Lennon added some new parts to the song and some of the lyrics were rewritten.
197	** "Don't Pass Me By" was written by Ringo as early as 1964 (possibly earlier), in which he refers to it being his first song in an interview (the band mock him for its simplicity). It was however recorded for ''The Beatles (The White Album)'' in 1968 in order to let him include his own composition (since the other three members had multiple ones on it).
198	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: It's hard for some younger listeners to appreciate how groundbreaking they were because, basically, every rock band ever since is following in their footsteps, and the studio innovations they pioneered have since become commonplace or obsolete thanks to modern technology. The fact people are always told to start with ''Sgt Pepper'' or ''Abbey Road'' can make people feel this way. It is generally recommended to listen to the albums in order to get an idea of how varied the band's music was.
199	* OneSceneWonder:
200	** Music/EricClapton came to the studio at his friend George's request to play on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He delivered probably the best guitar solo to ever appear on a Beatles record.
201	** Classical musicians Alan Civil (French horn on "For No One") and David Mason (piccolo trumpet on "Penny Lane") also contributed memorable solos.
202	* ParodyDisplacement: Younger generations are likely to miss that "Back in the U.S.S.R." is spoof of "Back in the U.S.A." by Music/ChuckBerry.
203	* PeripheryDemographic: The band's songs have been covered by artists far outside pop and rock. For example, Buddy Rich covered "Norwegian Wood". Back in the day, while the band was marketed toward younger people, they had an audience of older people, especially as their music increased in sophistication. John Lennon was irritated by [=McCartney's=] songs like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" that Lennon considered for "grannies."
204	* OutOfTheGhetto: The band's rise coincided with critics taking pop and rock music seriously. This was in response to the Beatles' increasing sophistication in their music through the '60s, plus younger music critics joining established publications as well as founding magazines like ''Magazine/RollingStone'' and ''Magazine/{{NME}}''.
205	* PopCulturalOsmosis: "What You're Doing" is often thought of resembling the sound of Music/TheByrds , in particular being a SuspiciouslySimilarSong to "Mr Tambourine Man" (the opening riffs in particular). In actual fact, it's the other way round, with The Byrds basing their sound on it (having heard an import copy of ''Beatles For Sale''). As a result, The Beatles effectively invented JanglePop without realizing.
206	* PosthumousPopularityPotential: John Lennon. While his musical accomplishments certainly can't be denied, he was a self-admitted {{Jerkass}} throughout his life. After his death, he was practically canonised from certain quarters. George also benefited from this following his passing.
207	* RecurringFanonCharacter: The Beatles have a rare example of this for a real life group. Conspiracy theories sprung up claiming that Paul [=McCartney=] died in a car crash and was replaced by a look-alike. The look-alike is usually claimed to be named "William Campbell" or "Billy Shears." He supposedly won a Paul look-alike contest and was chosen to replace him to spare the public from the grief of his death and allow the Beatles to continue performing.
208	* ReplacementScrappy: Back in the day, Cavern Club regulars weren't too happy about Pete being replaced by Ringo.
209	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Next to Heather Mills, Music/YokoOno suddenly doesn't look so bad. In fact, a popular bumper sticker at fan conventions reads "Even Yoko [[CrossesTheLineTwice has a Leg Up]] on Heather Mills."
210	** Similarly, Linda [=McCartney=] also received reappraisal from fans after her death. She was originally disliked by fans for marrying Paul (the last bachelor in the Beatles at the time), her passionate vegetarianism, her constant presence on Paul's music (particularly in Wings), as well as her less-than-stellar singing voice. Despite this, by all accounts, she was a loving and kind wife to Paul, helping him cope with the demise of The Beatles and raise a family; this, combined with her untimely death from breast cancer, society's changing attitudes towards vegetarianism, and Paul's marriage (and divorce) to Heather Mills caused Beatles fans to reappraise Linda, and she is generally well-loved by Beatles fans.
211	* SacredCow: Any sort of criticism (be it mild or harsh) of The Beatles is bound to get you burned. In fact, just going so far as to state that The Beatles are not your personal preference (even if you qualify it with mentioning that you do, however, ''respect'' them) is quite risky.
212	* SignatureSong: The Beatles have so many iconic songs that it is impossible to single out just one as their signature - though "Hey Jude", "Yesterday", "Here Comes The Sun", "Let It Be" and "Come Together" would probably be the first picks, and during the peak of Beatlemania in TheSixties, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" would've held the title. By album:
213	** ''Please Please Me'': "Love Me Do" and "[[CoveredUp Twist and Shout]]", although "I Saw Her Standing There" is also very well-remembered.
214	** ''With the Beatles'': "All My Loving".
215	** ''A Hard Day's Night'': the TitleTrack and "Can't Buy Me Love", with "And I Love Her" coming next.
216	** ''Beatles for Sale'': "Eight Days a Week".
217	** ''Help!'': the TitleTrack, "Yesterday" and "Ticket to Ride". Well-known is also "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away".
218	** ''Rubber Soul'': "In My Life" in first place, but also "Norwegian Wood" and "Michelle".
219	** ''Revolver'': "Eleanor Rigby" and "Yellow Submarine".
220	** ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'': the TitleTrack, "With a Little Help from My Friends", "A Day in the Life" and especially "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
221	** ''Magical Mystery Tour'': "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Hello Goodbye" and "All You Need Is Love". "I Am the Walrus" is not far behind.
222	** ''The White Album'': "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Blackbird", with "Back in the USSR" not far behind.
223	** ''Abbey Road'': "Here Comes the Sun", "Come Together" and "Something".
224	** ''Let It Be'': the TitleTrack of course, although "The Long and Winding Road", "Get Back" and "Across the Universe" are not far behind.
225	** Among the non-album hits, the best-known songs are easily "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" for the first period, later followed by "We Can Work It Out", "Day Tripper" and "Don't Let Me Down", to name a few.
226	* TearJerker: [[TearJerker/TheBeatles They now have their own page.]]
227	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: As groundbreaking as their psychedelic material was, the band got this reaction from their original fanbase as they started to seriously experiment with their music.
228	* ToughActToFollow:
229	** It may surprise some more casual Beatles fans to learn that everybody’s favorite dorky, affable drummer wasn’t immediately embraced with open arms by the Fabs’ diehard Liverpool fan base. Pete Best was a fan favorite at the time, and early audiences (especially the girls) did not take kindly at all to Ringo suddenly replacing him. In the first few shows after the switch, they would harass the group while they were onstage with shouts of “Pete Forever! Ringo Never!”, amongst other things, Ringo did eventually win the fanbase over, and the rest was history.
230	** ''Magical Mystery Tour'' doesn't enjoy the same critical acclaim as ''Sgt Pepper'' in spite of several of its songs (in particular "The Fool On The Hill", "I Am The Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane" and "All You Need Is Love") being amongst the band's most innovative and well regarded. Some say this is because it wasn't initially planned as an album (being a 6 track double EP in the UK and an album in America), but the band made it canon since the 70s so many more fans have experienced the songs in this context than not.
231	** Several of the band members have said, not in so many words, that the worst they could have done for their career was to be in the Beatles. They weren't far off.
232	** "Carry That Weight" is widely seen as being the Beatles acknowledging that they will be a tough act to follow, that they will "Carry that weight a long time".
233	** The Beatles themselves, in their early days, definitely thought being next on the bill after Music/RoyOrbison was this.
234	** In a sense, the children of each of the four Beatles who pursued professional music careers, in particular the higher-profile ones like Julian and Sean Lennon and Dhani Harrison, have had their works compared to both their famous fathers and the band they worked for, and have had to live up to standards no other newer artist/songwriter should have been expected to live up to had they not been sons of Beatles. This hit Julian Lennon hard, especially as the world was still in shock from John's death by Julian's debut ''Valotte'' in 1984, and his sophomore album was a rush job perpetuated not long after he finished a tour to cash in on ''Valotte'''s success and marred by Julian's music gear being lost in transit where he was writing in the Bahamas.
235	** The Beatles could be one for popular music as a whole. Similar to Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's towering role over classical music, many popular music artists feel that the group's work is so good that they couldn't possibly surpass it, nor should they even attempt to. Consider the backlash that Sananda Maitraya, then credited as Terence Trent D'Arby, received for comparing his debut to ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' and how his career never recovered from that.
236	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: A few examples.
237	** "Taxman" betrays its time and place by references to the British politicians Harold Wilson (the prime minister, from the Labour party) and Ted Heath (the Conservative leader of the opposition).
238	** "Revolution" references Chairman Mao as well as the many protests and demonstrations that were going on in 1968, the year of its writing and recording.
239	* ValuesDissonance:
240	** Some songs would be deemed misogynistic if they were written today.
241	*** To avoid the pesky censorship issue, or out of just plain cheekiness, the lads made sure to never definitively say whether “Please Please Me” was written about the innocent kind of love or the...not-so innocent kind. However, it’s very easy to read the lyrics as a guy demanding sex from his girlfriend, and that simply wouldn’t fly today.
242	*** Baby’s In Black probably sounded weird to people in ''1964'', let alone today. A song about a man wishing the girl he likes would just stop mourning her dead boyfriend / husband and be with him could come off as extremely inappropriate and misogynistic to a modern audience. It does help that the Beatles themselves treated the song as satire.
243	*** “You’re Going To Lose That Girl” is one of John’s more romantic and sincere compositions, but unfortunately might give a modern listener the impression that the girl in question is a prize that the characters are competing for.
244	*** “We Can Work It Out” is often, even by many casual modern fans, seen as a optimistic song about trying to make a relationship work, which is what we would expect from the romantic Paul. That is until you read the lyrics and realize that it’s actually the singer essentially demanding that the girl see things his way or else the relationship is over. No consideration is ever given to her point of view. In fact, Paul even mocks the idea of what would happen if they tried doing things her way (“while you see it your way, there’s a chance that we might fall apart before too long”). Ironically, the bridge, which John contributed to, and is often cited as being the pessimistic part, actually comes off as more optimistic and reasonable than Paul’s verses.
245	*** "Ticket to Ride" is described as describing anti-feminist attitude.
246	*** Not to mention ''Music/RubberSoul's'' "Run For Your Life," in which Lennon seems to advocate for ''spousal murder.'' This was hardly noticed at the time, but soon enough even Lennon himself considered it the [[OldShame worst song he wrote for the band.]]
247	*** "Norwegian Wood" is an elegant little waltz about a date not going well, and it implies strongly that the narrator, after his date wouldn't sleep with him, [[HouseFire lit her house on fire]] [[DisproportionateRetribution in retaliation.]] Nowadays, as most modern feminists will often tell you, men are ''not'' owed sex for any reason, and thus it's not uncommon for the song to leave a bad taste in the mouth of a modern-day listener. And it wasn't even John, the principal songwriter, but ''Paul'' who threw that ending in, as a ''joke!''
248	*** The third verse of "Getting Better" ("I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her..."), written by Lennon and inserted into a primarily [=McCartney=]-driven song, is notorious among fans for being this. While the singer fully admits that what he did was wrong and that he's trying to change his ways and make amends, it's unlikely that what basically amounts to an admission of domestic abuse would be accepted without significant controversy in the present day.
249	* VindicatedByHistory: Both ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' and ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' received mixed reactions on their release; the former for its overly satirical nature and lack of coherence, and the latter for its use of synths and overproduction making the album seem artificial. Now, they are considered among the greatest records ever made. The band's turn toward psychedelia also alienated their teeny-bopper fanbase and more conservative listeners still dislike that era, but it's now seen as when the band really came into their own artistically and legitimizing popular music an an art form.
250	* WinBackTheCrowd: After ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'' flopped with the public, the Beatles were no doubt thankful that their animated side-project, ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'', proved to be a critically acclaimed hit in North America at least just a few months later, winning back their credibility as film stars.
251	* TheWoobie:
252	** "The Fool on the Hill", the main character of the song of the same name from ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour''. No one likes him, and no one listens to what he has to say. Averted inasmuch as he's a fool, and so doesn't realize it.
253	** Poor Eleanor Rigby from ''Music/{{Revolver\|Beatles Album}}''. She dies alone, with only Father Mackenzie there to bury her. No friends, her name is buried with her, completely forgotten. And depending on how you interpret "No one was saved", her death may well have been preventable.
254	* {{Woolseyism}}: Some of the Capitol albums might be sequenced better than the corresponding Creator/{{EMI}} / [[Creator/ParlophoneRecords Parlophone]] albums.
255	** ''Meet the Beatles'' got onto the Rolling Stone "Greatest Albums of All Time" list, while the version it "butchered", ''Music/WithTheBeatles'', didn't. Capitol wisely added the two sides of their breakthrough US single ("I Want to Hold Your Hand", "I Saw Her Standing There") as the opening tracks, emphasized the two most notable things about them as they started their career (they wrote their own songs, all four members sang lead vocals and had unique personas), and eliminated all but one CoverVersion from ''With the Beatles''. And the one they kept ([[Theatre/TheMusicMan "Till There Was You"]]) was a familiar show tune that demonstrated to adults that these guys had respect for traditional pop music.
256	** Many fans, including Music/BrianWilson, think the US version of ''Music/RubberSoul'' is miles better than the UK version. (Capitol cut out most of the more electrified songs in favor of two acoustic songs from ''Help!'', unifying the album sonically.)
257	** As noted in CanonImmigrant on [[Music/TheBeatles the main page]], the Capitol ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour'' album is so superior to the British two-EP set, if only in form factor, that it has displaced the [=EPs=] in "{{canon}}." Not only did the US album have a 12" version of the 7" British booklet, it also included the band's 1967 singles on Side 2. In England, the album version of ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'' finally replaced the [=EPs=] in 1976.
258	[[/folder]]

Context YMMV / TheBeatles