Английский для бакалавров. Зарубина Л.П - 214 стр.

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Text 14. THE BEATLES
The Beatles became nationally famous in England in October 1962, when their
first single record, “Love Me Do”, entered the Hit Parade at number 27. The famous
four who recorded that song were, of course, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George
Harrison and drummer Ringo Starr. This was the original line-up of the band.
Three years before, when John Lennon was 19 and George Harrison approach-
ing his seventeenth birthday, the group was offered its first “big job” - playing at the
famous Star Club in Hamburg. In those days there were five Beatles: Pete Best on
drums, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and the mysterious fifth Beatle, Stuart Sut-
cliffe.
The Beatles returned to England penniless and exhausted. Stuart Sutcliffe left
the group and stayed in Germany, where he died a few months later. The Beatles be-
gan a series of lunchtime concerts at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. They were now play-
ing better than ever.
The lunchtime concerts were a great success. The road outside the club was al-
ways crowded with girls who worked in nearby shops and offices. They came to see
the Beatles during their lunch-break. Local shopkeepers often complained about the
crowds and the noise. The man who ran the local record shop went to see what all the
fuss was about. His name was Brian Epstein, the man who became the Beatles man-
ager.
The first thing that Epstein did as manager was to sack Pete Best. There are
many different stories about why this happened. Probably it was because there was a
serious clash of personalities between Lennon and Best. Lennon said: “He goes, or I
go.” In Best’s place came Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr), the drummer they met in
Hamburg.
The job of producing the Beatles records went to George Martin, an extremely
nice and remarkably old-fashioned man who worked at the EMI studios in Abbey
Road, North London. George Martin became the brains behind the recording suc-
cesses of the Beatles (although John Lennon never agreed with that).
Martin had some unusual and immensely successful ideas. He persuaded the
group to have instruments on some of their songs that they didn’t want to begin with:
the cello on “Yesterday”, the violins on “Eleanor Rigby”, the oboe on “You’ve Got
To Hide Your Love Away”.
During the sixties, it seemed that the Beatles were always in the news headlines.
They made successful records and interesting films. Lennon caused anti-Beatle dem-
onstrations in America by saying that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus
Christ. Beatlemania was the word used to describe the reaction of fans all over the
world.
When Epstein died in 1967, things began to go wrong for the Beatles' industry.
The relationship between Lennon and McCartney became very difficult; they dis-
agreed about music, they disliked each other's wife, and they disagreed about who
should be the new manager of their affairs.
Eventually, an American called Allen Klein bought a controlling interest in the
group. This was the beginning of the end, as McCartney couldn’t stand Klein.

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