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Credit: Far Out \/ Harry Chase \/ Los Angeles Times \/ UCLA \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
Tue 14 July 2026 18:15, UK <\/p>\n
The two most important factors that led to The Beatles<\/a>\u2018 success were great songs and good timing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Beatles were making music two decades after World War II ended, and while that might sound like a long time, countries were still licking their wounds. People were recovering from their losses, nations were still in economic decline, and there wasn\u2019t a whole lot of joy knocking about for those who needed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Imagine, then, how people reacted when four likeable lads from Liverpool took to the airwaves and started playing upbeat and beautiful songs like \u2018She Loves You\u2019, \u2018Love Me Do\u2019 and \u2018I Want To Hold Your Hand\u2019. Suddenly, there was joy in the world once again, as people were given permission to let their hair down and have fun, acknowledging that there was sadness, sure, but opting to brush it aside for dancefloors and sing-alongs.\u00a0<\/p>\n It travelled around the world as well. While it might have first taken prominence in the UK, once audiences beyond that got an earful, there was no denying the band\u2019s sound. Bruce Springsteen, for instance, recalls the first time The Beatles played on the radio, and all of a sudden, music took on new meaning, and he was given an idea of what kind of career he should pursue.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018I Wanna Hold Your Hand\u2019 came on the radio in 1964, that was going to change my life because I was going to successfully pick the guitar up and learn how to play<\/a>,\u201d said Springsteen, \u201cI saw Elvis on TV and when I first saw Elvis, I was nine but I was a little young, tried to play the guitar but it didn\u2019t work out, I put it away [\u2026] The keeper was in 1964, \u2018I Wanna Hold Your Hand\u2019 on South Street with my mother driving.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Beatles couldn\u2019t continue just making songs like \u2018I Want To Hold Your Hand\u2019, though. Their longevity is the result of a willingness to adapt and be open to the idea of embracing different styles of music, and they certainly did that. Throughout their run as a band, you can hear plenty of different styles and influences at play, as their music went from catchy pop songs to incredibly complex and intricate works of art.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul McCartney felt a real shift in the band\u2019s music when they wrote \u2018Eleanor Rigby\u2019, a track which he called the first important one that they ever put together. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to discuss this without sounding immodest, but I think I started to feel it around the time of \u2018Eleanor Rigby\u2019,\u201d he said, \u201cPrior to that, I thought the music was very good, and I realised we were in a different league when we wrote \u2018From Me To You\u2019, because it had a middle eight in it and went somewhere we hadn\u2019t been before, but you used the word \u2018important\u2019. For me, \u2018Eleanor Rigby\u2019 was the start of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n After that moment, The Beatles wrote a lot of songs which were intricate, layered, and are still celebrated as works of art to this day. Look at songs like \u2018While My Guitar Gently Weeps\u2019, \u2018A Day In The Life\u2019 and \u2018Penny Lane\u2019, to name a few. Every great musician and music lover has their favourite, and for Paul Simon, that came in the form of \u2018Strawberry Fields Forever<\/a>\u2019. <\/p>\n Simon, who also knows a thing or two about writing a perfect song, said that while he was a fan of a lot of what The Beatles did, this was the track which was the most complete, and near enough perfect.\u00a0\u201cI would pick \u2018Strawberry Fields [Forever]\u2019, although there is your example of a total record,\u201d said Simon, \u201cA very important record to me, I like it a lot. You can\u2019t even sing the song. It\u2019s really hard to sing the song.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n