IT'S A GREAT SOUND, ISN'T IT? SOME SAY IT'S THE SOUND OF A GROUP THAT HAS ACHIEVED OVER NIGHT SUCCESS. BUT DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT.IT TOOK THE BEATLES OVER FIVE YEARS TO BECOME AN OVER NIGHT SUCCESS. AND MUCH LIKE THE TITLE OF THEIR FIRST MOTION PICTURE, IT WAS 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT'.JOHN LENNON WHO ALMOST WAS SIDE-TRACKED INTO AN ART CAREER, BY THE WAY, MUST BE CREDITED NOT ONLY WITH INITIATING THE BEATLES, BUT ALSO AS THE ONE MEMBER WHO NEVER GAVE UP HOPE OF SUCCESS DESPITE MANY ADVERSITIES. AND HE WAS ALWAYS THE RALLYING POINT FOR REGROUPINGS. JOHN LENNON WHOSE WHOLE FAMILY WAS MUSICALLY INCLINED WAS ALSO THE FIRST TO FORM A GROUP AND CALLED IT 'THE QUARRYMEN'. PAUL McCARTNEY SOON JOINED JOHN'S 'QUARRYMEN' THEREBY EARNING THE TITLE OF BEATLE-IN-WAITING NUMBER TWO. THAT THE WORLD NEVER CAUGHT ON TO A CRAZE CALLED 'QUARRYMENMANIA' WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE MAGIC SOUND WAS NOT YET FORMED. 'THE QUARRYMEN', ORIGINALLY FIVE IN NUMBER, DWINDLED DON TO JOHN AND PAUL. BUT UNDER THE NEW NAME 'THE NERK TWINS' THERE WAS STILL DISILLUSIONMENT.WITH MUSICAL IDOLS LIKE BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS, GEORGE HARRISON WAS THE NEXT TO JOIN JOHN AND PAUL, BECOMING BEATLE-IN-WAITING NUMBER THREE. WITH GEORGE THE NEW GROUP NAME BECAME 'JOHN AND THE MOONDOGS'. BUT NO 'MOONDOGMANIA'.BY NOW THE SKIFFLE CRAZE WAS DIMMING AND WITH IT THE HOPES OF THE 'MOONDOGS' WHO WERE STILL IN THEIR SKIFFLE APPRENTICEMENT AT THE TIME WHEN SKIFFLE 'JOURNEYMEN' COULDN'T FIND WORK.WHILE STILL WORKING ON NEW IDEAS FOR SOUND, AND SOME MORAL SUPPORT TOO FROM BETTER KNOWN LIVERPOOL GROUPS, JOHN INTRODUCED THE NAME 'BEATLE'.BUT WHO CAME UP WITH THE FINAL 'BEATLES' SPELLED WITH THE B E A T? PAUL McCARTNEY EXPLAINS THE ORIGIN."JOHN GOT THE NAME 'BEATLES' IN A VISION...AGES AGO, YOU KNOW WHEN WE WANTED WHEN WE NEEDED A NAME AND EVERYBODY WAS THINKING OF A NAME AND HE THOUGHT OF 'BEATLES'.""WHY THE BEA INSTEAD OF THE BEE?""WELL, ACTUALLY, YOU KNOW... WELL, YOU KNOW, IF WE LEFT IT WITH BEE, IT WAS HARD ENOUGH GETTING PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND WHY IT WAS BEA, NEVER MIND THAT."FOR A TIME THE NAME WAS SOFTENED TO 'SILVER BEATLES', AND WITH VARIOUS OTHER ARTISTS JOINING AND LEAVING THE GROUP, JOHN, PAUL AND GEORGE WERE GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THAT MAGIC DOOR WHICH ONE DAY WAS TO SUDDENLY FLY OPEN AND LIFT THEM FROM A LIVERPOOL CELLAR AND CARRY THEM BEFORE A WORLD SPOTLIGHT SO BRIGHT IT WOULD LEAVE THEIR IMAGE PERMANENTLY EMBEDDED IN ENTERTAINMENT HISTORY.THE BEATLES LIKE TO BE THOUGHT OF AS A FUN-LOVING, DEVIL-MAY-CARE, NON-CONFORMING, LIFE-LOVING QUARTET WHICH WAS MORE OFTEN DISJOINED THAN JOINED. BUT WHILE THEY MAY HAVE NEITHER INTEREST NOR ABILITY IN BOOKING THEIR OWN ENGAGEMENTS OR COUNTING PROFITS, THEY'VE CONSISTENTLY DISPLAYED THAT THEY TAKE THEIR MUSIC SERIOUSLY, THEMSELVES LIGHTLY, AND THE WORLD ACCLAIM MODERATELY. NOT EVEN THEIR SUCCESS-SWELLED BANK ACCOUNTS SEEM TO PHASE THEIR BASIC DOWN-TO-EARTH OUTLOOK.EVEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE THAT CRITICS AND FRIENDS BY THE LEGION ARE SCAMPERING, CLAWING, BEGGING FOR TITBITS OF INFORMATION, ANY INFORMATION, ON HOW THEY FORMED, HOW THEY DRESS, THEY TAKE IT CASUALLY.JOHN LENNON, FOR INSTANCE WHEN ASKED THE TECHNICAL QUESTION OF HOW LONG IT TOOK THEM TO DEVELOP THE BEATLE SOUND FROM ITS PARENT SKIFFLE BEAT ANSWERED, "UH, OVER A PERIOD OF ABOUT SIX MONTHS, I THINK. OR WAS IT A YEAR?""EH, A LITTLE LONGER, JOHN.""YOU FORGET, YOU KNOW, I KNOW I MET PAUL FIRST AND HE SORT OF JOINED THIS LITTLE GROUP I HAD AND THEN...THEN...THEN GEORGE, YOU KNOW, AND IT GRADUALLY CHANGED A LITTLE. IT WAS JUST US THREE."
BUT IT REALLY WASN'T AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS. THOSE LAST PAINFUL MONTHS BEFORE DISCOVERY WERE FULL OF OBSTRUCTIONS AND BARRIERS, AND DISILLUSIONMENT, AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. BUT IF SUCCESS SEEMED TO ALLUDE THE BEATLES IN THEIR NATIVE LIVERPOOL, SEVERAL JUNKETS TO HAMBURG, GERMANY WORKED WELL FOR BOTH THEIR POCKETBOOK AND SPIRIT. PARTICULARLY THEIR LAST TRIP IN WHICH THEY ACHIEVED THEIR FIRST AUDIENCE REACTION WHICH WAS LATER TO BE CALLED BEATLEMANIA.THE GERMANS WERE THE FIRST TO FEEL BEATLEMANIA. AND THIS, DESPITE THE FACT THAT A GOOD PART OF THE BEATLE ACT WAS SPOOFING EVERYTHING FROM NAZIS TO NIETZSCHE AND ARIANS TO AGRARIANS, THE BARBS WITH NOTED LIVERPUDLIAN WIT WERE BURNED INTO HAMBURG AUDIENCES BETWEEN NUMBERS AND DURING NUMBERS.RETURNING HOME TO LIVERPOOL, HOWEVER WAS SOMEWHAT OF A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR THEIR HAMBURG SUCCESS STORY HADN'T REACHED HOME. FOR THE BOYS NUMBER 10 MATTHEW STREET, THE ADDRESS OF THE POPULAR 'CAVERN CLUB' WAS AS FAR AWAY AS NUMBER 10 DOWNING.
ABOUT THIS SAME TIME, ANOTHER LIVERPOOL ACT, MERSEY SIDE WAS ACHIEVING NOTABLE SUCCESS, A GROUP CALLED 'RORY STORM AND THE TEXANS'. MUSIC HISTORIANS WOULD LATER PAY PARTICULAR NOTE TO A MOURNFUL-FACED LITTLE DRUMMER WITH 'THE TEXANS' KNOWN TO HIS FRIENDS AS RICHIE BUT TO THE PUBLIC AS RINGO STARR. IT WOULDN'T BE LONG BEFORE RINGO WOULD BE BEATLE NUMBER FOUR.LADY LUCK WOULD BE BEATLE NUMBER FIVE AND WITH THE BRILLIANT GUIDING HAND OF YOUNG BRIAN EPSTEIN AS THEIR MANAGER, THE BEATLES WOULD SOON LIFT OFF THE LIVERPOOL LAUNCHPAD WITH ENOUGH FORCE TO PUT THE ENTIRE MUSICAL WORLD INTO ORBIT.

IF I FELL
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney

IF I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU
WOULD YOU PROMISE TO BE TRUE
AND HELP ME UNDERSTAND?
CAUSE I'VE BEEN IN LOVE BEFORE
AND I FOUND THAT LOVE WAS MORE
THAN JUST HOLDING HANDS.
IF I GIVE MY HEART TO YOU,
I MUST BE SURE
FROM THE VERY START THAT YOU
WOULD LOVE ME MORE THAN HER.

THAT'S THE SOUND THAT'S ROCKETED THE MUSIC WORLD. AND IN THAT WORLD MUSIC OR
JUKEBOXES WHICH ARE EQUIPPED TO ACCEPT COINS IN RETURN FOR RECORDED BEATLE
ENTERTAINMENT, FEEL THE METALLIC WATERFALL OF DIMES, QUARTERS, SHILLINGS,
MARKS, PESOS, FRANCS, LIRE, YEN AND OTHER FORMS OF NATIONAL COIN. AND FROM THE
BACK OF BURRO-DRIVEN OXCARTS IN REMOTE SECTIONS OF LATIN AMERICA, TO PLUSH
AIR-CONDITIONED, ULTRA-MODERN RECORD EMPORIUMS OF THE CONTINENT, EAGER
HANDS REACH FOR EACH NEW BEATLE RECORD. WORLD WIDE RECORD SALES
REPORTEDLY HAVE ALREADY EXCEEDED THE 30 MILLION MARK.
WHY? WHY INDEED. CERTAINLY A KEY FACTOR IS BEATLE MANAGER BRIAN EPSTEIN WHO
FOUND THE LONG-HAIRED VERSION OF ALADDIN'S LAMP IN A LIVERPOOL CELLAR.

Credits

This version of the song available on