Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, eventually settling with Pete Best in 1960, who played with them for two years before being replaced with then Rory Storm & The Hurricanes drummer Ringo Starr in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein molded them into a professional act and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four", with Epstein, Martin and other members of the band's entourage sometimes given the informal title of "fifth Beatle".
By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the United States pop market and breaking numerous sales records. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). From 1965 onwards, they produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and enjoyed further commercial success with The Beatles (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1970, all four members enjoyed success as solo artists. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active.
The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide. They hold the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart, most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and most singles sold in the UK. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and all four main members were inducted individually between 1994 and 2015. In 2008, the group topped Billboard's list of the all-time most successful artists on the Billboard Hot 100. The band received seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people.
Former Rolling Stone associate editor Robert Greenfield compared the Beatles to Picasso, as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original "... In the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive ..." The British poet Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of African-American rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism", and "the first advance in popular music since the War".
They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US, they became a globally influential phenomenon as well. From the 1920s, the US had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood films, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley and, later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee. The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people that they most associated with UK culture.
Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide. Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs. On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's WABC radio station forbade his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music, marking the defining line of what would be considered oldies on American radio. They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler", and they were primary innovators of the modern music video. The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people, then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business". Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion.
According to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of socio-cultural movements of the decade. As icons of the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness".
Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their socio-cultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the US, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness. Referring to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the beginning of a cultural revolution ... The Beatles were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964.
In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The Beatles won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be (1970). The recipients of seven Grammy Awards and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards, the Beatles have six Diamond albums, as well as 20 Multi-Platinum albums, 16 Platinum albums and six Gold albums in the US. In the UK, the Beatles have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold albums and one Silver album. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
The best-selling band in history, the Beatles have sold more than 800 million physical and digital albums as of 2013. They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts, fifteen, and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the most significant and influential rock music artists of the last 50 years. They ranked number one on Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, released in 2008 to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary. As of 2017, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with twenty. The Recording Industry Association of America certifies that the Beatles have sold 178 million units in the US, more than any other artist. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people. In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
There are two holidays celebrated for the Beatles: Global Beatles Day on 25 June each year. On that date in 1967, the band performed "All You Need Is Love" on television. In 2001, UNESCO created World Beatles Day on 16 January each year. This date has direct relation to the opening of The Cavern Club in 1957.
Five asteroids, 4147 Lennon, 4148 McCartney, 4149 Harrison, 4150 Starr and 8749 Beatles are named after the Beatles.
You Won
The Beatles Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I have had enough, so act your age,
We have lost the time that was so hard to find,
And I will lose my mind,
If you won't see me, you won't see me.
I don't know why you should want to hide,
But I can't get through my hands are tied,
But I get turned away.
And you won't see me, you won't see me.
Time after time you refuse to even listen,
I wouldn't mind if I knew what I was missing.
Though the days are few they're filled with tears,
And since I lost you it feels like years,
Yes it seems so long girl since you've been gone,
I just can't go on,
If you won't see me, you won't see me.
Time after time you refuse to even listen,
I wouldn't mind if I knew what I was missing.
Though the days are few they're filled with tears,
And since I lost you it feels like years,
Yes it seems so long girl since you've been gone,
I just can't go on,
If you won't see me, you won't see me.
"You Won't See Me" is a song by The Beatles that appears on their sixth studio album, Rubber Soul, released in 1965. The song is written by Paul McCartney and is about a failing relationship where one partner is avoiding communication and disconnecting from the other. The lyrics express the frustrations and feelings of impotence when trying to reach out to someone who is unwilling or unable to connect emotionally. The repetition of the line "If you won't see me" in the chorus emphasizes the desperation and desire for the relationship to work despite the obstacles.
The opening lines of "When I call you up, your line's engaged. I have had enough, so act your age," indicate that McCartney is frustrated with the lack of communication and maturity of his partner. The verse "I don't know why you should want to hide, but I can't get through, my hands are tied" suggests that there may be secrets or issues that the other person is unwilling to confront. Despite the difficult times, McCartney is still hopeful that the relationship can be repaired, as he sings "Though the days are few, they're filled with tears, and since I lost you, it feels like years."
One interesting fact about the song is that it was one of the first Beatles songs to use a Mellotron, an electronic keyboard that can reproduce the sound of various instruments. The Mellotron is heard in the song's introduction and in the solo section before the final chorus. Another interesting fact is that the song was released as a single in the Philippines in 1966, with "I'm Looking Through You" as the B-side.
Line by Line Meaning
When I call you up your line's engaged.
Every time I try to reach out to you, I hit a dead end because you are either ignoring me or too busy for me.
I have had enough, so act your age,
I am tired of your childish behavior and it's about time you start acting maturely and responsibly.
We have lost the time that was so hard to find,
We have wasted valuable time that we could never get back, which we struggled to find in the first place.
And I will lose my mind,
Your behavior is frustrating me to the point of losing my sanity.
If you won't see me, you won't see me.
If you continue to ignore me and refuse to meet me, it is your loss, not mine.
I don't know why you should want to hide,
I am clueless as to why you are avoiding me or keeping something from me.
But I can't get through my hands are tied,
I cannot seem to reach out to you or establish contact because of some barrier, and I am helpless.
I won't want to stay I don't have much to say,
I have nothing left to talk about, and I am not interested in prolonging this relationship.
But I get turned away.
However, you still reject me whenever I try to leave.
And you won't see me, you won't see me.
If you continue to ignore and reject me, you will never get to see or experience the good things about me.
Time after time you refuse to even listen,
Repeatedly, you have chosen not to hear me out or understand my point of view.
I wouldn't mind if I knew what I was missing.
If you could tell me what it is that I have done wrong, I would be open to working on it and correcting my mistakes.
Though the days are few they're filled with tears,
The limited time we had together is now characterized by sadness and sorrow.
And since I lost you it feels like years,
Ever since you left me, time seems to stand still, and every moment feels like an eternity.
Yes it seems so long girl since you've been gone,
The duration of your absence seems endless to me, making it even more difficult to cope.
I just can't go on,
I am unable to function normally or continue living my life without you by my side.
If you won't see me, you won't see me.
If you persist in avoiding me, you will only miss out on the opportunity to reconcile and make things right.
Lyrics ยฉ Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOHN LENNON, JOHN WINSTON LENNON, PAUL MCCARTNEY, PAUL JAMES MCCARTNEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
๋น์ ํ์ธ์
Writer, lead vocal: Paul McCartney
When I call you up, your line's engaged.
์ ํ๋ฅผ ๊ฑธ๋ฉด ๋น์ ์ ๊ณ์ ํตํ์ค
I have had enough, so act your age.
์ด์ ์ง๊ฒจ์, ๊ทธ๋ฌ๋ ๋์ด์ ๊ฑธ๋ง๊ฒ ํ๋ํด
We have lost the time
์ฐ๋ฆฌ๋ ์์ด๋ฒ๋ ธ์ง
That was so hard to find,
๋๋จํ ์ป๊ธฐ ์ด๋ ค์ ๋ ์๊ฐ์
And I will lose my mind
๋ ๋ฏธ์ณ ๋ฒ๋ฆด ๊ฑฐ์ผ
If you won't see me,
๋น์ ์ด ๋๋ฅผ ๋ง๋๋ ค ํ์ง ์๋๋ค๋ฉด
I don't know why you should want to hide.
๋น์ ์ด ์จ์ด๋ฒ๋ฆฌ๊ณ ์ถ์ด ํ๋ ์ด์ ๋ฅผ ๋ชจ๋ฅด๊ฒ ์ด
But I can't get through my hands are tied.
ํ์ง๋ง ๋ ์ฐ๋ฝํ ์๊ฐ ์์ด, ๋ด ์์ด ๋ฌถ์ฌ ์๊ฑฐ๋
I won't want to stay,
๋๋ ๋จธ๋ฌผ๊ณ ์ถ์ง ์์
I don't have much to say,
ํ ๋ง๋ ๊ฑฐ์ ์์ด
But I can't turn away
๊ทธ๋ ์ง๋ง ๋๋ ์ธ๋ฉดํ ์ ์์ด
And you won't see me,
๋น์ ์ ๋๋ฅผ ๋ง๋๋ ค ํ์ง ์๋ค
Time after time
๋ช ๋ฒ์ด๊ณ
You refuse to even listen
๋น์ ์ ๋ด ๋ง์ ๋ฃ๋ ๊ฒ ์กฐ์ฐจ ์ซ์ดํ์ง
I wouldn't mind (no I wouldn't, no I wouldn't)
๋๋ ๊ฐ์์น ์์ ๊ฑฐ์ผ
If I knew what I was missing.
๋ด๊ฐ ๋ญ ์ดํดํ์ง ๋ชปํ๋๊ฐ๋ฅผ ์๋ค๋ฉด
Though the days are few,
์ผ๋ง ์ ๋๋ ๋ ๋ค์ด์์ง๋ง
They're filled with tears.
๋๋ฌผ๋ก ๊ฐ๋์ฐฌ ๋๋ ์ด์ผ
And since I lost you it feels like years.
๋น์ ์ ์์ด๋ฒ๋ฆฐ ์ง๊ฐ ๋ช ๋ ์ด ๋ ๊ฒ ๊ฐ์
Yes, it seems so long
๊ทธ๋, ์์ฃผ ์ค๋ ์ธ์์ด ์ง๋ ๊ฒ ๊ฐ์
Girl, since you've been gone,
๋น์ ์ด ๋ ๋ ํ๋ก
And I just can't go on
๋๋ ์ด์๊ฐ ์ ์์ ๊ฑฐ์ผ
If you won't see me,
๋น์ ์ด ๋๋ฅผ ๋ง๋๋ ค ํ์ง ์๋๋ค๋ฉด
Henri Armanda
Itโs hard singing while playing those basslines. Respect
IIExhibitAII
100% true.. been playing bass for a while and used to play cover songs in a band for parties and I had a tough time doing the chorus while playing the bass lol.. no way in hell could I do this haha
Tony Valle
Nevermind that he was born right handed.
Nathan Zaworski;
Heโs gotta be the best Paul. Some very hard bass lines to sing over and he can play em all!
Tuners
Yeah. That's true... that's why I left my bass & returned to regular guitar.
Tom Santos
He's a genius.
Jayne Falconer
Nice to hear tribute bands who will play all the Beatles songs not just the popular ones. I've notice some fans don't know a lot of the other songs which I personally love more than the popular ones. I'm from Liverpool in the UK the original Beatles home town and a massive Beatles fan :)
Leo B
@Eobard Gabriel its called scouser accent and its hideous lol
Eobard Gabriel
So you have beautiful accent (British one).?
Gregory Wheless
Agree 100% I'm 63 and my Dad was a sales rep for Capital Records 1957-1969 so our family grew up with the Beatles . Back then, here in the US , the radio stations of course, played their hit singles . But when my Dad would bring home a new album, I'd listen to it before it hit the record stores and wonder which songs would become hits . I'd usually like the ones that didn't make their greatest hits list like You Won't See Me , I'm Only Sleeping , Dr. Robert etc..