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.
happiness
The Beatles Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
She's well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane
The man in the crowd with the multicolored mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
And donated to the National Trust
I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Down to the pits that I left uptown
I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Happiness is a warm gun (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, momma (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
When I hold you in my arms (ooh, oh, yeah)
And I feel my finger on your trigger (ooh, oh, yeah)
I know nobody can do me no harm (ooh, oh, yeah)
Because
(Happiness) is a warm gun momma (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun (happiness, bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Well, don't you know that happiness is a warm gun momma?
(Happiness is a warm gun, yeah)
The Beatles song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is one of the most intriguing and complicated tracks in their discography. The lyrics are cryptic, with seemingly unrelated phrases and verses that make it hard to understand the song's overall meaning. The song's title is a reference to an article in the American Rifleman magazine, which described the pleasure of using guns. The lyrics then depict various images and scenarios that are often interpreted as drug-induced euphoria.
The song opens with the line "She's not a girl who misses much," which some interpret as a female drug user who is always ready for a fix. The lines "The man in the crowd with the multicolored mirrors, on his hobnail boots" could be a reference to the colorful and shiny effects of LSD. The line "A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust" is another puzzling line, possibly referring to an LSD trip with the guy seeing his hallucination of his wife, which he then ate and gave as a gift to the National Trust.
The second verse is a reference to the withdrawal symptoms of drug addiction, with the singer needing a fix because he is "going down to the pits that [he] left uptown." The repeated phrase "Mother Superior jumped the gun" is harder to interpret, but it is possible that it refers to the musician's previous experience in religious school or monastery, as Mother Superior is a title given to the head of certain religious groups.
Overall, "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is a highly literary and artistic song that leaves a lot to interpretation. The song is a psychedelic tour de force that illustrates the band's musical experimentation and willingness to push the boundaries of conventional songwriting.
Line by Line Meaning
She's not a girl who misses much
She is a woman who takes on life without any hesitation or fear.
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
A nonsensical phrase meant to convey the idea of a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life.
She's well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
She is someone who is intimately familiar with vices and pleasures.
Like a lizard on a window pane
She moves through life slowly and stealthily, living on the edge of society as a transgressor.
The man in the crowd with the multicolored mirrors
He is a man who is neither defined nor understood by anyone, an outsider in society.
On his hobnail boots
He is always on the move, walking around in his own world, not the one we live in.
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
He is living a double life, with one face for the public and another in the shadows.
Working overtime
He is pushing himself to the limit, trying to achieve something he may never actually reach.
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
He is so caught up in manufactured lies, he has lost his grip on reality and swallowed the fiction.
And donated to the National Trust
He has given up on himself and his own future, choosing to abide by the status quo and live for others.
I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
He is desperate and falling apart, needing some kind of relief to get through each moment.
Down to the pits that I left uptown
He has fallen from grace and has no hope of ever returning to his former glory.
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Curator of his fate or society as a whole prevents him from truly enjoying anything that life has to offer.
Happiness is a warm gun (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
The joy that comes from power and control over others is all-consuming and addictive.
When I hold you in my arms (ooh, oh, yeah)
Being with someone you love makes you feel stronger and more powerful than anything else.
And I feel my finger on your trigger (ooh, oh, yeah)
The ability to control or manipulate someone or something gives a sense of immense pride and satisfaction.
I know nobody can do me no harm (ooh, oh, yeah)
When you are in control of the situation, nothing can possibly harm you or bring you down.
(Happiness) is a warm gun momma (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
The pursuit of power and control over others is the ultimate goal in life, bringing with it an intense sense of joy.
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
The feeling of satisfaction and ecstasy that comes from having control over someone or something cannot be matched by anything else.
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun (happiness, bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
The sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that comes from wielding power and control over others is unmatched by anything else in the world.
Well, don't you know that happiness is a warm gun momma?
There is no greater joy in life than having power and control over others.
(Happiness is a warm gun, yeah)
The ultimate goal in life is to have complete and utter control over others and everything around you, bringing with it indescribable joy.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Philip Kassabian
on Mother Nature's Son
A really great Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on The Night Before
A really splendid Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on P.S. I Love You
Now this is a really great Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on There's a Place
A seriously underrated Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on Do You Want to Know a Secret
A fantastic song by The Beatles.
Philip Kassabian
on When I'm Sixty-Four
A very tuneful Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
An excellent Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on I'm Looking Through You
A beautiful Beatles song.
Philip Kassabian
on Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Honestly The Beatles can't stop producing good songs.
Philip Kassabian
on Michelle
A fantastic Beatles song and absolutely beautiful.