Further to the usual contemporary music thread I felt we'd have to have a separate thread for the social and cultural phenomenon that was The Beatles.
We all know the history behind The Beatles, they were the greatest group in the history of popular music. Their music covered many genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, the sixties shaped The Beatles as much as The Beatles shaped the sixties.
The "Fab Four" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) as they came to be know were familiar faces all over the media, schoolboys and girls were heard asking "Who's your favourite Beatle" they even appeared in Dr. Who, indeed the Doctor himself was heard uttering the line "You've squashed my favourite Beatle" while battling the sixties other phenomenon, The Daleks, in The Chase in 1965.
The Beatles are the best-selling band in history, and over four decades after their break-up, their recordings are still in demand. They have had more number one albums on the UK charts and have held the top spot longer than any other musical act. According to the RIAA, they have sold more albums in the United States than any other artist, and they headed Billboard magazine's list of all-time top Hot 100 artists in 2008. They have received 7 Grammy Awards from the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people.

What do we think of The Beatles.

Personally, after their early hits like She Loves You, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love, I never "dug" The Beatles. But time has changed my opinion, I'm more willing to listen and enjoy a Beatles album these days than I would have as an eight year old schoolboy, finding out just what made the sixties tick, because, let's be honest without the group the country wouldn't have been as "swinging" as it was. There's an old saying that goes "If you can rememebr the sixties you weren't really there" I was there, admittedly some of the memories are vague, but what a great decade it was, a social and cultural explosion took place in that decade, and if it wasn't for The Beatles I don't think it would have been half as memorable as it turned out.