The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do, 60 years ago in a move that would change music forever.
After that single, released on October 5, 1962, the Fab Four from Liverpool would go on to become the biggest band in the world, leaving behind trails of screaming young women wherever they went during the height of Beatlemania.
But the peaks of their fame always meant that the end of the band would be devastating for fans and its members.
Things were never quite right after the death of their manager Brian Epstein, who Paul McCartney had dubbed the “fifth Beatle”, in 1967.
In the years after, the band’s squabbling worsened and led to a series of individual walkouts before they split and released their final record in 1970.
Why did the Beatles break up?
Fans often pin the blame for The Beatles' demise on Paul McCartney, the bassist and one of the chief songwriters, and his decision to release a solo record in April 1970.
But before that announcement, drummer Ringo Starr and guitar player George Harrison had both seperately walked out while recording the band's albums.
And John Lennon, who co-wrote many of the act’s biggest hits alongside McCartney, had become distracted by his partner Yoko Ono, who he would go on to record with.
Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary, released on Disney+ in 2021, shows the four-piece in 1969 putting together what would become their Let It Be record.
It dispelled the myth that the final months of the band’s career was all doom and gloom, showing their strong creative moments and shared humour.
But it also depicts how management of the band and song-writing tensions had the capability of boiling over and creating rifts.
The final part of the three-act documentary shows the band playing live on top of the Apple Records building in central London — their label’s headquarters — in January 1969.
It would be the last time the band would ever perform live for their adoring fans.
Break-up details
Following Epstein’s passing, the band started to control more of their own affairs, seeing them move from being musicians to businessmen.
This caused tensions in the band but there were also spats about the music as well.
George Harrison was writing more frequently but he found his songs were being rejected for use on albums by Lennon and McCartney, leaving him frustrated.
His solo record in 1970, All Things Must Pass, was a three disc LP, with Harrison explaining he had so many leftover songs from his Beatles days that he couldn’t limit the album to just two sides of vinyl.
One change in the dynamic of the band was the almost constant presence of Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, who attended band practices, recordings and even meetings between the four men.
McCartney and Lennon’s relationship suffered as a result and the pair became more distant, both personally and in terms of their musical direction.
Lennon’s new heroin habit also did not help relations.
A row over who should manage The Beatles and solo recordings would be the wedge that would finally drive the four of them apart.
Ringo, George and John decided to push for Allen Klein to manage their interests and legal matters, despite Paul’s reluctance and the Rolling Stones warning them off him.
This revealed the huge schism and lack of trust between the men who made up the most successful group in rock history.
Lennon took his first major steps outside of the band structure when he recorded Cold Turkey, written about his heroin addiction, with the band he formed with his wife, The Plastic Ono Band.
It was an unexpected success and after performing at a festival in Toronto, Canada, John made the decision that he wanted to quit The Beatles.
He flew back to London to tell the rest of the band that he wanted "a divorce" but, as they were at a crucial stage of renegotiating their royalty payments, Paul, George and Ringo persuaded him to keep quiet about his decision.
Paul was devastated that John wanted to dissolve the band and fled to the farm in Scotland he shared with wife, Linda McCartney (nee Eastman), and their young family.
Depressed and left reeling from what he knew would soon be the end of the band, Paul shocked the world by announcing he was releasing his first solo album and had taken a break from The Beatles.
The Daily Mirror’s headline the next day, April 10, 1970, read: “Paul is quitting The Beatles.”
McCartney ended up going to court in December 1970 to have himself released from his contract with the band.
The Beatles’ 12th and final studio album had been released in May, seven months earlier, containing the hits such as Get Back and The Long And Winding Road.
While McCartney and Lennon did jam together again in 1974, the band turned down lucrative offers to reunite.
Lennon’s assassination outside his apartment block in New York in 1980 put pay to fans’ hopes of a last hurrah for the Merseyside act.
Harrison succumbed to lung cancer in 2001, leaving only McCartney and Starr surviving from the world’s most popular band.
