The Beatles' Break-up

The Beatles' Break-up

The break-up of the Beatles, one of the most popular and influential musical groups in history, has become almost as much of a legend as the band itself or the music they created while together. The Beatles were active from their formation in 1960 to the disintegration of the group in 1970. The break-up itself was a cumulative process throughout 1969, marked by a public acknowledgement from Paul McCartney in a November 1969 interview. The final announcement that the Beatles had broken up came in a McCartney press release on 10 April 1970.

There were numerous causes for the Beatles' break-up. It was not a single event but a long transition, including the cessation of touring in 1966, and the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967, meaning the Beatles were personally involved in financial and legal conflicts.

Conflict arose from differences in artistic vision. Both George Harrison and Ringo Starr temporarily 'left' the group at various points during 1968–69 and all four band members had begun working on solo projects by 1970 as they all realised the likelihood the band would not regroup. Ultimately, animosity made it impossible for the group to continue working together in the years following and Paul McCartney made the break-up public knowledge as part of the press release for his first solo album, McCartney. When asked the reason for his break with the group, Paul lists: "Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family."

Although there were sporadic collaborative recording efforts among the band members (most notably Starr's 1973 Ringo, the only time that the four—albeit on separate tracks—appeared on the same album post-break-up), all four Beatles never simultaneously collaborated as a recording or performing group again; Starr's 1976 album Ringo's Rotogravure is the last post-break-up album on which all four Beatles contribute and are credited: besides Ringo's drumming and songwriting contributions, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison all composed one track apiece. After John Lennon's death in 1980, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr reconvened for Harrison's "All Those Years Ago", and the trio reunited for the Anthology project in 1994, using two unfinished Lennon demos – "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" – for what would be the final new songs to be recorded and released as the Beatles.

Read more about The Beatles' Break-up:  Brian Epstein's Death, George Harrison's Emergence As A Songwriter, Difficulty in Collaboration, Yoko Ono, The Beatles Double Album, The Twickenham and Apple Studio Recording Sessions, Business Quagmire: Allen Klein, Lee Eastman and ATV-Northern Songs, Departures