PhoenixRising

Okay.

wickedrum

why did they give themselves such an idiotic name?

sum1

PhoenixRising

They originally called themselves the Blackjacks when John Lennon first formed his band with his friends at Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool when he was 16. Then he found out that another band had that name so he changed it to "The Quarrymen," after the name of his school, and that's when he met Paul McCartney, whom he invited to join the group. Paul talked John into letting his friend, guitarist George Harrison, join the band even though John thought Harrison was too young. Later, most of John's friends from Quarry Bank High School had left the group and it was just John, Paul, and George, and no drummer. So they called themselves Johnny and the Moondogs since all of the original Quarrymen were gone except for John, and hired drummers whenever they could find one.

Then Lennon's art school friend, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined the band as their bass player(McCartney was playing dual guitars with Harrison at this point), and it was Sutcliffe who suggested they change their name to "Beatals," in reference to Buddy Holly and The Crickets, whom John, Paul, and Stuart were fans of. They later changed that name to "Silver Beetles," and then altered the spelling to "Silver Beatles," and then shortened it to "The Beatles" by the time their regular drummer, Pete Best, joined the group and they became a five piece band. Best and Sutcliffe are the two men often referred to as "The Fifth Beatle."

Well, the rest is history. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career in art studies and McCartney took over as bass player(Sutcliffe tragically died years later from a brain hemorrhage). Best was fired from the band for a number of reasons - he was underperforming as a drummer; he lacked chemistry with the other members of the band; the band's manager, Brian Epstein, disliked him and felt he didn't fit in with the others - and drummer Ringo Starr from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes was hired as his replacement.

wickedrum

that's a lot of names, and none of them good

sum1

wickedrum

what a weird boyband.

PhoenixRising

Hey, it was the 1950s and 1960s. And it was England.

sum1

That's not a good enough excuse.

wickedrum

it always amazes me why people thought their songs were that good

PhoenixRising

You didn't like them, Rita?

wickedrum

I can't suffer through a whole song, ever.

sum1

They're ok, but nothing special.

PhoenixRising

I didn't get into them until my late teens. The bands I was listening to at the time were Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, and Def Leppard.

sum1

Deaf Leopard?