The Beatles

Our listener question this week comes from Masoud in Iran. He wants to learn about the famous rock band the Beatles.

Masoud has great timing. A new video game featuring the Beatles went on sale last week. And a new group of Beatles CDs was also released last week. The series includes digitally improved versions of every song the British band released between nineteen sixty-three and seventy. Experts say these songs have been re-mastered using the latest technology. They sound much better than the CDs that have been sold for the past twenty-two years. Like this song, from nineteen sixty-nine, "Come Together." (MUSIC) The Beatles were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The group began in Liverpool, England in the early nineteen-sixties.

They were together for only ten years. Yet, by some estimates the band has sold one billion albums worldwide.

The Beatles' first big hit single was released in Britain in nineteen sixty-two. It became a number one song in America two years later. Here is "Love Me Do." (MUSIC) People now can play that song along with John, Paul, George and Ringo on "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game. The game uses real Beatles recordings. The video shows colorful and dreamy background images to provide players with a nineteen sixties feel. But does it have the sound of thousands of screaming teenage girls?

That is who welcomed the Beatles on their first American visit in nineteen sixty-four. Crowds of girls waited for the band's arrival at an airport in New York City. The Beatles' concert in Washington, D.C., was also a huge success. And more than half of all the people in the United States watched the Beatles appear on a popular television program during their visit.

We leave you with the Beatles performing their nineteen sixty-seven song, "Fool on the Hill." (MUSIC)