At the Top Again

The Beatles ruled the music world in the 1960s. They had twenty-two singles in Britain, and eighteen reached number one. Every album of new songs got to number one. In the United States, there were nineteen number one singles. Many people still think that they were the world's greatest band of all time. In one list of best albums, the top five were all by the Beatles!

But the band's success wasn't just for their musical past. In 1995, the three living Beatles came together to record two 'new' Beatles songs - 'Free as a Bird' and 'Real Love'. Both songs were by John. The singer recorded them, but they weren't finished. Paul, George and Ringo worked with these recordings, adding to them. In their minds, they were finishing the music for John while he worked on something else.

Fans could buy new Beatles records again! They also loved the video for 'Free as a Bird'. It showed people and places from the band's past - Stu Sutcliffe, Brian Epstein, The Cavern, the street outside the Abbey Road studios. There were hundreds of memories of Beatles songs. A few are: a cake with the number sixty-four ('When I'm Sixty-Four')

a man writing a book ('Paperback Writer')

a photo of Mao Tse Tung (a line from 'Revolution')

a stone with the name Eleanor Rigby ('Eleanor Rigby')

At the same time, the living Beatles told their story in the television programme The Beatles Anthology. More than twenty million copies of the Anthology albums were sold. In 2000, there was a very successful album of the Beatles' number one songs. They made more money from the album than any other British artist that year. The Beatles were back in the right place - at the top!

- THE END -