The Beatles created many sales records and charted more than fifty top 40 hit singles. They were the first British band to achieve major ongoing success in the United States, scoring twenty-seven #1 hits in the USA & UK alone, becoming the biggest musical act of the twentieth century. EMI estimated in 1985 that the band had sold over one billion records worldwide. Their ballad "Yesterday" sung by Paul McCartney (though always officially credited as a band recording written by Lennon-McCartney); is the most-covered song in the history of recorded music (about 2,500 versions of it exist).

Their earliest compositions were mainly rock&roll or R&B-rooted pop songs with the occasional ballad. But they grew increasingly eclectic as composers, arrangers and performers over the years. They composed songs and arranged them in a wide array of musical styles occasionally fusing genres. The constant factor in the vast majority of their songs was their focus on melody. Despite the wide array of musical styles utilised, Beatles recordings were readily identifiable because of their distinctive vocals. In addition to their core pop and rock styles, The Beatles' canon included songs flavoured with folk, country, rockabilly, blues, soul, doo-wop and many other musical genres. They were also pioneers of new musical directions such as psychedelia (Strawberry Fields Forever) and hard rock ("Helter Skelter," Revolution). Their use of chamber and baroque orchestrations (scored by producer George Martin) on recordings such as Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, In My Life and For No One was another first in contemporary popular music.

They also pioneered many innovative production techniques and their epoch-making 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is often cited as one of the first concept albums. Their clothes, hairstyles and choice of musical instruments made them trendsetters throughout the decade; their growing social awareness, reflected in the development of their music, saw their influence extend far beyond the music scene into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s; and their enduring popularity with successive generations of both fans and musicians has cemented their reputation for being some of the most influential music artists of all time. The group disbanded in 1970 amid much strife. Thirty-five years later, in 2005, the American entertainment industry magazine Variety named them the most iconic entertainers of the 20th century.

A band from Liverpool, England in the 60's who were extremely infuential to modern music and "rock and roll."

With hits such as Hey Jude, Yesterday, Day Tripper, Come Together, Yellow Submarine, Blackbird, Sergeant Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band, and countless others, they are idolized and covered more than any other band in history.

Paul, John, Ringo & George - We love you!

Best Band in the world.

OK, The Beatles kick some serious ass. I'm gonna use a quote from the ultra Styrocen here:
"The most over-rated band on Earth. Seen as kinda cute by chicks in the 60's b/c they wore matching clothes. But the media blew it all out of proportion. Now, the new generation is raised, blindly beleiving that the Beatles changed history, because it was beaten into them."
Hahahahaha, this comming from the kid who likes Linkin Park. Oh look at me, I'm the guitarist from Linkin Park, I can play two chords and call it a song! And I don't know how to solo, thus I should just ram this guitar up my ass to make the world a better place. And yeah yo, we need two singers, wait we need a singer and an "emcee" yo. See, that craptastic emcee in Linkin Park is a waste of space. I could go on, but this is a definition of the Beatles.
The Beatles kick ass. It's funny to think how we listen to Yellow Submarine in kindergarten, when in reality all four of the Beatles we're high as shit when they wrote it. But that's ok, because unlike now, drugs wern't used to be cool, but to expand your mind (aka Jerry Garcia.) The best Beatles album is Abbey Road, with the White Album a close second. And I'm sure if you faggy "nu metal" kids would think the Beatles were more hardcore if you saw the original cover of the White Album.
Anyways, no band of today can stand up to the Beatles. Not your carppy emo bands who sing on their acoustic guitars about who their girlfriends left them, or those shit eating "ra...

The most popular and best-selling band in the world, even 30 years after they broke up.
Frequently dismissed by 13-year-olds as "old" and "over-rated", until they actually hear them for the first time.

The band that all the "punk" kids like to bash as "sissy" or "gay." What they don't realize is that without The Beatles, the bands they listen to now would never even be around.

you cannot deny quality. The Beatles is the grandest band in existence, and will forever be so. and for those who think otherwise... well, they should be fucked in the ass with pineapples.

Greatest Band Ever.
Fronted by John Lennon (or Paul McCartney, depending on who you ask.)
Came about in 1960 or so, switching drummers til they picked up Ringo Starr.
Usually insulted by today's ignorant youth. The same ignorant ones that say Linkin Park are musical gods. Pfft.