Paul McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles in a 1970 press release, surprising his bandmates.

After the bitter breakup of the Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney only played music together one more time—at an impromptu studio session in 1974, joined by Stevie Wonder.

Some people believe Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike.

Listen to 'Now and Then,' the Beatles' final song

The Beatles released their final song, "Now and Then," in October 2023, featuring a previously hidden John Lennon vocal. The track was initially shelved due to poor audio quality but was revived with the help of AI to enhance Lennon's performance....

The Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows,' the final track from 1966's 'Revolver,' used innovative recording methods—including a rudimentary form of sampling—to redefine the sound of popular music.

Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3K to reunite on 'Saturday Night Live,' which John Lennon and Paul McCartney briefly considered.

The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, citing frustration with the era's limited sound systems.

An American Beatles album featured a bizarre, gruesome image of the band as butchers, which was swiftly recalled.

The Beatles were not an immediate success in the US—their label rejected their first two singles, and the band was mocked on the TV show 'American Bandstand.'

The cover of 'Abbey Road' was shot in a quiet London neighborhood in 1969

The unassuming setting became one of the most famous attractions in the city and was the cover of the Beatles' last-recorded album. It was shot in the late 1960s, when the Fab Four was the most famous band in the world.

The Beatles' labels released almost twice as many of the band's records in the US to capitalize on the band's popularity.

In 2004, Prince paid tribute to George Harrison with a surreal solo

The 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony paid tribute to the recently deceased Beatle with a rendition of one of his most famous songs by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, and George Harrison's son, Dhani. Several minutes into the performance, Prince suddenly appeared center stage for a virtuosic solo. He ended it by tossing his guitar into the crowd. Tom Petty's drummer would later say, "Everybody wonders where that guitar went, and I gotta tell you, I was on the stage, and I wonder where it went, too."

Listen to the Beatles' 'Revolver,' the band's groundbreaking 1966 album.

The BBC banned the Beatles' song 'A Day in the Life' for 5 years, fearing it encouraged drug use.

The Beatles sued technology company Apple in 1978 to defend naming rights to their record label, Apple Corps.

Listen to "Yesterday and Today," the 1966 Beatles album only released in the US.

Hear how the Beatles became the most influential band on Earth, with guest Conan O'Brien.

The Beatles tried to get the rights to make a 'Lord of the Rings' film starring the band members as Gollum, Frodo, Gandalf, and Samwise.

A bootleg video of a 1966 conversation between Bob Dylan and John Lennon has long been a cryptic text for the artists' superfans.

The Beatles' visit with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi helped inspire Western interest in Eastern spirituality

The Fab Four met with the guru—the creator of Transcendental Meditation—in 1968 in Rishikesh, India. The band's George Harrison and his wife had been interested in Indian culture for several years, but the meeting with Maharishi signified a meeting of Western popular culture with Eastern spirituality that would inspire the rising hippie movement.

The Beatles loved Motown Records, covering some of the label's songs while honing their skills as a club act in Germany.

The Beatles' appearance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964 launched Beatlemania in the US after the band struggled to break through to American audiences.

Explore all 58 famous figures—including artists, thinkers, politicians, athletes, and other pop culture icons—portrayed on the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album cover.

Paul McCartney said the Beatles' 'Helter Skelter' was about a playground slide, but Charles Manson said it inspired him to orchestrate 9 murders.

The American girl groups of the 1950s and '60s had a profound influence on The Beatles, who frequently paid homage to acts like the Marvelettes and the Ronettes

Explore Abbey Road Studios, the site that invented stereo recording and was the site of most of the Beatles' recordings.

Steve Martin was a wildly successful stand-up—and abruptly quit doing it

In the ‘70s, few stand-up comics were bigger than Steve Martin, who released multiplatinum albums and regularly sold out arenas. As he detailed in his 2007 memoir, Martin had grown disillusioned with his success as a stand-up and pivoted into film.

In 'Cut Piece,' Yoko Ono invited the audience to her clothes

Much more than simply John Lennon’s partner, Yoko Ono is a prolific multimedia artist in her own right. Her 1964 performance "Cut Piece" invited audience members to come onstage and cut away pieces of her clothing. She described the piece as being about solidarity between women and the possibility for world peace, saying, “By not fighting, we show them that there's a whole world, which could exist by being peaceful.”

The Beatles' song 'Taxman' was inspired by Britain's tax structure.

Watch a 1965 press conference with Bob Dylan where he mocks the media's focus on celebrity.

The surgeon who tried to save John Lennon says he can’t forget that night

Frank Veteran was a resident in 1980 on the night John Lennon was shot in New York. For years afterward, he tried to process the sight of seeing the Beatle dying in the hospital, including through art, but he says that the memories from the experience are still vivid.

How AI helped the Beatles win their eighth Grammy

It’s been decades since the legendary British rock band broke up, yet they still managed to snag a Grammy at the 2025 awards ceremony. This feat is thanks to AI, specifically machine-learning technology, to isolate and clean up different components of a late 1970s recording. This mini-documentary shows how the band's surviving members crafted “Now and Then” with the modern technology.

Check out a list of the best Beatles songs, from 'Hey Jude' to 'A Day in the Life.'

He signed to Columbia Records in 1972

Springsteen had been performing solo at various venues, including some famous folk spots in Greenwich Village. Columbia executives saw this performance of “Growing Up”—which would later appear on his first album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ”—and invited him to formally audition for the label before signing him.

The Beatles once sued Nike

Nike used The Beatles' "Revolution" in an ad, sparking a $15M lawsuit over the song's use. While The Beatles and Nike ultimately reached an agreement, Nike ushered in the modern practice of using hit songs in advertisements, as opposed to jingles or covers.

In the late '80s, Dylan formed the Traveling Wilburys with other rock legends

The word “supergroup” gets tossed around plenty in rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s never been more apt than with the Traveling Wilburys, a late '80s band featuring Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. At the time, Dylan was feeling creatively adrift and far removed from the passion of his earlier work. The winking alter-egos of the Wilburys reinvigorated him, leading to a great record and a renaissance in Dylan’s solo career.

Prince pulled 1987's 'The Black Album' days before its planned release

Hot on the heels of the success of "Sign O' the Times," Prince planned to release "The Black Album" in December 1987. But days before it was supposed to hit stores, Prince asked Warner Bros. to cancel the release, leading the company to destroy hundreds of thousands of copies. According to some, Prince had heard the album while on the drug MDMA and believed it was an evil force that he did not want in the world. A two-part episode of the podcast "Disgraceland" unravels the strange story.

Paul Simon recorded his landmark album 'Graceland' in South Africa, in defiance of a UN-approved cultural boycott.

Dylan was called 'the voice of his generation,' but rejected the title

By the mid-60s, Dylan made it clear he had no desire to be a spokesman for anyone but himself. He found the title stifling and believed it would prevent him from creating authentic art.