The first big gig for the Beatles was in Hamburg, Germany, which lasted about two years. Then, Brian Epstein, a record store manager, discovered them. At this time the members were not the ones who later became the most famous rock musicians in the world. The drummer was Pete Best, and the bass player, a friend of Johns, was named Stuart Sutcliffe. Stuart later left the band for love, and then died of a brain hemorrhage, and Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as drummer. The group felt that they needed a new drummer because Best's skills were not up to par with the rest of the group's talents.
After many tryouts, and searches for a deal, the Beatles finally landed a record spot with EMI records under the watchful eye of producer George Martin, and the management of Brian Epstein. Then, they took England by storm. When the music of the Beatles first was released in the United States, it didn't catch on at first. In fact, they did not become popular until their second American released single came out, which was "I Wanna' Hold Your Hand." With this song they landed a spot on the Ed Sullivan Show, which triggered the onset of "American Beatlemania" in 1964.
After the exposure of the Beatle's TV appearance, the group's popularity rose enormously everywhere in the world. Once they became famous they wanted to help other young artists and performers, so they created their own record company called Apple Records. But like every band, they had many problems. After a long successful six years, things just seemed to start falling apart, and the Beatles finally broke up. This caused great heartache for their fans. John was the first Beatle to leave the band, and was followed shortly by Paul.
