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In my humble opinion, cars from the 1960s are the best. Not too modern, not too old. Just right. Mustang. Camaro. Road Runner. The list goes on and on.

Detroit stated 1964 models were designed with serious consideration for the needs & tastes of American women. Women represented over 1 million sales a year.

1965 was called the "the year of the stylist." Engineering changes took a back seat to changes in overall appearance. The Ford Mustang dominated.

1966 models brought the first front-wheel drive car since 1937. People were shocked that someone would make a car that would pull by its front wheels!

Continued improvements were made to electric cars in 1966. Ford showed off a lab model of a sodium-sulfur battery that was 15 times lighter than the average battery.

To read more about a specific year, keep reading below.

Cars in 1960

In 1960, car buyers were demanding smaller vehicles. Compact cars were marketed heavily by every automobile manufacturer, in stark contrast to the 1950s. New models included the Ford Falcon, the Chevrolet Corvair and the Plymouth Valiant. Soon after, Lincoln-Mercury released the Comet and Dodge introduced the Dart. Midway through 1960, General Motors announced that it would offer three smaller cars, the Buick Special, the Oldsmobile F-85 and the Pontiac Tempest. This focus on smaller cars domestically caused a sharp drop in import sales.

U.S retail buyers had 266 different models to choose from, with a standard price spread of $1,795 for a Rambler American sedan to $13,075 for the limited-edition Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. In general prices did not change much at all from the preceding year.

The 4-door sedan was still the best seller, but station wagons were increasing in popularity and ranked second in all sales over the sportier 2-door vehicle.

Engineering improvements aimed at improving economy of use. Aluminum replaced iron and steel to reduce weight in some models. There were adjustments made to combustion chamber design and compression ratios that aided fuel economy. Mechanical advances were on display as we saw the first rear-engine car made in America, the Chevy Corvair.

Also in 1960, the first alternator was used in a production car. Although alternators had been used extensively in vehicles like taxis, police cars and other vehicles with numerous gadgets and accessories, installing an alternator in a family car like the Chrysler Variant was a first. Some industry experts speculated industry-wide use of alternators within a decade.

Cars in 1963

Ford Motor Company's Ford Division spent an estimated $250-300 million to introduce its 1964 models according to Division President Lee A. Iacocca. The Ford 'new look,' generally followed the design of the Thunderbird. The popular Falcon, for example, had the look of the sporty Thunderbird.

Cadillac continued to stress comfort and performance. The Cadillac fins, the last remaining fins in the industry, were lowered one-half inch, and the 1964 cars are 1/2 inch longer.

Chrysler's luxury Imperial line, completely redesigned, featured a cleaner, less bulky, sculptured look, resembling the competing Lincoln Continental.

Detroit indicated that the 1964 cars were designed with serious consideration for the needs and tastes of American women. Executives acknowledged that women represented at least 1 million sales a year, which was the difference between a good year and a bad one.

Auto manufacturers emphasized more horsepower per unit. New engines ranged from 95 HP for the Chevrolet Corvair 500 to a big 360 HP for the Chrysler 300 K.

Floor-mounted 'stick' transmissions were gaining in popularity. One hand-shifted transmission manufacturers justified the demand on the theory that 'they make you feel like you are controlling the car.' Still, Ward's reported that automatic transmissions were installed on 76.4 % of the 1964 models.

Buick featured a new 'super-turbine' transmission in some of its 1964 models. Edward D. Rollert, Buick general manager, hailed it as "The greatest advance we've made in the automatic transmission. The most important single development in the history of the torque converter."

Cadillac featured a new built-in, combination heating and air conditioning system.

All auto makers continued their long warranty periods, with Chrysler's 50,000-mile five-year warranty, introduced last year, the most generous offer. Twenty-four months or 24,000 miles is the extent of the average warranty in the industry.

Two accessories that excited the car buying public were a tiltable steering wheel, which could be adjusted to seven different positions, and a 'swing-aside' steering wheel.

Seat-belt sales continued to increase and after January 1, 1964, became standard equipment on all cars. Air conditioning units were being installed in an increasing number of cars. They were factory-installed in 17.9% of the 1963 models.

Prices of the 1964 models ranged from $1,953 for the Rambler American 220 to $6,434 for the Imperial LeBaron by Chrysler. A special case was Chrysler's 20-foot Crown Imperial limousine, selling for $18,500.

E. M. Estes, Pontiac general manager, said, "There is positive proof that a majority of the buyers today want bigger, more comfortable, more luxuriously appointed cars.' To illustrate, he cited the 1964 Pontiac Tempest (introduced in 1960 as a compact), which was lengthened to 203 inches, 8.7 inches longer than the 1963 model.

Cars in 1964

The US Auto industry was hampered by strikes and parts shortages in 1964 but finished the calendar year with near-record production and sales figures. According to final, unofficial tabulations by Automotive News, 7,746,000 passenger cars rolled off the lines.

General Motors was hit by a nationwide strike on September 25, 1964. Ten days later, terms were reached on a settlement. Similar local strikes later plagued Ford. It wasn't until November 23 that the industry's main labor troubles ended. While domestic car makers had their troubles, imports fared well.

The 1965 line in general was described as "the year of the stylist." In the minds of the motoring public, engineering changes were subordinated to changes in overall appearance of the cars. Engines got a bit more power, but car warranties went unchanged.

US auto makers offered buyers a choice of 343 new models. GM cars presented softer, curving lines and a racy look; Ford featured sharp, crisp shapes; Chrysler and American Motors added a bit more sweep and roundness to their cars' contours. Most models grew in length.

If any new model deserved a "Car of the Year" award it was Ford's Mustang. From the day of its off-season introduction on April 17 until year's end, Ford had turned out 303,275 of those bad boys! Plymouth was well received with its Barracuda.

Chrysler, which already controlled Simca in France, bought a $35M minority interest in Rootes Motors, of England, in June. Chrysler said it would not increase its 30% stake in the British firm. GM and Ford also continued their overseas expansions.

A "Poor Man's Rolls" was offered during the summer, the result of a bit of British industrial teamwork. Rolls-Royce supplied the aluminum, six-cylinder engine, and British Motor Corp. built the body. They called it the Vanden Plas Princess R. Its selling price was a shade under $5,600 - against the $15,400 for a Rolls Silver Cloud III. The Princess R was about the size of a Benz, with a top speed of 112 mph.

Cars in 1965

The US auto industry had its biggest year ever in 1965, with production, sales, employment and profits soaring to all-time highs.

Another all-time high was reached: traffic deaths. Style-conscious Detroit was forced by government action to pay more attention to the good health of the people.

Cars in California were equipped, for the first time, with a $45 device that reduced carbon monoxide gases. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Clean Air Act authorizing the government to create standards to limit air pollution.

For its 1966 cars, the industry created a "safety package", which included backup lights, multiple windshield wipers, padded dashboard, rear seat belts and windshield washer fluid. The price of these items averaged about $50.

For the US industry as a whole, there were few style changes in the 1966 models. The four major auto companies offered 364 body styles. Options were popular too.

The first front-wheel drive since 1937 was released in the Oldsmobile Toronado. People were shocked that someone would make a car that would pull by its front wheels instead of push from the back!

New innovations included the station wagon dual-action tailgate and stereo tape players with FOUR speakers.

Also new were Pontiac's overhead cam, six-cylinder engine, Chrysler's unique safety door handles and American Motors' self adjusting clutch.

Cars in 1966

Safety was the primary concern in 1966 as the industry chalked up it second best sales year ever, topped only by 1965.

But with a nationwide death toll of about 1,000 road deaths per week, everyone's focus was on safety. And 1966 was an unparalleled year for safety requirements for car manufacturers.

Here's a long list of just some of the new standards for automobiles that were required in 1966 (in no particular order):

1. Auto manufacturers had to notify car buyers of any safety defects or recalls

2. Anchorages for shoulder belts and seats

3. Recessed control knobs

4. Collapsible steering column

5. Safety door latches and hinges

6. Four-way flashers

7. Dual brakes

8. Standard bumper heights

9. Uniform gearshift pattern

10. Safety standards for tires and rims

11. Turn signals visible from the side

12. Rear window defoggers

13. Non-rupturing fuel tanks and pipes

US companies offered 367 basic 1967 models. Most had options. Two major sales themes were sportiness and safety.

Ford, with the hugely popular Mustang carrying the load for a couple years, was finally getting some real challengers. One came from within: the Lincoln-Mercury Cougar. Chevrolet released the Camaro and Chrysler-Plymouth beefed up its Barracuda line.

Prices ranged from $2,000 for a Rambler to $10,000 for a Cadillac Seventy-Five limo. The design trend was toward a long hood, a short deck and low, sleek profiles.

For the first time, all four major auto manufacturers guaranteed the power train for 5 years/50,000 miles.

The electric car emerged on the scene in 1966. Ford showed off a lab model of a sodium-sulfur battery that was 15 times lighter than the average lead battery. At the time, company engineers said they need at least TWO MORE YEARS to develop a prototype car.

In October, GM showed off two experimental vehicles: a Corvair and a small truck. Both could drive about 40 to 150 miles.

Cars in 1967

The automobile industry had a rough year in 1967, with most of the blame falling on the shoulder of labor problems. Ford was crushed by a 49-day strike, putting its earnings loss in the third quarter at approximately $74 million - an absolutely staggering amount of money in 1967. The UAW union agreement with Ford, Chrysler and GM provided wage boosts of nearly a dollar per hour for workers.

Due to domestic production issues, auto imports set a new record in 1967 with 785,000 sold. Overall sales lagged behind 1966, with no help from the Vietnam War, which literally pulled hundreds of thousands of young men out of the market.

Prices rose markedly because of higher production costs and wages. A government decision to require shoulder seat belts on all cars manufactured in 1968 was a good example of the various safety regulations that caused prices to rise as well. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that a large part of the price hike was simply price boost.

In 1967 cars were lower, longer and wider in shape. Convertibles and station wagons were replaced by their much hotter-selling counterparts, the two-door hardtop. AMC introduced the only new car in the U.S., the Javelin. It was a made as a challenger to the muscle car market dominated by the Mustang, Camaro and Barracuda. AMC was also the only manufacturer to drop a car, the Marlin.

Cars were coming with a lot more options and people were becoming accustomed to tailoring their cars specifically to their own needs. These were exciting times for car buyers indeed.

New safety regulations required that car manufacturers add or improve the following:

1. Windshield washers

2. Defoggers

3. Dual-cylinder brake systems

4. Impact absorbing steering columns

5. Safe door latches

Transportation Secretary Alan S. Boyd proposed an additional 47 safety standards covering cars through 1971. James Roche, president of GM, moved up to board chairman while Edward N. Cole took over as President. AMC named Roy D. Chapin, Jr. as chairman and William V. Luneberg as president.

Cars in 1968

All-time sales records were broken in 1968. Imports made up 10% of these sales, but domestic sales improved from the previous year. For the first time in a while, there were no real labor shortages to mention.

Prices rose slightly, but the biggest change was the length of cars. Luxury and family sedans were longer in 1968 than ever before, with new models featuring flowing bodies, longer hoods and much nicer interiors. New options included heated rear-windows and self-adjusting anti-skid brake systems. Headrest were a new feature on all cars, required by government safety standards.

Auto manufacturers implemented a controversial price cutting measure: shortening warranties. Until then, most warranties had been 24,000 or 24 months, but in 1968 the standard warranty was cut in half to 12,000 miles or 12 months. The warranty covering the power train remained covered by a 5-year or 50,000 mile warranty.

Ralph Nader, author of Unsafe At Any Speed, continued to push hard for government safety regulations, citing the nation's highway death toll of 50,000 per year.

A big surprise in the industry occurred when Semon Knudsen, who had just recently resigned as EVP of GM, was named president of Ford Motor Company. Knudsen's father was a former president of GM.

Manufacturers continued to experiment with electric cars, but were having great difficulty solving the problem of an economical, long-life battery that's strong enough to power a car.

Cars in 1969

Once again new car sales records were broken. Both domestic and imported car sales were up, but scattered strikes and a tighter market tempered optimism. The success of imports inspired American manufacturers to design an even smaller sub-compact car, similar to the wildly successful Volkswagen Beetle. The older style compact cars, such as the Corvair which debuted in 1960, were abandoned.

Not all cars were small. Many young buyers still wanted power and they got in bunches. Several great muscle cars were released in 1969, as you can see in the pictures below.

Some notable design changes include the Ford Thunderbird changing the nose to resemble the Pontiac Grand Prix, Cadillac dropped the V-symbol, and fiber-glass-belted tires were on nearly every car. Interestingly, some car companies included detailed repair manuals with their cars to help owners mitigate repair costs.

In a surprise move, Ford named former GM executive Semon Knudsen president in 1968. However, after just 19 months on the job, he was fired by Henry Ford II. Ford's only comment: "It didn't work out."

1960s Sports Cars & Muscle Cars

1960s Luxury Cars

1960s Family Cars, Station Wagons & Sedans

1960s Compact Cars, Trucks & Concept Cars

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In my humble opinion, cars from the 1960s are the best. Not too modern, not too old. Just right. Mustang. Camaro. Road Runner. The list goes on and on. Detroit stated 1964 models were designed with serious consideration for the needs & tastes of American women. Women represented over 1 million sales a year.

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So much has been said and written about the Beatles -- and their story is so mythic in its sweep -- that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and never let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity but never losing their ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.

It's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two. They synthesized all that was good about early rock & roll, and changed it into something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for the self-contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none, and key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral. As singers, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock; the group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As performers, they were (at least until touring had ground them down) exciting and photogenic; when they retreated into the studio, they were instrumental in pioneering advanced techniques and multi-layered arrangements. They were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an international phenomenon.

More than any other top group, the Beatles' success was very much a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Their phenomenal cohesion was due in large degree to most of the group having known each other and played together in Liverpool for about five years before they began to have hit records. Guitarist and teenage rebel John Lennon got hooked on rock & roll in the mid-'50s, and formed a band, the Quarrymen, at his high school. Around mid-1957, the Quarrymen were joined by another guitarist, Paul McCartney, nearly two years Lennon's junior. A bit later they were joined by another guitarist, George Harrison, a friend of McCartney. The Quarrymen would change lineups constantly in the late '50s, eventually reducing to the core trio of guitarists, who'd proven themselves to be the best musicians and most personally compatible individuals within the band.

The Quarrymen changed their name to the Silver Beatles in 1960, quickly dropping the "Silver" to become just the Beatles. Lennon's art college friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass, but finding a permanent drummer was a vexing problem until Pete Best joined in the summer of 1960. He successfully auditioned for the combo just before they left for a several-month stint in Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg was the Beatles' baptism by fire. Playing grueling sessions for hours on end in one of the most notorious red-light districts in the world, the group was forced to expand its repertoire, tighten up its chops, and invest its show with enough manic energy to keep the rowdy crowds satisfied. When they returned to Liverpool at the end of 1960, the band -- formerly also-rans on the exploding Liverpudlian "beat" scene -- were suddenly the most exciting act on the local circuit. They consolidated their following in 1961 with constant gigging in the Merseyside area, most often at the legendary Cavern Club, the incubator of the Merseybeat sound.

They also returned for engagements in Hamburg during 1961, although Sutcliffe dropped out of the band that year to concentrate on his art school studies there. McCartney took over on bass, Harrison settled in as lead guitarist, and Lennon had rhythm guitar; everyone sang. In mid-1961, the Beatles (minus Sutcliffe) made their first recordings in Germany, as a backup group to a British rock guitarist/singer based in Hamburg, Tony Sheridan. The Beatles hadn't fully developed at this point, and these recordings -- many of which (including a couple of Sheridan-less tracks) were issued only after the band's rise to fame -- found their talents in a most embryonic state. The Hamburg stint was also notable for gaining the Beatles sophisticated, artistic fans such as Sutcliffe's girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr, who influenced all of them (except Best) to restyle their quiffs in the moptops that gave the musicians their most distinctive visual trademark. ( Sutcliffe, tragically, would die of a brain hemorrhage in April 1962).

One more major change was in the offing before the Beatles made their Parlophone debut. In August 1962, drummer Pete Best was kicked out of the group, a controversial decision that has been the cause of much speculation since. There is still no solid consensus as to whether it was because of his solitary, moody nature; the other Beatles' jealousy of his popularity with the fans; his musical shortcomings ( George Martin had already told Epstein that Best wasn't good enough to drum on recordings); or his refusal to wear his hair in bangs. What seems most likely was that the Beatles simply found his personality incompatible, preferring to enlist Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey), a drummer with another popular Merseyside outfit, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. Starr had been in the Beatles for a few weeks when they recorded their first single, "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You," in September 1962. Both sides of the 45 were Lennon- McCartney originals, and the songwriting team would be credited with most of the group's material throughout the Beatles' career.

The single, a promising but fairly rudimentary effort, hovered around the lower reaches of the British Top 20. The Beatles phenomenon didn't truly kick in until "Please Please Me," which topped the British charts in early 1963. This was the prototype British Invasion single: an infectious melody, charging guitars, and positively exuberant harmonies. The same traits were evident on their third 45, "From Me to You" (a British number one), and their debut LP, Please Please Me. Although it was mostly recorded in a single day, Please Please Me topped the British charts for an astonishing 30 weeks, establishing the group as the most popular rock & roll act ever seen in the U.K.

What the Beatles had done was take the best elements of the rock and pop they loved and make them their own. Since the Quarrymen days, they had been steeped in the classic early rock of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and the Everly Brothers; they'd also kept an ear open to the early-'60s sounds of Motown, Phil Spector, and the girl groups. What they added was an unmatched songwriting savvy (inspired by Brill Building teams such as Gerry Goffin and Carole King), a brash guitar-oriented attack, wildly enthusiastic vocals, and the embodiment of the youthful flair of their generation, ready to dispense with postwar austerity and claim a culture of their own. They were also unsurpassed in their eclecticism, willing to borrow from blues, popular standards, gospel, folk, or whatever seemed suitable for their musical vision. Producer George Martin was the perfect foil for the group, refining their ideas without tinkering with their cores; during the last half of their career, he was indispensable for his ability to translate their concepts into arrangements that required complex orchestration, innovative applications of recording technology, and an ever-widening array of instruments.

Just as crucially, the Beatles were never ones to stand still and milk formulas. All of their subsequent albums and singles would show remarkable artistic progression (though never at the expense of a damn catchy tune). Even on their second LP, With the Beatles (1963), it was evident that their talents as composers and instrumentalists were expanding furiously, as they devised ever more inventive melodies and harmonies, and boosted the fullness of their arrangements. "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" established the group not just as a popular music act, but as a phenomenon never before seen in the British entertainment business, as each single sold over a million copies in the U.K. After some celebrated national TV appearances, Beatlemania broke out across the British Isles in late 1963, and the group generating screams and hysteria at all of their public appearances, musical or otherwise.

Capitol, which had first refusal of the Beatles' recordings in the United States, had declined to issue the group's first few singles, which ended up appearing on relatively small American independents. Capitol took up its option on "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which stormed to the top of the U.S. charts within weeks of its release on December 26, 1963. The Beatles' television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 launched Beatlemania (and the entire British Invasion) on an even bigger scale than it had reached in Britain. In the first week of April 1964, the Beatles had the Top Five best-selling singles in the U.S.; they also had the first two slots on the album charts, as well as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 100. No one had ever dominated the market for popular music so heavily; it's doubtful that anyone ever will again. The Beatles themselves would continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albums until their 1970 breakup.

Hard as it may be to believe today, the Beatles were often dismissed by cultural commentators of the time as nothing more than a fad that would vanish within months as the novelty wore off. The group ensured this wouldn't happen by making A Hard Day's Night in early 1964, a cinéma vérité-style motion picture comedy/musical that cemented their image as " the Fab Four": happy-go-lucky, individualistic, cheeky, funny lads with nonstop energy. The soundtrack was also a triumph, consisting entirely of Lennon- McCartney tunes, including such standards as the title tune, "And I Love Her," "If I Fell," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Things We Said Today." George Harrison's resonant 12-string electric guitar leads were hugely influential; the movie helped persuade the Byrds, then folksingers, to plunge all-out into rock & roll, and the Beatles (along with Bob Dylan) would be hugely influential on the folk-rock explosion of 1965. The Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the U.S. market for fellow Brits like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks, and inspired young American groups like the Beau Brummels, Lovin' Spoonful, and others to mount a challenge of their own with self-penned material that owed a great debt to Lennon- McCartney.

Between riotous international tours in 1964 and 1965, the Beatles continued to squeeze out more chart-topping albums and singles. (Until 1967, the group's British albums were often truncated for release in the States; when their catalog was transferred to CD, the albums were released worldwide in their British configurations.) In retrospect, critics have judged Beatles for Sale (late 1964) and Help! (mid-1965) as the band's least impressive efforts. To some degree, that's true. Touring and an insatiable market placed heavy demands upon their songwriting, and some of the originals and covers on these records, while brilliant by many groups' standards, were filler in the context of the Beatles' best work.

But when at the top of their game, the group was continuing to push forward. "I Feel Fine" had feedback and brilliant guitar leads; "Ticket to Ride" showed the band beginning to incorporate the ringing, metallic, circular guitar lines that would be appropriated by bands like the Byrds; "Help!" was their first burst of confessional lyricism; "Yesterday" employed a string quartet. John Lennon in particular was beginning to exhibit a Dylanesque influence in his songwriting on such folky, downbeat numbers as "I'm a Loser" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." And tracks like "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and "I've Just Seen a Face" had a strong country flavor.

Although the Beatles' second film, Help!, was a much sillier and less sophisticated affair than their first feature, it too was a huge commercial success. By this time, though, the Beatles had nothing to prove in commercial terms; the remaining frontiers were artistic challenges that could only be met in the studio. They rose to the occasion at the end of 1965 with Rubber Soul, one of the classic folk-rock records. Lyrically, Lennon, McCartney, and even Harrison (who was now writing some tunes on his own) were evolving beyond boy-girl scenarios into complex, personal feelings. They were also pushing the limits of studio rock by devising new guitar and bass textures, experimenting with distortion and multi-tracking, and using unconventional (for rock) instruments like the sitar.

As much of a progression as Rubber Soul was relative to their previous records, it was but a taster for the boundary-shattering outings of the next few years. The "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" single found the group abandoning romantic themes entirely, boosting the bass to previously unknown levels, and fooling around with psychedelic imagery and backward tapes on the B-side. Drugs (psychedelic and otherwise) were fueling their already fertile imaginations, but they felt creatively hindered by their touring obligations. Revolver, released in the summer of 1966, proved what the group could be capable of when allotted months of time in the studio. Hazy hard guitars and thicker vocal arrangements formed the bed of these increasingly imagistic, ambitious lyrics; the group's eclecticism now encompassed everything from singalong novelties ("Yellow Submarine") and string quartet-backed character sketches ("Eleanor Rigby") to Indian-influenced swirls of echo and backward tapes ("Tomorrow Never Knows"). Some would complain that the Beatles had abandoned the earthy rock of their roots for clever mannerism. But Revolver, like virtually all of the group's singles and albums from "She Loves You" on, would be a worldwide chart-topper.

For the past couple of years, live performance had become a rote exercise for the group, tired of competing with thousands of screaming fans that drowned out most of their voices and instruments. A 1966 summer worldwide tour was particularly grueling: the group's entourage was physically attacked in the Philippines after a perceived snub of the country's first lady, and a casual remark by John Lennon about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ was picked up in the States, resulting in the burning of Beatles records in the Bible Belt and demands for a repentant apology. Their final concert of that American tour (in San Francisco on August 29, 1966) would be their last in front of a paying audience, as the group decided to stop playing live in order to concentrate on their studio recordings.

This was a radical (indeed, unprecedented) step in 1966, and the media was rife with speculation that the act was breaking up, especially after all four spent late 1966 engaged in separate personal and artistic pursuits. The appearance of the "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" single in February 1967 squelched these concerns. Frequently cited as the strongest double A-side ever, the Beatles were now pushing forward into unabashedly psychedelic territory in their use of orchestral arrangements and Mellotron, without abandoning their grasp of memorable melody and immediately accessible lyrical messages.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June 1967 as the Summer of Love dawned, was the definitive psychedelic soundtrack. Or, at least, so it was perceived at the time: subsequent critics have painted the album as an uneven affair, given a conceptual unity via its brilliant multi-tracked overdubs, singalong melodies, and fairy tale-ish lyrics. Others remain convinced, as millions did at the time, that it represented pop's greatest triumph, or indeed an evolution of pop into art with a capital A. In addition to mining all manner of roots influences, the musicians were also picking up vibes from Indian music, avant-garde electronics, classical, music hall, and more. When the Beatles premiered their hippie anthem "All You Need Is Love" as part of a worldwide TV broadcast, they had been truly anointed as spokespersons for their generation (a role they had not actively sought), and it seemed they could do no wrong.

Musically, that would usually continue to be the case, but the group's strength began to unravel at a surprisingly quick pace. In August 1967, Brian Epstein -- prone to suicidal depression over the past year -- died of a drug overdose, leaving them without a manager. They pressed on with their next film project, Magical Mystery Tour, directed by themselves; lacking focus or even basic professionalism, the picture bombed when it was premiered on BBC television in December 1967, giving the media the first real chance they'd ever had to roast the Beatles over a flame. (Another film, the animated feature Yellow Submarine, would appear in 1968, although the Beatles had little involvement with the project, either in terms of the movie or the soundtrack.) In early 1968, the Beatles decamped to India for a course in transcendental meditation with the Maharishi; this too became something of a media embarrassment as each of the four would eventually depart the course before its completion.

The Beatles did use their unaccustomed peace in India to compose a wealth of new material. Judged solely on musical merit, the White Album, a double LP released in late 1968, was a triumph. While largely abandoning their psychedelic instruments to return to guitar-based rock, they maintained their whimsical eclecticism, proving themselves masters of everything from blues-rock to vaudeville. As individual songwriters, too, it contains some of their finest work (as does the brilliant non-LP single from this era, "Hey Jude"/"Revolution").

The problem, at least in terms of the group's long-term health, was that these were very much individual songs, as opposed to collective ones. Lennon and McCartney had long composed most of their tunes separately (you can almost always tell the composer by the lead vocalist). But they had always fed off of each other not only to supply missing bits and pieces that would bring a song to completion, but to provide a competitive edge that would bring out the best in the other. McCartney's romantic melodicism and Lennon's more acidic, gritty wit were perfect complements for one another. By the White Album, it was clear (if only in retrospect) that each member was more concerned with his own expression than that of the collective group: a natural impulse, but one that was bound to lead to difficulties.

These weren't the ideal conditions under which to record a new album in January 1969, especially when McCartney was pushing the group to return to live performing, although none of the others seemed especially keen on the idea. They did agree to try recording a "back-to-basics," live-in-the-studio-type LP, the sessions being filmed for a television special. That plan almost blew up when Harrison, in the midst of tense arguments, left the group for a few days. Although he returned, the idea of playing live concerts was put on the back burner; Harrison enlisted American soul keyboardist Billy Preston as kind of a fifth member on the sessions, both to beef up the arrangements and to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere. Exacerbating the problem was that the Beatles didn't have a great deal of first-class new songs to work with, although some were excellent. In order to provide a suitable concert-like experience for the film, the group did climb the roof of their Apple headquarters in London to deliver an impromptu performance on January 30, 1969, before the police stopped it; this was their last live concert of any sort.

Generally dissatisfied with these early-1969 sessions, the album and film -- at first titled Get Back, and later to emerge as Let It Be -- remained in the can as the group tried to figure out how the projects should be mixed, packaged, and distributed. A couple of the best tracks, "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down," were issued as a single in the spring of 1969. By this time, the Beatles' quarrels were intensifying in a dispute over management: McCartney wanted their affairs to be handled by his new father-in-law, Lee Eastman, while the other members of the group favored a tough American businessman, Allen Klein.

It was something of a miracle, then, that the final album recorded by the group, Abbey Road, was one of their most unified efforts (even if, by this time, the musicians were recording many of their parts separately). It certainly boasted some of their most intricate melodies, harmonies, and instrumental arrangements; it also heralded the arrival of Harrison as a composer of equal talent to Lennon and McCartney, as George wrote the album's two most popular tunes, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." The Beatles were still progressing, but it turned out to be the end of the road, as their business disputes continued to magnify. Lennon, who had begun releasing solo singles and performing with friends as the Plastic Ono Band, threatened to resign in late 1969, although he was dissuaded from making a public announcement.

Most of the early-1969 tapes remained unreleased, partially because the footage for the planned television broadcast of these sessions was now going to be produced as a documentary movie. The accompanying soundtrack album, Let It Be, was delayed so that its release could coincide with that of the film. Lennon, Harrison, and Allen Klein decided to have celebrated American producer Phil Spector record some additional instrumentation and do some mixing. Thus the confusion that persists among most rock listeners to this day: Let It Be, although the last Beatles album to be released, was not the last one to be recorded. Abbey Road should actually be considered as the Beatles' last album; most of the material on Let It Be, including the title track (which would be the last single released while the group was still together), was recorded several months before the Abbey Road sessions began in earnest, and a good 15 months or so before its May 1970 release.

The final blow, apparently, was the conflict between the release dates of Let It Be and McCartney's debut solo album. The rest of the group asked McCartney to delay his release until after Let It Be; McCartney refused and, for good measure, was distressed by Spector's post-production work on Let It Be, particularly the string overdubs on "The Long and Winding Road," which became a posthumous Beatles single that spring. Although McCartney received much of the blame for the split, it should be remembered that he had done more than any other member to keep the group going since Epstein's death, and that each of the other Beatles had threatened to leave well before McCartney's departure. With hindsight, the breakup seemed inevitable in view of their serious business disagreements and the growth of their individual interests.

As bitter as the initial headlines were to swallow, the feuding would grow much worse over the next few years. At the end of 1970, McCartney sued the rest of the Beatles in order to dissolve their partnership; the battle dragged through the courts for years, scotching any prospects of a group reunion. In any case, each member of the band quickly established a viable solo career. In fact, at the outset it could have been argued that the artistic effects of the split were in some ways beneficial, freeing Lennon and Harrison to make their most uncompromising artistic statements ( Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Pass). George's individual talents in particular received acclaim that had always eluded him when he was overshadowed by Lennon- McCartney. Paul had a much rougher time with the critics, but continued to issue a stream of hit singles, hitting a commercial and critical jackpot at the end of 1973 with the massively successful Band on the Run. Ringo did not have the songwriting acumen to compete on the same level as the others, yet he too had quite a few big hit singles in the early '70s, often benefiting from the assistance of his former bandmates.

Despite periodic rumors of reunions throughout the 1970s, no group projects came close to materializing. It should be added that the Beatles themselves continued to feud to some degree, and from all evidence weren't seriously interested in working together as a unit. Any hopes of a reunion vanished when Lennon was assassinated in New York City in December 1980. The Beatles continued their solo careers throughout the '80s, but their releases became less frequent, and their commercial success gradually diminished as listeners without first-hand memories of the combo created their own idols.

The popularity of the Beatles-as-unit, however, proved eternal. In part, this is because the group's 1970 split effectively short-circuited the prospects of artistic decline; the body of work that was preserved was uniformly strong. However, it's also because, like any great works of art, the Beatles' records carried an ageless magnificence that continues to captivate new generations of listeners. So it is that Beatles records continue to be heard on radio in heavy rotation, continue to sell in massive quantities, and continue to be covered and quoted by rock and pop artists through the present day.

To coincide with the Anthology documentary, three double-CDs of previously unreleased/rare material were issued in 1995 and 1996. Additionally, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr (with some assistance from Jeff Lynne) embellished a couple of John Lennon demos from the '70s with overdubs to create two new tracks ("Free as a Bird" and "Real Love") that were billed as actual Beatles recordings. Whether this constituted the actual long-awaited "reunion" is the subject of much debate. Certainly these cuts were hardly classics on par with the music the group made in the '60s. Some fans, even diehards, were inclined to view the whole Anthology project as a distinctly '90s marketing exercise that maximized the mileage of whatever could be squeezed from the Beatles' vaults. If nothing else, though, the massive commercial success of outtakes that had, after all, been recorded 25 to 30 years ago, spoke volumes about the unabated appeal and fascination the Beatles continue to exert worldwide.

That fascination didn't fade in the new millennium. At the dawn of the 2000s, the Beatles released 1, a compilation of the 27 number one singles the group charted in the United Kingdom and United States. 1 was a runaway success, topping the charts around the world. It remained at number one for several weeks in the U.K. and U.S. (nine and eight, respectively), and continued to be a strong catalog item for years. By the end of the 2000s, it had sold over 31 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest album of the decade.

George Harrison died of lung cancer on November 29, 2001, leaving Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as the only surviving Beatles. The first Beatles project to arrive after Harrison's death was 2003's Let It Be... Naked, a revision of the original 1970 album that stripped away Phil Spector's string arrangements and shuffled the track order. Next up was LOVE, a collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil dance troupe. The stage revue, based in Las Vegas, was accompanied by an ambitious remix album produced by George Martin and his son Giles; the soundtrack was another significant international success, going double platinum in several countries, including the U.S. and U.K. In 2009, the Beatles reissued their original catalog in new remastered editions, highlighted by two separate box sets containing their complete works in stereo and in mono (although the latter did not contain their last two studio albums); in 2012, the stereo remasters were released on vinyl. In 2010, the Beatles catalog made its digital debut. In 2013, the Beatles released the long-awaited second volume of BBC recordings, On Air: Live at the BBC, Vol. 2. Not long afterward, the digital-only The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 presented unreleased material from 1963, including studio outtakes and BBC performances. In 2014, all of the group's American Capitol albums from the '60s were released as the box set The U.S. Albums. The following year saw a reissue of 1, containing new stereo mixes by Giles Martin, along with 5.1 mixes and a DVD/Blu-ray containing the first commercial release of the Beatles' promotional films. In 2016, the Beatles' years as a touring band became the subject of a Ron Howard documentary called Eight Days a Week; its release was accompanied by the first-ever CD reissue of Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

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The Beatles | Biography & History | AllMusic

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So much has been said and written about the Beatles -- and their story is so mythic in its sweep -- that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans.

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The Beatles - The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand (Live on The Ed Sullivan Show)

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No band has influenced pop culture the way the Beatles have. They were one of the best things to happen in the twentieth century, let alone the Sixties. They were youth personified. They were unmatched innovators who were bigger than both Jesus and rock & roll itself: During the week of April 4, 1964, the Beatles held the first five slots on the Billboard Singles chart; they went on to sell more than a billion records; and 2000's 1, a compilation of the Beatles Number One hits, hit Number One in 35 countries and went on to become the best-selling album of the 2000s.

Every record was a shock when it came out. Compared to rabid R&B evangelists like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles arrived sounding like nothing else. They had already absorbed Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry, but they were also writing their own songs. They made writing your own material expected, rather than exceptional. As musicians, the Beatles proved that rock & roll could embrace a limitless variety of harmonies, structures, and sounds; virtually every rock experiment has some precedent on Beatles records. As a unit the Beatles were a synergistic combination: Paul McCartney's melodic bass lines, Ringo Starr's slaphappy no-rolls drumming, George Harrison's rockabilly-style guitar leads, John Lennon's assertive rhythm guitar - and their four fervent voices. As personalities, they defined and incarnated Sixties style: smart, idealistic, playful, irreverent, eclectic. Their music, from the not-so-simple love songs they started with to their later perfectionistic studio extravaganzas, set new standards for both commercial and artistic success in pop.

Lennon was performing with his amateur skiffle group the Quarrymen at a church picnic on July 6, 1957, in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton when he met McCartney, whom he later invited to join his group; soon they were writing songs together, such as "The One After 909." By the year's end McCartney had convinced Lennon to let Harrison join their group, the name of which was changed to Johnny and the Moondogs in 1958. In 1960 an art-school friend of Lennon's, Stu Sutcliffe, became their bassist. Sutcliffe couldn't play a note but had recently sold one of his paintings for a considerable sum, which the group, now rechristened the Silver Beetles (from which "Silver" was dropped a few months later, and "Beetles" amended to "Beatles"), used to upgrade its equipment.

Tommy Moore was their drummer until Pete Best replaced him in August 1960. Once Best had joined, the band made its first of four trips to Hamburg, Germany. In December Harrison was deported back to England for being underage and lacking a work permit, but by then their 30-set weeks on the stages of Hamburg beer houses had honed and strengthened their repertoire (mostly Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and Buddy Holly covers), and on February 21, 1961, they debuted at the Cavern club on Mathew Street in Liverpool, beginning a string of nearly 300 performances there over the next couple of years.

In April 1961 they again went to Hamburg, where Sutcliffe (the first of the Beatles to wear his hair in the long, shaggy style that came to be known as the Beatle haircut) left the group to become a painter, while McCartney switched from rhythm guitar to bass. The Beatles returned to Liverpool as a quartet in July. Sutcliffe died from a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg less than a year later.

The Beatles had been playing regularly to packed houses at the Cavern when they were spotted on November 9 by Brian Epstein (b. Sep. 19, 1934, Liverpool). After being discharged from the British Army on medical grounds, Epstein had attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London for a year before returning to Liverpool to manage his father's record store.

The request he received for a German import single entitled "My Bonnie" (which the Beatles had recorded a few months earlier in Hamburg, backing singer Tony Sheridan and billed as the Beat Brothers) convinced him to check out the group. Epstein was surprised to discover not only that the Beatles weren't German but that they were one of the most popular local bands in Liverpool. Within two months he became their manager. Epstein cleaned up their act, eventually replacing black leather jackets, tight jeans, and pompadours with collarless gray Pierre Cardin suits and mildly androgynous haircuts.

Epstein tried landing the Beatles a record contract, but nearly every label in Europe rejected the group. In May 1962, however, producer George Martin (b. Jan. 3, 1926, North London, Eng.) signed the group to EMI's Parlophone subsidiary. Pete Best, then considered the group's undisputed sex symbol, was asked to leave the group on August 16, 1962, and Ringo Starr, drummer with a popular Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, was added, just in time for the group's first recording session. On September 11 the Beatles cut two originals, "Love Me Do" b/w "P.S. I Love You," which became their first U.K. Top 20 hit in October. In early 1963 "Please Please Me" went to Number Two, and they recorded an album of the same name in one 10-hour session on February 11, 1963. With the success of their third English single, "From Me to You" (Number One), the British record industry coined the term "Merseybeat" (after the river that runs through Liverpool) for groups such as the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and the Searchers.

By mid-year the Beatles were given billing over Roy Orbison on a national tour, and the hysterical outbreaks of Beatlemania had begun. Following their first tour of Europe in October, they moved to London with Epstein. Constantly mobbed by screaming fans, the Beatles required police protection almost any time they were seen in public. Late in the year "She Loves You" became the biggest-selling single in British history (in the years since, only six other singles have sold more copies there). In November 1963 the group performed before the Queen Mother at the Royal Command Variety Performance.

EMI's American label, Capitol, had not released the group's 1963 records (which Martin licensed to independents like Vee-Jay and Swan with little success) but was finally persuaded to release its fourth single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and Meet the Beatles (identical to the Beatles' second British album, With the Beatles) in January 1964 and to invest $50,000 in promotion for the then unknown British act. The album and the single became the Beatles' first U.S. chart-toppers. On February 7 screaming mobs met them at New York City's Kennedy Airport, and more than 70 million people watched each of their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9 and 16. In April 1964 "Can't Buy Me Love" became the first record to top American and British charts simultaneously, and that same month the Beatles held the top five positions on Billboard singles chart ("Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Please Please Me").

Their first movie, A Hard Day's Night (directed by Richard Lester), opened in America in August; it grossed $1.3 million in its first week. The band was aggressively merchandised - Beatle wigs, Beatle clothes, Beatle dolls, lunch boxes, a cartoon series - from which, because of Epstein's ineptitude at business, the band made surprisingly little money. The Beatles also opened the American market to such British Invasion groups as the Dave Clark Five, the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks.

By 1965 Lennon and McCartney rarely wrote songs together, although by contractual and personal agreement songs by either of them were credited to both. The Beatles toured Europe, North America, the Far East, and Australia that year. Their second movie, Help! (also directed by Lester), was filmed in England, Austria, and the Bahamas in the spring and opened in the U.S. in August. On August 15 they performed to 55,600 fans at New York's Shea Stadium, setting a record for largest concert audience. McCartney's "Yesterday" (Number One, 1965) would become one of the most often covered songs ever written.

In June the Queen of England had announced that the Beatles would be awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). The announcement sparked some controversy - some MBE holders returned their medal - but on October 26, 1965, the ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace. (Lennon returned his medal in 1969 as an antiwar gesture. Interestingly, even though he rejected the medal, the honor itself cannot be returned; Lennon technically remained an MBE.)

With 1965's Rubber Soul, the Beatles' ambitions began to extend beyond love songs and pop formulas. Their success led adults to consider them, along with Bob Dylan, spokesmen for youth culture, and their lyrics grew more poetic and somewhat more political.

In summer 1966 controversy erupted when a remark Lennon had made to a British newspaper reporter months before was widely reported in the U.S. The quote - "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now" - incited denunciations and Beatles record bonfires. The anti-Beatles backlash was particularly intense in the U.S., where the group was set to begin a tour just two weeks after the controversy erupted, and included death threats against the group. Largely out of concern for the safety of his fellow band members, Lennon apologized at a Chicago press conference.

The Beatles gave up touring after an August 29, 1966, concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park and made the rest of their music in the studio, where they had begun to experiment with exotic instrumentation ("Norwegian Wood," 1965, had featured sitar) and tape abstractions such as the reversed tracks on "Rain." "Strawberry Fields Forever," part of a double-sided single released in February 1967 to fill the unusually long gap between albums, featured an astonishing display of electronically altered sounds and hinted at what was to come. With "Taxman" and "Love You To" on Revolver, Harrison began to emerge as a songwriter.

It took four months and $75,000 to record Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band using a then state-of-the-art four-track tape recorder and building each cut layer by layer. Released in June 1967, it was hailed as serious art for its "concept" and its range of styles and sounds, a lexicon of pop and electronic noises; such songs as "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "A Day in the Life" were carefully examined for hidden meanings. The album spent 15 weeks at Number One (longer than any of their others) and has sold over 8 million copies. On June 25, 1967, the Beatles recorded their new single, "All You Need Is Love," before an international television audience of 400 million, as part of a broadcast called Our World.

On August 27, 1967 - while the four were in Wales beginning their six-month involvement with Transcendental Meditation and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (which took them to India for two months in early 1968) - Epstein died alone in his London flat from an overdose of sleeping pills, later ruled accidental. Shaken by Epstein's death, the Beatles retrenched under McCartney's leadership in the fall and filmed Magical Mystery Tour, which was aired by BBC-TV on December 26, 1967, and later released in the U.S. as a feature film. Although the telefilm was panned by British critics, fans, and Queen Elizabeth herself, the soundtrack album contained their most cryptic work yet in "I Am the Walrus," a Lennon composition.

As the Beatles' late-1967 single "Hello Goodbye" went to Number One in both the U.S. and Britain, the group launched the Apple clothes boutique in London. McCartney called the retail effort "Western communism"; the boutique closed in July 1968. Like their next effort, Apple Corps Ltd. (formed in January 1968 and including Apple Records, which signed James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, and Badfinger), it was plagued by mismanagement. In July the group faced its last hysterical crowds at the premiere of Yellow Submarine, an animated film by Czech avant-garde designer and artist Heinz Edelmann featuring four new Beatles songs; a revised soundtrack featuring nine extra songs was released in 1999 (Number 15).

In August they released McCartney's "Hey Jude" (Number One), backed by Lennon's "Revolution" (Number 12), which sold over 6 million copies before the end of 1968 - their most popular single. Meanwhile, the group had been working on the double album The Beatles (frequently called the White Album), which showed their divergent directions. The rifts were artistic - Lennon moving toward brutal confessionals, McCartney leaning toward pop melodies, Harrison immersed in Eastern spirituality - and personal, as Lennon drew closer to his wife-to-be, Yoko Ono. Lennon and Ono's Two Virgins (with its full frontal and back nude cover photos) was released the same month as The Beatles and stirred up so much outrage that the LP had to be sold wrapped in brown paper. ( The Beatles, went to Number One, Two Virgins peaked at Number 124.)

The Beatles attempted to smooth over their differences in early 1969 at filmed recording sessions. When the project fell apart hundreds of hours of studio time later, no one could face editing the tapes (a project that eventually fell to record producer Phil Spector), and "Get Back" (Number One, 1969) was the only immediate release. Released in spring 1970, Let It Be is essentially a documentary of their breakup, including an impromptu January 30, 1969, rooftop concert at Apple Corps headquarters, their last public performance as the Beatles.

By spring 1969 Apple was losing thousands of pounds each week. Over McCartney's objections, the other three brought in manager Allen Klein to straighten things out; one of his first actions was to package nonalbum singles as Hey Jude. With money matters temporarily out of mind, the four joined forces in July and August 1969 to record Abbey Road, featuring an extended suite as well as more hits, including Harrison's much-covered "Something" (Number Three, 1969). While its release that fall spurred a "Paul Is Dead" rumor based on clues supposedly left throughout their work, Abbey Road became the Beatles' best-selling album, at 9 million copies. Meanwhile, internal bickering persisted. In September Lennon told the others, "I'm leaving the group. I've had enough. I want a divorce." But he was persuaded to keep quiet while their business affairs were untangled. On April 10, 1970, McCartney released his first solo album and publicly announced the end of the Beatles. At the same time, Let It Be finally surfaced, becoming the group's 14th Number One album (a postbreakup compilation would become their 15th in 1973) and yielding the Beatles' 18th and 19th chart-topping singles, "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road."

Throughout the Seventies, as repackages of Beatles music continued to sell, the four were hounded by bids and pleas for a reunion. Lennon's murder by a mentally disturbed fan on December 8, 1980, ended those speculations. In 1988 the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. McCartney, citing business conflicts with the two other surviving members, did not attend. Relations between him and Harrison, in particular, had been strained for some time.

In January 1994 Goldmine magazine reported that McCartney, Harrison, and Starr had begun recording music for a long-rumored Beatles documentary the previous August, with more secret sessions scheduled. There were other signs that the three band members were on the mend - when Lennon was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1994, for instance, McCartney did the honors (McCartney himself was inducted in 1999). Later in 1994 Live at the BBC was released, featuring 56 songs the Beatles performed on the British radio between 1962 and 1965. It debuted at Number One in the U.K.; in the U.S., it debuted and peaked at Number Three.

The Beatles Anthology, the long-awaited six-hour television special, was broadcast over three nights in November 1995, coinciding with the release of the George Martin-compiled double-CD Anthology 1 (Number One), which featured alternate takes, demos, and rare tracks, and premiered the first new song by John, Paul, George, and Ringo since 1970. "Free as a Bird" (Number Six, 1995), a demo recorded by Lennon in 1977, was completed by the other three and produced by Jeff Lynne; it became the Beatles 34th Top 10 single. Lennon's lyrics didn't extend much beyond the title, and so Harrison and McCartney collaborated on lyrics for a new bridge.

Two additional double CDs, Anthology 2 and 3 (both Number One), followed in 1996, as well as an extended videotape version of the documentary. Anthology 2's "Real Love" (again a Lennon demo, from 1979, with modern additions by the others) reached Number 11 and became the group's 23rd gold single (the most of any group).

The Liverpool juggernaut continued to roll on in 2000: the Beatles became the highest certified act of all time, with over 113 million albums sold in America (which grew to 170 million albums in 2008); a coffee table book, The Beatles Anthology, topped the New York Times bestseller list; and 1, a collection of the band's Number One hit songs, became the Beatles' 19th chart-topping album, selling 25 million copies by 2005.

On November 29, 2001, George Harrison, diagnosed with lung cancer in the late 1990s, became the second Beatle to pass away. Three years later Capitol Records released all of the Beatles' U.S. albums (in both stereo and original mono versions) as two box sets, The Capitol Albums, Vols. 1 and 2. In 2006, George Martin and his son Giles produced a set of Beatles remixes, Love, for the soundtrack to Cirque du Soleil's theater production of the same name. The following year, McCartney and Starr appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to talk about the project; they joined Beatles widows Ono and Olivia Harrison in Las Vegas to celebrate the Love production's first anniversary.

Until 2007, the Beatles' Apple Corp. was in legal limbo with the Apple, Inc. computer company over use of the name. Apple Corp. had sued Apple, Inc. after the computer company opened its online iTunes music store; one result of the suit was that the Beatles' group and solo music was not made available for digital download. In February 2007, the two sides came to an agreement. Apple, Inc. would retain ownership of the name and license it back to the Apple Corp. record label. By October, all of the Beatles' solo works were available on iTunes, but as of early 2010 the Beatles catalogue was still not available on iTunes.

September 9, 2009 was a day of 21st century Beatlemania: Apple/EMI released remastered versions of the band's studio albums, with dramatically improved sound. (Mono versions were also available, though only as a box.) Also that day, The Beatles Rock Band video game hit shelves, featuring 45 Beatle songs; by the end of 2009, it had sold more than one million copies worldwide.

McCartney and Starr continued to tour and record throughout the 2000s. McCartney, who is reportedly a billionaire, released three solo albums during the decade as well as three live albums, including Good Evening New York City, which documented the inaugural concerts at New York's Citi Field in 2009. Starr released three albums in the 2000s, as well as 2010's Y Not. He appeared with McCartney at several events, including 2002's Concert for George, a charitable event held on the first anniversary of Harrison's death.
Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

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No band has influenced pop culture the way the Beatles have. They were one of the best things to happen in the twentieth century, let alone the Sixties. They were youth personified.

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Who Was Elvis Presley?

Born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley came from very humble beginnings and grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll. By the mid-1950s, he appeared on the radio, television and the silver screen. On August 16, 1977, at age 42, he died of heart failure, which was related to his drug addiction. Since his death, Presley has remained one of the world's most popular music icons.

When Was Elvis Presley Born?

Presley's birthday is on January 8, 1935.

How Did Elvis Presley Die?

Presley died of heart failure related to his addiction to prescription drugs.

Famous House

Presley's Memphis home, Graceland, is open to the public, and numerous fans from around the world visit the legendary residence annually, especially around Presley's birthday and the anniversary of his death.

Thousands of fans traveled to Graceland on August 16, 2012 - the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death - for a special vigil in honor of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. During the gathering, fans held lit candles and stood outside of Presley's home. Though the Presley family holds a tribute event each year to mark the anniversary of Presley's death, the 2012 gathering was unique: Presley's estranged wife, Priscilla, and daughter Lisa Marie Presley appeared together for the first time at the annual event.

"You should see this from our point-of-view. It's amazing," Priscilla Presley said during the event, according to the Washington Post. "The candles are lit. It's truly a sight to behold ... This is something that Elvis would never, ever have believed could have taken place here."

Wife and Daughter

Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 but later divorced in 1973. The couple had one daughter together, Lisa Marie, who was born in 1968.

Early Interest in Music

Musician and actor Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. (He later changed the spelling of his middle name to the biblical form of Aaron.) Presley was supposed to be a twin, but his brother, Jesse Garon (sometimes spelled Jessie) was stillborn. From very humble beginnings, Elvis Presley grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll.

Raised by loving, working-class parents, Presley's family had little money, and they moved from place to place frequently. He was deeply devoted to his parents, especially his mother, Gladys, and was raised to have a strong faith in God. Presley attended the Assembly of God Church with his parents, where gospel music became an important influence for him.

Presley received his first guitar as a gift from his mother on his 11th birthday in 1946 and had his first taste of musical success a few years later when he won a talent show at Humes High School in Memphis. After graduating in 1953, he worked a number of jobs while pursuing his musical dream. He cut his first demo record at what later became known as Sun Studio that year, and before long, Sam Phillips, the record label owner, decided to take the young performer under his wing. Presley soon began touring and recording, trying to catch his first big break. "That's All Right" was Presley's first single in 1954.

First No. 1 Hit: 'Heartbreak Hotel'

In 1955 Presley began to develop a following with fans being drawn to his unusual musical style, provocative gyrating hips and good looks. That same year, he signed with RCA Records, a deal worked out by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Presley was on a roll, scoring his first No. 1 single with "Heartbreak Hotel," as well as his first No. 1 album, Elvis Presley, and signing a movie contract with Paramount Pictures - all in 1956. Despite the uproar that his sexy dance moves caused, he also became a popular guest on a number of television variety shows.

Military Service

Soon, Presley was everywhere - on the radio, television and the silver screen - working as a musician and actor. His first film, Love Me Tender (1956), was a box office hit. Even a stint in the U.S. military couldn't put a damper on Presley's thriving career. He received his draft notice in 1957, and was inducted into the Army the following March. He eventually served in Germany for about a year and a half. Shortly before Presley left for Europe, his beloved mother, Gladys, died. He was granted a leave and returned to Memphis for the funeral. Deeply saddened by her death, Presley returned to duty. While in Germany, his spirits were lifted slightly when he met a young teenager named Priscilla Beaulieu.

Movies & Soundtracks

After leaving the Army in 1960, Presley resumed his career and was soon back at the top of the charts with the soundtrack for his film GI Blues. He continued recording music and acting in such films as Blue Hawaii (1961), Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) and Viva Las Vegas (1964). Though his films were often hit or miss with both critics and audiences, they brought in a profit and the soundtracks usually sold well. By the late 1960s, however, the enigmatic performer appeared to be losing his box office appeal. Proving he was still the "King of Rock 'n' Roll," he recorded his first TV special in 1968, often referred to as the "'68 Comeback." He wowed audiences with his performance, which showcased his talents as a singer and a guitarist.

Divorce to Priscilla, Drug Addiction

Around this time, Presley's personal life also seemed to be on an upswing. He and Priscilla wed in 1967 and had a daughter, Lisa Marie, the following year. Unfortunately, this joyous time would not last. By the early 1970s, Presley's marriage was falling apart. The couple divorced in 1973, and Priscilla received custody of Lisa Marie. Presley was also wrestling with other personal problems, including a growing addiction to prescription drugs; the once-thin rock star was battling a weight problem, and his destructive lifestyle caught up with him that fall, when he was hospitalized for drug-related health problems.

Despite his personal obstacles, Presley remained a popular draw in Las Vegas and on tour. He performed at his last concert in June 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana. After the concert, he returned home to his Memphis mansion, Graceland, to prepare for another tour.

Death and Legacy

Sometime in the morning of August 16, 1977, Presley died of heart failure, at the age of 42. It was later ruled that his death was related to his prescription drug use. Presley was buried on the Graceland property, near the gravesites of his mother, Gladys, father Vernon and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood Presley.

Throughout his amazing career, Presley helped popularize rock 'n' roll music in America. He also won three Grammy Awards for his gospel recordings. A major musical force, Presley had 18 No. 1 singles, including "Don't Be Cruel," "Good Luck Charm" and "Suspicious Minds," as well as countless gold and platinum albums. He was one of the first performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986). But Elvis has been recognized for his contributions to several musical genres, most notably rock, country and gospel. In 1998, Presley was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; three years later, he was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Elvis in Pop Culture

Since his death, Presley has remained one of the world's most popular music icons. Over the years, several documentaries and films have explored the enigmatic performer, including a 2005 television miniseries starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Elvis. In 2018 HBO released a two-part documentary, Elvis Presley: The Searcher, which explores his early life, rise to fame and his myriad musical influences.

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Born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley came from very humble beginnings and grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll. By the mid-1950s, he appeared on the radio, television and the silver screen.

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Synopsis

Paul Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio. He turned to acting after getting kicked off the football team in college. He made his Broadway debut in 1953 and began doing television and films, eventually becoming known as one of the finest actors of his time. He created a food company, Newman's Own, that donates all proceeds to charity. Newman died of cancer on September 26, 2008.

Early Life

Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. Newman grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with his older brother Arthur and his parents, Arthur and Teresa. His father owned a sporting-goods store and his mother was a homemaker who loved the theatre. Newman got his first taste of acting while doing school plays, but it was not his first love at the time. In high school, he played football and hoped to be a professional athlete.

Graduating high school in 1943, Newman briefly attended college before enlisting in the U.S. Navy Air Corps. He wanted to be a pilot, but he was told that he could never fly a plane as he was colorblind. He ended up serving as a radio operator and spent part of World War II serving in the Pacific.

After leaving the military in 1946, Paul Newman attended Kenyon College in his home state of Ohio. He was on an athletic scholarship and played on the school's football team. But after getting into some trouble, Newman changed course. "I got thrown in jail and kicked off the football team. Since I was determined not to study very much, I majored in theater the last two years," he told Interview magazine in 1998.

After finishing college in 1949, Newman did summer stock theater in Wisconsin where he met his first wife, actress Jacqueline Witte. The couple soon married, and Newman continued to act until his father's death in 1950. He and his wife moved to Ohio to run the family business for a time. Their first child, a son named Scott, was born there. After asking his brother to take over the business, Newman and his family relocated to Connecticut, where he studied at the Yale School of Drama.

Running out of money, Newman left Yale after a year and tried his luck in New York. He studied with Lee Strasberg at the famed Actor's Studio alongside Marlon Brando, James Dean and Geraldine Page.

Career Breakthrough

Newman made his Broadway debut in William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy Picnic in 1953. During rehearsals he met actress Joanne Woodward, who was serving as an understudy for the production. While they were reportedly attracted to each other, the happily-married Newman did not pursue a romantic relationship with the young actress.

Around this time, Newman and his wife welcomed their second child together, a daughter named Susan. Picnic ran for 14 months, helping Newman support his growing family. He also found work on the then-emerging medium of television.

In 1954, Paul Newman made his film debut in The Silver Chalice for which he received terrible reviews. He had better success on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning The Desperate Hours (1955), in which he played an escaped convict who terrorizes a suburban family. During the run of the hit play, he and his wife added a third child -- a daughter named Stephanie -- to their family.

A winning turn on television helped pave the way for Newman's return to Hollywood. Working with director Arthur Penn, he appeared in an episode of Philco Playhouse, "The Death of Billy the Kid," written by Gore Vidal. Newman teamed up with Penn again for an episode of Playwrights '56 for a story about a worn-down and battered boxer. Two projects became feature films: Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and The Left-Handed Gun (1958).

In Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Newman again played a boxer. This time he took on the role of real-life prizefighter Rocky Graziano -- and demonstrated his considered acting talents to movie-goers and critics alike. His reputation was further magnified with Penn's The Left-Handed Gun, an adaptation of Gore Vidal's earlier teleplay about Billy the Kid.

That same year, Paul Newman starred as Brick in the film version of Tennessee Williams' play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), opposite Elizabeth Taylor. He gave another strong performance as a hard-drinking former athlete and disinterested husband who struggles against different types of pressures exerted on him by his wife (Taylor) and his overpowering father (Burl Ives). Once dismissed as just another handsome face, Newman showed that he could handle the challenges of such a complex character. He was nominated for his first Academy Award for this role.

Later Acting Career

The Long Hot Summer (1958) marked the first big-screen pairing of Newman and Joanne Woodward. The two had already become a couple off-screen while he was still married to his first wife, and they wed in 1958 soon after his divorce was finalized. The next year, Newman returned to Broadway to star in the original production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. The production saw Newman acting opposite the great Geraldine Page, and was directed by Elia Kazan.

Newman continued to thrive professionally. He starred in Otto Preminger's Exodus (1960) about the founding of the state of Israel. The following year, he took on one of his most famous roles. In The Hustler (1961), Newman played Fast Eddie, a slick, small-time pool shark who takes on the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). For his work on the film, Paul Newman received his second Academy Award nomination.

Taking on another remarkable part, Newman played the title character -- an arrogant, unprincipled cowboy -- in Hud (1963). The movie posters for the film described the character as "the man with the barbed wire soul," and Newman earned critical acclaim and another Academy Award nomination for his work as yet another on-screen antihero.

In Cool Hand Luke (1967), Newman played a rebellious inmate at a southern prison. His convincing and charming portrayal led audiences to cheer on this convict in his battle against prison authorities. No matter how hard they leaned on Luke, he refused to bend to their will. This thoroughly enjoyable and realistic performance led to Paul Newman's fourth Academy Award nomination.

The next year, Newman stepped behind the cameras to direct his wife in Rachel, Rachel (1968). Woodward starred as an older schoolteacher who dreams of love. A critical success, the film earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture.

A lesser-known film from this time helped trigger a new passion for the actor. While working on the car racing film, Winning (1969), Newman went to a professional driving program as part of his preparation for the role. He discovered that he loved racing and started to devote some of his time to the sport.

That same year, Newman starred alongside Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). He played Butch to Redford's Sundance, and the pairing was a huge success with audiences, bringing in more than $46 million domestically. Recapturing their on-screen camaraderie, Newman and Redford played suave con men in The Sting (1973), another hit at the box office.

During the 1980s Newman continued to amass critical praise for his work. In Sydney Pollack's Absence of Malice (1981), he played a man victimized by the media. The following year he starred as a down-and-out lawyer as The Verdict (1982). Both films earned Newman Academy Award nominations.

While he was widely considered one of the finest actors of his time, Paul Newman had never won an Academy Award. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to correct this error by giving Newman an honorary award for his contributions to film in 1985. With his trademark sense of humor, Newman said in his acceptance speech that "I am especially grateful that this did not come wrapped in a gift certificate to Forest Lawn [a famous cemetery]."

He returned to the character of Fast Eddie from The Hustler in 1986's The Color of Money. This time around, his character was no longer the up-and-coming hustler, but a worn-out liquor salesman. He is drawn back in the world of pool by mentoring a young upstart (Tom Cruise). For his work on the film, Paul Newman finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Approaching his seventies, Newman continued to delight audiences with more character-driven roles. He played an aging, but crafty rascal who struggles with renewing a relationship with his estranged son in Nobody's Fool (1994).

Newman played a crime boss in Road to Perdition (2002), which starred Tom Hanks as a hit man who must protect his son from Newman's character. This role brought him another Academy Award nomination -- this time for Best Supporting Actor.

In his later years, Paul Newman took fewer acting roles, but was still able to deliver impressive performances. He earned an Emmy Award for his nuanced depiction of a lay-about father in the television miniseries Empire Falls (2005), which was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Richard Russo novel. The miniseries also provided him the opportunity to work with his wife, Joanne Woodward.

Outside Projects

Around this time, Paul Newman scored his first racing victory at a Connecticut track in 1972. He went on to win a national Sports Car Club of America title four years later. In 1977, Newman made the leap and became a professional racer. In 1995, Newman served as part of the winning team at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. With his victory, Newman became the oldest driver to win this 24-hour-long race.

Newman started his own food company in the early 1980s. He started out the business by making bottles of salad dressing to give out as gifts for Christmas one year with his friend, writer A. E. Hotchner. Newman then had an unusual idea as to what to do with the leftovers -- he wanted to try selling the dressing to stores. The two went on to found Newman's Own, whose profits and royalties are used for educational and charitable purposes. The company's product line now extends from dressings to sauces to snacks to cookies. Since the inception of Newman's Own, over $250 million has been donated to thousands of charities worldwide.

Newman's other charitable foundations include the Scott Newman Center, which he founded in 1978, after his only son died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription drugs. The group seeks to stop drug abuse through educational programs. He also established the Hole in the Wall Camps to give children with life-threatening illnesses a memorable, free holiday. In 1988, the first residential summer camp was opened in Ashford, Connecticut. There are now eight camps in the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France. Some of the funds raised by Newman's Own have gone to support the Hole in the Wall Camps.

Known for his love of race cars, Newman lent his distinctive voice to the 2006 animated film Cars, playing the part of Doc Hudson -- a retired racecar. He also served as the narrator for the 2007 documentary The Price of Sugar, which explored the work of Father Christopher Hartley and his efforts to help the workers in the Dominican Republic's sugar cane fields.

Final Years

That same year, Newman announced that he was retiring from acting. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said during an appearance on Good Morning America. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."

Newman, however, wasn't going to leave the business entirely. He was planning on directing Of Mice and Men at the Westport Country Playhouse the following year. But he ended up withdrawing from the production because of health problems, and rumors began to circulate that the great actor was seriously ill. Statements from the actor and his representatives simply said he was "doing nicely" and, reflective of Newman's sense of humor, being treated "for athlete's foot and hair loss."

A private man, Newman chose to keep the true nature of his illness to himself. He succumbed to cancer at his Westport, Connecticut home on September 26, 2008. This is where he and his wife had lived for numerous years to get away from the spotlight and where they chose to raise their three daughters, Nell, Melissa and Clea.

As the news of his death spread, praise and tributes began pouring in. "There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life -- and this country -- is better for his being in it," friend Robert Redford said after learning about Newman's death.

Paul Newman will be long remembered for his great films, his vibrant lifestyle and his extensive charitable works, and his relationship with Joanne Woodward will always be regarded as one of the most successful and enduring love stories in Hollywood history.

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Paul Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio. He turned to acting after getting kicked off the football team in college. He made his Broadway debut in 1953 and began doing television and films, eventually becoming known as one of the finest actors of his time.

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Elvis.com is the Official Website of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll

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Top 10 Defining Moments of 1960s America

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Women's 1960s fashion was extreme style and attitude from the start of the decade to the end. In the early years, the fashion idol was Jackie Kennedy with her perfectly white pearls and tailored suit dresses. By the the middle of the decade, supper model Twiggy had women freeing their minds and bodies into clothing that didn't require any extra thought or effort. From modest to "there is no such thing as too short," 1960s fashion was in many ways like the 1920s flapper revolution. But it didn't happen overnight.

1960s Fashion Icons

Jackie Kennedy's style was clean, simple, well fitted, with perfectly matched accessories. She wore dresses without collars, and jackets that buttoned only with one large top button. She wore sensible low heel shoes (although many women still preferred high heels). She was the last woman to wear hats, a pill box hat, as necessary fashion. Jackie O' put a lot of care into her look, and women in the USA and abroad copied her style with enthusiasm.

Sadly, after her husband's assassination, Jackie was no longer in the public eye. Women had to find a new 1960s fashion idol to be inspired by.

Brigitte Bardot was that woman. She was Jackie's opposite. Jackie was put together, simple and modest. Brigitte was tacky, cheap, bold, and even silly. Her 1959 pink gingham wedding dress with white lace trim was so unexpected that gingham and lace quickly became the new trend.

Mary Quant was another 1960s fashion influence. Her style moved away from "grown up fashion" to playful "youth" driven. Her shift dresses were short, very short, and her prints were bold and colorful "mod" prints. Her fashion, her personality, set the tone for the rest of the 1960s as "fashion-is-fun."

1960s Fashion for Youth

It was the whole idea of a return to youth that drove most of the fashion in the 1960s. Oversize collars, bows, and delicate trim miniaturized women and made them appear smaller. Shapeless mini dresses de-emphasized a woman's natural from.

Kitten heel pumps, Mary Jane strap shoes and flat sneakers were all childhood favorites returned to the the '60s youth quake culture. It was no coincidence that a youth driven culture had a lot to do with half the American population being under 25 and with European countries having a similarly large youth population, too. After growing up in the ' 50s as "little adults" the youth embraced their fond early childhood memories and fashions. By children's fashion we mean babies and toddlers. The "baby doll" look was incorporated into dress, hair and makeup.

1960s Dresses

The full skirt and tight bodice of the ' 50s dress continued in the early '60s, with a slightly above or at the knee hemline. The style didn't last long before the ' 50s pencil dress loosened up and turned into the shapeless "shift dress" in 1963.

Shift dresses were casual wear for home, running errands or going to the beach. They were not office friendly. They were too short. 1960s dresses became shorter and shorter. Anything above the knee was a "mini skirt."

How short a woman's dress was became a sign of how confident she was (not necessarily that she had great legs). Hem length was directly proportional to how women felt about their own sexual liberation. Short skirts were not meant to attract men for the sake of sexual interest, but instead were a way to attract attention so that a WOMAN could be the one to decide if his attention was wanted. Sexual power through fashion.

The jumper dress was a Mary Quant invention that captured the youthful, playful, side of 1960s fashion. That style immediately made a 20-year-old look 10, a welcome change from the '50s mature fashion. Big bows, large round collars, pastels, and polka dots were all dress details that made women look like little girls' dolls. The more innocent the better.

Colors and prints were at first inspired by the pop art and modern art movements. Checkerboard, stripes and polka dots, colorblock, and Campbells soup cans were all placed on short shift dresses. Being over the top was never too much. Eventually "pop" settled down into soft pastels, pique fabrics and gingham checks made for a gentler "girly" appeal.

There was also a trend of earth tone colors, especially as the decade moved toward the hippie movement. Moss green, earthy browns, mustard yellow, burnt orange were common colors year round.

See more examples of vintage 1960s dresses here.

1960s Tops, Sweaters, Coats

Tops, shirts, blouses, and sweaters all took direction from casual clothing in the 1950s. The primary change was that shirts and sweaters now fit straight on the body with no emphasis on the bust or waist. Tops could also be worn untucked, gasp! They hung out over pants and skirts and grew longer as the decade advanced. Necklines also grew higher, back to the modest look of the 1930s. Big roll collars, round peterpan collars (often in contrasting white), big bows, and pointed shirt collars called attention to a thin neck and short hair. Shop 1960s tops and shirts here.

Shirts with patterns were in style, too. Again, bright colors and big prints made colorful statements when paired with a solid color matching bottom. This isn't to say solid colors were out. Knitted tops and sweaters were more often than not a single solid pullover or cardigan style. The '60s knitwear design favored texture: thick textured cable knits and some rib knits. The exception was the mod stylist who embraced a very snug fitting knot crop top or long sleeve turtle neck shirt (usually black or white). Read more about 1960s knitwear sweaters and shop 1960s sweaters and cardigans.

For winter wear, a good wool coat was still necessary. The coats narrow down and shorten up to fit over new, thinner, clothes. Round collars with big buttons, flap pockets, geometric prints and maybe a belt kept them looking cute and fun. They came down to just above the knee so that long lean legs would continue to be the focal point. Shop 1960s coats and jackets.

1960s Style Tops

1960s Skirts

1960s skirts came in at the knee lengths with classic box pleats, straight pencil, a-line, and full circle (or half circle) shapes. Solid colors as well as big patterns were in style.

The notorious mini skirt was made in any of these classic styles but now came up to mid thigh! Plaids, pleats, corduroy, and heavy knits were perfect for minis.

The 1960s style skirt has returned to fashion this year. Shop these styles:

1960s Pants

Jax pants were an updated capri pant, lined, and without a waist band. They too were worn with crop tops since the lack of belt loops made it impossible for blouses to stay tucked in. It was a 1960s fashion freedom to not have to worry about bunching shirts. Less fuss, more fun was the way of the sixties.

The stretchy stirrup pant took advantage of a new kind of knit fabric. Easy to sew and wear, the elastic stirrup over the foot kept pants smooth and straight. It didn't matter that the stirrup was visible. When ankle boots came into fashion, suddenly visible stirrups were taboo. Boots must be worn!

All pants came down to just above the ankle until the late '60s when longer pants became the new trend. They also still zipped up the back or side (zipping up the front was for men).

Denim jeans followed the fit and style of slim pants: high waist, tapered leg, ankle crop, and in many more colors than just blue.

Starting in 1961, bell bottom pants slowly replaced tight fitting capris and rolled up dungarees. The sexiness was in the short crop top, worn with high waisted bell bottoms. By 1967, they were associated with the hippie movement.

Shop 1960s style pants here:

1960s Pant Suits

As shocking as a mini skirt was to society, there was an equal confusion over the new pant suit. It was a look directly copied from men's suits but tailored down to feminine proportions. Some work offices and establishments forbade women to wear pant suits. There was a confusion over whether they were an insult to femininity or empowerment for women (and that it disrespected men). While 1960s fashion magazines debated, women flocked to the stores to buy them. They were already wearing casual pants everywhere else, wearing dressy pants seemed only natural.

1960s Shoes and Stockings

With legs now fully exposed by short hemlines and the youthful girl look on trend, shoes took a drastic turn from high fashion with high heels to street fashion with low to no heels. Flats were in. Cheap was in. Color was in.

Thanks to new materials, PVC (Vinyl), shoes could be mass produced for cheap and come in a lot of bright colors to match dresses (which they did. Always match shoes to a dress or other accessories). The low heel made them easy to walk in and live life in. All the designs of the earlier decades- loafers, Mary Janes, T-straps, monk straps, saddle shoes, and Oxfords were designed into a flat shoe for the '60s.

Even boots had flat heels. Thanks to PVC and an interest in all things futuristic looking, tall boots in white or silver became the new black. Everyone wore them. They looked great with short dresses and skirts. The more modest folks wore boots and half boots in brown. Again leather was out and shiny plastic looks were in.

Sandals, like flip flops, made their beach side debut in the 1960s. Women wore them with everything casual. Birkenstock sandals became icons of the hippies.

Plain white sneakers replaced saddle shoes for school age kids. They had to be plain white and perfectly clean. They were worn with socks or with stockings a shade or two darker than natural skin, which made them appear even whiter.

Read more about ALL the 1960s shoe styles.

Colored tights were also popular- white, black, purple, fishnet, herringbone or lace. Tights covered up ugly knees and didn't cause garter gaps like sheer stockings did. Once pantyhose were perfected they were the savoir of women's legs anywhere. They camouflaged hair, bumps, bruises, and wide knee caps. Even skin tone tights were thick and dark. To go bare legged in the '60s was still too immodest. Ironic? Shop colorful tights inspired by the 1960s.

1960s Jewelry

Colorful 1960s clothing needed equally colorful jewelry. In the early years, traditional jewelry continued to favor textured gold, white pastel, and colored pearls. These pretty and safe designs complimented the feminine 1950s style clothing.

The new youth with their obsession with fake plastics, vinyl, and bold colors favored jewelry inspired by Pop Art. Geometric shapes made their way onto over-sized dangling earrings. Large chunky bangles or stacks of thin bracelets jingled up and down bare arms. Novelty shapes were still popular, but they embraced brighter colors and more comical themes.

The same went for flowers, now made from plastic resins. They were cheerful pastel or primary colored clusters hanging from necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

Learn more about 1960s jewelry styles here. Shop 1960s inspired jewelry.

1960s Hairstyles

Without a hat to call attention to a woman's head, hairstyles became a new focus for women. The bouffant look teased hair to new heights, literally. Guiche curls kissed her cheeks (made possible by a bit of nail polish to keep them pointed to a crisp.) All that volume made faces appear smaller and more doll like. Hair length rose from shoulder to chin and cropped above the ears as the decade progressed, only to come crashing down again in the '70s.

1960s Makeup

The graveyard look was in. Pale white skin, white lips, bold black eyeliner and dark smokey eye shadow. It was a stark contrast to the girly look of clothing until the mid '60s when a layer of childness was added. Eyes were exaggerated with extra long lashes, shimmer eyeshadow, arched brows, light spot blush, and lips turned to a baby pink pout.

The combination, looking back, was a scene from a child-meets-ax-murderer horror movie.

Late 1960s Fashion: The Hippie Look

The late '60s saw a movement of anti-fashion, a political statement, that grew so popular it became a main stream fashion style. The look started with faded denim jeans, basic and boring, anti-fashion. The flower child decoration of patches, embroidery, painting and studding came later in the 1970s.

The ' 60s hippie was simpler, more earthy. To go with jeans, a hippie would wear a strapless undershirt. White at first, then later dyed in earth tone colors so that it didn't look like underwear. Tie dye followed after that. The more colors the better. The more gaudy the colors combined, even better!

Anti-fashion meant anti anyone who has any opinion about what "works" and "doesn't work" in fashion. Forest green with brown suede, sunshine yellow with denim blue were signature colors of the hippie '60s.

Colors were not the only thing to be exaggerated. Clothes were of extreme proportions. Hats were big and floppy, vests hung down to the knee and coats to the floor.

A return to folk arts meant beading was on clothes, not just jewelry. Ethnic details covered anything and everything. There were no rules to hippie fashion. Mix and match and develop your own beat was the 1960s hippie fashion mantra.

The 1970s continued the hippie trend into mainstream fashion. The youth oriented looks turned to the complete opposite- granny style. Romanticized granny clothes from several generations ago, like pioneer women, returned fashion back to long dresses and sleeves, ruffles, lace trim, small cotton prints, and long hair (worn down, not up, this time.) The age of the mini skirt "grew up" and turned into adults, not like their parents, but like generations before, which seemed to have the simple life that hippies idolized.

1960s Fashion for You

Now that you know about women's fashion in the 1960s, why not dress like it? Many of today's contemporary "modern" clothing is inspired by mid '60s fashions. A-line mini skirts, contrast collar shift dresses, textured tights, low heel flats and tall boots, swing coats and floppy hats. They all have roots in the sixties. The current trend for retro sunglasses is also heavily inspired by the 60s.

To create a 1960s inspired wardrobe, start with a dress (or pants and top) and add a pair of stockings or knee socks, flat or boot shoes, jewelry and a coat for winter. We have links to all the great 1960s inspired clothing online to make your shopping mission easier.

To learn more about 1960s fashion read up here. If you prefer to sew your own clothing, we have links to patterns available here.

Need more help with your 60s outfit? Just ask us anytime!

What do you like about 1960s fashion? Leave a comment below.

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Women's 1960s fashion was extreme style and attitude from the start of the decade to the end. In the early years, the fashion idol was Jackie Kennedy with her perfectly white pearls and tailored suit dresses. By the the middle of the decade, supper model Twiggy had women freeing their minds and bodies into clothing that didn't require any extra thought or effort.

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1960-69 Chevrolet Corvair History by Dan Jedlicka

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The 1960s were one of the most creative periods in modern man's history. Whether it was due to experimentation with drugs or anger over the Vietnam War, the 1960s were an overwhelming decade.

The Assassinations of JFK and MLK shocked the US. The Beatles came across the pond and changed music forever.

Although there were several tragic setbacks, civil rights made an amazing amount of progress, eventually culminating in the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which made it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Sex, love and rock & roll was a way of life. It was a way to cope with the frustration the public was feeling over politics and the U.S. government.

Protesters were everywhere - it was certainly a time of great social unrest. But through it all, some of the best art ever created by man was created in the 1960s and we wouldn't trade it for the world. Or world peace... Maybe.

In-Depth 1960s Profiles

Unique 1960s Pictures

1960s News Headlines

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to travel to space.

Harper Lee wrote the all-time great book To Kill A Mockingbird, published in 1960.

In 1961, Roger Maris breaks Babe Ruth's single season home run record by clubbing 61 home runs for the New York Yankees.

In 1961, Joseph Heller published the world-renowned book titled Catch-22.

John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

In 1962, Wal-Mart opened its first store.

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas.

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the powerful speech now commonly known as: "I have a dream."

In 1963, Lamborghini was founded by Ferrico Lamb.

1964 witnessed the debut of the Ford Mustang, which would eventually become Ford's flagship muscle car.

The Civil Rights Act, signed into law in 1964, outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

On February 4, 1964, the Beatles captivated the nation on the Ed Sullivan show.

On January 11, 1964, the surgeon general reported that smoking causes lung cancer in men.

Peter Sellers played the character Dr. Strangelove in the 1964 classic film by the same name.

Julie Andrews won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1964 for her portrayal of Mary Poppins.

On January 15, 1967, the Super Bowl was played for the first time.

At the 1968 Olympics, Bob Beamon broke the world long-jump record by an astounding 21 inches.

All-time great boxer Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammad Ali.

In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon.

1960s Statistics & Facts in the U.S.

Vital

U.S. Population: 177,830,000
- Urban/rural: 125/54
- Farm: 8.7%
Life Expectancy: Male (66.6), Female (73.1)
Births per 1,000: 23.7
Marriages per 1,000: 8.5
Divorces per 1,000: 2.2
Deaths per 1,000: 9.5
Deaths per 100,000:
- Heart: 522
- Cancer: 149
- Tuberculosis: 6
- Car accidents: 21.3

Economic

Social

Homicides per 100,000: 4.7
Suicides per 100,000: 10.6
Labor force male/female ratio: 49/23
Social welfare: $52.3 billion
Public education: $15.6 billion
College Degrees
- Bachelors: Male (253,000), Female (157,000)
- Doctorates: Male (8,801), Female (1,028)
Attendance
- Movies (weekly): 40 million
- Baseball (annually): 20.3 million

Consumer

Consumer Price Index (if 1967 = 100): 88.7
Eggs: 58 cents per dozen
Milk: 26 cents per quart
Bread: 20 cents per loaf
Butter: 75 cents per pound
Bacon: 66 cents per pound
Round steak: $1.06 per pound
Oranges: 75 cents per dozen
Coffee: 75 cents per pound

Play the 1960s Trivia Game

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The 1960s were one of the most creative periods in modern man's history. Whether it was due to experimentation with drugs or anger over the Vietnam War, the 1960s were an overwhelming decade. The Assassinations of JFK and MLK shocked the US. The Beatles came across the pond and changed music forever.

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The advent of color TV has a direct and immediate impact on drive-in movie theaters. In '62, there are 6,000 drive-ins in the U.S.; a year later there are 3,550. Walk-in theaters also feel the change as more people choose to stay home and watch the three networks fight for ratings.