Few music groups have been able to sustain a fan base over half a century that is as significant and devoted as those of the Beatles, and this entertaining guide to all things Fab Four rewards those fans with everything they need to know about the band in a one-of-a-kind format. Packed with history, trivia, lists, little-known facts, and must-do adventures that every Beatles fan should undertake, it ranks each item from one to 100. Fans of any generation will appreciate the songs, albums, places, personalities, and events that are relived and revealed from five decades of Beatles lore. Gillian G. Gaar is a music historian and journalist whose writing has appeared in Goldmine , Mojo , and Rolling Stone magazines, and a variety of other periodicals as well as the book The Beatles Digest and several Beatles anthologies. She is the author of several books, including She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll . She lives in Seattle. 100 Things Beatles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die By Gillian G. Gaar Triumph Books Copyright © 2013 Gillian G. Gaar All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60078-799-7 CHAPTER 1 In Which WeMeet the Leading Players of Our Story So, who were the Beatles? Even newbies most likely know the names of the band members: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. They probably also know that the Beatles were from Liverpool, England. But a Beatle fan should know a little more background info about who the band members were before they became the Fab Four. John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, at Liverpool's Oxford Street Maternity Hospital to Alfred and Julia Lennon. Alf was a merchant seaman, and his frequent absences meant that the couple's marriage eventually foundered. In 1945, Julia gave birth to another man's child (the baby, a girl, was put up for adoption), and by 1946 she'd moved in with John "Bobby" Dykins, with whom she had two more daughters, Julia and Jacqui. At age five, John was asked who he wished to live with, his father or his mother, an agonizing choice no child should be forced to make. John chose to stay with his mother. But Julia was unable to get a divorce from Alf and legally marry Bobby. So her sister Mary Smith, known as Mimi, was able to wrest John away, insisting that he live with her and her husband, George, to spare John the indignity of being raised by a woman "living in sin." Julia was forced to agree, but was able to see John on a regular basis as he grew up (though he would not see his father again until 1964). When John was bitten by the rock `n' roll bug in 1956, it was Julia who bought him his first guitar. Julia also taught him to play the instrument, teaching him banjo chords, as that was the instrument she knew how to play. John then started his own group, the Quarrymen. Unlike his aunt Mimi, Julia encouraged John's interest in music. He was devastated by her death on July 15, 1958, when she was hit by a car while walking to the bus stop, after a visit with Mimi. James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, at Walton Hospital in Liverpool to James and Mary McCartney; he would always be known by his middle name, Paul. James was a cotton salesman, while Mary worked as a nurse and midwife. James also had a keen interest in music, playing piano and trumpet, and had been the leader of a semi-pro dance band, initially called the Masked Melody Makers and later Jim Mac's Jazz Band. When Paul became interested in music, his father first gave him a trumpet, but as rock `n' roll became a greater interest, Paul traded it in for a guitar. The family grew to four when Peter Michael McCartney (like Paul, known by his middle name, Mike) was born in 1944. But the happy home was shattered when Mary died of breast cancer on October 31, 1956. Paul worked out his grief by spending more time practicing guitar. The following July he was taken to a church fair by his friend Ivan Vaughan to see a band whose members Ivan was friendly with — the Quarrymen. George Harrison was born to Harold and Louise Harrison at the family's home, 12 Arnold Grove, in Liverpool, on February 25, 1944 (there's some confusion over the date of his birth; a report later stated that "family records" indicated he was born on February 24, but his birth certificate, as well as the recollections of family members and his second wife, Olivia, confirm that it was the 25). George was the youngest of four siblings: Louise, Harry, and Peter. His father worked as a ship's steward, but gave up life at sea to become a bus driver; his mother worked as a shop assistant. The family was close; of the four Beatles, George family's was the only one to have no disruptions. Like John and Paul, when he discovered rock `n' roll he was anxious to get a guitar. His mother gave him the money to buy his first guitar, and later helped him buy his first electric guitar. His first (short-lived) band was the Rebels, who only played a single show. He soon found another position with the Les Stewar