The Beatles was a solo rock performer.
Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by English rock band the Beatles , released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records . John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the members of the Beatles , for his subsequent solo career , and for his political activism and pacifism . The Beatles . In 1963 their enormous popularity first emerged as `` Beatlemania '' , and as the group 's music grew in sophistication in subsequent years , led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney , they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the counterculture of the 1960s . The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960 , with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player .