The Beatles were a band.
Beatlemania was the intense fan frenzy directed towards the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s . John Winston Ono Lennon , ( born John Winston Lennon ; 9 October 19408 December 1980 ) was an English guitarist , singer , and songwriter who co-founded the Beatles , the most commercially successful and musically influential band in the history of popular music . `` Love Me Do '' is the debut single by the English rock band the Beatles , backed by `` P.S. I Love You '' . 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 .