Which artists influenced the Beatles?
Even the artists we admire have each been influenced by someone.
Even the famous Beatles were influenced by other artists.
Today, I’d like to talk about that.
There is no musician who hasn't been influenced by someone.
Regardless of East or West or genre, there is likely no musician who has created or performed music without being influenced by someone.
One of the few exceptions might be Mozart.
After all, he started playing the harpsichord at the age of three and had completed his own compositions by the time he was five.
Of course, he had received a proper musical education, but it was probably of little use to him.
However, I believe cases like his are extremely exceptional.
No matter how great an artist is, there is always another artist they admired or were influenced by.
The Beatles are no exception.
This time, I’ll talk about the artists who, among many others, had a particularly great influence on them.
The British music scene of the 1950s
Before discussing this topic, I will talk about the British music scene of the 1950s, the period during which the Beatles spent their childhood and adolescence.
Their boyhood was after the end of World War II, and although Britain was among the victors, most of its cities had suffered devastating damage from German air raids.
What flowed in there was American music.
The United States, whose mainland was never devastated, enjoyed a prosperous life after the war.
Various genres of popular music were trending, and they all flooded into Britain at once.
In their youth, the Beatles were first influenced by country music, such as that performed by Americans like Hank Williams.
Liverpool, where they were born and raised, is a port city, and American sailors kept bringing in American culture and music.
They were very thrilling for them when they were boys.
However, even at this point, they had not yet reached the stage of deciding to perform by themselves.
Who influenced the Beatles?
There was music that had a major influence on them when they were coming of age in the late 1950s.
That's right—rock 'n' roll.
When the four members of the Beatles were boys—that is, from the late 1940s to the early 1950s—it was just around the time rock and roll was born.
There are various theories about the origins of rock and roll, but a leading one holds that it was born from the fusion of rhythm and blues originally performed by Black musicians and white country music.
At that time, racism was severe, but in the world of music, the barriers between races had already been overcome ahead of others.
Elvis Presley
As an artist who influenced the Beatles, first and foremost, we simply have to mention this man.
He is the one who had a profound impact on the Beatles during their youth.
In early April 1956, John Lennon heard Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” playing on the radio.
Until then, he had assumed that white people's music meant songs sung with a beautiful voice like Frank Sinatra's.
However, Presley broke with such conventions, delivering vocals drenched in deep echo and singing in a hiccuping, bluesy style—reminiscent of Black musicians—that came to be known as the hiccup technique.
John, who was a boy, was completely knocked out.
Of course, the same goes for the other three as well.
Presley swept not only American youths but also British youths into a whirlwind of enthusiasm.
Seeing photos of Presley on posters, record jackets, and in magazines, everyone imitated the hairstyle with a highly raised front, called a ducktail.
Eventually, the Beatles achieved great success in the United States and were able to meet their idol, Presley.
However, even they, who had become superstars, were as meek as borrowed cats in front of Presley.
Little Richard
An artist who had an influence as strong as Presley was Little Richard.
He was a Black rock ’n’ roller, and his “Long Tall Sally” made a powerful impact on four boys, just as Presley did.
John felt a fresh surprise that Richard was Black.
Until then, he had assumed that rock and roll was something sung by white performers like Presley.
However, upon realizing that Richard is Black, he becomes deeply immersed in Black music.
The same was true for the other three as well.
His ceiling-shattering high tenor voice had a particularly strong influence on Paul McCartney.
What decisively set him apart from Presley was that he was a singer-songwriter.
Chuck Berry
There are various theories about who started rock and roll, and it’s impossible to attribute it to a single person.
However, it is safe to say that Chuck Berry is undoubtedly one of them.
He, too, was a singer-songwriter who wrote his own lyrics and music and played the guitar.
In particular, John held him in deep esteem.
He even went so far as to say, “If you had to rephrase rock ’n’ roll in other words, it would be Chuck Berry.”
He was also skilled at performing on stage, and would sometimes play the guitar while walking like a duck.
The growing adoption of television also influenced his performance.
Until then, people only listened to music on records or the radio, but audiences could now watch musicians actually perform on television.
He made skillful use of it, and by giving a flashy performance, he succeeded in capturing not only the audience’s ears but also their eyes.
The artist made me realize that not only the sound but also the performance is important.
Moreover, his lyrics have a narrative quality, giving me the impression that I was watching scenes from a movie.
Johnny B. Goode can be considered his signature song.
This, too, had a tremendous influence on the Beatles.
Buddy Holly
It’s no exaggeration to say that Buddy Holly is the one who created the Beatles.
Because he was probably the first to introduce the concept of a “band” into the popular music world.
Up to that point, bands—Chuck Berry and Little Richard included—were typically made up of a large number of musicians.
However, partly because she had no money, Holly formed a small band called the Crickets.
These days, when we say “band,” it’s commonly understood to mean a small group like this, and it was the Crickets who set that trend in motion.
Wearing black-rimmed glasses, he looked like a very earnest office worker—hardly the appearance of a rock ’n’ roller.
But once he got on stage and started strumming his guitar, he delivered unbelievably amazing vocals and performance.
He not only composed and performed his music, but also employed a variety of techniques in recording.
For example, he was the first to introduce into popular music the technique of double tracking, which involves recording the same sound twice.
This is a great achievement that, to this day, has established as common sense the idea that music does not end with performance alone but is newly created through the process of editing.
Eddie Cochran
On July 6, 1957, at a concert held at the St. Peter’s Church fête in Woolton, two geniuses—John and Paul—met through their mutual friend, Ivan Vaughan.
At that moment, Paul played guitar on the spot and performed and sang several songs perfectly, including Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock.”
Although John had started playing the guitar, he barely learned any chords or lyrics and played sloppily. However, he was astonished by Paul’s flawless performance, was greatly inspired, and began practicing the guitar seriously.
John recognized strongly that his band absolutely needed Paul, and he brought him into the Quarrymen, the precursor to the Beatles.
George Harrison also developed a strong admiration for Cochran, finding him cool after seeing his guitar playing and his hair-flipping performance when he visited Liverpool on tour.
There are still many other artists, but the Beatles learned from them, absorbed it, and grew into a huge monster.