The Beatles were revolutionary music artists during the 1960s. Not only did they dominate the charts worldwide, but they brought British rock to the United States and many other countries. Many artists fell in love with rock after listening to The Beatles, such as Tom Petty, who said one album by the band changed how people listened to music.
In the early days of music, it was all about singles. Artists like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry would release songs as singles that would dominate the charts and build up hype for the upcoming album. The singles would take over, and many artists would be known for their hit songs rather than their albums.
However, The Beatles changed such industry trend as people loved almost every song they released. Cheat sheet reports. Their album, Meet The Beatles, hit the U.S. in 1964, and Tom Petty said the record altered how people listened to music.
After this album, people were pleased to listen to an entire record than just the hit singles.
“(At school) you either had a copy of Meet The Beatles or you didn’t and if you didn’t, it was like something was wrong with you,” Petty told MusicRadar. “Come to think of it, that was the first time an LP was a significant thing. Up till then people only bought singles. But with Meet the Beatles, that was a record you really wanted to listen to – both sides of it.”
Beatles albums were so successful because the fab four worked tirelessly, alongside producer George Martin, to ensure every song was as good as it could be. Many artists would release an excellent A-side on their single but a forgettable or throwaway song as their B-side. The Beatles tried not to do that and sometimes released B-sides that were superior to their A-sides. Same happened when Revolver came out, it was one way listen.
Tom Petty strongly disagreed with George Harrison's 'Quiet Beatle' nickname.
Harrison was not the only member of the Fab Four to have been given a characteristic tag: John Lennon was the supposed witty member of the group, Paul McCartney was the cute one, and Ringo was “just Ringo”. Interestingly though, according to Tom Petty, George Harrison’s ‘Quiet Beatle’ tag was all wrong.
Petty once told Rolling Stone that Harrison would “never shut up” in a very comical take. He added: “He was the best hang you could imagine”.
The reason that Harrison had been given the ‘Quiet Beatle’ label in the first place was that it was Lennon and McCartney who most often took on the responsibility of talking in interviews. It was the leading duo who wrote most of the Beatles’ songs, after all.
However, according to Petty’s comments, this did not mean that Harrison was quiet behind the scenes – it just meant that the journalists of the time were more interested in the relationship between Lennon and McCartney. Presumably, though, Harrison could not have cared less what they thought of him. Mick Jagger once said that Harrison could be quiet on occasion, but he could also be “funny and combative”.
Harrison’s wife Olivia also once noted that he would not be quiet at home either. Apparently, he would walk around the house shouting out words at random in order to see what kind of words would work in a song. “George would throw out words one after another,” she said, “He knew he’d find the word."
