Jazz; rock n roll; blues; music hall; guitar instrumentals; tin pan alley; rockabilly; dance band; soul; bolero; skiffle; trad; R&B; country; old-time; Broadway; doo-wop; folk; high school pop; Motown – the Beatles early influences are so wide-ranging that the Beatles Beginnings series of discs could quite easily pass for an introduction to the history of twentieth century popular music. This repertoire enabled them to perform in many different settings jazz clubs, strip clubs, folk clubs, working men s clubs, church dances, rock n roll joints. Music had to be tailored to the occasion and the Beatles great enthusiasm for popular music of all kinds enabled them to do this. Almost all of the songs they learned were released in the UK and from 1957 onwards, they avidly followed the weekly music charts and kept up to date with the records that did not make the hit parade. Before naming the Beatles in the summer of 1960, they were the Quarrymen. Here are the 100 or so songs they are documented as having performed along with a few of their teenage party pieces with which they would entertain family and friends.
