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The 1970's

The Rise and Fall of the Beatles

The Rise and Fall of the Beatles
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.1

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    breakup, meditation, overdose, soloist, relationship, non-stop, album, psychedelic, fans, commercial, musical, series, version, maintain, bands, announcement
     content words:    George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Richard Starkey, Ringo Starr, Ed Sullivan Show, Strawberry Fields Forever, Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, Yoko Ono

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The Rise and Fall of the Beatles
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     Very few people who lived during the 1960's and 1970's can say that they never heard any music by the Beatles. This band was sensational. Not everyone liked their music, but you couldn't miss hearing it no matter where you went in the world.
 
2     George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney began singing together when they were still teenagers in the 1950's. They sang in clubs around Liverpool, England. Richard Starkey, who would become better known as Ringo Starr, joined the group in the early 1960's. The Beatles started to hit it big in the record business in 1964.
 
3     The Beatles made their first American television appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Their appearance caused near pandemonium among the teenaged girls there to see their favorite band in person. Screaming and hysteria met the four "mop tops" wherever they went. This was the beginning of great times for the four boys from Liverpool. Money, girls, parties, anything they wanted was right at their fingertips. They toured the world putting on concerts for thousands and hundreds of thousands of fans.
 
4     Paul and John were the driving forces in the Beatles group. They wrote the songs, sometimes together, sometimes alone. "Yesterday" was a McCartney song. Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine" have remained favorites with music fans for decades now. Paul was known as the "cute" Beatle. John was more serious. Ringo was a bit elfish. George quietly played his music and tried to find peace within himself.

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