The Beatles did not leave Hamburg voluntarily but were told to leave because George was not allowed to play at nightclubs past midnight because he was not 18. In April 1961, the returned to Hamburg to play at the Top Ten Club. They lost Stuart for good when he was offered a place at a German art college. Paul became the bassist. It was during this three-month stay that they made their first record. However, The Beatles, were not featured or even on the label. They were the back up band for Tony Sheridan. In mid 1961, they returned to Liverpool to play once again at the Cavern.

Once at home, Lennon hung out with his friend Billy Harry. He offered him a helping hand when publishing his magazine about the local music scene, called Mersey Beat. One of the places that sold this magazine, was North End Music stores. It was owned by a local family, the Epsteins, and managed by Brian Epstein. The record store prided itself on being able to find any record you wanted. One day a customer entered the store and requested a single by The Beatles who had been featured in the Mersey Beat. Brian had not heard of them and went to ask the group which label they used. He ordered 200 copies and they sold well. Soon after Brian Epstein would begin to manage The Beatles and convinced Decca Records to grant them an audition. The audition was in 1962, but they were rejected. In April 1962 they returned to Germany to play in the Star Club. Brian eventually found them a record label with George martin and EMI record company. It was Martine that recommended they change they drummer.

Capitol Records in the United States finally exercised its rights to release the records with the band making their first appearance in America. They were booked to play on the Ed Sullivan show with an audience of over 70 million people. It was the Beatles fifth single, ' I Want to Hold Your Hand,' that reached number one in the US. The Beatles found they had 12 singles in the US Top 100 and 5 of them occupied the top 5 places. They then took this opportunity to work on their first feature film, A Hard Days Night, after returning from their tour in the US. It was shot in black and white and involved not much more than them being themselves. The film included 6 new Lennon/McCartney songs, plus 'Can't Buy Me Love,' which sold 1.2 million copies its first week of release in Britain and 2 million its first week in the Unite States. During the filming of this movie, George met his future wife Patti Boyd, a model who had a part in the movie. The film premiered in July, but before that in May John published a book of poetry titled, In His Own Write. It was also during this month that life size models of the group appeared in London's Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Before the Beatles premier of Help!, they were awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) in Queen Elizabeth II's Birthday Honours List. Before long they set out for another world tour. The greatest highlight of this tour when The Beatles got to meet Elvis Presley in California. Also in the year 1965 came the marriage of Ringo to Maureen Cox, and they had a song Zak by Christmas. John published his second book, 'A Spaniard in the Works', that same year. One of the songs that wasn't featured in the movie was 'Yesterday', written by Paul who sang and played the guitar with a string quartet in the background. It was released as a single and topped US charts for a month and sold 1 million copies. 'Yesterday' has since been recorded by over 2500 artists. The end of 1965 brought Rubber Soul. December 3, 1965, the same day Rubber Soul was released brought another single, 'We Can Work It Out/ Day Tripper.' And finally at the end of the year brought their final tour, with the last show being held in Merseyside.

The year of 1966 brought George and Patti Boyd together in marriage. During the first half of this year, John told Maureen Cleave, a London journalist, that Christianity would not last forever. A new single was released in June, title 'Paperback Writer.' The group also visited the Philippines in July and barely escaped uninjured from a angry crowd who thought they had insulted President Marcos. Also, that same interview at the beginning of the year was released in America as it was published in a magazine. The started a hate campaign against the Beatles with people burning their records. It only ended when John made a public apology. As their final American tour began, Revolver was released. Eleanor Rigby/ Yellow Submarine became the hot new single.

On the return from the United States, they each began separate projects. John appeared in a comedy film, How I Won the War, while George went to India to study music and culture. Paul wrote the score for The Family Way. It was in November 1966 when John met Yoko Ono at a exhibition of her work at a London art gallery. The year of 1967 brought The Beatles a new contract with EMI for the next 9 years. Their new single was Pennylane/Strawberry Fields, but it failed to top the charts in Britain. In June they would release their best album to date, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The idea was Pauls for The Beatles to play parts of a band in a variety show. The album sleeve was a collage of 68 people, including comedians such as Laurel and Hardy and WC Fields, film starts (Fred Astaire, Marilyn Monroe), sportsmen (Sonny Liston, Albert Stubbing), novelists, poets and painters.

In February the Beatles with their wives and lovers went to India to visit the Maharishi. Ringo and Maureen left after 10 days followed by Paul and Jane after 6 weeks. During their stay in India they released a single title 'Lady Madonna' which reached the top of the UK charts. After they returned Paul and John would both begin new relationships. John spent the night "romancing" Yoko Ono and then was divorced by Cynthia. Paul ended his engagement with Jan Asher after meeting Linda Eastman. The Beatles also began work on a new animated feature file, Yellow Submarine. They released the soundtrack, but not before the release of a new Beatles studio album. 'Hey Jude' would be the first single to bear the Apple label and being seven minutes long, was their longest to date. It soon reached the top of UK charts but was replaced by another Apple single, 'Those Were The Days', by Mary Hopkin. It was 1968 when the double album called 'The Beatles' was released in a simple white sleeve which would have it come to be known as "The White Album." The album was hastily put together as it only consisted of a few hits. It was becoming clear that The Beatles were no longer working together.