As the most famous people in the world, you can bet there were plenty of ways to support The Beatles that weren’t their albums. There were shirts, wigs, hats, branded instruments, board games, ice cream bars, wallpaper, bed sheets, and pillowcases. Nowadays you can find pretty much anything you want with The Beatles’ name on it.
Kaboodle Kits (kind of like a lunchbox), Paul and Linda McCartney Animatronic Caricature Heads, costumes, rings, party cake decorations, nylon stockings, hairspray, ice cube trays, salt and pepper shakers, CD players, wooden nesting dolls, and far, far more have graced store shelves and fan collections.
At the Top of the Charts
With a total of a hundred and thirty-two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, The Beatles are in a league of their own. It's by far the most of any artist, and we guess we shouldn't be surprised. Who could possibly defeat them? Michael Jackson? Whitney Houston? It turns out the second most is Garth Brooks, with a mere fifty-two weeks. Hey, that's still a whole year.
They've also had a total of twenty-one number one hits on the Billboard 100 in the United States, also the most of any artist. They also had seventeen number one hits in the United Kingdom.
Don't Start That Again!
If you've watched the 1967 Disney animated film “The Jungle Book,” you might have noticed that the quartet of vultures bears a striking resemblance to the fab four. The design and mannerisms were based on the members of the band, and Disney also wanted the band to voice the vultures.
Due to the work that The Beatles had ahead of them, John Lennon declined the offer, but he did suggest the film would be better off hiring Elvis Presley. Though modeled after these rock-n-rollers, the song the vultures sing is a barbershop-style song rather than a classic sixties-style song.
A Dentist Got Them to Use Substances
Though “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” isn't about the mind-altering substance, the band did use it. The band didn't even know they had taken it the first time. They were the guests of a dentist named John Riley, and the dentist spiked his guests' coffee with the substance after dinner without telling them.
While Riley did tell his guests that there was something in the coffee, he wouldn't tell them what. He also warned them not to leave, which the band members thought, he mean he wanted them to stay for “adult activities.”
Breaking Up at Disney World
To make the band's breakup official, they all had to sign some legal documents. This took years as the breakup slogged through courts, and lawyers negotiated a satisfactory agreement for all four members. Once the papers were written up and ready to sign, it was more than four years after the decision had been made: 1974.
It was going to happen at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, but Lennon never showed up. His stated reason was “the stars aren't right.” The other members signed, and ten days later John and his assistant got the papers at Disney World in Florida. Two days before the year ended, The Beatles officially ended under John's pen.