the beatles was originally started by john lennon. he had a skiffle group, and then he met paul mccartney, who joined. to make a long story short, john's bandmates were all replaced by paul, george harrison, and ringo starr (ha, john's old buddies must feel stupid now), and they eventually formed the beatles.

the name, the beatles, came from a man in a flaming pie, but it was not always the group's name. they went through several other names: the quarrymen, johnny and the moondogs, and the silver beatles, to name a few.

and for those of you who are stupid, here's a line up of the beatles:

george: lead guitar, vocals, sitar

john: rhythm guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano

paul: bass, vocals, piano

ringo: drums, vocals, tambourine

being a very versatile group, the beatles switched around instruments, brought in new instruments, and brought in other musicians sometimes. therefore, the above list is naked and simply lists what they played most of the time.