A Hard Day’s Night (1964) documents a day in the life of the band at the height of the Beatlemania phenomenon, while showcasing the group’s musical talent with seven McCartney/Lennon classics, including the title song, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “She Loves You.” Their next film, a James Bond spoof titled Help! (1965), features Starr as the target of a cult from which the band must try to rescue him. The soundtrack to this film also launched a number of hits, including “You’re Going to Lose that Girl” and “Ticket to Ride.”

The Beatles dominated the music charts throughout the ‘60s, as no group had ever done before or since. In April 1964, months after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the five best-selling singles and two best-selling albums on the U.S. charts belonged to The Beatles. In 1966, during the height of their popularity, Lennon infuriated religious groups in the United States when he casually asserted that The Beatles had become bigger than Jesus Christ. Demonstrations throughout the Bible Belt—in which Beatles LPs were burned—led Lennon to apologize for the remark. The band’s final concert was held on August 29, 1966, in San Francisco. Fueling rumors of a break-up, Beatles members asserted thereafter that they simply wanted to focus on recording. The rumors were not far off, however, as tensions between Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison were mounting and each was moving in a different direction artistically.

In August 1967, Brian Epstein died from an overdose of sleeping pills. The death was initially deemed a suicide but later ruled accidental. That same year, The Beatles produced and starred in Magical Mystery Tour, a television film that critics dismissed as an inept failure; moreover, reflecting the overall disorganization and lack of control in which their manager’s death had left the band. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was in many ways the band’s break-through album—critically speaking—in which The Beatles achieved a new level of musical maturity. The album cohesively blends such various styles as psychedelia (“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”), classical (“She’s Leaving Home”), and Eastern spiritualism (“Within You Without You”). Their musical style continued to evolve with the grittier The Beatles (White Album) (1968). Let It Be (recorded in 1969, released in 1970) received mixed but generally good reviews. Abbey Road, the group’s final joint effort, was released in September 1969, although The Beatles had more or less disbanded many months earlier. Each member pursued his own solo career with varying degrees of success, though no individual ever reached the popular heights enjoyed by the group as a whole.

Ringo Starr’s initial efforts as a solo artist produced the albums Sentimental Journey and Beacoups of Blues, a country music collection.