Beatlemania was a fan frenzy that followed the Beatles as they toured across the globe. Some believed it was a mental illness — and these photos make it easy to see why.
The Beatles made this trip by boat just to avoid getting mobbed by fans. Despite their security, though, one woman still managed to grab hold of McCartney's shirt.
Teddington, England. July 11, 1964.Sunday People/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
New York City, New York. August 14, 1965.Peodincuk/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
London, England. July 19, 1964.Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
The mob of girls pressing their faces against the glass are not part of the script.
London, England. 1964.Max Scheler - K & K/Redferns/Getty Images
Sydney, Australia. June 14, 1964.Frank Burke/The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
February 23, 1964. London, England.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
New York City, New York. August 23, 1966.Hyman Rothman/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
London, England. 1968.Daily Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images
New York City, New York. August 14, 1965.Hal Mathewson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Doncaster, England. December 10, 1963.Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty Images
London, England. October 26, 1965.Imagno/Getty Images
London, England. May 18, 1968.Ron Case/Keystone/Getty Images
Location unspecified. August 1964.William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images
Salzburg, Austria. 1965.Imagno/Getty Images
San Francisco, California. 1964.Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
London, England. March 12, 1969.Michael Brennan/Getty Images
Liverpool, England. July 10, 1964.Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
August 18, 1965. Toronto, Canada.Barry Philp/Toronto Star via Getty Images
London, England. July 11, 1964.John Hoppy Hopkins/Redferns/Getty Images
Vancouver, Canada. August 22, 1964.Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
Paris, France. June 1965.REPORTERS ASSOCIES/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Miami, Florida. February 1964.Daily Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Miami, Florida. February 1964.Daily Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images
London, England. October 26, 1965.Ted West/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
London, England. February 23, 1964.Alisdair MacDonald/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
London, England. May 15, 1964.Stan Meagher/Express/Getty Images
When The Beatles made their appearance, their adoring fans stampeded, knocking down and stomping a crowd of people.
Liverpool, England. July 10, 1964.Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
Liverpool, England. July 10, 1964.WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
San Francisco, California. August 30, 1966.Bettmann/Getty Images
For many young music lovers in the 1960s, The Beatles weren't just a band. They were a reason to live.
Beatlemania was a craze unlike any the world has ever seen. When The Beatles came to town, their fans, many of them young girls, would work themselves into a state so frenzied that some people thought of it as an actual disease. Psychologists even published studies struggling to make sense of why these Beatles fans went so crazy for these four young men.
Concertgoers would sometimes scream so loudly that the band couldn't even hear themselves play.
And after word got out that George Harrison liked jelly beans, fans started hurling them on stage in hopes of getting his attention. Others would just throw their underwear on stage, with one concert hall claiming that they once found "40 pairs of abandoned knickers" that girls had left behind after seeing the band play.
For girls like these, John, Paul, George, and Ringo weren't just four boys in a band — they were the men that they were destined to marry. One ran at George Harrison with a pair of scissors to cut off a lock of his hair. Some broke into the band's hotels, either trying to catch a glimpse of their heroes in the flesh or rummaging through their underwear drawers for a keepsake. And, when Paul McCartney got married, some girls openly wept, devastated by the realization that he wouldn't be theirs.
Through it all, police had to struggle to keep these kinds of fans from going too wild. During Beatlemania, fans would break through barricades to storm the stage or to try to jump on top of their cars, often toppling grown men to the ground. When the band visited the queen, some fans even climbed over the walls of Buckingham Palace just to see the band.
The Beatles were a band unlike any the world had ever seen and Beatlemania was a fandom unlike any it had seen. The photos above tell the story better than any words can — that, somehow, people knew that they were witnessing a group that would go down in history, and they'd do anything just to touch their fame.
After this look at Beatlemania, check out these photos of the early Beatles before they made it big. Then, have a look at the rock and roll groupies that changed music history.
