What year did the Beatles officially break up?
Last updated: July 11, 2024
If you watched Peter Jackson’s documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back, you can see why rumors of the band’s demise and reunification ebbed and flowed for the better part of a decade. Really, reunion rumors didn’t go away until after John Lennon’s death in 1980;
In the documentary, you can really sense the tensions that had developed — and at one point George Harrison even appears to quit the band, even if he eventually shows back up to finish the project. I get it, these guys basically grew up together and then became the biggest musicians on the planet. I got annoyed with my roommates in college after about three weeks.
When a band decides to stop playing any live shows, that’s your first inkling that something may be amiss. When their music releases start to slow down and become totally unpredictable, that’s another sign. And when rumors start leaking that various members have quit or are quitting, well, that’s not great either.
Despite all of it, it didn’t seem to be an easy thing for the band to officially part ways. When did they finally truly break up?