English (Original)
A lot of people remember John Lennon for his music with the Beatles. He was serious and creative, and many young people of the 1960's and 1970's thought he spoke for them. Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England. When he was a child, he listened to the music of rock and roll singers like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. At 15, when he was in art school, Lennon started his first rock-group, the Quarrymen. The members of the group were Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best, who played the drums. The Quarrymen later changed their name to the Silver Beatles and then the Beatles. When Pete Best left the group, Ringo Starr joined the Beatles as the drummer. Between 1958 and 1962 the group played in night clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. Then the Beatles made a record called 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and had their first big success in Britain. 'Please Please Me' came a short time after that and it became number one. Lennon was both a singer and a songwriter. He wrote many of the Beatles' songs and most of these songs became number one all over the world. They were romantic and intelligent, and today's musicians still play them. Lennon did not only make music and films with the Beatles. He also wrote two books, the first one in 1964 and the second one a year after that. In 1967 he acted in a film called How I Won The War. On December 8, 1980 John Lennon died in New York, shot dead outside his apartment building. Every year thousands of people come together in New York's Central Park to remember him. For many people in the world, he was someone very special.