Outside on the street a thousand hysterical fans were clamoring, "We want The Beatles." But inside the studio The Beatles were having a quiet after-rehearsal discussion. They have the marvelous quality, these Beatles - apart from their candor, happiness, and wit - of making you feel a friend right away. "Instant friendship," Ringo calls it, "the cure for all the world's ills." What they were most excited about and most wanted to talk about was their forthcoming return to the States - their thirty-day tour of twenty-five cities begins the middle of next month.

They had been laughing and clowning, but when I brought up the subject they stopped short, suddenly serious now. And Paul McCartney, the twenty-two-year-old Beatle with the face of a choirboy, the intelligent, witty bass-guitarist, said thoughtfully, "I'll tell you this. We all believe in God. All of us. My mother was a Catholic and in fact I was baptized in a Catholic Church, but as a kid I went to all sorts of churches with my friends: Methodist, Baptist, Church of England - everything. And I went to Sunday School, of course. I'll never forget one lesson we had. The teacher asked us how we pictures God. He went right round the class, asking each one of us in turn to give him our idea of God. And when he'd heard all our ideas, he said it didn't matter at all that we all had different pictures - that some saw God as a handsome gentleman with a top hat while others saw him as an old gentleman with a white beard. That didn't matter a bit. What did matter was the belief was the same in all of us. Now that really impressed me, I remember, because it illustrated to me how personal one's faith really was."

He smiled faintly as the clamor from the street below got louder. "Those kids," he said fondly, shaking his head in wonder. Then he went on: "My mother was a health officer at the local schools in Liverpool, and so through this she got to know the different schools pretty well. Now by rights I should have gone to a Catholic school, because I was baptized a Catholic. But my mother knew the Catholic school in our area, and she knew the education there was not as good as the other school in the district. So I went to the other school and was very happy there.

"Now the Catholic Church may feel she was wrong to deprive me of a Catholic education, but I wouldn't agree. I think she was right to get for me the best education that she possibly could. She did what she thought was right and that's what really counts.

"It's the belief in God that's important, way and above the belief in an individual religion. I really believe this most strongly. If I ever fell in love with someone of a different religion, for instance, someone who believed terribly strongly in her religion, and she wanted me to chance, I would. Why not? Why make someone unhappy and uneasy if it can be avoided quite easily?

"For the same reason I would insure that my children were christened. It's a terribly unfair thing not to christen a child - in England, at any rate. Because when they go to school the other children will pick on them. 'You're different,' they'll say. 'You're not christened and we are.' The child will be terribly unhappy. Children need to have a sense of belonging to something or someone. When you're young, this sense of belonging - security, really - is very important, more important than anything else.

"In fact, I know a nine-year-old girl who became so unahppy because she hadn't been christened that she was quite ill. Finally her parents took her along to the church and had her christened. And then she was all right again and much, much happier.

"Oh, I know the argument: If you don't christen someone when they're a baby they can choose for themselves later on when they know more about religion. But that doesn't really stand examination. THere is the fact that she child will be made to feel 'different'; also if he or she doesn't like the religion they've been christened into, in later life they don't have to practice it. Or believe in it. They can change to something else. It's like saying I won't bother getting married, because later on I may not like the other person. Or like saying I won't indulge in childhood games because later on in life they will have become meaningless, just a waste of time."

George Harrison, the lead guitarist, the youngest of the group at twenty-one and the quietest of them all, joined in the discussion:

"I agree with that Paul says about christenings. It's a bit like refusing to stand up for the Queen of England. You make a spectacle of yourself if you sit, and you upset others. But if you conform by standing up, you upset no one, including yourself. You don't have to believe in what you're doing, and as long as you know that, it doesn't matter. I don't mean that one should do important things in which one doesn't believe, but I do believe one should conform if non-conformation is going to upset a lot of people.

"I had a similar background to Paul. My mother's a Catholic, and I was baptized into the Catholic Church. But I went to the same school as John; I had a good Church of England upbringing . . ."

The leader of the group, rhythm guitarist John Lennon, twenty-three, who is married to Cynthia and has a baby son, John, Jr., interrupted and talked about his own upbringing:

"Yes, I was brought up Church of England by my aunt. She used to pack me off to Sunday School. At sixteen I was confirmed - and I must confess the reason was because I'd heard you couldn't get a job unless you were confirmed.

"Then, when I was twenty, my aunt finally confessed that she didn't really believe in God at all. And I realized why it was she'd always made me go to church but never gone herself. But she was right to send me. So right. For it gave me the chance to decide for myself whether to believe in God or not. She didn't try to prejudice me one way or the other. She was completely fair, and very wise, I'd say, to have handled the situation the way she did.

He sprawled in the chair and gave me a sheepish grin.

"Funny, you know. When I was a kid one of my friends told me I ought to become a choirboy. 'You get paid for it,' he said. 'It's marvelous.' Well, that really impressed me - getting paid for dressing up in a lot of choirboy gear. And singing was something I could do easily, and I always loved it anyway.

"'Weddings are the best time to go,' my friend said. So I told some of my friends, and one Saturday when we knew there was going to be a wedding we trooped along with the other choirboys, all dressed in that frilly gear, and joined the queue waiting to march into church. When I think of it now, it always makes me laugh.

"'What are you doing here?' the Vicar said. 'I've never seen you before. Are you sure you're meant to be here?'

"'Yes, sir. We've just joined,' we said. He looked very dubious, but finally let us march in with the other boys. There wasn't much time, anyway - the bride was already coming up the aisle. Afterwards, I found out that we only got paid three shillings (about forty-five cents) for doing all that singing. 'There must be other singing jobs,' I thought, 'that pay a lot better than that.'

"But I share the same feelings about christenings as Paul, I mean, I wasn't sure whether or not it was a good thing to christen my baby. But Cyn wanted it - so of course I agreed. One of his godparents, Brian Epstein [their manager], is Jewish, though. How about that! But godparents have to be well-chosen.

"Talking of that, I believe it's hypocritical to become a godparent to a child if you don't believe in God. You have to take on definite spiritual responsibilities for the child. How can you do this if you don't believe? As far as I'm concerned, you can't. It would be impossible, and quite unfair to the child."

Paul McCartney chimed in: "You know, I can understand why some parents object to the christening service. Have you ever read it? It says your child is born in original sin and that he has to be christened in order to drive the devil out of him. Well, I mean, for a loving Mum and Dad it's a bit thick having to imagine that their pink, lovable baby is unclean and spiritually not nice to know.

"I once told a reporter that, although I believed in God, I didn't feel the need for any particular religion. When I get older, though, I probably will. I think when one is old the thought of God is a great help. And if the thought of God is helpful, it's good. Some people may say if you don't need God until you're old, and dying, it's unfair to ask Him for help, because one's got along without Him until then. But I don't go with that. God is all-forgiving, all-loving, all-helpful. He won't let you down, not when you need Him."

The drummer, Ringo Starr, twenty-four, said: "The great thing, as I see it, is that none of us is bigoted about any particular religion. We feel our beliefs strongly, but we feel how we express them is up to us. Me, I was brought up in the Church of England.

"Some people think I'm part elephant, I know, because of this nose. But I'm not at all - it's just a silly rumor someone started.

"Seriously, we're in rather a tricky position with religion. I mean, should one of us decide tomorrow, say, to become a Methodist, there would be hundreds, maybe thousands, of our fans converting to Methodism overnight. Now this would be marvelous for that particular church, but can you imagine what the other churches would say? They might stand to lose half of their congregations. It could really be disastrous if we decided to make a switch."

He leaned forward in his chair, looking very earnest.

"At the moment, all the churches approve of us. Partly because of the good work we're doing socially, but also because we're keeping kids off the streets and out of trouble. We're really proud of that. It's a great feeling to do something you love and then find out you're helping people at the same time. It makes you feel good inside."

And with that, the four boys who clambered their way from the murky Merseyside jazz cellars to world fame and popularity got up to go back to the work that they love.

At the door, they paused and turned around to face me.

And George said, very quietly: "You've got to believe in something greater than yourself. You've just got to. After all, who knows exactly what the future holds in store? Nobody."