It's hard to think of the Fab Four as anything but the mop top musicians we all remember. But at least three of them had jobs before fame found them, and two wound up in the same kind of field. 

John Lennon was still school aged and dedicated to becoming a professional musician when he met Paul McCartney on July 6, 1957, exactly 69 years ago this day. 

But that wasn't the case with Paul, George and Ringo. The former pair toiled for a brief time in electrical work, long before anyone dreamed of what they would become. Both George and Paul briefly thought electronics might be their future connection, although Paul would not prove to be very good at it and was soon demoted. 

George had a better feel for the job and wound up as an electrician's apprentice at the tender age of 16.

"Famously, Harrison joked that he kept blowing things up, leading to the end of his short-lived time with the company. Nonetheless, his skills would become critical in the early days of The Beatles, as Harrison was able to fix the group’s electrical equipment."

And Ringo? He worked as a machinist apprentice at 16, before the drums came beating.

Imagine, as John Lennon might say, if they'd stuck with their day jobs, dealing with the electricity of machines - and not the kind they all created on stage.

The Beatles: Before They Were Famous