February 9 - An Important Date in Beatles History

Yes, February 9th is a very important date in Beatles history.

It was on this day in 1961 that the band first played at The Cavern under the name of The Beatles, and not the other names that they had been known as prior to that gig.

Three years later on that date was the famous Ed Sullivan Show appearance that catapulted The Beatles to prominence in the United States.

Still three years after that, they recorded the song Fixing a Hole, which would be featured on the band's landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

So, in recognition of the significance of this date in Beatles history, I thought it would be good to republish what I wrote last year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Beatles historic Ed Sullivan Show appearance.







The Beatles Trip to America was 50 Years Ago, published on February 9, 2014:



It was fifty years ago today, that the Beatles band came to America to play!

That's right! It has been fifty years since the Beatles first landed in America, and made what was obviously a huge, immediate impact!

We are all of us familiar with those days, and that legendary trip. The whole nation was taken by the Beatles, seemingly. Throngs came to greet then band when their plane landed at the airport. Ed Sullivan introducing "the boys from Liverpool" to the viewing audience, while shrill screams from teenage girls drowned out much of their music. And, of course, the Beatles themselves, dressed up in matching suits, looking impossibly young, and with those distinct mophead haircuts. Justin Bieber recently had that same haircut, and with largely the same effect upon his fans. All that was missing was the quality of the music. Oh, and maybe the quality of the people that made the music.

That was the thing about the Beatles: they were likable in every way.

This is the fourth major event that reaches the "50th anniversary". First was the 50th anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Then, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. Then, there was Lyndon B. Johnson's announcement of fighting a war against poverty.

And now, the Beatles.

These are just the first of many. The sixties were particularly loaded with memorable events like that which still resonate to the present, far more than many other decades, it seems. Those already mentioned, as well as some of the other memorable scenes from the Civil Rights movement. But 1964 saw the assassination of Malcolm X, as well as America's involvement in the war in Vietnam, with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. That was the year that the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, as well.

Later in the decade, there were mass protests, as well as happenings in Vietnam - famous battles and events, like the Tet Offensive, and My Lai. There was the space race, and the huge lunar landing. There were clashes back at home, as well, with sit-ins and peaceful protests turned violent, such as at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There were riots, following another huge political assassination, this time of Martin Luther King, Jr.. About one month later, Bobby Kennedy would be similarly struck down by an assassin's bullet, just after winning the California primary for the Democratic Party's nomination for President. There was flower power, the so-called "Summer of Love" as hippies broke into national prominence. And, of course, there were huge musical events - the Beatles again, playing the first major outdoor stadium concert at the old Shea Stadium. Monterey Music Festival. And the biggest one of all - Woodstock.

And you can bet that we will relive those bits of history on the 50th anniversaries of each.

Not all of them are joyous, of course. The JFK assassination anniversary was obviously somber. The same will surely happen for the anniversaries of those other political assassinations, as well as for the tragedies that occurred in Vietnam.

But the anniversary of the Beatles was a happier memory. Surely it must sound highly cliche, but it almost seems a more innocent, even naive, time. It was still early in the sixties, not long after the JFK assassination, but before Vietnam, and the protests against the war, started to really flare up. Before the cynicism of the sixties set in. Before the mass use of drugs, before violent protests and riots. It was, in a sense, the end of that innocence of America's "Golden Age".

Yet, it was also the beginning of something new. A transformation. And what better band to represent both the end of the old, and beginning of the new, than the Beatles? They would change with the times, and even themselves help to usher in and define those changing times.

Today, we mark the 50th anniversary of their arrival in the United States, which was a momentous occasion not just for the Beatles, but for the United States, and indeed, the world.