Photo by Luiz Fernando Reis (Bealtes cor 36 on Flickr)
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Image courtesy of niteprowl3r Flickr page - beatles: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sreichenbach/3025971406/in/photolist-5BoTSN-6Kp6DG-9oQPyZ-6Kp8vw-6Kp9oJ-6KjXm4-6KoV2S-6KjVca-eC4tTE-6Kp3Qm-6Kp3hq-6KoWdy-6KjLZg-6Kp5yf-6KjUgt-6Kp6TN-6KjXdM-6Kp45N-6Kp1WY-6KoUGs-6KoVYG-6KoUx9-6Kp153-6KoX3q-6KoZUu-6KjLoH-6KoVv9-6KoXvh-4vA8mP-6Kp4SW-6KjWq6-6Kp4xm-6KjVXZ-6Kp4hS-6Kk1G6-6KkdtD-6KjMRH-6KoVS5-r1ZqRn-6KjZfx-6KjMrx-6KjZue-6KjYzt-6Kp7D9-bCr2k3-aWjPYX-6KvxqP-6Kp7R7-aUXW5n-6KjZW8
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It was on this day in 1964 - 60 years ago exactly- that the Beatles arrived in New York City for the first time ever, to adoring, screaming fans. We have all seen the video images of fans greeting them at the airport, of screaming fans waiting outside of their hotel, just hoping to catch a glimpse of them. And of course, of their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, again to throngs of screaming teenage girls almost delirious with adoration and excitement.
The Beatles were heartthrobs at the time. For the most part, they seemed like the equivalent to a modern day boy band. However, we all know that they would come to be so much more than that. In fact, they quite literally changed music history. Imagining a world of music today without the Beatles and their influence is not just difficult, but pretty much impossible. There were just so many things that they were the first at, from being the first of the Second British Invasion bands to make it really big in America, to being the first band to enjoy the level of success that they would come to have, including a record amount of number one hits, to being the first band to hold major outdoor concerts - again to thousands of screaming, adoring fans - and setting the pace for all that was to come in time. Plus, of course, the influence from their actual music. After all, I cannot think of a single band that had more widely different sounds and styles in their music. Think of the music that they were playing in those early days when they were first enjoying international stardom, and then fast-forward to albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, and then onto Sgt. Pepper's, I Am the Walrus the White album, Let It Be, and finally Abbey Road.
Now, let me make clear: I was not yet born when the Beatles first made it big in America back in 1964. Hell, it would be more than ten years before I was born, and the Beatles would no longer be a band by that point in time. But I grew up on the Beatles nevertheless, and so their music brings me back to those youthful, innocent days, when still a wide-eyed little boy. Their music was great, even if the strange, black and white images of their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show to those screaming girls, or the first live outdoor shows - especially at Shea - revealed a glimpse of a very different world. Indeed, it was a different world. But the music of the Beatles transcends that. Their is a quality that is truly universal and timeless to their music. That is why they are remembered still today, even though more than half a century now has passed since they broke up and ceased to be a band anymore. Two of them are gone, yet on some level, they as a band endure.
Yes, their influence lives on, even after all of these years, and really all of these decades, later. Look at how huge the recent Peter Jackson Get Back movie was over the Thanksgiving weekend. The Beatles endure. People still listen to and love their music, and obviously, that includes me. They are the one band that I can think of, quite literally, that I never got tired of, even briefly. They are the only band that I never turned off when they came on the radio, thinking that I just am not in the mood for them. Even groups and musical acts that most people know I love are bands that, at least from time to time, are quickly switched off when they come on the radio, because I just am not in the mood for them at a particular moment. The Beatles are different. There may be some individual songs that I am admittedly less enthusiastic for than others from their wide body of work. But generally, it is never the entire band, of "their sound," that feels tiresome or overly repetitive. Again, how can it be, when the stuff that they released in 1964, say, sounds so very different than what they would release even less than two years later, or how different the stuff that they produced in their final couple of years sounded than anything that they came out with before that.
So here's to the Beatles, who really began to explode onto the world scene beginning on this day, back in 1964.
1964 February 07 The Beatles arrive in New York
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/beatles-arrive-in-new-york
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