Beatles

One day in the 1950s, my dad bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder. It was as big and heavy as a suitcase full of bricks, but it was a marvel of its time. One afternoon in January, 1964, I was using it to record music off the radio. I would record a song and at the end, if I didn’t like the song, I would rewind the tape and record the next song over it.

A song came on the radio, recorded by a group called the Beatles. I had never heard of the band; their music had been released in the US only a month earlier. I hadn’t heard this song, a tune called “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” When it ended, I wasn’t sure I liked it. I rewound the tape to record over it. But there was something different about that song. I decided to listen to it again. I pushed the Play button, and as it played I thought, “That’s not bad.”  When the song ended for the second time I thought, “This song is a keeper.”

Soon, the Beatles were all over AM radio. I could tune from radio station to radio station and hear a different Beatles song playing on every station. I was amazed at how many hits they were cranking out. But more than that, the Beatles evolved and their music evolved.

If you listen to pop music before the Beatles and then listen to pop music after the Beatles, there is no comparison. Before the Beatles, much of pop was just bubble gum. There were exceptions: black rockers who couldn’t get mainstream airtime, blues, folk, and jazz musicians. Singers like Elvis, bands like The Beach Boys and folk-rockers like Peter Paul and Mary were recording good music, but R’N’R was still saddled with past hits such as “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?”, and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, and “The Purple People Eater.”  The Beatles blasted that bubble gum music off the landscape for good. They initiated an era of R’N’R that was more innovative, complex, creative, and distinctive.

Words alone can’t convey the impact the Beatles had on music and our culture. It’s an overused phrase, but true: you had to be there.