“This past Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, and all this month, the media will be filled with Beatles tributes. Some young people don’t get Beatlemania. Having grown up on modern pop and rap, they don’t understand the concept of music being that important. Or frankly, that good. But I remember being an 8-year-old kid in a little town in South Arkansas that no one had ever heard of. I watched the Beatles with my family on our black and white TV that got its signal off our housetop antenna, all the way from Shreveport, Louisiana. And that night, when I saw those four guys from Liverpool, I thought, “I need to get a guitar, and I’ll become the fifth Beatle.” Now, it would take three years of begging my parents for an electric guitar before I’d ever get one. And it was a sacrifice for my parents. They ordered one from the JC Penney catalog, paid a little bit each month for a year, until they finally covered the $99 that the little guitar cost. I’ve talked before about how it helped a shy kid come out of his shell and led me into a career in politics and the media. That guitar changed my life. And the Beatles changed the world.

They came just at the right time. Our nation was in a deep funk after the murder of our young and visionary President. Race riots were turning major cities into battlegrounds, as horrible things were happening to civil rights leaders who rightfully demanded that all Americans be given justice and freedom. Then there was a war in Southeast Asia looming on the horizon. America needed hope and a diversion. And the energy and freshness of those four young men from Liverpool ignited something that could not be quenched. As our parents screamed, “Turn that noise down,” we turned it up.

Who would’ve thought that 50 years later, we’d be telling our grandchildren, “Turn that music UP! It’s the Beatles!”

“Beatlemania was a Broadway musical revue focused on the music of The Beatles as it related to the events and changing attitudes of the tumultuous 1960s. A” rockumentary “, advertised as “ Not theBeatles, but an incredible simulation “, it ran from 1977 to 1979 for a total of 920 performances.”

The Black Crook (1866), which some historians consider the first musical (1866), which some historians consider the first musical [1]

Wikipedia:

“Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue , acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos , love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.”

Guess one could say in my case the Beatles brought a cultural diversity to a young southern girl in a small rural town in Georgia, USA, shaping a desire, which destined me down that long winding road to travels and adventures in foreign lands .

More often than not ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE .

Each person’s list of top Beatles songs is as diverse as the individuals themselves. It took me so long to find out but I found out, I took the easy way out, Let it Be.

The Beatles-100 Greatest Songs (Rolling Stone Magazine) The Beatles-100 Greatest Songs (Rolling Stone Magazine)

Top 30 Beatles Songs

Top 20 Beatles Songs

Beatles – Songs from A to Z

One day you will find that I am gone… but not forgotten.