Do You Remember the Beatles?

The Beatles were in the news today as the death of George Martin was announced. Martin, sometimes called, the fifth Beatle, was the producer who helped shape the Beatles and their songs and in the process changed rock music forever. Everyone talking about his death today made me remember when I was young and first hearing the Beatles.

Before the Beatles came on the scene, the biggest music controversy was who did you like best? Pat Boone or Elvis Presley. Your parents wanted you to say Pat Boone but most of us were ready to rock along with Elvis. And then the Beatles exploded on the scene. It did seem like an explosion. You heard them singing “I want to Hold Your Hand” in their British voices and you watched them slinging their heads to make their long moppish hair flop this way and that. Somehow, you knew music would never be the same.

Of course, girls had screamed for Elvis, but things went completely haywire when the Beatles started singing. I didn’t scream for the Beatles or any other singer. Screaming was reserved for almost stepping on a snake or feeling a spider crawling up your arm. But once my girlfriends and I did do some screaming and got in a spot of trouble for it.

Back in my high school days, we had a a small group of kids in our 4-H Club. Every year we had a talent show with all the county schools competing against one another. In the elementary schools, the principals and teachers made sure the 4-H Clubs in their schools had great programs. We practiced during the school days. When we got to high school, we lost that kind of teacher support, but we were still ready to showcase some talent. Our group act was tidbits of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals. We didn’t win, but we should have gotten an award for being gutsy enough to try it on our own. Then for the small group act, four of the guys found long hair wigs somewhere and a set of drums and a couple of guitars and lip-synced and mimicked the Beatles. Well, of course, the girls had to support our fellow club members by screaming like the Beatles’ fans. It was fun to act crazy. But one of the principals, noted for her sternness and total lack of good humor, wanted to ship us all off to juvenile detention or something.

I used my memory of that event and let Jocie write about it on the Heart of Hollyhill blog, Here’s the link if you want to take a peek back at it.

While I was never a screaming fan of the Beatles, I did like many of their songs. “Yesterday” was probably my favorite. Did you like the Beatles? Which songs were your favorites?

As always, thanks for reading. Check back Sunday for a new book giveaway contest. Maybe we’ll have some picture caption fun.