The Phenomenon: Step 45

During the month of February, 1964 three astonishing events took place. In reverse chronological order they were my bar mitzvah, a flamboyant but as yet unknown fighter upset the meanest baddest heavyweight, and four Liverpudlians managed to create a revolution the likes of which had not been seen since Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. Vee Jay and Capitol records released Introducing the Beatles and Meet the Beatles, respectively, in January. But, it was their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show for three Sundays in a row that sealed their fate. They were simply a phenomenon. Even my mother, a classically trained pianist, found their music more melodic than the songs of previous rock and roll hits, like Elvis. Through the marketing genius of their manager, Brian Epstein, the Beatles appeared for less money than they were offered, but opened and closed each of those shows. Wearing what for the time was considered long hair and matching four button suits they sang the songs on the aforementioned albums, including the hit singles I Want To Hold Your Hand and Please, Please Me. By singing Do You Want to Know a Secret and She Loves You on the later broadcasts they set the stage for the release of their next albums and the longest run of the same artist holding the number one spot with a series of hits on the Billboard charts. Not only was their music played continuously on both WOKY and WRIT the two top forty radio stations in Milwaukee, their images adorned the posters plastered over the walls of every teenage girl’s bedroom, and that spring instead of Eddie Matthews and Hank Aaron being the most popular trading cards, John, Paul, George and Ringo were swapped throughout the halls of every junior high in the city. In September they would actually come to Milwaukee and play at the arena. My first concert was still months away, but cousin Jim’s sister Shelley was one of the lucky ones. Amazingly, though, it was that February when those four with the youngest not yet twenty climbed onto that stage in New York, already battle tested in Hamburg, and captured the minds and hearts of millions of young Americans. With the gifted musician standing in the middle playing the intricate melodies on his lead guitar, flanked by the left handed bass player with the smooth voice and dashing good looks on his right and the prolific inventive writing rhythm guitarist on his left, backed by the drummer on the stand brought in just eighteen months ago to be the glue, they changed the face of popular culture forever. Sometimes, it is hard to imagine in this age of sophisticated music videos that some simple four part harmonies accompanied by holding the word “high” for an eight count, shaking heads back and forth while squealing an ooooooooh, and a few yeah, yeah, yeahs was all it took.