Where were you 50 years ago today, Baby Boomers? I was in my sophomore year at a third-rate Catholic prep school in New Jersey that fancied itself first-rate. I was reading The Conscience of a Conservative, “The Federalist Papers” and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged – after the class bully, who sat behind me, hit me over the head with it. It made an immediate first impression – on my skull. .
Where were you? Smoking in the boys’ room? Hiding in the bathroom with a copy of “Playboy”? Gearing up for a visit in the military to some little place in Southeast Asia?
The big hubbub in music those days came from England. The Beatles, who had been a major group for two years across the pond, brought their music to America. Paul McCartney was a fresh voice, a songwriter in the caliber of Franz Schubert, George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers, and his first backup band featured some monumental talents. They made their first splash, and then soon after, three years worth of songs were released by Capitol Records and a variety of other labels who cashed in during the resulting chaos of conflicting copyright claims. What could be fresher and more innocent than wanting to hold a girl’s hand? That guitar riff that opens the song sets the table perfectly for what comes; it grabs your attention.
The Beatles: “I Want to Hold Your Hand’
The other side was a bit harder, with references to Elvis and Chuck Berry.
Married! :)
The Beatles hit America while my AF hubby was in Korea on a year’s tour. He was shocked at them when he got home. LOL!
I was celebtating my 2nd birthday. :)
I remember that February evening seeing the Beatles for the first time on Ed Sullivan.
They are STILL the #1 requested songwriters by my guitar (pre-teen)students, closely followed by the Stones, with occasional forays into Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and the Doors.
But ALWAYS the Beatles.
“Where were you 50 years ago today, Baby Boomers?”
I do not remember exactly but I was probably underwater somewhere in the world and maybe even under the ice. ;-)
In its December 5 and 19, 1963 issues, The Pleiades, the newspaper at Fullerton High School in Fullerton, Calif. published a series of "most admired" lists after polling the students as to their favorite international figures, actors, actresses, TV programs, musicians, songs, etc. Due to space limitations and time constraints (HTML didn't exist in 1963, so everything has to be coded up), I'm only including the lists of musicians, musical groups and songs.
The top male musicians: