50 Years of The Beatles

By United Press International, photographer unknown
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Is there a certain song that instantly transports you back in time? The melody accompanying a road trip where you watched the familiar melt away, and the new surround you. The song that filled a room full of spinning lights and laughter at a school dance. The tune a family member used to hum while they completed a mundane task. The entire album of the first band you fell in love with that you sang at the top of your lungs, windows rolled down. Memories that can not be separated from their soundtrack.

The Beatles are who I remember playing in the background while we sang and danced along. They were playing while we cleaned the house, while we had a lazy morning, and while we drove down the road to new adventures. Sure, there were plenty of other bands and songs playing in the background, but The Beatles have stuck with me my whole life. Their songs still make me smile, make me tap my fingers on the steering wheel, and make me want to dance. They were one of the few bands that as technology changed, I replaced their albums with the latest format, from vinyl, to tape, to CD, to MP3. The movies they made also represent an evolution in technology, from black and white, to color, to cartoon!

Beatlemania hit the United States in 1964, the same year the Albertsons Library opened. The Beatles performance on the Ed Sullivan Show was undoubtedly the turning point for many of their fans. According to this documentary, not only did the crime rate drop that day, but 40% of the TOTAL U.S. population watched their performance. Go back and read that again, let it sink in. Forty percent! 

One thing about Beatlemania I’ll never understand is, why did all those people buy tickets to hear a band play, but spend the whole time screaming so loud they probably didn’t hear a single song? 

Dig the Beatles? Check ‘em out from the Albertsons Library!

Yellow submarine record, http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/42531861
Help! record, http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/4331454
We're Going to See the Beatles!" ebook  http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/870597460
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band CD http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/15860942
The Beatles Anthology DVD, http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/51961909

Deana Brown,
Reference Librarian

 


















This blog post is the fifth in a series, produced in coordination with the celebration of Albertsons Library’s 50th Anniversary. #BoiseStLibraryat50