So much was happening during the first few weeks of the Beatles’ assault on American that is hard to accurately capture the spirit of the insanity that almost instantly ensued.

If you were young enough, the arrival of the Beatles was sort of like that scene in The Wizard of Oz when everything is suddenly seen in full living color. Before then, there may have been a sense that something was missing. In their wake, everything looked different. All of a sudden, all of the other guests on the Ed Sullivan Show looked hopelessly out of date.

The very fabric of American culture was proven to be simply too conservative to contain the Beatles, and miraculously, it was our own culture that changed to fit theirs, not vice versa. In January of 1964, the United States became a different place than it had been in December of 1963. Here is why;

1) Please Please Me

2) Twist and Shout

3) My Bonnie

4) Do You Want to Know a Secret

5) Love Me Do

6) You Can’t Do That (early version)

7) And I Love Her

8) From Us to You

9) Can’t Buy Me Love (live)

10) From Fluff to You

11) Till There Was You

12) Can’t Buy Me Love

13) You Can’t Do That