The British Invasion!

It was a long time coming, but here it is. Finally, after the Beatles had dominated the charts in their own country for the entire year of 1963, America gets their first taste of the Beatles. For those who lived through it, it was as if everything changed overnight.

Overnight, everything before the Beatles sounded passé. Everything to come afterward needed to acknowledge some influence of the Beatles in order to remain relevant. Some careers were ruined, especially for the older artists who were unwilling to change with the times, while for younger fans, a whole new future opened up. Suddenly, every girl wanted to date a Beatle, and every boy wanted to be a Beatle (which meant that a lot of American kids started to play their own brand of rock and roll music).

Before the Beatles, the very idea of a group that wrote, sung, and played their own material was a very rare thing (the Beach Boys being one exception that comes to mind). From this point on, everything was different and popular music was never again the same.

Songs featured in this program (all performed by the Beatles) include;

1) Johnny B. Goode

2) Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand

3) Sie Lieb Dicht

4) Can’t Buy Me Love (1st version)

5) I Want to Hold Your Hand

6) She Loves You

7) I Saw Her Standing There

8) All My Loving

9) She Loves You (reprise)