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I was all hyped up before The Beatles played Sullivan, but I point out 9FEB64, their first American TV appearance, as the day the lights came on for me.
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I do remember. I was 9 years old and it was second half of December 1963. Me and my parents were at a drive-in malt shop getting hamburgers and milk shakes in my home town of Manhattan Beach, CA (on Sepulveda Blvd) when I Want To Hold Your Hand came on the LA radio station (probably KFWB or KHJ). Even at that young age I was absolutely grabbed and wanted to find out everything I could from that point forward. So, by 2/9/64 I was already well primed for the TV debut. That cemented the deal.

I was sort of born into them. I was born in 1961, and some of my earliest memories involved the 45 of "Eight Days a Week" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party". I still adore those two songs.

My older sister had weird obsessions...she used to "be" Ilya Kuriakin (sp?) the David McCallum character in "Man from U.N.C.L.E."...but then she became Ringo. And once she was Ringo, she declared I was John, and we used to pretend to be the Beatles every day throughout the mid sixties. I used to think John was Paul...when she pointed out I was actually the other guy, I remember feeling a bit disappointed. Now I'm sort of proud that I was John. My dad used to get so angry that we were always lost "in Fantasyland". I remember every record being released since Revolver. She eventually moved on and became Joe Cocker, then a boxer, then a Rastafarian, and now she's an Elvis impersonator. But I never let go of the Beatles. I've always continued to listen to them closely. When I first learned to play piano when I was 10 or 11, I taught myself "Let It Be" and surprised a few adults because it sounded right. And once I learned guitar, I played all the Beatles songs I could on solo acoustic. None of the books back then ever seemed to get the chords right, so I figured them out by listening.

The night Lennon died I was doing a solo gig in which I had intended to do all Beatles covers...so imagine my cosmic dismay when I heard the news over the radio just before I was supposed to go on for my hour at midnight in Minnesota. I told the audience and they laughed, thinking I was putting them on. I started with "A Day in the Life" and fumbled through the set, playing poorly but with much feeling, as the audience slowly learned the truth of the matter. Such a drag.

And all through my adult life, the obsession remained. A book here, a CD there. "Haven't you heard that enough already?" "Um, no..." I used to put my girls to sleep playing "Blackbird" and "Good Night". I used to rile them up playing "All Together Now". The Lewisohn books...the Anthology...Geoff Emerick's book...the "love" album...

And I guess will never stop. I just recorded this last Tuesday and Wednesday:

Hey Bulldog

Cheers!

-Mark

My dad had on the Beatles Anthology and I tried to ignore it. All of a sudden the promo vid for Hello Goodbye came on and I was hooked. I wanted Paul's bass.

Hey Mark, fantastic recording!

My older brother made me watch them on Ed Sullivan when I was 6.

Being an old rock n roller I was into the Beatles back in the 60's. I was a young boy in 1964, 7 years old to be exact and the Beatles were all over AM radio. Remember AM radio? My Grandmother bought me "Meet The Beatles" & My brother "The Beatles Something New" album (does anyone remember Vinyl ?) these of course are the american Capital releases. I have been a huge Beatles fan ever since and even peformed in a Beatles tribute band back in the mid 90's.