Four Lads Who Shook The World

I went to You Tube a little while ago to search for a song/video to post on my Facebook page. See, today marks the release of the entire “Beatles” collection in a re-mastered digital format. Supposed to be incredible sound so I know it’s something I will try to add to my collection on a piece by piece basis. Anyway, I found it incredibly difficult to pick one that would be the perfect song to put on my page. Not because it wouldn’t be the right song, it’s much simpler than that.

See, every time I would pick a song and would be listening to it, I would have another song pop into my head. The Beatles recorded 214 songs between the years 1962 and 1970 and I’m thinking that you and I probably not only like but also know the words to well over 95% of them. They were and still are the most popular musical act in the history of popular music. There will be a number of people who may argue with me on that last point and I will defend my stance to my last breath. I say that for a few different reasons, the first, and most compelling, is that they simply changed the world we live in.

Pretty heavy statement, I know, but let’s just think about it for a second. In the mid sixties, long hair on men became popular. Who do you think made that happen? Fashion changed dramatically in that decade. The Beatles were at the forefront of this change. The Beatles started releasing promotional videos of their songs in the mid sixties, 15 years before anyone ever heard of MTV. Remember how you used to love listening to an album and reading the lyrics that were included with the album? Well, guess who was the first to ever do that? Bottom line, ask anyone over 30 who John Paul George and Ringo are and they’ll tell you. Turn that around and ask anyone over 30 to name all four Beatles, they’ll be able to tell you that too.

Musically they were much more than just a pop band. The Beatles were the first band to use electric keyboards and synthesizers in their music. The writing team of Lennon and McCartney were, without question, the greatest songwriting team in popular music history. The songs still stand on their own to this day. Let’s talk about those songs for a bit. Well, that’s where this whole piece started, where does one begin with a catalogue like theirs?

Do you just look at their beginning? You certainly couldn’t go wrong with songs like: I Saw Her Standing There, Please, Please Me and Love Me Do. All nice, clean pop ditties that we all know, all released in the U.S. in 1964. In the same year, just to show you how much the song writing matured, they also released songs such as: No Reply, I’m A Loser and If I Fell. The latter two incredibly deep songs for a band thought to be just a fad that would wear out their welcome at any time. They also filmed “A Hard Days Night” and released the soundtrack during the same year.

The following year the movie “Help” was released. Some of the songs on in the film included: Ticket To Ride, You’re Gonna Lose That Girl and You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away along with the title track. So far, all songs that everyone, including your parents, knows by heart. At this point if the band never released anything else in their careers they would still be remembered for the impact they had on popular culture along with the music. We all know they were just beginning. Keep in mind that the group basically invented the album. By that I mean that, until The Beatles, albums contained one hit and filler, songs that really weren’t worthwhile and few even listened to. The Beatles, on the other hand could have released most every song they recorded as a single. There simply weren’t any bad songs.1965 also brought the release of my personal favorite album of theirs, Rubber Soul. There isn’t one song on the album that I don’t absolutely adore. I’ll only list a few, I’ve Just Seen A Face, You Won’t See Me, It’s Only Love and In My Life. All outstanding songs that still can hold their own to this day.

To save some time I’m going to skip 1966 and go straight to the album that other albums would be measured against for years. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Simply a masterpiece. If I need to list any of the songs on this album, well, you just don’t know music. Two songs that were recorded during the time of this album, yet not released on any album until after the band broke up, were Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. They were released as a single with one being on the flip side of the other. Think about that, two of the most popular songs in music were released as a single together. They did this a number of times in their day. Truly giving fans real value for their money.

I could go through each album released by The Beatles and give a solid argument of how amazing the band was. I won’t because I find it hard to believe that there could be any argument to the contrary. You can take any music recorded by any popular artist since The Beatles and find their influence. You can’t say that about any other artist. In Liverpool, where the band came from, is a monument. It’s a statue of the group with the inscription, “Four lads who shook the world”. How can anyone deny that.