August 15, 1965: The Beatles Play Shea Stadium

August 15, 1965: The Beatles launch their Summer tour of North America with a concert at the William A. Shea Municipal Stadium in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, in the Borough of Queens, in New York City.

A sellout crowd of 55,000 people, mostly teenage girls screaming their lungs out, attends. It was the 1st rock concert in a major stadium. In 1964, the Beatles had played sports arenas, where previous rock and roll acts had played large auditoriums at best.

But nobody knew how to do a stadium concert. As a result, the stage was set up at 2nd base, and the amplifiers weren't strong enough to overcome the screaming. As a result, the recordings of the concert aren't very good.

And the band rushed through 12 songs in just 31 minutes. Elsewhere in Queens, 14-year-old Jeffrey Hyman, later to be known as Joey Ramone, may have been taking notes. Here are the 12 songs, and their lead singers:

1. "Twist and Shout," just 1 verse, John Lennon.

2. "She's a Woman," Paul McCartney.

3. "I Feel Fine," John.

4. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," cover of a Larry Williams song, John.

5. "Ticket to Ride," John.

6. "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," cover of a Carl Perkins song, George Harrison.

7. "Can't Buy Me Love," Paul.

8. "Baby's In Black," John and Paul together.

9. "Act Naturally," cover of a Buck Owens song, Ringo Starr.

10. "A Hard Day's Night," John, with Paul singing the bridge.

11. "Help!", John.

12. "I'm Down," Paul.

So George and Ringo each got one song, a cover of a song by a singer each liked, while the other songs were sung by their main writer.

It wasn't much of a tour: 16 shows at 10 venues in 17 days. Here's the rest:

* August 17, 2 shows at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* August 18, Atlanta Stadium. (Brand-new, renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1974.)

* August 19, 2 shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

* August 20, 2 shows at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* August 21, Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* August 22, 2 shows at the Portland Memorial Coliseum in Oregon.

* August 23-27, 5 straight days off.

* August 28, Balboa Stadium in San Diego.
* August 29 and 30, a show each night at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

* August 31, 2 shows at the Grand National Livestock Pavilion, a.k.a. the Cow Palace, in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City, California.

Of the 10 venues, only Maple Leaf Gardens, the Portland Coliseum, the Hollywood Bowl and the Cow Palace still stand, 57 years later, and none of them is used by a major league sports team any longer.

The Beatles toured North America again the next year, including Shea, but that was it. The music they made thereafter was too complicated to be properly reproduced onstage with the technology then available. What's more, they hated touring, for reasons both petty and practical. Their last concert was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29, 1966 -- unless you count that little performance on the roof of Apple Records in London on January 30, 1969.

By the time Grand Funk Railroad played Shea in 1971 -- the tickets famously selling faster than did those for the Beatles -- stadium operators knew how to set up concerts. Big speakers were put against the outfield fence, the stage was put in center field, and seating was put in the infield. Also by this point, concert producers were figuring out how to incorporate orchestras into rock concerts, to make it possible to play songs like the Beatles had recorded for their later albums. But they had broken up in 1970.

From the start of its construction, Shea was owned by the City of New York, Department of Parks and Recreation. So the City approved the Beatles concert. At the time, Yankee Stadium was in a weird situation: The structure was owned by Rice University in Houston (which must sound strange to Yankee Fans familiar with the Yankees' 2015-present struggles with the Houston Astros), while the land underneath it was owned by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal/charity organization. So even if the Yankee organization was willing to sully their Stadium with those longhaired Mop Tops and their loud music, they had no say in the matter.

In 1972, the City bought Yankee Stadium and its land, and ran both ballparks through the Parks Department through the 2008 season. So both ballparks hosted their shares of concerts. The new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are owned by their respective teams, who have permitted concerts at each.

As a soloist, Paul McCartney would play at the original Yankee Stadium, and attend World Series games there. In 2008, Billy Joel -- 16 years old and living in nearby Hicksville, Long Island when the Beatles first played Shea -- played the last concert at Shea Stadium, and Paul was a special guest. In 2009, Paul played the 1st concert at Shea's replacement, Citi Field, and invited Billy.

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August 15, 1965 was a Sunday. It was the off-season for the NFL, the AFL, the NBA and the NHL. But this was still the era of Sunday doubleheaders in baseball, so more than a full slate of games was played:

* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Kansas City Athletics at the old Yankee Stadium. The A's won the 1st game, 4-1. Roger Repoz hit a home run, but the Yankees only got 3 other hits. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-3. Mel Stottlemyre was beaten by A's rookie Jim "Catfish" Hunter.

The Yankees won the 2nd game, 7-3. An aching Mantle didn't play, but Bobby Richardson, Joe Pepitone and Jake Gibbs all hit home runs. Bill Stafford started, but Steve Hamilton ended up as the winning pitcher.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 3-0 at the brand-new Astrodome in Houston. Al Jackson allowed 7 hits, but pitched a shutout, supported by a home run from Ron Swoboda.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Washington Senators beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Minnesota Twins won the opener, 4-3. The Cleveland Indians won the nightcap, 6-4, on a walkoff home run by Leon Wagner in the 11th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers swept a doubleheader from the California Angels at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers won the 1st game, 9-2; and the 2nd game, 9-5.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Don Dillard's groundout scored the winning run in the top of the 12th inning. Earlier, Hank Aaron and Mack Jones hit home runs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 12-7 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 15-9 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. A year later, on August 29, 1966, Candlestick hosted the Beatles' last full concert together. On August 14, 2014, Paul McCartney's solo tour took him to Candlestick, and his concert was the last event ever held there before its demolition.