December 3, 1965: The Greatest Day In British Rock

December 3, 1965: This might have been the greatest day in the history of British rock and roll.

The Beatles release their album Rubber Soul. Rock historian Dave Marsh said it proved they could have been stars even if they never released a single uptempo song.

John Lennon songs, listed in the order in which they appear on the album: "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," supposedly about an affair the married John had with British journalist Maureen Cleave, who soon did the interview in which John said, "We're more popular than Jesus now"; "Nowhere Man," which he later said was describing his own feelings of feeling "lost" at that point; "The Word"; "Girl," which upset some people with its reference to death; "In My Life," which might be my favorite Beatles song; "Wait"; and "Run for Your Life."

That last one starts by borrowing a line from an early Elvis Presley song, "Baby Let's Play House": "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man." John later regretted using that line, among the many things he came to regret, including his own history of domestic violence toward his 1st wife, Cynthia Twist, and some of the women he used to cheat on Cynthia.

Paul McCartney songs: "Drive My Car," inspiring many radio stations' traffic reports; "You Won't See Me"; "Michelle," which translates the words, "These are words that go together well" into French as "Sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble"; and "I'm Looking Through You." This was much more a John album than a Paul album. Every remaining Beatle album, all 7 of them, would be more of a Paul albums, in some cases much more.

George Harrison songs: "Think for Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone." Having begun his study of Eastern music and philosophy, George also made "Norwegian Wood" the 1st recorded song outside India to have a sitar on it. Ringo Starr's obligatory one song on the album: "What Goes On," which he co-wrote with John and Paul.

On the exact same day, The Rolling Stones released December's Children (And Everybody's). It included the original Mick Jagger & Keith Richards-written "Get Off of My Cloud," which hit Number 1, and "As Tears Go By," which had already been a hit for Marianne Faithfull, soon to leave her husband and become Jagger's girlfriend.

It also included covers, of Sonny & Cher's "She Said Yeah," Chuck Berry's "Talkin' About You," Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On," Muddy Waters' "Look What You've Done," Bobby Troup's "Route 66," and Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On."

And The Who released their debut album, My Generation. It included the title track, with its unforgettable line, "Hope I die before I get old." Songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend explained that lead singer Roger Daltrey was stuttering because the character he was playing was high on amphetamines, the main drug of choice for English "mods." There was also the line, "Why don't you all just... f... f... f... fade away!" It was lost on American audiences: They only heard the stutter, because they were not yet familiar with the English expression, "Fuck off!"

The album also included "The Kids Are Alright," and covers of James Brown's "Please, Please, Please" and Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man."

While The Beatles were trying to move forward as songwriters and musicians, the Stones and The Who were embracing their roots as fans of American blues and rhythm & blues (R&B), or in the case of the Snow cover, country music -- exemplified by their album's cover photo being in black & white. The Who would come to call what they played "Maximum R&B," even though it sounded nothing like R&B as Americans understood the term.

Later British acts would follow in the footsteps of these 2 bands, with Led Zeppelin covering blues songs in such a way that they seemed to be among the inventors of what became known as "heavy metal."

John Mayall had formed a band known as the Bluesbreakers, whose members, at various times, included Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce of Cream; Mick Taylor, who would replace Brian Jones in the Stones, before being himself replaced by Faces guitarist Ron Wood; Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac; and drummer Aynsley Dunbar of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Journey, and Jefferson Starship.

And there was a band named Bluesology, whose members included saxophonist Elton Dean, singer Long John Baldry, and a young pianist named Reginald Dwight, who took the names of each of the preceding, becoming Elton John.

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December 3, 1965 was a Friday. Olympic figure skater Katarina Witt, arguably both the first and the last person from the nation known in the West as "East Germany" to be popular in the West, was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. And no games were scheduled for the NHL. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics, 119-103 at the Boston Garden. Just another day at the office for Wilt Chamberlain: With Bill Russell guarding him, he scored 28 points and grabbed 30 rebounds. And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 122-118 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Jerry West scored 51 points.

September 4, 1962: The Beatles' 1st Recording Session

September 4, 1962: The Beatles have their 1st recording session with EMI-Parlophone Records. No one could yet foresee that the band would be so successful, they would pretty much own what was once Electrical & Mechanical Industries, and it would be renamed Apple Records.

To set the scene: For less than a year, the band from Liverpool, England had been managed by Brian Epstein, who took them out of their black leather jackets and pants, and put them in business suits, but encouraged their continued efforts to write their own songs with nice harmonies.

He had gotten them signed to EMI, on the provision that rhythm guitarist John Lennon, bass guitarist Paul McCartney and lead guitarist George Harrison fire drummer Pete Best, and replace him with Richard Starkey, a.k.a. Ringo Starr, a drummer from another Liverpool band, with whom they were already familiar and liked.

Now, they were at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, ready to record professionally for the first time. And what would become famous as their "quirky Liverpool sense of humor" was already apparent. Producer George Martin, who would become integral in their success, told them, "Let me know if there's anything you don't like." And Harrison said, "Well, for starters, I don't like your tie."

The band rehearsed 6 songs. One was "Please Please Me," which would become their 2nd single and their 1st really big hit. One was "How Do You Do It?" which Mitch Murray had written for Adam Faith, one of the earliest British rock stars. Martin insisted that this be the band's 1st single. They recorded it, but it wasn't very good. John sang lead, and it's clear that none of them had their hearts in it. The song would be recorded the next year as the 1st single by another Liverpool band, Gerry & The Pacemakers, and there version was a lot better.

Martin wanted them to play a pre-written song: "It wasn't a question of what they could do, as they hadn't written anything great at that time. But what impressed me most was their personalities. Sparks flew off them when you talked to them."

But he let them record 2 songs that they had written. One was "Love Me Do." In later interviews, John said that it was mostly Paul's composition, saying, "Maybe I helped out in the middle." But Paul, for once deflecting some credit, said it was a 50-50 writing effort, as a lot of their early songs were. The other was "P.S. I Love You," which, clearly, was all Paul. Paul sang lead on both.

Martin agreed to let them record "Love Me Do" because he liked the harmonica that John played on it. Although Martin was used to recording jazz, he said John's harmonica part on a version of the song they had previously recorded with Best on drums reminded him of blues records he liked by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. So it was recorded, the 1st session with what would become the familiar lineup: "John, Paul, George and Ringo."

And Martin didn't like it. He had them come back in a week later, on September 11, 1962, and record it again. This time, a session drummer, Andy White, was brought in to play drums, and Ringo was relegated to playing the tambourine.

The version with Ringo on drums was released as the single -- and proved Martin's point. It only reached Number 17 on the British music charts. The version with White on drums was put on the group's 1st album, titled Please Please Me, after the 2nd single which was released around the same time. This would be the version released as the U.S. version of the single. The way to tell the difference is that the one where Ringo plays drums has no tambourine on it. I have to admit: The White version is better. Even the vocals are better on it.

By the time that album was recorded, in a single all-day session on February 11, 1963, Ringo had been with the band a bit longer, and was more integrated into them, and they sounded better together. "Please Please Me" was their 1st U.K. Number 1, and even Mimi Smith, John's hyper-critical aunt, who practically raised him, and told them "Love Me Do" was no good, said she liked it. The rest is history. 

Andy White, a Scotsman, was 32 years old at the time, 10 years older than Ringo, the oldest Beatle. He was the drummer every British producer wanted, a Scottish version of New York's Buddy Saltzman, New Orleans' Earl Palmer and Los Angeles' Hal Blaine. He would end up drumming on some of the biggest soloists' hits to come off the Sceptered Isle in the Swinging Sixties, including "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones and Lulu's version of The Isley Brothers' "Shout."

Despite his name, he had nothing to do with The Beatles, the 1968 production nicknamed "The White Album" for its all-white cover. In the 1980s, he moved to New Jersey, taught drumming, and lived until 2015, at the age of 85.

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September 4, 1962 was a Tuesday. It was a few days before the NFL and AFL seasons would begin, and several weeks before the starts of the NBA and NHL seasons. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Angels, 7-6 at the old Yankee Stadium. Mickey Mantle did not play. Clete Boyer hit a home run, but Whitey Ford ran out of gas in the 7th inning, and the Angels scored 6 runs, including a home run by Lee Thomas. The Yankees tied it 6-6 in the 8th, but a single by future Angels, Milwaukee Brewers and Montreal Expos manager Robert "Buck" Rodgers off Bud Daley won it for the Halos in the 9th.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The expansion Mets went 40-120 that year, the most losses in any season in the 20th Century. There would be only 14 days in 1962 that the Mets won and the Yankees lost, and this was not one of them.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Dick Donovan, on the staff of Chicago's 1959 Pennant-winning "Go-Go White Sox," pitched all 13 innings for the Indians. This was a mistake by manager Al Lopez, as Al Smith singled home the winning run off him.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee, Braves, 9-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Warren Spahn didn't have it that day. Eddie Mathews hit 2 home runs, and Hank Aaron hit a double, but it wasn't enough.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-1 at the original Busch Stadium, formerly Sportsman's Park, in St. Louis. Stan Musial hit a home run.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. In 1965, the Colts would move into the Astrodome, and change their name to the Houston Astros.

* The Baltimore Orioles were supposed to host the Detroit Tigers at Memorial Stadium, but the game was rained out. It was played the next day, as part of a doubleheader. The Tigers won both games, taking the 1st 5-2, and the 2nd 6-0, as Hank Aguirre pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Minnesota Twins and the Washington Senators were also rained out that day -- not surprising, as Washington and Baltimore are so close, although the Yankees' game with the Angels in New York was played as scheduled. This game was also rescheduled as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Twins won the opener 9-7, on a Vic Power double in the 11th inning. The Senators won the 2nd game 3-0, as Claude Osteen pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Tom Haller and Jose Pagan hit home runs in defeat. Willie Mays went 0-for-3. This win put the Dodgers 3 1/2 games ahead of the Giants with 23 games left to play (24 for the Giants). But they would finish tied for the Pennant, and, as in 1951 on the other coast, the Giants would win the Playoff. Also as in 1951, the Giants would lose the World Series to the Yankees.

August 29, 1966: The Beatles' Last Official Concert

August 29, 1966: The Beatles conclude their World Tour at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants. It turns out to be the last time all four of them would play together before a paying audience.

The tour had been tough. It had started in June 24, in Munich, West Germany, followed by shows the next night in Essen, then in Hamburg, where they had "grown up as a band" in 1960. They went to the Far East, doing 5 shows in 3 days at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, which had become a shrine for the sport of sumo wrestling, and it led to objections that they were soiling an ancient art. The art may have been ancient, but the venue was less than 2 years old, having been built for the 1964 Olympics. As it turned out, it has become better-known for its rock concerts.

Then came 2 shows at Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on July 4. The night before, exhausted, the band had failed to show up for social engagement held by Imelda Marcos, wife of President Ferdinand Marcos. This led to a backlash from the President's supporters, and the group left the country under a cloud. It would be years before anybody realized how bad both halves of the Marcos couple were.

On July 29, while they were resting up for their upcoming U.S. tour, Datebook magazine published Maureen Cleave's interview with John Lennon, in which he said, "We're more popular than Jesus now." Within a week, as only Americans can do, Americans overreacted: Radio stations from coast to coast, North to South were banning Beatle records, and "Beatle bonfires" were being held.

On August 11, The Beatles arrived in Chicago, and, for the only time in his life, Lennon ate crow, and offered an apology. The tour began: August 12, 2 shows at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago; August 13, 2 shows at the Detroit Red Wings' Olympia Stadium; August 14, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, home of the Indians and the Browns; August 15, District of Columbia Stadium, then the home of the teams named the Washington Senators and the Washington Redskins, a stadium later renamed for Robert F. Kennedy; August 16, John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia; August 17, 2 shows at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, the only building they played on all 3 of their North American tours; and August 18, Suffolk Downs, a horse-racing track in Boston.

Then came August 19, and 2 shows at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. This was the Bible Belt, and lots of people were still pretty mad. The Ku Klux Klan had nailed a Beatles LP to a wooden cross and burned it. During the evening show, someone threw a firecracker onto the stage. No one was hit, but when it went off, lots of people thought it was a gunshot. All 3 of the others turned to John after the firecracker, to make sure he was all right. He was.

August 20 had been scheduled for Crosley Field, the ballpark of the Cincinnati Reds, but it rained. That gave the Fab Four a little rest, but it forced an unusual doubleheader: Two concerts in two cities in one day. They did an afternoon show at Crosley, then flew to St. Louis to play at the new Busch Memorial Stadium.

So many music historians have ripped Elvis Presley's manager, Tom Parker, for running his man ragged, and praised Beatles manager Brian Epstein for "taking care of" "the boys." With many things, he did. But he was every bit as determined to make as much money from his charges as he could as Parker was, and their 3 North American tours were always inches away from disaster. And, despite the aural damp squib that was their concert at Shea Stadium in New York the year before, people still hadn't yet figured out how to stage a rock concert in a baseball park or a football stadium.

And John kept talking. At a press conference in New York before their return to Shea on August 23, John he said the Vietnam War was "wrong." He was right, but America wasn't ready to hear that yet. The year before, they had filled all 55,000 available seats at the Flushing Meadow stadium. This time, "only" 40,000 showed up, with pickets both for and against them facing off against each other.

It was their most stressful tour ever, and George Harrison said he'd rather leave the band than ever go on another tour. They decided they wouldn't, and would be only a recording band from that point onward. George agreed to stay -- for now.

After Shea, it was off to the West coast. They did 2 shows at the Seattle Center Coliseum on August 25. After 2 days of rest, they played the 1st concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The next concerts there wouldn't be until 1975, with 2 by Elton John; and the next ones until 1984, with The Jacksons' Victory Tour.

The last concert on the tour was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29. They were supported by The Ronettes, The Cyrkle, Bobby Hebb, and The Remains. (The Cyrkle were also managed by Epstein's company.) Attendance: 25,000, meaning about 17,000 empty seats. (In 1971, the NFL's San Francisco 49ers joined baseball's San Francisco Giants there, leading to an expansion to 69,000 seats.)

As usual, they roared through their set, unable to hear themselves over the all the screaming, playing 11 songs in 33 minutes:

1. John Lennon singing Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music."

2. Paul McCartney singing his song "She's a Woman."

3. George Harrison singing his song "If I Needed Someone." (Every show would have a George song and a Ringo song, so "the other guys" wouldn't feel left out.)

4. Paul singing his song "Day Tripper."

5. John singing his song "Baby's In Black."

6. John singing his song "I Feel Fine."

7. Paul singing his song "Yesterday."

8. Ringo Starr singing Paul's song "I Wanna Be Your Man."

9. John singing his song "Nowhere Man."

10. Paul singing his song "Paperback Writer."

11. And the last song anybody would ever pay to hear The Beatles sing live, Paul singing Little Richard's song "Long Tall Sally."

Reviews of the concert were not good, with the San Francisco Chronicle headlining "Bedlam at the Ball Park." Ringo was 26 years old, John 25, Paul 24 and George 23, so age wasn't an issue. But they they were physically, mentally and emotionally wiped-out, and the sound system was insufficient, and the overall atmosphere wasn't what it had been, even a year earlier, when it could still be adequately described as "Beatlemania."

They had already released Rubber Soul, and had just released Revolver on August 5. They were weary. They were examining their feelings, and expressing them on their recordings. These were no longer "The Lovable Mop Tops" who had dazzled people on The Ed Sullivan Show: When John sang "Help!" the year before, he wasn't just singing a song as a character in a story, he was being himself.

 As I said, they were between 23 and 26 years old. A kid who was 13 when they first arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 7, 1964 would now be only 15. How many 15-year-olds were going to "get" the content of "Norwegian Wood," "She Said She Said" or "Tomorrow Never Knows"? Or even understand the grownup love stories of "Girl" and "For No One"?

A lot of people couldn't handle what the Liverpudlians were offering in 1966, and that was one reason NBC made the TV show The Monkees, to fill that void.

The gap would grow. The next time anyone saw The Beatles in public, they weren't wearing black suits. They were wearing the wild colors of Swinging London and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. They had mustaches. And they had recorded "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever," and released promotional films (what would later be called "music videos") for them, in which they looked... weird. "Tomorrow Never Knows," indeed.

While they'd decided not to tour again, even the four of them did not know that the Candlestick Park show would be their last paying concert together, ever. There would be the concert on the roof of the building where Apple Records was based, on January 30, 1969. And each of them would have notable solo gigs, with Paul and Ringo living and continuing to tour into the 2020s. But The Beatles would never have another official concert.

If, in the Summer of 1966, you had told people that the last official concert by The Beatles would be 11 years before the last one by Elvis Presley, few of them would have believed you. But it turned out to be true.

Built in 1960, Candlestick Park hosted its last event on August 14, 2014. It was a concert by 72-year-old former Beatle Paul McCartney. A crowd of 53,477 attended, and it got great reviews. The stadium's demolition began 3 months later.

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August 29, 1966 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Athletics, 7-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Future Seattle Pilot Fred Talbot started, but didn't get out of the 3rd inning. The winning pitcher was another future Seattle Pilot, THE Dooley Womack. Lou Clinton hit a home run. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-4. Roger Maris drew a walk as a pinch-hitter, and scored a run.

* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at Shea Stadium. Bob Shaw went the distance for the win, while Claude Osteen didn't get out of the 2nd inning. Former Cardinals MVP Ken Boyer went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Jim Bunning went the distance for the win, while Ray Sadecki didn't get out of the 3rd inning. Johnny Callison went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Denny McLain outpitched Dave McNally. The Tigers got 2 home runs from Willie Horton, and 1 from Bill Freehan. Horton had 5 RBIs. Al Kaline went 2-for-5. Frank Robinson hit a home run for the O's, and Brooks Robinson went 1-for-5.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). George Altman singled Ron Campbell and Adolfo Phillips home in the top of the 14th inning. Fergie Jenkins pitched into the 9th inning, but the winning pitcher, for the 286th and last time in his career, was Robin Roberts.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Mike Cuellar pitched a 5-hit shutout, striking out 12, to outpitch Bob Veale. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Deron Johnson hit 2 home runs. Pete Rose went 1-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Tommy John pitched a 5-hit shutout. The Pale Hose's runs came on a home run by Tommie Agee. Neither John nor Agee would be remembered as White Sox, however.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Washington Senators, 6-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Carl Yastrzemski drew a walk as a pinch-hitter.

For the record, 11 stadiums that hosted Major League Baseball also hosted Beatle concerts:

1. Kansas City Municipal Stadium, home of the Athletics, later home of the Royals, September 17, 1964.

2. Shea Stadium, New York, home of the Mets, August 15, 1965 and August 23, 1966.

3. Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, home of the Braves, August 18, 1965.

4. Comiskey Park, Chicago, home of the White Sox, August 20, 1965.

5. Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, home of the Minnesota Twins, August 21, 1965.

6. Cleveland Municipal Stadium, home of the Indians, August 14, 1966.

7. District of Columbia/Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, home of the Washington Senators, later home of the Washington Nationals, August 15, 1966.

8. Crosley Field, Cincinnati, home of the Reds, August 21, 1966.

9. Busch Memorial Stadium, St. Louis, home of the Cardinals, August 21, 1966.

10. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles,  home of the Dodgers, August 28, 1966.

11. Candlestick Park, San Francisco, home of the Giants, August 29, 1966.

UPDATE: As of August 19, 2025, Paul McCartney was still alive, and had performed at least one concert, either as a Beatle or solo, at at least one home field of 26 out of the 30 current MLB teams. On October 11, he is scheduled to play Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies. If that concert goes off as planned, that will leave 3 teams: The Pittsburgh Pirates, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Tampa Bay Rays. Given the Rays' stadium situation, and Paul's current age of 83, the odds are against him getting all 30 done.

August 28, 1964: Bob Dylan Meets The Beatles

A simulation. There were no photographers at the meeting.

August 28, 1964: The 1st of the 2 great summits of rock and roll occurs: Bob Dylan meets The Beatles.

Dylan released his 3rd album, The Times They Are a-Changin', on February 10, 1964, the day after The Beatles made their 1st American TV appearance, on The Ed Sullivan Show. Among the songs they played was "I Want to Hold Your Hand," then the Number 1 song in America. The bridge goes as follows:

And when I touch you

I feel happy inside.

It's such a feeling that

my love, I can't hide, I can't hide, I can't hide!

But between the music and their Liverpudlian accents, Dylan thought they were singing, "I get high, I get high, I get high!" Dylan, a marijuana smoker, assumed that The Beatles were potheads, too.

In fact, the Fab Four did get high, many times -- but on amphetamines, pep pills. They used them to stay up all night when they were cutting their teeth in the clubs of the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany before they made it big in their homeland. They had never smoked weed yet. It wasn't popular in Britain yet.

When The Beatles returned to America for their Summer 1964 tour, a meeting was set up between them and the leader of American music's protest movement. The band was staying in a 6th floor suite at the Hotel Delmonico, at 502 Park Avenue at 59th Street. Al Aronowitz, covering the tour for The Saturday Evening Post, was friendly with both the band and Dylan, and brought Dylan in.

Dylan brought joints in with him. He first offered one to Ringo Starr. According to one account, the drummer, "ignorant of dope etiquette, chugged through that first joint like a stevedore attacking his first Woodbine of the morning and collapsed in a giggling mess." Next was their manager, Brian Epstein, who was affected very quickly, saying, "I'm so high, I'm up on the ceiling."

Paul McCartney believed he'd attained true mental clarity for the first time in his life, and instructed Beatles roadie and major-domo Mal Evans to write down everything he said henceforth. Whatever John Lennon and George Harrison said or felt, it appears not to have been recorded.

At one point, the phone rang, and Dylan answered, "This is Beatlemania here!" They drank some wine, and got along great.

The 2nd great summit happened exactly 365 days later, on August 27, 1965: Elvis Presley met The Beatles. It didn't go nearly as well.

The effect that marijuana had on the music of Dylan, and on that of The Beatles, is debatable. The effect that the meeting had on each is undeniable. Dylan "went electric," and, within 2 years, produced 3 albums that are regarded as absolute classics: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited (including "Like a Rolling Stone"), and Blonde On Blonde.

As for The Beatles, most of the effects of the meeting with Dylan were, by his own admission, on John. Without Dylan, he almost certainly would not have written "I'm a Loser," "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," "Help!", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Nowhere Man," "Norwegian Wood," "She Said She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" -- to say nothing of what he did from Sgt. Pepper onward.

In 1988, each in their 1st year of eligibility, Dylan and The Beatles were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, George invited Bob to be in his "supergroup," The Traveling Wilburys, along with Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra. In 1992, at the Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden, George sang "If Not For You," not one of Bob's better songs; and "Absolutely Sweet Marie," a good one that he probably wouldn't have written without The Beatles' influence.

Al Aronowitz lived until 2005. Built in 1929, the Delmonico was converted into apartments in 1974. In 2018, it was bought by the Trump Organization, and renamed Trump Park Avenue. Disgusting.

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August 28, 1964 was a Friday. Golfer Lee Janzen was born. This was also the day the North Philadelphia race riot broke out. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was the off-season for the NFL, the AFL, the NBA and the NHL, but games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Felix Mantilla, the former Milwaukee Brave and original Met, and Dick Stuart, the powerful slugger but awful-fielding 1st baseman known as "Dr. Strangeglove," both hit home runs off Al Downing. Joe Pepitone hit one for the Yankees, but Mickey Mantle went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 12-10 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 2-1. The Baltimore Orioles won the 2nd game, 8-3.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Phillies took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 8th, but blew it in the bottom of the 9th, thanks to Smoky Burgess' home run.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Willie Mays went 1-for-2 with a 2-run home run, and Hank Aaron went 1-for-2 with 2 walks. Joe Torre hit a home run for the Braves.

* The Washington Senators beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at the original Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park).

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Athletics, 4-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers swept a doubleheader from the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels played from 1962 to 1965 while waiting for their stadium in Anaheim to be built. The Tigers won the opener, 12-1; and the nightcap, 8-7.

* The Cincinnati Reds were supposed to host the Houston Colt .45s at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, but the game was rained out. They played a doubleheader the next day, and the Reds swept it. They won the 1st game, 2-1, on a walkoff single by Steve Boros in the 11th inning. They won the 2nd game, 8-7. The Colt .45s changed their name to the Astros the next season.  

August 27, 1965: Elvis Presley Meets The Beatles

The only known photograph connected to the meeting

August 27, 1965: The 2nd great summit of rock and roll occurs, exactly 365 days after the 1st, on August 28, 1964: The Beatles met Bob Dylan. It went great.

This 2nd one was The Beatles meeting the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. It didn't go nearly as well.

The Beatles were huge fans of Elvis, and considered him an inspiration for their career. However, Elvis was initially reluctant to meet them. Both record labels and managers from both sides pushed for the meeting to happen, knowing how iconic it would be.

It took place at Elvis' villa on Perugia Way, in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. When the Beatles arrived, they were excited, but also intimidated. Elvis welcomed them with a relaxed attitude, sitting on a couch and playing an electric bass. However, the first moment was a bit tense: No one knew exactly what to say.

Breaking the ice, Elvis said, "If you guys are just going to sit there and stare at me, I’m going to bed!" This joke put everyone at ease, and kicked off the conversation.

The evening soon turned into an informal and fun moment. It is said that Elvis and the Beatles played together in an improvised jam session, although no official recording or photograph of the meeting was ever released. Among the songs played were probably some of Elvis' hits and a few classic rock and roll tracks that both sides knew well.

John Lennon was particularly fascinated by Elvis, and bombarded him with questions about his career and movies. However, Lennon didn't hide his disappointment with the musical direction Elvis had taken in the 1960s, preferring the early rock and roll style from his beginnings.

Paul McCartney was the most diplomatic, and showed enthusiasm for everything. He must have realized that, here, he could not be the control freak.

George Harrison was intrigued by the fact that Elvis had multiple televisions to watch different channels at the same time. Elvis had heard that President Lyndon Johnson had 3 TV sets installed in the Oval Office, so he could watch the evening news on ABC, CBS and NBC at the same time, and he wanted a similar setup. He had it at Graceland, too.

Ringo Starr spent most of the time playing with Elvis' pets, especially his dogs.

The Beatles were struck by Elvis' charismatic presence, while Elvis was impressed by the group's humility and liveliness. However, there was a subtle note of rivalry: Although Elvis respected the Beatles, he feared their popularity might overshadow his own.

The meeting ended on friendly terms, but there were no further contacts between Elvis and the Beatles. Nevertheless, they continued to influence each other: The Beatles always kept their admiration for Elvis alive, while when Elvis returned to live performing in 1969, he included "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude" in his repertoire.

In 1970, the Beatles broke up. And Elvis... well, he didn't quite rat them out, but he sent a letter to President Richard Nixon, telling him that he was concerned about the rise of drug culture in America, and partially blaming the Beatles. That set up an even more famous meeting, at the White House, between the King and Tricky Dick.

*

August 27, 1965 was a Friday. Australian-born soccer manager Ange Postecoglou was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Kansas City Athletics, 1-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Whitey Ford and John O'Donoghue were both pitching shutouts until the bottom of the 9th, when Dick Green singled José Tartabull home. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 9-2 at Shea Stadium. Willie McCovey hit 2 home runs, and Willie Mays hit one, the 469th home run of his career. Warren Spahn, formerly of the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, was the winning pitcher. He had been with the Mets earlier in the season. It was his 2nd win of the season, and the 362nd game he won. There would be one more, and then he finally hung up his spikes.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-8 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Don Drysdale was the winning pitcher. The Phils had the tying run on 1st in the bottom of the 9th,but couldn't get him home.

* The Washington Senators beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (D.C. Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969.) Jim King singled Ken Hamlin home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-5.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 10-9 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Andre Rogers singled Al McBean home, off future Baltimore star Mike Cuellar, in the bottom of the 11th inning. McBean was also the winning pitcher, having gone 2 innings. Pirate starter Vernon Law, the 1960 Cy Young Award winner, only went 4. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell each went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Ken Boyer doubled Lou Brock home with what turned out to be the winning run in the top of the 14th inning. Boyer went 3-for-7 with 2 RBIs. So did the Reds' Frank Robinson. Pete Rose went 1-for-7.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the opener, 3-2. The Boston Red Sox won the nightcap, 6-1. Over the 2 games, Carl Yastrzemski went 4-for-7.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Braves, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4, but Billy Williams hit a home run. For the Braves, Hank Aaron went 0-for-4, but home runs were hit by Felipe Alou and Mack Jones.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Jim "Mudcat" Grant pitched a 2-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew did not play.

* And the California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels groundshared until their Anaheim stadium was ready the next Spring. Al Kaline did not play.

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.

*

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. 

August 11, 1964: "A Hard Day's Night" Premieres

Left to right: Paul McCartney, George Harrison,

Ringo Starr and John Lennon

August 11, 1964: The film A Hard Day's Night premieres, directed by Richard Lester. It is the 1st feature film featuring The Beatles, who have become not just the world's most popular music group, but the biggest phenomenon in popular culture on planet Earth.

All 4 Beatles -- rhythm guitarist John Lennon, bass guitarist Paul McCartney, lead guitarist George Harrison, and drummer Ringo Starr -- play fictionalized versions of themselves. There's not much of a plot: The bandmembers escape from their adoring fans, and catch a train -- apparently from one side of London to the other.

They are accompanied by a fictionalized version of Paul's grandfather, John McCartney (Wilfrid Bramble); Norm (Norman Rossington), standing in for real-life manager Brian Epstein; and Shake (John Junkin), standing in for real-life road manager Mal Evans. Everybody says that John McCartney is "a very clean man," but Paul calls him "a bit of a mixer."

Feeling the strain of their fame-induced confinement -- the film's title comes from a line that Ringo'd flung off, "It was a hard day's night, that was" -- the Beatles sneak out of their hotel and dance at a nightclub, then have to go to a nearby casino to retrieve "Lord John McCartney" (as he identifies himself to the casino's management).

John and Paul were the main songwriters, so they got the most attention, both in real life and in the film. So the others both get individual scenes: George is lured into a trendmonger's office to audition for a print advertisement with a popular model, and turns it down; while Ringo chaperones the grandfather, who talks him into running away, given that he's the least popular member, goes to a pub, accidentally knocks a woman into a muddy hole, gets arrested, and has to be bailed out by the other three. Just in time, they get to the auditorium where their concert was meant to take place, and they perform.

The opening sequence, showing the band members trying to escape from their adoring fans to catch a train, was filmed at Marylebone Station in Central London. The train sequence was filmed on a train going from there to Minehead, in Somerset, in England's West Country. The pub scene was at the Turk's Head in Twickenham, South-West London. The nightclub and casino scenes were at the Les Ambassadeurs Club in Mayfair, in London's West End (that city's theater district). The "Can't Buy Me Love" scene was at Thornbury Playing Fields in Isleworth, West London. The concert scene was at the Scala Theatre in Central London, demolished in 1969. And the closing helicopter scene was at West Ealing, West London.

Prior to the concert scene, the film includes these songs: The title track, "I Should've Known Better," "I Wanna Be Your Man" (on which Ringo sings lead), "Don't Bother Me" (the 1st song George ever wrote, the rest of the songs written by John and Paul), "All My Loving," "If I Fell," "Can't Buy Me Love," "And I Love Her," "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" (on which George sings lead), and an instrumental version of "This Boy" (which becomes known as "Ringo's Theme," even though John sings lead).

The concert scene shows the band performing "Can't Buy Me Love," "Tell Me Why," "If I Fell," "I Should Have Known Better," and "She Loves You," the last song briefly interrupted by one last bit of havoc wrote by Paul's grandfather.

The soundtrack album had been released on July 10. Side One: "A Hard Day's Night," "I Should Have Known Better," "If I Fell," "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You," "And I Love Her," "Tell Me Why" and "Can't Buy Me Love." Side Two: "Any Time at All," "I'll Cry Instead," "Things We Said Today, "When I Get Home," "You Can't Do That," and "I'll Be Back."

"She Loves You" and "Can't Buy Me Love" had already hit Number 1 in America. "A Hard Day's Night" was Number 1 in America when the film premiered.

The Beatles would appear in the film "Help!" in 1965, in the TV-movie "Magical Mystery Tour" in 1967, in animated form in "Yellow Submarine" in 1968, and in the documentary "Let It Be" in 1970.

*

August 11, 1964 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees were swept in a doubleheader by the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 and 8-2 at Yankee Stadium. Mickey Mantle went 3-for-8 with a home run.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was stopped due to rain after 8 innings. Larry Elliot hit a home run for the Mets. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4 with a walk.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson went 3-for-4 with a home run. Pete Rose went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 13-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Houston Astros, 9-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron hit 2 home runs and had 5 RBIs.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-2 with a walk. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda hit home runs.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing with the Dodgers until their stadium in suburban Anaheim could open. Luis Tiant pitches a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Bo Belinsky. Tiant was a 23-year-old rookie, and it was his 5th career win. There would be 224 more. Belinsky was 27, and in his 3rd major league season. He had 21 major league wins to that point. There would only be 7 more.

June 1, 1967: The Beatles Release "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

June 1, 1967: The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It wasn't the first "concept album," but it has been called the greatest album ever released. Certainly, it changed the way rock and roll music was recorded.

The influence of drugs on the band is apparent. Fortunately, you don't have to be high -- or tripping -- to enjoy it.

That month, Paul McCartney, The Beatles' bass guitarist, and secondary songwriter along with rhythm guitarist John Lennon, was going to turn 25. Two days after that, Brian Wilson, the bass guitarist and main songwriter for The Beach Boys, also turned 25. And the two men were in competition with each other.

At the end of 1965, The Beatles released Rubber Soul, a (mostly) softer, more contemplative album, which experimented with non-rock instruments. Lead guitarist George Harrison used it to introduce the sitar, a stringed instrument from India, into rock. Rock historian Dave Marsh once wrote that Rubber Soul proved that The Beatles would still have become stars even if they had never recorded a single uptempo song, although half the songs on the album were uptempo. In mid-1966, The Beatles went further, with Revolver.

But it was mainly Rubber Soul that inspired Wilson to create what appeared to be The Beach Boys' magnum opus, Pet Sounds. (It would have been undeniable as their greatest work, had "Good Vibrations" been on it, but that came afterwards.) Paul heard Pet Sounds, and knew that it was on now, chaps: He had to top it.

So Sgt. Pepper was more his album than any that had come before, but all 4 of them got their chances to shine. Side One:

* "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Written by Paul, who sang lead, it created an alternate identity for the band, suggesting a pre-rock persona.

* "With a Little Help from My Friends." Written by Paul, it was sung by drummer Ringo Starr, in persona as "the one and only Billy Shears." It would be sung by Joe Cocker at Woodstock, and his version would become a hit single, and the theme song to the ABC nostalgia series The Wonder Years. Richie Havens, who also sang at Woodstock, called it "My favorite song in the whole universe." He would later have a hit with George's song "Here Comes the Sun."

* "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Perhaps the ultimate psychedelic song. It was pointed out to John that the initials were "LSD." He claimed he didn't notice that, saying that the idea came from a drawing his 3-year-old son Julian had made and named. Nobody believed him. Years later, Julian found the drawing, and proved to the world that his father was telling the truth.

In 1974, Elton John would cover it, with John playing guitar on the session, and it would hit Number 1. Personally, I like the Elton version better.

* "Getting Better." Typical of them, Paul sang, "It's getting better," while the more pessimistic John followed with, "It couldn't get much worse."

* "Fixing a Hole." This Paul song has been said to be about heroin. He's always denied it.

* "She's Leaving Home." Paul's song about the generation gap.

* "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" John's song about a circus. The line, "And of course, Harry the Horse dances the waltz" led some people to think that was about heroin.

Side Two:

* "Within You Without You." George's only song on the album.

* "When I'm Sixty-Four." The one song on the album that sounds like it could have been recorded by Sgt. Pepper's Band, had they actually existed. Paul wrote it. Sadly, only he and Ringo would make it to age 64.

* "Lovely Rita." Paul's song about a fling with a metermaid.

* "Good Morning Good Morning." No way John could get away with saying this song wasn't about drugs.

* "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)."

* "A Day in the Life." Without this song, the longest on the album at 5 minutes and 38 seconds, this would still have been a great album. But any pretense to being the greatest ever is dependent upon it. John wrote 3 verses: One about a car crash that killed a rich man (based on the real-life death of Guinness heir Tara Browne -- yes, Tara was a man), one about a war film (John had recently filmed scenes for the World War I picture How I Won the War), and one about "four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire."

Between the 2nd and 3rd verses was an orchestra's crescendo, an alarm clock, and a middle-eight by Paul about getting up and going to work, which may have inspired Prince to write "Manic Monday" years later.

Producer George Martin conducted a full orchestra for it, and the closing piano note seems to drift away forever...

Total time 39 minutes and 36 seconds. In less than 40 minutes, the men who had been "the lovable Mop Tops" had changed music forever.

The cover showed The Beatles in old-style military band uniforms: John, in yellow, with a French horn; Paul, in blue, with an English horn (not a clarinet, as is often erroneously thought); George, in orange, with a piccolo; and Ringo, in pink, with a trumpet. They were surrounded with wax figures of their early selves, and photos of many celebrities. As John sang in "In My Life," some were dead and some were living.

Some choices seemed odd. They could have chosen the recently-defrocked Heavyweight Champion of the World, Muhammad Ali, whom they met in Miami right before he fought Sonny Liston for the title in 1964, and had become a symbol of rebellion. Instead, they chose Liston, who had refused to meet with them. They could have chosen Marilyn Monroe. Instead, they chose the actress billed as the British version of her, Diana Dors. John chose several artists, and George chose some Indian spiritualists, that were not well known.

John wanted pictures of both Jesus of Nazareth and Adolf Hitler. George wanted Mohandas Gandhi. Management refused all three, fearing a backlash, especially given John's "We're more popular than Jesus now" comment of the previous year. Including Hitler would have offended the markets of both America and Europe, and including Gandhi would have offended the market of India, still a big buyer of British products.

Of the living people included, only one initially refused: Actress Mae West. She said, "What would I be doing in a Lonely Hearts Club?" She relented after all four Beatles wrote her personal letters expressing their deep admiration for her work. The agent for Bowery Boys actor Leo Gorcey, demanded a $400 fee, the only living person to demand money for it. Beatles manager Brian Epstein refused, and Gorcey was the only figure to be airbrushed off the cover.

The album also included several "clues" in the later "Paul Is Dead" rumor: Paul's horn is black, while the others are holding brass instruments; a hand over Paul's head, a "death sign"; a series of flowers forming a guitar seems to form the words "PAUL?" complete with question mark; the photo on the back cover showing Paul's back turned to the camera (he wasn't available that day, and roadie Mal Evans stood in for him); and clues as to the alleged car crash that killed Paul the previous year, including the line from "A Day in the Life," "He blew his mind out in a car," and the alleged time of the crash being mentioned in "She's Leaving Home": "Wednesday morning at five o'clock."

It became the album of the Summer of 1967, "the Summer of Love." And it has been hailed by many as the greatest rock album of all time. (Then again, some people don't think it was even the Beatles' best album, although they can't agree on whether that's Rubber Soul, Revolver, or the last one, Abbey Road.) And, from this point onward, any band wanting to do their best album ever would be said to be attempting "their Sgt. Pepper." Few have ever approached that height, and none has ever matched it.

All 4 Beatles retained ownership of their Sgt. Pepper uniforms, although Ringo donated his to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland.

The cover has been parodied many times. Later in the year, The Rolling Stones did so with Their Satanic Majesties Request. The next year, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention did so with We're Only In It for the Money. Rolling Stone magazine did so with its 1,000th issue in 2006, which made sense, since, later in 1967, they put Lennon on the cover of their 1st issue.

In 1978, a film titled Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, with the "Beatle" roles taken by Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. Aside from covers of Beatle songs, the only true Beatle connection was their 1969 Let It Be collaborator, Billy Preston, playing "the one and only Billy Shears." The film tanked.

In 1978, Paul Gambaccini ranked it 1st on his list in his book Critic's Choice: Top 200 Albums, based on his poll of rock critics. In 1987, Rolling Stone celebrated its 20th Anniversary by ranking it 1st on its list of "The 100 Best Albums of the last Twenty Years." In 1993, and again in 2012, the magazine ranked it 1st on a list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time." In 1994, Colin Larkin ranked it 1st in his book All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 1998, British music store chain HMV and network Channel 4 released a poll showing it voted the best album of all time.

Time passed, and times changed. Q magazine listed it 3rd on a list of "The Music That Changed the World" in 2004, and 5th on a list of "The 40 Greatest Psychedelic Albums of All Time" in 2005. And in 2020, Rolling Stone dropped it all the way to 24th. It is possible that there were a few better albums released between 1967 and 2020, but there is no way that there have been 23 better albums released between 2012, Rolling Stone's last time ranking it 1st, and 2020. Come on, man!

In the 1st-ever episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played John Lennon in his yellow Sgt. Pepper uniform, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as newscaster Bill O'Reilly. The matchup didn't seem to make much sense, as there was no commonality, and the only contrast was in politics, as Lennon was seen as left and O'Reilly as far right. Unfortunately, Peter did not attempt to imitate John's voice, sounding nothing like a man from Liverpool. The least he could have done was tell O'Reilly, as John said to some people in A Hard Day's Night, "Yer a swine!"

As of June 1, 2022, there are 5 surviving people among the figures shown on the cover: Paul, Ringo, Bob Dylan, doo-wop singer Dion DiMucci, and sculptor Larry Bell, included because John admired his work.

*

June 1, 1967 was a Thursday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Mike Cuellar, the Cuban curveball master not yet a Baltimore Oriole, outpitched Tom Seaver.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3, although he drew a walk. Rod Carew and Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4. The American League Pennant would come down to the last day of the season, on which these same 2 teams would play, each still having a chance.

* The Washington Senators beat the California Angels, 1-0 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Camilo Pascual, who had been with the "Old Senators" in 1960-61 when they moved to become the Twins, pitched a 4-hit shutout for the "New Senators."

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-6 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Billy Williams hit 2 home runs, and Ernie Banks went 3-for-5, but it wasn't enough. Pete Rose went 1-for-2 with 3 walks, and Tony Pérez hit a home run. Johnny Bench would be called up to the Reds on August 28, about 3 months later.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. John O'Donoghue, later to become famous for appearing in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, not only outpitched Denny McLain, but hit a home run off him. Al Kaline went 1-for-3.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Bobby Tolan won it for the Cards with an RBI triple in the bottom of the 10th inning. For the Braves, Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with a home run, and Joe Torre went 1-for-5.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-1 at Candlestick Park. Gaylord Perry outpitched former Giant Juan Pizarro. Jesus Alou and Dick Dietz hit home runs, while Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with a walk, and Willie McCovey pinch-hit a double that drove in 2 runs.

* And the New York Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago White Sox and the the Kansas City Athletics were not scheduled to play.