In My Life, I’ve Loved Them All: Fifty Years of The Beatles

February 9, 1964
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One of those days where I know exactly where I was, and what I was doing, and how it felt, and how it smelled, and how it sounded, and what I was wearing, and who was in the room.
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I was 9 years old. And this new music group called The Beatles was going to be on the Ed Sullivan show.

I had been hearing about them all week, and hearing some of their songs on the radio, but the frenzy was picking up, and everywhere you went, someone was talking about them. Who were The Beatles, and what was the big deal?

What was the big deal indeed? Here is a video of the Beatles from that first Ed Sullivan Show. Hard to come by lately, because after Apple got hold of their catalog, they made YouTube take down any performance videos. So I don’t know how long this will be available, but this is from the first set – All My Loving, Till There Was You, I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You.

I can remember how the hot the light was over my shoulder from the lamp on the bookcase headboard in my parents’ room, and how badly I had to go to the bathroom. But I didn’t dare leave because Ed Sullivan was live, and there was no VCR or DVR, and if I missed it, I missed it forever. And so I never did go to the bathroom. You figure out the rest of that part.

I remember my Dad making fun when “Sorry, girls, he’s married” flashed on the screen over John, but I really didn’t care because it was 21 year old Paul who captured my heart, and who fifty years later, still makes my heart beat just a little faster.
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The Beatles were only actually together for six more years, but in those extraordinary six years they fueled a whole host of teenage fantasies, gave me words to express my joy and my pain, and penned a major portion of the soundtrack of my life.
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I can’t imagine the last fifty years without them.

There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more
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-Lennon/McCartney