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The Beatles were the first wave of what was to become a virtual tsunami of British rock and roll bands to capture the imagination of American teenagers in the 1960’s.

Like most people of a “certain age,” I clearly remember their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show—the appearance that fanned the fires of the phenomena called Beatlemania.

The shaggy (by 1960’s standards) hair, the fitted, collarless suit jackets and the songs—“I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, “I Saw Her Standing There,” all were different and exciting. Even then, I knew that something amazing was happening. Their music was energetic and artistic at the same time. It was fascinating watching girls in the TV audience swoon and faint because they were seeing The Beatles in person—and wishing I was there, too.

Full blown Beatlemania took over the lives of most teenage girls (and many boys) of the time.

I remember going to the Friday night dances at a local Catholic High School, which cost fifty cents to get in. Whenever a Beatles record would be played, the girls would scream and run onto the dance floor as if possessed. You would’ve thought the four lads from Liverpool were there at the Bishop Timon High School Auditorium by the way we acted!

Then there was the day one of my classmates brought a three foot long poster of John, Paul, George and Ringo into Latin class, and laid it on the floor like a red carpet. Luckily, I sat in the same row as she, so I got to gaze upon the adorable countenance of Paul McCartney during class—which was a lot more fun than declining Latin verbs.

Who can forget choosing their favorite Beatle? Mine was Paul, because he was so cute, played guitar left-handed, and looked like an extremely good-looking boy next door.

My parents, who were pretty laid back about most stuff, decided to ban us from listening to Beatles music in the living room.  We had to go to either the basement or one of our bedrooms to play our newly acquired Beatles records. This ban lasted until my Mom began to sing along with the records…suddenly, the Beatles were, once again, welcome in the living room.

When their first movie, “A Hard Day’s Night” was released, my Dad loaded me, two of my sisters and a bunch of our friends into the station wagon and took us to the Drive –In to see it. I overheard him tell my Mom when we got home that, “The movie was pretty good, and the music wasn’t too bad.”

Beatlemania took on many forms—collecting Beatles cards in bubble gum, buying John Lennon’s book of poetry as well as all sorts of memorabilia,  and of course, reading about The Fab Four in fan magazines. We poured over articles about their home lives, and how they got started.

The fact that John Lennon was married and had a child, and that Paul McCartney had a serious girlfriend was downplayed at first. I suspect that was in order to support fan’s fantasies about that chance meeting that would turn into a romantic encounter.

Perhaps the strangest Beatles fan at that time was my Grandfather, who lived with us.

When my parents got weird about us watching the Beatles in the living room, we would go to Grandpa’s room and watch The Ed Sullivan Show with him. Later, after the Beatle ban was lifted, Grandpa would call downstairs, “Hey Kids, them Beagles is on!” That was our cue to hurry up to his room to watch the Liverpool Four with him. The only problem with this scheme was that Grandpa thought that any rock and roll group that remotely resembled our heroes were “them Beagles.” So, we got to watch the Dave Clark 5, Gerry and the Pacemakers and many other British Invasion groups with Grandpa.

I have so many memories of The Beatles, ranging from loving their music, feeling saddened by their breakup (and knowing it Yoko Ono’s fault), the shock of John Lennon’s murder, the genuine grief when George Harrison died…

I still love hearing their music and remembering the happiness of those more innocent days.