Show and Tell: In My Life, I've always loved these guys...

I was born in 1961, around the time the Beatles were playing the clubs in Hamburg, before they hit it big, first in Britain & then the rest of the world. So I was too young to experience Beatlemania first hand, but I honestly can't remember a time when they weren't part of my life. My mother says we saw them in their famous first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (we watched Ed faithfully, along with a big bowl of popcorn -- having only one TV channel at the time -- something that I'm sure is incomprehensible to kids today!! -- there was nothing else to do on Sunday nights). I don't remember that, but I do remember seeing clips of their 1965 concert at Shea Stadium on the Sullivan show -- my most vivid memory is not of the Beatles themselves but of girls dashing out onto the turf to pull up the blades of grass the Fab Four had walked on.

I remember watching The Beatles cartoon show on Saturday morning at my grandmother's house, & afterwards jumping up & down on the bed with my cousin, singing "YEAH YEAH YEAH!!" at the top of our lungs.

I remember my mother (who is actually younger than Ringo & John) taking me to see "Help!" at the movies when I was still a preschooler. This made a huge impression on my young psyche. For years afterward, I had dreams about Ringo's ring stuck on my finger, and falling through trap doors into cellars with tigers pacing around.

I remember watching couples in the gym at my junior high school, slowdancing to "Hey Jude," always the last song at our school dances. (In high school, we graduated to Led Zeppelin & "Stairway to Heaven," lol. What song is always played as the last dance at high school dances these days??)

I remember the awful day, when I was at university, hearing that John Lennon had been murdered. I watched a montage of clips set to "In My Life" on the news that night, & sobbed uncontrollably. It's so hard to pick a favourite Beatles song, but I think that might be it. I've told dh I want it played at my funeral.

I remember seeing the movies "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" & "Backbeat," & wishing I had been just a little older, so that I could have tried sneaking into the Beatles hotel room like Nancy Allen did. (Recently, we saw "Across the Universe," and I wondered how many younger moviegoers "got" the in-joke about the Cavern Club & the leather-clad group that was onstage near the movie's ??)

I remember watching "The Beatles Anthology" when it was first shown on TV, & the beginningthrill of seeing Paul, George & Ringo, together again, talking about old times. And sitting in appreciative silence all the way through the credits of the very last episode, set to "Blackbird."

Every night as we drive home from the commuter train station, we flip the car radio to the local classic rock radio station & listen to their nightly "Beatle Break" -- two Beatles songs played back to back. The cares of the day slide away & I sing along, sometimes singing lead with John or Paul, sometimes harmonizing along with George. There is nothing in the world like a Beatles song to put a smile on my face, if only for the two & a half minutes it takes to play it.

What music never fails to put a smile on your face?