JUNE 25, 1967 – The Beatles performed a brand new song, All You Need Is Love Live from London and was broadcast to over 400 million people around the world, 44 years ago today. What made this so significant was that it was the first time there was an international  LIVE TV broadcast, EVER! In an age where there is instant live news, information, music and skypeing from the remotest points on the planet, it is important to reflect on the steps it took to get to this point. And this one was HUGE. 40 countries were involved. Each one was asked to select something to reflect their country. The UK asked The Beatles if they would do it and they said yes. John then proceeded to write one of the most (if not the most) beloved anthems to Love ever written. Those words reverberated all around the world in an instant and The Summer of Love had begun. We may never know for certain if John had already written the song before learning of the TV event or just after, but timing is everything and the planets aligned for this song at that moment in time! Give it a listen today. Feel the magic of it on this day. You can even watched the colorized version on The Beatles Anthology DVD .

June 18th. We wish Paul a very Happy Birthday. Most people start to slow down at 69, but not PAUL McCARTNEY! He just completed is Up and Coming Tour in Las Vegas last weekend, and he immediately announced his new On The Run Tour, beginning at Yankee Stadium, July 15 & 16. Go to paulmccartney.com to see the tour dates. He is the only artist in the world who can announce one show at a time, since they all sell out immediately. So far, he has added Detroit, Montreal, Cincinnati and Chicago. More to come.It looks like tickets are only going to be offered through his site. At the 5th Anniversary of The Beatles Love/Cirque du Soleil Show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. Paul and fiancee Nancy Shevell, Yoko and Sean, Olivia and Dhani, and George and Giles Martin were all on hand (Ringo is on tour in Europe and sent a video message). They were all interviewed by Gayle King on the Oprah Network. Find it if you can. It is a very good series of interviews.

Photo from the Lost Beatles Photgraphs: The Bob Bonis Archive.

After graduating college a few weeks earlier, my friend Bob and I went to Europe for two months, beginning in London. The first stop was 3 Savile Row, Apple’s Headquarters. John & Yoko were there, so we waiting outside for 2 1/2 hours when a truck pulls up and opens its doors to reveal a Fireplace!. A few minutes later John comes out by himself to have a look at it. I said hello and shook his hand. I even offered him my passport as it was just after the Montreal Bed In for Peace and he wasn’t allowed int he U.S. at that time. There were about a dozen fans waiting, including three Apple Scruffs, but I was the only one he spoke to. I asked him if I could take some photos, which I did and also got his autograph on Apple stationery (occasionally show the autograph and photos in the Art Museum at the FESTS, At that moment, I decided I wanted to work for The Beatles. That didn’t happen, but I ended up selling Beatles records at Sam Goody for four years before thinking up the idea of Beatlefest, met with John and 37 years later, still going…It has been a wild and special ride. Thanks for joining.

The image is from the Bob Bonis Archive.

It was June 1, 1967 (June 2nd in the U.S.) that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band first entered our collective psyches, and forever changed the world. Simply put, it was the most important album ever released, still as fresh and exciting today as it was then!

I can remember when I first heard it. It was just after my 2nd year of college and a friend and I went to the brand new Montreal Expo’67 around Memorial Day. Car radios were AM only and music stations were few and far between in that journey home through upstate New York. I was looking for music, when I heard the scratchy and intermittent sounds of a song I never heard before.  Even though I could hardly hear it, there was no doubt, the long awaited new Beatles Album had come out. The song was Lovely Rita. For all of you Generation iPoders, Cell Phoners, Facebookers, and Twitterers, there were no advance announcements about record releases. They just came out. We fans ‘sensed’ it was about that time. I got home late, after all the record stores had closed, but the next morning (it was a Sunday) I went to the only store open on a Sunday –  Two Guys From Harrison in Hackensack, NJ  before breakfast to purchase my Mono copy. I came rushing home and couldn’t wait to open it up and get in on my record player. My brother (who is not the musical person in the family) listened with me. I was so blown away by it, looking at the cover and reading the lyrics (this was the first time lyrics were ever included on an album) and examining the cutouts all while the songs are leaping off the turntable. After listening to both sides, my brothers said, “Why did they put that last song on after the reprise. It’s just a filler”. That’s when I knew he didn’t ‘get it’. But I sure did. As the Johnny Rivers song says, I spend the entire summer listening to the album. I must admit, Indian music was foreign to me (and to U.S. pop culture) at the time and it took a while to understand and appreciate George’s singular contribution, Within You Without You. Oh, and that closing track, the greatest example of the Lennon and McCartney writing team, working at their highest levels of creativity. John’s gorgeous melody and poetic story simply told with just an acoustic guitar to Paul adding that middle 8 and the idea to leave 24 bars open for ‘something he had in mind’. Then to see and hear a 42 piece classical orchestra being told to just start at the bottom and finish at the top of the register of each instrument. WOW. A Day in The Life, still remains one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

One of the most magical things about The Beatles is that most artists can never top their masterpieces (ie: Sweet Baby James, Tapestry, Blue, Hotel California, Frampton Comes Alive,  Rumours, Thriller to name just a few) but The Beatles kept on topping themselves, right up to their final album two years later! It was a wonderful time. Happy birthday Sgt. P.