Who got you into The Beatles?

[Bananarama37]

Well, mine's pretty simple, although no less magical to me. My mom has always been a huge Beatles kid, as was everyone in her household in the 60's. She always tells me about all the albums my grandma had, including many Beatles albums, which she unfortunately got rid of in the process of several moves. She said whenever she was at home or home from school, her and her siblings would sit around the record player, listening to the LPs and reading (or singing) the lyrics from the back covers of the albums.
I had heard a few songs as a young kid, of course, like Yellow Submarine, Hey Jude, Octapus's Garden, and Let It Be, but when I really got into The Beatles was at the age of nine. My parents and I were moving my much older sister into her new apartment. They were talking about boring stuff I didn't want to listen to, and her iPod was on the table. I was scrolling through the huge amounts of music (it was a nearly full iPod Classic), when I came upon 'The Beatles'. I kind of recognized the name, so I turned on a song, I believe it was 'Penny Lane' I heard first. So for the next hour and a half I was listening to great songs like Come Together, Can't Buy Me Love, Eleanor Rigby, Across The Universe, and the above mentioned Penny Lane. I was completely enthralled with the musical ability, fantastic lyrics, and all the songs as a whole. I took the iPod with me the next day as me and my mom went shopping, and listened to it until the battery died. Ever since then I have been a Beatlemaniac. I never owned any Beatle CDs at first, so I had to settle for listening to my mom's Paul McCartney 'All The Best' CD, which I loved, until around a two years ago when I got the opportunity to burn Rubber Soul and 1 onto iTunes. I loved both, and listened to all the songs on 1 constantly. But around a year ago we went back down to see my sisters and went to a record/CD shop near their place, where I found a little CD called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I adored it instantly, and it's probably my favorite Beatles album to this day. I used to be one of the few people who I knew that liked them, but now with The Beatles: Rock Band, I think many more teenagers are realizing the majesty of their music. I am currently trying (with good success) to get my younger friend to appreciate The Beatles as much as I do.

The only thing I've got to say now is this:
Buy one of the new Beatles remasters. Go home. Listen to it. Enjoy. It's as simple as that.

What a great story - I love it! I hope you are able to get your friends interested. I was at my high school reunion this past summer, and one of my friends' daughters is about 14. I had my Beatles' Monopoly game with me at the picnic, and she asked if she and her friends could play it. I said, "of course" and asked her if she liked them. She said, "NO! They're old!!" which made me laugh. She overlooked the fact that they were in their 20s at the time and were really pretty radical to a lot of people (record burnings, etc.). I gave her the game and my iPod and they proceeded to listen to a bunch of the music. When they finally gave it back, she admitted that they're pretty good for old guys.

My oldest sister, that I mentioned in my post, had anything and everything that was Beatles-related. She had the little dolls that I still remember loving, every album (I used to sit and pore over the album covers and sleeves... especially Sgt. Pepper's!), wallpaper... you name it. When she graduated from high school and was getting ready to leave home (no pun intended - "She's Leaving Home") for school, she put all of her stuff in a box and left it on the curb for the garbage man to pick up. She felt like she was an adult and it was time to leave the Beatles behind. Fortunately she didn't include her albums - I had them for years and gave them back to her a couple of years ago when she asked for them. She has regretted that single decision for decades. I can only imagine what the value would be on so much of those collectible items she had.

Anyway, I wanted to say how much I appreciated your post. Enjoy the Fab Four and TB:RB!

[Bealtespip122]

I remember listening to "Bugs And Friends Sing The Beatles" and I eventually listened to the Please Please Me Album. I loved their music ever since I was 9. I'm 23 now.

[Ehfahq]

I got myself into them. By going through my dads records during summer break when nobody was around. We couldnt afford babysitters back then.

Been a fan every since.

[Jamstruth]

My dad bought the Beatles 1 CD ages ago, a while back I started listening and got hooked.

[LeeInFLA]

I became aware of the Beatles before they made it big back in 1963... I bought the 45 Love Me Do and PS I Love You and later Introducing the Beatles on VeeJay records....I knew they were special so when Capital picked them up and the two hits from Meet the Beatles came out in the states (US) I decided I wanted to be a musician at age 14... my parents bought me a drum set and I learned all the Beatles songs I could.

I saw the Beatles live at the Atlanta stadium in 1965 during the Help! days...

Later in my 20's (1970's) I switched to bass guitar and had a Rick 4001 like the one Paul had after his Hofner years...

I'm 58 now, and I am still a huge fan, so much so I bought the Beatles Rockband for the PS3 with a new PS3, and now own the stereo boxset...

[robg83]

The Beatles were the FIRST band I ever listened to!!!

When I was five, I found my Dad's cassette tape dubs of their US Capitol LPs. The very first tape was Rubber Soul. I really wore that tape out, as well as the Red and Blue album tapes (recorded from my Dad's old 8-tracks).

From there, I went straight to CDs. I did get sucked into buying all the 1987-88 CD releases for $12.99-$32.99 ("Red" and "Blue" were expensive). Then, came the inevitable compilations like "Yellow Submarine Songtrack", "1", and "Let It Be...Naked".

But, when I was about 10 or 11, I started buying up the old Capitol LPs (an estimated $1,000 investment, including the extra copies to make up for the scratched up ones).

Now, I'm glad to actually own not only the 2009 remasters, but TB:RB as well. Can't wait for the DLCs later this month. Til then, time to listen to the Beatles in Stereo and Mono.

[BeatleTapatio]

when I was around 10 years old I was learning to play organ, and one the songs that they taught me was Let It Be, my dad told me that my grandpa had the blue album, so I borrowed it and listened to it, but since I didn't speak english at the time and I had no idea what was going on.

Later on, while I was in middle school, my brother borrowed the Reader's Digest edition, and made a tape, 60 minutes of Beatles songs. I took it, and started to listen to it, and again and again and again, until he got pissed at me for taking it, hehe, so I made my own tape with the songs that I liked most, but I only filled side A.

one of my classmates had some LPs and I borrowed them, but I always had an empty side. and decided to buy my first cds. the first one was the White Album. Once I had all of them, I listened to them as solo career, and didn't like them that much. BBC came out, the Anthologies, and started buying their solo career cds, Wing's Greatests, Lennon Collection, RIngo were the first ones I bought from each, I was in Mexico and they didn't have all of them, mostly Paul's, I bought a bootleg tape by George.

When I came to the US, I bought the rest of them, took me 15 years to get all their music. Went to see Paul in concert in 2002, saw Ringo 3 times, and missed a chance to see Paul when he rode on Route 66, since I was thinking of doing the same on that day, but I didn't know and went somewhere else. Then on Ringo's bday at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago, I was like 1 mile away, but I didn't know he was going to be there.

that's my story about how I got into the Beatles, but the first time I heard about them was on the night of December 8th, 1980 when I heard the news about some guy that was shot, I didn't know who he was, but that night is been in my mind since then and a couple of years later I found out he was John Lennon

[Sagemind]

My dad was the hugest Beatle nut ever, knows every song, out of all of them there's maybe one he doesn't like...anyway, my mom and dad used to play them all the time. I hated them at first (spare me, O god of flames!) but then I listened to them more and now I bought the game

[vertrothe]

Growing up, my parents were War Babies (pre-boomers) who didn't much care for Rock music. My mom loved classical and opera, and my dad loved classical as well as early big band recordings and marches and such. Mom did have a soft spot for a few groups (like the Mamas & the Papas, and the Beatles) so though they weren't precisely 'Anti-Rock', they just didn't listen to it themselves, so there wasn't much of it around the house.

That is, aside from my sister, who was 10 years my senior. From how I have heard it, my parents purchased Abbey Road because it even appealed to them when pretty much no other rock band did. My sister who was barely an infant at the time apparently loved the album so much and played it so often that she wore out the grooves on the record, and helped turn her into as big of a Beatles fanatic (in the 1970s and 1980s) as most girls were in the 1960s. She grew up then listening to the Beatles, to John Lennon, to Led Zeppelin, the Police... all the great Rock music that I missed out on myself for a long period of time. I believe the first time I heard the Beatles, it was drifting out from under the closed door of her room. I seem to recall that it was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Which so captured my imagination as a kid that for years, the Beatles were pretty much all I cared to know about for rock & roll.

Of course, times have changed, and I'm very much a Rock fan now, but it all began with the Beatles, and hearing this music which in my childhood seemed so new and wonderful, even though the band broke up a full decade before I was born. And even now, entering my 30s, the Beatles remains the one band I can always come back to.

[fuselage321]

I just got a let it be magnet for my locker at school! YAY BEATLES!!!!

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