What was the First Beatles Song You Heard? When & Where were you?

[Charmed Life Picks]

Mine was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." Don't remember where I was at the time. Maybe Ed Sullivan Show? I just remember it changed my life.

Would especially love to hear from younger members who were too young (or not born yet) to experience the paradigm shift in 1963-1964, who were maybe introduced to the Beatles by a sibling, friend, parent, or grandparent. f

Scott Memmer

[tigobah]

"I Wanna Hold Your Hand" Naval barracks on Treasure Island in San Francisco.

[golfreggie]

I truly don't remember the actual "first" time I ever heard a Beatles song. I would hazard a guess that it was on WHB radio in Kansas City in 1964 prior to the Beatles arriving in the US. I was not initially impressed by "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", and still don't count it as one of their best early songs, although it sold like hotcakes! I watched them on the Sullivan show and that was it!. "All My Lovin'" was what they opened the show with and I was hooked. I started off buying the US album "Meet The Beatles" and every time an album came out I got it! Even got the 45's that weren't available on LP. I became, and still am, a huge Beatles fan.

[J Patrick]

I wanna hold your hand or I saw her standing there on the car radio of our 1959 pink Mercury Monterey.... within a month I started my first band where I and two friends put Meet the Beatles on the Grundig console and pretended to play along... me on my snare drum and my mates on guitars. We couldn’t play a lick but we were giving it all we had. Precious memories.:.

[swarfrat]

I don't remember, but I do remember from reading that I thought "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was a Clapton song, and the very first time I HIM do it, I immediately thought "I didn't know this was a Beatles song!"

[bsman]

We were living in a small town in Southern Illinois in 1964, and during a business trip to St. Louis, my dad brought back the VeeJay "Introducing the Beatles" record for my sister. Side one, first track was "I Saw Her Standing There", so that was the first Beatles song I ever heard, and my life was all downhill from there. FYI, the six year-old me at the time misheard the lyrics as "I saw her standing bare", which did nothing but increase my interest...

[Charmed Life Picks]

I did a little research. As far as I could find, the first Beatles single was "Please, Please Me," in Feb 1963, followed by "From Me to You," in May 1963, and "She Loves You." in Sept 1963. However, none these really broke through or received significant airplay.

That came on December 26, 1963, when "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" popped and went number one. This must have been about the time I heard it. I had an older brother who was more hip to these things.

scott memmer

[jseth]

"She Loves You" or "Please, Please Me"... 1963, Southern California, 12 years old...

WAY too long ago to remember exactly where I was or the day... I do remember that my Middle School had a "poll" to decide whether The Beatles or The Beachboys were our favorite band... this was in late November.

In the afternoon, the Principal came on the PA/intercom; I immediately thought that he was going to reveal the results of our poll... and then he announced that the President had been shot in Dallas...

Don't remember the results of that poll...

[1833]

1964 on AM radio stations WQAM and WFUN in Hialeah Fl. Prior the the Beatles coming to the US . My older sister friends where going crazy and my Dad thought they where long haired trouble with there Beatle hair cuts and black pointed shoes with a little heel . I am pretty sure the first song was She Loves You . Not my favorite but my first . Joe R

[penname]

“All My Loving” during their first performance on the Ed Sullivan show.

[Joe Beamish]

I'm sure I'm not consciously aware of my first Beatles song. But the first one I definitely remember is "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da", while lying in bed at night listening to the radio through the single earphone that was connected to my small baby blue Realistic transistor radio.

Pretty sure it was "Come Together" on the car radio in the mid 70s. I was born in 1972.

[fitness1]

"She Loves You" - Swan Records 45 rpm on my Voice of Music "suitcase" record player in my bedroom - probably '67 or '68. At that age (6-ish) I already had a huge crush on a girl from the 'hood. Must have played that song about 1000 times.....

[dwasifar]

Matchbox, b/w Slow Down.

I'm sure you're all saying to yourselves, why THAT?

My dad was a high school principal. Every year kids would leave tons of stuff in their lockers at the end of the school year, and my dad would pick out the records from the rest of the junk and bring them home for me to play on my little kiddie spinner record player. That single was released in late August 1964, so it likely came home with my dad somewhere around June of 1965, which would make me three years old at the time.

I had a box of such singles. Question Mark and the Mysterians. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. The Monkees. The Lovin' Spoonful. The Surfaris. But "Slow Down" got more play than the others, because from my toddler viewpoint, John Lennon going "BRLPLPLPLPLPPPL! If you want our love to last" was the most hilarious thing ever.

Most of those records were lost in a freak accident a few years later. I had got in the habit of leaving my record player on for hours at a time even if I wasn't playing records, because it took time for the tubes to warm up. I accidentally left it on and spinning with a record on the platter when the family went on vacation for two weeks. When I got back, the record on the platter, and every other record within a foot or two of the player, was warped into a giant black Ruffles potato chip from the overheated tubes. Given that those record players were made of vinyl-covered fiberboard, it's lucky we didn't come back from vacation to a smoldering crater. But, amazingly, once the player had a chance to cool off, it was fine.

[rokdog49]

“I want to hold your hand”
Changed my life...seriously!