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

[Glennwillow]

My first Beatles' song that I heard was "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The other songs were aired later after "I Want to Hold Your Hand" made a big splash. I was in the Cleveland, OH area in 10th grade of high school, 15 years old. Cleveland was a big radio market.

The first time I remember hearing this song was going to a Christmas party that someone on the swimming team held between Christmas and New Years and they were playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the flip side ("When I Saw Her Standing There"). Regarding the flip side, Paul McCartney was asking if we knew what he meant about her being "just seventeen," but at age 15, I'm not sure I knew what he meant at all.

- Glenn

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Did they do "Love Me Do" that first show as well? For some reason, I thought they opened with it, but I'm sure you're correct about "All My Loving." It's actually more uptempo and a better opener.

Thanks!
Scott

Putting my cutting & pasting skills to work here. There were several 'Paul' songs.

Part 1.
All My Loving.
Till There Was You. (Meredith Willson cover)
She Loves You.
Part 2.
I Saw Her Standing There.
I Want to Hold Your Hand.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Brooklyn Bob

Putting my cutting & pasting skills to work here. There were several 'Paul' songs.

Part 1.
All My Loving.
Till There Was You. (Meredith Willson cover)
She Loves You.
Part 2.
I Saw Her Standing There.
I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Bob, thanks. And not a lemon in the bunch.

sm

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

My first Beatles' song that I heard was "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The other songs were aired later after "I Want to Hold Your Hand" made a big splash. I was in the Cleveland, OH area in 10th grade of high school, 15 years old. Cleveland was a big radio market.

The first time I remember hearing this song was going to a Christmas party that someone on the swimming team held between Christmas and New Years and they were playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the flip side ("When I Saw Her Standing There"). Regarding the flip side, Paul McCartney was asking if we knew what he meant about her being "just seventeen," but at age 15, I'm not sure I knew what he meant at all.

- Glenn

Glenn, I never knew you grew up in Cleveland! Whereabouts?

I grew up in Warrensville Heights. My dad taught at Warrensville High for about twenty-five years, then we moved to Los Angeles where he taught at Beverly Hills High School for another twenty years or so.

I KNEW there was something about us that clicked.

sm

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Bob, thanks. And not a lemon in the bunch.

sm

Here's a little snip of that first tune with a 21 year old Sir Paul cheesing like Velveeta while playing some killer walking bass.

[The Watchman]

Originally Posted by 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.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! WHB brought the whole rock 'n' roll world to KC in those days. I heard She Loves You on my sister's transistor radio on our back patio with a group of her friends on a summer day. I was maybe 6. I wasn't interested in the music so much, but it opened my eyes to the possibility that, somehow, girls could be interesting.

[DanR]

"All My Loving" as it was the first song they played on The Ed Sullivan Show.

[mr. beaumont]

I'm sure I had heard many songs before, but the first one that struck me was "Here, There and Everywhere." My aunt and uncle used it their wedding video, I remember my grandma watching it, I would have been about ten. I remember thinking it was really "pretty," which wasn't really a word I had thought about regarding music before...I guess in some ways it's responsible for me still being a sucker for "pretty" tunes.

[Dirk Hofman]

I'm sure it was on the radio and entered my brain as a baby. So really, no idea. Some of the songs feel like children's songs we'd all sing, like Yellow Submarine.

My aunt in Belgium had a big collection of Beatles albums and books which my brother and I pored over for days on end when we were kids in the 70s. Loved all that stuff. There was some risqué photography we were interested in for sure. So I guess my first real recollections of the band are from Antwerp, Belgium in the mid to late 70s.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by The Watchman

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! WHB brought the whole rock 'n' roll world to KC in those days. I heard She Loves You on my sister's transistor radio on our back patio with a group of her friends on a summer day. I was maybe 6. I wasn't interested in the music so much, but it opened my eyes to the possibility that, somehow, girls could be interesting.

I was sitting in the car one day when "She Loves You" came on the radio, and I realized sitting there that that is one of the most perfect pop tunes ever written. It's just a gem of structure, melody and rhythm. I mean, it's just flawless.

I think it was George Martin who had the idea of putting the chorus first. It works.

scott

[reeve21]

I was only 11 or 12 when they broke up, so real young when they first broke through. I remember the buzz on Ed Sullivan. I'm guessing my first song was She Loves You or I Want to Hold Your Hand.

I really became aware of them when I got more interested in music, just as they were breaking up. The two songs that stick with me from that time in my life, and still do, were tunes that I heard on the radio a lot--Let it Be and Hey Jude.

I gravitated towards improvisational/instrumental music for a long time, and never really understood the Beatles or the extent of their genius until fairly recently. When I land on my desert island with only one record it would be one of theirs--but which one?

I'll name a few favorite tunes, maybe make my own playlist to bring along:

Here, There and Everywhere
And I Love Her
Lady Madonna
Get Back
She's Leaving Home
In My Life
Let it Be
A Day in the Life
Across the Universe
Norwegian Wood
Come Together
Yesterday
I Saw Her Standing There
Eleanor Rigby
Don't Let Me Down
I've Got a Feeling

I always thought I was more of a Paul fan, but the more I listen to John's tunes the better he gets And I love George, but when I think of him it his solo career. I realize I left his too few but wonderful Beatles contributions off this list. And Ringo is one of my favorite drummers. What a band!

[tinnitus]

People who follow fads and over-use pet expressions (like "I know, right?") seem to enjoy saying "mind blown" several times a day to acknowledge (sarcastically or not) when some profound revelation has occurred.

Contrasting that, I'm in my mid-60s and I can count on one hand the number of times my mind has been blown.

It's possible that I had already heard the Beatles on my AM transistor radio (91 KISN in Portland) prior to Feb 9, 1964. But seeing/hearing 'All My Loving' on the Ed Sullivan Show (tiny B&W TV at home) certainly lit a musical fuse in my beady little brain.

[KevWind]

Portland Oregon 1964 (I was 14 the year I learned to play guitar ) it was "I Want to Hold Your Hand"........Funny I remember it distinctly ---we were going over the Terwilliger Boulevard bridge where it goes over the I-5 Freeway heading for Lake Oswego, and it was probably on KISN radio

[Alex&r]

I was born in Liverpool only a few weeks before they split. I don't think it was my fault.
Growing up they were ubiquitous on our local stations and Beatles 'locations' become tourist destinations. They were of my parents' generation and I took against them in teenage ways and was 28-years-old before I appreciated them.
As a small child though I remember my mum singing 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' to me. It's a precious memory.

[J Patrick]

…it was either I Want to Hold Your Hand or She Loves You….definitely in the back seat of the family sedan…a shell pink Mercury Monterey….in Ft Campbell Kentucky..