So I’m currently in the process of creating a “Beatles Appreciation” playlist for a dear friend of mine who has claimed to just not like The Beatles and finds that they really aren’t all that special. This is a shock to yours truly, who is a hardcore Beatles fan, and yes, I celebrate their whole catalogue (with the exception of Revolution #9, but I blame that on Yoko.) I remember as a 5 year-old, sitting on my mom’s bed while she drank a cup of coffee, my cheap Panasonic walkman that was covered in stickers turned up as far as it would go, jamming out to “Boys”. My sister and I had a singing routine that we’d always shout in the car to “I Saw Her Standing There”, and I remember asking with innocence (and naïveté), “Is ‘Slow Down’ the sequel song for ‘Baby You Can Drive My Car’?” My friend Eden was my Beatles compatriot in elementary school, and he wrote a radio show in his journal in 2^nd grade about how he and I got to interview John Lennon. Consequently, eight years later, I watched Eden play and my friend Robyn sing “Blackbird” beautifully in a talent show at CA. Last April I sang “In My Life” at my cousin’s wedding, and I remember my dad telling me about one of my aunts who was completely swept up in Beatle-mania, and I recall thinking that that was the coolest thing ever for an aunt to be swept up in. I heart the Beatles.

So as I make this playlist, I have to wonder what to include, and what to keep out. I can only make one CD, but thankfully most Beatles’ songs are rather short, so I can fit many onto one CD. I want to give my friend a disc that represents the range of the Beatles: their singing, songwriting and performance. My friend blames a lot of her dislike on, “There’s just too much, ‘doo-wop shoo-bop’”, which, as all good Beatles’ fans know, simply isn’t the case. Some songs are just bad ass, like “Helter Skelter”, others are achingly beautiful, like “Eleanor Rigby.” Some Beatles’ songs are haunting, I’m thinking of “Because” on this one, and others are just fun, like “Octopuses’ Garden” and “All Together Now.” Plus, many of their albums tell stories, let’s just have a quick look at “Abbey Road” and “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, the songs on these albums weave together seamlessly. So yeah, if it’s been a while, I’m using this blog entry to encourage you to drag out your old Beatles’ albums, and remember why they are one of the greatest bands of all time. Word.