Beatles March 21 Music et al

Cavern Club

March 21, 1961 was The Beatles’ first night-time performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Their 11 previous appearances at the venue had been lunchtime shows.The band got $42.00 per night. They supported The Blue Genes, who later became The Swinging Blue Jeans.

Although the precise number of their Cavern performances is not known, The Beatles played at least 155 lunchtime and 125 evening shows. Their final performance at the venue took place on 3 August 1963. (see Mar 24)

Beatles March 21 Music et al

She Loves You

March 21 – April 3, 1964, The Beatles: “She Loves You” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (next Beatles, see Mar 23)

From Soundscape dot com: …there are a number of significant ways in which “She Loves You” is not particularly daring; shades of Norm’s warning to the group, “let’s not pull any strokes or do anything I’ll be sorry for.” In particular:

• The phrasing throughout is totally four-square; the verse is four times four, and the refrain is a true middle eight.
• The harmonic rhythm is fairly regular throughout with no extremes. The chords generally change every two measures. The few places where this pattern is broken by chord changes every measure would seem to be carefully staged, however subconsciously.
• The harmonic scheme, in spite of a few localized touches of color, is rather static; the song is firmly in G throughout.
• And yet, the song contains a musical vocabulary and arrangement that is shot through with quirky details and nuances that were soon to develop into trademarks of the group; their special “sound” is already apparent.

Beatles March 21 Music et al

The Saturday Evening Post

March 21, 1964: Beatles appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, one of America’s mainstream magazines at the time.  Post’s cover story – “The Secrets of The Beatles” – promised “an intimate account of their American tour and a probing analysis of their incredible power to excite frenzied emotions among the young.”

Written by Alfred G. Aronowitz, the article lead with, “They can’t read music, their beat is corny and their voices are faint, but England’s shaggy-maned exports manage to flip wigs on two continents.”  (Full article) 

Beatles March 21 Music et al

Strawberry Fields

March 21, 1984: a section of Central Park was renamed ‘Strawberry Fields’ to honor John Lennon. 

The New York Times article read in part…

Yoko Ono looked up at the cold, rainy sky over Central Park yesterday. ”Thank you, John,” she said, her voice choking through a smile. ”We made it happen again.”

Using golden shovels, the musician’s widow and Mayor Koch helped break ground on the two-and-a-half- acre section of the park called Strawberry Fields, dedicated to John Lennon. The Mayor said Miss Ono had given the city $1 million to restore and maintain the area.

The plot, just east of 72d Street and Central Park West, is a few hundred yards from the spot where the former Beatle was shot dead on Dec. 8, 1980, in front of his home in the Dakota. (full NYT article) (see February 10, 1986)

Beatles March 21 Music et al

Paul McCartney

March 21, 2016: Paul McCartney filed legal papers in the US, as part of an attempt to reclaim the publishing rights to The Beatles’ back catalog. Although he co-wrote most of the band’s hits, the he never controlled the publishing.

However, the US copyright act of 1976 gives writers the opportunity to reclaim the rights after 56 years. The Lennon-McCartney catalog becomes available in 2018, and McCartney recently moved to recapture it. (see Aug 29)

Beatles March 21 Music et al