As you may have heard, the Beatles are now available in the iTunes store. It’s a pretty big deal from a business perspective, I’ve heard that last year the Beatles were the second highest selling artist. That’s pretty amazing considering how long ago they broke up…
They’ve been playing the Beatles non-stop in the store for the past couple of days. I’m actually enjoying it quite a bit, though ask me next week and see if I say the same thing… It’s amazing, I know the words to all of the songs, I find myself mouthing the words even when I’m not really listening to the music. They are deep, deep inside my head. Listening to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” made me recall my very first experience with audio equipment, and I guess the first time I played music on my own. It was with my father’s reel to reel tape machine. He had Sgt. Pepper’s on tape. I think the first real song I ever knew all the words to was “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” I think the only Beatles albums I haven’t listened to a zillion times are Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Days Night, and Beatles for Sale. Rest assured, I know all of the radio hits by heart…
It is amazing to see how long their music has kept going. I don’t think it’s all boomers that are responsible for that either. Their hits are the very definition of iconic. I do notice they aren’t playing songs like “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” “Revolution No.9,” or even “Run for Your Life,” but we are getting some decent variety in the store and people seem to be enjoying it for the most part. They’ve had a great run, let’s see if they can go another 40 years!