Mark A LoBello Esq

Our 1st Beatles album. I got Meet the Beatles within a week of their appearance on Ed Sullivan. I was 8 yrs old. My 3 brothers, all younger promptly decided we wanted to be just like the Beatles. I arranged to have Dad get some drum sticks for our youngest brother to play Ringo, drumming on a round pillow. I used my Dad's Gibson mandolin as a guitar while my next youngest brother played what must have been the 1st "air guitar." As the front 2 "beatles," we had removed the tops of 2 music stands - old style chrome stands. Atop the tri-pod bases and shaft of the stand, we stuck foil covered potatoes ... microphones. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. I'll never forget how upset my Mom was that we took to ruining every potato in the house, sticking holes in them & returning them to the kitchen sans foil. As their songs filtered through an old phonograph, myself and next youngest brother mouthed the songs to "Meet the Beatles" we had by that time memorized. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. These boys forever changed us, not only in music but style, hair, clothes; there is no greater icon who dominated the 60's as the Beatles did, molding us into what we are today ... and I still know every word to every song. I'll bet there are millions of us who do. Never forget what they gave us.