There's lots of music being played in my house. Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, Fats Domino and Elvis Presley. I like the Dixieland jazz stuff my parents play too, but I'm not too sure about Mitch Miller and Lawrence Welk.
My older cousins listen to rock and roll when they baby sit me and my bother and sister, and that stuff clings to my brain and whirls around inside my head, and I can hear those songs in my mind as I walk to school.
One day in school Mr. Lotstein, our visiting music teacher, asks us if we like the beetles. I don't quite get what he's talking about. What have bugs got to do with music, I wonder?
After a few seconds I realize he's talking about that new band from England I hear people talking about on the radio. They're supposed to be really popular over there, and now they're coming to America to play their music and to make it big in the United States, the home of rock and roll.
Mr. Lotstein asks us again. "Who likes the Beatles? Raise your hand."
Mostly the girls raise their hands.
A lot of the boys don't. Some say the Beatles just play "mushy" music about holding hands and love this and love that. They're not real rock and rollers like Chuck Berry or Elvis or Little Richard.
I don't know much about them; I'm not too sure if I've even heard their songs yet.
The Beatles must be important, I guess, if Mr. Lotstein is asking us about them. Mostly all he talks about is classical music when he comes to our school. These Beatle guys must be really good.
On February 9th the Beatles are going to be on the Ed Sullivan show, so I figure I'll see what all the commotion is about.
Well they come on alright. Just four guys in suits and hair that's a little different than most, and they play their first song.
Well, I can't believe the girls in the audience. They're screaming and crying and holding their faces in their hand, and just having fits.I don't know how they can hear the music over all the noise they're making.
The boys in the audience don't seem to be screaming or crying. Some of them look like they're enjoying the music, but I can't see how with all those girls just carrying on. It's a lot like how the kids behave at a matinee at the Wood movie theatre on a Saturday afternoon.
I don't get it. I mean the Beatles sound OK and all, but I can't understand all the screaming, especially when they all go OOOOOOH! during one of their songs. I thought all of the girls were going to pass out.
After that night all you heard about were the Beatles.
The "Mop Tops", the "Fab Four". The cute one and the smart one and the shy one and the funny one. Beatles this and Beatles that.
Seems like people are forgetting that America invented rock and roll. We can't just ignore Elvis and Ricky Nelson and Bo Diddley.
But then even more British bands start popping up.
Herman's Hermits and The Kinks and The Animals. The Dave Clark Five and Gerry and The Pacemakers. Manfred Mann and Peter and Gordon, The Rolling Stones and others.British rockers are everywhere you look, and everybody is copying them now. Tight fitting suits and black pointy shoes and long hair.
The music is catchy, and it takes hold of me just like Bill Haley and the Comets or Jerry Lee Lewis.
Odd thing though. With all this British music taking hold the number one song on the radio is by that funny-looking guy Roy Orbison. "Oh, Pretty Woman" is at the top of the charts, and I don't even think the girls scream over him at all. Roy Orbison just kind of stands there not doing much wearing dark glasses and a haircut like Moe from the Stooges, and he's number one.
I guess these Beatles will just be a passing fad after all.
I mean we've got The Supremes and Bob Dylan and The Beachboys and Sam Cooke and Johnny Cash and Little Richard and Jan and Dean and The Everly Brothers and all the rest.
How can those English guys beat that?
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