The Beatles Are Here!: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

A celebration of the myth, the reality, the phenomenon, the era. Where did the Beatles take us, what did they deliver us from, and what do they mean to us now?

From Billy Joel: The single biggest moment that I can remember of being galvanized into wanting to be a musician for life was seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. They played their own instruments and they wrote their own songs and they looked like these working-class kids, like kids we all knew.

From Amanda Vaill: We were caught up in something bigger than ourselves, a kind of movement, and this music was our anthem.

From Fran Lebowitz: Parents didn t like the Beatles, but basically parents didn t like us. People forget that. Our parents were mad at us all the time.

From Cousin Brucie Morrow: We weren t smiling too much. We had assassinations. The nation was really divided. The Beatles sort of helped to bring everybody together.

From Noelle Oxenhandler: To this day, I could still probably give the correct answer if someone were to ask: What is John s shirt size? How does he like to take his eggs and tea? How old was he when he went to live with his Aunt Mimi? ?

From Pico Iyer: The day the Beatles landed in New York City was the day the United Kingdom could finally see that it wasn t just yesterday s power, on the decline, but part of what would form tomorrow s trans-Atlantic axis.

From Cyndi Lauper: When I was eleven and the Beatles were coming to New York, my mother drove my sister, her friend Diane, and me to where the Hilton Hotel is, by the airport, so we could see the Beatles drive by. All of a sudden we saw cars coming and it was them. So I started screaming and I shut my eyes, and by the time I realized I should open my eyes, I d missed it.

From David Dye: My daughter is now a junior in high school. You can t play a Beatles song that she doesn t know. I think to have that kind of cultural staying power is truly amazing.

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PENELOPE ROWLANDS has written about culture and the arts for Architectural Digest, the Daily Beast, Vogue, WSJ. Magazine, and other publications. Her books include the anthology Paris Was Ours and A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art, and Letters, a biography of the legendary editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. Find her at www.peneloperowlands.com.