Music is I think affects  most peoples lives, even those who say they don’t like it or even listen to it.

           I must admit music  was not something I felt interested in till about early 60’s.  This may seem strange  as my father  loved Classical music, and often had classical music on on the  radio, and he  played the piano moderately well.  I did have piano lesson when I was about 10, but I only stuck with it for a  couple of years.  I found  “reading”  music terrible difficult.  I think it was around 1962  that “spark”  of  music started in me. I went to friends 21st birthday party.  YES  in those day 21 WAS the  year of adulthood,  not 18  as it is  now!  It was when the  TWIST was all the  rage, and at this  party I learnt  to do the  twist!  It was  later that summer that we as a family went to that Vegetarian holiday in Swansea, Clyne Castle.  There was a largish number of 16 to 30 year olds each week, and went round as a group.  It was here  that my interest in girls started getting stronger, though I was still shy of them.  But pop music was one of the  things that was played and talked about quite  a  bit  and at the  weekly Friday family parties we danced, ballroom & modern.  After that holiday I started regularly listening to TOP OF THE  POPS on Sundays.  My favourite one at the  time was TELSTAR  by the Tornados.  IT WAS GREAT  I always  turned the radio up full  when it was at  number one!  It was at number one for 5 weeks.  1962 was one of the years dominated by Elvis Presley.  He had 4 number ones for a total of 15 weeks.  This was the  year that BRITISH  stars were actually  beating American for the  first time.  Cliff Richard with “The Young Ones” was a 6 weeker, and his Shadows on their own with “Wonderful Land” stayed for 8 weeks.  There  was Frank Ifield’s  “I’ll Remember you” and  for 7 weeks was never  forgotten!    In June Mike Sarne issued his only number one  “Come Outside” with a then totally unknown hesitant girl Wendy Richards.  (Wendy is now known as the  longest running star  of East Enders!)  Other number ones in 1962 were B Bumble & the stingers  “Nut Rocker” (Tchaikowsky Classical The  Nut Cracker” jazzed up, which purists hated!) and Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You”.  Very little, in this  year was heard from the  Pop group that was to become the  greatest ever, and unlikely to ever be equalled.  Those who were  dedicated  pop followers might remember a  song “Love Me Do” and an interview with a  new  group who recently decided to change their  name  from two words  to one.  Silver  was dropped, leaving us with  the  BEATLES. This took place in the tail end of 1962.  What was different was the  fact that this  group had written tons of their own songs, and by the end  1963 the whole world had heard of them,  PLEASING people  of all ages, With so much LOVE everyone wanted to Hold their Hands.  So much so that the POSH Times reviewed their fourth single “I want To Hold Your Hand” in a  serious and in a classical  style.  Till then the TIMES  had turned a  blind eye to pop music.    From 1963 to 1970 the Beatles’s new releases usually went straight to number one, and from 1964 this  was the  case in America as well.  In 1970 sadly they split up and went their own ways, their  individual music was never the  same as it was when they were  together.  The  saddest case of all was that John Lennon was murdered in New York  in 198?   Also more recently  in 200?  We lost the  wonderful George Harrison to cancer.  In 1963 I had my first girl friend and she  had me change  my hair style to a “Beatles Mop” as I went off to Swansea University to earn my teaching diploma.  I remember in my teaching practice  school how one girl put on a  “fainting”  act in the  school corridor for  my  benefit, because of my Beatles hair cut!  When I left at the  end of the  year, the  class that I had been most involved in gave me a  leaving present of a wallet and a  lucky sixpence (Which I still  have and treasure— the  headmaster told me that I was the  first student teacher at his school to ever be given a leaving present!  After they had given me the present  the 13 year olds sang  “ALL MY LOVING”  to me, even though by that time I had reverted to my  normal hair style!  (My Fiancee had left me  in Nov 63).    My interest in the  pop charts continued till about 1970s about the  time  the Beatles broke up. Pop music never seemed the  same again, and to me seemed to get worse with time. Had the  Beatles taken all the  best tunes and songs?  Of course there have been the odd great songs, but nothing quite like the 1960s.  It wasn’t JUST  the  Beatles either,  there were numerous pop

BEATLES

& music

The Beatles ARE  the GREATEST EVER  POP GROUP.

Their 'record' puts them FIRMLY amongst the GREATEST  musicians, including the  Classics

Email:   Chris

Abbey Road

18