I like to go back and look at Billboard weeklies from random weeks in the 1960's, then fudge up a playlist from 10 down to 1...

The Beatles arrival was just an order of magnitude or two past the impact Orson Wells was looking for with his radio "War of the Worlds" and the world was changed.

It was The Sound.

You got that right.

I used to love the Beatles.

Now I'm old, curmudgeonly and full of that weird thing called "knowledge".

Too bad that so few can separate childish, enthusiastic ukulele plucking from music.

Fred Z...don't tell me, let me guess. You're one of the guys who buy the $1,500 HDMI cables because you can really tell the difference in picture quality.

Awright, spread out.

There's a lot of us from back in that day that preferred C&W or R&B and the good ol' rock & roll born and bred right here. Need I remind you that all those Brits got their chops listening to our 50s rock and soul? Not to mention the blues influence - strike that - yes, mention the blues.

I played in many bands in the 60s and none of 'em considered the "British Invasion" more than a nuisance, in the same category as The Carpenters or Donnie and Marie. Future elevator music.

Yeah there were some good groups from over there but they owe us. Are there any questions about that?

I can remember being a three year old and getting excited by the Beatles. My mother loved them, and my father hated them...until they came out with Michelle, and then he would tell us how brilliant they were because of the chord changes.

Hey Mumblix Grumph, bad guess, I have a cheap to mid price sound system. You seem to have missed my point that the Beatles are unstudied amateurs, but carefully coached and augmented, who created and played a few simple pop songs, often badly. I strongly suspect that whatever quality exists in their recordings comes from anonymous but talented studio musicians and producers.

Am I to swoon and declare these jumped up tinklings to be the music of the ages, on a par with Mozart's work? Doubt it.

It's nothing to do with the quality of the equipment.

Hey, who was the poofter in the funny hat who introduces them at the beginning?