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The Beatles 100 Most Pivotal Moments

100 Most Pivotal Moments in Beatles History
100 Most Pivotal Moments in Beatles History

If you had to select the 100 Most Pivotal Moments of The Beatles’ career, what would you choose…and why? And by “The Beatles’ career,” I mean both their years together and their solo years. Quite a daunting task, isn’t it? But that was the opportunity afforded to Goldmine writer and author of John Lennon: Life is What Matters, John Borack. John was recently asked to write a great new book, The Beatles 100: One Hundred Pivotal Moments in Beatles History. And it is really, really interesting!

Please join Lanea Stagg, the author of The Recipe Records Series of rock’n’roll cookbooks and Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series of narrative biographies as they sit down with Borack to discuss his choices.

This is one of the most thought-provoking, conversation-starting podcasts that “She Said She Said” has ever published. Here’s a teaser: Pivotal Moment #1 is John meeting Paul. Pivotal Moment #2 is America Greets the Fab Four in 1964 and Moment #3 is Pete Best is Replaced by Ringo Starr.

So, the moments are NOT in cause-and-effect, sequential order. You will agree and disagree. You will nod and shout at the show. You will be totally engaged. Don’t miss this lively podcast! And buy John’s intriguing book wherever great books are sold! 

Listen to this great interview with Jude Southerland Kessler and Lanea Stagg

Get Jude’s and Lanea’s Books too:

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The Beatles Debut at The Cavern Club: 9th February 1961

The Beatles at the Cavern in 1961
The Beatles at the Cavern in 1961

Debbie Greenberg, our resident Cavern Club expert, looks back at the very first time The Beatles appeared at the legendary Cavern Club. In an excerpt from her book, Cavern Club: The Inside Story, Debbie discusses The Beatles debut.

“The Cavern’s identity started to change at the start of the decade. Rock ‘n’ roll replaced jazz and the Cavern became the heart that gave Mersey its beat.

Debbie with Paul McCartney
Debbie with Paul McCartney at The Cavern

“We watched The Beatles debut at The Cavern lunchtime session on 9th February 1961. We were blown away. The Beatles were different, their music was incredible, their appearance raunchy, their energy infectious. They just oozed excitement.

“Six weeks later on the 23rd March, after a lunchtime session at the Cavern, they jumped on a train at Liverpool’s Lime Street Station on their way to Hamburg for a second time having previously played there in 1960.

We Missed Them

“This time they sped out of our lives for four months. We missed them, but still went down to the Cavern to watch the other groups, like Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Singing Blue Genes, The Remo Four, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes and many more.

“They were all fabulous groups but they weren’t The Beatles.

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show

Exactly three years to the day from their debut at The Cavern Club in front of a couple of hundred fans, they appeared in front of 73 million Americans on the Ed Sullivan Show.

What a journey they had made in just three years.

Find out more about the story of The Cavern Club in Debbie’s book, Cavern Club: The Inside Story.

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“Girl”, by The Beatles

Girl by The Beatles
Girl by The Beatles
“Girl” by The Beatles

“Girl” by The Beatles from Rubber Soul

Two full years before Sergeant Pepper, with Rubber Soul the Beatles were beginning to write much more complex songs than the pop songs for which they first had become popular, and because of which Sergeant Pepper was so iconic. “Girl” was one of those songs. Many were focused on women, many on love in general, but they were a universe apart from the early songs. The narratives, the instrumentation, the lyrics, the interest in experimenting with different types of music all went to a new level. 

“Girl” was one of the watershed songs from Rubber Soul, the last song recorded for the album.  The subject matter, again, was about an idealized girl, “the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry,” who makes your very intake of breath accentuated. But the harmonies were impeccable as always, the staccato background vocals in the bridge were a naughty schoolboy joke that were sneaked in past the producer George Martin, the guitar solo at the end could have been for a Greek folk song, and the lyrics were…poetry:

Was she told when she was young


That pain would lead to pleasure?…


That a man must break his back


To earn his day of leisure?


“Love love me do, You know I love you” this was not.

The Beatles grew, and continued to grow.  We can, too, including during challenging times. And in troubled times for an entire society, it is imperative that we grow beyond where we have been.  If only the growth of our civic and humane sensibilities could be anywhere as rapid as the growth of the Beatles’ creative powers.

But. We. Cannot. Let. This. Pivotal. Moment. Go. By.

Tim Hatfield

Get a copy of Tim’s inspirational book on Beatles lyrics