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August 13, 1966. The Beatles. Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.
I Was There!
Being a Beatles fan was a large part of who you were as an American girl in 1966, at least at our school in Detroit, and really, at everyone’s school everywhere.
You bought each new 45 the moment it came out, and drove your folks nuts by playing it incessantly.
You turned up the radio whenever, “If I Fell” came on.
You read about the Fab Four in Tiger Beat and plastered your bedroom walls with their posters.
You slept with a picture of George (or John or Paul or Ringo) under your pillow.
Playing amazing love songs in matching mod suits and edgy adorable haircuts, the Beatles were custom made for a 12-year-old girl to crush out on. Not only that, but they looked as if they were having a blast, and refused to take anything seriously.
When a reporter asked, in “A Hard Days Night,” (my favorite movie) if George was a Mod or a rocker, George famously responded: “I’m a mocker.” And I fell. Hard.
So when my friend Gail told me that her uncle, who owned a parking lot near Olympia Stadium, had managed to get his hands on a pair of tickets to the Beatles sold-out show on August 13, I was over-the-moon thrilled.
