The Unexpected Longevity of The Beatles

CBS image, downloaded from The Daily Mail, James Corden reacts to singing "Let it Be" with Sir Paul McCartney.

I don’t usually watch TV that late at night, but I was downloading and editing pictures last Thursday, and at 11:30 happened to have the TV tuned to “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”

As you probably know, he does an amusing segment called “Carpool Karaoke.” I happened to catch the 45th installment of that segment, which was his ride with Sir Paul McCartney.

Well, that segment generated a lot of buzz, and it was pretty delightful to watch. At one point, Corden choked up during the song “Let it Be,” which McCartney said was inspired by a dream visit from his dead mother.

Corden said his father and grandfather had played the song for him, telling him it was the best song ever recorded. “I wish my granddad were here now,” he said.

“He is,” McCartney replied.



The segment made me think of how enduring the Beatles music has become. McCartney himself said the band never expected their pop music to be popular for more than 10 years, and here we are, generations later, still choking up to sounds of “Let it Be.”

At some point, my own children discovered The Beatles. My youngest son blames “Yellow Submarine” because we had a VHS tape of the movie and it was one that they watched repeatedly when growing up. Songs like “Yellow Submarine” and others, such as “Octopus’s Garden,” have a particular appeal to young children, my son noted.

I suppose he has a point. But my own children, in their teen or young adult years, learned to appreciate other Beatles music, too.

The White Album endures.

Anyway, it’s not just my children’s generation. I have a 2-year-old grandson who is at the age where he is learning simple songs that he loves to have repeated. The alphabet song is a favorite, as is “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” We re-worked the lyrics to “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” to feature his name, and on a car trips he often likes to hear that song.

But when he sings to himself, what comes out of his mouth are often Lennon-McCartney tunes. Three of his favorites are “Dear Prudence,” “Yellow Submarine” and “All Together Now.”

I graduated from high school in 1976, and I recall taking a fine arts class my senior year where one of the three teachers—it was taught by a trio including an English teacher, art teacher and music teacher—asserted that we were silly to be listening to an English band that had broken up a half decade before.

“Nobody will be studying The Beatles in 50 years,” he said. I had just purchased my first stereo and was starting to build a small record collection—featuring, among others, numerous albums by the fab four.

I very much disagreed with the teacher’s remarks and resented them. Although, in his defense, even Sir Paul didn’t think the music would endure beyond a decade.

It’s 2018 now. The 1960s and its music was long ago. Among the soundtrack that endures from that time, nothing matches The Beatles. It’s probably not the best music or most complex or most deeply meaningful. I think one reason that the sound of that band still resonates is that they came on the scene as popular music evolved from frothy pop rock and roll to other, deeper themes and sounds. And the Beatles catalog features such diverse songs as “She Loves You” to “In My Life.”

McCartney was wistful on the TV as he contemplated the long, strange journey the band its music has been on. I’m not a music expert, but I am pleased to have lived long enough to realize my high school music teacher was mistaken on this point--that five decades after they were first popular, plenty of people still care about and talk about The Beatles.

And it’s wonderful to hear “All Together Now” in the light, fun voice of a 2-year-old newly minted Beatles fan.

Videos of my grandson’s favorite Beatles songs, for your listening pleasure now and in future years: