I first discovered The Beatles watching the Saturday morning cartoon back in '65 or thereabouts when I was but 3 years old
They've always been a part of my life. On the car radio or in the candy store where the gum card packs and fanzines and shlocky plastic toys were on display! Having living memories of them that stretch all the way back to the mid to late 1960's has always been precious to me. It might have been nice to be a teen or tween in '64 and have massive crushes on them (Ahem...John). But I love how I got to know them from a child's POV, first! The first time I was aware of the non-cartoon Beatles was June '67 when my older brothers bought and played Sgt. P, over and over. And I have a clear and beautiful memory of watching AYNIL when it was broadcast live on satellite to my local (WNET-NY) public TV station right about the same time.
I recollect everything that followed from that point including sitting in the car listening to the radio news announce that they'd split in April 1970. My grandpa said; "Oh, that's a shame. They were pretty good for kids' music!"
But it wasn't until 1975, when one Saturday night Help! and AHDN were played back-to-back on TV. The evening started off as a fun thing to watch and laugh at with my brothers but they had checked out before AHDN started and I was left alone to watch and have an epiphany of sorts--this was the most joyous, glad-to-alive, cooler-than-anything group of wondrously talented attractive magical guys I'd ever seen. I decided then and there I'd never find any entertainment to top The Beatles. I subscribed, bought in, adopted the whole deal, ethos, way-of-being, thinking and feeling right there. The rest was just filling in the missing parts of my knowledge, stitching in those precious childhood memories and employing my very geeky love of mastering the historical, cultural contexts of an extraordinary phenomenon. Not to mention just filling myself with all that music! That's when I trul DISCOVERED The Beatles