When did you first hear of The Beatles? Was it through their films or maybe a track you heard on the radio? What makes their music so special to you? Can you remember what it was that suddenly made you think "wow"?

I can't remember exactly what age I was when I first heard of the Beatles. I do recall sitting watching a special on them with my parents when I was nine years old. I didn't start to listen to them until I was sixteen. My Social Studies class was doing a project on how things change over time and my friend and I chose to do music. I put together a compilation tape together of songs from the 50s to the 90s. I borrowed the Beatles "1962-1966" cassette from the library and I didn't even know what one song to put on my tape because there were so many that I liked. I finally chose "A Hard Day's Night" and "Yesterday". I got 100% on the tape I kept the Beatles cassette from the library for a while afterwards and made my own copy of  songs I liked. Then I was obsessed.

Great story Colleen

I MUST remember to write on my own threads!!!! I haven't written anything about Free As A Bird/Real Love yet! Stoopid boy!

My dad brought me into the world of the Beatles when he bought me 1. I was a oldies fan and i knew some Beatles songs from the radio but i wasn't really into them. My dad bought me 1 because he knea i liked oldies and he liked the Beatles and He thought I would to. And What do you know I did. I was inspired by there music. It was different from the traditional oldies. so I got more and more albums to learn more about them. Know i'm a massive fan and whant to know all i can.

I first became aware of the Beatles becoming a fan listening to them on the radio in the backseat of my parent's car when I was 5 years old way back in 69 even though I didn't know their history & their classic rock albums until 76 during Paul's US tour. 

i have the beatles in my blood!! my father used to listen to it since im a baby, and i never stoped listening to them after that!!!

I was a teenager in the 80's and one thing I could not stand was the music.  It still drives me crazy when I hear it.  I have an older sister that I should be thankful for.  I went through her cassette tape collection one day and took some albums. Among them were some zeppelin and sabbath etc. The albums I found that changed my life in music was The Beatle's White Album and Pink Floyd's Dark side of the moon.To this day these to bands remain and will remain my most favorites!!!

when I was 10 or 11 my father bought Anthology 2 as a gift for my mother and the rest is history...

I used to listen anthology 2 hours and hours.The song that got me hooked up first was Help! and then Yesterday.

7 yrs old and my sister had the 62' to 66' double red album. I listened, I loved, I bought.

Weird...my post never showed up from yesterday.  I'll keep it brief.

In 1964 I was 12, and then the Beatles suddenly appeared on the radio EVERYwhere, it was exciting!  And they just kept getting better, year after year.

I grew up with them.

In Liverpool???

Quoted from misterchaz, posted April 10, 2004, 5:15pm at here

In Liverpool???

I'm jelous!

I first heard "Hey Jude" on my sisters box record player.  I remember watching the green apple spinning round and round.  I can't remember how many times I continued to play my sister's 45.

Quoted from George_Fan, posted April 13, 2004, 12:08am at here

A Friend thought I'd like them because he knew I liked oldies. I had heard some of there songs but wasn't really into them. So I bought the Red and Blue collections and really liked them. I really liked the songs by George and know he's my favorite artist.

What's your fav song.

My mum sent for Rubber Soul on CD cos she had got rid of all her vinyl and it just got played here and there. I was about 10 or something and it remains my favourite album!

Oh the person i should be thankful to is my fathers brother-in-law.
One summer when i was 12 i stayed with him and my fathers sister for three weeks while my parents were in Denmark.
He is the massivest Beatle fan i know (apart from me )
I of course had heard them before but never wondered who they were...

And he was listening to the song Strawberry Fields Forever, i asked him: What is this? And he said: The Beatles!
I went just WOOOOWWWWWW are there any other good songs made by them?
And then he showed me his collection!!

Since than, i listen to The Beatles every single day!!

How can you "discover" the Beatles??

You can discover less well known artists like Elliott Smith (and you should, dammit!), but the Beatles are everywhere, it's almost impossible to not have known them ever since your early childhood (unless you're 50+ of course).

So anyway, I've known the Beatles for as long as I can think back... But I'll tell you how I went from just liking the Beatles to becoming a real fan...

For some reason I have this thing for outtakes, demos, unreleased live tracks and stuff like that, so when I found a cheap second hand copy of "Anthology 2" somewhere I got it and then listened to it almost non-stop for at least a week. Because I didn't know half of the songs on it I of course wanted to check out then how the final versions of all these songs sounded, so I checked out the regular albums and became a fan.

i heard of them from my teacher

Wow that's a new one.

The Beatles were always there. From birth. I always knew of them and loved them. Maybe The Yellow Submarine was the first time I saw them. Who knows. They used to play it every 4th of July.  I just cannot remember a time when I didn't know about them. I used to torture my friends talking about them endlessly! Well, Paul is WAY cuter than Andy Gibb! (My friends 70's heart throb)

1995 beatles anthology, my parents forced me to tape it for them. I didn't want to cus I didn't want anything to to with that friggin "old" band. Now I love them more than My parents do!!

I first discovered them on all the news coverage on the day John got killed. I remember watching TV and thinking , when I saw footage of them, that I would like to do that. Totally changed my life forever.

It's a long story, and a lot of you don't actually READ the stories anyhoo, but please stick with me:

At first I was a casual fan.  Heck, I liked the Beach Boys way better than the Beatles.  I also did not know what they were about -- I only knew of Ticket to Ride, Hello Goodbye, Penny Line, Come Together, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, Your Gonna Lose that Girl, Twist and Shout, A Hard Day's Night, and Yellow Submarine, their most popular ones or ones I just heard.  I didn't even know Mr. Postman, I Shoulda Known Better, and Eight Days a Week were sung by the Beatles!

That said, I watched a Beatles commercial advertising a CD they were selling.  I listened to a portion of Let It Be being played, and I had also heard my friend playing it on piano weeks prior.  I thought it sounded nice, so I found a recording of it and played it.  My God, it was beautiful.  I let it repeat about 10 times until I fell in love with that song and, more importantly, Macca.

Eventually, I came across that 60IF Paul is Dead site with "Undeniable Proof that Paul McCartney was really replaced by a lookalike", and got really freaked out: Could Let It Be be sung by an imposter?!?!?! Nooo! *ahem* Anyhoo, I eventually downloaded Beatles videos off KaZaa (including Let It Be), and became interested in the songs, so I found CDs of those songs and fell in love with them.  Then I had this dumb idea that all songs on Let It Be would be great ballads like the aforementioned song, so I looked for songs off that album.  The country thing took me a month to get over (I now love songs like Get Back), but I did listen to The Long and Winding Road and thought it was incredible.  I searched for PID clues in the songs and came across more and more songs, and now I am a fanatic with 2 Beatles shirts, an Abbey Road frame in my room, and a sketch of one of their photo shoots.

The Beatles rule

My uncle played them at a party. Loved em ever since.

I was aware of the Beatles for quite some time, but I didn't really get into them until a few years ago when my parents bought the White Album on CD, since they used to listen to it on LP all the time, but they didn't have it anymore.  Anyway, listening to that, as well as my cousin's Abbey Road CD and "1" compilation got me into them.

i bought some bubble gum cards..........

Well, my mom became a Beatles fan god knows when, but since before I was born. So I grew up with the Beatles. Since I could talk I've been singing Beatles songs, and I grew up being told that Paul McCartney was god's gift to the world (lol, my mom REALLY likes Paul)-I now disagree with that, but we wont go there! But anyway, my friend's sister from youth group went to London and got her this Beatle's purse, and my friend was talking about it and was like "I don't even like the beatles so i'll probably give it back to her" and I was like "I'll buy it off you!" I ended up getting it for free, but then I was at the library looking at movies and I ran across Help! so I rented it. That really made me become a huge Beatles fan. 

I guess Beatles had been in my life years before I became interested. One day I was browsing for a CD and there is was, Beatles 1. I must have listened to it 5 times that day.  I was hooked, especially after I got a hold of Rubber Soul.

Back in 80 when i was 12 or so,john lennon was shot.I knew who the beatles were because my brothers and sister would listen to them ,so i had been exposed to them at an early age but wasn't yet listening to music.But once lennon was shot it woke me up musically and i became aware and went out and bought all the beatle albums that i could.I would come home from school and shut the door and listen to them over and over.the first album I ever bought was  67-70 with blue vinyl.

I was around 8 when I first saw "Help". It immediately made me a Beatles fan.

My oldest brother was a huge beatles fan. He was able to turn a few of us siblings on to this beatle thing.  My mother actually loves them as well-which is odd if you ever knew my mother.  So, all my life I've known quite a bit about the beatles, being that my oldest brother was my idol.  I listened to everything he had to say about them and listened to the lps continuously.  I really didn't become a "fan" until i was around 16 (the rebellious years of my youth).  The "hair band" music of that time period didn't satisfy my rebel attitude. The Poisons and Def Leppards were too fake and cookie-cutter.  The beatles were REAL.  I would get lost in "Sgt. Pepper" and "the white album".  I actually first learned about hallucinogenic drugs through the beatles.  Didn't know what LSD was until reading about the misconception of "Lucy in the Sky..."  Anyway, I could ramble on forever about the beatles.  That's my story!

I had heard bits and pieces from the band....one day, I decided to purchase Abbey Road....unfortunately, it led to an addiction that I'm sure the rest of you all suffer as well.

Strangely, I've always been familiar with 60s music from my mother, who felt the music died not long after - but still, she very, very seldom listened to the Beatles, therefore I wasn't very familiar with them neither. I knew the odd solo-McCartney singel and a few Beatles standards, but nothing big.

When I was about 9 years old we had this silly music teacher who was also a big Beatles fan - he taught us about the Paul is Dead hoax, and you can believe me when I tell you that is a great way to scare the wits out of 9 year olds!

Speaking of teachers, I remember fondly a teacher I had a few years down the line who cared passionately about music, Beatles included. He played us Blackbird and told us to feel and love each chord, each syllable... It quite opened my eyes to how great and influential music can really be. I'm very grateful to that teacher learning me to really recognise wonderful music.

Hi, I'm a newbie.!  So glad to find a good Beatles site!

I'm a child of the late 60's, so the Beatles were still active and recording when I was born.  I vividly remember their breakup in 1970.  Some family friends had teenagers at the time who were in love with The Beatles and had their entire rooms covered in Beatles posters and played "The White Album" all the time.

I had always known about thier music, but starngely enough, it was Beatles cartoon reruns in the late 70's when I was in junior high that really got me turned onto them.  I bought a copy of "Yesterday and Today" and haven't looked back since...

when i was eleven or twelve, but obviously on december 8th, i heard a special about them on the radio in memoriam johns dying day. and when magical mystery tour came aloud i wasn't able to close my mouth. so i decided to become a beatles fan! this is my first love, still burning!

I went to an impersenator of the Beatles and i loved the music so i went and bought cd's and listened to them over and over again. good thing i went to the impersenator concert, i probably wouldve never liked the beatles. before that i didnt like them at all.

I can't remember a specific time or thing that got me into the Beatles. I just always rememer loving them. Maybe I saw the Yellow Submarine or Help when I was little and got hooked. They used to actually play those movies on t.v. But who knows. They are so EVERYWHERE it's hard not to get exposed to them at a very early age. I know six year olds that can tell you the history of the Beatles. I think I was one of them. How I came to be that way I cannot remember! I think Paul's face had a lot to do with it though.

There is an radio transmitter (is this word right? I found it in a dictionary!?) which my parents listend to since I was born. Some day they made a competion between the fans of the Beatles and the fans of the Rolling Stones. It went on some weeks. I got curious and began to enjoy the fact, that they played much music of these two bands. Of couse I noticed that I like the Beatles music best and decided to buy "No. 1" (it was new this time). How you can image: after some times I listend to this music I couldn't stop doing that.
Later I realised that there were songs I loved before I became a fan - there was a cover version of "michelle", the melodie if "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday" on our keyboard and some other things like that that made me a Beatles fan before I was indeed.
Sometimes I think it was destiny that I bought this record.