BEATLES 1: BEATLEMANIA (15) The Summit (Theater Room), 1 Perry Rd, Saratoga Springs

Wednesdays, 9:30-11:00am, October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, 18

From their origins in Liverpool to their triumphant appearance at Shea Stadium, the Beatles provided the music to which the postwar generation danced and grew up. We’ll trace the rise of Beatlemania, song by song from “Love Me Do” to “Yesterday.”

1. “Love Me Do”: Liverpool origins to the release of their first hit.

2. Please Please Me: Their first album and British hits

3. With the Beatles: The rise of Beatlemania and its arrival in the US.

4. A Hard Day’s Night: First film and global Beatlemania

5. Beatles for Sale: The role of collaborative creativity

6. Help!: The peak of Beatlemania

Leader: Gordon Ross Thompson (Professor Emeritus of Music, Skidmore College) founded and produced the annual Beatlemore Skidmania concerts. He is the author of Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out (Oxford, 2008) and the two-volume Sixties British Pop, Outside In (Oxford 2024). His next book will be Creating, Curating, and Consuming the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2026)