It Was Sixty Years Ago!

Friday was the 60th anniversary of The Beatles performing at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York. August 15, 1965 was the first time a band played in a stadium and it was dominated by 55,000 screaming fans which kept the police and security busy with all the young girls fainting.

On Friday, The New York Mets celebrated the event which changed the music industry at Citi Field, their current ballpark which replaced Shea Stadium.  Before the game, 1964, The Tribute Band performed outside the stadium and the first 15,000 fans received a special Shea Stadium replica.  The first pitch will be thrown out by members of the staff who worked that night in 1964 and after the game there will be a fireworks show.

The Beatles performed for close to fifty minutes in 1965, singing twelve songs which began with "Twist and Shout".  A documentary, "The Beatles at Shea Stadium", was produced on the show and was watched by millions of people on television in 1966. The Beatles could not hear themselves sing with all the screaming by their 55,000 fans. This was only a year and a half after The Beatles came to the USA in February of 1964.

A few unusual things from the concert: The promoter, Sid Bernstein, said, "We took in $304,000, the greatest gross in the history of show business."  Special, 100-watt amplifiers were made to replace their 30-watt amplifiers and it wasn't enough. Some of the tickets cost only $11 and some fans consider it one of the greatest moments of their life.

When Shea Stadium closed in 2008, Billy Joel was joined at the end of the concert by former Beatle, Paul McCartney.  To get to the stadium, air space was cleared for McCartney's plane and a police escort got him to the concert before it ended. A documentary was made of that concert, "The Last Play at Shea", which I enjoyed watching with my brother a few years ago. When Citi Field was opened a year later, McCartney had the honor of doing the first concert.