Album Challenge - 1966 pt. 3 - The End of Beatlemania

The Album Challenge of records that influenced my taste in music continues in 1966 with the end of Beatlemania. The album that ended it for me and a lot of other folks was the Beatles' December 1965 release of Rubber Soul which became one of the most important albums played on the radio in 1966. That album is my all time favorite Beatles record and it displayed a new seriousness of the Beatles about their music. This was their tenth album released in the US from 1964 through 1965. That was Beatlemania. Two more were released in 1966. 

The first wave of Beatlemania fan frenzy began in 1963 and swept into the USA in 1964. It would keep going into my high school years. I guess you had to be a teenager at the time to really appreciate what was culturally going on at that time in our schools and on our streets but I never understood all the screaming girls. I was in 7th grade when the Beatles first came to America. The girls in our class were all excited and of course I also had an older sister who was a fanatic Beatles fan along with her friends from school and the neighborhood. Their music was playing on the record player in our basement rec room all the time. I also very distinctly remember the night that the Beatles performed live on the Ed Sullivan Show as our family sat around that old black and white TV set. 1965 was non-stop Beatles. Many of the girls in our neighborhood hung out with us on street corners with transistor radios playing the hits and there was lots of excitement when the Beatles came on. I started high school in 1965 and the Beatles were not especially popular at this school of nearly 4,000 boys but that would change in the coming couple of years. The Beatles would eventually become cool for everyone with so many great albums... Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, Abbey Road, etc

But at the time a lot of us guys thought the Beatles were the boring "cute mop top boys" from Liverpool and we were more into soul music, garage rock and the British Invasion sounds of The Kinks, The Animals, The Rolling Stones and so many more. There were actually quite a few Beatles songs that I did like in their early period but it was sometimes hard to get past all the extreme craziness of some fans and the relentless promotions. I do remember walking over to one of the theaters in our neighborhood to see A Hard Day's Night. The following summer in 1965 we all went to the movies again to see Help!. They were both very entertaining movies.

Over the years I would eventually own all of the Beatle records and many of their compilation albums. I would read several books on the Beatles. I also eventually replaced all of my vinyl Beatles albums with their CD versions. I still do have a lot of the vinyl but not Rubber Soul which got worn out decades ago. 

Beatles albums in my collection

• With The Beatles, 1963
• Please Please Me, 1963
• Introducing The Beatles, 1964
• Meet The Beatles, 1964
• Beatles For Sale, 1964
• A Hard Day's Night, 1964
• The Early Beatles, 1965
• Help!, 1965
• Rubber Soul, 1965
• Revolver, 1966
• Magical Mystery Tour, 1967
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967
• The Beatles (White Album), 1968
• Yellow Submarine, 1969
• Abbey Road, 1969
• Let It Be, 1970
• 1962-1966 (The Red Album), 1973
• 1967-1970 (The Blue Album), 1973
• Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1977
• Past Masters Vol. 1 & 2, 1988
• Anthology 1, 1995
• Anthology 2, 1996
• Anthology 3, 1996
• Love, 2006