This is a big day for founder Faith Cohen, a photographer from Indiana who first conceived of Global Beatles Day more than 17 years ago. It’s been a one-woman crusade for some time, but last month she learned that the day would now and hereafter be officially recognized by Apple Corps, The Beatles’ umbrella company. In fact, Apple even invited her to Liverpool for the occasion this year.
Inspired by a deep appreciation for The Beatles, Faith created Global Beatles Day as a love letter to the band and chose this date, June 25th, to commemorate the historic day in 1967 when The Beatles performed in the world’s first-ever live global satellite broadcast, Our World, with their beguiling message song, “All You Need Is Love.”
Appropriately, the footage from that broadcast, which reached an unprecedented 400 million people around the globe at the time, is being released today as a colorized music video on the band’s official YouTube channel.
But wait, there’s more! It just so happens that the Bluff City has a long history of Beatlemania. Some know of the reverence in which John Fry, Terry Manning, John King, Chris Bell, and others at Ardent Studios held The Beatles, and that spirit is still going strong. One case in point: The long-awaited wide vinyl reissue of Stax Does the Beatles, courtesy Stax Records and Craft Recordings this Friday, June 26th. First released nearly two decades ago, Stax Does the Beatles collects the moments when members of the iconic label’s roster put their indelible touch on Beatles classics. Among the highlights: Otis Redding’s almost agitated take on “Day Tripper,” Isaac Hayes’ epic (at 11-plus minutes), heart-tugging version of “Something,” Carla Thomas’ live, velvety interpretation of “Yesterday,” and Steve Cropper’s upbeat, brass-laden adaptation of “With a Little Help from My Friends.”
That same reverence for the group’s stellar songs lives on today, by the way. Fans of the Booker T. & the M.G.s tribute band, the MDs, already know of a long-awaited album they’ve hinted at making, wherein they explore the alternative history in which The Beatles followed through on their desire to record at Stax (an option they looked into before rejecting the idea), imagining all of the Fabs’ Revolver as an M.G.s-style excursion dubbed Revolve-Her. The group brought the concept to life in a memorable concert at Crosstown Theater in 2019, but, alas, those arrangements of Beatles tunes have not yet been recorded or released, as far as we know.
Yet two of the MDs, Graham Winchester and Landon Moore, are enthusiastic about a new group they recently launched with Ben and Jacob Church, One After 901, a kind of all-star Beatles tribute group who have been testing the waters in gigland lately. And their dream gig is just on the horizon. In honor of the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ 1966 performance at the Mid-South Coliseum, One After 901 will faithfully recreate the exact setlist performed that night in a special show on Friday, August 21st (with tickets available here). The evening will also include a second set imagining what a 1967 Beatles tour might have sounded like, featuring songs the band never had the chance to perform live (having put an end to their touring in 1966). The passion these A-list Memphis players have for those four mop-tops is contagious, and, it must be said, bodes well for the future of Bluff City Beatlemania.
