It was 50 years ago today (rather June 1, 1967), The Beatles introduced the iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album to the world. The record produced favorites like “With a Little Help from My Friends,” “A Day In The Life,” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, we asked some of Evansville’s familiar faces about their Beatles memories. It certainly was a thrill, and we hope you will enjoy the show!
George Barnett, Evansville lawyer and drummer for the band, The Pits
My favorite Sgt. Pepper’s song, and one of my favorite Beatles songs, is “A Day in the Life,” which is a Beatles masterpiece. I once met a barefooted Paul McCartney walking along a deserted path by the ocean on the northern coast of Jamaica where he regularly went on holiday with his family. My memory of walking and talking to Paul possibly was surpassed the next day when we briefly chatted again — and he graciously accepted my gift of a used Pits T-shirt featuring our logo styled in The Beatles font.
Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke
My favorite Beatles song would have to be “Hard Day’s Night.” It is one of the songs I loved to play from my college days at WUEV-FM when I attended the University of Evansville. I have fond memories of spinning vinyl at the radio station on the third floor of the Olmstead building on campus. For those of you unfamiliar with the term vinyl, think records albums or mp3. After a day of classes, I sometimes felt like it was a hard day’s night.
Dr. Linda L. M. Bennett, president of the University of Southern Indiana
I never got to see the Beatles in concert, even though they did perform in Cincinnati in 1964. I was 13 years old, and their music, along with Motown, was my introduction to teenage years. I can remember rides with girlfriends to Walnut Hill High School singing “Hey Jude” as loud as we could. “Norwegian Wood” was one of my favorites, along with “Eight Days a Week.”
John Scott Foster, executive director Wesselman Nature Preserve
When I was in elementary school, the local movie theater had a summer movie deal for kids. You could buy a pass and go see a movie every Wednesday. The result was an impressionable young John Scott Foster between the ages of 6 and 11 who saw “Hard Days Night,” “Help,” and “Yellow Submarine” at least four times. I trace back some of my own personal weirdness to having seen “Yellow Submarine” so many times before I even hit puberty. So of course, from that, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is my favorite song.
