On this day in Beatles History...January 30, 1969

It was a glorious day.  It was a sad day.  For 42 minutes on January 30, 1969 The Beatles performed live together in public for the last time ever.  This was the famous performance that took place on the roof of the Apple building.  It was around lunchtime on a Thursday and it was bitterly cold.  Ringo was wearing his wife Maurine's red coat and John was wearing Yoko's fur coat.  It had been almost two and a half years since the boys had last performed together, but they were still wonderful!  While the band played, the microphones were connected to reel-to-reel tape machines in the basement so that the entire performance could be recorded (with the exception of an impromptu performance of God Save The Queen which was not captured in its entirety because the tapes in the basement were being swapped out during that song).

As wonderful as it is to watch the Fab Four making music together again after so long, it is also sad to think that it would never happen again.  The addition of Billy Preston on keyboards is strange to some, but I think it was a marvelous addition to the sound.  I love watching footage of the band performing on this cold London afternoon and I am very glad that the performance took place at all!

On this day in Beatles History...January 16, 1957

The Cavern Club originally opened its doors at 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England on January 16, 1957.  Although it first opened as a jazz club, it is most famous for being the live music venue associated with the early years of The Beatles.  In fact, John, Paul and George played there as The Quarrymen before becomming The Beatles.  Although it's difficult to know exactly how many performances The Beatles had at The Cavern Club, most estimates are that the boys performed there just under 300 times!  In March of 1973, the original Cavern Club closed down.  Since then the club has been re-opened and is still a venue for live music.

On this day in Beatles History...January 13, 1969

The Beatles released the soundtrack for Yellow Submarine in the USA on January 13, 1969.  Considered by many fans to be little more than a contractual obligation, the album didn't have very much in the way of new Beatles songs to offer.  Side one included only 4 new songs.  Of those four, Only A Northern Song was a song recorded for and rejected from Sgt. Pepper.  All of side two is filled with George Martin's score for the film.  Not to say that music isn't excellent, it's just not new Beatles songs.  This soundtrack wasn't released until after The White Album, but it was ready to be released much earlier.  The record label just didn't want this album to compete with that one.  Despite all of that, I really like the songs Hey Bulldog and It's All Too Much.

The Beatles 1965 Lunch Box

I've mentioned before that The Beatles were probably the first musical group to have such a wide variety of merchandise with their name and likeness attached.  One of the most popular items was the 1965 Beatles lunchbox and thermos brought to you by Aladdin Industries Incorporated.  The lunch box features The Beatles performing on one side and their faces with signatures on the other.  The top also featured their signatures under the handle.  The bottom had different images of their faces and sides had images of their instruments.  The thermos features artwork of their faces and signatures on one side with the band playing on the other, but surprisingly, different artwork was used on the thermos than on the lunch box itself.

Although the very first licensed lunch box was manufactured with an image of Micky Mouse in 1935, it wasn't until 1950 that Aladdin Industries began making the metal lunch boxes that many of you probably remember from your childhood - that is, if you were in school before 1990.  Aladdin's first lunch box featured Hopalong Cassidy and sold an amazing 600,000 lunch boxes in the first year of production!  Needless to say, Aladdin began acquiring the licence for more characters and continued to sell similar lunch boxes for several decades.  Today, these vintage lunch boxes are highly collectible.  I believe the 1964 Superman lunch box is typically considered to be the most valuable.  I have seen one sell for $17,000 with the thermos.  Although The Beatles lunch box isn't in the number 1 position, they are usually seen in the Top 10 most valuable lunch boxes.  Even a rusty, beat up Beatles lunch box missing the thermos often sells for more than $100.  The lunch box and thermos pictured below was in excellent condition and sold at auction in 2015 for over $2,000!