Station Archive

The Beatles were so huge that even now, 49 years after they broke up, former Beatle Paul McCartney’s shows can still sell out stadiums. The band sold hundreds of millions of records, and helped change the culture in large parts of the world. How much do they still matter, when only 30 percent of Americans are old enough to have any memory of them as an active band? Today we talk about the Beatles with Dr. Rebecca Plack, who teaches “Introduction to the Music of the Beatles“ to approximately 200 students at UC Davis, and Jerry Yen, one of her students and a fan of the band. (A correction: In the program I say Ringo Starr will turn 80 this year. That won’t happen until 2020.)