Tonight at Grand Rapids’ SpeakEZ Lounge, Local Spins celebrates two major Fab Four milestones with a performance by That Beatles Thing. Get details and listen to a special playlist at Local Spins.
Musical Milestones: The Beatles celebrate two major ones in September and so does Local Spins.
Exactly 60 years ago this month, The Beatles wrapped up a triumphant tour of North America that included two concerts at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium — a jaunt that further catapulted the Fab Four to frenzied fan fame and made “Beatlemania” part of the modern-day lexicon.
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
And exactly five years later, on Sept. 26, that same superstar band released “Abbey Road,” considered by many rock historians to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time and an iconic final salvo in The Beatles’ incredible musical legacy.
That early tour and that final studio masterpiece unleashed songs that would forever stand as milestones of the rock ‘n’ roll era, from “I Saw Her Standing There,” “She Loves You,” “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “A Hard Day’s Night” to “Come Together,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”
Tonight (Sept. 25) at Grand Rapids’ SpeakEZ Lounge, as part of this anniversary week, the Local Spins Wednesdays series will pay tribute to The Beatles and many of those iconic tracks when West Michigan’s That Beatles Thing returns to the intimate venue’s stage for an evening of classics by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Details here.
And to warm fans up for the night — part of Local Spins Wednesdays’ Tribute Month — Local Spins has compiled a playlist, starting with songs that The Beatles performed live during that 1964 tour, as well as selected cuts from “Abbey Road.” It’s our toast to Beatlemania 2024.
For Local Spins’ 10th birthday in 2022, That Beatles Thing also commemorated the anniversary of The Beatles’ legendary, 1969 rooftop concert that caused a stir in London — later revisited in a much-ballyhooed “Get Back” documentary. With volunteers hauling equipment up to the top floor of the 600 Monroe Building in downtown Grand Rapids and passersby on the street listening in, the band performed a smile-inducing set of Fab Four gems. View a video below and get the full story online here.
(Beatles fans might also be interested to know that California’s “The Fab Four – The Ultimate Tribute” plays DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids on March 28, 2025. Tickets and details available online here.)
THE BEATLES 1964 & 1969: THE LOCAL SPINS PLAYLIST
VIDEO: That Beatles Thing (Full Rooftop Concert, 2022)
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1cT6fJQBTdYxJnKs/
VIDEO: That Beatles Thing (Rooftop Concert)
Destination Live Music Professional Video – Edited Highlights
Copyright 2024, Spins on Music LLC
