In 1966, the Beatles were at the top of their game and at the end of their rope. Beatlemania was in full force. Everywhere the band went, the fans became louder and crazier.  No one had ever heard music like the Beatles before.  No one had ever seen a band like the Beatles before.  To accommodate their fans, The Beatles were forced to play before huge crowds in baseball and football stadiums.  At one point, the band’s leader John Lennon joked in an interview, “We’re more popular than Jesus” ( qtd. in Borack 80).  Of course, John’s words created a huge controversy.  Not so much back in England, but in the United States religious groups began to organize massive protests against the Beatles. This is when All Hell broke loose. Radio stations across the South began public burnings of Beatles records. 

Anonymous death threats came flooding in.  The Ku Klux Klan turned up at Beatles concerts to cause trouble.  John felt that his words were misinterpreted, but he apologized anyway.  He feared someone in his band getting hurt.  Very soon after, The Beatles   stopped touring.  They felt they weren’t progressing in their music.  The screaming was so loud, they could not even hear themselves sing.

That may have been  the end of it – I’m talking about Beatlemania.  Following their last stop on their 1966 tour at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Beatles decided to quit performing live.  In very short time,  they abandoned their controlled look of stylized hairdos and jackets.  They let their hair grow long.  They wore droopy mustaches and psychedelic colors.  They dove headfirst into their recording studio and didn’t come out until they finished Sgt. Pepper’s.  We all know what happened next: they became BIGGER THAN EVER.