Ringo Starr is turning 70 on Wednesday. It feels as though youth itself is now 70 years old.
Not only are the Beatles the best-selling act of all time, but everybody has done their songs, from Jimi Hendrix to David Bowie to Elton John.
Strawberry Fields Forever has been covered by Aimee Mann and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs of Argentina. The Brazilian band Os Mutantes sneaked the guitar solo from While My Guitar Gently Weeps into its hit Ando Meio Desligado. Sesame Streets songbook includes Hey Food, and Letter B.
In 2001, the compilation album 1 was a top seller in the United States and Britain. Its beyond an obsession. Its an ideal for living, Noel Gallagher of the 1990s British-pop band Oasis once said. With every song that I write, I compare it to the Beatles.
It is somewhat odd that the musical tastes of todays youth are still linked closely to a band that released its last album when the parents of todays teenagers hadnt even met and music still came on vinyl.
When Ringo was born, the median life expectancy in the United States was only 63. More than half the 20-somethings who paid $4.50 for a ticket to their last concert in Candlestick Park in 1966 are dead by now.