The opening show of the Beatles’ first North American tour was at the Cow Palace in San Francisco 1964. Two years later, in 1966, they played their last official concert at Candlestick Park. Inspired by Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, three Bay Area fans share their Beatles memories — hearing the Beatles on the radio for the first time, seeing them live, and what the band means to them.

Debra Baker, fourth-generation Californian

It was 1963 when I first heard the Beatles’ song She Loves You. I was doing homework and listening to the transistor radio.

I called my best friend Marilyn, and I just yelled into the phone, “Are you listening to the radio?” And she screamed back, “Yes!” We’d known each other since the fourth grade, and we were experiencing this together.

I can’t remember how I found out that they were going to have a concert, but I’m sure I begged my parents to let me go.

Being in the car, riding with my parents, driving over the Bay Bridge — oh, we’re getting to San Francisco, we’re getting close — and we were just beside ourselves. It was excruciating. 

When we got there, from what I understand, there were opening acts. I can’t remember anything, but I was just concentrating on the fact that I was going to see Paul because I had the biggest crush on him.

When they came out, everybody just jumped to their feet and started screaming. And I was yelling at Paul like he could hear me — as if. But you know, a young girl . . . he was so cute.

I would have given my hand to meet Paul McCartney.

At the time, I didn’t realize how big this was going to be. I mean, I knew they were a huge band and they were going to be even bigger, but I didn’t really understand the cultural shift that would occur.

Jose Deniz, Outer Sunset resident (originally from LA)

I’d be driving with my dad as a kid, and we’d be listening to the radio, and the Beatles would come on. And he’d be like, “Hey, do you know who these guys are? These guys are, like, the greatest rock ’n’ roll band of all time.”

There’s this radio program on this station called KLOS, and every Sunday at nine o’clock, they had this program called Breakfast with the Beatles.

And I remember as a kid, I would wake up, like 8:30 or so, and I’d have my portable radio, just waiting in my room. And once nine o’clock hit, I would be super hyper-focused listening to every song they’d play.

Because, you know, I couldn’t find it really elsewhere other than the radio.

I went to New York for the first time in February, and I took this little camera with me. And then, when I came back, that same week, we went to the Eyes of the Storm exhibition here.

After I did some browsing around, I saw that Paul basically used the same exact camera for the first time when he went to New York, so I thought that was very pleasant. That was a pleasant surprise for sure.

Laure Mandin, raised in the Bay

I was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area. I became a Beatles fan in 1964.

I listened to them on the KEWB Beatles, which was the station here in San Francisco. And then I watched The Ed Sullivan Show when they appeared, and that was it for me.

With all of my sisters and my friends, we became huge fans and found that we could get tickets to the 1964 concert at the Cow Palace.

And my dear mother drove us to the Cow Palace, where we sat in the sixth row in folding chairs, more excited than you could be about anything in your life.

And then I saw them on their next trip to the Cow Palace, which I believe there was a matinee and then an evening performance. I went to both with my sisters and my cousins, and we went to the 1966 concert at Candlestick Park.

It was a marvelous time. It really lifted the spirits of our country when they came to visit.