1957 in America was "Pax Americana," burgeoning suburbs, "Gunsmoke" and "Perry Mason" on television, and "Jailhouse Rock" and "Love Letters in the Sand" on radio. In England, on July 6, 1957, two teenagers met in what could be the most glorious case of serendipity in music history. Fifteen year-old Paul McCartney was introduced by a mutual friend to 16 year-old John Lennon when Lennon as his group The Quarrymen Skiffle Group played at St. Peter's Woolton Parish Church in Liverpool. According to the Church's website:
"The meeting took place at St Peter’s Church Hall on the evening of Saturday, 6th July 1957… Whilst waiting to play at the church dance that night, John Lennon and the other members of the Quarrymen Skiffle Group were introduced to the young Paul McCartney by a mutual friend.
The historic meeting was only brief but in just twenty minutes Paul demonstrated his musical ability, playing rock and roll classics and even showing the impressed Quarrymen how to tune their instruments. Two weeks later Paul accepted the group’s invitation to join the group. Of the meeting, John later famously commented, “that was the day, the day I met Paul that it started moving”.
It was the beginning of a brilliant creative match that produced the most important classic pop rock songbook of our times, influencing generations of musicians and the culture itself.
(photo: St. Peter's Church. The grave of Eleanor Rigby, made famous by the eponymous Beatles song, is in this cemetery)
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