When they reunited, they brought all their talent and experience, all that they had become, and went to work on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Considered by many music critics to be the greatest album ever, Sgt. Pepper took them from boys to men, from light and lovely to dark and brooding, from straight to stoned. It was an instant success, and it has endured. People my age, with very little encouragement, can sing all the lyrics to “With a Little Help from My Friends,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “When I’m Sixty-Four” or “A Day in the Life.”

The late Kurt Vonnegut said, “… [A] plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did.’”

Copyright © 2014 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.