60 years ago, John Lennon met Paul McCartney. The rest is history
Something historic happened 60 years ago Thursday. That's when 16-year-old John Lennon and 15-year-old Paul McCartney met for the first time.
Lennon's skiffle band the Quarrymen was getting ready to perform at the Woolton Parish Garden fete in Liverpool. Ivan Vaughn, who played tea chest bass in the Quarrymen, knew McCartney from school and introduced him to Lennon and the band.
He impressed them with his knowledge of American rock and roll and ability to play songs like Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock."
Though they wouldn't take the name The Beatles for another three years, that meeting between two boys on a sweltering summer afternoon kick-started a creative partnership that yielded nearly 200 songs valued at close to a billion dollars. Right now, the 50th anniversaries of The Beatles' most famous albums are arriving in quick succession: "Revolver" last year, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" earlier this year and, in 2020, "Let It Be."
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