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I think the first Beatle record was "Love Me Do" in the fall of 1962. The first I heard of The Beatles was when "From Me To You" was on radio in the summer of 1963. Del Shannon had played with The Beatles in England and covered "From Me To You." I was buying Del's records up to that point and actually preferred his version. Beatle-mania broke in early 1964 with the release of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and the Meet The Beatles LP. I was roped in. I tracked down a copy of "From Me To You." The B side was "Thank You Girl," and I played it obsessively. There was something hypnotic about John Lennon's voice and the way he and Paul McCartney harmonized. I was 18 and a senior in high school. My grades plummeted. I sat up most of the night trying to write songs. My mother would drag me out of bed in the morning and make me go to school. I barely graduated. I let my hair grow and had become an object of derision. I did not care. I wanted to be a Beatle. Now, here it is 400 songs and 48 years later. Lennon and Harrison are long since dead, and I am held up in an apartment on the Vanderbilt campus next to Music Row in Nashville.

I most remember the first time I saw them on TV on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. They sang All My Loving, 'Til There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want to Hold Your Hand over the din of their screaming audience. The next day, my girlfriends and I spent hours discussing which Beatle was the cutest! (I liked John) The boys in the school all started growing their hair longer and longer, trying to look more like the Beatles. Man, they were all the rage! I found that show posted on YouTube - just search for Ed Sullivan Beatles 1964 on YouTube.

It's amazing how much one band affected an entire generation.

Do you think any band in modern times can do that, or is there too much competition?

Well, I see the high school boys leaving school and it seems that a lot of them have haircuts just like Justin Bieber's. No big surprise -- he is the hot guy for the teenage girls these days! LOL

There is only one Beatles. It will never happen again.

Here are the BIG 4 according to JIMCOLYER.COM.

ELVIS PRESLEY - Elvis is the father of modern music. He recorded songs from blues artists in Memphis and helped to bring black artists into mainstream radio. Elvis made 30 movies and remains the biggest star of all time

THE BEATLES - The Beatles took the rock n roll of Elvis Presley through the British Empire. They made the leap from singles to albums and turned rock music into an art form. Every rock band to this day came from The Beatles.

ABBA - Swedish ABBA was The Beatles with women. Although written by Benny and Bjorn, ABBA songs are female by nature. After all, the 70s was the women's decade. ABBA took the music of Elvis and The Beatles around the planet, into Communist countries and into the Third World.

SHANIA TWAIN - Shania and husband Mutt Lange might have been the third couple in ABBA. They brought the girlie themes of ABBA to Nashville and country music. Shania brought it full circle. She is the female Elvis. Shania starts a 2-year gig at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on December 1, 2012.

Beatles will never die!! It's a real masterpiece!!

Jim, I agree with you hands down on Elvis and The Beatles, however, can we agree to disagree on the other two? Is this being based on record sales (total) or popular vote?