It’s been more than 60 years since the Beatles arrived on the shores of the U.S. bringing the first wave of the “British Invasion”.  But even decades later, enthusiasm for the “Lads from Liverpool” is strong. 

Beatles fans remain excited, not only because of an expected compilation release by the group, but because they still have a chance to see what appears to be a live performance by the rock legends. 

The facsimile called “1964 The Tribute” is still generating excitement, even though they’ve been touring for 40 years. 

As WDET’s Jerome Vaughn noticed in this NPR report from 2001 that fans didn’t really mind that they weren’t seeing the genuine article. 

Meeting 1964 in 2001

The House of Blues in downtown Chicago is packed with fans of all ages.  Middle aged men and women gather in clumps down on the dance floor while a group of teenage girls jostle to proclaim their love for their favorite Beatle. 

The girls are well aware that these aren’t the real Beatles. They know they’re about to hear four middle-aged men—three from Akron, Ohio and one from Los Angeles.   But it doesn’t seem to matter.  The excitement the band generates could have come straight out of a 1960’s newsreel.   

During the show, “1964’s” George dances just like the real one in a “A Hard Day’s Night” and Ringo does his trademark headshake while pounding out the beat.    

The band members have watched hundreds of hours of tape, learning to imitate the mannerisms and voices of the Beatles.   Gary Grimes, who plays Paul, even spent years learning to play the bass left-handed.  And all of the group’s members have perfected their Liverpool accents.  Mark Benson is the group’s John.   

“Well, John’s a bit snotty isn’t he.  He would say something like shut up or something like that while Paul’s talking or something last that you know,” says Benson, reflecting on how to perfect the persona.  “But the main thing we want to talk about is the interaction between people is very natural.” 

The musicians dress like the Beatles, complete with black suits and skinny ties and, of course, the signature haircuts.  They even use a combination of authentic and reproduction guitars and amplifiers to get the sound just right. 

“1964 The Tribute” has the reputation for being so authentic that the members of three other Beatle cover bands have come to see the House Of Blues show. 

Frank Kanino from the group British Export says “1964” is the gospel when it comes to Beatle bands. “They move just like the Beatles.  They dance.  They’ve done their homework.  They’ve got the best show imaginable.  It’s great to go see them.  They really bring back that feeling.”  

Making it real is the only way to make the fans happy according to Jimmy Pou, the group’s George. 

“As musicians and actors we’re doing the Beatles and most of the people that come to see us are Beatle aficionados, if you will, or Beatle fanatics and they know every little nuance.  They know every little mannerism and if you don’t do it or you do it the wrong way, they’ll notice.”   

Apparently, the members of “1964” get it right.  After more than 15 years, the number of fans has grown dramatically, as have the number of nights the band plays each year and the size of the venues.   

Bringing Beatles to new generations

Down in front, six teenage girls lean their elbows on the stage singing, screaming, and swaying side to side.    The girls know the words to every song, even though they were born more than a decade after the real Beatles broke up.  14-year-old Megan O’Connor is one of them.   

“My favorite part of the show was the ‘Twist and Shout’ part,” she says. When asked why she liked that part, O’Connor replies, “Because we were all dancing and it was fun — and I like that song.”  

For Megan and many of the teenage fans at the 1964 show, their love of the music seems genuine. But their manic behavior may be genetic. 

Peggy O’Connor is Megan’s mom. “She went from N Sync to the Beatles very quickly and she lives for the Beatles.  I’m not surprised at all.  She knows every word to every Beatles song.  She gets that from mommy.” 

The members of “1964 The Tribute” say they don’t know how much longer they’ll continue touring.  The rigors of playing between 150 and 200 nights per year is taking its toll—especially considering “the boys” are in their early 50’s and have families, including teenagers of their own. 

But for now, the group will continue giving Beatles fans the closest thing they can get to a live performance by John, Paul, George and Ringo.   

This story originally aired in 2001.  Since that was an archived report, we should note that Mark Benson continues to lead the group, but Gary Grimes died in 2010 and the other members in this story have gone on to different adventures. 

“1964 The Tribute” plays tomorrow night, Saturday September 6, at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  The show starts at 8 p.m. 

Longtime Detroit businessman and youth advocate Ed Deeb has died. The Michigan Youth Appreciation Foundation says the founder of Metro Detroit Youth Day passed away at home on Sept. 2, 2025. He was 89.

WDET’s Pat Batcheller was there when the Michigan Department of Natural Resources honored Deeb in 2018. Here’s Pat’s report.

The following story was originally published July 11, 2018.

Ed Deeb’s legacy lives on

Tensions were high in Detroit when a grocery store owner and two teenagers were killed in 1980. Then-Detroit Mayor Coleman Young called business leaders into his office, and challenged them to do something to keep young people out of trouble and ease the problems between retailers and the city’s youth. Ed Deeb was in that meeting. He founded the Michigan Food and Beverage Association. Deeb accepted Young’s challenge, and organized an event on Belle Isle. Since then, Metro Detroit Youth Day has become an annual rite of summer for thousands of kids across the city and the region. Deeb, who coached football at Eastern High School, says Belle Isle was a natural choice. 

Pat Batcheller

“We didn’t have a practice field for football. We came here to practice,” Deeb says. “So when they said, ‘where are we going to have this event?’, I said, ‘well, the only thing I could think of is the athletic field at Belle Isle. Nobody’s using it, and we practice there’—so we got the permission to have our first one there, and we did.”

Deeb was disappointed with the turnout for the first Youth Day, which drew about 1,200 people and a few local celebrities. It’s where a young Bruce Ross met his idol, Detroit Lions Hall of Famer Lem Barney. But Ross says Barney didn’t talk to him about football. Instead, he had message for Ross.

“You need to go to college. Make something of yourself,” Ross recalls. “So, Metro Detroit Youth Day has been more than just a fun event, it’s been an event that has reached out to me, have a college education.” 

Ross earned his degree from Wayne State University and now works with Ed Deeb as a Youth Day board member. Education is a key component of Youth Day, which has presented more than 2,000 scholarships to young Metro Detroiters since its inception.

Pat Batcheller

Bruce Ross watched as city and state officials honored Deeb on July 6, 2018. From now on, Vista Avenue will be known as Edward Deeb Avenue. A new, bright blue sign bearing Deeb’s name now overlooks the athletic fields where the event has been held from the beginning. Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones says it’s a fitting tribute.

“And he can know that he has been appreciated, is still appreciated,” Jones says. 

Ed Deeb says he expects the 2018 Metro Detroit Youth Day to attract about 40,000 people to Belle Isle, which is now a state park managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Deeb says he’s noticed the difference the DNR has made working with the Belle Isle Conservancy to improve the island for everyone.

“What they’ve done and what the conservancy has done,” Deeb says. “This is a new Belle Isle, and it’s going to get better than ever, and I’m just pleased to be part of it.”

Edward Deeb Avenue ensures he’ll be a part of Belle Isle for this Youth Day and many more to come.

In this week’s episode of Rob Reinhart’s Essential Music, more fond farewells this week for musical-comic genius Tom Lehrer and Tex-Mex legend Flaco Jimenez.

Also, new music from Detroit’s Carmel Liburdi and Ryan Allen, August album anniversaries, some Yacht Rock vinyl, and lots more!

See the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

Rob Reinhart’s Essential Music Playlist for August 2, 2025

HOUR ONE:

• “New Math” – Tom Lehrer
  
• “Fresh” – Kool & The Gang + Prince Hakim
  
• “So Far Down” – Sloan
• “’92 Subaru” – Fountains Of Wayne
• “Company’s Eyes” – Ryan Allen & His Extra Arms
• “Elegantly Wasted” – Hermanos Gutierrez w/Leon Bridges
• “Elegantly Wasted” – INXS
  
• “Crush” – Indigo De Souza
  
• “Watch Me Go” – Lord Huron
• “Dime” – Silvana Estrada
• “Mind Loaded” – Blood Orange
• “Treason” – Nilufer Yanya
  
• “Carmelita” – Flaco Jimenez w/Dwight Yoakam

• “Miami 2017” – Billy Joel
  
• “Vienna” – Billy Joel
• “Big Money” – Jon Batiste
• “Can’t Get Enough (Detroit Funk Mix)” – Nick Behnan
  
• “Stupid Girl'” – Garbage (released August 1995)
  
• “R-O-C-K In The USA” – John Mellencamp (released August 1985)
• “L-O-V-E” – Al Green (released August 1975)
• “I Keep Forgetting” – Michael McDonald
  
• “If Not For Love” – Durand Jones & The Indications
• “69” – Carmel Liburdi
• “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” – Alex Williams
• “Who’s Next” – Tom Lehrer

Listen to Rob Reinhart’s Essential Music every Saturday from 2-4 p.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand at wdet.org

If you played in a school band in the late 1970s or early 1980s, odds are you played Chuck Mangione. Maybe it was “Feels So Good,” maybe “Land of Make Believe,” maybe “Children of Sanchez.” But at some point, you put a horn to your lips, your fingers to the keys, or your sticks to the snare, and there he was — Chuck Mangione, waiting for you in the sheet music like an old friend with a mischievous grin.

There was something bouncy, ebullient, even effervescent in his music. Something unmistakably alive. And when he performed live, that same feeling surged through his flugelhorn and across the stage like lightning in a bottle. He did more than play the horn, he presented it, lifting it high in the air, like a priest raising the chalice. The notes that came out were more than jazz, they were joy, movement with sunshine and syncopation.

We remember the cool. The wide-brimmed hat. The sweeping mustache. The cover of Feels So Good itself became part of the cultural lexicon, a visual promise that what you were about to hear would make you smile. And it did.

But too many people forget the chops.

Before he ever became the smooth jazz superstar of suburban band rooms and easy listening charts, Mangione was a serious jazz man with a resume that would make purists pause. He took over the trumpet chair in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers during the 1960s, a role once held by Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. That’s not company you keep by being commercial. That’s company you earn through sweat and swing.

He came up in Rochester, New York, a product of a musical family. His brother, Gap Mangione, remains a legendary pianist and arranger. Chuck, in fact, started on piano himself before pivoting to trumpet and flugelhorn, often returning to the keys throughout his career. But it was that fat, warm tone on the flugelhorn that became his signature, a sound that felt like being wrapped in a blanket made of light.

When “Feels So Good” dropped in the spring of 1978, it hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the “Easy Listening” chart. For a horn-led instrumental to climb that high was nothing short of remarkable. And Mangione didn’t need vocals. That melody sang enough. It embedded itself in pop culture, used in movies, parodied on King of the Hill, and still spinning in elevators and grocery stores like it never left.

But for me, it was always “Give It All You Got.” That was my song.

Used as the official theme for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, it embodied everything right about Mangione’s aesthetic — bright, hopeful, strutting with energy but never losing its soul. It did more than uplift spirits. It lifted expectations. It made you want to be better. Practice harder. Push further.

“Give It All You Got” was the sound of sunrise optimism. The track’s tempo alone made you want to lace up your sneakers and chase greatness. The way Mangione and saxophonist Chris Vadala volleyed the melody, in harmony one moment, in call-and-response the next, was jazz conversation at its most inviting. Underneath, Charles Meeks’ bassline skated effortlessly between funk and fusion while Grant Geissman’s guitar laid down a rhythm so clean, Nile Rodgers would’ve nodded in approval.

It was fusion at its most pristine. A slick, TV-ready, sonically bright version of jazz that could live in Olympic ceremonies and detective shows and still feel authentic. And while purists may have scoffed, the people listened. The people responded. The people remembered.

Even now, I can’t hear those opening bars without being transported, a trumpet case in one hand, sheet music in the other, walking into another early morning rehearsal, head bobbing before the first note hit.

Chuck Mangione made smooth jazz cool before it got syrupy. He made jazz accessible without making it less. And he left behind not just a catalog of hits, but a generation of players who believed their instrument could mean something, could say something.

He passed early Tuesday this week, and the world got a little quieter. But his music? It still floats. Still rises. Still plays like the soundtrack to a brighter day.

Because Chuck didn’t just make us feel good.

He reminded us to give it all we got.

And somewhere between the joy and the groove, he gave us something that still sings.