This Valentine’s Day, Paul McCartney‘s official site has set up an area where fans can send his song, “My Valentine,” to a loved one along with a personalized message. You can write your own sentiments or choose one of the selections in the suggested messages area of the form. Your Valentine will then receive an email telling them that the song has been sent to them from an admirer. They can then click on the button in the email to be directed to McCartney’s site to receive the message and listen to the song. But, to discover who the message is from, they need to send the “My Valentine” song to their Valentine (well, this could get awkward).

The song is from the former Beatles legend’s 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom, a collection of McCartney covering his favorite standards from his children (such as “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive”) along with two new originals he recorded that fit this genre.

Another historic plateau gets reached today as 50 years ago, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, a television program which wound up exposing the Fab Four to millions of Americans right in the comfort of their living rooms and ultimately became one of the most-watched programs in television history.

Like many things The Beatles did during their hugely successful and illustrious career, the Ed Sullivan appearance stands as a high water achievement on the foursome’s resume. The band — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr — had just touched down on American soil two days prior at JFK Airport to a huge brassy noise, as reporters and cameramen came in droves, almost seemingly climbing on top of one another to get the scant amount of intimate time they could with music’s new darling boys. The ensuing press conference was a massive success and that oft used, yet perfect adjective called Beatlemania was perfect to describe all the festivity as these native-born Liverpudlians enveloped the entire city of New York and the entire nation with their effortless grace and attitudinal charm. Millions upon millions of people either shrieked in delight or moaned and groaned in confusion; it simply depended on one’s age bracket. But that Sunday night’s performance at CBS Television Studio 50 in Manhattan would not only be the sonic bridge to make the entire country stand up and realize that The Beatles were a solid, here-to-stay entity, but a sonic bridge that eventually almost the entire world would cross again and again.

Today, February 7, 2014, marks the 50th anniversary of the The Beatles touching down at New York’s JFK Airport, arriving in America for the first time and signaling the entire beginning of what was to be coined “The British Invasion” and also unbeknownst at the time, the beginning of what was to become one of the most creative, vivid, influential, and turbulent decades – the 1960s. To commemorate the anniversary, a historical marker will be dedicated at JFK Airport this morning*.

Already upping the ante for themselves by having hit records before they left their native England to come to the States, The Beatles exploded in The United States upon their arrival, but not just because of the music. The four men — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr — nary a 25-year-old in the bunch, also handled themselves with the press, which was on a volume level on par with a King or Queen or President coming off that JFK airport tarmac. Decked in similar suits and the famous bowl haircut — which was shaggy enough to move around in the cold February air that day — The Fab Four dazzled the press and the country as Beatlemania was in full force.

The Fifth Beatle
The Brian Epstein Story
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
Written by Vivek J. Tiwary
Pencils by Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Inks by Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Letters by Steve Dutro
Colors by Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Cover by Andrew C. Robinson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 19, 2013
Cover Price: $19.99

The life of Brian Epstein, who discovered and managed The Beatles and who almost singlehandedly supplied the runway in which the band could propel itself to the greatest heights, is the subject of a dazzling, can’t put it down graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics, entitled what many thought Brian to be during his short and troubled, yet fascinating life, The Fifth Beatle.

The legend of who the Fifth Beatle actually was has been sussed out to be many other figures in the band’s folklore along with Epstein, figures like radio DJ Murray the K, who anointed himself as such in the most novelty and charming way, or long-time friends Mal Evans or Neil Aspinall, both of whom were with the band in their earliest makeups and wound up becoming key integral parts of the rich, sprawling history the group found themselves entailed in as the years went on. But to people like Paul McCartney, Brian Epstein always held the mantle and title of the Fifth Beatle. And the creators of this biographic tale feel the same way, in essence, that nobody could claim that title but Brian.

Today marks an absolute milestone in the history of recorded music as Please Please Me, the debut album by The Beatles, celebrates its 50th anniversary.

It would now be incalculable and unthinkable to try and imagine what life would be like if these four men from Liverpool hadn’t come along and made an absolutely indelible stamp on the culture, makeup, and landscape in the musical world. And while of course the band was still in sort of a growing pains mode and possibly even experiencing a slight identity crisis when Please Please Me was released, the out-of-the-gate charm and superstar success the “early Beatles” were to have rather quickly afterwards was firmly right on the launching pad.