THIS DAY IN NEW YORK HISTORY
Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets, is in its final year. It opened on April 17, 1963 and cost $28.5 million to build. The Mets’ new home, Citi Field, will open next April with a projected cost of $850 million ($450 million of which is being subsidized with public funds).
On August 15, 1965, Shea was host to a historic non-baseball event: the first concert in the Beatles’ 1965 North American tour. It was the first stadium concert in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, with a a then-record audience of 55,600. The band was introduced by Ed Sullivan, on whose show they had appeared the previous night.
The setlist for the show at Shea: “Twist And Shout,” “She’s A Woman,” “I Feel Fine,” “Dizzy
Miss Lizzy,” “Ticket To Ride,” “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby,”
“Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Baby’s In Black,” “Act Naturally,” “A Hard Day’s
Night,” “Help!” and “I’m Down.”
This video clip from YouTube will give you a sense of what it was like.
The concert was filmed and aired on television in the U.S. in December the following year. Much of the concert is included in the The Beatles Anthology on DVD.
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