...you hold on, and you don't let go. Sometimes you still hold on even when they're not producing new music anymore for whatever reason.

When I was young, I heard this great song about being in a park on the 4th of July. It took a a few months and a little bit of concentration to make the connection that this was the same band who was having a run of a whole bunch of "power ballads" hitting the top of the charts. In trying to figure out why their latest album was called "17" I made the connection and realized that they had YEARS of wonderful music to listen to.

I still love Chicago, and I still listen to them, and get to their concerts every year. This year, my oldest daughter found a band that she got interested in. She already listened to Chicago since before she was born, so I wondered what had her so interested and excited when she was coming home from school one day...

...she has discovered the Beatles.

During the summer break at school (an extended camp type of thing) the kids sometimes watch movies, and one day they watched "Yellow Submarine". That was it. It was over.

A was hooked. She surprised me by singing all of "Eleanor Rigby" in the car on the way home. Note for note, word for word, perfectly. That's when I knew she'd found her band – that they had captured her the same way Chicago had caught me when I was just a slightly older girl than her. She was singing along with a couple of their other tunes when there was a "triple shot" on the local classic rock station and we were in a bead store.

She'd only watched the movie twice by that point.

It’s so wonderful to see her interested in good music – stuff that’s been around for years, and inspired so many other wonderful musicians and songwriters over the years. While the Beatles haven’t been my favorites (ask me to choose between Elvis and the Beatles and I reply “The Rolling Stones”) they are certainly way up there in what I would choose to listen to for an afternoon of music. It’s a heck of a lot better than Britney Spears or Eminem.

She hates the both of them (B does too), by the way, so I consider myself an accomplished mom.

Educating her in the music of the Beatles has been interesting, especially when she asks if they’d ever produce any more music. She was sad to hear that John had been killed (as was I), and intrigued that George was the one behind “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, which she’s heard many different cover versions of. She didn’t believe us for quite some time that Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the Beatles, even when we pulled out the CD and showed her. I'm still trying to convince her that that it is indeed the same band.

I rented Yellow Submarine for her to see again, and for me to refresh my memory of the story, and she was in heaven.

Still, there’s a lot more great music of theirs to cover – she’s never heard “Can’t Buy Me Love” or “Love Me Do” – so she claims. I know she’s heard them because they’ve undoubtedly been on the classic rock station when we’ve been in the car driving somewhere, but she’s not making the connection. I’ll have to get into the respective solo careers – she knows John’s music, but not much about Paul’s or George’s. I’m not sure I want to introduce her to Ringo’s solo music, but to be fair, I suppose I should. I know I’ll be biased when we cover George’s music as I find it to be the most appealing (after John’s stellar productions).

She thinks “Yesterday” is sad, but feels happy after hearing “Let It Be”. She and I sang that song together the other night, and she sounded so very lovely singing it, and had the biggest smile on her face when she was finished. She promptly told me that she felt so much lighter and happier after us singing it, and I explained to her that I’ve always gotten a great feeling of peace from that song and the simple message of “let it be” – a message that I need to follow a little more closely myself, but one nonetheless…

…and then she asked me if Paul was really dead. That’s a “let it be” if I’ve ever heard one.