The Beatles arrive in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 1966, for their concert at Candlestick Park. It was the band’s last ticketed performance in the U.S.
The Beatles arrive in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 1966, for their concert at Candlestick Park. It was the band’s last ticketed performance in the U.S.
San Francisco was arguably where Beatlemania had its last hurrah. On Aug. 29, 1966, the Beatles played their last ever ticketed concert to 25,000 fans in Candlestick Park. Exhausted by touring, the band would continue to release studio recordings, but they never united for a paying audience.
Few bands have the enduring legacy of the Beatles. Their music and image transcend mere song, becoming almost mythic. Here are five titles on streaming worth watching to remember how it all ended right here in the Bay Area.
Nothing captures the essence of Beatlemania like the comedy musical “A Hard Day’s Night,” directed by Richard Lester. The film shows off the impressive comedic chops of all four members as they snark their way through various adventures in London before a big television taping. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr each bring a different kind of wit and energy that light up the script by Alun Owen.
It’s surprising how well the film holds up as a comedy even in 2025, and it’s largely thanks to boyish irreverence the band brings to their mind-blowing fame before it wore them down.
‘The Beatles: Get Back’ (2021)
Fun fact: There are at least twice as many major documentaries made about the Beatles as there were Beatles studio albums. One of the best to capture the studio era of the band is the three-part documentary “Get Back,” directed by Peter Jackson. The film is partially a retrospective on the 1970 “Let It Be” documentary directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg that showed the Beatles making their final album.
The update is worth it for fans, though, as Jackson uses modern film techniques and the benefit of 50 years of hindsight to add new context to the Beatles. Surviving members McCartney and Starr produced as well as the widows of Harrison and Lennon, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono. Though long, such a candid look at the legendary band in the middle of their creative process is rare. Jackson, appropriately, makes it epic.
‘Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord’ (2024)
“Doctor Who” and the Beatles have always been closely linked. They were mentioned in the very first serial. A performance of “Ticket to Ride” on “Top of the Pops” in 1965 only survived in the BBC archives thanks to clips from “The Chase.” The Beatles were even asked to appear as old men at a fictional 50th anniversary concert, but the idea was nixed by manager Brian Epstein.
The Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) dropped in to EMI records in 1963 (the same year William Harnell’s First Doctor started his journey with Earth companions) to see the Fab Four record their first album. Unfortunately, a capricious god of music played with delightful insanity by Jinkx Monsoon, has absorbed all music and left the Beatles as nothing but empty jingle writers. It’s one of the wildest and strangest episodes in all of “Who” history, as well as one of the most amusing fictional portrayals of the Beatles.
‘Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed’ (2013)
In 1967, Lennon was contemplating leaving the Beatles to be an actor. He teamed up with Lester again and went to Spain to film the anti-war black comedy “How I Won the War.” It’s … not very good.
However, it did lead to a much better film, “Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed.” Javier Cámara stars as Antonio, a Beatles fan and schoolteacher from Albacete who goes on a road trip to hopefully meet Lennon as he is filming scenes in Spain. He picks up a pair of rebellious teens on the road, and the trio eventually make their way onto the set to have a brief meeting with Lennon. It’s a heartwarming road comedy that also serves as a love letter to the impact of the Beatles’ music across the world.
‘Yesterday’ (2019)
“Doctor Who” isn’t the only time the Beatles have collided with alternative universes. In Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday,” a man (Himesh Patel) is struck by a bus and wakes up in a parallel dimension where the Beatles never formed. Initially heartbroken, he begins to record Beatles songs as his own to bring the music back to the world.
From a somewhat silly premise emerges a solid story about what it means to love music and whether the personal price of stardom is too high. Robert Carlyle appears as an elderly Lennon, who in this reality lived a quiet life with his first wife. With the Beatles now existing mostly as a hotly commoditized nostalgia product rather than an active artistic endeavor, Boyle’s earnest attempt to remind the world of the simple impact of songs rings especially true.