When Ringo Starr performed at Red Rocks 36 years later, he briefly pondered the stage floor and began pacing in circles, while reminiscing about his former band’s only Colorado appearance. “I think the show was over in the time I’ve just been walking around,” he laughed.

That was almost true.

Beatles concerts circa 1964 went like this: For less than a half hour, the band would speedily perform its repertoire of hits, politely bow to the audience, and leave the stage without so much as an encore. Whatever music might have been audible on the primitive sound system invariably was drowned out by the shrieks of screaming teenagers.

Not that it mattered much.

“There was just so much excitement about seeing the Beatles,” says Ted Scott, who was a University of Colorado sophomore in August 1964 and still lives in the Denver area. “There had been all this hype. It was still really new. I don’t think any of us thought about quality of music. We saw the Beatles. We saw them live. That was the big thing.”