The Best Decade in Music

Like many people who turned 11 years old in 1964, the first record album I bought “on my own” — in other words by pleading “Mom, can you get this album for me?” — was Meet the Beatles!, their first release in the United States. But so what? I have about as much inclination to listen to that album now as to watch episodes of My Favorite Martian, which was my favorite television series at the time.…