to the Beat (Bugs) and you don't stop

The following post is sponsored by Netflix. Come together with Beat Bugs, a new family show inspired by the music of the Beatles. Now Streaming.

If I were to create an all-time “top five albums that sound-tracked my early childhood” list, High Fidelity style, The Beatles’ albums would take up AT LEAST three of those spots. The White Album, Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper's... these were the albums that defined my mother's teen years, and because of that, they defined my early years, as well.

Besides my mom's Beatles albums, the only other records I can recall listening to over and over (and over) as a small child are The South Pacific soundtrack, Springsteen's Born to Run (Hey, Dad!) and James Taylor's greatest hits. Cat Steven's Tea for the Tillerman was definitely in rotation as well. Carol King Tapestry... a little Linda Ronstadt...

In our household, we're a little more scattered with our music. I have 78978698264978698 songs set on random play at any given time. Hal does, too. (We have completely different tastes in music so what’s playing depends on who's manning the stereo/car stereo/acoustic guitar.   The music that reverberates in our home is pretty unpredictable.) My kids will grow up pretty familiar with every possible genre of music but no committed relationship to any one album, which I think is also pretty cool. 

Anyway... I knew most all of The Beatles songs by heart by the time I was a teenager and was brought up to believe they were the greatest band of all time.

All these years later, I don't disagree. (If I had to choose one band's catalog to take with me to a desert island, it would definitely be The Beatles. To me, every. single. one of their albums feels like home.)

Beyond that, SO MANY of their songs lend themselves to a child's imagination: from Octopus’ Garden (my childhood favorite) to Yellow Submarine (which I cannot stand but my kids love it) to Blackbird (if I had a dollar for every time I've witnessed someone pick up an acoustic guitar to strum an impromptu Blackbird...) to I Want to Hold Your Hand (a parent's anthem) to All You Need is Love (a parent's mantra) to Bo and Revi's personal favorite, Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da...

One can EASILY create playlists for kids via The Beatles extensive catalog. And taking that one step further into on-screen storytelling, it's not surprising that Beat Bugs was born, a new series for children:

Behold! Sia covers Blackbird: 

And here's Pink covering Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds:

Each episode takes classic songs made famous by the Beatles and turns them into animated stories. Think Across the Universe meets Fantasia meets A Bug's Life. I watched the first two episodes of Beat Bugs with Bo and Revi last month and they gave it four thumbs up. It was creative, adventurous, silly and chock full of positive messages. Most importantly, though (to me, anyway) it was FULL OF GREAT MUSIC -- specifically hit Beatles songs covered by artists including Sia, Eddie Vedder, The Shins, Pink, Regina Spektor, James Corden and more.

Beat Bugs is now available to stream on Netflix AND The Beat Bugs soundtrack is available to download on iTunes, here. You can follow Beat Bugs on Facebook, here. For those of you who don't currently subscribe to Netflix (AND for those of who do) I have (5) gift cards for three-month free Netflix subscriptions to give away. To win? Comment below and let me know what the MOST influential albums of your childhood were...  I'll choose all winners at random on Friday, August 12th. Good luck and rock on!