The Beatles Kicked Off Final Tour This Day in 1966 with 11 Songs

By 1966, The Beatles were an absolute phenomenon, leading the "British Invasion" wave, conquering charts across the globe, having a film debut under their belt and so much more.

Their fourth concert tour in America kicked off on August 12, 1966, marking their last commercial tour. The North American Tour featured a total of 19 performances with 17 shows across the United States and 2 in Canada. While this tour didn't meet the commercial success of their previous 1965 tour largely due to the backlash of John Lennon's remark about The Beatles being "more popular than Jesus," the guys still managed to pack in 45,000 people into Shea Stadium in New York, down 11,000 people from the record attendance they had set the previous year. After the 1966 tour took place, the band focused on record production exclusively, only appearing live 4 more times between 1967 through 1969.

The show kickoff for their final commercial tour on August 12, 1966 took place at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois. The setlist featured 11 songs including two covers, opening with Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music" and closing with Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." On average, each show ran between 30 and 40 minutes long.

Other songs to make the setlist cut included "Yesterday," "She's a Woman," and "I Wanna Be Your Man." Notably, the band didn't perform any new music from their album Revolver which had been released on August 5, 1966, a week prior to tour kickoff.

Check out the full setlist below!

The Beatles - Chicago, Illinois - August 12, 1966 - setlist

Experience The Beatles' final tour for yourself! Listen to the live audio from their final show of the 1966 tour which took place on August 29 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco below.

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Last updated: 25 Apr 2024, 13:00 Etc/UTC