Prior to "Birthday," a hard-to-stop-singing ditty created by a little-known act called The Beatles, rock songs didn't take on our personal cake-filled holiday all that often.
If ever, really. Before The Beatles released the tune in 1968, songs tended to deal with love, emotion, rock 'n roll, but rarely candles, balloons, and gifts (that would soon change when Steppenwolf, The Idle Race, and Elton John jumped into the birthday-themed song game).
So to celebrate a birthday of Beatle seems as lovely and logical as a 12-year-old Fab Four fan papering her wall with Ringo pictures circa 1964.
Oh, July 7 happens to be Ringo Starr's birthday, and the peace-and-love-loving performer takes the moment to take his message wide. As is annual tradition, The Beatle will appear in front of The Capitol Records Building at noon.
"Ringo invites everyone" to join the public celebration, which will include his wife Barbara. There shall be the annual "Peace & Love Salute" -- think everyone saying or thinking the words "peace" and "love" together while holding up signs -- and other stirring speeches of a beneficent and positive nature.
Mr. Starr also invites fans around the world to join in. There's a hashtag -- #peaceandlove -- and Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are three of the places fans and friends might come together.
Or "Come Together," if you prefer. It's a beacon-bright tradition that's marking its first decade in 2015, and one that The Beatle has stayed true to throughout his long career.
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He's 75 this year, if you want to wish him a happy one. There's a long, golden cord, of sorts, stretching from the time when you first fell in love with The Beatles and were made happier by their work to taking a moment to be with a Beatle, in person, and return some of that joy back. It's the kind of mystical topic the icons often took on in their lyrics, and deftly, too.
Of course, sometimes they just wrote peppy songs about birthdays, and that's pretty brilliant, too.
