'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' The Beatles
1963 single

I can proudly state that I was one of the record-setting 73 million Americans who witnessed the Beatles performing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' and three other soon-to-be-ubiquitous songs in the course of their historic debut on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' that landmark Sunday of Feb. 9, 1964.

I can also sheepishly clarify that, as I was 3 years old at the time, I can't recall a single solitary second of it.

However, just a few months later, when my 4-year-old brain started absorbing the Top 40 AM radio airwaves circa late 1964 that were being beamed at all our heads, even it could discern how special 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' is. Yet my tiny but growing blob of gray matter had scant knowledge of whence that two minutes and twenty-four seconds of perfect pop synthesis emanated.

The received wisdom is that there are but two surviving Beatles: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Absent from the celebration of the release of the Fab Four's remastered albums and the Beatles: Rock Band video game is original drummer Pete Best, the only other person on the planet who can rightfully call himself a Beatle.

With his moody good looks marking him as the heartthrob of the early Beatles, Best was behind the drum kit from 1960 till 1962, which is when he was unceremoniously and mysteriously fired from the band just as they were on the brink of their unprecedented stardom. But now, more than 45 years later, he's telling his side of the story via a method in which he communicates best: through music. Last year, Best and his group released the album 'Haymans Green,' named after his Liverpool neighborhood, whose songs chronicle the life and times of the man who supplied the "atom beat" for the Beatles.

Though Best commonly has been portrayed as sullen and introverted during his Beatle days, he couldn't have been more affable and forthcoming as he reminisced with Spinner, without a trace of bitterness, about his time in the group. He holds forth on how the 10 tracks he played on that were included in the Beatles 'Anthology' collection vindicates his skill as a drummer (and made him financially set for life), theorizes on exactly why he was kicked out of the Beatles by his bandmates, confirms the debauchery of the Beatles' early days in Hamburg, Germany, and recalls how he occasionally found humor in being the most famous fired person in the world.

What is it about Liverpool that has inspired so many great musicians, the Beatles being just one example?

It's something I think has always been there. If you're from Liverpool, you realize its musical heritage. Even before Merseybeat, it was always a hotbed for musicians, whether it was jazz, singers, big bands -- you name it, it emanated from Liverpool. It still does. Liverpool was an industrial town, a poor town. The people fought hard for what they wanted to achieve and there was a hunger there, and that hunger has remained with the musicians. Today, it's still a hotbed for music. I think it always will be.

When you were in the Beatles, you wanted to be successful, of course. Did you think there would be big things in store for the band?

I think we knew that there were big things in store. You could call it arrogance, self-confidence, big-headedness -- we knew because of what we had done at a very early age. We'd taken Hamburg by storm. We were basically unknown, a mediocre band, but on the first night of playing the opening show at the Casbah on Dec. 10, Liverpool was our oyster. We'd conquered it. The word was on the street: "You've got to see these guys, you've got to see the Beatles." We knew if we could get a recording contract and into the English charts, that would be the start of something big. To be totally realistic, no one at that stage thought we were gonna become the icons of the music industry as the world knows them today. We were concerned with getting a No. 1 record, and we were confident enough to say we could achieve that. What happened afterwards was a total different type of dream altogether.

'The Love You Save,' the Jackson 5
From 1970's 'ABC'

As a bubblegum-chewing and -listening 9-and-a-half-year-old urban black kid in mid-1970, I was as predisposed to fall for the pop-soul sticky chicle of the Jackson 5's third Motown single (and third No. 1), 'The Love You Save' as a boy could be. Though Michael Jackson was chronologically two years older than me, in some ways he came off as younger than I am, yet in the most obvious way -- his otherworldly voice and poise -- I'm still to this day comparatively a child.

Akin to its white bubblegum counterparts, the song's lyrics entendre on a double level -- in this case as a parable about traffic safety (for us youngsters) or as a warning about sexual promiscuity (for the older set). That is, until the middle bit, in which Michael accuses the song's protagonist of making out with Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell and Christopher Columbus in succession -- the song's first sign of musical genius. The second is the "truck driver's modulation" near the end, as the song vaults into a higher key, propelling me heavenward as well. Add some complementary vocals from J5 relief pitcher Jermaine, and you have the musical reason why, almost 40 years later, I'm still occasionally in my own Peter Pan phase.

Like Michael Jackson, Ben Lee got his start as an adolescent performer, which adds an extra layer to the Australian singer-songwriter's poignant words about Jackson's passing.

"Michael Jackson's death is a very surreal moment for people my age," Lee tells Spinner. "He was such an omnipresent figure in pop culture for as long as I can remember. It feels like I knew him, but on the other hand it seems like no one really did. His music makes me move. I guess that's what he ultimately wanted."

Don Cornelius, the creator and host of the long-running TV musical institution 'Soul Train,' reminisces about when he discovered the prodigious and precocious musical talents of the late Michael Jackson.

"I met Michael Jackson at the age of 8, when his father and my new friend, Joe Jackson, first began to bring the Jackson 5 to Chicago, from their home in Gary, Indiana, for concert appearances," Cornelius tells Spinner. "The word of the Jackson 5's devastating abilities as concert artists had already begun to spread like an out-of-control forest fire to the laser-like attention of all Chicago area R&B music stars.

"The prevailing thought process among local R&B stars with respect to this very young group of entertainers known as the Jackson 5 had become, 'If Michael Jackson and his brothers were booked on an upcoming Chicagoland show, leave it alone! Don't book it! Don't go on that show and get completely blown away by young Michael and the Jackson 5!'"

In regard to the superstar that 8-year-old boy would become, Cornelius has this to say: "Michael Jackson's personal crescendo of amazing power as an entertainer was clear and unmistakable, and has never slowed to this very day! His passing will be grieved far beyond that of any other singer, composer, producer, dancer and choreographer in the history of the world. Indeed, in my very firmest personal belief, there will never, ever, be another Michael Jackson!"

Being one of this decade's suavest fashion mavens, 'From G's to Gents' host Fonzworth Bentley tips his hat to the late Michael Jackson, who set several style trends in his long career as a chart-topping icon.

"I grew up with Michael Jackson as my idol," Bentley tells Spinner. "It was a family affair. We would all sit around the television whenever a new Michael Jackson video would premiere. I know the feeling I had when I saw him do the moonwalk. I can only imagine the feeling they are getting in heaven seeing him walk through those gates."

Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who as a co-founder of Def Jam Records is well versed on world-changing musical movements, reflects upon the passing of Michael Jackson at age 50 and the cultural significance of the King of Pop.

"Michael Jackson was my generation's most iconic cultural hero," Simmons tells Spinner. "Courageous, unique and incredibly talented. He'll be missed greatly."