With February 2014 marking the 50th anniversary of the Beatles invading America, we have been immersed in commemorative magazines, TV specials and radio stations playing hours of Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison compositions. Throughout their pop culture takeover in the 1960s, when songs like “I Saw Her Standing There” became instant pop classics, I have vague memories of seeing their frenzied fans screeching on television as well as watching ABC’s The Beatles cartoon on Saturday mornings.

Yet it wasn’t until after the 1975 release of Elton John’s splendid cover of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” that I began to dig deeper through the canon of great songs that the mop-topped geniuses created over their seven-year reign. Soon afterwards, with a little help from my friend and schoolmate Tony (who borrowed a few albums from his sister’s vinyl stash and smuggled them to my crib), I became turned on the magical music of these pop pioneers.

Sitting on the floor in the living room in front of my bulky record player, I became the walrus and slowly drifted into a strange world of paperback writers, yellow submarines and a stunning woman named Michelle. It was only a matter of time, overtaken.

As with most great songwriters—from Burt Bacharach and Carole King to Gamble & Huff and Prince—great pop is not bound by race or class, and can often cross over in a very positive way. Indeed, in the same way the Beatles once offered the world their versions of Isley Brothers (“Twist and Shout”) and Little Richard (“Long Tall Sally”), many Black artists have put their own spin on the music of Liverpool’s greatest.

Last week, watching Lauryn Hill perform “Yesterday” on the Late Show with David Letterman, I thought about the many Beatles’ covers I’ve loved over the years and decided to share a few.