It was a turnout the likes of which had never been seen.

Three hundred thousand mostly young South Australians lined Anzac Highway and converged in the city to cheer, scream – and occasionally faint – for four young lads from Liverpool who had taken the world by storm.

Actually, it was three young lads from Liverpool and one from London, as Ringo had taken ill and Jimmy Nicol was filling in on drums, but The Beatles were in Adelaide and it was the only ticket in town.

Now, 60 years after the band touched down in their chartered ANA jet on 12 June 1964, it remains not only one of the biggest gathering of people in South Australian history but probably the hugest reception the band received anywhere in the world. All in a city with a population at the time of around 670,000.

And it almost didn’t happen.

Adelaide was originally left off the Australasian tour itinerary, a fact that late radio personality Bob Francis wasn’t going to take laying down.

The young DJ, who was behind the mic on 5AD at the time, organised a petition hoping to gather 3000 signatures in a bid to convince The Beatles management to change their mind and touch down in SA. He got 70,000 signatures and, importantly, the backing of two big names in Adelaide music at the time in Ron Tremaine and Kym Bonython.

Tremaine got the petition in front of tour organiser Kenn Brodziak. The Melbourne-based promoter had some dates to fill, but wasn’t keen on Adelaide as the venues were smaller than those on the east coast.

Eventually, thanks to some wheeling and dealing on the part of Tremaine with family connections in John Martin’s department stores who helped prop up the Adelaide leg, a deal was done and The Beatles were booked to play four concerts at Centennial Hall in the Wayville Showgrounds.

First, however, there was the parade from the airport to Town Hall and a mayoral reception.

The late George Harrison offered up this evocative description of the day in Derek Taylor’s book Fifty Years Adrift.

“We sat up on the back of our cars and all the people were out of their homes and hospitals, and then we went into the square,” The Beatles’ guitarist and vocalist recalled.

“We got onto the Lord Mayor’s mantelpiece and waved at the whole crowd. It looked like something out of Dodge City, dirt roads and a Rock Ridge façade, or that’s what it seemed like to me.

“It was like, ‘The Sheriff’s coming, ding, ding, ding.’ I’ve got photos, which I took from sitting up on the back of our car in the J. F. Kennedy position in the cavalcade.”

Bandmate Sir Paul McCartney had a similar recollection.

“Three hundred thousand people welcomed us to Adelaide,” Sir Paul, who returned to Adelaide for a sold-out show last year, said.

“It was like a heroes’ welcome. If it had happened suddenly, overnight, it might have gone to our heads; but we had come up bit by bit, so it didn’t (not too much). We were just very pleased that everyone had turned out.

"We were still close enough to our Liverpool roots to know how it would feel, and what it would mean, if we had showed up in the middle of town to see a group, so we could feel it in their spirit. I think we quite enjoyed it all. It can get a bit wearing, but it certainly wasn’t then.”

And as for those four concerts at The Showgrounds, most of the 12,000 who were lucky enough to get tickets on June 12 and 13 concurred that it was almost impossible to hear the band over the screaming of the fans.

It was the country’s first taste of the hysteria known as Beatlemania, a powerful force that changed what it meant to be young and showed the globe that young people were a force that could change the world.

And, in Australia’s case, it started right here in Adelaide.

Visit the History Trust of South Australia’s Facebook page to take a virtual Magical Mystery Tour of the places that were key to The Beatles 1964 visit to Adelaide.

Adelaide Town Hall, the scene of the famous reception, has a number of events planned including a free lunchtime concert from The LadyBeatles followed by a talk from authors Greg Armstrong and Andy Neill about their new book When we was Fab: Inside The Beatles Australasian Tour 1964. Click here for details.