United States Postal Service Full Service Approved
February 9, 1964, was the first time The Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show sparking 50 years of Beatlemania in America. And the first song they played was a mail music song! Of course, little did I know while sitting in front of our family's tiny black & white TV set that I would one day be calling it “mail music”.
“All My Loving” was written by Paul McCartney who says it's the first song he ever wrote ‘lyrics first'. He thought he was writing a country and western style song so George sort of twanged it up a bit with his guitar.
Although Paul wrote it it's credited to Lennon-McCartney. In 1980 when John Lennon was asked about the song, during an interview for Playboy, he said, “All My Loving is Paul, I regret to say. Ha-ha-ha. Because it's a damn good piece of work. [Singing] ‘All my loving…' But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”
According to the site beatlesbible.com, the set list that night went like this: All My Loving, Till There Was You and She Loves You, in the first half of the program, followed by an advertisement for Anadin. Ed Sullivan's other guests – Georgia Brown & Oliver Kidds, Frank Gorshin, Tessie O'Shea – followed, after which The Beatles performed I Saw Her Standing There and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
It really is a great song and I love The Beatles (yeah, yeah, yeah), so Mail Music Monday is going to celebrate Beatlemania the whole month of February.
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What a struggle I had coming up with today's Mail Music Monday. I tried finding songs that mentioned mail and other timely topics — football, Groundhog Day, The Big Bopper, Richie Valens and Buddy Holly — all to no avail.
I started looking at other notable events in the month of February and after slipping down the rabbit hole I finally popped back up with nothing. So I took an overnight break. Then I got up early and tried again. Again, nothing seemed right. I took another break.
I decided to give it one more go and guess what? I am pretty excited about this bit of mail music. It seems appropriate to note that today is the anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of three rock'n roll pioneers, one whom was Buddy Holly. He had a huge influence on musicians including the Beatles.
Sunday, February 9 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and the start of the British Invasion. All those little bits of trivia that I collected on my trip down the rabbit hole began to come together. I found a recently discovered clip of the Beatles doing a cover of Buddy Holly's “Words of Love” but that song does not mention mail. The Beatles have a lot of songs that mention mail and in years past, I've used various versions of Holly's “Mailman Bring Me No More Blues”, including one by John Lennon.
But after seeing and falling in love with the video made to go with the Beatles cover of “Words of Love” I did a little more digging and I found a “making of” video! It's not my typical Mail Music Monday post but in the ‘making of' video, they used some Beatles mail music, ending it with “P.S. I Love You”.
Surreal and whimsical and just plain fun is how I describe it. And it's such a nice way to honor Buddy Holly today. Not in a morbid way but rather in appreciation for how he continues to inspire, not just great music but great art. I hope you will watch the making of video and then enjoy the video itself.
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Yes, the US postage rates went up effective January 26, 2014. There is some good news, though. The USPS decided to continue the “Second Ounce Free” rates for First-Class Mail Presort and Automation Letters.
What is “Second Ounce Free”? Or “2nd Ounce Free”?
It's a rate that allows you mail presorted First-Class letter mail that weighs up to 2 ounces each at the 1 ounce rate. The post office admits that it started 2nd Ounce Free “to slow the diversion of bills, invoices and statements to electronic channels.” It's one of the best moves made by the US Postal Service, ever.
It's highly effective for those who want to include extra marketing materials in with a billing statement mainly because studies (“The Future of Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment in North America”, by Info Trends) have shown that bills sent via US Mail are opened over 95% percent of the time. Think about it, you wouldn't ignore a bill. And once opened, people spend an average of 2.5 minutes taking a peek at what's in that statement envelope (“Trans Meets Promo… Is it More than Market Hype?” InfoTrends).
But it doesn't only apply to bills, invoices and statements. It applies to any First-Class mailing that meets the other requirements for automation presort discounts. It does not apply to regular, Single-Piece First-Class letters or what the post office calls ‘risidual Single-Piece Letters'.
This special rate is perfect for fundraisers, and events — mailings that are time sensitive because you get First-Class Mail delivery and the advantage of that free second ounce for all those extra, persuasive marketing pieces and reply cards.
You can find out more about “Second Ounce Free” here: https://www.usps.com/business/first-class-mail-for-business.htm?
Or better yet, contact us and we'll deal with the tricky details, inserting and presort the mailing for you.
If you can think of other uses for 2nd Ounce Free, please share in the comments below.