Paul McCartney has finally returned a message to a diehard fan, some 60 years after she originally professed her love for The Beatles icon.
In the 1960s, a woman, now lovingly dubbed “Adrienne from Brooklyn”, became the face of Beatlemania, after a brief interview with her was broadcast on CBS. “I love The Beatles and I’ll always love them,” Adrienne gushed in a thick Brooklyn accent during the now-iconic vox pop.
“Paul McCartney, if you are listening, Adrienne from Brooklyn loves you with all her heart.” Now, six decades later, McCartney himself has responded, taking to social media to share his reaction to the Beatles superfan.
In the video, uploaded on May 4, the guitarist and vocalist addresses Adrienne directly, saying he finally “saw your video” and informing her that he too is in Brooklyn as part of a ‘Beatlemania’ photo exhibit in Brooklyn Museum.
“Adrienne from Brooklyn if you are listening,” he wrote in the accompanying caption, “Paul McCartney from Liverpool loves you too.” McCartney’s video has since garnered over 17 million views and 2.4 million likes. While no one knows for sure the exact identity of Adrienne, one family came forth claiming to be related to the superfan. They too uploaded a video in response to McCartney, revealing that Adrienne is their mother and that her surname is D’Onofrio.
“Hey Paul,” the D’Onofrios said in their response video, “we hear you’re looking for our mother.” The family goes on to explain the first time they were made aware of the footage of their mom from the 60s, stumbling upon the CBS segment while on YouTube six years ago.
“I knew that was Mommy,” one family member said, before revealing she would’ve been aged between 12 to 14 years old at the time of the interview.
Reiterating her superfan status, the family recalled Adrienne telling them stories of skipping school to see The Beatles during their US tours, constantly playing their albums, and the scrawled message addressed to McCartney on one of the album covers. While social media was responsible for quickly tracking the family down, the D’Onofrios said that Adrienne had unfortunately passed away at the age of 41 in 1991, after a long battle with lymphoma.
According to Rolling Stone, who tracked down the D’Onofrios for a recent profile, Adrienne was a mom of four, and her children have continued her love for The Beatles by continually revisiting the old albums kept by Adrienne. As for how Adrienne might have reacted to McCartney’s reply, some six decades in the making, the D’Onofrios said she would be “ecstatic,” but joked that the Beatle would have to go through their father first.
It might not be the happy ending TikTok users were looking forward to, but Adrienne’s story is nonetheless a wholesome testament to the endurance of music fandom.
