Two years later, NJArts.net’s ‘In My Life’ post is still going strong

“In My Life” was first released on The Beatles’ 1965 album, “Rubber Soul.”

In its six and a half years, NJArts.net has never had another post like this one: The Beatles’ most misunderstood song: ‘In My Life’. It was originally posted on Feb. 19, 2019, inspired by the use of the song in a Paper Mill Playhouse production of the jukebox musical “My Very Own British Invasion.” The post got more than 2,200 hits that month — good, but not spectacular — and then, like virtually all posts, more or less disappeared, getting fewer than 100 hits a month from March 2019 to October 2019.

Then in November 2019 — why then, I have no idea — things started to change, with a jump to 113. And in 2020, it grew from getting a few hundred hits a month to a few thousand. So far in 2021, three and a half months in, it is averaging about 3,500 hits a month — or more than 100 a day (counting weekends and holidays) — with virtually no promotion or encouragement by the site.

As I write this, on March 18, we’ve had 77 days so far in the year, and the post has received 8,732 hits. And it’s been remarkably steady, from day to day. When I look at each day’s numbers, the post always seems to be there, somewhere around 100 hits. Every single day.

Other NJArts.net posts generate impressive numbers, in spurts, months or years later. But no other post has behaved like this, receiving a significant number of hits so steadily. Maybe that says something about the constant, unwavering interest in The Beatles. And the fact that it doesn’t hurt to write a post about the world’s most popular and important rock band, with a provocative headline.

Here are two charts that really illustrate the post’s surge.

The first ones shows hits per month: There’s the strong initial showing in February 2019, the expected decrease starting in March 2019, and then the unexpected steady rise starting in November 2020. (Note: Of course, the March 2021 bar shows only the first 18 days of the month.)

Views of the NJArts.net “In My Life” post, by month.

This next chart gives you the information in a different way, with daily averages for each month. (Again, the March 2021 number reflects only the first 18 days of the month.)

Average daily views for NJArts.net’s “In My Life” post, by month.

Why am I sharing this? I just think it’s a cool thing, and a great example of the way some things you write can live on, on the web, much longer than you ever expected them to.