In the fall of 1963 during a football game when Avalon played Bellevue at the Bellevue High School field, during the break they played “She Loves You” over the loud speakers. I remember I was at the game with my father, brother and sister. We freaked out. We had never heard anything like that before. After we got home we ran to the radio that was on top of the fridge in the kitchen. We turned on the radio and “She Loves You” was playing again! I was so excited, I could barely contain myself.
After it ended my father said, “It will never last.” Looking back I have to laugh as the Beatles are indeed broken up as a band and two, John and George, are deceased. But their influence and popularity continue to this day. Like Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, some music continues through the ages and never goes out of favor.
February 1, 1964: What Was the First Beatles #1 Hit in the US?
By MAJOR DAN February 1, 2019 Updated:January 27, 2020
A Brief History
On February 1, 1964, the British sensational band, The Beatles, hit the top of the American charts for the first time with their smash hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The iconic rock song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and would be the first of many such #1 hits by this song writing and singing pair. In fact, the Beatles would go on to post a record 20 #1 hits in the US. The Beatles would go on to probably the greatest career for any band in musical history, let alone Rock and Roll.
Digging Deeper
Oddly enough, in Britain “She Loves You” was the first Beatles #1 hit and prevented “I Want to Hold Your Hand” from instantly taking the top slot. In 2 weeks “I Want to Hold Your Hand” finally ousted “She Loves You” and grabbed Britain’s top position for the next 5 weeks. While the Beatles had previous success in Britain with “She Loves You” and “Love Me Do,” those 2 songs failed in the US market, and it was finally “I Want to Hold Your Hand” that captivated American music fans. In fact, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” went on to sell 12 million singles and remains the biggest Beatles hit in the US and in the entire world. Billboard Magazine rated “I Want to Hold Your Hand” #44 on their list of Biggest Hits of all time in 2013.
Considering the incredible success of the Beatles, it is mind boggling that the band broke up in 1970, after being together only for 10 years. Even more amazing is that the Beatles only enjoyed widespread popularity for even fewer years, from their breakout year of 1964 until their breakup year of 1970. Still, Billboard (as of 2017) does call them the most successful artists of all-time, with record sales of 178 million in the US and over 800 million world-wide! A total of 7 Grammy’s and an Academy Award emphasize just how amazing the Fab Four really was.Advertisements
Of course, the success of the Beatles was not merely the synergy of 4 separate musicians, but also based on the extreme writing and performing talents of each of the members. Lennon and McCartney went on to the greatest level of success in the post-Beatles era, though Lennon’s career was tragically cut short at the hands of a mentally ill assassin in 1980.
McCartney continues to draw enormous crowds wherever he appears. George Harrison, often referred to as “The Quiet Beatle” also enjoyed individual success, although he also died young, at the age of 58, cut down by lung cancer. He had survived an assassination attempt 2 years earlier from a knife-wielding mentally deranged man at Harrison’s home in England. Harrison had achieved great success with his 1988-1992 collaboration with the Traveling Wilburys, a super-group he formed with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty.
Ringo Starr, the drummer of the Beatles since replacing Pete Best on percussion in 1962, is arguably the least musically talented of the Fab Four, but this particular mop top also achieved great post-Beatles success himself, with hit songs such as “It Don’t Come Easy,” “Photograph” (a #1 hit), “You’re Sixteen” (a cover that also hit #1), “Back Off Boogaloo,” and “Oh My My” among others. Ringo also succeeded at acting, with appearances in the Beatles’ movies as well as several other films. In 1981 he married the beautiful Barbara Bach, a marriage that has lasted to the present.
The Beatles found initial success with a faddish sort of pop music that they quickly left behind for more substantial themes, their music evolving to stay on the cutting edge of the industry throughout their entire career from 1964 to 1970. From light hearted pop music to heavy, politically shaded tunes and even fringe drug culture songs, the Beatles remained relevant like no other band of their time. Not surprisingly, the Beatles were named among the 100 Most Influential people of the 20th Century by Time Magazine.
Advertisements
Question for students (and subscribers): Which Beatle is your favorite? What is your favorite Beatles’ song? Who is your favorite musical group? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Spitz, Bob. The Beatles: The Biography. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2005.Advertisements
Theroux, Gary. The British Invasion, Volume 1. Happyland, 2017.
Turner, Steve. The Complete Beatles Songs: The Stories Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four. Dey Street Books, 2015.
The featured image in this article, the front cover art for the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by the artist The Beatles, is of a cover of an audio recording, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher (Apple Corps, Ltd.) of the work or the artist(s) which produced the recording or cover artwork in question. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of such covers solely to illustrate the audio recording in question, qualifies as fair use under the copyright law of the United States. The copy is of sufficient resolution for commentary and identification but lower resolution than the original cover.
Copies made from it will be of inferior quality, unsuitable as artwork on pirate versions or other uses that would compete with the commercial purpose of the original artwork. The image is used for identification in the context of critical commentary of the work for which it serves as cover art. It makes a significant contribution to the user’s understanding of the article, which could not practically be conveyed by words alone. The image is placed at the beginning of the article or section discussing the work, to help the user quickly identify the work and know they have found what they are looking for.
Use for this purpose does not compete with the purposes of the original artwork, namely the artist’s providing graphic design services to music concerns and in turn marketing music to the public. As musical cover art, the image is not replaceable by free content; any other image that shows the packaging of the music would also be copyrighted, and any version that is not true to the original would be inadequate for identification or commentary. Using a different image as a header would be misleading as to the identity of the work.
The Beatles’ North American releases
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article may primarily relate to a different subject, or place undue weight on a particular aspect rather than the subject as a whole. Specifically, Beatlemania. Please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant information, and removing excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia’s inclusion policy. (February 2017) |
| History of the Beatles |
|---|
| The Beatles arriving in the US in 1964. |
| The QuarrymenIn HamburgAt the Cavern ClubDecca auditionBeatlemaniaNorth American releases“More popular than Jesus”In BangorIn IndiaBreak-upTimeline |
| vte |
The Beatles experienced huge popularity on the British record charts in early 1963, but record companies in the United States did not immediately follow up with releases of their own,[1] and the Beatles’ commercial success in the US continued to be hampered by other obstacles, including issues with royalties[2] and public derision toward the “Beatle haircut”.[3]
It was nearly a year before the Beatles became widely popular in the US. CBS Evening News aired a five-minute news story about Beatlemania in the UK on 10 December 1963; this led to a teenage girl making an airplay request of a local radio station, which in turn sparked a sequence of events leading to the rush-release of the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and the group’s commercial breakthrough.[4]
In the United States, Capitol Records modified the Beatles’ albums from their original configurations, altering track listings and artwork. This was done because albums released in the US contained fewer tracks, typically no more than 11 or 12, due to differences in how publishing royalties were calculated in the two countries.[5] Also, in the American market it was expected for albums to include the current hit single, whereas British albums typically did not duplicate songs released as singles. This resulted in 11 albums being released by Capitol from 1964 to 1966, culled from seven UK albums and various singles. This trend continued until 1967, when the Beatles signed a new recording contract with EMI.
The Beatles were dissatisfied with how Capitol and other companies around the world were issuing their work in almost unrecognizable forms, so they gained full approval rights beginning in 1967 concerning album titles and cover art, track listing and running order in the United States; their albums were released unmodified starting with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Capitol stopped the production of the US versions in the late 1980s, and the original UK LPs were released in the US beginning in 1987.[6][7]
Initial obstacles[edit]
EMI offered US distribution of the Beatles’ records to their American subsidiary Capitol Records in 1962. Capitol declined, so EMI made a five-year agreement with Vee-Jay Records, an independent label based in Chicago; this was part of a deal for the rights to EMI artist Frank Ifield. The first Beatles single released by Vee-Jay was “Please Please Me” in February 1963. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago radio station WLS, placed “Please Please Me” into radio rotation in late February, and Dick Biondi was the first to play the record on his show. “Please Please Me” reached number 35 on WLS’s weekly survey but failed to chart nationally. Vee-Jay released “From Me to You” in May 1963 which reached number 33 at radio station KRLA in Los Angeles, where Biondi was now working. The single only made it to number 116 on the Billboard Hot 100. EMI cancelled Vee-Jay’s rights to the Beatles in August because of non-payment of royalties.[2][8][note 1]
EMI offered Capitol the next Beatles single “She Loves You” but Capitol again declined, so EMI licensed it to Philadelphia-based Swan Records who released it in September 1963. “She Loves You” also failed to receive airplay, and an airing of the song on Dick Clark‘s TV show American Bandstand produced laughter from American teenagers when they saw the group’s distinctive hairstyles.[3] In early November 1963, Brian Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to present the Beatles on three editions of his show in February, and parlayed this into a record deal with Capitol. Capitol committed to a mid-January release of “I Want to Hold Your Hand“.[9] CBS Evening News aired a five-minute news story on December 10, 1963, about the phenomenon of Beatlemania in Britain. The segment first aired on the CBS Morning News on 22 November and had originally been scheduled to be repeated on that day’s Evening News, but regular programming was cancelled following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Impact of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”[edit]
The CBS Evening News segment inspired a teenage girl named Marsha Albert in Silver Spring, Maryland to write to Carroll James, a disc jockey at Washington DC’s WWDC radio station, requesting that he play records by the Beatles. James had seen the same news story and arranged to have a copy sent to him of the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. He debuted the record on 17 December, and the station received overwhelming positive audience reaction and immediately escalated its airplay. Capitol Records president Alan W. Livingston learned of the overwhelming listener response a few days later and decided to rush the single’s release three weeks ahead of schedule on 26 December 1963.[4]
Several New York radio stations began playing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on its release day. The positive response that had started in Washington was duplicated in New York and quickly spread to other markets. The record sold one million copies in just ten days, and Cashbox magazine had certified the record number one for the week ending 25 January, after just three weeks in their Top 100 chart.[10]
It was around this time that Brian Epstein was besieged by merchandising offers and chose to effectively give it away, underestimating this relatively new market within the pop industry. Nicky Byrne set up Seltaeb in 1963 exclusively to look after the Beatles merchandising rights on a 90/10 basis in his own favour. This quickly led to contractual disputes and lawsuits which eventually cost NEMS an estimated $100 million in licensing fees.[11]
Impact of the Beatles’ arrival in the United States[edit]
After the Beatles’ success in 1964, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records took advantage of their previously secured rights to the group’s early recordings and reissued the songs, and all the songs reached the top ten. Three singles released by Capitol Records of Canada were imported into the United States and sold enough to make the American charts. “Love Me Do” was then issued by Vee-Jay on the Tollie Records label and made it to number one. MGM Records and Atco Records also secured rights to the Beatles’ early Tony Sheridan-era recordings and had minor hits with “My Bonnie” and “Ain’t She Sweet“.
These record releases led to a new dimension of chart success for the Beatles, and they held the top five positions on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart[12] and the Cashbox magazine Top 100 chart for April 1964.[13] A record 14 Beatle records were on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the following week.[14]
Vee-Jay issued Introducing… the Beatles in 1964 which was essentially their debut British album with some minor alterations. Vee-Jay also issued an unusual LP called The Beatles Vs The Four Seasons. This two-LP set paired Introducing… The Beatles and The Golden Hits Of The Four Seasons, another successful act that Vee-Jay had under contract, in the guise of a contest, with the back cover featuring a score card. Another unusual release was the Hear the Beatles Tell All album, which consisted of two lengthy interviews with Los Angeles radio disc jockeys; side one was titled “Dave Hull interviews John Lennon”, and side two was titled “Jim Steck interviews John, Paul, George, Ringo”. No Beatles music was included on this interview album, which turned out to be the only Vee-Jay Beatles album that Capitol Records could not reclaim.
Capitol and Vee-Jay reached a legal settlement giving Vee-Jay the rights to market Beatle recordings that they possessed until 10 October 1964, at which point all rights to all EMI Beatle recordings in the United States were assigned to Capitol Records.[15]
The Vee-Jay/Swan-issued recordings eventually ended up with Capitol, which issued most of the Vee-Jay material on the American-only Capitol release The Early Beatles, with three songs left off this final US version of the album. (“I Saw Her Standing There” was issued as the American B-side of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, and also appeared on the Capitol Records album Meet the Beatles. “Misery” and “There’s a Place” were issued as a Capitol “Starline” reissue single in 1964, and reappeared on Capitol’s 1980 US version of the Rarities compilation album.) The early Vee-Jay and Swan Beatles records command a high price on the record collectors’ market today, and all have been copiously bootlegged.[16] The Swan tracks “She Loves You” and “I’ll Get You” were issued on the Capitol LP The Beatles’ Second Album. Swan also issued the German-language version of “She Loves You”, called “Sie Liebt Dich“. This song later appeared (in stereo) on Capitol’s Rarities album.
List of North American album releases[edit]
This is a list of albums released in North America whilst the band were still active. Albums starting with The Beatles (1968) were released worldwide on Apple Records.
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Beatlemania! With the Beatles | Capitol Canada |
| 1964 | Introducing… The Beatles | Vee-Jay |
| 1964 | Meet the Beatles! | Capitol |
| 1964 | The Beatles with Tony Sheridan and Their Guests | MGM |
| 1964 | Twist and Shout | Capitol Canada |
| 1964 | The Beatles’ Second Album | Capitol |
| 1964 | The Beatles’ Long Tall Sally | Capitol Canada |
| 1964 | A Hard Day’s Night | United Artists |
| 1964 | Something New | Capitol |
| 1964 | Hear the Beatles Tell All (Interview album) | Vee-Jay |
| 1964 | Ain’t She Sweet | Atco |
| 1964 | The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons | Vee-Jay |
| 1964 | Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles | Vee-Jay |
| 1964 | The Beatles’ Story | Capitol |
| 1964 | Beatles ’65 | Capitol |
| 1965 | The Early Beatles | Capitol |
| 1965 | Beatles VI | Capitol |
| 1965 | Help! | Capitol |
| 1965 | Rubber Soul | Capitol |
| 1966 | Yesterday and Today | Capitol |
| 1966 | Revolver | Capitol |
| 1967 | Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band | Capitol |
| 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour | Capitol |
| 1968 | The Beatles | Apple |
| 1969 | Yellow Submarine | Apple |
| 1969 | Abbey Road | Apple |
| 1970 | Hey Jude | Apple |
| 1970 | In the Beginning (Circa 1960) | Polydor |
| 1970 | Let It Be | Apple |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Vee-Jay subsequently re-released the Beatles recordings that it claimed to control in early 1964 following a settlement with Capitol Records, and Capitol granted them a license to release the disputed material until October 1964.
References[edit]
- ^ JPGR Retrieved: 29 January 2007
- ^ Jump up to:a b “The Beatles on Vee Jay Records”. Retrieved 19 August 2006. Retrieved: 29 January 2007
- ^ Jump up to:a b Spitz (2005), p.461
- ^ Jump up to:a b I Want to Hold Your Hand Retrieved: 29 January 2007.
- ^ Hank Fox (4 March 1967). “Disk Firms Swing to Less-Groove Policy”. Billboard. pp. 1 & 10.
- ^ Grein, Paul. “Beatles’ British Albums Will Replace U.S. Versions” Billboard December 7, 1985: 84
- ^ Weiner, Allen J. The Beatles: The Ultimate Recording Guide (1992): 146
- ^ Greenberg, Steve. “How The Beatles Went Viral” Billboard January 13, 2014
- ^ JPGR I Want to Hold Your Hand release Retrieved: 29 January 2007
- ^ “Cash Box Top 100 1/25/64”. Cashboxmagazine.com. 1964-01-25. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Harry, Bill (1992). The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 127. ISBN 0-86369-681-3.
- ^ “BeatleTracks Band: Beatles Dominate the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in April 1964”. Blog.beatletracksband.com. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ “Cash Box Top 100 4/04/64”. Cashboxmagazine.com. 1964-04-04. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ “Billboard US Charts – Beatles”. Mybeatles.net. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Dave Dermon III. “The Beatles on Vee Jay Records”. Dermon.com. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Rare Beatles Retrieved: 29 January 2007
Sources[edit]
- Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles: The Biography. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316-80352-9.
