From: benjamin basile Date: Thu Feb 5, 2004 10:00 pm Subject: Fwd: Beatlemania Hits the US - The Build Up ADVERTISEMENT Hey guys, this is from our member and resident Beatles expert, *Mark McCoy* and it's cool! You *Beatles* fans, check this out! Note: forwarded message attached. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online From: "Mark McCoy" Date: Wed Feb 4, 2004 1:02 pm Subject: [bluesrock2003] Beatlemania Hits the US - The Build Up To: bluesrock2003@yahoogroups.com This week is the 40th anniversary of The Beatles first visit to America. Feb 7th 1964 their plane landed at JFK airport. I know this subject isn't exactly blues rock related but I feel obligated to post a few topics regarding the events surrounding this first visit. I hope you enjoy reading and sharing your commenting as much as I will posting them. In this first post we'll set the stage for the arrival, the Ed Sullivan Show appearance and the first live concert in America. Beatlemania actually started rather slow in the U.S. In 1963 EMI had a hard time convincing Capitol to invest in the band. "She Loves You" was released in September on the small Swan label (a Vee Jay subsidiary)and it went nowhere. On January 10, 1964 "Introducing The Beatles" was released in the U.S. on the Vee Jay label. It never even entered the U.S. charts. Capitol finally came around with the insistence of EMI and an ever persistent Brian Epstein, and on 12/26/63 they released "I Want To Hold Your Hand". This was the first Beatles single to chart and the record that broke The Beatles into the U.S. market. The single sold 250,000 copies in the first 3 days (remember this is 1964). It was reported that it was selling at a rate of 10,000 copies an HOUR in NYC alone. Capitol was so caught off guard that they had to hire RCA and Columbia to help them press the single to keep up with demand. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" went to #1 on Jan 17th 1964. It stayed on the charts for three months, eventually being knocked off by the reissued "She Loves You". Just three days after "I Want To Hold Your Hand" hit #1, Capitol released the LP "Meet The Beatles" (01/20/1964). So in a span of just 10 days (between Jan 10 and Jan 20 1964) The Beatles had released TWO albums in the U.S. and this began an incredible run of thirty three different records released in ONE year, 1964. It also began another amazing record setting run for the band. An unbroken streak of 17 #1 hit singles. Here's another interesting fact. In the year 1964-1965, The Beatles with the help of other so-called British Invasion bands, including The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Yardbirds, The Animals, The Dave Clark Five etc..., held the #1 spot on the U.S. charts for THE ENTIRE YEAR. next up. The ARRIVAL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bluesrock2003/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: bluesrock2003-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bens-Oldies-Den/message/565 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Ben Lawrence Basile" Date: Sun Feb 8, 2004 11:35 pm Subject: The BEATLES arrive in NYC from Mark McCoy... Our member *Mark McCoy* also goes by *mccoyblues* here in yahoo land! Mark is a friend, fellow musician and a major source of info when it comes to *The Fab Four!* And since it was EXACTLY Forty years ago THIS WEEK that the the lads from Liverpool landed in New York, Mark has been doing this mini-series on their "advent" here in the States! Here's the second installment from Member *Mark McCoy* with at least one more installment to come: February 7th 1964, 6:00a.m. EST, The Beatles take off from London on their way to New York City. Radio stations all across the country keep their listeners informed with minute-by-minute reports. "It is now 6:30 a.m. Beatle time"--"The temperature is 32 Beatle degrees". Upon arrival at JFK the band is met by 5,000 screaming fans and hundreds of members of the press. Not knowing what to expect they assumed the President was landing ahead of them. They had no idea this throng was there to see them. The Beatles leave for The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in four Cadillac limousines. It doesn't take long before the first fan incident takes place. A Ford carrying five kids overtakes the caravan and hangs a red sheet out the window. Then a white convertible comes up with "BEETLES" scratched on the side of the car and waves to the limos it then exits the highway as the cops pull up behind them, sirens blaring. Another car successfully follows the caravan all the way into town. At a traffic light a young girl rolls her window down and asks George "How does one go about meeting a Beatle?" He replies, "One says, Hello". The Beatles check into The Plaza Hotel suites 1209-1216. There they meet DJ, Murray The K and Ronnie Spector and The Ronettes. The next day, Feb 8th The Beatles have a photo shoot in Central Park. George was suffering from the flu so he stayed behind. They head for the Ed Sullivan Theatre for rehearsals and Neil Aspinall stands in for George during this session. Ed Sullivan asks him if George is doing all right, and he replies, "He'd better be, or I'm putting on a wig". George finally makes it down to the studio and they go through several rehearsals for the sound crew. The engineers finally get the levels right and carefully mark the settings on the soundboard with white chalk. Then everyone takes a much-needed break. As the band and crew are off for a lunch break someone comes in and cleans up the control room, wiping all of the chalk marks off the soundboard in the process. The only thing left to do is return to their rooms, conduct a few radio interviews and wait for the show tomorrow. mccoyblues Mark McCoy (770) 335-7392 mccoyblues@y... Many thanks to Mark for the feature! More to come later, stay tuned! Bulldog Ben, for Mark here in the *Oldies DEN!* http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bens-Oldies-Den/message/576 From: "Ben Lawrence Basile" Date: Mon Feb 9, 2004 2:06 pm Subject: The BEATLES do the Ed Sullivan Show, from Mark McCoy... ADVERTISEMENT Hey guys, here's the third and last installment from Mark McCoy about the Fab Four taking American by storm! Bulldog thanks Mark profusely for doing this series! It's a cool thing, for sure and we do appreciate it! You guys be sure to tune in to *Late Night with David Letterman* tonight as they will be showing the video of the musical numbers by the best Rock 'n Roll act of all time on the show tonight! That's on your local CBS affiliate station! And here it is from Mark McCoy, aka *mccoyblues* here in yahoo-land: Ed Sullivan wasn't exactly in favor of presenting this new group from England on the most popular TV show in America. But in what turned out to be a brilliant business move, Brian Epstein signed away all three Sunday shows for an incredibly low fee of $10,000 when a regular act could get as much as $25,000. This move, however guaranteed them top billing on primetime Sunday night. Combined with Capital's crazy publicity campaign, putting The Beatles on every billboard, poster and TV in sight, they could hardly fail. 50,000 applications were received for the 728 available tickets to the taping and 73 million people tuned in on Sunday February 9th 1964. This set a TV viewer record with an incredible 40% of the people in America watching. This record stood for almost 2 decades. The final episode of MASH in 1983 is the only other TV event in history to surpass the first two Beatles appearances on Ed Sullivan. If you remove the Super Bowl games from the equation, their 3rd appearance ranks #6 overall behind only the "Who Shot J.R" Dallas episode and the Cheers finale. That night The Beatles performed five songs. "All My Loving", "Till There Was You", "She Loves You", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". After their performance Ed read a telegram that said, "Congratulations on your appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. We hope your engagement will be a successful one and your visit pleasant. Give our best to Mr. Sullivan. Yours Sincerely Elvis & The Colonel." To which George replied, "Elvis Who?" The next day Vee Jay capitalized on the event by re- issuing "Introducing The Beatles". Replacing the songs "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" with "Please, Please Me" and "Ask Me Why". On Feb 11th The Beatles boarded a train for Washington D.C. for what was to be their first concert in America. They moved into the Shoreham Hotel, but one stubborn family refused to give up their rooms for the large entourage, so the hotel management cut off their electricity to get them out. That evening's performance was at The Washington Coliseum. This historic show can be seen on the "Anthology DVD". The show was on a circular stage and the band can be seen turning their amps around, Ringo had to get down off his drum riser and spin it, to face the back half of the audience for the second half of the show. They had also made the mistake of telling the American fan club members that they loved jellybeans, so throughout the entire show they were pelted with jellybeans from all sides. The short set included just twelve songs. The next day they traveled back to New York to be the first rock 'n roll act to play Carnegie Hall. After the show, promoter Sid Bernstein tried to book them into Madison Square Gardens, but Brian turned him down. By the time they spoke again he had much bigger plans, Shea Stadium. On the 13th, The Beatles flew to Miami to prepare for their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The seven thousand fans that greeted them at the airport threw so many chairs and broke so many windows that the clean up bill was over $2,000.00. Feb. 15th 1964. "Meet The Beatles hits #1 on the U.S. Album Charts. And remains there for 11 weeks. On Feb. 16th The Beatles appeared for the second time on prime time TV on The Ed Sullivan show. This set included "All My Loving", "This Boy", "From Me To You". She Loves You", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". On Feb 18th The Beatles met Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) at his training camp before his famous bout with Sonny Liston. They had already met Sonny at the Ed Sullivan Show last week. Neither fighter was overly impressed with them. After they finished singing Sonny turned to his manager and said: "Are those motherf%$&ers what all the people are screaming about? My dog plays better drums than that kid with the big nose." In Miami, Ali cracked a gag by saying: "Hey you guys aren't as dumb as you look!" John turned to him and smiled "No, But you are." They posed for a few more pictures and Ali walked off saying: "So, Who are those little faggots?" Feb 23rd was The Beatles third appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The segment was taped on Feb 9th. The band was already back in England by the time the show aired. They performed "Twist & Shout", "Please, Please, Me" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Feb 15th 1964. Back home in England The Beatles rested and celebrated George's 21st birthday. Six weeks after their first visit to America, The Beatles completely dominate the U.S. charts. On April 4th, 1964 The Beatles hold the top 5 spots on the U.S. Singles Chart and the #1 and #2 spots on the U.S. Album Chart. They had a total of 12 songs on the U.S. Top 100 Singles Chart. 1. Can't Buy Me Love 2. Twist & Shout 3. She Loves You 4. I Want To Hold Your Hand 5. Please Please Me The #1 album was "Meet The Beatles and at #2 was the Vee Jay release "Introducing The Beatles". This was an unprecedented affair and is guaranteed to never happen again. No sane record company would allow it. Because of the fighting between all of the labels that wanted their piece of The Beatles popularity they had songs on FOUR different labels during this period. Capital, Vee Jay, Tollie and Swan. Beatlemania had taken over America. I had a lot of fun putting this series together. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I'd love to hear your comments. mccoyblues ********** Thanks once again, Mark! Great series and we do appreciate it here in the DEN! More than I can tell ya..... And thanks too for letting me know that Dave Letterman's show tonite will include the Beatles' songs from that night! How cool is that!? I'll talk to you later! Bulldog Ben in the DEN! http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bens-Oldies-Den/message/582