February 1964 - July 1964: The Infestation of the Moptops

The Beatles arriving in America, 1964

On February 7th, 1964 at 1:20 p.m., the Pan Am Yankee Clipper Flight 101 from London Airport landed at the recently renamed John F. Kennedy Airport to a crowd of thousands of screaming fans. Stepping out of the plane were none other than George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr, the four members of the British rock and roll group The Beatles, who were arriving in the United States for the first time following the success of their song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the country.

They held a press conference at the airport before being put into four limousines, one for each Beatle, headed for New York City. When they arrived at the Plaza Hotel there was already a large crowd of fans and reporters waiting for them. The band made their first television appearance two days later, on February 9th, on The Ed Sullivan Show to an audience of 73 million viewers across America, which was about two-fifths of the American population at the time.

"Yeah, it was marvelous. You know. Everything. Every bit of it was a knock-out. [...] we enjoyed it, you know. It was different working in different places with the audience all around us."

- George Harrison, 1964

This would be followed up by Vee-Jay Records' Introducing... The Beatles the next day and Capitol Records' Meet The Beatles ten days after that, both 12 tracks in length, the former taking primarily from Please Please Me and the latter primarily from With The Beatles, both great successes, reaching No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard charts, respectively. Meet The Beatles maintained its position for an unprecedented 11 weeks of it's 74-week chart stay. By the time the band returned to the UK, the US public bought more than two million Beatles records and had spent over 2.5 million dollars worth of merchandise.

The Beach Boys at "The T.A.M.I. Show", 1964

As the British Invasion in America began arriving at full force with the arrival of The Beatles in their home country, The Beach Boys had found themselves returning from a successful Australiasian tour in the first two months of 1964. While they and The Beatles shared the same record label in the US, they had seen support from Capitol immediately lessening. The band, particularly bassist Brian Wilson, saw them as competition.

"I couldn't understand how a group could be just yelled and screamed at. The music they made, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for example, wasn't even that great a record, but they just screamed at it. It got us off our asses in the studio. [We] said 'look, don't worry about the Beatles, we'll cut our own stuff."

- Brian Wilson, 1995

The band's next record, titled after their hit single "Fun, Fun, Fun", was released in March 1964. It was the first album by the band to not include David Marks, who had left in the April of the previous year due to personal issues with Murry Wilson. It underperformed compared to their previous albums, taking six weeks to appear on the Billboard charts, peaking at number 13, and staying in the charts for only nine months.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Side A

01. Fun, Fun, Fun (2:06) [1]

02. Don't Worry Baby (2:49) [1]

03. Mother May I (2:14) [2]

04. Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson (3:31) [1]

05. The Warmth of the Sun (2:55) [1]

06. This Car of Mine (1:38) [1]

 

Side B

07. Why Do Fools Fall in Love (2:00) [1]

08. Pom, Pom Play Girl (1:32) [1]

09. Keep an Eye on Summer (2:23) [1]

10. I Do (3:08) [3]

11. Louie, Louie (2:19) [1]

12. The First Rock and Roll Dance (2:25) [4]

 

Released: March 2nd, 1964

Track sources:

[1] - Shut Down Volume 2, 1964

[2] - The Big Beat 1963, 2013

[3] - Shut Down Volume 2, 1964 (1990/2001 reissue)

[4] - The Big Beat 1963, 2013 (count-in edited out)

 

Poster for The Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night

With the astounding success of their first brief tour in America, The Beatles were offered a three-movie deal by United Artists Records' film division, primarily driven by the potential commercial success that stemmed from the release of soundtracks for the movies. The first of these movies, A Hard Day's Night, was directed by Richard Lester and involved the band for six weeks in March and April, playing fictionalized versions of themselves in a musical comedy written by Alun Owen. The film debuted on the 6th of July, 1964, at the Pavilion Theatre in London.

Like the band’s albums, the film was a huge success both critically and commercially, with the accompanying soundtrack album releasing in the UK on July 10th, 1964, preceded by the singles "Can't Buy Me Love" / "Money (That's What I Want)" on March 16th of the same year and "A Hard Day's Night" / "You Really Got a Hold on Me" the same day as the album. It was released in America on June 26th, 1964, months before the album was even released in America, with an altered tracklisting which, along with the seven songs from the movie and "I'll Cry Instead", which was cut from the movie last minute, included four instrumental orchestrations of Lennon-McCartney compositions arranged and conducted by George Martin.

Among the many albums and singles and EPs of previously released material the band had released up to that point around the world, they released a new EP of covers they recorded between working on the movie and going on their first world tour in June and July, where they would tour across Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

Long Tall Sally

 

Side A

01. Long Tall Sally (02:05) [1]

02. Devil in Her Heart (02:29) [2]

Side B

03. Slow Down (02:58) [1]

04. Matchbox (02:01) [1]

Released: June 19th, 1964

Track sources:

[1] - Long Tall Sally, 1964

[2] - With the Beatles, 1963

Author's notes:

And once again I fail to meet the two post per month goal. Ah well, fortunately however things might be picking up steam soon. Admittedly I don't care all that much for this early era of 62-64, but it should be easier from here on out, especially considering I can pull from the first draft and clean it up some. Either way, enjoy, and see you next month!

Thanks to Feromount for the Fun, Fun, Fun cover.