Showing posts with label Beatlemania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beatlemania. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Beatlemania

Beatlemania is a term used to describe the ardent, sometimes hysterical reactions of Beatles' fans in the 1960s to the Fab Four. The "mania" consisted of screaming during concerts and chasing the Beatles whenever and wherever possible as they got in and out of limousines or went in and out of hotels. Some fans, mostly females, would cry or faint during Beatles performances.

Scottish music promoter Andi Lothian claims he coined the term after a Beatles' tour of Scotland in October of 1963. The term, however, appears in an article about the Beatles in The Daily Mirror on October 15, 1963, and the connection between the above references is not fully known.

The term spread rapidly in America after the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February, 1964 on their first American tour. Later, fan frenzy would resurface when the Beatles did a more extensive tour of the United States later that year after filming A Hard Day's Night. Police and riot control had to be provided for the group throughout 1964 to 1966 for the Beatles American and world tours.

Beatlemania grew so intense that the Beatles became more and more concerned about their personal safety on the road. Indeed, their inability to hear their own live performances, as well as the frenzy created by the crowds in general, was one of the main reasons that the group decided to stop touring and retreat to the studio, where they began to record "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Penny Lane," and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The effect of Beatlemania can be seen in the group's consistent Number One chartings with their singles and albums over a six-year period.

The term is still used by biographers today, as well as the surviving Beatles themselves, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, when interviewed. The term is also heard liberally on documentaries of the Beatles, including The Beatles Anthology and The Compleat Beatles.

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

I Want to Hold Your Hand

There are many Beatles facts associated with "I Want to Hold Your Hand," but the most pertinent is that before the issue of this song in the United States, Capitol Records had declined to release the Beatles' successful UK singles in America, songs such as "Please Please Me," "From Me to You," "Love Me Do," and "She Loves You." Producer George Martin believed that the latter song had been good enough to crack the American charts.

In preparation for the Beatles' first tour of America and their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, Brian Epstein reassured Capitol that "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was a record that would sell well in America.

The song was released as a single in the UK on November 29, 1963. It was released in the U.S. on January 13, 1964 and was the song most responsible, in tandem with the Sullivan appearance, for the beginning of Beatlemania in America.

This early composition was an equal collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, and part of the song was written in Jane Asher's basement. It was then recorded on October 17, 1963 at Abbey Road Studios, this session representing the first time that the Beatles used four-track recording equipment.

The song was performed live by the band in 1963 and 1964, and was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, as well as at the Washington Coliseum and Carnegie Hall on the first American tour in February of 1964. "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," a German version of the song (i.e., the song was recorded in German) appeared as a single in 1964 and was later issued on the LPs Something New, Rarities, and Past Masters, Volume 1.

Lennon and McCartney share lead vocals. Lennon plays rhythm guitar, Harrison lead, McCartney bass, and Starr drums.

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Monday, February 9, 2009

Beatles History: The Beatles Debut on Ed Sullivan

For America, the best of Beatles facts is that on February 9, 1964, the Beatles made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. A few of the Beatles' singles had trickled into America by the end of 1963 and January of 1964, and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" forever sealed the deal between America and the music of the Beatles. Word of Beatlemania had begun to spread by the time Sullivan stepped onto his stage that night to introduce the "moptops," as they were called, and an unprecedented number of viewers tuned in to watch the Beatles perform. It has always been alleged that for the fifteen minutes that the Beatles performed that night, not s single crime was reported in all of New York City.

The group performed the following in the first half of the show:

All My Loving
Till There Was You
She Loves You

In the second half, the Beatles performed "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

During a taped dress rehearsal at 4:30 on February 9, 1964, the Beatles also sang "Twist and Shout, "Please Please Me," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," songs that would be aired for their thir Sullivan appearance two weeks later. Even earlier in the day, at a dress rehearsal where camera angles were blocked out, roadie Neil Aspinall stood in for George onstage since Harrison was very sick with the flu.

The Beatles would travel to Washington, D.C. within a few days to perform at the Coliseum, with the concert also broadcast on closed circuit TV to cities around the U.S. After that, they headed to Miami for a second Sullivan taping since the variety show hit the road that week.

Beatlemania was in America to stay.

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Birth of Beatlemania in the United States

One of the lesser known Beatles facts is how Beatlemania spread so quickly in the United States in the early days of 1964, shortly before the Beatles made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. The group had been having steady hits in Great Britain in 1963 with songs such as "Please Please Me," "From Me to You," and "She Loves You." George Martin thought that "She Loves You" alone should have been able to crack the American market. Swan Records had released the song in August of 1963, and the teens on American Bandstand laughed at it.

By November of 1963, the deal had been cut between Brian Epstein and Ed Sullivan to have the group appear on his show in February. Capitol Records therefore agreed to release "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in January. On December 10, 1963, however, the CBS evening news ran a short piece on the phenomenon of "Beatlemania" in Great Britain. On December 17, 1963, disc jockey Carroll James played "I Want to Hold Your Hands" on Washington, D.C.'s WWDC. When the station received constant enthusiastic requests to play the song, Capitol records moved up its release date for the song to December 26, 1963. New York radio stations then began to play the song, and by January 16, the entire country was listening to the song, which had by then sold one million copies. When the Beatles finally appeared on Sullivan, Beatlemania was firmly rooted in the United States.

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Beatles History: "Please Please Me" Released by Vee-Jay in U.S.

On January 30, 1964, "Please Please Me" was released by Vee-Jay records in the United States. The B side was "From Me to You." The Beatles fact worth noting here is that these songs had already been hits in the UK for many months, but Capital Records did not think they would sell in the U.S. With the Sullivan appearance looming and the escalation of Beatlemania in Europe, Vee-Jay obviously made a wise move, helping to pave the way for the Beatles' first American tour in the process.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Beatlemania and "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah"

A disputed Beatles fact is where did the Beatles get their proclivity for shouting "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" or "Oooo!" as they shook their long hair after stepping closer to the microphone during live performances.

The "Yeah, yeah, yeah" seems to have originated from the lyrics of "She Loves You." Lennon claimed that the "whooooo!" was a move and sound borrowed from the Isley Brothers, and it's hard to dispute the claim of one of the Beatles. On the other hand, Little Richard (Richard Penniman) has been quoted as saying that the Beatles, who met him in their Hamburg days, got the sound from his own songs. It seems that the two sources may not be mutually exclusive, for the "whoooo" was a trademark for Little Richard, who the Beatles admired greatly.

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