Questions for First Generation US Beatles Fans in 1964

I was too little in 1964 to have experienced the Beatles.

For those in the US who were buying their records, how confusing was it to have all those records being available simultaneously? Capitol was releasing new stuff, a bunch of small labels were reissuing their failed 1963 material, a few more labels were issuing the early German tracks, and even Canadian Capitol's unique singles were selling well enough to dent the US charts.

If I'm not mistaken, there was one week in 1964 when the Beatles held the top 5 positions on the charts, but had a total of 16 records in the hot 100 that week.

So my questions are: What was it like with all those buying options? Did fans buy as many records as they could afford? How did you decide which to buy and which to pass up? Did some buyers go only for the releases on Capitol and instinctively avoid everything else? Was it actually cheaper to buy the LPs rather than all those singles? Did you feel either ripped off or liberated by having all these choices?

 

Great OP; I was about 5-6 years shy of record-buying age when "it" all started happening in 1964; I love getting perspective from those a few years older than myself on what it was like at the time.

 

*That*, I find very interesting. So you guys pretty much knew that many of these songs that you were hearing for the first time had been massive hits in England for a while. I never really gave much thought to that; I just figured that at that time, everyone just bought the records "blindly" so to speak without giving much thought to year of origin or whatever; I figured that was "detective work" which came along a couple of years later as people started finding imports at their local record shops.

 

In 1964 I got Introducing and then Meet, Second Album, Something New and '65 as they were released. Also bought the From Me To You single and the Hard Day's Night single - which had my favorite picture sleeve. Missed Love Me Do until Early Beatles came out.

 

By 1968 or 69, I had inherited a bunch of Beatles 45s from my older brother and cousin. I instinctively understood that the stuff of other labels was earlier, and I never quite considered that stuff to be truly a part of catalog.

 

On my 4th birthday, in May of '64, I had acquired the newly released "The Beatles Second Album." Around that time, I was aware of Meet The Beatles and Introducing The Beatles albums via my older cousins and a couple of neighbors that owned those albums. From my 4 year old mind, I could figure out that those were earlier albums by the shorter length of their hair on the covers, plus the sound on them was a little less slick than the second album. Also hearing the MGM material a few months later, you just knew it was really early material just by the sound of it. Their music was progressing so quickly even then, from I want to hold your hand to can't buy me love to a hard days night in less than a 6 month period. So for me as a little kid, it wasn't confusing, since I knew just by the sound and look.

 

I was 11-12 in 1964. It was a joyous abundance of music from the suddenly popular group. For listening on the radio it was exciting because there were 'new' records being released constantly. I certainly knew nothing about labels, UK matrixes or anything else other than I suddenly loved the Beatles and they had nothing but Beatles playing on the radio.

I didn't buy records then, not albums. I had a few singles, so I can't address the buying confusion. But I loved hearing one Beatle song after another on the air.

 

I was 8 years old living in Western New York near the Canada border in 1964 and only knew about Capitol Records. Except when A Hard Day's Night arrived, which was the first album I ever bought. The first 45 I ever bought was also a great one. I think the first I ever heard of Apple was when the Hey Jude 45 came out:

 

...one of Capitol's best Beatle pic sleeves. I remember some of them still floating around in the early 70's and this was one I picked up at that time. I always thought that this song coupling of AHDN/ISHKB was much better than that of Things We Said Today on the U.K. B-side.

 

I was seven. Nothing seemed weird per se because I didn't know it was supposed to be otherwise.

 

I was going into 6th grade when Hey Jude came out. I do remember having some sort of clue concerning the fact that this record was going to be on their own Apple records label; it was the very first 45 of a new song that I ever owned. I begged my mother to pick it up for me on the way home from work one Friday afternoon. I still have that very 45 (mine has the thinner font). I thought the sliced Apple on the B-side was especially cool.

 

I used to dream of getting this album. And loved the cover. Sort of The Jetsons meets early to mid sixties minimalism pop art:

 

The Sixties was a flurry of events for me. Changing so quickly. We were all just swept up in the change. It felt very modern and different. Even when things went sour in the later Sixties with Vietnam, riots, etc. The whole decade was just constant change. I think Paul once said that the Beatles themselves were just caught up in the wave of the Sixties like everyone else. Our world as children in 1964 was so much different than the generation who grew up during the Depression. Suburbia, lots of children via the Baby Boom, modern technologies emerging, television, radio, toys, the space age, The Beatles, we just grabbed what popped up in 64. Because when we blinked our eyes, things were changing again. A dizzying time to be young and alive. A heavy time to be a young person in the late Sixties. Nothing stood still. So, I grabbed what was available to me in 1964 when it came to the Beatles. As all kind of other music by other bands was starting to emerge. Kids were growing their hair longer like the Beatles. A group of boys in my elementary school formed a band. The boy next door had a band who played in his basement. Fashion, polka dots, paisley, wide belts, bell bottoms, what WASN'T changing? Here comes another Beatles album. Okay, this is great. I wasn't thinking about not having U.K. albums or 45's. Didn't even know about them in 64.

 

Do you mean of buying age? I was too young in 64-65 and didn't have spending money. I loved to look at the singles and albums in the store though. FWIW - the fact that physical releases had a jumbled 'history' had absolutely nothing to do with hearing songs on the radio....and liking them or wanting a copy. I had to settle for listening anxiously on the radio (which didn't take long given their popularity) and using my little reel to reel tape deck - which sat next to my parents mono hi-fi.

 

To be clear, I wasn't asking about the UK catalog. I was addressing the options of having so many Beatles 45s simultaneously on the market from about six different labels.

 

Okay, I thought you were alluding to the diluted/diffused American Beatles market. Compared to the monolithic U.K. Beatles market.

 

Probably best if I leave this thread at this point...

 

I wasn't trying to give you a hard time. Apologies if it came off that way.

 

I was 13 when they were on Sullivan. I got Meet and my older sister got Introducing, or vice versa. The rest of it was radio. It wasn’t until later in the Fall of ‘64 did I ever see the lp with My Bonnie in a record store. I don’t remember ever hearing it on the radio. I had no idea about the label stuff.

But basically, it was all radio for me until ‘65, they were all over that.

 

While I was too young to have spending money in 1964, my older sister did babysitting and bought those Beatles singles & Meet The Beatles.
I don't remember wondering about She Loves You on Swan or anything else. She just bought whatever Beatles material that was available.
It seemed like every other house on the block had Meet The Beatles.

 

We didn't have a lot of money, so albums were beyond the reach of me and my sister. So the decision was easy for us: When a new single came out we pooled our allowance (50 cents/week) and bought the single, starting with "Please Please Me." We only had one record player so sharing or possession was never a problem. It was always, "Hey, wanna listen to records?" The answer of course always being, "Yes!"

It was funny because we always seemed to have an equal number of Beatles and Dave Clark Five singles. It did become more complicated after we saw The Animals on Ed Sullivan. Then we had to debate which singles we were gonna get.

 

The US Apple label lost a lot in translation. The UK version is - to my mind at least - far more appealing:

 

I asked my parents for a Beatles album for my birthday. This is what I got, still chuckling after all these years (it does have 2 Beatles songs on it!)…