Questions for First Generation US Beatles Fans in 1964

Oh my gosh...could you be anymore disappointed?!

 

Whenever a Beatles song came on the radio it was obvious that the quality of their music was above and beyond anything else out there.

And for those who complain about extreme panning, portable transistor radios had a mono jack that used one earphone so I listened using only one ear so as not to wake my parents at night.

When stereo records came along listening with a pair of entry-level Realistic 33-195 headphones became my second sonic revelation.

 

Everybody seems to be able to afford their own personal means of music today on phones and such like. I miss the days of 1964 when as you wrote above...listening to friends' (usually girls) records at their houses. Seems the girls were the biggest fans in 1964. That was done a lot back then. Whoever had an LP or even a single would bring it to school to show and brag, and then have a bunch of kids over after school to listen. That's exactly how it happened in my farming village and all of us boomer babies had real community and strong friendships with the help of music bringing us together. A girl down the street had AHDN and Rubber Soul and those were the only 2 Beatles albums I'd heard until 1970. I couldn't afford records at age 8 and might get one as a birthday gift or some special occasion. I made up for it when I turned 14 and did farm
work. I spent all my pay on records and joined RCof A and used my Mom's Capitol Record Club monthly pics I bought almost the whole Beatles catalog right away so many of mine had the green target label.

 

Actually not true. For a long time, it was thought that Introducing the Beatles had been released in 1963 at the time of the Vee-Jay single releases. But that turns out not to be the case. It was released on January 10, 1964...and there was nothing obscure about it. It reached #2 on the Billboard album charts.

To reinforce your point, I'll tell a story I've told many times on these boards over the years. But new members join, old threads are closed, etc. — so with old-timers' indulgence, I'll tell it yet again.

I heard "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for the first time in January 1964. The DJ on the station I listened to (Boots Bell, a radio legend in our market) went on and on when outroing the song...saying this was the group from England that was taking the entire world by storm and was the biggest thing since Elvis. I had never heard him make such a big deal about any record he had played prior to this.

I remember to this day what I said to myself when he was through: "Well, if that's what those guys from England think we like over here, they're crazy!" That's how utterly different "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was from anything else I had heard in my 13 months of avid radio listening that preceded it. I really just couldn't process it at first.

Within one week, of course, I had completely changed my point of view. I loved it, and everything else I heard from The Beatles from that point forward.

Just to be pedantic, it was actually about a month shy of two years between these two albums in the US. And since most of Meet the Beatles' songs appeared on With the Beatles in the UK, which was released in November 1963, the gap between those original releases was more than two years.

Agreed on all counts!

 

The big event was of course the first Ed Sullivan Show, about which my general recollection was simply that everybody in school talked about it beforehand. Before they hit there were these two girls who lived in the hangout house across the street who used to listen, especially the older one the younger one just being a year older than me, to Elvis, early Motown and early Beach Boys. But the Beatles simply overwhelmed all that. And those girls became huge Beatles fans, always being the first people we knew who had their newest releases.

After the Sullivan show my brother and I put together our allowance money and my mother got Meet the Beatles for us. I soon knew of a friend from school who had the VJ release of Introducing the Beatles, and to answer the OP's question, yes, I did initially find that a bit confusing. We knew they had released music well before they came to America. But what that was and what we should buy was not clear. I recall Love Me Do and Please Please Me, but most of all She Loves You, from their earlier singles were up there in radio rotation big time. So we knew all of them. We began buying singles like Love Me Do and Please Please Me. My recollection was while this or that friend had She Loves You, it was always sold out when we got to the record store. And then The Beatles Second Album came out, thankfully mooting that concern. We again got that as a joint purchase. A great album, Second imo really sustained the Beatles in America. It was as if there was no let up in the magic.

Never did feel much compelled to get that VJ release, and never did. The one, the second one, that was then available did not have She Loves You on it, anyway. I also recall the photo on the cover made them look somewhat dorky compared to what else was around. Eventually of course the Early Beatles was put out by Capitol, and I got that. We'd also scoop up singles when we could, like Do You Want to Know a Secret?

The main thing I recall about this whole thing, about their breaking it big time, was despite only turning 11 that year, it really felt like life was never the same after the Beatles. It probably felt that way because it really wasn't the same, ever again.

 

The times were different then. There were only a few channels on your TV. Most everybody watched the same shows, Cronkite for the news, Johnny Carson on late night. This was a setting that allowed for a musical act to become a true cultural event. When the Beatles were on Sullivan it was far more significant than is even possible now.

 

Ouch. I knew that would come up when I typed it; I was short handing the time line just a bit, and many of those early tracks had been part of the Beatles since '62 or '63. So it was a longer process indeed. But to me, by music's standards, there was a remarkable transformation in 1965, from "early Beatles" to the Rubber Soul Beatles. Of course, Ticket To Ride, Paperback Writer, HELP! etc foretold of the change. Hard to find a band from any era who went thru so much growth, with so many transformations within a matter of 5 years (1964-1969).

We do think alike on the MUSIC of The Beatles. Once we were hooked, we were hooked for life.

 

Yes I see...the Veejay singles in 1963, along with a couple other labels' Beatle's single did not sell all that well in 1963. Right? The Beatles started out as a kind of dud in '63 over here, until January 1964 when all the Beatle/Brit invasion dam broke? The Veejay album came on the heels of the explosion of Beatle-mania, indeed.

 

Well, I don't know if I would say "on the heels" of it, I think it was more simultaneously. ITB was released shortly before MTB, and both were released before the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan show.

It is true, though, that the early singles didn't do too well prior to the "official" launch of U.S. Beatlemania in 1964.

 

Too bad VeeJay had such a checkered and troubled "history". Bad management? They had some really fine artists and seemed to have pretty good vision as to great talent. Beatles. Four Seasons. Some great blues, r&b, rock and jazz artists. Jimmie Reed, Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker....Hoyt Axton, Little Richard, jazz great Eddie Harris (one I had and sadly gave away):

 

Los Angeles was a very interesting market. I believe "From Me To You" even charted and got airtime there during the summer of '63.

 

That was actually recorded in Britain! This is the original UK release:

 

In the '50s, Vee Jay was a direct competitor to Chess in the R&B market.

 

Big. For a while, in the 50's especially, yes.

 

Ahhhh. I can see how the parents would have confused Billy Pepper & The Pepper Pots for ...The Beatles!

 

My first time to hear a Beatles record was very similar. It was on either WMAK or WKDA in Nashville, early 1964, on one of those DJ “vote this record up, or vote this record down” things. I had read about The Beatles. Three of us listened to “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” I clearly recall that I thought the song was “atonal” and would flop. I was wrong, on both counts.

 

Pepper, eh? And Billy? (Not to mention Pot)

Could this have been the real inspiration for a certain Beatles album and its opening track?

 

Totally understandable. It's a Granny Smith, a sour apple.

 

I was a month shy of 10 in Feb 1964 so I didn't really have my own money at the time. My family went to our local Korvette's right after the Sullivan show. I remember a lot of people there picking up Meet the Beatles and/or the VJ Introducing the Beatles. Just got "Meet"..remember picking up "Introducing". My mother had me put it back..just one for you today, son! After that got each album upon release but didn't collect singles much until Penny Lane

 

I was nine years old, in the 4th grade, in February of 1964. My parents gave me Meet The Beatles as a gift. I bought the She Loves You 45 (on Swan) with my birthday money...quickly followed by the purchase of Introducing The Beatles LP. At that point I considered myself up-to-date. I don't really recall having much confusion. I quickly became an informed consumer. My preference was for LPs. I quickly learned that the latest hit single would most likely be on the new album. I made informed choices...I passed on The Early Beatles...but bought A Hard Day's Night soundtrack and Something New.

 

I own a copy of this one, plus a few others. Not only the buying public got scammed by this one, but the group on the recording cut these songs for a totally different release, and didn't even know their work had been appropriated for this until it appeared in stores.

 

I have that Del Shannon 45, it's a good version!

So you were aware of the Beatles before the rest of the US?

 

An exciting time for us kids.