The Beatles 1962-1966

Chapter 2

1962-1966

In November 1961, a local record-store owner and music journalist named Brian Epstein first saw them perform and was extremely impressed. By January 1962, he was their manager, and was trying to get the out of them out of their contract with Bert Kaempfert. By May 1962, they were free of that contract, and Epstein had already been arranging auditions for The Beatles with new record labels. Epstein and The Beatles were rejected by Columbia Records, HMV, Pye Records, Phillips Records, Oriole Records, and others. The band auditioned for Decca Records, who famously rejected them by telling Epstein that "Guitar groups are on they way out" and "The Beatles have no future in business". However, producer George Martin thought otherwise. He signed the band to EMI's Parlophone label. As the band began a recording session at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in June 1962, Martin complained about Best's drumming, saying it wasn't the best. I mean he was Best but apparently not the best to Martin. Ultimately, The Beatles had politely fired him from the band in August, replacing him with a dude named Ritchie Starkey, aka, his stage name, Ringo Starr, who had previously played drums for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. The band recorded a few songs in September, and of those, Martin chose the song Love Me Do to be their first single, releasing it on October 5, 1962. McCartney had actually written that song when he was 16, so yeah, The Beatles' first single was written before The Beatles even existed. Love Me Do was a success, peaking at #17 on the Record Retailer chart. The band made their first television appearance on the regional news show, People and Places. By The End of 1962, Epstein had convinced the band to stop swearing, smoking and dress more professionally on stage. The band had also convinced each other that they'd be better if everyone helped out with not only the singing, but also the songwriting, although it'd mostly just be Lennon and McCartney doing most of the songwriting over the years. Parlophone released their second single, Please Please Me on January 11, 1963. This one was a bigger hit, reaching number one on both The New Musical Express and Melody Maker charts. On February 11, The Beatles Recorded 10 songs in 1 day for their debut LP, also called Please Please Me because it featured the hit single. Wait, did I say 10 songs in 1 day? Yes, I said 10 songs in 1 day. They recorded them live and knew the songs well. George Martin was still in shock, saying, "I don't know how they do it. We've been recording all day, but the longer we go on the better they get." Parlophone released the album on March 22, 1963. By May, Please Please Me had hit the top of the United Kingdom album charts, and stayed there for 20 weeks before being replaced by their next album. yep, this is when Beatlemania began. Beatlemania describes the insane popularity The Beatles experienced over the next few years, typically symbolized by screaming teenage girls chasing them around. The bigger they got, the crazier the hysteria and high pitched screaming by their mostly young fans. Please Please Me had two more huge hits, From Me To You and She Loves You. Beatlemania went next level with their second album, With The Beatles, which Parlophone released on November 22, 1963. It eventually became their second album in the UK to sell a million copies, and stayed at the top of the album charts for 21 weeks. Though the album had no singles, it was even more critically acclaimed than their debut album, and also featured Harrison's first solo composition. Oh yeah, and this was that described them as The Fabulous Foursome in the liner notes. And thus, The Fab Four nickname was born. While The Beatles were huge in Europe, that success didn't quite translate to the United States. But that changed with their single I Want To Hold Your Hand, which Capitol Records released in the US the day after Christmas of 1963. The song was the band's 1st American #1 hit. In January, Vee-Jay released Introducing... The Beatles, and Capitol released both Meet The Beatles and Twist and Shout in North America. These 3 albums had stuff from The Beatles' First 2 albums but also some other gems. And then, On February 9, 1964, one of the most famous television performances in history. The Beatles made their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show to a screaming wild crowd. Around 73,000,000 people, or around 45% of all American television viewers, saw the live performance. It was clear that Beatlemania had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and soon other British bands, like
The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and The Zombies would as well in what became Known as The British Invasion. 1 thing I should probably mention before we go on most young Americans didn't have haircuts like this in Early 1964. This hairstyle ending up becoming a subtle symbol of rebellion for a growing youth culture. Capitol suddenly realized had a sensation on their hands, and in the spring hurried to throw together another release to make some money, The Beatles' Second Album, even though it was not technically their second album, and in fact, their 3rd album released in the US. The label also quickly released The Beatles' Long Tall Sally exclusively in Canada. All of these thrown together albums were hugely successful. By April 1964, The Beatles had 14, that's right, 14 songs on Billboards Hot 100 singles chart all at once. Around that time, United Artists Records gave The Beatles a deal to make 3 movies. Yep, now The Beatles were actors. The 1st movie was a musical comedy based off what they were really experiencing called A Hard Day's Night, and was a smash hit of course. The soundtrack for the film was officially their 3rd studio album, released on July 10, 1964. The soundtrack had 4 singles, The Title Track, I'll Cry Instead, And I Love Her, and even the instrumental version of And I Love Her. And then, Capitol Records was like, "Hey, we need some more money, we haven't released a Beatles album for a couple months." And threw some more songs together to release Something New on July 20, 1964. The band toured heavily that summer, playing 37 shows over 27 days around the world. In August, The Beatles began a big tour of North America. It was on that tour they got to meet Bob Dylan, and he introduced them to his friend cannabis. Dylan ended up having a big influence on the band's later music. Also on that tour, the band found themselves confronting racial segregation in the American South. They threatened to not play a show in Jacksonville, Florida, after hearing the audience segregated, and due to this, city officials gave in and agreed to allow an integrated audience. On December 4, 1964, Parlophone Released Beatles For Sale, their 4th studio album. As the name of the album suggests, it kind of showed the rising conflict between the pressure to keep selling records and keep up their creativity. It actually featured songs not about love on it, and even offered a bit of cynicism. Still, it instantly hit #1 on the UK albums chart. Capitol released Beatles '65 a couple weeks later, which featured most of the songs on Beatles For Sale. In April 1965, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia Lennon and George Harrison and his girlfriend Pattie Boyd were hanging out with George's Dentist, John Riley. Riley apparently secretly added LSD to their coffee. Boy was that a surprise trip for the bunch. Regardless, after this, Lennon and Harrison would be regular users of the drug, and later Starr and McCartney also tried it with them. You'll notice that 1965 marks a more dramatic of a shift in their music, although they never would abandon making just flat out darn catchy songs. On June 14, 1965, Capitol Records released another compilation to continue cashing in. In North America called Beatles VI, even though it was their 7th Beatles release. Ooh. That same month, Queen Elizabeth II sparked controversy by appointing all 4 Beatles Members of The Order of The British Empire. later that summer, the band starred in their second film, Help!. The soundtrack to that film would be their 5th studio album, released on August 6, 1965. Although the whole album is a classic that got tons of perfect reviews. The 3 biggest hits off it were The Title Track, Ticket To Ride, and Yesterday. According to The Guinness Book Of World Records, Yesterday remains the most covered song in history. The movie was another comedy that followed the group as they struggled to record a new album, all white logically protecting Ringo from a cult and a pair of mad scientists. The band toured regularly promoting the album, playing on their most famous shows on August 15, 1965 at New York's Shea Stadium to a record crowd of 55,600 people. on September 25, 1965, ABC began airing a Saturday morning cartoon about the band. It was the first weekly show to feature animated versions of real living people. In October, George Martin and the band decided that, instead of just making a complete album. Also for their first time in their entire careers, they were able to take their time recording, free of tour, radio,cor film commitments. The result was a masterpiece, Rubber Soul, their 6th studio album released on December 3, 1965. Critics praised the album, of course, saying it marked a new threshold of complexity and maturity of the band's sound. Later, Lennon joked this was The Pot Album as apparently the band was regularly smoking pot while recording it. Many fans say this explains the dramatic change of direction of Rubber Soul, an album that was folkier featured new instruments, brighter guitar tones, and complex arrangements. Some of the bigger hits included We Can Work It Out, Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, and Michelle. On March 4, 1966, The Evening Standard, a London Based Newspaper, published an interview with John Lennon. Lennon would later cause quite a bit of controversy when he said, "We're more popular than Jesus now, I don't know which will go first, Rock And Roll, or Christianity?" Well those words would haunt the throughout the rest of the year. Lennon implying The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, even though the comment was taken out of context, led to protests, death threats, and the public burning of the bands' albums. To add to their controversy, on June 20, 1966, Capitol released another compilation album called Yesterday And Today with this controversial cover. Despite this, hundreds of thousands of screaming fans continued to come to their shows. In fact, those screaming fans were so loud, that the band had a hard time hearing themselves playing. This, combined with the fact they'd be bored with the routine of performing live and that these live shows were lo longer about the music anyway, influenced them to decide to make their tour for their upcoming album, Revolver, their last tour ever. Revolver, released on August 5, 1966, and the band's 7th studio album, continued the experimental trend the Rubber Soul started. It was another masterpiece, featuring a dive into psychedelic rock and again featuring complex arrangements that pushed popular music forward in a new completely new direction. Basically, The Beatles were at the top of their game and everyone else was playing catch up. Many music critics have said it is the greatest album of all time. The cover of Revolver was even radically different. 2 of the bigger hits on the album were Eleanor Rigby, and Paperback Writer, which even had a music video made for it. It was one of the earliests music videos. The Beatles played their last concert before a paying audience at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. After 4 years of nonstop touring and more than 1,400 concerts, they were now a studio band.

To Be Continued...