The BTitish newspapers were saying, well,

what's lefi to do, you've conquered everything,

and we'd say America. V gor ~he Number
One, did Ed Sullivan. By then we'd distilled
our stuff down to ah essence, so we weren't
In Apri11964, only days coming onjust a any old ban~
afler finishing Iheir first
film, A Hard Day's Nighh
the Fab Four taped a
Pau] McCart~~e); 198o
Redif}usion lelevision
speil, Aro~nd the Beafl~s
They r~ shown here
p~r}orm[ng round-rcbin
versicn o} lhe Isley Brotheds
'Shout' a song they never
r~corded commercial[y
78
Ctppos~te, inJemenl
weother during the Bealles'
first vis[t to the Uniled Slotes,
in Februory 1964, forced
Ihem to trovef From New
York o Woshinglon by train
In those early days they
were amused and even a
litt[e surprised by lhe crush
of fans ,,vho ottended their
arrivols and deportures
The Beotles
The Beatles Conquer America 1964
In the rich mythology that has sprung up around the Beatles' story,
events that were impressive enough in reality have been magnified in
the retelling. One myth started by Epstein and carried on by the
Beatles themselves, is that the group refi~sed to visit thc USA until
they had a number one record in the Amcrican charts. Punerica had
been notoriosly inhospitable to British pop singers and groups, and
as the story goes, the Beatles were disinclined to cai3 their astonishing
British successes with failure in the USA.
As ir turned out, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' was indeed riding
the top ofthe chaxts when the Beatles arrived at the newly renamed
Kennedy [nternational Airport on 7 February i964. Bur the arrange-
ments to bring them over were finalized early in November, weeks
before '1 Want to Hold Your Hand' was released in Britain, and
nearly two months before its American release in the last days
of December.
The catalyst for thc trip was Sid Bcrnstein, a fledgling New York
concert promoter who had been reading about Beatlemania in Btish
newspapers. In the autumn of I963, be enterprisingly telepholled
Epstgin and oflred him nearly double the Beatles' usual fee for t~,o
shows ar Carnegie Hall. Epstein accepted, and Bernstein booked
Carnegie Hall for afiernoon and evening shows on 12 February:
Epstein, however, did not want to bring the Beatles :o the USA just
for concerts. What he wanted was ah important television appear-
allce, somethjng that would have the national reach that Sunday
Night ar the London Palladium had in England. The ncarest
equivalent was the Ed Sullivan Show, aaa hour-long variety show
broadcast by CBS on Sunday evenings. As ir turned our, Sullivan
also knew about the Beatles. He had been ar London Airport on
31 October, when a mass ofscreaming fans greeted rhem on their
return fTom Sweden.
When Epstein visited New York in November, he and Sullivan
struck a bargain: the Beat[es would have top billing on tl~ree
The Beotle~ Conquer Amer[ca 1964 79
 The Bealles

consecutive shows, on 9, z6 and 23 February 1964; but they wou]d

perform for a reduced fee. Epstein also met with executives ar Capitol
Records. who had reconsidered their initial reluctance to issue the
group's recordings. They may still have harboured doubts, bur
Epstein was hard to resist: urbane, polished, convinced that making
thc right impression was everything, and focusing on ~he most
minute details ofhow that impression should be made, he now had
thc inarguablc track record of having turned a provincial band into
the British pop music success s~ory ofthe decade.
Sociologists searching for ways to explain the Beatles' impact at
this time have made much ora presurned psychological need f~r non-
threaening, escapist entertainment in both Britain and the USA in
~964. In Britain, a government sex scandal involving the Secretary
of State for War, John Profumo, monopolized the headlines during
the summer of x963; and just as John Le Carr was beginning to
make his mark as ah author of cold war spy novels, Kim Philby, a
Brkish journalist, was revealed as a Soviet spy. In the USA, the Civil
Rights movement was meeting violent resistance in the South. "lhe
American government was sending aid to Viemam without much of
a alue what it was getting into. And on 22 November 1963 - the day
With the Beatles was released in Britain -John E Kennedy, the popu-
lar young President, was assassinated, abruptly ending what had
promised to be a rejuvenation ofAmerican politics.

The maior polilicnl so:/ndal

involving a Cabinel Minisler,
John Prolumo Irlght) and his
relalionship ~o a call-girl,
Christine Keelr labore) in
1963 did much to undermine
lhe aut hority of lhe B rilish
~toblishmenl ond prom~te
nlfiludes thal popular musi
began lo reflel
The Be~tles Conquer America 1964
A momen~ t~at s~ocked and
slunn~d lhe Unil~d $1algs:
[ded by a Secret Service
ogenl in lhe lense confused
seconds after John F
Kennedy is ossossinoled in
Dallas on 22 November
1963, J ocqueline Kennedy
escapes Irom lhe limousine.
According to the psyhological-need theory, ali this bad ncws pro
duced a craving for a lightweight, happy obsession, and the story of
the four young moptops and their screaming teenage fans fittcd thc
bill per fectly. Yet, the need for diversion cannot serious[y be advanced
as a factor in the Beatles' success. Conditions, after ali, have not
improved grcatly sincc 1963. W0x, govcrnmcnt corruption, racial
injustice, inner-city violence, financiai disarray and environmentai
disasters have continued to dominate the news; ifa need for diversion
lay ar the heart of Be'atlemania, why have the equally troubled ~97os
and 198os produced nothing like the hysteria that attended the
Bcatlcs' early years?
That said, there is no denying the Be-afies' extramusical appeal to
teenagers ofthc time, who saw in their musical, sar toria[ and tonsor-
ial style a clear break from the expectations of thcir parents and
teachers. The Beatles were something of their own, and the pudding-
basin haircuts in particular, though pixieish by today's standards,
seemed scandalous in t964 and made for comparative]y harm[ess
intergenerational friction.
More crucial]y, they revitalized popltI,~r music ar a rime when it
reached one its periodic troughs. By J963 the overr sextla[ity ofear[y
E]vis had been largely banished from mainstream pop. Crooners
like Steve Lawrence (with 'Go Away Little Girl') and Bobby Vinton
 TheBeotl~s

(with 'Bluc Vdvet' and 'There I'v Said it Agaid) topped the charts.
Broadway show tunes still registcred, as did novcltics along the lines
ofthe Singing Nun's Domin[que', whih was the number one record
in the USA for most of Deember i963.
There were signs suggesting that a revirai of rock would be wel-
come. The Four Seasons. a group with a sound that thrived on vocal
harmonies and the soaring fa[setto of its lead singer, Frankie Valli,
were a fairly hot hart group. The Chiffons and Stevie Wonder had
number one hits in 1963. There was recnage angst (in Lesley Gore's
*lt's My Party'), sassiness (in the Angds' 'My Boyt}iend's Back') and
even some early suff music flrom Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys
in the hit parade.
There was also a growing altcrnativc audicncc. Bob Dylan, Joan
Bae~, Phil Ochs and an army of acoustic gukar-widding ~Blk-singers
were setting socially-conscious poetry to simple, folkish melodies, and
were playing to college students and sophisticares. And the genres
that appealed to the Beatles in their formative years - Motown,
rhythm and blues, soul - had a predominantly black audiene in the
USA, although the style was making enough crossover headway to
propel occasional records into the upper reaches ofthe charts. The
Beatles would help make both these genres more mainstream, When
they played huck Berry, Little Richard and Motown songs, and
expresscd thcir preferences in interviews, young whitc record buycrs
who wcrc cither too young to have hcard the originais or who wcre
not incerested at the time, suddenly had reason to investigare them.
Connections with the folk camp were forged later in I964, when
Bob Dylan visited the Beatles during their second North American
tour. His attraction was based on a misunderstanding: be though: the
line 'I can't hide', in '1 Want to Hold Your Hand' was 'I get high', and
was amazed that the Beatles got this apparent drug referente into the
pop charts. The Beatls were not complete innocents in the drug
culture, having lived on amphetamincs in Hamburg. Bur they had
never smoked marijuana und[ Dylan~ visit. There was a musica] give
and take bctween the Beatles and Dylan as wc[I. By "Lhe end of 1964,
Lennon was including Dylan-like harmonica figures in bis aongs and
was thinking more care~ul[y about the [iterary mcrit ofhis lyrics.
Dylan's approach was suddenly accessible to pop fans who had been
The Bealles Conquer Am~r]ca 1964 83

First captivated by the

Beotles becouse he thought
they were ~inging 'l get
high' in '1Wonl lo Hold
Your Hand' [~he actual
line is '1 con'l hide'l, ~he
American }olksinger 8ob
Dylon gove )he fo~rsome
its first taste of mar[juono,
in}luenced LennoWs
aproach to lyric wr]t[ng
and was h~mself
in}lgenced by the Beatles
to sw~tch ~rom ocousli to
eledric inslruments

d[sinclined to fbllow him directly, and in I965 he met thetn more

than half way, abandoning his folk gu[tar for ah clcctric rock band.
It was almost by accident that '1 Want to Hold Your Hand' was
injected into the confused musical milieu ofthe LISA late in I963. In
much the same way as the Beat]es kept tabs on American music by
listening to the records brought back to Liverpool by sailors, Carroll
James, a Washington DC disk jockey, had asked a British Airways
stewardess to bring him some Bfitish pop music. Ir was only natural
rhat 'I Want to Hold Your Hmld' was in thc stack she gare him in
December t963. Wllen James played tbe record on the air, rhc
response was tremendous.
Capitol rcconfigurcd th singlc, repLacing the British B sidc,
'This Boy', with the much earlier '1 Saw Her Standing There'. An
album, Meet the Beades, was assembled, using both sides of the
American single, p]us 'This Boy' and nine ofthe fourreen tracks on
With the Beades. Capitol had planned to issuc 'I \Vant to Hold Your
Hand' in mid-January and thc album just before the Sullivan
appearanccs. But by mid December disk jockeys around the country
were playi~~g advance copies, and Swan and Vee Jay, scnsing that their
investments in thc Beatles' carly recordings might ar last pay ofl',
rcissued their versions. Capitol moved legally against Swan and Voe
Jay, reacquiring its rights to the early material ir had rcicctcd, and
moved up its own release dates.
 The Beafles

In the coito before the

slorm, the 8eatles fake a
break alter sell[ng up for
a Lendon perfomonce in
lhe spring of 1964

As the ground was being prepared for rhem in the USA, the
Beatles turned their artention to Paris, where for eighteen days they
shared a bill a~ the Olympia Theatre with Sylvie Vartan and Trini
Lopez. The French audience was more reserved than the Beatles
were then used to. But there were compensations. On their first day
in Paris, they received word that 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' was
number one on the weekly chart published by Cashbox, having sold
more than a million copies in only two weeks. Meanwhi[e they wete
thirtking about another project that was quiedy getting underway.
Film executives at United Artists had noted the Beatles' sales poten-
tial in late I963, and approached Epstein with a contract offcr. Their
plan was to exploit the Beatle~' fame to their mutuai benefit
with a quick, inexpensive, black-and white fitm, specifically for thc
BrJtish market.
The pop exploitation film has long been a dead forro, bur in
the early 196os there was a natural symbiosis betwecn pop music
and film. EIvis had been cranking out movies like sausages, and in
England C[iff Richard followed suit. Chuck Berry, Little Richard
and other ear[y rockers had made at least cameo appearances in films
The Beatles Conq~er America 1964

for thc tecn market; and ofcourse, Bill Haley's performance of'Rock
Around the Clock' in Blackboard]unglewas a clarion call in the early
days of rock. Pior lines and acting ahility were not great concerns; the
main thing was that the soundtrack be peppered with potential hits.
United Ar tisrs' principal interest, in fact, was less in the fihn itself
rhan in the rights to a soundtrack album.
Not Iong after the deal was signed, however, ir began to dawn on
United Artists that perhaps the Beat[es might yidd something better
than the standard pop film. And the Beat]es, who were fee]ing their
own commercial clout, had ideas about the film as well. Mainly, they
did not want to be made to Iook foolish. That was tine with Dick
Lester, the young American expatriate director who was hired for
the projcct.
Lester was ideal for the Beatles: he had directed Peter Sellers in
The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film, a manic eleven-minute
featurette starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Leo McKem.
Thc Bcatlcs Ioved ir; its oWoeat comedy suggested that Lester could
handle their own humour. The Beatles and Lester agreed that the best
approach would be to show the group as what it was: a band of dis-
tinct but comp]ementary personalities who were both buoyed and
trapped by their success. And ar the Beatles' insistance, the Liverpool
writcr Alun Owen was hired to write the script, gathering [ais material
by following the Beatles briefly. He completed his work by January,
and when Lester visited the Beatles in Paris, he brought a draft
with him.
Besides Iooking over the script, the Beatlcs were committed to
some recording in Paris. Electrola, EMl's West German arre, had
insisted that the Beatles would not be a hit in Germany unless they
sang in German. The plan was to record their two biggest hits, 'She
Loves Yoff and 'l Want to Hold Your Hand', with German lyrics, as
'Sie liebt dicff and 'Komm, gib mir deine Hand.' The Beatles were
not keen on the idea. They agreed only reluct andy, and then in a test
ofwills, thcy decidcd not to show up ar tlle Pathd Marconi studio,
and not to take Martin's call when he telephoned to find out where
they were. A livid Martin arrived ar their hotel a few minutes later,
and insisted that they make the recordings. Once in the studio, they
worked so efficiently that in addition to the German recordings, they
The B~atles Conquer America 1964
Folfowmg page, Ior o scene
i~ Atoond the ~eatles, ah
ormy a} fons was enlisled to
carry por~raits nd placrds ante on 23 Fcbruary, but left Sullivan thrce songs on tape.
and sing 'We tove Yau
Beotles', a rgwJle o~ the
adulotoy hit from the film
Bye Bye BidJe
87
limited the number of writers granted persona] audiences with his
charges. And although thousands of ticket-seekers had been turned
away ffom Carnegie Hall and the Ed Sullivan Show, he declined offers
for extra concerts, inc[uding Sid Bcrnstcin's proposal for shows at
Madison Square Garden.
The Beades' own manipulation ofthe press began momnts after
they landed ar Kennedy Airport, where they were greeted by some
3,ooo scrcaming gans. The entourage was ushred into thc Pan
American lounge to be quizzed by a press corps that was used to teen
Fads and did not expect much. Bur with snappy answers, wisecracks
and ad-libs, the Beatles turned what could have been a desultory
aflir imo great copy. Hvis Preslcy's prcss confcrcnccs wer ali defer-
ence: he even called reporters sir and ma'aro, The Beatles were not
Ihat way. Asked to sing, they refuscd. Presscd by a reporrer who said
there was doubt that they couldsing, Lennon said drily, 'we need
moncy first'. Askcd why thcir music cxcitcd tccnagcrs, McCartncy
deadpanned, 'we don't know, really', to which Lennon added, 'ifwe
did we'd form another group and be managers?
Musically, thc agenda was continued proselyfization. At their first
American concert, at the Washington Coliseum on H February, and
at Carnegie Hall the next day, they were preaching largely to che con-
verted. Bur their first appearance on Sullivan's show brought them
into the homes not only ofthe already smitten, bur ofthe undecided
aad even the openly hostile. The show was seen by scvcnty thrce
million people, a record for the rime. Some sixty per cem of
American televisions were tuned in, and newspapers made much of
reports that for that one hour, crime stafistics plummeted.
The atmosphere ofthe show on 9 February was electrifying.
Sullivan, now ffee ofany doubt that he had a hit on bis hands, rev-
e]led in the sense of occasion. He gare the Beatles a good deal more
screen rime than most musical guests - tive songs, rather then Ihe
usual two. A wcek later, thc Beatles followed Sullivan to the Deauvil[e
Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, this rime playing six songs. They
were back in England by the rime of their third contracted appear-
The visit was extraordinarily wcll documented. Albert and
David Maysles, a young team of documentary filmmakers, trai[ed
the Beades in New York and Washington, capturing both the
88 The Bealles
The Beatle~ Conquer America 1964 S

Oppos~te, McClr tney Iu ning
the befl honded Ho{ner bo~~
Ihat wos his Irader~ok
instument fdrn lhe stol
o f l h e B e a t l e s fi g h t t h r o u g h
Io rh~ nd
The Bealle~
pandemonium that attended their public movements, and more pd_
vate footage rom the eye of thc hurricane, their suites at ~he Plaza
Iiotel. At the Wasbington Coliseum, a second crew filmed the thirty
mhmt show for a dosed-circuit theatre broadcast in March. Missing,
alas, is documcntation ofthe Carnegie Hall concerts. Surviving
correspondente and contracts show that Capitol intended to record
the performances. But objetions from the American Federation of
Musicians prevented the taping at the last moment. Tbe Maysles'
cameras were not al[owed inside either: after the Washington seg-
ment, their footagc skips to Florida.
Their documentary, What's Happeniyl~ Tl}e Beatles in the USA, was
re-edited in 199o, and released on videotape as 77~e Beatl,'s: Th Fi~t
LX Vis#. This rcvised version includes ~ curiosity ]et out of tbc
original. Lennon, sitting in his room at the Plaza, is shown playing
with a toy instrument, a hybrid keyboard and harmonica. The chord
progression he plays bears an uncanny resemblance to the introduc-
tion of'Strawberry Fields Forever', a song nearly three years, thou-
sands of touring miles and several stylistic changes in his future.
The Beatles' visit created a voracious market for Brkish bands.
The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, the Roging Stones, the
Animais, tbe Yardbirds, the Hollies, Freddie and the Dreamers, Gerry
and the P~cemakers and a dozen others crossed the water and received
a welcome not hitherto extended to British pop groups. Capitol
Rccords suddenly found itselfin the ideal position to both stoke thc
fites of Beatlemania ~nd exploit the demand. While EMI awaited
new material, Capitol Records could draw on a backlog of early
Beatles recordings, which it released in the most parsimonious way,
on albums that generally had only eleven or twelve songs, compared
with the fourteen on Bridsh Beatles albums. Capitol also considered
songs released as singles to be air game for album compilations,
something the Beades hemselves deliberately avoided. To the Beades'
chagrin, Capitol did not buy their notion tbat albums and singles
should be kpt separate; nor did they rt'gard the Beatlcs' albums as
integral st~tements. Thus, every two British Beatles albums, ~nd
related singJes, yielded three albums from CapitoL There w~s ~ s]ight
silver lining for American fans. To hdp Capitol pad out its rdcases,
EM1 somctimes supplied tracks from worksin~pr~gress. Thus, on
hodgepodge collecdons like The Beatles Secand Album, Beatles Vland
The Beatlos Conquer America 1964 9 1
 Tke Becalles

gester~y and 7day, American fns actually got to hear new material
scveral months before their counterparts abroad. Nevertheless,
Capitol's reconfiguration, which persisted until Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Bandin E9@, distorted the purposcful sequences rhe
Beat[cs and Martin had devised. When EMI transfrrred the Beatles
catalogue to compact disc in 1987. the British originais werc adopted
as the global standard.
However muh the Beatles obiected to Capitol's tampering with
thcir releases, they cou|d take pride in some interesting statistics
made possible by the American labers ffcchanded policy. In Apri[
t964, when they had released only six singles in England, they held
no fewer than fourteen places on the Hot 1oo singles chart published
by the American trade magazincBillboar~ And in Ma), they held
three ofthe top four p|aces on Billboard's album chart, een though
by their owll reckoning, they had made only rwo.