Two months later, they had the No 1 and No 2 singles on the US charts, as well as the No 1 and No 2 LP; they had been featured on three broadcasts of the country's most popular TV variety show, to record-setting viewerships; they'd played their first American concerts to overflow screaming crowds; and they were about to start filming their first featurelength movie, a big commercial and critical hit all over the world.
It wouldn't stop there. On 4 April, they held the top five positions on Billboard's singles charts, also holding onto the top two spots on the album listings. The Beatles had conquered America, and The Dave Clark Five had entered the Top 10 with Glad All Over, to be followed by dozens of other UK groups in the mid-60s. The British Invasion was underway.
How did this unprecedented, and still unrepeated, virtual takeover of the American music business happen so quickly and thoroughly? Many books have, in part or whole, tackled the subject, the best being Bruce Spizer's The Beatles Are Coming! On the 60th anniversary of The Beatles storming the American charts and airwaves, RC spotlights some of the lesser-known aspects - especially the rare recordings and films of their first 60 days in 1964.
Roy Marinell is best known for co-writing Werewolves Of London and Excitable Boy with Warren Zevon. But in 1963, he was a struggling young folk musician from Chicago, where he’d known another aspiring folkie, the teenaged Roger McGuinn. “In the first week of July in ’63, I heard Please Please Me by The Beatles on the radio, driving through some obscure part of Arizona, New Mexico,” he tells me. “‘What is this?’ We cranked up the volume, and thought it was black guys, to be honest. I never heard it again until the following year.
この記事は Record Collector の March 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Record Collector の March 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
WINDOWS ON THE WORLD
At the peak of their powers in the early 70s, by 1975 there were signs that Led Zeppelin were burning out, and their legendary appetite for excess, not to mention stadium-straddling, mythically charged, epically inclined hard rock, might be waning.
HI-FIDELITY?
Running a record shop is a dream for many music aficionados. Steve Burniston investigates how to run a successful one
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
45 SHEFFIELD 45s
Continuing our celebrations of RC's 45th birthday and following on from our look at the best 45s to come out of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow, we focus on the urbanisation formerly known as Steel City: Sheffield. Close to the (Nether) Edge: Jeremy Allen
Finished Symphonies
In the late 80s, Shelleyan Orphan made rarefied, ravishing, precious (both meanings) baroque pop, all chamber quartet accompaniment and literary reference points, like an 18th century Cocteau Twins.
"BLACK BRITISH PEOPLE HAD SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT"
Breaking new ground for black music in Britain from his teenage years in Matumbi in the early 70s, Dennis Bovell went on to become one of reggae's most highly regarded producers, helping popularise lovers rock. He also played a pivotal role in post-punk's experimental incorporation of dub influences on records like The Slits' Cut and The Pop Group's Y. As new compilation, Sufferer Sounds, reaches back to his early days to compile some of his best early dub plates, Lois Wilson gets the full backstory from one of British music's most enduring forces.
FRENZY REUNITED
Swindon's finest musical export, XTC were also one of the most quietly influential British bands, setting a template for Britpop while pioneering a brand of left-field guitar pop – from herky-jerky invention to consummate craftsmanship – that has spawned many imitators.
Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
The books every record collector should read. Vinyl, you may have heard, has made a big comeback. In 2022, sales of vinyl albums surpassed compact discs (CDs) for the first time in more than three decades in terms of global revenue, racking up more than $1.2bn.
"Beware the Savage Lure/of 1984..." - David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods.
David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods. For many, 1984 remains the nadir of his Phil Collins” phase; an artistic/sartonial/tonsorial disaster area. But was it really that awful? Forty years on, Matt Phillips explores Bowie's so-called annus horribilis.
