Beatles Dominate the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in April 1964
The Beatles Dominate the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in April 1964.
In almost every gig BeatleTracks does, I mention "The Week That Was;" April 4, 1964. The famed week in which the Beatles had 12 songs in the Hot 100 that included miraculously, the top 5. Utterly amazing then as it is now. But when you think about it, what record company in their right mind would issue so many singles simultaneously and run the risk of sabotaging each single's chart success??? Well, it wasn't Capitol or EMI.
The magical week of April 4, 1964 occurred less than two months after the Beatles' historical appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show of February 9, 1964. Beatlemania was in full swing now WORLD WIDE. The Fabs would embark on an ambitiously grand world tour that very year, release their greatest movie and swamp the record charts with more singles, EPs and LPs.
So how did it happen that they got the top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100? The simple reason was this: Capitol, as of late 1963 saw no future for the Beatles in America and refused to distribute anything by the Beatles in North America. It didn't matter to the myopically blinded, jingoistic Alan Livingstone, then President of Capitol Records.
Says Livingstone now, "It was one of the most exciting moments in my career. It represented a success not based on anything that anybody else did - and not based on anything that had to do with my career. It was a result of The Beatles having been turned down by every major record company, including Capitol." *Remember, the Beatles had already had to wade through this type of rejectional schluck in Great Britain for years only to encounter the same blase' attitude towards them in the US; this after they had already become big stars in the UK. How odd.
Brian Epstein desperately found smaller, off the beaten path, labels to distribute the Beatles' hits but with practically no budget to promote them, these songs flopped in the US. The songs included "She Love You," "Please Please Me," and "Twist and Shout." Beyond desperate, Epstein finally managed to get Livingstone on the phone and forced the man to listen to "I Want To Hold Your Hand" over the phone. A promo disc was sent to Livingstone and he ran it by his wife who didn't like it. Still, the President of Capitol heard something in the sound and agreed to not only promote the disc, but poney up close to $50,000 in promotional money including posters that said, "The Beatles are coming!" as well as radio advertising, thousands of promotional discs to be distributed to DJs across the USA. It worked and the rest is history.
As for the famous "Week That Was," check out who distributed what on that famed week of Beatle Chart dominance. Here are the hits in order as they occurred in the hue and cry of manic Beatlemania and the label that distributed the single:
1) "Can't Buy Me Love" Capitol
2) "Twist and Shout" Tollie
3) "She Loves You" Swan
4) "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Capitol
5) "Please Please Me" Vee Jay
31) "I Saw Her Standing There" Capitol
41) "From Me To You" Vee Jay
46) "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Vee Jay
58) "All My Loving" Capitol
65) "You Can't Do That" Capitol
68) "Roll Over Beethoven" Capitol
79) "Thank You Girl" Vee Jay
We've previously stated in a trivia game that "All My Loving" was not released as a single. Looks like this blog made a rare error. Give yourselves an extra point if you said yes, AML was released as a single. The record was promoted but not like the #1's on the list. The highest chart position for "All My Loving" was #45. On the "Week That Was," "All My Loving" was slotted at #58.
As we have often said live at our gigs, every band should have the "problems" the Beatles had; that of so many #1 songs that their own material prevented other songs of theirs to hit #1. April 4, 1964 is a good example. That week, "Twist & Shout" would have undoubtedly reached #1 if not for the sudden appearance of "Can't Buy Me Love."
During the weeks of March 14, March 21 (1964) "Please Please Me" was stuck at #3, #3, respectively because it couldn't overcome the dominance of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You." The thing was, "Please Please Me" was an older tune and dominated the UK charts in it's time as it should have in the US charts. But the Beatles' new material was proving to be more elaborate and more popular than the already (by March, 1964) dated "Please Please Me."
Thus, the Fabs lost out on two more sure fire #1 hits directly attributed to the dominance and popularity of other songs in their own catalogue.
For us musicians, especially Beatle Tribute musicians, this little "problem" the Beatles had is as amusing, spectacular and utterly without precedent as it is reflective of the sheer mind bending genius of this band. No wonder we love playing this stuff all the time!
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
In almost every gig BeatleTracks does, I mention "The Week That Was;" April 4, 1964. The famed week in which the Beatles had 12 songs in the Hot 100 that included miraculously, the top 5. Utterly amazing then as it is now. But when you think about it, what record company in their right mind would issue so many singles simultaneously and run the risk of sabotaging each single's chart success??? Well, it wasn't Capitol or EMI.
The magical week of April 4, 1964 occurred less than two months after the Beatles' historical appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show of February 9, 1964. Beatlemania was in full swing now WORLD WIDE. The Fabs would embark on an ambitiously grand world tour that very year, release their greatest movie and swamp the record charts with more singles, EPs and LPs.
So how did it happen that they got the top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100? The simple reason was this: Capitol, as of late 1963 saw no future for the Beatles in America and refused to distribute anything by the Beatles in North America. It didn't matter to the myopically blinded, jingoistic Alan Livingstone, then President of Capitol Records.
Says Livingstone now, "It was one of the most exciting moments in my career. It represented a success not based on anything that anybody else did - and not based on anything that had to do with my career. It was a result of The Beatles having been turned down by every major record company, including Capitol." *Remember, the Beatles had already had to wade through this type of rejectional schluck in Great Britain for years only to encounter the same blase' attitude towards them in the US; this after they had already become big stars in the UK. How odd.
Brian Epstein desperately found smaller, off the beaten path, labels to distribute the Beatles' hits but with practically no budget to promote them, these songs flopped in the US. The songs included "She Love You," "Please Please Me," and "Twist and Shout." Beyond desperate, Epstein finally managed to get Livingstone on the phone and forced the man to listen to "I Want To Hold Your Hand" over the phone. A promo disc was sent to Livingstone and he ran it by his wife who didn't like it. Still, the President of Capitol heard something in the sound and agreed to not only promote the disc, but poney up close to $50,000 in promotional money including posters that said, "The Beatles are coming!" as well as radio advertising, thousands of promotional discs to be distributed to DJs across the USA. It worked and the rest is history.
As for the famous "Week That Was," check out who distributed what on that famed week of Beatle Chart dominance. Here are the hits in order as they occurred in the hue and cry of manic Beatlemania and the label that distributed the single:
1) "Can't Buy Me Love" Capitol
2) "Twist and Shout" Tollie
3) "She Loves You" Swan
4) "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Capitol
5) "Please Please Me" Vee Jay
31) "I Saw Her Standing There" Capitol
41) "From Me To You" Vee Jay
46) "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Vee Jay
58) "All My Loving" Capitol
65) "You Can't Do That" Capitol
68) "Roll Over Beethoven" Capitol
79) "Thank You Girl" Vee Jay
We've previously stated in a trivia game that "All My Loving" was not released as a single. Looks like this blog made a rare error. Give yourselves an extra point if you said yes, AML was released as a single. The record was promoted but not like the #1's on the list. The highest chart position for "All My Loving" was #45. On the "Week That Was," "All My Loving" was slotted at #58.
As we have often said live at our gigs, every band should have the "problems" the Beatles had; that of so many #1 songs that their own material prevented other songs of theirs to hit #1. April 4, 1964 is a good example. That week, "Twist & Shout" would have undoubtedly reached #1 if not for the sudden appearance of "Can't Buy Me Love."
During the weeks of March 14, March 21 (1964) "Please Please Me" was stuck at #3, #3, respectively because it couldn't overcome the dominance of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You." The thing was, "Please Please Me" was an older tune and dominated the UK charts in it's time as it should have in the US charts. But the Beatles' new material was proving to be more elaborate and more popular than the already (by March, 1964) dated "Please Please Me."
Thus, the Fabs lost out on two more sure fire #1 hits directly attributed to the dominance and popularity of other songs in their own catalogue.
For us musicians, especially Beatle Tribute musicians, this little "problem" the Beatles had is as amusing, spectacular and utterly without precedent as it is reflective of the sheer mind bending genius of this band. No wonder we love playing this stuff all the time!
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
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