This past week marked the sixtieth anniversary of The Beatles’ arrival in America, a seismic occasion that forever changed the global face of music and pop culture, and an event for which its impact is still as prominent today as it has ever been. On February 9, 1964, the scrappy Fab Four deboarded their plane from London at Kennedy Airport in New York to be greeted by a mass of young music fans, similar to the crowds they were already generating in their homeland.
Two days later, they made their fateful American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing “All My Loving”, “Til There Was You”, “She Loves You”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, and “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. The telecast drew a record-setting 73-million viewers, making it not only a watershed moment for the music industry, but for the still-infant television industry as well. There was no turning back from there. Beatlemania had not only erupted State-side, but soon the fabled British Invasion would as well, bringing with it a feverish onslaught of prominent British acts onto the American radio waves.
The Beatles’ early, hook-laden sound was undeniably of the bubblegum pop-ditty variety, but their performances elicited an energetic spark and unique quality that brought a new vigor to the rock & roll scene as it entered its second decade of prominence. Within two months of their legendary Sullivan performance, the group found themselves historically occupying the top five slots of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Can’t Buy My Love”, “Twist and Shout”, “She Loves You”, “Hand”, and “Please Please Me”. They were a certifiable hit-making juggernaut.
However, their impact and ultimate legacy would undertake a brilliant evolution far beyond chart statistics and record sales. Their music would acquire an adventurous vision and level of artistic sophistication that could never have been suggested by the youthful ear-candy that launched them into the stratosphere. Although the group’s run together would only last six years past their Sullivan appearance, the catalog they created produced an artistic trajectory and timeless influence that few artists whose careers lasted six times that of the Beatles could produce.
They forever transformed the arts of songwriting, record production, and sonic creativity. In doing so, they elevated the prominence of the album format, legitimized rock & roll as a significant musical art-form rather than a mere passing teenage fad, and laid the groundwork for a slew of sub-genres and popular music styles that would emerge in the decades ahead. In the years that followed their 1970 breakup, each of the four members carved out their own indelible solo mark on the world of popular music as well.
I remember seeing an interview several years back where Vince Gill opined that each and every music performer, regardless of genre or style, could ultimately trace the origins of their art all the way back to the earliest folk music recordings. The same theory can indisputably be applied to any singer, songwriter, or band who emerged in the post-Beatles music world. The reach and influence of their work is so vast that it’s just built into the subconscious fabric of music in general.
So, you’re probably at the point in this little essay where you’re thinking, “Isn’t this supposed to be a feature introduction of some sort?”. Why yes, yes it is. Given the recent anniversary of their arrival in the USA, I thought it would be fitting to announce The Beatles as the first artist to be featured in our site’s new “Artist In Residence” feature. This feature serves as a chronological deep-dive through an artist’s album discography (in this case, the group’s standard British release catalog), with features on singles, compilations, and non-studio releases to follow thereafter. Perhaps we’ll even throw in some fun looks at notable Beatles covers or other British Invasion music as well.
I fully realize that I’m launching this feature with one of the most visible and covered musical acts of all time. What more can really be said about the work of the Beatles, right? But, I hope that you’ll find my takes on their music to be interesting and enjoyable nonetheless, whether this feature serves as nostalgia trip for you, or perhaps as a conversion for the still unindoctrinated. Yes, Virginia, non-Beatles fans do in fact exist.
Given that I was born twenty years after the evening of February 9, 1964, I will not be approaching this music as someone who lived through it the first time. However, my parents were the ripe age of nine when the Beatles hit the scene, which placed them squarely in the audience that fueled the power of Beatlemania. It served as the musical big-bang for their generation. They grew up with this music, and so it goes, so did I. My youth may have been decades removed from these records, but I’m still filled with my own glorious nostalgia when I listen to them. Therefore, I too found myself amusingly pondering this week, “Sixty years?! Where did the time go?!”
Without further ado, please enjoy The 706’s journey back through the canon of The Beatles! It all begins below with their 1963 twofer: studio debut, Please Please Me and its late-year follow-up, With the Beatles (a sentimental favorite of mine). Links to the additional reviews will also be added here as they’re unveiled over the coming weeks.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967
The 706 