Washington disc jockey Carroll James didn’t realize it at the time, but on this day, in 1963, he helped The Beatles launch the third British invasion of America. This time, the attack didn’t come by land or by sea, however, this one was by air—more precisely, it came by airwaves. The first shot fired in the assault on every facet of American culture came in the form of a song, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” by the Beatles. By the time this invasion was done, our musical and cultural landscape would never be the same.
The Beatles, who served as the vanguard for this sonic assault on our shores, were already conquerors at home. After a few years honing their skills, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had seen their fame grow exponentially in late 1962 with their first hit, “Love Me Do.” They were dubbed “The Fab Four” and the first stirrings of the soon-to-be global phenomenon known as “Beatlemania” began to hum.
On a snowy, early-December day, America’s most trusted voice, Walter Cronkite, was looking for an upbeat story to fill out his show and decided to rerun a recent piece on the Beatles’ surging popularity in England. The segment aired during the morning news but was not re-run as part of the evening show, as was often the case, due to its unfortunate original air date: November 22, 1963. That date will always be remembered for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A dark mood hung over the country, and Cronkite felt the need to try and lift the nation’s spirits when possible. A young viewer in Maryland, Marsha Albert, watched the piece and immediately wrote a letter to WWDC disc jockey James Carroll. She asked him, “Why can’t we have music like that here?” Lucky for her, it turned out we could. Carroll was dating a stewardess at the time, and managed to get a copy of the UK release of the single “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” Radio was a powerful force then, and Carroll was also aware of his public sway.
He invited the fifteen-year-old Marsha and her mother to the studio to introduce his first spin of true music history. Neither imagined the effect dropping that needle had on history. The nation was still reeling from the senseless death of its most beloved leader. The war in Vietnam was filing the papers and televisions with daily tolls of American lives lost. A whole country was in need of something bright, pure, and unassailable, and the Beatles could not have been better fitted to the role if they had been fiction sprung to life.
The record was an instant hit. The station was flooded with requests, and the song began to dominate every one of its DJs’ rotations. The song proved so popular that an op-ed writer for The Baltimore Sun used it in a xenophobic piece on preparing to repel future invasions. While teenagers stayed up late with static-y transistor radios waiting to hear the song “just one more time,” one group of listeners was getting more and more vexed with each spin. Those angry men were the board of directors for Capitol Records.
Capitol Records held the American rights to distribution of the music of the Beatles and were preparing their own release of the song… over a month later. Needless to say, they weren’t enthused to find out that the song not only had an unofficial, unlicensed debut but that it was so popular that it was being played hourly to meet phoned-in requests. For a short while they considered having their attorneys send a cease and desist letter, but after realizing potential profits decided to bump up the release of the American single.
The single came out the day after Christmas and hit the airways instantly nationwide. Arriving to a world already a bit merrier after the holidays, the song—with its simplistic but heartfelt romance, steadily quickening beat, and note-perfect harmonies—struck a deep chord with the nation’s teens. It is said that the truth speaks for itself, and the pure pop of the tune clearly spoke volumes in its three short minutes.
The song was a product of the highest-charting songwriting duo in music history, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. These two lads from Liverpool had a complimentary writing relationship so powerful that mining into it would produce one of the veins of hits in history. Their manager, Brian Epstein, was serving as a guru to the band, shaping their public persona while Lennon and McCartney churned out hit after hit.
Ten minutes of BBC television footage found its way onto the Jack Paar Program a few days later and aroused the nation’s curiosity. The song was already climbing local and national charts and the sparks were flying. Lucky viewers heard the frenzied screams of the British girls watching the Beatles and got their first look at the squeaky-clean, uniformly dressed, mop-topped boys. Afire started to catch. You can watch what Paar’s viewers saw below.
The Beatles on the Jack Paar Program (1963)
[Video: UnreleasedBeatlesHD]
By February 1st, Billboard had declared “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” the number one song in America and the flames were beginning to lick higher and higher. Now, our tale’s final media maven enters, the celebrated host of the nation’s most popular evening variety hour, Mr. Ed Sullivan. Sullivan’s show was one of the nation’s most-watched, dominating the prime time slot and public consciousness as a whole. He was a tastemaker and as the previous two media men mentioned, he was keenly aware of how hungry the country was for something fresh and clean.
50 Years Later: Remembering The Beatles On Ed Sullivan
Sullivan wanted to lead the pack and signed The Beatles to appear on his show on February 9th, less than two months after the single had its first fateful spin in the nation’s capital. It’s said that just under half the nation’s television sets were tuned into The Ed Sullivan show the night The Beatles first appeared on American airwaves. With the way our modern media culture is so diverse and ubiquitous, it’s difficult to imagine what an effect such a saturation of the public could have. Watch a little of that performance below.
The Beatles – “I Want To Hold Your Hand” – The Ed Sullivan Show – 2/9/64
[Video: The Beatles]
The flames of “Beatlemania” quickly became a full-fledged inferno. A frenzy for any Beatles-related product—from music to dolls, wigs, and every sort of merchandise—brought cynical opportunists with lucrative endorsement deals out of the woodwork. Within months, shelves were filled with items bearing the likeness of the four faces. You couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without seeing or hearing about the Beatles. Unlike other fads, however, this one refused to fade, and in a way continues to this very day.
Whether they realize it or not, there are few musicians working today that aren’t, in some way or another, influenced by the Beatles. They shaped the future of rock through one of the most well-documented musical evolutions ever seen. They transformed from a foursome of wholesome boys into a rebellious, long-haired, psychedelic drug-championing group of idols, and their music followed them every step of the way.
It had all started simply enough, like millions of times before, with a needle hitting a groove cast in vinyl while it spun on a turntable. This time, when the needle traveled that groove, the resonance it relayed was actually a signal flare from an encroaching force. This invader would indeed be the first to conquer the United States Of America. They didn’t use weapons of war, they used a catchy pop song about chaste teen romance and fresh-scrubbed faces. Billions of dollars, dozens of number one songs, and countless followers all spawned from a moment of tragedy and hope… and a needle on a record.
[Originally published 12/7/18]