The Official Weekend Single's Thread ---May 19-21

Supernatural | May 19, 2006 | Supernatural

[Supernatural]

The British Invasion

I was rather lucky to have grown up in one of the most amazing periods in the history of modern music, what has become known as the “British Invasion”. It wasn’t really an invasion of the U.S. by an armed force from another country; rather it was an invasion of our music charts by British recording artists. I was in the eighth grade when I first heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” by the Beatles. Prior to 1964 the British had only two hit records that topped the U.S. charts. Those were “Stranger on the Shore” by Acker Bilk and “Telstar” by the Tornadoes, both in 1962.

In 1964 Ed Sullivan, the host of the hugely popular “Ed Sullivan Show” was at a New York airport when the Beatles landed from England to go on their first U.S. tour. Crowds of screaming young girls greeted the Beatles and Ed was curious as to what the commotion was all about. He met with the Beatles on the spot and offered them $50,000 to appear on his show. The Beatles agreed and the British Invasion was officially underway. On February 9, 1964, the largest audience in the history of American television watched the Beatles perform live on the Ed Sullivan show. I was one of them.

For some years prior to 1964 young British musicians had idolized American music stars and many of the Americans were more popular in Britain than they were at home. The young Brits listened to Buddy Holly, Leadbelly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and many others. The U.S. musicians became like Gods to the young British musicians and they worked hard to emulate them.

The Animals (Eric Burdon), The Beatles, Chad and Jeremy, The Dave Clark Five, Freddy and the Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, The Kinks (Ray Davies), Donovan, The Hollies (Graham Nash), The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), Billy J. Kramer and the Dakota’s, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Dusty Springfield, The Troggs, The Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Peter and Gordon, The Honeycombs, Manfred Mann, The Yardbirds (Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton), The Zombies, The Moody Blues, The Walker Brothers, Petula Clark, The Move, The Small Faces (Rod Stewart), The Who (Pete Townshend, Roger Daltry), Argent, John Mayall’s Blues breakers (Eric Clapton, Peter Green), Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green), Cream (Eric Clapton), Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson), Procol Harum (Robin Trower), Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant), Traffic (Dave Mason, Stevie Winwood), Deep Purple and The Spencer Davis Group (Stevie Winwood).

Eric Burdon

Eric Clapton

Mick Jagger

The Who

Yardbirds Concert Advertisement

The Yardbirds with Jimmy Page

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac

Jimmy Hendrix

The Beatles (George, John, Ringo and Paul)

Beatles ticket from 1964 (Pittsburgh, PA)

Some facts about the Beatles from “Wikipedia”

• During the week of April 4, 1964 The Beatles occupied the first five slots of the Billboard Hot 100, #1 - "Can't Buy Me Love," #2 - "Twist and Shout," #3 - "She Loves You," #4 - "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and #5 - "Please Please Me," the only group in rock and roll history to achieve this feat.

• In 1964, the Beatles had the never-matched total of 15 American million-selling records (9 singles and 6 LPs), representing US sales of over 25 million in 1964 alone.

• "I Want To Hold Your Hand" sold nearly 5 million records in the US by 1968, making it the best selling single of the 1960s (from a Capitol Records Press release, September 9, 1968).

• When "Can’t Buy Me Love" was released in the US on March 16, 1964, it sold 940,225 copies on the first day, shattering all previous sales records. The single went on to sell over 3 million by the end of the year (Spizer, Bruce, 2000: The Beatles’ Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania & The Singles, p. 36).

British Number One Singles of 1964

• 1 I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND - The Beatles
• 2 A HARD DAY'S NIGHT - The Beatles
• 3 CAN'T BUY ME LOVE - The Beatles
• 4 LOVE ME DO - The Beatles
• 5 HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN - The Animals
• 6 I FEEL FINE - The Beatles
• 9 A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE - Peter & Gordon
• 11 DO WAH DIDDY DIDDY - Manfred Mann
• 12 I SAW HER STANDING THERE - The Beatles
• 13 HAVE I THE RIGHT - The Honeycombs
• 18 SHE LOVES YOU - The Beatles
• 22 NEEDLES AND PINS - The Searchers
• 24 YOU REALLY GOT ME - The Kinks
• 25 LITTLE CHILDREN - Billy J.Kramer & the Dakotas

British Number One Singles of 1965

• 1 HELP! - The Beatles
• 2 I FEEL FINE - The Beatles
• 3 TICKET TO RIDE - The Beatles
• 4 (I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION - Rolling Stones
• 5 MRS BROWN YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER- Herman's Hermits
• 6 GET OFF OF MY CLOUD - The Rolling Stones
• 11 YESTERDAY - The Beatles
• 14 WE CAN WORK IT OUT - The Beatles
• 15 DOWNTOWN - Petula Clark
• 16 THE LAST TIME - The Rolling Stones
• 18 I'M TELLING YOU NOW - Freddie & the Dreamers
• 19 DAYTRIPPER - The Beatles
• 27 GAME OF LOVE - Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders
• 30 EIGHT DAYS A WEEK - The Beatles

British Number One Singles of 1966

• 1 WE CAN WORK IT OUT - The Beatles
• 3 DAYTRIPPER - The Beatles
• 5 ELEANOR RIGBY - The Beatles
• 7 GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME - Tom Jones
• 10 PAPERBACK WRITER - The Beatles
• 11 THE SUN AIN'T GONNA SHINE ANYMORE - The Walker Brothers
• 12 FRIDAY ON MY MIND - The Easybeats
• 14 PAINT IT BLACK - The Rolling Stones
• 15 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL - New Vaudeville Band
• 20 WILD THING - The Troggs
• 23 MY LOVE - Petula Clark
• 26 PRETTY FLAMINGO - Manfred Mann
• 28 SUNNY AFTERNOON - The Kinks

Music of the British Invasion

Time Is On My Side…The Rolling Stones

Don‘t Bring Me Down…The Animals

Mellow Yellow…Donovan

You Really Got Me…The Kinks

White Room…Cream

Have I the Right…The Honeycombs

She Loves You…The Beatles

I Want To Hold Your Hand…The Beatles

For Your Love…The Yardbirds

Madison Blues…Fleetwood Mac

Ferry Cross the Mersey…Gerry and the Pacemakers

I‘m Telling You Now…Freddy & the Dreamers

Wild Thing…The Troggs

Go Now…The Moody Blues

Little Children…Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas

[Supernatural]

See you tomorrow, Dolly.

[Nowhere Man]

BTW, here are some radio sites that are Pittsburgh oriented that covered the British invasion and the Beatles when they came to the US and Pittsburgh. This first site covers KQV which scooped KDKA on the Beatles. At that time, it was a very amazing feat to beat KDKA at its own game:

Jeff Roteman's KQV Site

Another station that was somewhat strong in the mix at that time was 1360 WIXZ (Wick-Zee) although for a short time, they changed their call letters to WMCK for a while. Their big DJ was Terry Lee and there was a local McKeesport garage band called "The Fantastic DeeJays" which were somewhat of a local hit at that time.

Randy McDaniels' WIXZ 1360 MEMORIES
Terry Lee
Fantastic DeeJays

I remember my fatherl istening to KQV and I vaguely remember Rush when he was Jeff Christie.

BTW, Mom works at a bakery of a local Giant Eagle and one of her co-workers I'm friends with, he;s a talkshow junky too and one day, he greeted me by not saying "hi" but "what in the Hell is going on at KDKA?" Well, I generally know what is going on but I rarely listen to them anymore. I do have the luxury of listening to the radio/walkman at work but where I'm at, we can't get AM so KDKA is out of the question for me. I know they took Mike Pintek off of the morning shift and put in some investigative reporter guy from KDKA-TV, his name escapes me. Ok, I remember now, Marty Griffith. O'Reilly was kicked from his regulat timeslot of 12 noon to 2 PM to 10 PM to 12 AM. Well, if I want to catch him, well, it works for me but I tend to stick with Mike Savage and the first hour of Glenn Beck repeats. They put on some loud mouthed economic guy named Kramer from 1 to 2 PM, I think, and I think John MacIntire (Mom says he looks like Bill Clinton a little bit) from 8 to 10 PM. I think KDKA is going down the commode.

I'm not as big on Rush as I used to be but he is the #1 talkshow host and the local Pittsburgh FM talker on 104.7 Mc ripped Rush from KDKA even when they were less than a year old, that is some major coup there. I'm hearing rumors that KDKA have a good chance of losing the Pittsburgh Pirates on the radio when their contract runs out. Would be nice to get them somewhere on FM since I work "deep in the dungeon" as we joke about it at work. B-)

BTW, Boo is doing OK, he goes for a checkup tomorrow.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Hi, Dolly! Glad you could peek in at least.

[Supernatural]

Because women aren't allowed to do it.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Howya Dolly!!

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Hi, Nowhere Man. Interesting stuff about KDKA. I haven't listened to them for a while since the FM talker came to town, but it would be a shame for the station to disappear, since it was (I believe) the first commercial radio station in the entire country.

[dixie sass]

I love that song. All of the music brings back so many memories, specific times and definitely specific people.

[Supernatural]

Some very nice links and a great post.

WMCK in McKeesport became WIXI 1360. WMCK used to have a DJ named Terry Lee.

Terry Lee used to host a dance show on TV called "Come Alive". He used to have local musical guests on the show including the Jaggarz with Donny Iris and Sonny DeNunzio and the Swamp Rats.

[Supernatural]

I'm glad you showed up.

Which song did you like?

[Irish_Thatcherite]

ROTFLOL!!!!!!

[Supernatural]

KDKA, 50,000 watts in Pittsburgh.

My father picked up that station in North Carolina when he was training for WW II. He said you could pick it up at night.

[Ciexyz]

How does it feel to have Post 666? And are you shivering over the upcoming 06-06-06 date?!

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Howdy Doody, everyone!!!!

[Supernatural]

Pretty true, eh? Especially the part about weddings taking care of themselves.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Howya Max!!!

[Supernatural]

Hi, Max!

She‘s Not There…The Zombies

[rightwingintelligentsia]

KDKA is pretty powerful. That's why they call it the Blowtorch.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

I liked this one the best:

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

hehe

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Hi, C! I didn't notice the "666" post. Good thing I'm not superstitious. ;-)

[ilovew]

Hiya, Max!