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Beatles performed on Ed Sullivan in Feb 64. What was it like before? Did young Americans play their songs frequently or was it considered to be somewhat “cutting edge” to play Beatles records and hear their music on the radio?
Not many until the end of the year. Toward the end of the year they started getting a lot of US media attention for how popular they were in the UK. The Beatles had some regional success in the US in 1963. The Please Please Me single made it into the top 40 in Chicago, for example. But none of their songs were hits nationwide that year. However, consider how many people watched them on Ed Sullivan in early February 1964. All those people weren't just watching like it was any random night of TV. They tuned in specifically because the Beatles were going to appear, thanks to a massive media blitz over the Christmas holiday. So by the end of 1963, they were a big deal in the states.
I was 10 years old in 1963. I remember hearing about Beatles in late 63. I was really into them when they played Ed Sullivan. I wanted a pair of Beatle boots in the worst way. I never did get a pair.
There was a bit of a buzz before they came to the U.S. as there was Beatlemania in England already. However, most didn't know about them until Ed Sullivan, and then a "Hard Day's Night" solidified Beatlemania in the U.S.
Jack Paar had a film of them on his show in 1963. He poked fun at them.
Please Please Me had radio airplay as early as Feb. 1963 in Chicago. George Harrison's sister got some midwestern stations to play the song and there was the famous "first request" in Washington DC (by that time, the Beatles had some momentum in the US). They were definitely not an overnight success in the US, as legend portrays it. Their popularity was slowly increasing in the US throughout 1963. The grown-ups were introduced to them on the Ed Sullivan Show in Feb. 1964.
Jack Paar had a film of them on his show in 1963. He poked fun at them.
Please Please Me had radio airplay as early as Feb. 1963 in Chicago. George Harrison's sister got some midwestern stations to play the song and there was the famous "first request" in Washington DC (by that time, the Beatles had some momentum in the US). They were definitely not an overnight success in the US, as legend portrays it. Their popularity was slowly increasing in the US throughout 1963. The grown-ups were introduced to them on the Ed Sullivan Show in Feb. 1964.
If The Beatles were not an overnight success in the US, then you're applying a definition by which there is no such thing.
Very few people had any exposure to them until at least late '63, if not early '64. I was 14 in the Twin Cities area at that time, never out of radio range for very long. I don't recall hearing anything of them until very close to the Ed Sullivan appearance. Once they were widely known, you bet your life they were an overnight success - literally - for many millions. There hadn't been anything quite like Beatlemania before and there hasn't been since.
I had never heard of the Beatles until I saw graffiti scrawled on the side of a building on my college campus. I think it said THE BEATLES ARE COMING--maybe more, but I remember that part.
Then I asked somebody who they were and found out they would be on Ed Sullivan. I don't remember if I watched them or not. We weren't allowed to have tv on campus but maybe I went home that weekend and saw them. I don't know how the graffiti artists found out about them.
I'm sure there have always been "cutting edge" young music listeners who have gotten tired of pop radio and were reading music magazines and hanging around record shops to find out about the latest new groups. Especially during the early 1960's when rock and roll was pretty much dead (for a brief time). Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Buddy, L Richard, etc. All those great singers had been temporarily shunned or taken out of the music scene. Pop music was very white bread before the Beatles appeared.
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