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| From | "Billy G. Spradlin" <bgspradlin@cablelynx.com> |
| Subject | Re: The Beatles' Helping 'Hand' |
| Date | Wed, 21 Jan 2004 10:29:49 -0600 |
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At 12:20 AM 1/21/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>i think, as the article points out, they were going to break through to
america
>sooner to later no matter what. but i love reading about all the little
>machinations, whether it's a teenage girl bugging a DJ, or a trickle of
canadian
>imports, or whatever. it's especially fascinating to me how an act that, in
>hindsight, sounds like as sure and obvious thing as there ever was, could be
>completely missed by its own record company, even for a short while. that's a
>part of the business that i don't think has changed a bit!
Capitol and the other major labels at the time were mostly staffed by old
farts
like Mitch Miller who hated Rock and didnt have a clue what would sell to
teenagers. If it wasnt for them hiring younger and hipper staffers like Nick
Venet (who got the Beach Boys signed to Capitol) and Terry Melcher (who signed
and produced the Rip Chords, Paul Revere & The Raiders and the Byrds to
Columbia) these companies would have been in the dark for years.
In the liner notes of Tommy Roe's "Greatest Hits" CD, Roe toured with the
Beatles in the UK in 1963, brought back the "Please Please Me" LP and
played it
for the staff of ABC-Paramount records who called it "the worst piece of shit
they ever heard". Del Shannon also toured with the fabs overseas in '63, and
recorded a nice cover of "From Me To You" which was the first Beatles cover by
an American artist. And it barely made the Hot 100.
To Capitol A&R's dept accustomed to MOR fare like Nat King Cole and the slick
Pop, Girl Groups, Surf and R&B of the early 1960's the early Beatles came off
amaturish and far too raw for the USA.
Top 40 DJ's in the 60's loved to have "exclusives" that would get kids to
listen and build up thier popularity. Most DJ's back then worked like Alan
Freed, picking out thier own records. It wasnt until radio programmer Bill
Drake's huge success with KHJ "Boss Radio" in the mid 60's that made stations
force DJ's to stick to a tight rotation of 30-40 hit songs and keep exclusives
(and DJ chatter) to a minimum.
The last time I heard anything like this was from the early 90's when a
teenager from Minneapolis was visiting overseas, heard Roxette's "The Look"
and
bought the 45. The teenager loved the song so much he brought it to the Music
Director of the local CHR station, who liked what he heard and decided to air
it. Airplay took off locallly and convinced EMI to release it here, giving
them
their first big hit in the USA.
Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio
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