1963–66: Beatlemania and touring years
Please Please Me and With the Beatles
On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. The album was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles.[48][nb 3] After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" met with a more emphatic reception. Released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album of the same name, the song reached number one on every chart in London except Record Retailer, where it stalled at number two.[49] Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day", AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine comments, "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins."[50] Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant."[51]
Released in March 1963, the album initiated a run during which eleven of their twelve studio albums released in the United Kingdom through 1970 reached number one.[52] The band's third single, "From Me to You", came out in April and was also a chart-topping hit, starting an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number-one singles for the Beatles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six years.[53] Issued in August, the band's fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks.[54] It became their first single to sell a million copies, and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978, when "Mull of Kintyre", by McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, surpassed it in sales.[55] Their commercial success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest.[56][nb 4] As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. Greeted with riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans, the press dubbed the phenomenon "Beatlemania".[58][nb 5]
In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962.[62] On their return to the UK on 31 October, according to Lewisohn, "several hundred screaming fans" greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around 50 to 100 journalists and photographers as well as representatives from the BBC also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events.[63] The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks.[64] In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.[65]
Please Please Me maintained the top position on the Record Retailer chart for 30 weeks, only to be displaced by its follow-up, With the Beatles, the release of which EMI delayed until sales of Please Please Me had subsided.[66][nb 6] Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor.[68] It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks.[69] Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original".[70][nb 7] The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963".[68] The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability.[72] With the Beatlesbecame the second album in UK chart history to sell a million copies, a figure previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack.[73] When writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band's press officer, Tony Barrow, used the superlative the "fabulous foursome", which the media widely adopted as "the Fab Four".[74]
"British Invasion"
EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles' releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles. Concurrent negotiations with the independent US labels Vee-Jay and Swan led to the release of the songs in 1963,[75] but legal issues with royalties and publishing rights proved an obstacle to the successful marketing of the group in the US.[76][nb 8] American chart success began after Epstein arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign and secured the support of disc jockey Carrol James, who first played the band's records in mid-December 1963. Late that same month, the Beatles were introduced in the Tidewater area of Virginia by Gene Loving of radio station WGH-AM, accompanied by a full marketing campaign, including Beatles shirt giveaways. Within days, almost every other song played on the station was a Beatles recording. It was not until the end of first week of January 1964 that their records were played in New York City (also accompanied by a major marketing campaign and with similar play frequency), and then the rest of the country, initiating their music's spread across US radio. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to rush-release "I Want to Hold Your Hand" later that month.[78] Issued on 26 December 1963, with the band's previously scheduled debut there just weeks away, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold a million copies, becoming a number-one hit in the US by mid-January.[79]
On 7 February 1964, the Beatles left the United Kingdom with an estimated 4000 fans gathered at Heathrow, waving and screaming as the aircraft took off.[80] Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3000 greeted them.[81] They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households,[82] or 34 per cent of the American population. Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program".[83] The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a negative critical consensus in the US,[84] but a day later their first US concert saw Beatlemania erupt at Washington Coliseum.[85] Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall.[82] The band then flew to Florida and appeared on the weekly Ed Sullivan Show a second time, before another 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February.[86]
A Hard Day's Night
Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 had not gone unnoticed, and a competitor, United Artists Records, encouraged their film division to offer the group a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks.[87] Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a mock-documentary.[88] The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing comparison with the Marx Brothers.[89] According to Erlewine, the accompanying soundtrack album, A Hard Day's Night, saw them "truly coming into their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums had coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies."[90] That "ringing guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's 12-string electric Rickenbacker, a prototype given to him by the manufacturer, which made its debut on the record.[91][nb 9]
During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five.[92][nb 10] Their popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and a number of other UK acts subsequently made their own American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion.[94] Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults, became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture.[95]
Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.[96][nb 11] In August they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities.[98] Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 fans to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York.[98]
In August, journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet Bob Dylan.[99] Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis.[100] Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with their fans, "veritable 'teenyboppers' – kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialised popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. They were seen as idolaters, not idealists."[101] Within six months of the meeting, Gould writes, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona".[101] Within a year, Dylan would "proceed, with the help of a five-piece group and a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, to shake the monkey of folk authenticity permanently off his back ... the distinctions between the folk and rock audiences would have nearly evaporated [and the group's] audience ... [was] showing signs of growing up."[101][nb 12]
Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul
According to Gould, Beatles for Sale, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions.[103] They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964,[104] to continue the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike the group's first two LPs, contained only original songs.[105] The band had nearly exhausted their backlog of songs on the previous album, however, and given the challenges constant international touring posed to their songwriting efforts, Lennon admitted, "Material's becoming a hell of a problem".[106] As a result, six covers from their extensive repertoire were chosen to complete the album. Released in early December, its eight original compositions stood out, demonstrating the growing maturity of the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership.[105]
In early 1965, while they were his guests for dinner, Lennon and Harrison's dentist secretly added LSD to their coffee. Lennon described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two."[107] He and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966.[108] He became the first Beatle to discuss LSD publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society".[109]
Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen Elizabeth II appointed all four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award.[110] In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their own insignia.[111]
Released in July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond",[112] it inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. McCartney said: "Help! was great but it wasn't our film – we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong."[113] The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride".[114] The accompanying album, the group's fifth studio LP, contained all original material save for two covers, "Act Naturally" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"; they were the last covers the band would include on an album, with the exception of Let It Be's brief rendition of the traditional Liverpool folk song "Maggie Mae".[115] The band expanded their use of vocal overdubs on Help! and incorporated classical instruments into some arrangements, notably a string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday".[116] Composed by McCartney, "Yesterday" would inspire the most recorded cover versions of any song ever written.[117]
The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965 – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description.[118] A further nine successful concerts followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback system of on-stage monitor speakers.[119] Towards the end of the tour, they were granted an audience with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills.[120][121][nb 13]
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In mid-October 1965, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments.[124] Released in December, Rubber Soul has been hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music.[123] Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy.[125] Biographers Peter Brown and Steven Gaines attribute the new musical direction to "the Beatles' now habitual use of marijuana",[126] an assertion confirmed by the band – Lennon referred to it as "the pot album",[127] and Starr said: "Grass was really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the writers. And because they were writing different material, we were playing differently."[127] After Help!'s foray into the world of classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As their lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning. Of "Norwegian Wood" Lennon commented: "I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair ... but in such a smokescreen way that you couldn't tell."[128]
While many of Rubber Soul's more notable songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting,[129] it also featured distinct compositions from each,[130] though they continued to share official credit. The song "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue.[131] Harrison called Rubber Soul his "favourite album"[127] and Starr referred to it as "the departure record".[132] McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand."[133] However, recording engineer Norman Smith later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right".[134] In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Rubber Soul fifth among "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time",[135] and AllMusic's Richie Unterberger describes it as "one of the classic folk-rock records".[136]
