Meet The Beatles!

Meet The Beatles!


Side 1

  1. I Want To Hold Your Hand

  2. I Saw Her Standing There

  3. This Boy

  4. It Won't Be Long

  5. All I've Got To Do

  6. All My Loving

Side 2

  1. Don't Bother Me (Harrison)

  2. Little Child

  3. 'Till There Was You (Wilson)

  4. Hold Me Tight

  5. I Wanna Be Your Man

  6. Not A Second Time

All songs composed by Lennon/McCartney unless otherwise specified.


Background

In 1955, Capitol records became a member of Electronic Music Industries Inc. (EMI for short). Thus, Capitol records would have right of first refusal to any artist or group EMI offered to a record label. Seven years later, in 1962, four young men from Liverpool known as the Beatles would be setting Great Britain on it's ear with their style of music and songwriting. As a result, EMI asked Capitol records to consider releasing Beatles material in the U.S. Capitol refused the offering, so manager Brian Epstein peddled the offer to other American record labels with Chicago-based Vee Jay records agreeing to release Beatles material.


Other offers from EMI were also rejected by Capitol. However, what got the Beatles ball rolling in the states happened in Washington D.C. It was there that a radio disc jockey named Carroll James received a copy of the Beatles single I Want To Hold Your Hand from a stewdardess he knew that worked for BOAC airlines, a British airline. He played the song to his listeners and the switchboard at the radio station was lighting up with requests to hear this song again. So, he played it a few more times, and the reaction to I Want To Hold Your Hand was tremendous.


Meanwhile, Beatles manager Brian Epstein flew to the U.S to try to secure a record contract for the group through Capitol records. At the same time he held meetings with Ed Sullivan, whose Ed Sullivan variety show was a Sunday night staple in America in the '60's. Ed Sullivan saw first hand Beatlemania while preparing to fly back to the states from London. His plane was delayed while the Beatles were returning from a tour of Sweden to mobs of screaming girls. When he inquired what all the commotion was about, a stewardess told him about the Beatles. He hadn't seen anything like this since Elvis Presley appeared on his show, so he decided he wanted The Beatles on his T.V. show.


Using the Ed Sullivan appearances as leverage, Brian was able to get Capitol records to market the Beatles. Capitol spent at the time an unheard of $50,000 in publicity hearlding the Beatles arrival in America. And as such, Capitol records released their first Beatles album titled Meet the Beatles. Taking songs from the British album With The Beatles, along with the Beatles' first Capitol single (I Want To Hold Your Hand b/w I Saw Her Standing There) Capitol records watched as Meet The Beatles became the fastest selling album since the invention of the LP. It would top the charts on Billboard, Cashbox and Record World, and would also become the biggest selling album of 1964. And on top of that, three Ed Sullivan appearances of which would make his show one of the highest rated shows of all time (at least in 1964).



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