“England’s Phenomenal Pop Combo”: Meet The Beatles! at 60

Looking back on the Fab Four’s U.S. breakthrough

January 20, 2024January 20, 2024 Gillian G. Gaar 0 Comments 1964, 60th anniversary, All My Loving, Capitol Records, George Harrison, I Saw Her Standing There, I Want To Hold Your Hand, John Lennon, Meet The Beatles!, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, The Ed Sullivan Show, Vee-Jay Records

For once, the U.S. was playing catch up to stodgy Britain.

In 1963, the Beatles had become national stars in their native UK, and were on their way to international fame. Thus far, the U.S. remained stubbornly resistant to their charms. But once “I Want to Hold Your Hand” began blasting out of stateside radios, that resistance crumbled like the walls of Jericho, and the single sailed up the charts, soon followed by the album Meet The Beatles! America had capitulated, and the Fab Four were now the biggest group in the world.

Sixty years on, Meet The Beatles! still holds a special place in the hearts of first-generation Beatles fans. It wasn’t quite the same version of the album released in the UK, With The Beatles. It wasn’t even the first Beatles album released in the U.S. (that would be Introducing The Beatles, on Vee-Jay). But this is the album that galvanized a generation, and reinvigorated rock ‘n’ roll when it had seemingly faded from the charts (consider that in the preceding year, chart-topping releases had included Andy Williams’ Days of Wine and Roses, Allan Sherman’s comedy album My Son, The Nut, and Frank Fontaine’s Songs I Sing on The Jackie Gleason Show).

VIDEO: The Beatles perform “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on The Ed Sullivan Show

During that same period, The Beatles’ previous singles had struggled to make an impact in America. Their UK label, EMI, had offered their songs to their U.S. subsidiary, Capitol Records, which deemed them not suitable for the American market. A deal was then struck with Chicago-based Vee-Jay Records, who issued the group’s second and third singles, “Please Please Me” (mistakenly credited to “The Beattles” on the record label) and “From Me to You,” in, respectively, February and May 1963. Both songs got some airplay, but failed to make an impression. A financial dispute with Vee-Jay led to the next single, “She Loves You” being released on Swan Records in September; it sank without a trace.

It was then that Beatles manager Brian Epstein forced Capitol’s hand. It was the label’s A&R rep, Dave Dexter, who kept turning them down, so Epstein appealed directly to Capitol’s president, Alan Livingston. After listening to the group’s fifth single, Livingston agreed to release the record and provide promotional dollars. “I can’t tell you in all honesty I knew how big they’d be,” he told author Bruce Spizer (whose The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania In America is the best book about the group’s breakthrough in the states), “but I thought this is worth a shot.”

The Beatles Meet The Beatles!, Capitol Records 1964

That upcoming single was “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and it revealed how far the John Lennon/Paul McCartney songwriting team had come in just a year. In comparison to their debut single, “Love Me Do” (which hadn’t initially been released in the U.S.), it’s bursting with energy and confidence, the guitar intro immediately grabbing your attention, building the excitement as it carries you into the first verse. It’s a well-crafted pop song that captures the unadulterated joy of young love, with the band’s robust performance keeping the “hold your hand” sentiments from sounding too genteel. As with a lot of breakthrough songs, it simply didn’t sound like anything else being played on the radio.

It was originally scheduled for U.S. release in January 1964. But since its UK release in November 1963, copies had been wending their way to stateside DJs who played it, prompting its release to be pushed up to December 26, 1963. On January 16, 1964, it topped the chart in Cash Box, doing the same in Billboard on February 1st. Accordingly, it was given the opening slot on the hastily assembled Meet The Beatles! getting the album off to an exuberant start. It’s followed by the single’s B-side in the U.S., “I Saw Her Standing There,” one of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs the group ever recorded, and still featured in McCartney’s live shows to this day. Then comes a change of mood with the single’s UK B-side, “This Boy,” which beautifully showcases the group’s stellar vocal harmonies. The album side is rounded out with a terrific trio of songs: the giddy call-and-response of “It Won’t Be Long”; “All I’ve Got to Do,” with Lennon crooning in Smokey Robinson mode, with McCartney and George Harrison providing more lush vocal harmonies; and “All My Loving,” another instant classic from McCartney, with the kind of immediately catchy melody that spun off innumerable cover versions.

AUDIO: The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There”

All the songs on side one were written by Lennon/McCartney. American albums were shorter than their UK counterparts due to a difference in how royalties were calculated, and five of the cover songs on the UK’s With The Beatles ended up being cut for Meet The Beatles! This resulted in an album that emphasized the band’s songwriting skills; of the twelve tracks, there was but a single cover. This was as important an element as the music itself; the idea of a rock band as an autonomous entity. While it wasn’t unknown for performers to write their own material, many still relied on outside songwriters to provide the songs. The Beatles’ success firmly established the importance of a rock band needing to write their own songs in order to be taken seriously.

Side two drops that cover song, “Till There Was You” (from the musical The Music Man), right in the middle of its running order. The song was already a standard (trivia note: it was Anita Bryant’s first Top 40 single), and was possibly chosen over the rock ‘n’ roll numbers that were cut to broaden the group’s appeal. It’s pleasant, if unremarkable; the strongest element is not McCartney’s somewhat shaky lead vocal but rather Harrison’s tasteful guitar solo. But, as with the placement of “This Boy” on side one, it’s a good place for a mood-changer on an exceptionally well-paced album, between the mid-tempo “Little Child” and the decidedly wobblier “Hold Me Tight,” which strives to emulate the taut energy of “I Saw Her Standing There” but fails quite spectacularly (McCartney’s lead vocal even veering off-key at points). Never mind; McCartney’s enthusiasm goes some way to make up for the song’s shortcomings.

Though it does mean side two is the weaker half of the album. The high points are Harrison’s debut effort as a songwriter, with the energetically spiteful “Don’t Bother Me,” certainly as good as the likes of “Little Child” or “Hold Me Tight” (just think how he might have progressed if he’d had more encouragement at the time). And underscoring the fact that this was a group, a collective of talents, Ringo Starr also gets his turn in the vocal spotlight with “I Wanna Be Your Man,” a trifle Lennon and McCartney finished off for the Rolling Stones. “We weren’t going to give them anything great, right?” Lennon later observed, but it’s a chipper number, more of a rave-up here than in the Stones’ blusier version. The album ends on a somewhat unresolved note with Lennon’s moody, piano-based “Not a Second Time” (the UK album closes with the group’s incendiary cover of Barrett Strong’s “Money,” a far more powerful conclusion).

Vee-Jay, who contended they still held rights to some Beatles songs, tried to beat Capitol to the punch, rushing out Introducing the Beatles on January 10, 1964. But nothing could stop the Meet The Beatles! juggernaut after its release ten days later, and it quickly steamrolled over Vee-Jay’s album to the top of the charts. It stayed in Billboard’s chart for eleven weeks, until it was replaced by The Beatles’ Second Album for another five weeks, with A Hard Day’s Night, released that summer, holding the top spot for a further fourteen weeks. Meaning the Beatles had a #1 album in the charts for 30 weeks — over half the year — in 1964.

And that first year of American Beatlemania was full of such record-breaking achievements. But its legacy is due more to the fact it that it charted a new course for where rock would go for the rest of the decade, kicking the doors open to greater inspiration and imagination. Meet The Beatles! is the sound of the new kids on the block throwing the kind of party where everyone’s welcome; they’re having so much fun, they want you to join in, too.

It was also the sound of liberation; the staid, conformist 1950s were over, and the 1960s were in full swing. Welcome aboard, and enjoy the ride.