Beatles60

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Members of The Beatles, John and Paul especially, had experienced loss in their young lives. Both had lost their mothers while they were teenagers. John had also lost his Uncle George, who was more like a father to him than his actual father. But as a unit, The Beatles had never had to deal with the level of tragedy that would come in April of 1962. Stuart Sutcliffe’s influence on The Beatles star...

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Decca Records famously rejected The Beatles a few weeks after their January 1, 1962 audition. Dick Rowe, the head of the company, reportedly told Brian Epstein that “groups of guitarists are on their way out.” Rowe would deny that he ever said that, but nevertheless, Decca did not end up signing The Beatles and Epstein had the sad duty of relaying the bad news to the boys. But was it really all th...

Small scale history such as that of a pop group is inevitably filled with incredible coincidences, randomness, quirks, strangeness and charm. To revisit the lifeworlds of young adults in 1962 as they climbed their way to the toppermost is by nature a kind of hermeneutical study. Sounds fancy? It's just another word for interpretation/understanding. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We have a...

The Beatles first played at the Oasis Club on February 2, 1962. Six days later they were at The Playhouse Theatre to audition for a BBC radio performance. They passed the audition, so on March 7 they were back at the same theatre to record three songs for the BBC radio show, “Teenager’s Turn – Here We Go.” It was the first time they wore suits in front of an audience. The show was aired the next d...

January of 1962 was the beginning of Brian Epstein managing The Beatles. He got to work right away. He started by convincing Deutsche Grammophon’s Polydor Records division to release 'My Bonnie,' the song that they had recorded in Hamburg in June of 1961 backing Tony Sheridan, as a single in the UK. That would happen on January 5, 1962. Added bonus, instead of crediting the group as Tony Sheridan...

2022 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac, as was 1962. And that year was a huge one for The Beatles. It started with an audition with Decca Records, on New Year’s Day. Four days later they would technically have their first UK single release, when Germany’s Polydor Records released the version of “My Bonnie” that they had recorded in June of 1961. It would go out under the name Tony She...

In December of 1961, Sam Leach tried to get The Beatles a show in London. The results were disastrous. Meanwhile, Brian Epstein was setting up an official photo session for December 17 arranging an audition for The Beatles with Decca Records for January 1. We talk about it all in this week’s Beatles60 podcast, Calling London. Merseyside promoter Sam Leach wasn’t having much luck. He thought that i...

The Beatles met with Brian Epstein once or twice around the end of November or beginning of December of 1961. Brian hoped to convince the group that he should become their manager, despite his lack of experience in that type of position. The meetings may have come just in time. The Beatles had become more and more frustrated at playing the same venues around Liverpool over and over again with no p...

We all have an idea of the importance of George Martin to the history of The Beatles. But he didn’t just come out of nowhere. At age 24, he got a job with EMI. In 1955, at the age of 29, he became the head of Parlophone Records and found a great deal of success, especially with comedy records, featuring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and more. His success allowed him the freedom to experiment with...

We’ve heard the story for years. A young Beatles fan named Raymond Jones walked into the record department at Brian Epstein’s store, Nems (North End Music Store). He asked for “My Bonnie” by The Beatles. As the disc was a German release, Nems had no copies. But Epstein had a policy to find any disc a customer asked for, and that was what started the search that would result in Epstein finding The...