We said goodbye to the Beatles on Jan. 30, 1969, when they performed in public for the last time with an impromptu concert on the roof of their London recording studio.
We said hello to them, generally speaking, when they did “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964, in front of an audience of women screaming like Howard Dean.
But let’s go back a couple of years. The Beatles kicked off 1962 with “Love Me Do,” their first hit in the UK, although record bosses didn’t think it would play in the U.S. Management’s vision rarely extends past the fiscal bottom line.
So in 1964, the first Beatles records were released in America by Vee Jay, a Chicago-based label. Vee Jay was prohibited from producing a “full” Beatles album, so they cut a compilation album of “England’s hottest recording stars.” The other star act on the “Jolly What!” album was Frank Ifield, who was really the Falco of his day.
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As the Beatles grew in popularity–John Lennon told reporters that the group was “more popular than Jesus”–the legends surrounding them grew as well. One much-traveled myth was that hidden messages in Beatles songs revealed Paul McCartney was dead, which was untrue. (Side note: After spinning a Kajagoogoo album backwards in 1984, I was compelled to buy parachute pants and a shirt with six zippers at Chess King.)
Another claimed the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was inspired by the hallucinogenic drug LSD. Lennon said that was false, but if you listen to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” you have to believe the Beatles were inspired by more than Fresca and Fritos.
One legend is true, however. Chicago’s Vee Jay re-released the “Jolly What!” compilation album with a Beatles photo on the cover to make people think it was their album. To make it legal, they put a disclaimer on the back that clearly wasn’t proofread.
It read: “It is with a good deal of pride and pleasure that this copulation has been presented.”
Maybe it wasn’t a typo, since the record fans who bought it did get a little screwed.
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Edited by Chris Malcolm ([email protected]) and Joe Knowles ([email protected])