How the Beatles took America's Hearts
How the Beatles took America's Hearts
It is now 6:30 A.M. Beatle time. The left London 30 minutes ago. They’re out over the Atlantic Ocean heading for New York. The temperature is 32 Beatle Degrees”(Szatmary 113). The transistor radio reported every few minutes on the morning of Friday, February 7, 1964. It was a day that would mark a musical milestone sending shockwaves through the United States. The plane landed, the Beatles stepped out, and for the first time Americans caught a glimpse of these young men with their long hair and their mod cut suits. The Beatles had landed, Elvis had left the building, and for the first time, Americans were embracing a British band as the standard. Rather than crediting the Beatles and their promoters for their success, credit should be given to Americans alone. America created its own need for The Beatles, priming the country for a fun and fresh act in a time of mourning and melancholy. They were the right act, at the right time, with a built in audience.
According to author Nicholas Schaffner, the most widely accepted explanation for the success of The Beatles draws a parallel between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963 and the group’s arrival in February of 1964. After the assassination of the President, the country found itself in a deep state of mourning and melancholy was rampant. In a country that seemed so invulnerable to harm, everything was lost in a single moment. By January, the American people wanted so desperately to hear something happy, to find some sort of diversion from the morbid tragedy that had shook their lives. America needed a tonic, enter The Beatles (Schaffner 32).
The examples of “Beatlemania” are well known, screaming girls clamoring for a touch, a smile, a wave. Just as in England the previous year, Beatlemania swept across the United States (Schaffner 31). The initial reasons for their success have been overlooked, often mistaken for legend and theories that hold no validity. This is surprising given the unexpected nature of any British success in American music. Author Carol Bedford sites only a few isolated incidents such as Lonnie Donegan, Acker Bilk, Laurie London and Haley Mills, that were able to penetrate the American charts (Bedford). There had never been...