1964

1964



January 1

The Beatles continued their residency at the Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London, with The Beatles' Christmas Show.

A BBC clip of The Beatles singing 'She Loves You' was shown on American TV's The Jack Paar Show, the first film of The Beatles shown to US audiences. Brian Epstein was angry with the BBC for selling the clip because it interfered with his own careful marketing strategy.


January 2

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.


January 3

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.

In Hamburg, Tony Sheridan overdubbed a new vocal on to the recording of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' which he had taped with The Beatles in May 1962. The new vocal track featured lyrics which commented on the length of The Beatles' hair, and their fan following.


January 4

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.

The group recorded an 'open-ended' (answers only) interview at the small recording studio in EMI Records' Manchester Square headquarters. The interview was intended to be sent on record to US disc jockeys, to give the impression that the DJs were actually talking to The Beatles themselves. A photographer from Life magazine shot several rolls of film while they were at EMI, still aiming for a proposed cover story on the group to coincide with their arrival in America.


January 4

George and Ringo recorded an interview for the BBC Light Programme magazine The Public Ear at their Green Street flat. Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.


January 6

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.

Afterwards The Beatles went to the Talk Of The Town, on Charing Cross Road, to see Alma Cogan, but arrived too late and missed her performance.

Before the evening performance, The Beatles visited the London offices of Paris Match magazine, to be interviewed for an article which would appear as they arrived in France.


January 7

The Beatles recorded an appearance for Saturday Club at the Playhouse Theatre, London. They performed 'All My Loving', 'Money (That's What I Want)', 'The Hippy Hippy Shake', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Johnny B. Goode' and 'I Wanna Be Your Man'. The show was pre-recorded to be aired during their forthcoming tour of the US. Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.


January 8

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.


January 9

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.


January 10

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The Beatles' Christmas Show.


January 11

Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London. The final night of The Beatles' Christmas Show. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' entered the American Cashbox charts at number 80.


January 12

London Palladium.

The Beatles appeared on the ATV television variety show Val Parnell's Sunday Night At The London Palladium with Alma Cogan, Dave Alien and compere Bruce Forsyth. The Beatles played 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'This Boy', 'All My Loving', 'Money (That's What I Want)' and 'Twist And Shout'. As before, they appeared on the carousel at the end of the show where, by tradition, all the featured artists stood and waved goodbye as it slowly revolved.

This was their first meeting with Alma Cogan, who invited them back to her flat at 44 Stafford Court in Kensington High Street which she shared with her mother and younger sister. They arrived at her flat long before she did as they made a quick getaway in their Austin Princess, leaving Alma to change in her dressing room, but her sister Sandra was there to greet them. Paul recalled later that Mrs Cogan had encouraged Sandra to pay him as much attention as possible, in the hope that a suitable match might ensue.

George and Ringo's interview on The Public Ear was broadcast by the BBC Light Programme.


January 13

The single 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'/'I Saw Her Standing There' was released in the US as Capitol 5112. It went straight into the charts.


January 14

At 5.15pm The Beatles' Comet 4B left for Le Bourget airport, then the main Paris airport, to begin a three-week residency at the Paris Olympia. With them were Brian Epstein, Mal Evans and press representatives but not Ringo who was unable to meet the others in London that day because Liverpool airport was fogbound. London was also blanketed, but by late afternoon it had lifted enough for the rest of the group to get to France. Their departure was watched by several thousand fans.

The Beatles' Austin Princess was at the airport to meet them, as were 60 fans and the press. More fans were waiting at the George V Hotel, filling the lobby. That evening, Bruno Coquatrix, the director of the Olympia, called in to see them, as did a representative from their French record label, Odeon.

John and Paul shared a suite because they were committed to writing six new songs for their forthcoming film, a song for Billy J. Kramer and one for Tommy Quickly. They had a piano brought in and got to work while George had a night out on the town at the Club Eve. He was accompanied by Daily Express reporter Derek Taylor, who had been charged with ghosting a regular column for George about the Paris trip.


January 15

John and Paul got up around noon as usual and ate a regular English breakfast of orange juice, cornflakes, scrambled eggs and a pot of tea. A stroll down the Champs Elysees accompanied by select members of the British press brought a crowd of photographers and sightseers but they were driven back to the hotel before it got out of hand. (Already determined to debunk the Beatlemania hype, a cynical Daily Mail reporter noted:

"Exactly three girls asked them for autographs. One was English.")

Ringo arrived on the five o'clock flight. At London Airport, he was persuaded by British European Airlines staff to pose for a photograph as he boarded his plane -holding a 'TLES' sign alongside the plane's 'BEA' logo.

That night they did a try-out concert at the Cyrano Theatre in Versailles with all the other artists who would be appearing on the Olympia bill: Trini Lopez, Sylvie Vartan and a full music hall variety act including a juggler. Lopez closed the first half. Sylvie Vartan preceded The Beatles, an unenviable position. The show began at nine and lasted until after midnight with French fans dancing in the aisles and chanting for "Les Beat-les!" In France they drew a male crowd rather than female, and because there was much less screaming they could actually hear the music. Next day the press reported their every move.

In New York, DJ Scott Muni reported that he had received more than 12,000 applications for a Beatles fan club.


January 17

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

The afternoon matinee was sold out to fans whereas the evening audience was made up of more expensively dressed, older Parisians who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The ancient music hall was not equipped for modern amplification and the fuses blew three times as the theatre could not supply enough power for their amps. Mal rushed on stage to make emergency repairs. There were no screams or shrieks, but the audience clapped in time and appreciated the music. George: "We miss the screams, but the audiences are great. Now roll on America."

The audience was well behaved, but backstage a riot was going on. Cameramen were everywhere and an argument erupted when a French photographer was not allowed in to take exclusive pictures. A fight broke out which spilled onto the stage. George had to move quickly to prevent his guitar from being damaged by the brawling mob and Paul stopped singing to call for order. Gendarmes arrived and added to the chaos. No one was allowed backstage for the remaining dates.

The Olympia was in many ways a dry run for Carnegie Hall, Epstein's policy being to book his group into the most prestigious venues possible. The Olympia was the best music hall in France, where the first night guaranteed an audience in full evening dress, minks and diamonds. It was a beautiful, classic theatre with sumptuous furnishings. However, the dressing room was tiny and the Olympia was unused to Beatlemania: people with tickets had been prohibited from entering the theatre, whereas others found someone already in their seats. It was chaos. The theatre was ringed with armed police and beyond them a cordon of fans chanting "Beat-les, Beat-les, Beat-les!" As the group left the stage a few more punches were exchanged. Predictably, French chauvinism showed in the press reports the next day, though France Soir suggested that French pop idols must be jealous because never before had the French clapped along so loudly with the beat.

NUMBER ONE IN AMERICA

That evening a telephone call brought the news that 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' had reached number one in America. It had taken only three weeks to reach the top position. Road manager Mal Evans reported that the group went mad: "They always act this way when anything big happens - just a bunch of kids, jumping up and down with sheer delight. Paul climbed on my back demanding a piggyback. They felt that this was the biggest thing that could have happened. And who could blame them? Gradually they quietened down, ordered some more drinks and sat down to appreciate fully what had happened. It was a wonderful, marvellous night for all of them. I was knocked out. . ." Almost immediately, Brian Epstein fielded a phone call from a promoter in Detroit, offering The Beatles $10,000 for a single concert appearance. The Beatles celebrated until 5am.

Up until now, only a handful of British acts had ever made the charts in the US; the UK was a wasteland for popular music as far as American record buyers were concerned. The Beatles changed all that and opened the door for a tidal wave of British acts which transformed the face of American popular music for ever, destroying the old Brill-Building Tin-Pan-Alley tradition and heralding the idea that popular music could be something other than mere "entertainment".

Beatlemania was hotting up in the US in the classic showbusiness manner: a Hurry of lawsuits. Billboard reported, "The Beatles, the nation's hottest recording property today, are becoming the object of the nation's hottest lawsuits. The rock'n'rolling English group has a series of singles and LPs out on three labels - Capitol, Vee Jay and Swan. And each is becoming involved in a series of suits and countersuits between the various companies." Dealers across the country were receiving telegrams from one or more of the companies threatening that legal action would be taken if they persisted in selling the other's product.

Meanwhile, WABC's Beatles fan club was receiving between 2,000 and 3,000 letters a day and Cashbox was predicting, 'Won't be long before every group with long hair will be sought by American companies."


January 18

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


January 19

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

Three sets. The matinee was broadcast live on the Paris station Europe-1's Musicorama show. The songs performed were 'From Me To You', 'This Boy', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'She Loves You' and 'Twist And Shout'.


January 20

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

Europe-1 broadcast an interview with The Beatles.

The album Meet The Beatles was released in the US as Capitol ST 2047, the first of 33 Beatles records issued in America during 1964.

Side A: 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'This Boy', 'It Won't Be Long', 'All I've Got To Do', 'All My Loving'; Side B: 'Don't Bother Me', 'Little Child', 'Till There Was You', 'Hold Me Tight', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'Not A Second Time'.


January 22

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


January 23

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

Brian Epstein denies that Paul is about to marry teenage actress Jane Asher: "Paul is definitely not engaged or married, and does not intend to become engaged or married."

In the bathroom of their hotel suite, John and Paul taped a rudimentary demo recording of an equally rudimentary song, 'One And One Is Two', which was intended for their NEMS stablemate, Billy J. Kramer. "Billy J. is finished when he gets this song", Lennon quipped after the taping was completed.


January 24

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

The Beatles recorded an interview for American Forces Network (AFN) in their Paris studio.


January 25

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

AFN broadcast their interview with The Beatles in the show Weekend World. Cashbox magazine finally hit the stands showing 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' at number one, up from number 43. It was number three in Billboard, up from 45.


January 26

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


January 27

The single 'My Bonnie'/'The Saints' by Tony Sheridan & The Beatles was re-released in the US as MGM K 13213.

The album Introducing The Beatles was re-released in the US as Vee Jay VJLP 1062, with two tracks substituted in the original track listing of the LP. Side A: 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Misery', 'Anna (Go To Him)', 'Chains', 'Boys', 'Ask Me Why'; Side B:

'Please Please Me', 'Baby It's You', 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', 'A Taste Of Honey', 'There's A Place', 'Twist And Shout'.

THE GERMAN SINGLES

German EMI, Electrola Gesellschaft, insisted that The Beatles would not get large sales in that country unless the lyrics were sung in German. The Beatles thought this was nonsense, and so did George Martin, but he did not want to give them an excuse for not doing their best to sell Beatles records. He managed to persuade John and Paul to re-record 'She Loves You' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' in German. Someone from Electrola Gesellschaft translated the lyrics and was on hand at the recording to make sure the accents didn't sound like a comedy record. George Martin turned up at the studio but The Beatles did not. After an hour's wait - a not unusual delay for The Beatles - Martin called the Georges Cinq Hotel, but none of them would come to the telephone. They told Neil Aspinall to inform George Martin that they would not be coming. A furious George Martin told Neil, "You just tell them I'm coming right over to let them know exactly what I think of them." Not long afterwards he burst into the drawing room of The Beatles' suite where, as he described it, the scene was one straight out of Lewis Carroll:

"Around a long table sat John, Paul, George, Ringo, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, his assistant. In the centre, pouring tea, was Jane Asher, a beautiful Alice with long golden hair. At my appearance, the whole tableau exploded. Beatles ran in all directions, hiding behind sofas, cushions, the piano . . . 'You bastards,' I yelled. 'I don't care if you record or not, but I do care about your rudeness!'"

The Beatles slowly reappeared and muttered sheepish apologies. Two days later they cut the German language version of the songs.


January 28

John and George flew back to London on their second day off from the Olympia. George had dinner with Phil Spector and The Ronettes.


January 29

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

John and George flew to Paris on the early morning flight.

At the Pathe Marconi Studio in Paris, The Beatles recorded 'Can't Buy Me Love' and German language versions of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'She Loves You'. Despite regular attempts in later years to persuade EMI to let them record in the US, this proved to be The Beatles' only studio session outside the UK.

The single 'Do You Want To Know A Secret'/'Bad To Me' by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as Liberty 55667.


January 30

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

The single 'Please Please Me'/'From Me To You' was released in the US as Vee Jay VJ 581.


January 31

Olympia Theatre, Paris.

The single 'Sweet Georgia Brown' by Tony Sheridan & The Beatles was released in the UK as Polydor NH 52-906. The track was recorded in May 1962 in Hamburg but Sheridan added a new vocal track earlier this month for this release, complete with timely references to the length of The Beatles' hair.

Soon after this date, several of The Beatles' Hamburg recordings were overdubbed by American session drummer Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie, to make them sound punchier for US release. In several interviews since, Purdie has claimed that he was replacing Ringo's drum tracks because they weren't good enough; in fact, the drumming he was overdubbing had been performed by Pete Best.


February 1

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


February 2

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


February 3

The Beatles visited the American Embassy in Paris to obtain visas and work permits for their forthcoming tour.

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


February 4

Olympia Theatre, Paris.


February 5

The Beatles returned to London from Paris and held the usual press conference at the airport.


February 7

The EP All My Loving was released in the UK as Parlophone GEP 8891. Side A: 'All My Loving', 'Ask Me Why'; Side B: 'Money (That's What I Want)', 'P.S. I Love You'.

The Beatles flew to New York City on Pan Am flight 101, where 3,000 fans were waiting at JFK airport. Their party consisted of Paul, Ringo, George, John and Cynthia plus Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans, publicist Brian Sommerville, Brian Epstein and record producer Phil Spector. The group was unusually subdued. Ringo told Liverpool Post reporter George Harrison (no relation): "They've got everything over there, will they want us too?"

Paul said: "What have we got to give a country like America? Yes, I know that we've got a record at the top of the charts, but that doesn't mean that they'll go for us personally, does it?" They needn't have worried. Ed Sullivan had already received 50,000 applications for tickets to his show which only seated 728, and fans had been gathering at JFK since the previous afternoon.

The Beatles' Boeing 707 touched down at 1.20pm to scenes never before witnessed at Kennedy. It was a cold clear day. Five thousand fans, mostly young girls taking a day off school, were crowded four deep on the upper arcade of the arrivals building, waving "We Love You Beatles" placards and home-made banners welcoming The Beatles to America. An airport official said, "We've never seen anything like this before, ever. Never. Not even for kings and queens." In addition to the screaming teenagers, they were met by over 200 reporters and photographers from radio, television, magazines and newspapers.

The Beatles themselves thought at first that the President's plane was about to land, then it dawned on them: the reception was for them.

For days the radio stations had been whipping the fans into a frenzy, and it was Murray the K at 1010 WINS who first announced the supposedly secret details of their airline, time of arrival and flight number. The information was quickly repeated on WINS rival stations: WABC and WMCA.

Over 100 yelling journalists were waiting for the group as they emerged from immigration, and at first they couldn't see for the flash bulbs. "So this is America," said Ringo. "They all seem to be out of their minds." One of their first interviews on US soil was with Fred Robbins of Radio Luxembourg, who secured twenty priceless minutes of The Beatles' time.

THE ROAD TO NEW YORK

Tom Wolfe, writing in the New York Herald Tribune reported on The Beatles' arrival in his customary style, noticing the small details which characterised the event: [Though in fact Paul, George and Ringo took one limo, John another and Brian was left to hail a cab to get to town.]

"The Beatles left the airport in four Cadillac limousines, one Beatle to a limousine, heading for the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The first sortie came almost immediately. Five kids in a powder blue Ford overtook the caravan on the expressway, and as they passed each Beatle, one guy hung out the back window and waved a red blanket.

"A white convertible came up second, with the word BEETLES scratched on both sides in the dust. A police car was close behind that one with the siren going and the alarm light rolling, but the kids, a girl at the wheel and two guys in the back seat, waved at each Beatle before pulling over to exit with the cops gesturing at them.

"In the second limousine, Brian Sommerville, The Beatles' press agent, said to one of The Beatles, George Harrison: 'Did you see that, George?' Harrison looked at the convertible with its emblem in the dust and said, 'They misspelled Beatles.'

"But the third sortie succeeded all the way. A good-looking brunette, who said her name was Caroline Reynolds of New Canaan, Conn., and Wellesley College, had paid a cab driver $10 to follow the caravan all the way into town. She cruised by each Beatle, smiling vainly, and finally caught up with George Harrison's limousine at a light at Third Avenue and 63rd Street.

" 'How does one go about meeting a Beatle?' she said out the window.

" 'One says hello,' Harrison said out the window.

" 'Hellow!' she said. 'Eight more will be down from Wellesley.' Then the light changed and the caravan was off again."


The scene at the Plaza, New York's grandest hotel, was chaotic with hundreds of fans being held at bay by police barricades and 20 mounted police. They kept up a constant mantra-like chant: "We love you Beat-les, oh yes we dooo! We love you Beat-les and we'll be true!" interspersed with shouts of "We want The Beatles!"

That evening a stream of guests visited the ten-room Presidential suite, including The Ronettes, DJ Murray the K and George's sister, Louise, who lived in Illinois but had flown in to see him.

The Beatles recorded an interview with Brian Matthew on the telephone from the BBC in London to be broadcast the next morning on Saturday Club. Then they looked at some of their fan mail: 100,000 letters were waiting for them when they arrived in New York.


February 8

Another press conference was held in the Plaza's Baroque Room. Afterwards John, Paul and Ringo went for a photo-opportunity walkabout in Central Park followed by about 400 girls. George had strep throat and stayed inside, tended by his sister Louise Caldwell.

At 1.30pm The Beatles travelled by limousines to CBS studios at 53rd Street for a soundcheck. On the way, fans charged at the cars en masse and it was up to mounted police to get them through. The studios themselves were guarded by 52 police officers and ten mounted police. At the studios The Beatles had to join AFRA (the US equivalent of the Musicians' Union) and sign forms. Neil Aspinall stood in for George at the camera position run-through for the next day's live show. The studio staff were surprised when The Beatles asked to hear a playback of their rehearsal; no other musical act had ever bothered. The Beatles were interviewed by The Ronettes.

That evening John, Paul and Ringo went to the 21 restaurant for dinner with Capitol Records executives. George Martin joined them. The Beatles ate chops whereas executives ate pheasant. Paul ate crepe suzettes. Back at the hotel they listened to the radio till late at night.

That morning The Beatles' recorded telephone interview with Brian Matthew was broadcast on BBC Light Programme's Saturday Club.

THE BEATLES PRESS CONFERENCES

By the time The Beatles reached New York, the press conference had become a regular occurrence. Most press conferences with top recording artists were staid affairs but The Beatles changed all this, displaying an irreverent and sometimes cheeky sense of humour which journalists lapped up and often reported verbatim. For this reason The Beatles were often likened to the Marx Brothers, their apparently off-the-cuff wit charming otherwise sceptical cynics. "How did you find America?" John was asked. "Turn left at Greenland," he replied. 'What do you do in your hotel rooms all day?" George was asked. "Ice skate," he replied, deadpan. And when Paul was informed that there was a campaign in Detroit to stamp out The Beatles, he replied: 'We have a plan to stamp out Detroit."


February 9

Studio 50, West 53rd Street. Rehearsals for The Ed Sullivan Show took up the morning. Once again, Neil Aspinall stood in for the ailing George, but The Beatles' guitarist was sufficiently improved to appear for the actual taping of their performances.

In the afternoon The Beatles recorded numbers for another Ed Sullivan Show to be broadcast after they had left the country. This would be their third show - their first was to be done live that evening and the second was to be a live show from Florida on February 16. For the "third" show, they recorded 'Twist And Shout', 'Please Please Me' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. There was a different audience for the third show recording than that which attended the live transmission that evening. Other guests included Gordon and Sheila MacRae and The Cab Calloway Orchestra.

That evening, for the 8pm live show, The Beatles performed 'All My Loving', 'Till There Was You' and 'She Loves You' followed by an Anadin advert. Then came Ed's other guests - Georgia Brown & Oliver Kidds, Frank Gorshin, Tessie O'Shea - and the show closed after a Kent cigarette advert with 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. Thirteen-and-a-half minutes of television had changed the face of American popular music. The Nielsen ratings showed that 73,700,000 people had watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, not just the largest audience that Sullivan had ever had, but the largest audience in the history of television.

Half an hour before they appeared on stage, Brian Sommerville handed them a telegram: "Congratulations on your appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and your visit to America. We hope your engagement will be a successful one and your visit pleasant. Give our best to Mr. Sullivan. Sincerely, Elvis & The Colonel." George read the telegram and asked, deadpan, "Elvis who?"

After the show Murray the K took The Beatles, minus George who still had a sore throat, to the Playboy Club. Paul: "The bunnies are even more adorable than we are." Protected by a police escort, they risked walking the few blocks to 59th Street where they were quickly ushered up to the Penthouse lounge for dinner. Afterwards they went on to the Peppermint Lounge, home of the Twist, where Ringo excelled at twisting to Beatles tunes with a young dancer called Geri Miller. They left at 4am.


February 10

The day was taken up with press interviews and presentations. At one ceremony, Capitol Records president Alan Livingstone presented The Beatles with golden discs to mark the sale of a million copies of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and a million dollars worth of sales of the album Meet The Beatles. The evening was spent at clubs. Once again, they returned to the Plaza at 4am.


February 11

A snowstorm blanketed the East Coast and all flights were cancelled so a special carriage was attached to the Pennsylvania Railroad express, the Congressman, to take them to Washington, DC. The carriage, an old Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad sleeper car called The King George, was already filled with press when they arrived, and at each stop, more cameramen poked their lenses through the windows. Two thousand fans braved eight inches of snow to welcome them at Washington's Union Station. There was a press conference, then they visited WWDC, the first American radio station to play a Beatles record, where they were interviewed by DJ Carroll James. He asked about their influences:

John: "Small Blind Johnny."

Carroll James: "Small Blind Johnny?"

John: "Oh yes, he played with Big Deaf Arthur."

Carroll James: "John, they call you the chief Beatle ..."

John: "Carroll. I don't call you names!"

Carroll James: "Excluding America and England, what are your favourite countries you've visited?"

John: "Excluding America and England, what's left?"

The party checked into The Shoreham Hotel, taking the whole of the seventh floor which was sealed off from the fans. One family refused the leave their rooms on the seventh floor so the hotel cut off the central heating, hot water and electricity, telling them that there had been a power failure. The disgruntled family moved.

A total of 8,092 fans, mostly girls, saw the show at the Washington Coliseum, protected by 362 police officers, one of whom found the volume so loud he stuck a bullet in each ear as ear plugs. The Beatles' set consisted of: 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'From Me To You', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'This Boy', 'All My Loving', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'Please Please Me', 'Till There Was You', 'She Loves You', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'Twist And Shout' and 'Long Tall Sally'. Also on the bill were The Chiffons and Tommy Roe.

Paul: "Most exciting yet."

THE EMBASSY INCIDENT

After the show there was a reception at the British Embassy, given by Lady Ormsby-Gore. There had been a formal dance to benefit The National Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and The Beatles were required to hand out the raffle prizes at the end of the affair. The British community, arrogant debutantes and aristocrats, disgraced themselves, and one woman even snipped off a lock of Ringo's hair just behind his left ear. John pushed all the autograph seekers away saying, "These people have no bloody manners," and grabbing Ringo, said, "I'm getting out of here." Ringo calmed him down, they did their stuff and left. Brian was told firmly never to expose them to that kind of gathering again.


February 12

The Beatles took the two-hour train ride back to New York but their limousine could not get through the waiting crowds of fans. It was Lincoln's birthday, a public holiday, so school was out and 10,000 fans were waiting at Penn Station. They had to be spirited back to the hotel by normal New York City yellow cabs. After a quick shave, shower and change of clothes, they were smuggled out of the Plaza down the back elevator and out through the kitchens in order to get to nearby Carnegie Hall for a double header at the most prestigious venue in the country. The audience was warmed up by a folk'n'roll group called The Briar-woods. Backstage they received a gold disc from Swan Records for selling a million copies of 'She Loves You'. Shirley Bassey, who was herself about to appear at Carnegie Hall later in the week, was among their visitors.

George Martin had requested permission from EMI to record the Carnegie Hall concerts, but hurried negotiations with the American Federation of Musicians failed to produce the required US agreement, so the shows went untaped.

Promoter Sid Bernstein took Brian Epstein outside into the snow-laden air after the show and offered him $25,000 plus a $5,000 donation to the British Cancer Fund for a Madison Square Garden concert in a few days time. Tickets could be printed and would sell out at once, he assured Brian. "Let's leave this for next time," said Brian.

That night, their last in New York City, they left the Plaza at 1.30am to visit the Headliner Club and then the Improvisation coffee house in Greenwich Village. They returned at dawn and a reporter who was still waiting outside asked if it had been a quiet night. Paul: "No. We met Stella Stevens, Tuesday Weld and Jill Haworth - and they're not exactly quiet girls."

Granada Television screened Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! - The Beatles In New York, an instant documentary by the Maysles Brothers.


February 13

National Airlines Flight 11 left New York at 1.30pm, and arrived at Miami at 4pm. At Miami there were 7,000 fans waiting, whipped into a frenzy by rival radio stations WFUN and WQAM who announced their arrival time, but The Beatles leapt straight from the plane into a waiting limousine and were off to the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. Their convoy of three black limousines had motorcycle outriders front and back and made the eight miles of expressway into the city in record time, going through red lights, driving on the wrong side of the road, as fans lining the streets cheered and waved.

Murray the K accompanied them, and even shared a room with George in their three-bedroom suite, guarded by Pinkerton detectives. (Disgruntled George never figured out how the pushy New York DJ had pulled that one off.) That evening they visited the Mau Mau Lounge where they saw The Coasters and danced the "Mashed Potato". Murray the K took them to see Hank Ballard & The Midnighters at the Miami Peppermint Lounge. There they were besieged by autograph hunters so they didn't stay long.

After being inundated with requests, Granada Television repeated Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! -The Beatles In New York by the Maysles Brothers.


February 14

A short rehearsal for The Ed Sullivan Show. A photo session for Life magazine in the swimming pool at the home of a Capitol Records executive, followed by a tour round Miami Harbour in a luxury houseboat provided by a Bernard Castro. Two reporters were found to have stowed away and the boat returned to shore to put them off. Their private bodyguard, Sgt Buddy Bresner, took them home to meet his wife and kids -Dottie, Barry, Andy and Jeri - and fed them a typical American meal: roast beef, green beans, baked potatoes, peas, salad and a huge strawberry ice cake. That evening they stayed in the hotel, taking in the floor shows in the hotel's nightclubs: first comedian Don Rickells, then Myron Cohen and singer Carol Lawrence. They had no dinner because Bresner's massive lunch had filled them up.


February 15

The group, wearing swimming trunks, rehearsed in the hotel's Napoleon Room. At 2pm The Beatles did a dress rehearsal for The Ed Sullivan Show before an audience of 2,500, many of whom had queued outside since early morning. The rest of the day was spent fishing. ABC TV's Dick Clark's American Bandstand broadcast a telephone interview with the group.


February 16

The Ed Sullivan Show was done in the Deauville Hotel itself. CBS gave out 3,500 tickets when the hall only held 2,600. The police had to deal with riots when fans holding perfectly valid tickets were turned away. The group played, 'She Loves You', 'This Boy', 'All My Loving', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'From Me To You' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. Boxers Joe Louis and Sonny Listen were both in the audience. Mitzi Gaynor topped the bill but the 70,000,000 viewers were mostly tuned in to watch The Beatles.

The owner of the hotel, Maurice Lansberg, gave a small party for the performers and technicians on the show. Self-service: lobster, beef, chicken, and fish.


February 17

The Beatles tried their hand at water-skiing.

The single 'I Wanna Be Your Man' by The Rolling Stones, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as London 9641.


February 18

On their day off, The Beatles, probably at Paul's instigation, requested a visit to Cassius Clay's training camp where he was preparing for his rematch with the champion, Sonny Liston. The photographers went crazy as ex-heavyweight champ Clay picked up Ringo as if he weighed only a few ounces.

They had a barbecue in the grounds of a millionaire's home, eating the biggest steaks they had ever seen, and tried their hand with speedboats. That evening they went to a drive-in movie, where they saw Elvis Presley's Fun In Acapulco.


February 21

The Beatles returned to London from Miami, via New York.


February 22

The Beatles arrived back in London at 8.10am to a tumultuous welcome. They gave a press conference in the Kingsford-Smith suite at the airport which was shown by BBC TV later as part of the sports programme Grandstand. News of their return was also featured on radio news and other programmes. Paul spent the evening in Canterbury, seeing Jane Asher act in The Jew Of Malta.


February 23

ABC TV's Teddington Studio Centre. Without even a day off to get over jet-lag, The Beatles taped an appearance for Mike & Bernie Winters' variety show Big Night Out before a live audience. They appeared in various skits, including a river cruise which was also filmed by ITN and used in its news bulletin that evening. They mimed to 'All My Loving', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'Till There Was You', 'Please Mister Postman', 'Money (That's What I Want)' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. Afterwards they went to an all-night party at Alma Cogan's apartment in Kensington. The Beatles' third appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was screened.


February 24

Ringo went to Liverpool to see his family.


February 25

Ringo took the first flight from Liverpool to London to attend a recording session.

Abbey Road. They finished 'Can't Buy Me Love', recorded 'You Can't Do That' (featuring John on lead guitar for the first time on record) and began work on Paul's 'And I Love Her' and John's 'I Should Have Known Better'.

George's 21st birthday. He received 52 mail-sacks holding about 30,000 cards. Two fans sent him a door so that he could use one of the thousands of 21st keys he was sent. At a party after the Abbey Road session, George was given a gold cigarette lighter by Brian Epstein. The Beatles and the other guests dined on turtle soup, smoked salmon and Chateaubriand steak.


February 26

Abbey Road. Further work on 'And I Love Her' and 'I Should Have Known Better'.

The album Jolly What! The Beatles And Frank Ifield On Stage was released in the US as Vee Jay VJLP 1085. Despite its title, it featured regular studio recordings by both artists, allowing Vee Jay to extract yet more mileage from the dozen Beatles tracks which they had under licence. This LP featured eight Ifield songs, plus 'Please Please Me', 'From Me To You', 'Ask Me Why' and 'Thank You Girl'.


February 27

Abbey Road. 'And I Love Her' was finished, plus complete recordings made of John's 'Tell Me Why' and 'If I Fell'.

Two of John Lennon's nonsense poems, 'The Tales Of Hermit Fred' and 'The Land Of Lunapots', were published for the first time in Mersey Beat.


February 28

BBC Studios at 201 Piccadilly. The Beatles recorded a second From Us To You Easter bank holiday special for the Light Programme. The group was interviewed by Alan ("Fluff") Freeman and taped 'You Can't Do That', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Till There Was You', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'Please Mister Postman', 'All My Loving', 'This Boy' and 'Can't Buy Me Love'. As before they taped their own version of the show's theme tune From Us To You to open and close the programme.

The single 'A World Without Love' by Peter & Gordon was released in the UK as Columbia DB 7225. It had been written by John and Paul and given to Jane Asher's brother who had just received a record contract from EMI. Jane Asher: "The song came up one night when Paul and John were round at our home. They hadn't really finished it, but Peter and Gordon were mad keen about it right away. So the boys worked on it."

The single 'Why'/'Cry For A Shadow' by Tony Sheridan & The Beatles (A-side) and The Beatles (B-side) was released in the UK as Polydor NH 52-275.


February 29

ABC TVs Mike and Bernie Winters' Big Night Out featuring the jet-lagged Beatles was broadcast.


March 1

Abbey Road. 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You' was recorded, specially written for George who was not yet writing songs regularly. This was followed by 'Long Tall Sally' with Paul in fine Little Richard form, and 'I Call Your Name'.


March 2

The Beatles began filming A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester, with a screenplay written by Alun Owen. Filming began at 8.30am on Paddington Station, with The Beatles hurriedly joining Equity minutes before boarding the train.

The first week was spent filming on a specially hired train going from Paddington to Minehead and back, covering 2,500 miles in six days. After the crowds on the first day, they boarded the train at Acton station to avoid Paddington. There was a special dining car laid on for The Beatles and crew but when there was a 40-minute break they used the time set aside for eating to sit still instead of rolling from side to side.

Filming started at 8.30, very early for them, and each day they were given a shooting schedule. Since they all had equal parts, there was never a great deal of dialogue to be learned. On the train, the dialogue was recorded using microphones inside their shirts, but even then there were many retakes because the levels were not high enough. One of the actresses on the train the first day was Patti Boyd, with whom George struck up an immediate friendship. The single 'Twist And Shout'/'There's A Place' was released in the US as Tollie 9001.

PATTI BOYD

Patti Boyd was a model and actress who had already made a name for herself by the time she met George. By far the most glamorous of The Beatles' girlfriends, George became smitten with her almost immediately and they were soon living together. George and Patti married in 1966. After her and George separated in the early Seventies, Patti became Eric Clapton's girlfriend and, later, wife.


March 3

Filming on location, between London and Minehead.


March 4

Filming on location, between London and Minehead.


March 5

Filming on location, between London and Minehead.

The group had drinks with Jeffrey Archer at Vincent's, the Oxford Sportsmen's club, before attending a dinner at Brasenose College, Oxford, that Archer had organised to celebrate their fundraising work for Oxfam.

The single 'Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand'/'Sie Liebt Dich' was released in Germany as Odeon 22671.


March 6

Filming on location, between London and Minehead.


March 9

Filming on location, between London and Newton Abbott, Devon. This was the last day of railway location filming.

NEMS ENTERPRISES

NEMS Enterprises limited moved from Liverpool to new headquarters on the fifth floor of Sutherland House, 5 & 6 Argyll Street, London. The press office, previously at 13 Monmouth Street, London, was also moved to the new office suite. A press release, dated March 2, listed the management staff as: J. Alistair Taylor, General Manager; J.B. Montgomery, Accounts; Tony Barrow, NEMS Press Officer; Brian Sommerville, Beatles' Personal Press Representative; Wendy Hanson, Personal Assistant to Brian Epstein.

NEMS then managed The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, The Dakotas, Cilia Black, The Fourmost, Tommy Quickly, Sounds Incorporated and The Remo Four. In Brian's accompanying letter to his staff he said: "First of all as our organisation is very much in the public eye, it is most important that we present the best possible 'front'. By this I mean that all visitors must be treated with utmost courtesy. That work must be carried out smoothly and efficiently without fuss. And most important, that the offices themselves must be kept tidy and clean at all times."


March 10

Filming at The Turk's Head, Twickenham. That evening they visited Tony Sheridan at Brian Epstein's apartment.


March 11

Filming at Twickenham Film Studios, miming to 'I Should Have Known Better' in a mock-up of the train's guard's van. Studio technicians rocked the set during filming. At one point Richard Lester stopped the shoot because the technicians were rocking the set in time with The Beatles' music.


March 12

Filming at Twickenham: hotel room sequences.


March 13

The movie's closing sequence was filmed with a helicopter at Gatwick Airport.


March 16

Ringo filmed his canteen sequence at Twickenham Studios. Ringo was made Vice-President of Leeds University Law Society. George and Brian Epstein attended a Cilia Black recording session for BBC's

Saturday Club. The single 'Can't Buy Me Love'/'You Can't Do That' was released in the US as Capitol 5150.


March 17

Filming at Les Ambassadeurs Club.

John recorded an interview with Jack de Manio for the BBC Home Service programme Today to promote his forthcoming book In His Own Write.


March 18

Filming at Twickenham.

While on the set they recorded an interview for the BBC Light Programme show The Public Ear in which they interviewed each other.

John's interview was broadcast on the Today programme.


March 19

The Variety Club of Great Britain 12th Annual Show Business Awards were presented at a luncheon at the Dorchester Hotel. Harold Wilson, Leader of the Opposition, presented The Beatles with the award for "Show Business Personalities of 1963" and, somewhat shrewdly, had his picture taken with them. John referred to his award, a heart shaped shield, as his "purple heart".

The Beatles were filming that morning at Twickenham and returned to the set directly after the luncheon. Later that evening they recorded their first Top Of The Pops programme for the BBC. They mimed to 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'You Can't Do That'.

There had been a lot of discussion about a name for the film. Beatlemania was rejected, as was Moving On, Travelling On, Let's Go and Paul's suggestion, Who Was That Little Old Man? It was Ringo who came up with A Hard Day's Night. After a particularly heavy day he remarked, "Boy, this has been a hard day's night!" Everyone jumped on the idea immediately.


March 20

Filming at Twickenham.

Ringo was interviewed on the set by Peter Nobel for the BBC radio programme Movie-Go-Round.

In the late afternoon they drove to the London headquarters of Associated Rediffusion and appeared live on Ready, Steady, Go! miming to 'It Won't Be Long', You Can't Do That' and 'Can't Buy Me Love'. They were interviewed by Cathy McGowan and took part in sketches.

George took Hayley Mills to the midnight charity showing of Charade at the Regal Cinema in Henley-on-Thames.

The single 'Can't Buy Me Love'/'You Can't Do That' was released in the UK as Parlophone R 5114.

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE

The Beatles' first single of 1964 was taped almost as an afterthought, at the end of the group's one and only EMI studio session outside Britain. Their visit to Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris had been arranged so they could reluctantly concoct German-language versions of two of their biggest hits. With less than an hour remaining, the group cut this Paul McCartney song in just four takes - completely reworking the arrangement between their first, R&B-styled attempt and the more polished final version.

'Can't Buy Me Love' came closer than any of The Beatles' singles thus far, to matching the rock'n'roll music that they'd been playing since the mid-Fifties. Its lyrics neatly reversed the theme of'Money'from their previous album, and the track gave George Harrison a splendid opportunity to show off his guitar skills. He added his solo as an overdub, having already proved on that tentative first take that unrehearsed improvisation wasn't exactly his forte.

YOU CAN'T DO THAT

Of all the songs on The Beatles' forthcoming A Hard Day's Night album, John Lennon was proudest of this. Not at all coincidentally, it was the roughest, least polished number he'd recorded up to that date. It was blatantly inspired by the R&B songs coming out of Memphis, and (as rock critic Lester Bangs wrote years later), "built on one of the bitterest and most iron-indestructible riffs ever conceived". Lennon handled the lead guitar himself, hammering out a wiry solo which grew into a furious flurry of chords, totally unlike anything that George Harrison performed on the rest of the album.


March 21

In New York, the prestigious Saturday Evening Post published a selection of John's whimsical prose and poetry, billing his work as "Beatalic Graphospasms".


March 22

A sequence of The Beatles interviewing themselves was broadcast on The Public Ear by the BBC Light Programme.


March 23

Filming at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London, where they were to remain all week.

IN HIS OWN WRITE

In His Own Write by John Lennon was published by Jonathan Cape on March 23. John: "Some journalist who was hanging round The Beatles came to me and I ended up showing him the stuff. They said, "Write a book' and that's how the first one came about, and the second was your follow-up. Then I forgot about it." The journalist was Derek Taylor, who introduced John to representatives from Jonathan Cape.

To promote the book, John appeared live on the BBC television Tonight programme broadcast from lime Grove. He was interviewed by Kenneth Allsop and read selections from the book, many of which first saw print in John's 'Beatcomber' column in Mersey Beat.

The Duke of Edinburgh presented The Beatles with the Carl-Alan Award for Musical Achievement in 1963 at a ceremony at the Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square as part of the annual Carl-Alan Ballroom Dancing Awards. The presentation was broadcast live by BBC television.

The single 'Do You Want To Know A Secret'/'Thank You Girl' was released in the US as Vee Jay VJ 587.

The EP The Beatles was released in the US as Vee Jay VJEP 1-903. Side A: 'Misery', 'A Taste Of Honey'; Side B: 'Ask Me Why', 'Anna (Go To Him)'. The EP format was unusual in the US, but Vee Jay only had a few tracks to play with and so they released them in every possible format.


March 24

Filming at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London.

Wax effigies of all four Beatles went on display at Madame Tussaud's museum in central London. The original dummies were later included in the montage of faces on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album. The group's shifting visual image during the 60s forced Madame Tussaud's to rework their original designs on several occasions.

John did an interview to promote his new book for Dateline London, a BBC Overseas Service magazine programme.


March 25

Filming at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London. The Beatles' appearance on Top Of The Pops was transmitted.


March 26

Filming at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London.


March 27

John and Cynthia, and George and Patti left to spend the Easter weekend in Dromolan Castle, County Clare, Ireland. The press reported that the decently married Lennons had accompanied George and his new girlfriend to act as 'chaperons'. Ringo went to spend the weekend at Woburn Abbey as the guest of Lord Rudolph Russell, son of the Duke of Bedford. Paul remained in London.

The press reported that The Beatles now held the first six positions in the Australian singles charts.


March 30

The single 'Bad To Me' by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as Imperial 66027.

The BBC Light Programme broadcast their specially recorded Beatles bank holiday special, From Us To You.


March 31

The group filmed a live concert at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London, for A Hard Day's Night. They mimed to 'Tell Me Why', 'And I Love Her', 'I Should Have Known Better' and 'She Loves You'. Thirteen-year old Phil Collins was in the audience as one of the 350 paid child extras.

That evening, The Beatles recorded a session for BBC Light Programme's Saturday Club. They did 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby', 'I Call Your Name', 'I Got A Woman', You Can't Do That', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'Sure To Fall (In Love With You)' and 'Long Tall Sally'.

John was interviewed about his book by Brian Matthew for the BBC Home Service programme A Slice of Life.


April 1

Filming at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London.

A meeting was arranged at the London offices of NEMS between John and his father, Freddie. It lasted 20 minutes and George and Ringo were also present. Father and son had not seen each other for 17 years.

Paul visited a sick relative at Walton Hospital in Liverpool.


April 2

Filming at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London.


April 3

Filming at Twickenham Film Studios.

The Beatles filmed answers to viewers' questions for the Tyne Tees Television programme Star Parade.


April 4

In the Billboard "Hot 100" chart for the week of April 4, The Beatles occupied no fewer than 12 places, including the top five, an unprecedented achievement that is unlikely ever to be equalled. 'Can't Buy Me Love' was at number 1, followed by 'Twist And Shout' (2), 'She Loves You' (3), 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' (4), 'Please Please Me' (5), 'I Saw Her Standing There' (31), 'From Me To You' (41), 'Do You Want To Know A Secret' (46), 'All My Loving' (58), 'You Can't Do That' (65), 'Roll Over Beethoven' (68) and 'Thank You Girl' (79). A week later two more singles entered the chart - 'There's A Place' (74) and 'Love Me Do' (81).

The Beatles' most recent Saturday Club session was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme.

Derek Taylor signed a contract with Brian Epstein to ghostwrite The Beatles' manager's autobiography.


April 5

Filming the chase sequence at Marylebone Railway Station.


April 6

Filming at Twickenham.


April 7

Filming at Twickenham.


April 9

Ringo filmed his solo spot for the film on the towpath of the Thames at Kew. The Beatles' Q & A session was broadcast on Tyne Tees Television.


April 10

Filming at Twickenham.

The album The Beatles' Second Album was released in the US as Capitol ST 2080. Side A: 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Thank You Girl', 'You Really Got A Hold On Me', 'Devil In Her Heart', 'Money (That's What I Want)', 'You Can't Do That'; Side B: 'Long Tall Sally', 'I Call Your Name', 'Please Mister Postman', 'I'll Get You', 'She Loves You'. Despite its title, the LP was actually the group's third album release in the US, though only their second on Capitol.


April 12

Filming at Marylebone Station which was closed on Sundays.


April 13

Filming at Twickenham.

With A Hard Day's Night confirmed as the title of their film, John announced his intention to write a title tune to order - which he did that evening.


April 14

Filming at Twickenham.

John arrived for the day's filming with his song 'A Hard Day's Night', quickly taught it to Paul, who tidied up the middle section, and the pair then played it to film producer Walter Shenson for the first time.


April 15

Filming outside shots at the Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London. Paul was interviewed by David Frost for a BBC1 television show, A Degree Of Frost.


April 16

Filming chase scenes in Netting Hill Gate.

Abbey Road. Recording 'A Hard Day's Night'.

Paul: "When George Martin was scoring A Hard Day's Night [for the orchestral film soundtrack], he said, 'What is that note, John? It's been a hard day's night and I've been work-? Is it the seventh? Work-innnngggg?'

"John said, 'Oh no, it's not that.' 'Well is it work-innnggg?' He sings the sixth.

"John said, 'No.'

"George said, 'Well, it must be somewhere in between then!'

"John said, 'Yeah, man, write that down.' And that's what I love! That's what I find interesting about music!"


April 17

Filming at Les Ambassadeurs.

The group were interviewed by Ed Sullivan in the club's walled garden during a break in filming.

The title A Hard Day's Night was announced as the name of The Beatles' first film.


April 18

The morning was spent at Twickenham Film Studios.

The afternoon was spent in rehearsal at The Hall Of Remembrance, Flood Street, Chelsea, for a TV Special for Rediffusion called Around The Beatles.

The Beatles appeared on ATV's The Morecambe and Wise Show (recorded December 2,1963).


April 19

IBC Studios, Portland Place, to record their contribution to Around The Beatles. They played 'Twist And Shout', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'Long Tall Sally', 'Boys' (omitted from the final broadcast), 'Can't Buy Me Love' and a greatest hits medley: 'Love Me Do'/'Please Please Me'/'From Me To You'/'She Loves You'/'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'Shout!' They would mime to this tape on the actual show. Burglars broke into George and Ringo's flat in Green Street, Knightsbridge. Derek Taylor joined Brian Epstein's staff as his personal assistant.

DEREK TAYLOR

Derek was a reporter who worked on the Daily Express and was originally sent to do a 'hatchet' job on The Beatles, but he decided he loved the group and instead found himself ghosting a George Harrison column in the Express. This led to a lasting friendship with George and a commission to ghost-write Brian Epstein's autobiography, A Cellarful Of Noise. He became their press officer and, after a period living in Los Angeles, rejoined The Beatles, again as press officer, during the Apple era. Erudite, eminently literate and with a quirky sense of humour, Taylor was a much loved and respected member of their entourage, a born diplomat who remained unruffled even in the most trying of circumstances.


April 20

Paul was filmed at the Jack Billings TV School of Dance, Notting Hill, in a solo spot that was ultimately cut from the final film.


April 21

Paul's second day of filming at the Jack Billings TV School of Dance.


April 22

Outdoor locations shots were filmed at the Hammersmith Odeon and in Notting Hill and Shepherd's Bush.

The Beatles attended a press reception, hosted by the Rt. Hon. Sir Eric Harrison, Australian High Commissioner, at Australia House. Fans milled around outside in the pouring rain and the 700 guests all scrambled to get autographs. Paul: "Will it be like this in Australia then? Blimey!" The group was finally pushed into a private office containing a huge map of Australia made entirely of apples. Ringo grabbed one and ate it, telling the Ambassador, "It's bonza, mate!" Each member of the group was presented with a hamper of two magnums of Australian champagne, and tins of fruit. John asked, "Where's the Aussie beer we've heard so much about then?" Sir Eric grew more and more irritated at the proceedings and told reporters, "There has never been a reception quite like this in Australia House and I hope there will never be another one. I guess I am what you would call a square but those photographers were just too much. They climbed all over the chairs and then when we went inside a closed office they were thrusting their cameras through the windows and rapping on the glass ..."


April 23

Filming at Thornbury Playing Fields, Isleworth, Middlesex.

John cut short his day's filming in order to attend a Foyle's Literary Luncheon, given in his honour, at the Dorchester Hotel. The chairman was Osbert Lancaster and other guests included Arthur Askey, Harry Secombe, Millicent Martin, Joan Littlewood, Helen Shapiro, Marty Wilde, Yehudi Menuhin, Victor Silvester, Mary Quant and cartoonist Giles. Brian Epstein was in attendance but, strangely, no other Beatles. Christina Foyle was put out when the severely hungover John restricted his speech to the words, "Thank you very much and God bless you."


April 24

Ringo's Sir Walter Raleigh puddle sequence was filmed in West Ealing. As it was the final day of shooting, The Beatles, the entire crew, and Murray the K, who was visiting, trooped across the road from the studios to the Turk's Head pub nearby where food and drinks had been laid on in a private room in the back.


April 25

Rehearsals for Around The Beatles were held at The Hall of Remembrance, Flood Street, Chelsea.


April 26

The Beatles topped the bill at the New Musical Express 1963-4 Annual Poll Winners' All-Star Concert held at Empire Pool, Wembley, in the afternoon. Ten thousand fans saw them receive their awards from Roger Moore and perform 'She Loves You', 'You Can't Do That', 'Twist And Shout', 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Can't Buy Me Love'. Their section of the show was introduced in typically exaggerated manner by the self-styled 'Fifth Beatle', Murray the K, who used his introduction to promote the name and call-sign of his New York radio station.


April 27

The Beatles attended a full dress rehearsal before a live audience for the Around The Beatles TV Special held at Rediffusion's studios in Wembley. The single 'Love Me Do'/'P.S. I Love You' was released in the US as Tollie 9008. The single 'A World Without Love' by Peter & Gordon, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as Capitol 5175. The single 'Why'/'Cry For A Shadow' by Tony Sheridan & The Beatles (A- side) and The Beatles (B-side) was released in the US as MGM K 13227. John's In His Own Write was published in the US by Simon & Schuster. NEMS Enterprises increased its share capital to 10,000 £1 shares. Brian gave The Beatles 250 shares each.


April 28

The Around The Beatles TV Special was taped at Rediffusion's Wembley Studio. As well as the numbers they had already recorded, The Beatles played Act V Scene 1 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with John taking the female role of Thisbe, Paul as Pyramus, George as Moonshine and Ringo as Lion - their faintly hysterical performances being accompanied by mock-heckling from the gallery. Paul later named his cat Thisbe. The finished show also featured performances from Cilia Black, P.J. Proby and Long John Baldry.


April 29

ABC Cinema, Edinburgh. Stayed overnight at the Roman Camp Hotel, Callander, Perthshire. An interview with BBC Radio Scotland was broadcast on Scottish News.


April 30

The group was interviewed in the afternoon by BBC Scotland for the news programme Six Ten, then they recorded an interview at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow for STV's Roundabout programme.

That evening they played two sets at the Odeon Cinema, Glasgow.


May 1

The Beatles were driven to the BBC's Paris Studio in the West End of London to record their third From Us To You bank holiday special for the BBC Light Programme, introduced by Alan Freeman. They played: 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Kansas City'/'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey', 'I Forgot To Remember To Forget', 'You Can't Do That', 'Sure To Fall (In Love With You)', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'Matchbox' and 'Honey Don't'.


May 2

John and Cynthia, George and Patti flew to Honolulu on holiday but despite the fact that they had booked their flights and hotel reservations under pseudonyms, the pressure from the press was relentless and they were forced to leave. They flew on to Papeeti, in Tahiti. A reporter asked John, "Why are you leaving Hawaii so soon?" John snapped back at him, "Why didn't you leave us alone? How would you like a microphone always stuck in your face when you are on holiday?" George was asked, "How long will you stay in Tahiti?" to which he replied, "An hour."

Paul and Jane, Ringo and Maureen, took a holiday in St Thomas, Virgin Islands. They also travelled under aliases: Paul was Mr Manning, Jane was Miss Ashcroft, Ringo was Mr Stone and Maureen Miss Cockroft. They left from Luton Airport and flew to Paris. From there they flew to Lisbon, where they spent the night at the Ritz Hotel.

An exhibition of Stuart Sutcliffe's paintings opened at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.


May 3

From Lisbon, Paul and Jane, Ringo and Maureen, flew to Puerto Rico and from there to the Virgin Islands - a convoluted route designed to avoid the press. In St Thomas, they hired a yacht, complete with crew: Captain Bolyard and his wife Peggy.

Paul: "Fantastic scenery in those islands - we really felt we were in another world. I remember taking the dinghy out to do some spear fishing. I had this clumsy old spear with me - honestly, it was big enough to catch whales. So I dove - or is it dived? - off the boat and started hunting around for fish. There were lots of little fish kicking around down below, but suddenly I saw some barracudas. Miniature sharks. Nasty fellows those! You can annoy other fish but barracudas are NOT for stirring. They're for avoiding. I tried to get them to go away but it didn't work. So I ran for my life - well, swam for it, anyway! You couldn't see me for bubbles. Of course I didn't catch anything that trip."

Paul walked barefoot on the beach and got spines in his feet. He was over-confident out in the sun and got burned. They swam and collected conch shells (with the conch still inside). They went ashore at Little Dix Bay in Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands and spent the evening listening to a calypso band and having a dance. At the hotel they saw James Garner in Boy's Night Out.

Paul: "There was something about the atmosphere there that made me get quite keen on writing new songs in the evenings. I did a couple while I was there which we recorded when we got back, 'The Things We Said Today' and 'Always And Only' ('It's For You') ... When you went out at night, the moon lit up everything. You could look into the water and actually see the bottom of the bay. Everything clear and cool and clean. Fab! I found myself just wanting to get some ideas down on paper for songs. All that palm beach stuff!

"After a while I decided to buy myself a cheap guitar, just to keep in practice. But I didn't take it away with me -1 gave it to Peggy as a little keepsake. It would have been a bit much to take it all the way back to good of England."


May 5

STV broadcast the interview they made with The Beatles during their visit to Glasgow.


May 6

Rediffusion's TV Special Around The Beatles was screened.


May 8

The single 'One And One Is Two' by The Strangers With Mike Shannon, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the UK as Phillips BF 1335. The song had been rejected by Billy J. Kramer, for whom it was originally intended, as being too banal - a verdict justified when Shannon's single failed to chart.

The album Let's Do The Twist, Hully Gully, Slop, Surf, Locomotion, Monkey was released in the US: despite being credited to The Beatles, it only featured four songs on which they performed, three of them as support group for Tony Sheridan.


May 10

The Beatles' appearance at the NME Poll Winners' concert at Empire Pool, Wembley, was screened by ABC Television as the climax of a special called Big Beat '64.


May 11

The EP Four By The Beatles was released in the US as Capitol EAP 2121.

Side A: 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'All My Loving'; Side B: 'This Boy', 'Please Mister Postman'.


May 18

Paul's appearance on A Degree Of Frost was broadcast by BBC1.

The From Us To You Beatles bank holiday special was broadcast by the BBC Light Programme.


May 21

The German-language single 'Sie Liebt Dich'/'Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand' was released in the US as Swan 4182.


May 24

The Beatles' interview with Ed Sullivan was screened along with a clip filmed for A Hard Day's Night, but not used in the film, of them miming to 'You Can't Do That'.


May 26

John and George returned to London from their holiday.


May 27

John and George attended Cilia Black's 21st birthday party, given by Brian Epstein at his London flat. Afterwards they went to the London Palladium to see Cilia's show.

Paul and Jane, Ringo and Maureen returned from their holiday in St Thomas, Virgin Islands.


May 29

Paul attended a Billy J. Kramer recording session to see him work on 'From A Window'.

The single 'Ain't She Sweet'/'If You Love Me Baby', the A-side by The Beatles and B-side by Tony Sheridan & The Beatles, was released in the UK as Polydor NH 52-317.

The single 'Nobody I Know' by Peter & Gordon, written by Paul McCartney, was released in the UK as Columbia DB 7292.


May 30

The Beatles gave a press conference to discuss their world tour at NEMS' London offices presided over by Derek Taylor, their new press representative.


May 31

Prince of Wales Theatre, London, with Kenny Lynch, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, The Vernons Girls, The Lome Gibson Trio, The Chants and The Harlems. Brian Epstein's "Pop's Alive" show. They did two sets, playing 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'All My Loving', 'This Boy', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Till There Was You', 'Twist And Shout' and 'Long Tall Sally'.

Before the show Ringo took delivery of a £350 Ludwig drum kit, supplied by Drum City.


June

Paul bought a steel blue Aston Martin DB5 just before leaving for their world tour.


June 1

Abbey Road. The Beatles worked on songs intended to be used on the A Hard Day's Night album: 'Matchbox', 'I'll Cry Instead' and 'Slow Down'. Carl Perkins, the composer of 'Matchbox', was in the studio to watch them. George had been so influenced early on by Perkins that on the Johnny Gentle tour he had called himself Carl Harrison.

The single 'Sweet Georgia Brown'/'Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby' by Tony Sheridan & The Beatles was released in the US as Atco 6302.


June 2

Abbey Road. John's 'Any Time At All' and 'When I Get Home', and Paul's 'Things We Said Today' were recorded.

At the studio The Beatles recorded an interview with Bob Rogers for Australian television ATN 7.

Paul and Jane saw Cilia Black play the London Palladium.


June 3

Ringo collapsed during a morning photo session for Saturday Evening Post in Barnes and was taken to University College Hospital suffering from acute tonsillitis and pharyngitis, requiring complete rest and quiet.

JIMMY NICOL

With The Beatles due to leave on a world tour the next morning, a substitute drummer was urgently required. George Martin suggested Jimmy Nicol, who suddenly found himself a temporary member of the most famous group on Earth. The Beatles cancelled a recording session and spent the time at Abbey Road rehearsing with Jimmy Nicol instead.

Jimmy: "I was having a bit of a lie down after lunch when the phone rang. It was EMI asking if I could come down to the studio to rehearse with The Beatles. Two hours after I got there I was told to pack my bags for Denmark."


That evening, with Ringo not there, the remaining Beatles recorded demo versions of their own composition: George did 'You'll Know What To Do' (unreleased until Beatles Anthology 1), Paul did a demo of 'It's For You' to give to Cilla Black and John recorded 'No Reply' which he gave to Tommy Quickly for a single before The Beatles used it.


June 4

The Beatles' Austin Princess, driven by their chauffeur "Big" Bill Corbett, took John, Paul, George and Jimmy Nicol to Heathrow Airport for their flight to Denmark. They were swiftly taken aboard their plane ahead of the other passengers, and signed autographs for the captain and crew. Over 6,000 fans were waiting in Copenhagen airport, with most of the yelling coming from boys rather than girls. Fans attempted to storm the doors of the Royal Hotel, opposite the Tivoli Gardens, when they checked in and the crowd of 10,000 fans brought the centre of Copenhagen to a standstill. The crowds were controlled by Danish police assisted by visiting members of the British Royal Fusiliers.

They had to rehearse their repertoire for Jimmy Nicol, Ringo's stand-in, and Mal Evans introduced a new way of getting them to remember the playlist - he taped it onto their guitars.

Before the first of their two shows at the KB Hallen, they were visited by the British Ambassador. They played two packed-out houses, with 4,400 fans in each. The first set consisted of: 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'You Can't Do That', 'All My Loving', 'She Loves You', 'Till There Was You', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'This Boy' and 'Long Tall Sally'. For the second set, and the rest of the tour, the order of the first two numbers was switched round. Ringo's 'I Wanna Be Your Man' was left out of the set. There were riotous scenes at the end of the second performance when the MC announced that The Beatles would not be coming back on stage and a potted delphinium was thrown at him.

Back at the Royal The Beatles ate smorrebrodsseddel, a sort of jam sandwich, and Paul sent Ringo a get-well cable: "Didn't think we could miss you so much. Get well soon."


June 5

They arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 1pm and were presented with bunches of flowers and traditional Dutch hats. After the usual press conference they went straight to Hillegom, 26 miles outside Amsterdam, to rehearse and record a television show for VARA TV at the Treslong cafe-restaurant. They mimed to 'Twist And Shout', 'All My Loving', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Long Tall Sally', 'She Loves You' and 'Can't Buy Me Love', but before they could complete the last number, they were engulfed by fans, mostly boys. Mal Evans, Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall did their best to clear the stage

but eventually Neil signalled the group to leave. John, Paul and George ran for cover, leaving Jimmy Nicol playing along to the music.

After the concert that evening they toured Amsterdam's red-light district, the Walletjes. John: "When we hit town, we hit it, we were not pissing about. You know, there's photographs of me grovelling about, crawling about in Amsterdam on my knees, coming out of whore houses and things like that, and people saying, 'Good morning, John ...' The police escorted me to the places because they never wanted a big scandal."

The single 'Like Dreamers Do' by The Applejacks, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the UK as Decca F 11916.


June 6

The Beatles made a highly publicised tour of the Amsterdam canals in one of the glass-topped tourist boats. Some fans dived into the canal and the police used very rough tactics in getting them out. All police leave was cancelled and 15,000 police were on duty for The Beatles' canal trip, watched by 50,000 fans.

The concerts were held at the Exhibition Hall in Blokker, about 36 miles from Amsterdam. They travelled there in two white Cadillacs with motorcycle outriders which, curiously, had sidecars. In between sets they managed to get a bit of rest in their dressing room but inadvertently insulted the good people of Blokker. They were expected at a civic reception at a local restaurant and a visit to a traditional Dutch village had also been laid on. No one told them and they slept peacefully while everyone waited for them to appear.

The fans were particularly boisterous, since many were boys. Paul: "Sometimes we thought they were going to get out of hand but nobody ever started any real trouble."


June 7

The 10.15am BEA flight to Hong Kong from London, Heathrow, was held up for an hour to enable The Beatles to make the connection from their flight from Amsterdam, which caused some grumbles in the British press later. The plane stopped to refuel at Zurich, Beirut, Karachi, Calcutta and Bangkok. In Beirut, police turned fire fighting foam on the hundreds of fans who invaded the runway. In Karachi Paul attempted to buy a few souvenirs at the airport but even at 2am shrieking fans appeared from nowhere and he was forced back on to the plane. They managed a 6am cup of tea in the terminal building at Calcutta with no trouble but at Bangkok about 1,000 fans, mostly in school uniforms, rampaged through the airport chanting, "Beatles come out!" They did go down the ramp to sign autographs and be kissed. John and Paul had a pillow fight on board, filmed by Australian TV cameraman Mayo Hunter and transmitted on The Seven Network shortly after the plane landed in Australia.


June 8

The Beatles arrived at Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong and were quickly transferred to the 15th floor of the President Hotel in Kowloon, by-passing customs and immigration formalities. Paul and Neil ordered a couple of the famous 24-hour suits. That evening, tired and jet-lagged, The Beatles were expected to attend the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, held in the hotel. When they refused there were so many tears that John went down to the Convention Hall to make an appearance. He shook the contestants' hands and made a few choice remarks about the beauty of oriental girls.

George: "The best flight I remember was the one to Hong Kong. It took several hours and I remember them saying, 'Return to your seats because we're approaching Hong Kong' and I thought, 'We can't be there already.' We'd been sitting on the floor drinking and taking Preludins for about 30 hours and so it seemed like a ten-minute flight.

"On all those flights we were still on uppers and that's what helped us get through, because we'd drink a whisky and coke with anyone, even if he was the Devil, and charm the pants off him."


June 9

Princess Theatre, Kowloon, Hong Kong with The Maori Hi-Five. The Beatles played two shows, but since the Chinese promoter had charged outrageous ticket prices, not all the seats were full, and many of the thousands of fans who greeted them at the airport could not afford to see the shows. A ticket cost the equivalent of one week's pay. They did no sightseeing, thinking it might be too dangerous.

An interview record, The Beatles' American Tour With Ed Rudy, was released in the US.


June 11

Ringo was discharged from University College Hospital, London.

THE BEATLES' ARRIVAL IN SYDNEY

The Beatles flew to Sydney, stopping for fuel in Darwin where, at 2.35 in the morning, 400 fans stood waiting at the airport for a glimpse of the group. The Beatles went through customs and immigration and met the press. John: "You men must be from the nose-papers. Well don't blow the story up too big!" It was raining heavily and very cold when they arrived at Sydney's Mascot International Airport, despite which 2,000 fans managed to give them a damp welcome. The Beatles were paraded around the airport in an open-topped milk truck so by the time they reached the Sheridan Hotel they were soaked to the skin. A woman, soaking wet, threw her six-year-old mentally handicapped child up into the back of the truck yelling, "Catch him Paul!" Paul, drenched and unsteady as the truck bumped around the airport, managed to catch the terrified child. "May God bless you!" the woman shouted.

"He's lovely! Great!" shouted Paul. "You take him now." The woman ran after the truck until the driver saw her and slowed. She took her child and kissed it. "He's better! Oh, he's better!" she wept.

They checked into their hotel in Potts Point, Sydney. Their luggage had not yet arrived from the airport but Paul and John had enough dry clothes with them to change. George went out on the balcony to wave to fans dressed only in a bath towel wrapped around his waist.

Once they had dried off and warmed up, they launched straight into a round of interviews, press conferences, photo sessions and meetings with promoters and civic dignitaries.

Adelaide Television screened an interview with The Beatles by Ernie Sigley done in Sydney.


June 12

Ringo, accompanied by Brian Epstein, flew to Australia via San Francisco, Honolulu and Fiji. He forgot his passport and the plane was delayed. Eventually he left without it. He climbed the steps alongside actress Vivien Leigh. Brian introduced her but Ringo didn't know who she was. His passport finally arrived at the airport and was put on another plane to be given to him during his stopover in San Francisco.

THE ADELAIDE RECEPTION

The Beatles flew from Sydney to Adelaide in a chartered Ansett ANA jet, arriving at 11.57am. Police estimated that 200,000 people lined the ten miles route of their motorcade from the airport to the city centre. At least 30,000 blocked the area around the City Hall where they met Mayor Irwin, the City Council and their families who presented them with toy koala bears. John told them, "Wherever we go, anywhere in the world, this reception which Adelaide has given us will stick in our memories." Everywhere they went, they were interviewed by Adelaide DJ Bob Francis from 5DN, even on the balcony of the Town Hall. He had booked the suite next to them in the Southern Australia Hotel and had a landline installed to give his listeners hourly reports.


Centennial Hall, Adelaide, two sets with Sounds Incorporated, Johnny Devlin, Johnny Chester and The Phantoms. The compere was Alan Field. More than 50,000 applications had been made for the four concerts at this 3,000 seater hall. Their set was the same as in Denmark and Holland: 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'You Can't Do That', 'All My Loving', 'She Loves You', 'Till There Was You', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Can't Buy Me Love', This Boy' and 'Long Tall Sally'.

That night, The Beatles had a private party in their hotel suite, ignoring a society extravaganza held in their honour in the Adelaide Hills.


June 13

In the afternoon Ringo arrived in San Francisco and gave a press conference at the airport while changing planes. The conference turned into chaos as reporters scrambled to get autographs, and Ringo was hurried away to board the Qantas flight to Sydney.

Four thousand fans were still camped outside the South Australia Hotel, Adelaide, when The Beatles woke up just after noon. The group held a small reception for their Fan Club organisers before the show.

Centennial Hall, Adelaide. Two sets.

The Beatles held a private party in their suite.


June 14

Ringo arrived in Sydney to the usual shrieking fans and clamouring pressmen. At the inevitable press conference, Ringo told reporters about his rings, his taste in alcohol ("I've switched from Scotch to Bourbon") and said, "I've heard you've got a bridge or something here. No one ever tells me anything, they just knock on my door and drag me out of bed to look at rivers and things. At the moment I love it all. I mean, wouldn't you, if you got off a plane to all this?" He was asked if he ever had his hair cut, to which he replied curtly: "Of course, it'd be down by my ankles if I didn't."

After 90 minutes in Sydney, Ringo and Brian Epstein flew on to Melbourne where the crowd at the airport was already large, waiting to greet the other members of the group due to arrive five hours later. When Brian and Ringo arrived at the Southern Cross Hotel, a crowd of 3,000 fans were already gathered outside. Police Inspector Mike Patterson decided to make a run for it and hoisted Ringo onto his immense shoulders and charged into the crowd. Unfortunately, he tripped over The Beatles' own PR woman and pitched Ringo into the waiting arms of the crowd. Patterson quickly pulled him free and got him into the hotel but he was as white as a sheet. His first words were: "Give us a drink. That was the roughest ride I've ever had." He went straight to his room to lie down.

The other Beatles left their hotel at 12.15pm and flew from Adelaide to Melbourne in their chartered Ansett ANA Fokker Friendship. They arrived at Essendon Airport to a frenzied welcome from a crowd of 5,000. The crowd outside the hotel was so large that army and navy units had been called in as reinforcements when steel barriers were knocked down and the casualties began to mount up. Their route into the city was lined by 20,000 fans, most of whom moved on to the hotel which was under a state of siege. Protected by 12 motorcycle outriders, the group neared their hotel at 4pm and were driven into a garage entrance while a dummy police car with siren blaring pulled up at the hotel's front door as a diversion. In front of the hotel, 300 police and 100 military battled with the crowd, cars were crushed, people broke bones, fell from trees and more than 150 girls fainted. Fifty people, many of them adults, were taken to hospital with injuries sustained in the crush. Scores of girls had their sweaters torn off and many lost their shoes.

To relieve the crush, The Beatles were asked to show themselves, and all five appeared on the first floor balcony. The roar of the crowd was like that at a Nuremburg rally, prompting John to give them a Nazi salute and shout 'Sieg Heil', holding his finger to his upper lip as a moustache.

Once The Beatles had been properly reunited there was a press conference with all five of them, after which Jimmy Nicol's services were no longer needed. Jimmy: "The boys were very kind but I felt like an intruder. They accepted me, but you can't just get into a group like that - they have their own atmosphere, their own sense of humour. It's a little clique and outsiders just can't break in." The Beatles celebrated their reunion with a party with local girls until 4am. Jimmy Nicol was not present.


June 15

Jimmy Nicol slipped out of The Beatles' Melbourne hotel on Bourke Street at 8am in the morning accompanied by Brian Epstein to drive to the airport, "after 12 fabulous days with the world at my feet". Jimmy didn't say goodbye to The Beatles, who were sleeping off their all-night party. Jimmy: "I don't think I should disturb them." At the airport Brian paid him his agreed fee of £500 and gave him a gold watch, engraved, "To Jimmy, with appreciation and gratitude - Brian Epstein and The Beatles."

EMI held a reception for the group at the Epsilon Room of the hotel, where the wrath of a furious John Lennon was directed on EMI executives when John saw that EMI had designed a different sleeve for With The Beatles for Australia. (Australian union rules meant that all album sleeve artwork had to be re-photographed and made up. The With The Beatles sleeve would have lost too much detail if subjected to this absurd treatment so they made a different one. John was not in the mood to listen to the convoluted explanation.)

Festival Hall, Melbourne, two sets, after which they attended a private party given by Melbourne socialites in the rich suburb of Toorak.

The single 'Nobody I Know' by Peter & Gordon, written by Paul McCartney, was released in the US as Capitol 5211.

A recording of one of their shows on the 12th was broadcast by 5DN as Beatles Show.


June 16

The Beatles attended a civic reception at Melbourne Town Hall. Police closed several streets as 15,000 fans took the day off school to catch a glimpse of the group on the Town Hall balcony. They arrived half an hour late because the ticker tape reception slowed their car down. Mayor Leo Curtis had foolishly given tickets for the reception to any fan who wrote in and the reception, planned for 150 people, had swelled to 350. Ringo was asked to speak and gave them a classic Ringo line: "I wish you'd had this reception a little earlier instead of dragging me out of bed at this early hour." (It was 1.15pm.) The Mayor then asked for autographs, prompting a melee as fans and dignitaries scrambled to touch the group. Ringo demanded that they leave immediately and the Mayor took them to his wife's chambers on the second floor.

Away from the crowds, The Beatles relaxed and sat around listening to a university student play the didgeridoo and joining the Curtis family in a sing-song around the piano which Paul played. They stayed half an hour longer than planned and the event was described by Brian Epstein afterwards as "the most happy, informal moment since the tour began." The press, however, thought The Beatles had stormed out of the reception and ran headlines like: "Beatles Walk Out! Anger At Rude Guests."

Festival Hall, Melbourne, two sets.


June 17

George managed to get out for an afternoon's motoring in an MG in the Dandenong Mountains with tour organiser Lloyd Ravenscroft. Meanwhile, John, Paul and Ringo had a hairdresser come in to cut their hair.

Festival Hall, Melbourne, two sets. Channel Nine filmed the final concert for a TV show: The Beatles Sing For Shell (the oil company).


June 18

The Beatles flew into Sydney at 11.40am, where a relatively small crowd of 1,200 fans were waiting for them, guarded by 300 police. They were rapidly transferred to their old suite in the Chevron Hotel before the usual press conference where Ringo got in a few good lines.

Reporter: "I'm from Perth, Western Australia."

Ringo: "Are you bragging or complaining?"

Same Reporter: "I have flown 2,000 miles to record this interview."

Ringo: "Gee, your arms must be tired."

Sydney Stadium, Sydney, NSW. The jelly baby throwing habit, the result of an ill-considered publicity statement, really got out of hand in Australia. George: "Wherever we've been since then - America, Europe and now Australia, that stupid story has gone ahead with the result that we get jelly babies chucked at us till we're really fed up."

Paul stopped the show twice to ask the audience, "Please don't throw those sweets at us. They get in our eyes." Each time his request was met by screams and another hail of jelly babies. Paul shrugged his shoulders, "Well, I asked you, anyway." Afterwards they spoke about it to the press. Paul: "I keep asking them not to chuck those damned things, but they don't seem to have the sense to realise we hate being the target for sweets coming like bullets from all directions. How can we concentrate on our jobs on the stage when we are having all the time to keep ducking to avoid sweets, streamers and the other stuff they keep throwing at us?"

John: "It's ridiculous. They even throw miniature koala bears and gift-wrapped packages while we are going round on the revolving stage. We haven't a chance to get out of the way."

Ringo: "It's all right for you lot. You can jump aside and dodge them, but I'm stuck at the drums and can't move, so they all seem to hit me."

Despite that, The Beatles liked the audience. George: "We can't hear ourselves singing, so how can they hear us? There's never a pause in their screaming. They're great!"

It was Paul's 22nd birthday and his principal guests were 17 beautiful girls, winners of the Daily Mirror "Why I Would Like to be a Guest at a Beatle's Birthday Party" competition. At 3am Ringo passed out drunk, but the party was carefully monitored and nothing untoward occurred.

John: "You know, The Beatles' tours were like Fellini's Satyricon, I mean, we had that image, but man, our tours were like something else. If you could get on our tours, you were in ... Australia, what, just everywhere. Just think of Satyricon with four musicians going through it. Wherever we went there was always a whole scene going on. We had our four bedrooms separate from ... tried to keep them out of our room. And Derek's and Neil's rooms were always full of fuck knows what, and policemen and everything.. they didn't call them groupies then, they called it something else. If we couldn't get groupies, we would have whores and everything, whatever was going."


June 19

Sydney Stadium, Sydney, NSW.

John Lennon's nonsense poetry received an airing in an unlikely location, as Conservative MP Charles Curran read extracts from his work during a debate on education standards in the House Of Commons. Assuming that Lennon's wordplay was evidence of a poor education, Curran noted: "He has a feeling for words and story telling, and yet he is in a state of pathetic near literacy." Another Conservative MP, Norman Miscampbell, jumped to Lennon's defence, perhaps mindful of the possible electoral damage of a public assault on Britain's most popular entertainers.

The EP Long Tall Sally was released in the UK as Parlophone GEP 8913. Side A: 'Long Tall Sally', 'I Call Your Name'; Side B: 'Slow Down', 'Matchbox'.

LONG TALL SALLY

In just one magnificent take, with no overdubs, The Beatles recorded the finest rock'n'roll performance of their career - seizing Little Richard's 1956 classic and remaking it as their own. George Harrison's solo was spot-on first time, and George Martin duplicated Richard's piano-thumping. What clinched the track, though, was Paul McCartney's throat-searing lead vocal, his finest uptempo performance ever in a recording studio. The song became the title track of (appropriately enough) the group's best-ever EP.

I CALL YOUR NAME

Already recorded by fellow Brian Epstein protege Billy J. Kramer the previous year, this Lennon song was forcibly reclaimed by its composer on the Long Tall Sally EP. John's dogmatic vocals suggested he didn't care whether the girl in question answered his call or not, in stark contrast to Kramer's more submissive delivery. As Lennon remarked in 1980, the group approached the guitar solo as a ska band, loping slightly uncomfortably through the Jamaican rhythm before returning to more solid ground for the next verse.

SLOW DOWN

Though it didn't quite match the sheer excitement of 'Long Tall Sally', Lennon's ultra-confident handling of the Larry Williams rocker (the first of three the hand recorded) ran it close. Aided by George Martin's piano, The Beatles cruised through this 12-bar, though it was the rasp in Lennon's voice that pushed it beyond the reach of their British beat group rivals.

MATCHBOX

The Carl Perkins songbook was raided for the first time on the final Long Tall Sally EP number. Ringo Starr was showcased on this rockabilly tune, based on lyrical ideas that had been circulating the blues world for decades. The song's composer was on hand to witness the recording, which (alongside the two Perkins covers on 'Beatles For Sale') kept him in royalties for decades to come.


June 20

Sydney Stadium, Sydney, NSW.

Someone in the audience threw an egg, hitting John on the foot. He looked in the direction it came from and yelled, "What d'you think I am, a salad?" No more eggs were thrown.

The Beatles did a telephone interview with Colin Hamilton for the BBC Light Programme show Roundabout.


June 21

As they were packing to leave, a tapping on the windows of suite 801 revealed 20-year-old Peter Roberts, an "exile" from Netherton, Liverpool, who had scaled the drainpipes of the hotel in total darkness to say hello. John: "I knew before he opened his mouth where he was from because I knew nobody else would be climbing up eight floors ... I gave him a drink because he deserved one and then I took him around to see the others."

Ten thousand fans saw them off at the airport, the biggest turn-out yet. They flew the 1,500 miles to Auckland, New Zealand, where 7,000 screaming fans were waiting at the airport and they received a "traditional" welcome of nose-rubbing kisses from laughing Maori women in native costume. John: "My wife'11 kill me when she hears about this!" Three thousand more fans watched them drive to the Hotel St George where they were smuggled in through a bottle shop because of the crush of fans.


June 22

Town Hall, Wellington, North Island, NZ. The sound system was so primitive that as they came off stage, John screamed, "What the fucking hell is going on here?" It turned out that the PA operator had never turned his speakers up before and was scared to do so. The second house was considerably louder but the sound quality was still bad. Paul: "We have sung through worse mics, but not very often; usually during the early days; we expected better here."

Ringo was now recovered sufficiently for his vocal spot, 'Boys', to be put back on the set list.

After the concert, Mal Evans had to get out of the car and use his muscle to clear a way through to the hotel because the local police thought that two men would be enough to control a crowd of 5,000 fans. Auckland Chief Constable, Superintendent Quinn, refused a police escort for The Beatles between their hotel and the Town Hall because: "We provide such escorts only for royalty and other important visitors". This smug attitude by the authorities caused problems throughout New Zealand.

A female fan broke into The Beatles' Wellington hotel, but slashed her wrists in Mal Evans' room when she was unable to talk her way into the group's suites. Police had to break down the locked door to take her to a local hospital.


June 23

Town Hall, Wellington, North Island, NZ.


June 24

Town Hall, Auckland, North Island, NZ.

The Beatles' tour encountered more hostility from the smug local establishment in Auckland. The Inspector of Police, ignoring the wishes of the public he was paid to serve, greeted the tour management with, "We didn't want 'em here and I don't know why you brought 'em." Because so few police were on duty, The Beatles' Cadillac was stuck 30 feet from the Royal Continental Hotel where they were staying. Mal, Neil and Lloyd Ravenscroft had to lock The Beatles in the car and push it to the garage door, fighting off fans all the way. It took 20 minutes and about 200 fans managed to get into the garage with them. They then had to throw the fans out one by one before The Beatles could go to their rooms.

John later told an American interviewer: "It was a bit rough. I thought definitely a big clump of my hair had gone. I don't mean just a bit. They'd put about three policemen on for three or four thousand kids and they refused to put more on. 'We've had all sorts over 'ere, we've seen them all,' they said, and they had seen them all as we went crashing to the ground." After this incident John lost his temper and refused to play any more unless more police were provided.


June 25

Town Hall, Auckland, North Island, NZ.

Mayor Robinson hosted a civic welcome for the group, against vocal opposition from other members of the council. A crowd of 7,000 fans gathered outside the Town Hall to see The Beatles rub noses with three Maori girls in native costumes and pretend to attack Mayor Robinson with Maori pois.


June 26

Town Hall, Dunedin, South Island, NZ.

The local authorities ignored the advice from the tour managers and only allocated three policemen to control the thousands of fans who gathered outside the New City Hotel. When they arrived the police had only left a three-foot hole in their barrier outside the hotel through which The Beatles literally had to fight their way as fans easily overwhelmed the three Dunedin constables. Paul's face was scratched and John lost some of his hair as Mal and Neil fought back the crowd to get the group through. John Lennon's expressed opinion of the Dunedin local authorities was rich and colourful.

That night John, Ringo and DJ Bob Rogers played a joke on Paul involving a nude girl which Paul did not find at all amusing.

The album A Hard Day's Night (Original Soundtrack Album) was released in the US as United Artists UAS 6366. Side A: 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Tell Me Why', 'I'll Cry Instead', 'I Should Have Known Better' (by George Martin & Orchestra), 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You', 'And I Love Her' (by George Martin & Orchestra); Side B: 'I Should Have Known Better', 'If I Fell', 'And I Love Her', 'Ringo's Theme (This Boy)' (by George Martin & Orchestra), 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'A Hard Day's Night' (by George Martin & Orchestra).


June 27

Majestic Theatre, Christchurch, South Island, NZ.

A crowd of 5,000 fans turned out to watch the group land and drive to the Clarendon Hotel in the city centre. En route a 13-year-old girl threw herself at their limousine, bouncing off the bonnet onto the road. She got what she wanted because the group took her into the hotel and gave her a cup of coffee.

The BBC Light Programme show Roundabout broadcast the telephone interview done with The Beatles in Sydney.


June 28

The group flew to Brisbane, via Auckland and Sydney. They arrived in Sydney on a TEAL flight at 9.35pm. A crowd of 4,000 fans watched them walk a short distance to their chartered Ansett ANA Fokker Friendship aircraft and half an hour later they were gone.


June 29

The Beatles arrived in Brisbane just after midnight where 8,000 fans were waiting. The group were driven past the crowd in an open-topped truck but hiding in the crowd was a vocal core of Beatles haters who pelted the group with eggs, tomatoes and bits of wood. The group were taken quickly to Lennon's Hotel where they declared, "No more unscheduled appearances. For as long as we're in Brisbane, it's the hotel and hall for us."

Festival Hall, Brisbane. The two houses of 5,500 were sold out but once again a gang of egg throwers had managed to get in and marred the concert for others. The Beatles made a few well-known gestures to the crowd but played on. That night The Beatles and 20 Brisbane girls partied till the early hours, dancing to Motown records.


June 30

Festival Hall, Brisbane.

The Beatles secretly left the hotel in two hire cars and spent the day on the Gold Coast, mostly on the huge sweep of white sand between Broadbeach and Surfers' Paradise. As he had been for several days, John was accompanied by a young Japanese fan, with whom he had struck up an intense rapport.


July

Paul bought his father a five-bedroom house called "Rembrandt" on the Wirral, 15 miles from Liverpool. Paul's brother Michael moved in with his father.


July 1

Early in the morning a Rolls Royce delivered the group to Brisbane airport to catch a plane for Sydney. Then began the long Qantas-V flight home, refuelling in Singapore -where Paul and Ringo disembarked to wave to the 600 waiting fans - and Frankfurt. Australian Channel Nine broadcast The Beatles Sing For Shell.


July 2

The Beatles arrived at Heathrow Airport, London, at 11.10am.

Paul played piano and John watched when Cilia Black recorded 'It's For You' at Abbey Road. Cilla: "Paul was at the recording session when I made 'Anyone Who Had A Heart'. He said that he liked the composition and he and John would try to produce something similar. Well they came up with this new number, but for my money it's nothing like the 'Anyone' composition. That was some session we had when I made the new recording. John and Paul joined me, and George Martin. We made one track and then everyone had a go at suggesting how they thought it should be recorded. And everyone had different ideas. George said it should be one way, Paul and John another and I just added my suggestions while they were thinking of what else they could do with the composition."


July 3

Former Beatles drummer Pete Best released his single, 'I'm Gonna Knock On Your

Door'.


July 6

The premiere of A Hard Day's Night. Piccadilly Circus was closed for traffic as Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon, The Beatles, their wives and girlfriends attended the world premiere of the film at the London Pavilion. The premiere was a charity event, in support of the Docklands Settlements and the Variety Club Heart Fund, with top seats costing fifteen guineas (£15.75). 12,000 fans filled Piccadilly Circus, which had been closed to traffic for the occasion, for a glimpse of The Beatles.

Afterwards, The Beatles and their guests, including the royal party and members of The Rolling Stones, adjourned to the Dorchester Hotel for a champagne supper party. The group ended the night at the Ad Lib Club, staying there long enough to read the reviews of A Hard Day's Night in the first editions of the morning papers.

John: "A Hard Day's Night was sort of interesting, since it was the first time. We loathed the script because it was somebody trying to write like we were in real life. In retrospect Alun Owen didn't do a bad job, but at the time we were self-conscious about the dialogue. It felt unreal."

The single 'Like Dreamers Do' by The Applejacks, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as London 9681.

The single 'Ain't She Sweet'/'Nobody's Child' by The Beatles on the A-side and Tony Sheridan & The Beatles on the B-side was released in the US as Atco 6308.


July 7

Lime Grove Studios, London. The Beatles mimed 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Things We Said Today' and 'Long Tall Sally' for BBC TV's Top Of The Pops.

After this, they went to Rediffusion's studios at Television House to record an interview about the film, which was broadcast that evening on Granada Television's Scene At 6.30.

John was interviewed by journalist Chris Hutchins about A Hard Day's Night for the BBC Light Programme's The Teen Scene.

Brian Epstein bought Ringo a pair of diamond cufflinks for his birthday. Ringo spent the evening celebrating with his parents.

Paul presented his father with a £1,200 racehorse, Drake's Drum, for Jim's 62nd birthday. His father unwrapped a parcel containing a picture of the horse, and said, "That's very nice, son, but what do I need a picture of a horse for?" "That's not the present! I bought you the bloody horse!" It placed second in its first race. Paul remarked, "There you are, I told you my dad was the best jockey in the business."


July 8

BBC TV's Top Of The Pops aired The Beatles' performances of the A- and B-sides of their new single taped the previous day.


July 10

3,000 screaming fans were waiting in the bright sunshine at Speke Airport when The Beatles landed to attend the Northern premiere of A Hard Day's Night and appear as guests of honour at a civic reception. After struggling through the crowd of photographers, The Beatles held a brief press conference. They were then driven to the Town Hall in a police cavalcade led by motorcycle police, while an estimated 200,000 people (a quarter of the entire population of Liverpool) lined the route, restrained by hundreds of police officers. On a dozen occasions the screaming girls managed to break through the police cordons and bring their motorcade to a screeching halt.

They arrived at the Town Hall at 6.55pm, 25 minutes behind schedule, where an estimated 20,000 fans had gathered to see them. They were welcomed by Elizabeth "Bessie" Braddock, MP for Liverpool's Exchange Division, wearing her Cavern Club membership badge. They all hugged her and she said, "It's great to see you love." After a meal they made an appearance on the balcony overlooking Castle Street to be greeted by screaming crowds and the Liverpool City Police Band playing 'Can't Buy Me Love'. John enlivened proceedings by making a series of Hitler salutes to the crowd.

The Lord Mayor, Alderman Louis Caplan, addressed the 714 guests from the Minstrel Gallery of the Town Hall's large ballroom with The Beatles and a large group of their relatives at his side: 14 members of the Lennon family and 16 from Ringo's. He said how proud Liverpool was of the group and what great ambassadors they were for the city. Each Beatle then said, "Hello" from the gallery, as they were presented with the keys to the city.

They had not expected such a warm reception. John was quoted in the Liverpool Echo as saying, "It beats our reception at Adelaide - our previous best - by miles. The boys are flabbergasted. This is the proudest moment of our lives. We never expected so many people would turn out. We thought there would only be a few people standing on the odd street corner.

"What really delighted us more than anything is that everybody here, from the top nobs down to the humblest Scouser, has been so nice and sung praise after praise, which I'm sure we really don't deserve."

Everyone was there, from Lord and Lady Derby and the Bishop of Liverpool to members of the local rock bands and friends from the Cavern days. Everyone needed a pass as the Liverpool police put on the biggest security operation in their history.

Shortly before 9pm they left in an Austin Princess limousine for the Odeon Cinema for the charity premiere of A Hard Day's Night. The Echo reported a battle by police to clear the milling crowds sufficiently for them to get away and, "even when they did get through, thousands flocked behind them like the tail of a comet".

At the Odeon the Liverpool City Police Band struck up the 'Z-Cars Theme', a popular television police show set in Liverpool, following it with a rather more restrained medley of Beatles hits. Compere David Jacobs introduced The Beatles and everyone went wild. The Echo said, "The Odeon Cinema last night had more of the atmosphere of a big family show than a glittering premiere. It was an occasion when the distinguished relatives in the dress circle joined their younger brethren in the stalls for a night out with the city's favourite sons."

After the premiere, the group returned by limousine to Speke Airport, for another round of civic ceremonies, and finally the return flight to London.

BBC1's Look North news programme broadcast part of their press conference and an interview with the group conducted by Gerald Harrison.

Granada Television's Scene At 6.30 broadcast their own interview, done at the airport, as well as film of the balcony ceremony.

John: "We're satisfied with the film, but we're not self-satisfied. There's a lot which is embarrassing for us. The first bit is a drag as far as we're concerned, because that was the first sort of acting we had done, and it looks like it.

"But we enjoyed writing the music for the film, though we've always been the kind of people who didn't like musicals because they were embarrassing when all of a sudden a song started. We all tried to get away from that in our film, but we could only do it to an extent. That's probably why George doesn't want any numbers in the next film. But there will be numbers in the next film, because that's what we sell."

AN UNPLEASANT INCIDENT

The only sour note to the day came from the uncle of Anita Cochrane, who plastered Liverpool with 30,000 leaflets recounting his niece's affair with Paul and its outcome. Anita, an 18-year-old Beatles fan, discovered that she was pregnant after partying with Paul at Stuart Sutcliffe's flat in Gambler Terrace. Unable to contact him by registered letters and telegrams, she eventually retained a lawyer who threatened legal action. Allegedly, it was only then that NEMS responded, offering her £5 a week maintenance. Brian Epstein is said to have intervened personally and offered £5,000 in exchange for renouncing all claims on Paul (published figures vary depending on source). The agreement said that Anita must never bring Paul to court or say or imply that he was the father of her child, Philip Paul Cochrane, nor must she ever reveal the terms of the agreement. All seemed to be well until today's civic reception for The Beatles when her outraged uncle intervened.


The single 'A Hard Day's Night'/'Things We Said Today' was released in the UK as Parlophone R 5160.

The album A Hard Day's Night was released in the UK as Parlophone PCS 3058. Side A: 'A Hard Day's Night', 'I Should Have Known Better', 'If I Fell', 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You', 'And I Love Her', 'Tell Me Why', 'Can't Buy Me Love'; Side B: 'Anytime At All', 'I'll Cry Instead', 'Things We Said Today', 'When I Get Home', 'You Can't Do That', 'I'll Be Back'.

The single 'I'll Keep You Satisfied' by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as Imperial 66048.

The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was repeated by CBS-TV.

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

The transition from pop stars to film actors was already a well-trodden route by 1964. The pop business hadn't yet cottoned on to the potential riches of international merchandising, but a hasty and cheap black-and-white movie was the next best thing. It also enabled The Beatles to be seen in towns and countries that they had no intention of visiting in person. It's probably not a coincidence that The Beatles staged only one further lengthy UK tour after the A Hard Day's Night film was released.

Although the film grossed millions of dollars in America, it was originally conceived as an entirely British phenomenon. The Beatles had been approached in the autumn of 1963, at which stage their fame had scarcely spread beyond their native land. Hence the low budget and black-and-white film: if United Artists had realised the movie would ever be shown in America, they would almost certainly have ensured it was made in colour.

"We were a bit infuriated by the glibness of it and the shittiness of the dialogue," John Lennon complained in 1970. But Alun Owen's script was a work of remarkable realism by the previous standards of British pop films. The Beatles played caricatures of themselves, in caricatures of their everyday situations - on the road, in concert, and rehearsing for a TV show. Several scenes in the movie featured the group's earlier hits, but the contract called for the band to supply director Dick Lester with seven new songs; and EMI soon made the decision to release a soundtrack album, which would feature the film songs alongside another batch of new recordings.

Returning from their first visit to the States, The Beatles were faced with a ridiculously tight schedule. They had less than two weeks to write and record the songs for the film; then, during the subsequent shooting, they had to knock off the remaining numbers for the album. If ever there was an excuse for recording cover versions, this was it: instead, for the first and only time in The Beatles' career, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the entire album between them. "Between them" was hardly correct, in fact, as Lennon contributed no fewer than ten of the thirteen tracks, dominating the LP more than any one Beatle was ever allowed to do thereafter.

Once again, The Beatles okayed the mono mix of the album, and then left George Martin to prepare a hasty stereo version; and once again, Martin utilised the mono tracks on EMI's CD release.

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

Ringo Starr, recalling some wordplay of John Lennon's, inadvertently christened The Beatles' first film, saving it from the fate of going into history as Beatlemania. Once the title was fixed, The Beatles had to provide a song to match, and quickly: within a week, Lennon (with help from McCartney on the middle section) had prepared this sturdy piece of songwriting-to-order.

The unforgettable opening - George Harrison striking a G suspended 4th chord on his 12-string Rickenbacker - took a few takes to get right, but eventually made this record one of the few that can be recognised by its opening two seconds alone,

For the first time, Lennon and McCartney settled into the pattern they would follow for the rest of the group's lifetime, each man singing the section of the song he'd written. Fans had an early chance to distinguish between McCartney's in-born lyrical optimism, and Lennon's grudging cynicism. And there was another revolution in the air, as The Beatles discovered the joys of fading their singles out, rather than ending in a single climactic chord. After double-tracking and overdubbing, fade-outs became the next favourite toy in The Beatles' studio cupboard.

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

Even when he was functioning as an admitted hack writer, composing Beatles songs to a tight deadline, the John Lennon of 1964 succeeded effortlessly in concocting memorable melody lines. 'I Should Have Known Better' was built around the simplest of two-chord rhythms, with puffing harmonica to match, but it had an effervescence that touched everything The Beatles recorded in the heady spring of 1964.

IF I FELL

In 1964, no one had yet noticed any split in songwriting styles between Lennon and McCartney, so this delicate and melodic ballad was greeted as just another Beatles song. Only in retrospect was it seen as early proof that there was more to John Lennon's armoury than rock'n'roll, acid imagery and cynical wit. In structural terms, this was by far the most complex song John had written to date, and its terrifyingly high harmony line briefly floored McCartney, whose voice cracked under the strain on the mix released on the stereo album. On the CD and the mono LP, however, Paul walked the tightrope without missing a note.

I'M HAPPY JUST TO DANCE WITH YOU

John Lennon wrote this song, but thought so little of it that he passed it over for George Harrison to sing - The Beatles' lead guitarist having failed to meet with group approval for any of his latest efforts at songwriting. Lennon would no doubt have regarded the song's theme as too tame for his more rugged image - though he had just reached the top of the American charts by saying he wanted to hold his girl's hand - but Harrison's charmingly naive vocal delivery caught the mood of the song perfectly. As usual, The Beatles patched up the thinnest of material with a superlatively commercial arrangement.

AND I LOVE HER

Even underpressure, The Beatles refused to settle for anything but the best when recording this McCartney love song for his girlfriend of the time, actress Jane Asher. For three days running, they attempted different arrangements, eventually nailing it in the same three-hour session in which they cut 'Tell Me Why'. Simple, evocative and gentler than any Lennon/McCartney song they'd recorded up to that point, 'And I Love Her' was treated to a predominantly acoustic arrangement.

Trivia note: several different edits of this song were released in different parts of the world, the variations coming in the number of times the closing guitar riff was repeated.

TELL ME WHY

Another delicious piece of hackwork, 'Tell Me Why' was almost Beatles by numbers - a beefy chorus, a wonderfully cool Lennon vocal, even a self-mocking falsetto section towards the end, and all wrapped up in a fraction over two minutes.

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE

See March 20.

ANY TIME AT ALL

Tight for time, as they were at every session in 1964, The Beatles began recording this song before John Lennon had finished writing it. Thankfully, they eventually realised the fact, though not before they'd attempted seven takes. Lennon added a gentle middle section to this otherwise tough rocker during their afternoon tea-break, and the song was in the can well before bedtime.

I'LL CRY INSTEAD

Though The Beatles' sound is commonly regarded as a mix of American rock'n'roll, pop and R&B, country music became a vital part of the equation from 1964. Under a constant barrage of encouragement from Ringo Starr, the rest of the group started listening to records by Buck Owens, George Jones and other Nashville stars, and the influence began to filter through to the songwriting - particularly Lennon's.

For such a simple song, 'I'll Cry Instead' proved tough to record. Eventually The Beatles gave up trying to perform it live, and divided it into two sections, which George Martin edited together as the final record. Its divided nature explains why it was so easy for the song to be artificially extended for the US album release.

'I'll Cry Instead' inadvertently spawned a genre of Beatles and solo songs: lyrics which had Lennon, usually the masterful romantic hero, sitting head in hands, indulging himself in an ocean of self-pity. For much of the last decade of his life, this pose of guilt and sorrow became something of a straitjacket around his songwriting.

THINGS WE SAID TODAY

McCartney's contributions to A Hard Day's Night may have been few in number, but they were impressively strong. Like John, Paul was experimenting with writing around minor chords, and quickly realised that they lent themselves to lyrics that were reflective rather than celebratory. John took the formula a stage further by writing almost all his songs for this album in the key of G.

WHEN I GET HOME

Like much of Lennon's work on this album, 'When I Get Home' doesn't bear too much critical examination - except that from a hastily assembled song, The Beatles were able to make a state-of-the-art pop record by 1964 standards. The track began as if in mid-performance, with a catchy vocal hook, and then romped along merrily enough for another two minutes, without ever suggesting that Lennon meant a word he was singing.

YOU CAN'T DO THAT

See March 20.

I'LL BE BACK

At the end of a record that was a brilliant collection of sometimes less than brilliant songs, John Lennon's 'I'll Be Back' harked back to the strange construction of some of his earlier efforts. Like 'Ask Me Why' and 'All I've Got To Do', it was pure Lennon, owing nothing to what was happening in the pop world around him. For the moment, he hadn't hit on the knack of combining these unsettling melodies with words that carried any emotional weight, so 'I'll Be Back' ended up another superb song about a fictional romance. But the moment of liberation wasn't far away.


July 11

The Beatles flew from Liverpool to London in the early hours of the morning to appear live on ABC TV's Lucky Stars (Summer Spin). They mimed to 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Long Tall Sally', 'Things We Said Today' and You Can't Do That'. The appearance took place at ABC's Teddington Film Studios, and was documented by a photographer from The Beatles Book.


July 12

Hippodrome Theatre, Brighton, with The Shubdubs, featuring Jimmy Nicol.

On his way there, George's new E-Type Jaguar was involved in a minor road accident in the New Kings Road, Fulham. Pedestrians collected bits of the broken glass as souvenirs.


July 13

The single 'A Hard Day's Night'/'I Should Have Known Better' was released in the US as Capitol 5222.


July 14

Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, to appear on the first edition of Top Gear, the BBC's new rock programme. They played 'Long Tall Sally', 'Things We Said Today', 'A Hard Day's Night', 'And I Love Her', 'I Should Have Known Better', 'If I Fell' and 'You Can't Do That'. The presenter was Brian Matthew.

Paul was interviewed by Michael Smee for the BBC Overseas Service programme Highlight.


July 15

John and Cynthia bought "Kenwood" in Saint George's Hill, Surrey. The mock-Tudor mansion in a private estate next to the golf course cost him £20,000, and allowed the couple to escape from their virtual imprisonment at their Kensington flat, which had been under constant siege from fans and the media. ATV in Britain screened the documentary, The Road To Beatlemania.


July 16

The first edition of Top Gear was broadcast by the BBC Light Programme.


July 17

The Beatles recorded their fourth bank holiday special From Us To You for the BBC Light Programme. They played 'Long Tall Sally', 'If I Fell', 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You', 'Things We Said Today', 'I Should Have Known Better', 'Boys', 'Kansas City'/'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey'. John read the closing credits.

The single 'From A Window' by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the UK as Parlophone R 5156.


July 18

The Beatles flew to Blackpool to spend the day rehearsing for the next day's live broadcast of Mike and Bernie Winters' Big Night Out from the ABC Theatre, Blackpool.


July 19

ABC Theatre, Blackpool.

The Beatles appeared in a live transmission of Mike and Bernie Winters' Big Night Out. They played 'A Hard Day's Night', 'And I Love Her', 'If I Fell', 'Things We Said Today' and 'Long Tall Sally' as well as participating in various sketches with Mike and Bernie.


July 20

The single 'I'll Cry Instead'/'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You' was released in the US

as Capitol 5234.

The single 'And I Love Her'/'If I Fell' was released in the US as Capitol 5235. The album Something New was released in the US as Capitol ST 2108. Side A: 'I'll Cry

Instead', 'Things We Said Today', 'Anytime At All', 'When I Get Home', 'Slow Down',

'Matchbox'; Side B: 'Teil Me Why', 'And I Love Her', 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With

You', 'If I Fell', 'Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand'.


July 23

The Night Of A Hundred Stars, London Palladium, with Judy Garland, Sir Laurence Olivier, et al. The Beatles took part in a sketch and played a brief set for this benefit concert in aid of the Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council.


July 25

BBC Television Centre, Shepherd's Bush. George and Ringo each made appearances as members of the Juke Box Jury panel. George's edition was transmitted live that evening, while Ringo's was taped and screened the following week.


July 26

Opera House, Blackpool.


July 27

To coincide with The Beatles' brief visit to Sweden, A Hard Day's Night was premiered in Stockholm, complete with Swedish subtitles. The theme song from the film had also been issued as a single in Sweden, two weeks before it appeared in Britain or America.


July 28

The Beatles flew to Stockholm, Sweden, on the 11.10am flight from Heathrow Airport, London. Despite the fact that the airport was situated more than 25 miles from the centre of Stockholm, more than 3,000 fans assembled to welcome the group to Sweden.

Johanneshovs Isstadion, Stockholm, with The Kays, The Moonlighters, The Streaplers, Jimmy Justice, The Mascots and The Shanes. The group did two houses each night in the ice hockey stadium.

During one of their performances on this night, John received a minor electric shock from a stage microphone. Ringo dislodged his vocal microphone during his vocal cameo on 'I Wanna Be Your Man', forcing him to mime manfully through most of the song.


July 29

Johanneshovs Isstadion, Stockholm.

The Beatles also made a fleeting appearance on Swedish TV, discussing their future plans. John used the occasion to recite his poem 'Good Dog Nigel', to the undoubted bafflement of his Swedish audience.


July 30

The Beatles flew from Stockholm to London, arriving mid-afternoon.


July 31

The single 'It's For You' by Cilla Black, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the UK as Parlophone R 5162.


August 1

Ringo's appearance on Juke Box Jury was broadcast by BBC TV.


August 2

Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth, with The Kinks, Mike Berry and Adrienne Poster (later known as Posta).


August 3

The BBC Light Programme broadcast The Beatles' fourth bank holiday special From Us To You.

A documentary, Follow The Beatles, filmed while they were making A Hard Day's Night, was screened by BBC1.

Beatles producer George Martin released a US album of instrumental interpretations of The Beatles' music, Off The Beatle Track.


August 7

Plans for Brian Epstein protege Tommy Quickly to release a new Lennon/McCartney song, 'No Reply', were cancelled when The Beatles decided that they wanted to keep the tune for their own next album.


August 9

Futurist Theatre, Scarborough.


August 10

The single 'Do You Want To Know A Secret'/'Thank You Girl' was released in the US as Oldies 45 OL 149.

The single 'Please Please Me'/'From Me To You' was released in the US as Oldies 45 OL 150.

The single 'Love Me Do'/'P.S. I Love You' was released in the US as Oldies 45 OL 151.

The single 'Twist And Shout'/'There's A Place' was released in the US as Oldies 45 OL 152.


August 11

Abbey Road. The Beatles began work on what was to be the Beatles For Sale album. They recorded John's 'Baby's In Black'.


August 12

The film A Hard Day's Night opened simultaneously in 500 American cinemas.

The New York Times: "This is going to surprise you - it may knock you right out of your chair - but the film with those incredible chaps, The Beatles, is a whale of a comedy."

The New York World-Telegram & Sun: "A Hard Day's Night turns out to be funnier than you would expect and every bit as loud as the wildest Beatle optimist could hope."

The New York Herald Tribune: "It is really an egghead picture, lightly scrambled, a triumph of The Beatles and the bald."

The New York Daily News: "The picture adds up to a lot of fun, not only for the teenagers but for grownups as well. It's clean, wholesome entertainment."

The New York Journal-American: "The picture turned out to be a completely wacky, off-beat entertainment that's frequently remindful of the Marx Brothers' comedies of the '30's."

The New York Post: "A Hard Day's Night suggests a Beatle career in the movies as big as they've already been in stage and dancehall. They have the songs, the patter, and the histrionic flair. No more is needed."

The Washington Post: "The main thing about it is that you can't hear it because the audience sort of over-participates."

The Washington Evening Star: "The film appears to be a genuinely funny British comedy; though nobody may ever really know. Its stars seem agreeable personalities with a zest for spoofing themselves and their idolaters and it looks as if it might be fun if you could hear it as well as see it."

The single 'From A Window'/Tll Be On My Way' by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, written by Lennon & McCartney, was released in the US as Imperial 66051.

Ringo was interviewed by Chris Hutchins for the BBC Light Programme's The Teen Scene, during one of Brian Epstein's "At Home" parties at his flat in Whaddon House, William Mews. All four Beatles attended the party, alongside Judy Garland, members of The Rolling Stones, Cilla Black and Lionel Bart.


August 14

Abbey Road. The Beatles worked on 'I'm A Loser', 'Mr Moonlight' and 'Leave My Kitten Alone', which was not released until the 1995 Anthology 1 CD.


August 16

Opera House, Blackpool.

Among the support acts were The Who, then known as The High Numbers, and The Kinks.


August 17

John invited interior designer Ken Partridge to transform the Lennons' Weybridge mansion - to the horror of Cynthia, who realised that John's elaborate plans would ensure that the couple would be living in chaos for many months to come.


August 18

The Beatles set off on their 25-date American Tour. Their Clipper took them first to Winnipeg, Canada, where 500 fans stood screaming on the airport roof as the group did a couple of Hello America radio interviews from the plane. The plane stopped again in Los Angeles, where there were 2,000 fans and even more interviews. Finally, at 6.24pm The Beatles touched down at San Francisco International Airport to mass hysteria from 9,000 screaming West Coast fans. The plan was for them to make a brief appearance at "Beatlesville" before being taken by limousine to the Hilton Hotel. Beatlesville was a small platform, about a mile northwest of the main airport buildings, surrounded by a cyclone fence and guarded by 180 San Mateo County Sheriffs. However, the chaos and screaming was so intense when they arrived that The Beatles remained in their limousine and held a quick strategy conference.

Eventually they decided it was worth the risk and, after a considerable delay, they entered the compound to wave to the crowd. Ringo was the first in but his presence caused mass hysteria: thousands of girls pushed forward, some trying to scale the fence as other fans charged a barrier of parked cars but were driven back by counter-attacking deputies. No sooner had Paul, George and John mounted the stage than the deputies herded them all back to their limousine and rushed them away from the hysterical scene. The link fences were being pushed over by the sheer weight of fans, those in front crushed against the links, with only the burly police straining with all their weight to keep the fences upright.

That night, John, Ringo, Derek Taylor, Billy Preston (Little Richard's organist, whom they had met during the rock'n'roller's 1962 UK tour, and later an Apple artist) and Diana Vero, Brian Epstein's secretary, spent a few hours in a small club in Chinatown called The Rickshaw, where they met Dale Robertson, the cowboy actor.


August 19

Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, with The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon.

The group's standard set for the tour was 'Twist And Shout', 'YOU Can't Do That', 'All My Loving', 'She Loves You', 'Things We Said Today', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'If I Fell', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'Boys', 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Long Tall Sally'. Sometimes they would open with 'I Saw Her Standing There' and close with 'Twist And Shout'.

The Beatles played a total of 29 minutes. The gross was $91,670, the net take $49,800. They left behind an astonished populace, 17,130 delirious fans, 19 schoolgirls so overcome with emotion that first aid was necessary and one boy with a dislocated shoulder. The San Francisco Examiner reported "Although it was publicised as music, all that was heard and seen of the Mersey Sound was something like a jet engine shrieking through a summer lightning storm because of the yelling fans. It had no mercy, and afterwards everyone still capable of speech took note of a ringing in the ears which lasted for as long as The Beatles had played.

"The eerie scene of four young men with shaggy hairdos wiggling on the stage and moving their lips inaudibly was exaggerated by the flashes from a hundred cameras like sheet lightning in the Midwest."

Thousands of cameras would have been a more accurate assessment. "You can figure it this way," shouted a deputy sheriff. "That's 16,000 kids who aren't out stealing hubcaps."

The Cow Palace was nearly filled by 7pm, an hour before showtime. When The Beatles appeared the girls screamed for a solid four minutes forty-five seconds. The San Francisco Examiner reported: "As soon as they left, the screaming stopped abruptly." Fifty fans were hurt and two arrested, fifty more were forcibly prevented from climbing on stage. At the end of the set, The Beatles dropped their instruments on stage, ran for the waiting car and were gone before the audience knew they had finished playing. Even so, some fans managed to crowd round their car as it left the Cow Palace complex, and almost succeeded in crushing the group under the sagging car roof.

On the 15th floor of the hotel, 35 girls were rounded up all together trying to sneak past the guards. Some of the girls were dressed as maids. The Beatles did not stay to party, but flew straight to their next venue instead.


August 20

Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

At lam The Beatles' chartered plane touched down at Old McCarran Field in Las Vegas, and they were promptly driven to the Sahara Hotel where, despite a curfew, 2,000 fans were waiting to scream a welcome. The fans were dispersed by police using dogs. They spent the morning in their penthouse suite on the 18th floor of the hotel while fans attempted to scale the walls, climb the garbage shoot and use the freight elevator. The group left for the 8,000-seater Convention Center at 2.30 for a sound check. The afternoon show opened at 4pm but it was not until 5.30 that The Beatles took the stage to the usual screams, shrieks and showers of jelly babies - plus, as Brian Epstein remembered, constant chants of "Ringo For President!"

Between the afternoon and evening concerts, local police received a telephoned bomb warning aimed at The Beatles. Their initial response was that the evening show should be cancelled, but they soon realised that the potential violence that could be inflicted by 8,000 disappointed fans outweighed the danger of a bomb explosion, and the performance went ahead as planned.

After the concert the police used brutal tactics to force the fans away from backstage when The Beatles made their exit. One reporter had her foot run over by a police motorcycle, another girl was bruised in the ribs by a cop's night-stick. The Beatles made $30,000 for their trouble. The police were concerned that underage fans would enter gambling casinos if The Beatles visited them so they were requested to stay away. The Beatles had two slot machines in their rooms, but otherwise did no gambling.


August 21

Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington.

The group stayed at the Edgewater Inn, later to become legendary as a rock star/groupie hangout, immortalised by Frank Zappa. All four of them dropped fishing lines out of their windows but no one caught anything. At the press conference before their show, Paul criticised some of the American magazines, "that have printed some pretty terrible stories about us".

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on the concert: "The original plan was for 16 Seattle police officers to escort the British quartet down a corridor, across 18 feet of open space and onto the stage. As The Beatles and their cortege whipped from the corridor, a phalanx of youngsters swept down a ramp from the balcony. The officers nearest the ramp pivoted like grid-iron tackles. Youngsters bounced off blue clad soldiers. Ringo, John, Paul and George were gone like gazelles, down a short tunnel toward the stage. Out of the chute like Brahma bulls, they bounced to their places as the Coliseum rose in one vast adolescent moan. Then the screams split the vaulted ceiling."

The band hit the stage at 9.25 and all 14,720 girls in the audience seemed to have brought their cameras. The auditorium was illuminated with sheet lightning from the flash bulbs. While the band was onstage, the police recruited Navy volunteers from the audience and formed them in a double chain from the stage exit to the dressing room corridor. During the performance, one female fan who had climbed high over the stage fell from her perch, landing a few feet in front of Ringo's drumkit. The Beatles played their final note, dropped their instruments, leaped to the back of the stage and out through the door. Hundreds of teenagers swept down the ramps straight into the cordon of United States Navy officers, standing with locked arms. The Beatles put their heads down and ducked their way through the narrow passage between the straining bodies and made it to the corridor mouth which the police promptly plugged after them.

The car that was to have taken The Beatles back to the hotel was so badly damaged by fans that it had to be abandoned and it was another hour before the crowds had thinned enough for the group to be spirited out of the building in an ambulance. The next day, a hotel maid discovered two 16-year-old girls hiding under the bed in a fourth floor room and another in the closet.


August 22

Empire Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The show began at 8.14 and The Beatles came on at 9.23. Despite the long show, many reporters still thought that The Beatles' 29-minute set was too short. William Littler, in a grumpy piece in the Vancouver Sun, said, "Seldom in Vancouver's entertainment history have so many (20,261) paid so much ($5.25 top price) for so little (27 minutes) as did the audience which screamed at The Beatles in Empire Stadium Saturday night."

Three attempts were made to smash the ten-foot high stadium gates, and it finally buckled under the strain seconds after The Beatles began their performance, but only a dozen or so fans managed to get in before police and ushers got it closed again and held it shut with their bodies. Their exit was timed to perfection. They completed 'Long Tall Sally', bowed low while unstrapping their guitars, bolted from the stage into waiting limousines and with motorcycle outriders, they were out of the stadium fewer than 30 seconds from their last note. The Beatles drove straight to the airport where they caught a plane to Los Angeles.

Thousands of teenagers left their seats and rushed the stage, crushing hundreds of young girls against the restraining fence. Dozens of girls suffered broken ribs and hundreds were treated for hysteria and shock.


August 23

The Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California.

18,700 people filled the Bowl, sold out four months earlier, for their concert, which was recorded for posterity by a team of engineers representing Capitol Records. Outside 600 teenagers who were unable to get tickets shrieked, shouted and pushed to get in. Police made several arrests for disturbing the peace, trespassing and destroying property. A compact car was parked alongside the stage in which the group made their getaway as the concert ended at 10pm. About 60 teenagers ran to the closest gate to see them drive off and used a photographer's car as a vantage point; the roof and bonnet of which were caved in. There was a huge traffic jam in the neighbourhood afterwards as thousands of parents converged on the Bowl to take their children home after the show. Police and firemen had set up roadblocks and closed off the whole Bowl area; local residents were given passes in order to get to their homes.

After the concert there was a private party for the movie colony in the Bei Air home of Mr & Mrs Alan Livingstone, president of Capitol Records. More than 500 attended the $25 a ticket affair which raised about $10,000 for the Haemophilia Foundation of Southern California. In the San Fernando Valley Citizen-News, Paul was photographed holding Rebel Lee Robinson, granddaughter of Edward G. Robinson.

Before the show, there was a press conference in which the group received five gold records and the key to California. When asked what they thought of Goldwater they gave a thumbs down sign. Dozens of teenage girls had managed to sneak into the conference and one of them asked Paul if he would like to learn to fly. It turned out her father had his own plane and she would be happy to teach him.

The Beatles stayed in a rented house at 356 St. Pierre Road, in Brown Canyon, Bel Air. That night, West Los Angeles police took more than 50 adolescents into technical custody for violating a 10pm curfew as over 400 fans milled around at the junction of Sunset Boulevard and Bel Air Road hoping to see The Beatles. St. Pierre Road itself was blocked by police. Over $5,000 worth of damage was done to shrubs and flowers by the fans and many residents turned on their sprinkler systems to try to ward off the teenagers, but to no avail.


August 24

John managed to sneak out with Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall for a few hours' shopping, but the outing was cut short when he was recognised. The single 'Slow Down'/ 'Matchbox' was released in the US as Capitol 5255.


August 25

Paul and George visited Burt Lancaster's house to watch a private screening of Peter Sellers' A Shot In The Dark. Ringo was watching a Jack Good TV show when Jayne Mansfield turned up at the doorstep. (Paul had said he would like to meet her.) John greeted her and she tugged at his hair and asked, "Is this real?"

That evening John and Jayne went to the Whiskey A-Go-Go where they were joined by George. George asked photographers to leave them alone and when one of them refused, George threw water at him. George: "I finally decided to baptise him by chucking the ice-water at the bottom of my glass over him." When no one could see, Jayne put her hand on John's thigh and scared him.


August 26

Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver, Colorado.

Though 2,000 seats remained empty, the 7,000 fans who bought tickets created a box-office record for this open-air stadium.


August 27

Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio.

The press conference before the show was more animated than usual. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported: "A newspaperman from Dayton, who said the four ought to be able to handle a crowd of 30,000 without police protection, was told by Lennon, 'Well, maybe you could. You're fatter than we are.'... Teenagers stand up and scream piercingly - and painfully - when The Beatles appear. Why? They were asked. McCartney said none of them knew, but he had heard teenagers pay to go to their shows just to scream. 'A lot of them don't even want to listen,' he said, 'because they have got the records.'

"A reporter asked what they thought of the psychiatrist who drew an analogy between the hysteria generated by their beat and the speeches of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Lennon said abruptly, 'Tell him to shut up. He's off his head.'

"A questioner asked McCartney what he thought of columnist Walter Winchell. McCartney answered bluntly, 'He said I'm married and I'm not.' 'Maybe he wants to marry you,' Harrison suggested.

"The four answered a question admitting that the show that comes after the show is sometimes the one to see. They said they whooped it up until 4 or 5 in the morning, depending on how much sleep they need."

There were 17,000 in the audience, girls fainted and one went into convulsions. As usual, the show itself was drowned out by screaming. The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a headline: "Teenagers Revel In Madness: Young Fans Drop Veneer Of Civilisation For Beatles." The newspaper reported: "The estimated 115 degree temperature melted bouffant hairdos as well as inhibitions. Well groomed girls who had hoped, without really hoping, that they would attract the eye of a Beatle, began to look like Brillo pads. A priest turned around in the crowd, looked at a reporter with tears in his eyes and said, 'I don't believe it. Just look at them. Look at their faces!' A technician from a television station was trying to measure the sound with an instrument. He gave up when the instrument recorded its maximum reading and broke."

The Beatles ran from the stage, straight to their Cadillac limousines and headed to Lunken Airport where their chartered plane was waiting to take them to New York. They took off shortly after midnight.


August 28

Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, Forest Hills, New York.

When The Beatles' plane touched down at 3.02am at Kennedy Airport, 3,000 fans were waiting for them, and another few hundred were stationed outside the Delmonico Hotel, at Park Avenue and 59th Street, where they were staying, even though their hotel was supposed to be a secret. By the next morning there were thousands of fans there. The girls overturned a concrete plant tub outside the hotel and tried all manner of ingenious ways to get in: pretending they lived there and delivering fake packages. Two girls arrived dressed as nurses to tend The Beatles. Deputy Police Inspector Thomas Renaghan, chief of Manhattan North detectives said the damage wasn't too bad. "We slipped them in pretty easily. They're just four little bits of fellas. If they hadn't been dressed so crazily, we would never have known them."

As The Beatles pushed through the police barricades to reach the hotel, one fan managed to snatch Ringo's St Christopher medal from his neck. Fans stayed outside until 4am, screaming every time anyone came near any of the windows in the hotel. Many of them carried portable radios tuned in to the various Beatles stations. Police used bullhorns to ask hotel guests to stay away from the windows. The girls were restrained by police barricades erected on the other side of Park Avenue, but anyone appearing at a window caused screams and chaos as the girls spilled out into the street, disrupting the traffic. They were encouraged by radio reporters who thrust microphones in front of their faces and yelled, "Okay, let's hear it for The Beatles!"

At the press conference, heavily infiltrated with fans, a reporter said, "Some Long Island fans in the crowd outside say they are switching to The Rolling Stones because you didn't wave to them from the hotel windows." Someone in The Beatles' party mumbled, "If they want to go away for that reason, let them," but Paul responded, "The police said no. They told us to stay away from the windows, boys. After all, we can't get into trouble with the police chief."

The Beatles were asked what they thought of the "oversized roughnecks" who appeared at the airport scene the previous night. "That was us," replied Paul.

John said at the press conference: "I don't mind not being as popular as Ringo, or George or Paul because if the group is popular that's what matters." The girl who stole Ringo's medal, Angie McGowan, returned it and posed for photographs while first Ringo, then Paul, kissed her on the cheek.

The stadium's 15,983 seats were sold out and extra field seats were added at $6.50 each, a steep price in those days. The fans were kept from The Beatles by an eight-foot-high fence topped with barbed wire. The group flew to the stadium by helicopter from the Wall Street heliport.

Heavily critical of the crowd mayhem witnessed at the Forest Hills show, a reporter for the New York Times noted: "The Beatles have created a monster in their audience. If they have concern for anything but the money they are earning, they had better concern themselves with controlling their audiences, before this contrived hysteria reaches uncontrollable proportions."

Bob Dylan, accompanied by his road manager and journalist Al Aronowitz, came to visit the group at their hotel after the show, and turned The Beatles and Brian Epstein on to marijuana for the first time.

THE BEATLES SMOKE DOPE

By all accounts, Bob Dylan was more than a little surprised to discover that The Beatles were not already familiar with the effects of marijuana. He'd been under the impression that the bridge of 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' closed with the line "I get high" when in reality The Beatles sang "I can't hide". When the misunderstanding was cleared up The Beatles and Brian proved keen converts. Damp towels were placed at the bottom of the doors to their suite so that the smell of burning grass didn't permeate the outer rooms. John suggested Ringo be the first to try a joint, Ringo having been elected fall guy, and Ringo went ahead. But Ringo was unfamiliar with the dope smoking etiquette of taking a few puffs from a joint and passing it on, and he smoked almost the whole of the first joint himself. More were hastily rolled and everyone enjoyed the experience. Paul was affected most profoundly and became convinced that such was the genius of his insight that his every thought and word should be written down for posterity. Mal Evans dutifully followed him around with a notebook and pen.

John: "I've never been so excited about meeting any other musician before. I suppose I'd have felt the same if it had been Elvis, but nobody else. Once we met Dylan, we fell into conversation so easily it surprised us all. Beatlemania is something Dylan can understand and relate to. His experiences have been the same, but very different. He tried to explain what his fans were like, how they acted. Then we talked about music, especially about writing lyrics, how he got started with a new song, how the ideas came. That man's a true poet. He gets inspired. It shows in the stuff he writes. You couldn't perform Dylan songs as he does on his records unless you believed in every word."


August 30

Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Beatles stayed at the Lafayette Motel in Atlantic City. At 2.15pm, in order to get through the crowds of fans, the group had to sneak out of the motel in the back of a fish truck. Six miles west of Atlantic City they transferred to the tour bus which took them straight to the Philadelphia Convention Hall.

There were 19,000 fans in the audience. Five ambulances were on hand to treat casualties among the 500 teenagers outside the auditorium, and a police sergeant collapsed from exhaustion.

Brian Epstein lowered his guard with an American reporter for the first time, naming John as "the most brilliant" of The Beatles, and adding: "Paul McCartney also qualifies as brilliant; he is extremely intelligent. Ringo Starr has blossomed tremendously. I think he will prove to have great acting ability, perhaps the greatest of the four. George Harrison is actually the most practically musical of the group."


August 31

The group spent their rest days holed up at the Lafayette Motel. Paul used the time to get through to Elvis on the phone.

Ringo: "Paul had a nice talk with him ... Though we haven't met him, we consider ourselves good friends and appreciate what each of us is doing. El and his manager were very generous to us, showering us with presents and keepsakes. These include some very expensive silver guns and holsters which the four of us and our manager Brian received."


September

Brian Epstein bought the Liverpool pop paper, Mersey Beat, from its original proprietor, Bill Harry.


September 2

Convention Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before an audience of 13,000 fans.

Before the show there was the usual press conference where 50 police, 25 VIPs and 25 reporters crowded into a meeting room near the hall.


September 3

State Fair Coliseum, Indianapolis, Indiana.

At the obligatory press conference, this one held at the State Fair Radio Building, a reporter asked The Beatles if teenagers screamed at them because they were revolting against their parents. Paul: "They've been revolting for years." John: "I've never noticed them revolting." Paul was asked if he was anti-religious. "I'm not religious, but I'm not anti-religious. I'm not an atheist; I'm agnostic. I just don't know." They were asked if they would like to be able to walk down the street without being recognised. John: "We used to do this with no money in our pockets. There's no point in it."

The Beatles spent two nights in Indianapolis in all, staying at the Speedway Motel on West 16th Street. Before the first concert, Ringo was discovered to be "missing" from The Beatles' hotel, in a strange parallel to the plot of A Hard Day's Night. He returned only minutes before the show was due to begin, explaining that he'd lost track of the time while driving a police car round and round a nearby race track.

The group all agreed that the shows at the Coliseum were "quite quiet" compared to other venues. They set foot on the Coliseum stage at 6.21 before an audience of 12,413 screaming fans, mostly girls. After the press conference they did an evening show, this time to 16,924 fans. Thirty girls were treated for hysteria, one fan cut his arm when he was shoved against a glass door and a girl cut her hand while climbing a fence. When The Beatles boarded their chartered plane at Weir Cook Municipal Airport, they were $85,231.93 the richer. ($1,719.02 had already been deducted for state gross income tax. There was some debate in the press as to whether The Beatles [NEMS Ltd] counted as a foreign corporation - if not, then they owed the federal government a further $42,000.)

Mrs Jeane Dixon, the psychic who forecast the assassination of President Kennedy, predicted that The Beatles' plane would crash on take-off from Indiana en route to Denver, Colorado, and that three Beatles would die and the fourth be seriously maimed. She was wrong.


September 4

Milwaukee Auditorium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Both Rolf Harris and The New World Singers issued singles entitled 'Ringo For President'.


September 5

International Amphitheater, Chicago, Illinois.

There had been plans for a civic welcome and 100,000 people were expected but Special Events Director Colonel Jack Reilly cancelled the arrangements saying he did not have sufficient police to spare "for a bunch of singers". Paul commented on TV and radio, "So we shall have to go in by the back door again and the fans won't get a chance to see us or we to see them. It's a great big drag."

Nonetheless Chicago was ready for The Beatles. The Andy Frain Organisation sent ten of its ushers to The Beatles' concert the previous night in Milwaukee to scout the tactics of The Beatles' fans, and the 170 ushers and 35 usherettes were specially selected as being non-Beatles fans so that they would not succumb to the hysteria. Stationed around the auditorium were 320 Chicago cops. One of them, patrolman Anthony Dizonne, remembered the Frank Sinatra days. "This is kind of like Sinatra multiplied by 50 or 100," he observed. "These Beatles make about fifty million bucks a year and they don't even have to buy a haircut in this country."

The Beatles' plane flew into the rarely used Midway Airport an hour late. They were due at 3.40pm but by the time they arrived over 5,000 fans were waiting for them. The girls were kept behind a chain-link fence as the group were bundled into a long black limousine and roared off to the Stock Yard Inn attached to the amphitheater at 42nd Street and Halsted. The crowds outside were so thick that the group had to enter through the kitchens. The Chicago Sun-Times reported only one casualty at the airport, a 14-year-old girl who was treated for a cut finger.

At the concert, fans were frisked and all large signs confiscated because they would block the view for others. Jelly beans, candy kisses and anything else that the fans were likely to throw at the group were also confiscated. Despite this, Paul was hit in the face by a spent flashbulb.

After the show half a dozen fans were taken to Evangelical Hospital in various states of emotional and physical exhaustion. One girl was poked in the eye but left the ambulance to rejoin the audience.

After the show, they hurried into waiting cars and drove straight back to the airport where they flew on to Detroit. A police guard was mounted on their hotel room to prevent fans from tearing it apart for souvenirs.


September 6

Olympic Stadium, Detroit, Michigan.

Two shows in the home of Tamla Motown. The sheets used by The Beatles at the Whittier Hotel in Detroit were bought by a radio station, cut into thousands of small squares, and then sold to avid fans.


September 7

Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada.

The Beatles flew into town in their charter Electra and parked at the old airport terminal. The first people on board were two immigration nurses who were only interested in getting the group's autographs. They were followed by an immigration officer who had the same thought in mind. George told a reporter from the Toronto Daily Star, "We don't like being asked for autographs by the officials. Everywhere we go it's always the police guarding us, or the journalists or the relatives of the promoters who ask us to sign."

They barely made it into the King Edward Hotel. Paul's shirt was ripped and torn: "I thought I was for it, but an immense copper lifted me up and shoved me into the elevator."

Ringo: "We got separated from John and George coming in but the police were very good."

John: "The best view of the country is over the blue shoulder of a policeman."

In order to get them from the hotel to the gig, the police used a paddy wagon and fooled the fans by leaving from the back of the hotel. Paul told the Daily Star reporter that they had amused themselves by making sign language at a group of office girls in the National Trust building across from their hotel. "Normally we don't look out the windows because fans go a little potty but we were amazed at seeing the girls there on Labor Day and gave them a cheery wave or two."

The paper ran another news item headed "Beatles' Blonde Snubs Mayor": "Mayor Philip Givens couldn't get to see The Beatles. The mayor and his wife called at the singers' hotel suite at 1.30pm today to pay their respects. According to the Mayor, they got 'a very rude reception'. When they knocked, the mayor said, a blonde answered and took his card. 'Then she said, "Two of them are asleep and two of them are with relatives. Nobody gets in," and slammed the door in my face'."

There were 35,522 paying customers at the two shows, which resulted in a cheque for $93,000 for the group. Some 4,000 men and women police and Mounties were on duty at the Maple Leaf Gardens and a five block area around the Gardens was roped off and patrolled for 12 hours before the group was due to arrive.

Showtime for the first set was 4pm but The Beatles did not appear before 5.30, introduced by Jungle Jay Nelson of station CHUM. A thoughtful review in the Toronto Telegram said, "They don't rely on obvious sexuality, either in movement or song, but obviously there is a large element of sexuality in their appeal. Any sexuality is once removed: it occurs in the eye of the beholder rather than from any overt action by The Beatles."

Between sets there was the usual press conference. First The Beatles posed with local disc jockeys, fan club presidents and Miss Canada, then the questions began:

"What time do you get up in the morning?"

John: "Two o'clock in the afternoon."

They were asked if they thought they were setting a good example by smoking. George: "We don't set examples." Paul: "Why should we?" Ringo: "We even drink."

It has been said that you appeal to the maternal instinct in these girls ... John: "That's a dirty lie."

They were asked why they didn't record all the songs that they write.

Paul: "It's just not good policy to flood the market with records like they did in America. Naughty them."

How long do you think you'll last? John: "Longer than you."


September 8

The Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The two houses were seen by 21,000 fans.

On the plane from Montreal to Jacksonville, Florida, after the concert, Ringo, who was normally ill-at-ease on planes, relaxed and threw a cushion at someone. Immediately a pillow fight ensued with all the first-class pillows winging through the air. Suddenly a voice came over the intercom, "You're behaving like a bunch of children. This plane is in danger of crashing unless you sit quietly. It is vital that you fasten your seat belts ..." Everyone froze, then returned to their seats and quietly fastened themselves in. Then Paul appeared, returning to his seat, a huge grin on his face at pulling one over on his mates.


September 9

The Beatles' plane was re-routed by Hurricane Dora, and landed instead at Key West at 3.30am. Even in the middle of the night hundreds of teenagers were waiting to scream a welcome.


September 10

During their rest day, The Beatles played a jam session at their hotel with New Orleans R&B star Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, and members of The Bill Black Combo and The Exciters.


September 11

Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, Florida.

After a rest day in Key West, mostly spent drinking, The Beatles finally got to Jacksonville. Once there, they had a hard time reaching the Gator Bowl. After a press conference at their hotel, The George Washington, two dozen police battled about 500 Beatles fans for 15 minutes in the hotel's parking garage at the intersection of Julia and Monroe Streets trying to get The Beatles out of the elevator and into their limousine. It took the group 15 minutes to move 25 feet. Eventually the police drove a flying wedge through the crowd with motorcycle outriders and managed to transfer the group to their trailer at the Gator Bowl by 7.15.

Despite the screaming girls, The Beatles had to refuse to go on until newsreel and television cameramen had left the arena. Newsreel footage, and particularly footage of the group playing, was a valuable commodity and the cameramen refused to leave. Eventually Derek Taylor stepped up to the microphone, shirt-sleeved, and issued an ultimatum. "The Beatles are 100 feet away," he said. "They came thousands of miles to be here. The only thing preventing their appearance is cine cameramen." He said that the film made as newsreels was ultimately sold and shown in cinemas with no royalties paid to The Beatles.

After the announcement Captain C. L. Raines and Captain I. L. Griffin gave the order to end the movie-making. Police officers physically restrained eight cameramen, covered their camera lenses with their hands and led them by the arm from the performance area.

HURRICANE DORA

The concert ran smoothly, though a strong wind, the aftermath of Hurricane Dora, whipped their hair and threatened their instruments as they played. Fans charged the stage after the last number but were restrained by a police blockade and a six-foot fence. Although 30,000 tickets had been sold, only 23,000 showed up. Around 7,000 out-of-town fans who bought tickets were unable to see the concerts because Hurricane Dora had destroyed roads and bridges. President Johnson was in Jacksonville inspecting the damage as The Beatles played. That evening, a few minutes after midnight, their aircraft took off for Boston from Imeson Airport. No fans had discovered their travel plans, so for once there was no hysteria at the airport.


Derek Taylor spoke to a Florida Times-Union reporter on the plane who reported, "Taylor was somewhat apologetic for the showdown he had brought about over the cameramen, but he said a great deal of money was involved. He said this was the first time in the tour history he'd had to make such a speech."

In Detroit, earlier, The Beatles had announced that they would refuse to appear on stage in Jacksonville if the audience was segregated. They had heard that blacks in Florida were only allowed to sit in the balconies at concerts. Their statement read, "We will not appear unless negroes are allowed to sit anywhere." It turned out that there never were plans for the concert to be segregated.

The single 'I Don't Want To See You Again' by Peter & Gordon, written by Paul McCartney, was released in the UK as Columbia DB 7356.


September 12

Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts.


September 13

Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland.

The Beatles stayed at the Holiday Inn, where mounted police were required to restrain the fans. At the Civic Arena, two girls had themselves delivered in a large cardboard box labelled "Beatles Fan Mail" but were discovered by a guard checking all deliveries.


September 14

Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Beatles' Lockheed Electra arrived at Greater Pittsburgh Airport half an hour late at 4.36pm to the screams of 4,000 fans, mostly girls, some of whom had been waiting since 9.00am. The plane parked at Gate 16 and the girls began to scream. The organisers were taking no chances and private detectives boarded the plane, then followed the group out and into the waiting limousine which sped quickly away, surrounded by motorcycle police. There were 120 police at the airport including 15 on horseback, a security force even more elaborate than that used by presidents. Teenagers lined Parkway West to see The Beatles' motorcade drive into town. Five thousand fans surrounded the Civic Arena where The Beatles gave a press conference, then ate a catered meal before showtime.

The paid attendance was 12,603, the City Amusement tax was $6,251 and the Federal Levy $5,001.

The promotional album Hear The Beatles Tell All, consisting of recently recorded interviews with the group, was distributed to 7,000 radio stations across America by Vee Jay Records. Another new promotional release, this time prepared by Capitol Records, was The Beatles Introduce New Songs, featuring John and Paul announcing forthcoming singles by Peter & Gordon, and Cilla Black.


September 15

Public Hall, Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland The Beatles stayed at the Sheraton-Cleveland which, as usual, was inundated with fans: a girl of 11 showed up with a stolen key to a $35-a-night room, a boy hid in a packing case being trucked in, an underage fan tried to get into the Kon Tiki Bar, saying he had reservations for cocktails and one girl fainted on the sidewalk outside but recovered enough to say that she thought the nearest first aid station was in the hotel.

The police requested that they stay on the floor on which the press conference was to be held, rather than the presidential suite because too many fans knew they were registered to stay in those rooms. On Public Square outside the only time the police cordons broke was when The Beatles appeared at a window and waved. Traffic was restricted to one mile an hour in case fans surged forward, but the rush hour proceeded smoothly without too much delay.

Shortly after The Beatles took the stage a great wave of teenagers began pushing to the front, slowly taking the police line with them. More than 100 police leaned into the crowd but they were steadily forced back towards the stage, threatening the safety of the group. Inspector Michael Blackwell and Deputy Inspector Carl C. Bare panicked and decided to stop the show.

Bare charged out of the wings onto the stage, shouldered The Beatles aside, grabbed a microphone and bellowed, "Sit down! The show is over!" The Beatles, however, were in the middle of 'All My Loving' and carried on playing. Bare turned and walked towards John, who instead of stopping, did a little dance and made a face at him. Then Inspector Blackwell came storming out, gesturing to the group to get off the stage. He grabbed George by the elbow and steered him to the wings. George turned on him, "What the hell do you think you are doing? Get your hands off me!" The crowd shouted in protest but the music stopped and The Beatles slowly left the stage. The steel safety curtain came down and Blackwell and Bare stared down the booing fans.

In their dressing room The Beatles complained to the news director of local radio station KYW, Art Schreiber. "This has never happened to us before," said John. "We have never had a show stopped. These policemen are a bunch of amateurs." In the wings Brian diplomatically sided with the police. "The police were absolutely right. This has never happened before, but it was clear to me from the start that there was something very wrong. The enthusiasm of the crowd was building much too early."

After lecturing the audience, Blackwell allowed the show to continue after a ten-minute delay, but only on condition that the audience remained in their seats and that the house lights stayed up. Derek Taylor asked them to remain in their seats and the fans began to chant, "DON'T STAND UP, DON'T STAND UP, DON'T STAND UP". The curtain rose again and the group picked up where they left off and the rest of the show went well.

Later, Blackwell said, "I don't blame the children. They're young and they can't be expected to behave like adults. And I don't blame The Beatles - there is nothing wrong with their act. But if we hadn't stopped it there would have been serious injury. One little girl was knocked down in the charge and there were 300 other youngsters about to trample her." One girl was trampled but not seriously hurt. Another fainted.

Afterwards 500 fans attacked the stage door, but to no avail. The Beatles were already speeding away, using back roads, to their waiting aircraft at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. The police had cleverly run a riot bus, a converted paddy wagon, at high speed out of the hall while The Beatles escaped through the back door. The riot bus had been on duty all through the day, running between the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel and Public Hall. At first the fans were fooled into thinking The Beatles were in it, but soon realised it was a decoy. In the end they ignored it. Just before showtime it made the trip again, this time with The Beatles as passengers, and the fans dismissed it.

The Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel refused to sell the bed linen that The Beatles had used, "because the idea seems to be against good taste," said the manager.


September 16

City Park Stadium, New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Beatles were scheduled to arrive at New Orleans Lakefront Airport where they were to be flown by helicopter to the Congress Inn. However, that was not what happened. First of all the helicopter blew a tyre, so limousines were ordered instead, but they went to Moisant Field, New Orleans International Airport by mistake. It turned out that this was to the good because that was where The Beatles' charter plane landed. They piled into the limousines and were off, complete with flashing blue lights and screaming sirens, at 3am. Unfortunately The Beatles' car got separated from the rest of the motorcade and followed a different route. There were a few hundred fans near the hotel, standing along the road designated their official route, and when they saw The Beatles in an unguarded car they quickly surrounded it, screaming hysterically.

Police soon arrived and forced the fans aside, but as The Beatles' car was backing up, it hit a Kenner police patrol car, causing slight damage. Finally The Beatles made it to the motel, ran through the lobby, the laundry room then outside and to their motel rooms: a three room suite - Room 100. By 4am most of the crowd had faded away. Two of The Beatles were sleeping, the other two were preparing to eat.

At the concert some 700 teenagers broke away from the stand and attempted to crash through the barriers keeping them from the stage. It took 225 New Orleans police more than 20 minutes to restore order. Mounted police patrolled the area around the stage while the fans who broke through onto the football field were roped off to one side. More than 200 fans collapsed and had to be revived with smelling salts and one girl had her arm broken but refused to go to hospital until after the show.


September 17

Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri.

THE KANSAS CONCERT

This was originally supposed to be a rest day but after seeing the amazing reception the group received elsewhere in the country, a wealthy promoter, Charles O. Finley, approached Brian Epstein with an offer of $100,000 to add Kansas City to their tour. Brian asked The Beatles if they would mind and without even looking up they said, ''Whatever you think, Brian." Brian turned the offer down, despite the fact it was an enormous figure for the time. But Finley saw it as a matter of civic pride and was determined that Kansas City should see The Beatles. He offered $150,000, a higher figure than an American artist had ever received and almost guaranteed to show a loss. The 41,000 seater stadium was half full, with 20,280 paying spectators. Finley, the owner of Kansas City Athletics, lost between $50,000 and $100,000 for sponsoring the show. Despite this he donated a further $25,000 to Mercy Hospital. He said, "I don't consider it any loss at all. The Beatles were brought here for the enjoyment of the children in this area and watching them last night they had complete enjoyment. I'm happy about that. Mercy Hospital benefited by $25,000. The hospital gained, and I had a great gain by seeing the children and the hospital gain." An Athletics official said that ticket sales of 28,000 were needed to break even.

The Beatles flew in at 2am in pouring rain. About 100 fans waited, staring at them from behind a wall of wet policemen. George slipped on the wet runway apron on his way to the limousine which transferred them to the Muehlebach Towers where they had the $100-a-day, 18th-floor terrace penthouse. It took seven bellmen to carry in the 200 items of luggage The Beatles party had with them. A Kansas City actress had sent up a Missouri country ham, apple cider, a mincemeat pie and a watermelon.

To commemorate this extraordinary concert, The Beatles added 'Kansas City'/'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey' to their repertoire, which the local fans loved. Excitement ran so high that the concert had to be stopped, with a threat of cancellation, if the audience did not calm down. They did and The Beatles played on.

The Muehlebach Towers sold the group's bed linen-16 sheets and eight pillow cases - to a Chicago man for $750. As in Detroit a few days earlier, these were later chopped into small pieces and turned into instant souvenirs.


September 18

Memorial Coliseum, Dallas, Texas.

In Dallas the stage was three times higher than was normally used, which put Ringo some 15 feet above the ground. Before the show there was a press conference, as usual, mostly attended by 13-year-old girls from radio stations no one had ever heard of before. Ringo was asked about the girls who had fallen to their knees and eaten the grass The Beatles walked upon. Ringo: "I hope they don't get indigestion."

Someone arranged for Paul to telephone Methodist Hospital to encourage Cheryl Howard, the 10-year-old victim of a hit-and-run driver who was fighting for her life. "A Pity you can't be with us tonight at the programme," he told her.

There were the usual scenes outside their hotel, the Cabana, where fans jumped into the fountain after finding all doors to the hotel blocked. When the group returned to the hotel they jumped from their car but were cut off from the back entrance by several hundred fans. George was knocked to his knees and Ringo almost went under but they made it through. During the struggle a girl was pushed through a glass door and was severely cut about the face. Several others were injured. After the show they drove straight to Dallas Love Field where their plane took off at 11.08, taking The Beatles to a ranch in Missouri for a rest. During the flight, Paul led the entire Beatles entourage in a chorus of "Happy Birthday" for their manager, Brian Epstein. The Beatles then presented him with several gifts, including a vintage telephone and a rather impractical set of glassware.


September 19

The Beatles transferred planes on a small Missouri airstrip, and were transported to a ranch home in the Ozark Mountains on a seven-seater plane. During their 36 hours at this residence, the group swam, went riding, and indulged in some shooting and fishing.

Oxfam printed half a million Christmas cards featuring a design specially drawn by John Lennon.


September 20

Paramount Theater, Broadway, New York City, "An Evening With The Beatles" with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

One of the few charity concerts The Beatles gave, this on behalf of the United Cerebral Palsy Fund of New York, this performance was attended by 3,682 members of society, who paid up to $100 a ticket. Ed Sullivan visited the dressing room, Gloria Steinem was there, valiantly trying to obtain a story for Cosmopolitan (her finished article captured much of the media madness surrounding the group, to which The Beatles replied with polite non-cooperation). Bob Dylan and his manager Albert Grossman went back to their motel with the band after the show. They stayed at the Riviera Motel, near Kennedy Airport, ready for the next morning's departure. That evening Brian Epstein accused press officer Derek Taylor of taking his limousine from outside the Paramount and called him a swine. Derek replied in kind and resigned, both as The Beatles' press officer and as Brian's personal assistant. He worked for a further three months showing his successor the ropes and was later to return to run the Apple press office.

Derek Taylor: "(Brian) handed me a note, which said that he might have been hasty and maybe I had too and if it could be forgiven and forgotten he would be happy if I would take back my resignation. Then he started to cry ... But I needed to get away from all the hysteria and become normal again and stop having rows and leaving the family for months at a time. I had to stick to my decision."


September 21

The Beatles' Flight BA 510 landed at Heathrow Airport, London, at 9.30pm by which time thousands of fans had gathered on the roof of the Queen's Building to greet them. Continuous Beatles music had been playing throughout the building and regular flight reports were announced, as their Boeing 707 crossed the Atlantic.

The single 'I Don't Want To See You Again' by Peter & Gordon, written by Paul McCartney, was released in the US as Capitol 5272.


September 24

Brickey Building Company Limited was formed by Ringo, to give himself and his fellow Beatles a reliable building and decorating service.


September 27

Prince Of Wales Theatre, London. Ringo acted as one of a panel of celebrity judges in the final of The National Beat Group Competition, a charity event in aid of Oxfam. The second half of the show was broadcast live by BBC2 as It's Beat Time.

Paul and Jane attended a party given to celebrate the first anniversary of The Pretty Things.


September 29

Abbey Road. The Beatles worked on 'Every Little Thing', 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party' and 'What You're Doing'.


September 30

Abbey Road. The Beatles finished 'Every Little Thing' and worked on 'What You're Doing' and 'No Reply'.


October

A Hard Day's Night was shown in Prague as part of a cultural exchange week between Britain and Czechoslovakia - the first time a Western pop film had been screened behind the Iron Curtain. The film was also released in Portugal, although only after several scenes had been censored, to avoid inflaming the passions of local teenagers.

Brian Epstein recorded spoken-word extracts from his autobiography, A Cellarful Of Noise, under the supervision of George Martin at Abbey Road studios.


October 1

Paul went to see Goldfinger, the new James Bond movie.

Alf Bicknell, The Beatles' new chauffeur, started work. He was to be their driver until August 1966 when they stopped touring.

With their licence to The Beatles' early recordings due to expire early in New Year, the US label Vee Jay Records were frantically trying to exploit this material as exhaustively as possible. They re-released the Introducing The Beatles LP alongside a collection of hits by The Four Seasons, as part of a two-record package, imaginatively titled The Beatles Vs. The Four Seasons (VJDX 30).


October 2

Rehearsals at the Granville Theatre, Fulham, for Jack Good's American TV show Shindig.

That evening Paul attended an Alma Cogan recording session and played tambourine on the track 'I Knew Right Away' (the B-side of her single 'It's You').


October 3

Shindig recorded live before a lively audience of Beatles Fan Club members at the Granville Theatre, Fulham. The Beatles performed 'Kansas City'/'Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey', 'I'm A Loser' and 'Boys'. They also took part in the finale with the Karl Denver Trio.


October 5

The Ain't She Sweet album is released in the US as Atco SD 33-169. Despite being credited to The Beatles, it actually contains eight songs by The Swallows, and only four of The Beatles' Hamburg recordings, 'Ain't She Sweet', 'Sweet Georgia Brown', 'Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby' and 'Nobody's Child'.


October 6

Abbey Road. The Beatles arrived just after 2.30pm. The entire session was spent recording 'Eight Days A Week' until 7.00pm. Between takes, John toyed with the guitar riff which would soon power a new song, 'I Feel Fine'.

After the session John, Paul and Ringo went to the Ad-Lib where they spent the evening with Cilia Black, Mick Jagger and The Ronettes.


October 7

Shindig shown by ABC-TV in the USA.


October 8

That morning Ringo took his driving test in Enfield in order to avoid unwanted publicity. He passed first time. (He had previously been driving a Ford Zephyr around Liverpool, presumably without a licence.)

Abbey Road. The Beatles were in studio two recording Paul's 'She's A Woman', which he had begun to write that morning while walking around St. John's Wood, and then finished at home before leaving for the studio.


October 9

Gaumont Cinema, Bradford.

Opening of The Beatles' four-week tour of Britain. They were delayed by heavy traffic and by police on the Al who flagged them down in order to get autographs, and arrived in Bradford two hours late. Also on the bill were The Rustiks, Sounds Incorporated, Michael Haslam, The Remo Four, Tommy Quickly and Mary Wells. The MC was Bob Bain.

The Beatles' set for this tour consisted of 'Twist And Shout', 'Money (That's What I Want)', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'Things We Said Today', 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You', 'I Should Have Known Better', 'If I Fell', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Long Tall Sally'. Sixty police guarded the stage area, there were 40 firemen and 60 St John Ambulance men and nurses on hand to deal with fainting fans. Outside, the crowds were controlled by mounted police brought in from Wakefield. There were a few arrests and a firework was thrown.

During a brief soundcheck before the first performance, The Beatles ran through John's new song, 'I Feel Fine', for the first time.

The group spent the night at the Raggles Inn in Queensbury, celebrating John's 24th birthday, before leaving for Leicester the following morning.


October 10

De Montfort Hall, Leicester (British Tour).

Ringo spent most of the day looking for cars. He eventually bought a Facel-Vega, which he tried out by driving at 140 mph up the Ml.

The music press reported that the next Beatles album was to have a gatefold cover with a picture of The Beatles standing beneath the Arc de Triomphe at night with lighted matches held under their chins. It didn't happen.


October 11

The Odeon Cinema, Birmingham (British Tour).


October 12

The album Songs, Pictures And Stories Of The Fabulous Beatles was released in the US as Vee Jay VJLP 1092. Side A: 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Misery', 'Anna (Go To Him)', 'Chains', 'Boys', 'Ask Me Why'; Side B: 'Please Please Me', 'Baby, It's You', 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', 'A Taste Of Honey', 'There's A Place', 'Twist And Shout'.

This album, effectively a reissue of Introducing The Beatles, brought to an end Vee Jay's merciless recycling of The Beatles' early 1963 recordings, which they had now released on five separate LPs.

Wendy Hanson joined The Beatles' backroom team as Brian Epstein's personal assistant.


October 13

The ABC Cinema, Wigan (British Tour).


October 14

The group spent the day at Granada Television studios in Manchester miming 'I Should Have Known Better' and conducting an interview for the show Scene At 6.30.

The ABC Cinema, Ardwick, Manchester (British Tour). Backstage The Beatles were interviewed by David Tindall for BBC1 news magazine Look North.


October 15

The Globe Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees (British Tour). The group were interviewed by Tyne Tees Television for North-East Newsview.


October 16

The ABC Cinema, Hull (British Tour).

The single 'If I Fell'/'Tell Me Why' was released in Europe as Parlophone DP 562 (a

few hundred copies were accidentally released in the UK on January 29,1965).

The Beatles on Scene At 6.30 was broadcast by Granada Television.

Tyne Tees Television broadcast their interview with The Beatles on North-East Newsview.


October 17

The group drove back to London from Hull.


October 18

Abbey Road. The Beatles finished 'Eight Days A Week'. They then worked on 'Kansas City'/'Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey', followed by 'Mr Moonlight', 'I Feel Fine' and Paul's 'I'll Follow The Sun'. George sang Carl Perkins' 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby' which they followed with 'Rock And Roll Music' and 'Words Of Love'.

The recording of 'I Feel Fine' marked the first occasion on which guitar feedback had been deliberately incorporated into a pop song. EMI's press department claimed at the time that the novel sound effect had simply been an accident, but the session tapes prove that John devoted much effort to perfecting the sonic whine which introduced the record.


October 19

The group drove from London to Edinburgh to play the ABC Cinema (British Tour).


October 20

Caird Hall, Dundee (British Tour).

June Shields from Grampian Television interviewed The Beatles in their dressing room for the programme Grampian Week.


October 21

Odeon Cinema, Glasgow (British Tour).


October 22

Odeon Cinema, Leeds (British Tour).


October 23

The group drove back to London, then played the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn (British Tour). Grampian Television broadcast the Caird Hall interview on Grampian Week.


October 24

Granada Cinema, Walthamstow, London (British Tour).

Press conference to announce that The Beatles' new single was to be 'I Feel Fine'/'She's A Woman'.


October 25

Hippodrome Theatre, Brighton (British Tour).

Before the show, The Beatles were interviewed by a Melody Maker reporter about their taste in musical instruments, and also took part in a photographic session for The Beatles Book. George also had his fortune told and his palms read by a local psychic. After the performance, the group were visited in their dressing room by actor Richard Harris and his wife.

The annual Ivor Novello Awards for contributions to the British Music Industry are announced, and The Beatles win in five separate categories - including a special award for 'Most Outstanding Contribution To Music In 1963'.


October 26

Abbey Road. The morning was spent listening to previous recordings. In the afternoon Ringo recorded his vocal for 'Honey Don't'. During the evening session the group recorded some material for a Christmas flexi-disc.

Afterwards Paul and Ringo, accompanied by Jane and Maureen, went to the Ad-Lib Club.

The latest issue of the monthly magazine Rave was published, featuring the first appearance in print of photographs taken by Ringo Starr.


October 28

ABC Cinema, Exeter (British Tour).

Afterwards the group took their chauffeur, Alf Bicknell, for a night out on the town to celebrate his 36th birthday.


October 29

ABC Theatre, Plymouth (British Tour).


October 30

Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth (British Tour).

The single 'It's You'/'I Knew Right Away' by Alma Cogan, with Paul on tambourine on the B-side, was released in the UK as Columbia DB 7390.


October 31

Gaumont Theatre, Ipswich (British Tour).


November 1

Astoria Theatre, Finsbury Park, London (British Tour).


November 2

An extra date was added to the British Tour and The Beatles flew to Aldergrove Airport in Northern Ireland to play the King's Hall, Belfast.

George Martin released his second US album of instrumental covers of Beatles songs, A Hard Day's Night.


November 3

The Beatles flew back to London from Belfast.


November 4

Ritz Cinema, Luton (British Tour).

BBC producer Joe McGrath visited John backstage to invite him to contribute to a new Dudley Moore television show, then unnamed, but eventually called Not Only . . . But Also. John had previously run into Dudley Moore in a studio and told him,"I like what you're doing and I'd like to be in on it."

The EP Extracts From The Film A Hard Day's Night was released in the UK as Parlophone GEP 8920. Side A: 'I Should Have Known Better', 'If I Fell'; Side B: 'Teil Me Why', 'And I Love Her'.


November 5

Odeon Cinema, Nottingham (British Tour).


November 6

Gaumont Cinema, Southampton (British Tour).

They were interviewed in their dressing room by Tony Bilbow for the Southern Television programme Day By Day, broadcast that evening.

The EP Extracts From The Film A Hard Day's Night (Volume Two) was released in the UK as Parlophone GEP 8924. Side A: 'Anytime At All', 'I'll Cry Instead'; Side B: 'Things We Said Today', 'When I Get Home'.


November 7

The Capitol Cinema, Cardiff (British Tour).


November 8

Empire Theatre, Liverpool (British Tour).

After the concerts, which are attended by a stellar line-up of local luminaries and entertainers, John Lennon accompanied Mersey Beat editor Bill Harry on a visit to Stuart Sutcliffe's parents, taking away a blue abstract painting as a memento of his late friend.


November 9

City Hall, Sheffield (British Tour).


November 10

Colston Hall, Bristol.

The last date of the British Tour was enlivened by a student prank. As The Beatles finished singing 'If I Fell', and bowed to take the applause of the crowd, four students perched in the lighting gantries over their head emptied bags of flour over their heads. After shaking the powder out of their instruments, the visibly amused group completed their performance.


November 13

CBS-TV broadcast The Beatles In America - a full-length version of the Maysles Brothers documentary Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! The Beatles On Tour which covered their whole tour.

Parlophone released 'America', a single by Liverpool singer Rory Storm, which was produced by Brian Epstein and featured Ringo on backing vocals.


November 14

Television studios, Teddington, where they recorded a Thank Your Lucky Stars show, renamed Lucky Star's Special in their honour. They mimed to 'I Feel Fine', 'She's A Woman', 'I'm A Loser' and 'Rock And Roll Music'.

Afterwards George and Paul went home while John and Ringo went with friends to the Flamingo Club in Soho to see Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames.


November 15

The Around The Beatles TV special was screened in the US for the first time.


November 16

The Beatles recorded 'I Feel Fine' and 'I'm A Loser' at Riverside Studios, London, for an edition of BBC TV's Top Of The Pops presented by Brian Matthew. They mimed to both sides of their new single: 'I Feel Fine' and 'She's A Woman'.


November 17

The Beatles recorded a Top Gear show for the BBC Light Programme at the Playhouse Theatre, London. Brian Matthew interviewed them and they recorded 'I'm A Loser', 'Honey Don't', 'She's A Woman', 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby', 'I'll Follow The Sun' and 'I Feel Fine'.


November 20

John filmed a surreal film sequence with Dudley Moore and Norman Rossington on Wimbledon Common, to accompany his reading from In His Own Write on Moore's new BBC2 programme Not Only . . . But Also.


November 21

ABC Television broadcast Lucky Stars Special.


November 23

Wembley studios. An appearance on Ready Steady Go! to promote their new record. They mimed to 'I Feel Fine', 'She's A Woman', 'Baby's In Black' and 'Kansas City'/'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey'. They also chatted on camera with presenter Keith Fordyce.

The single 'I Feel Fine'/'She's A Woman' was released in the US as Capitol 5327.

The album The Beatles' Story was released in the US as Capitol STBO 2222 (a 48-minute documentary double album containing one live cut from The Beatles, recorded August 23,1964, at the Hollywood Bowl). Side A: 'On Stage With The Beatles', 'How Beatlemania Began', 'Beatlemania In Action', 'The Man Behind The Beatles -Brian Epstein', 'John Lennon', 'Who's A Millionaire?'; Side B: 'Beatles Will Be Beatles', 'Man Behind The Music - George Martin', 'George Harrison'; Side C: 'A Hard Day's Night - Their First Movie', 'Paul McCartney', 'Sneaky Haircuts And More About Paul'; Side D: 'Twist And Shout' (live), 'The Beatles Look At Life', 'Victims of Beatlemania', 'Beatle Medley', 'Ringo Starr', 'Liverpool And All The World!'.

Despite the blatantly exploitative nature of this 'official' release, The Beatles' Story still sold well enough to reach the US Top Ten.


November 24

Paul attended the marriage of his father, James, aged 62, to Angela Williams, aged 35.


November 25

The Beatles recorded a Boxing Day special edition of BBC Light Programme's Saturday Club show. The broadcast consisted of six songs: 'Rock And Roll Music', 'I'm A Loser', 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby', 'I Feel Fine', 'Kansas City'/'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey' and 'She's A Woman', but four of these, all except the first and 'Kansas City' were previously recorded versions. It is possible that only two songs were taped this day, or that the new versions were not up to scratch. The programme also included banter with presenter Brian Matthew.


November 27

The single 'I Feel Fine'/'She's A Woman' was released in the UK as Parlophone R 5200.

The Beatles' final appearance on Ready Steady Go! was shown by Rediffusion.

I FEEL FINE

From the opening buzz of feedback (not a studio accident, as claimed at the time, but a conscious decision to use this electronic howl) to the cool passion of John Lennon's vocal, the group's final single of 1964 oozed quality and control. Lennon based the finger-twisting guitar riff on Bobby Parker's R&B record, 'Watch Your Step', which had been covered by The John Barry Seven as early as 1961, and was well known among British blues fans. But the smooth power of the song was Lennon's own, and hinted at The Beatles' development of the original beat-group sound which would follow in 1965.

SHE'S A WOMAN

For once on a Beatles record, Lennon sounded more sophisticated than McCartney when 'I Feel Fine' was supported by the raucous 'She's A Woman'. Little more than an R&B jam with words, the track was hastily and erratically recorded - the stabbing rhythm guitar drops out a couple of times midway through - but it triumphed on sheer willpower.


November 28

Chris Hutchins visited John at Kenwood and interviewed him for the BBC Light Programme's Teen Scene, to help promote the Beatles For Sale album.

Afterwards John and Cynthia went Christmas shopping in London.


November 29

John read from his book, In His Own Write on Dudley Moore's BBC2 programme Not Only ... But Also. He was apparently shy and self-conscious about reading aloud, but this was quickly dispelled by the antics of Moore and A Hard Day's Night star Norman Rossington.

John and George had a few drinks afterwards, then went to the Crazy Elephant where they spent the evening with two members of The Miracles.

Chris Hutchins' interview with John was broadcast by the BBC Light Programme's Teen Scene.


November 30

Ringo gave an interview to Melody Maker about his forthcoming operation to have his tonsils removed. While in their office, he saw the weekly charts compiled and 'I Feel Fine' enter at number one.

Comedian Jack Dorsey released a novelty single about The Beatles' drummer, 'Ringo's Dog'.


December 1

Ringo booked into University College Hospital to have his tonsils removed. He gave a brief press conference at the hospital before going to the ward.


December 2

Ringo's tonsils were removed. A record player and records were delivered to his bedside.


December 3

Ringo was still in hospital, but doing well and making a fast recovery. BBC's Top Of The Pops broadcast The Beatles miming both sides of their new single.


December 4

The album Beatles For Sale was released in the UK as Parlophone PCS 3062. Side A: 'No Reply', 'I'm A Loser', 'Baby's In Black', 'Rock And Roll Music', 'I'll Follow The Sun', 'Mr Moonlight', 'Kansas City'/'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey'; Side B: 'Eight Days A Week', 'Words Of Love', 'Honey Don't', 'Every Little Thing', 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party', 'What You're Doing', 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby'.

Many of the tracks were oldies, played by The Beatles at the Cavern and in Hamburg. John: "The numbers on this LP are different from anything we've done before and you could call our new one a 'Beatles Country and Western LP'."

BEATLES FOR SALE

It's been noted before that the tired, glazed expressions of the four Beatles on the cover of their fourth album was a simple response to circumstances. Unlike the pampered stars of the Nineties, they had no chance between 1963 and 1965 to bask in their wealth and fame. Into that schedule had to be squeezed the recording of the aptly titled Beatles For Sale. It was thrown together on off-days between concerts over a period of almost three months, so it wasn't altogether surprising when the record seemed to take a step back from the stylistic unity of their earlier LPs. The return to a blend of original material and covers hinted at the strain the group were under; the generally perfunctory nature of their covers rammed the message home. But the eight Lennon/McCartney songs on the album displayed a growing maturity, and betrayed a new set of influences which would very soon whisk The Beatles beyond the reach of their beat group contemporaries.

One of the prime inspirations for the Beatles For Sale songs was country music - first noted on 'I'll Cry Instead' on the third album, and a constant point of reference through their work in 1965. The group had grown up on rockabilly, itself deeply rooted in country, but it took Ringo's continual championing of Nashville's contemporary stars to inspire songs like 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party' and 'Baby's In Black'.

More lasting was the creative impact of Bob Dylan, to whom The Beatles had been listening since the end of 1963. At first, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison picked up on the style and sound of Dylan's records. Once the American singer had introduced them to the pleasures of dope, however, they began to respond to the artistic freedom that his songwriting made possible. Without Dylan, or drugs, the path from Beatles For Sale to Revolver might have been too tangled for The Beatles to follow.

NO REPLY

"I remember Dick James coming to me after we did this one, "John Lennon recalled shortly before his death, "and saying, 'You're getting much better now - this is a complete story'. Apparently, before that he thought my songs tended to sort of wander off." Music publisher Dick James soon found his own tastes outstripped by the adventurous spirit of The Beatles;

by 1966, no one was looking to their songs for "a complete story". But James was right on one score: even though the song was plainly a piece of romantic fiction, it had a watertight structure and a powerful melody, and The Beatles'skills as vocal arrangers were on open display. On tracks like this, Beatles For Sale sounds like the pinnacle of British beat music, polished to an icy sheen in preparation for being shattered by The Beatles and the Stones, among others, over the next 12 months.

'No Reply' would go on to become the favoured track for owners of answerphones to record on their machines 20 years later.

I'M A LOSER

Looking back at this song, Lennon recognised it as a milestone. "Instead of projecting myself into a situation," he explained, "I would try to express what I felt about myself. I think it was Dylan who helped me realise that." And the Dylan influence was obvious in other ways, too, from the acoustic guitars powering the song to the use of the harmonica as a statement of Passion.

Like 'I'll Cry Instead', 'I'm A Loser' soon drifted into naked self-pity - and anyway, the raw emotions of the song were dressed up in a strong pop format. But fora while, at least, Lennon was delighted at his discovery that he could channel his innermost thoughts into music, as well as the free-form linguistic pleasures of his books. As for the song's message, Lennon summed up his ambivalence perfectly in 1970: "Part of me thinks I'm a loser and part of me thinks I'm God Almighty".

BABY'S IN BLACK

A heavy waltz with a vague country influence, 'Baby's In Black' was one of the last genuine Lennon/McCartney collaborations - composed during a head-to-head session over acoustic guitars, the way they'd been doing since the late 50s. Its rather maudlin lyric suggests that it might originally have been a Lennon idea, but the performance is pure Beatles - and pure 1964. Numbers like this, which invested a little romantic difficulty with the importance of a world crisis, gradually faded from The Beatles' repertoire over the next twelve months.

ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC

Not for the first time, The Beatles took a classic American record and cut it to shreds. Chuck Berry's original Chess recording - which set up rock'n'roll as an antidote to boredom with every other musical style - only hinted at the raw power of the genre. With Lennon, McCartney and producer George Martin trebling up the keyboardpart, The Beatles made every hint of that promise into reality. Berry wrote and performed brilliant rock songs, but it took Lennon to sing this one the way it was meant to be heard.

I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN

As early as 1960, the pre-Beatles Liverpool band, The Quarry Men, were experimenting with a tentative arrangement of this McCartney song, making it just about the earliest Lennon/McCartney composition which they ever recorded. Simple but effortlessly melodic, it proves that Paul was born with the gift of writing memorable tunes, while John Lennon's ability as a tunesmith evolved only with practice.

MR. MOONLIGHT

On Friday August 14, 1964, The Beatles recorded one of the strongest rock'n'roll performances of their career. Sadly, this wasn't it. But it could have been: the group eventually decided to jettison their electrifying interpretation of Little Willie John's R&B standard, 'Leave My Kitten Alone' (which remained officially unreleased until 1995) in favour of this bizarre, mediocre version of another song from black America, Dr. Feelgood & The Interns' 'Mr. Moonlight'.

John Lennon had taken to the song immediately he heard it, and it was swiftly incorporated into their Cavern repertoire. But the recorded version, which required two separate sessions to 'perfect', had none of the spontaneity or humour of their live performances. It shambled along rather apologetically, and the half-hearted vocal support from McCartney and Harrison left Lennon's impassioned lead sounding faintly ridiculous. Asked to pick the weakest track The Beatles ever recorded, a fair percentage of fans would opt for 'Mr. Moonlight'.

KANSAS CITY/HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY

Like Little Richard before them, The Beatles covered Leiber & Stoller's early Fifties R&B song and added a frenetic call-and-response routine to the end. Richard had already reworked the original arrangement to his own specifications, and Paul McCartney followed that revamp to the letter. For this recording, The Beatles simply blasted the song the way they did on stage. This late 1964 rendition may be tighter than the performance from December 1962 captured on the 1962 Live Recordings CD, but the approach is almost identical.

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK

A few months earlier, The Beatles had been delighted by the discovery that they could fade their recordings out. Now they went a stage further, and made pop history by fading this song in. Ironically, the track had a conventional ending - though that was edited onto the tape after the basic recording was finished.

Like 'Baby's In Black', 'Eight Days A Week' was a Lennon/McCartney collaboration, though again with Lennon's influence to the fore. It would have made a perfect hit single, and may even have been written with that idea in mind, as its title obviously has some link with the working name of their second movie, scripts for which had already been submitted by October 1964: Eight Arms To Hold You.

WORDS OF LOVE

Two standards from The Beatles' pre-fame live repertoire went through a change of ownership during these sessions. Back at the Cavern in 1961 and 1962, it had been Lennon and Harrison who shared the close harmony vocals on this Buddy Holly song - the only number by one of their favourite writers that they ever recorded. On the record, though, which kept strictly to Holly's arrangement, McCartney elbowed Harrison out of the limelight. Nevertheless, George's contribution - the lovely chiming guitar licks throughout - is pretty impressive.

HONEY DON'T

The second change came with this Carl Perkins rockabilly favourite - traditionally sung by John Lennon on stage, but passed over amiably to Ringo Starr as his token vocal cameo on the album. The switch gave Ringo the chance to utter one of his trademark invitations to George as Harrison launched into the guitar solo.

EVERY LITTLE THING

Though it's one of the least well-known songs they ever recorded, John Lennon's 'Every Little Thing' was as impressive as anything on Beatles For Sale, with all the trademarks of their 1964 work - a laconic, yet affectionate Lennon vocal, some Harrison guitar that looked forward to the as-yet-unrecorded sound of The Byrds, and a stunningly melodic chorus that stuck instantly in the brain. Ripe for rediscovery by someone like Tom Petty (and covered in 1969 by Yes, of all people), it justifies the claim that almost every Lennon/McCartney song on The Beatles' early albums would have made a convincing hit single.

I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE PARTY

Influenced partly by rockabilly, partly by mainstream country, and partly by the general air of melancholy that seeped into several of his songs in 1964, John Lennon wrote this vaguely self-pitying account ofromantic disappointment. Proof of The Beatles' increasing sophistication as arrangers came with the middle eight, on which Paul's harmony moved subtly away from the simple line he might have sung a year earlier.

WHAT YOU'RE DOING

With 'I'll Follow The Sun'having been written in the late Fifties, "What You're Doing' proved to be Paul McCartney's only new solo contribution to the Beatles For Sale album. After out-stripping Lennon as a songwriter in the group's early years, Paul was now going through a fallow period, just when John was at his most prolific. A couple of years later, the situation would be dramatically reversed.

The song itself was built around a simple guitar riff, but as often proves to be the case, simplicity proved difficult to perfect. The Beatles devoted two sessions to taping the song before junking the results and then re-cutting it on the last possible day of recording.

EVERYBODY'S TRYING TO BE MY BABY

Cut in a single, echo-swamped take, this second Carl Perkins cover allowed George Harrison the chance to pay his respects to one of his all-time musical heroes. The combination of the disorientating echo and Harrison's scouse drawl made Perkins' overtly Tennessean lyrics almost impossible to decipher: without access to a lyric sheet, in fact, Harrison may simply have been reproducing the sound of what the American rocker was singing, rather than exactly the same words. Either way, it made for a strange ending to a disjointed album.


December 8

George visited Ringo in hospital, adding to the security problem caused by fans trying to sneak in.

The Daily Express reported that Paul had told them he would marry Jane Asher.


December 9

George and Patti flew to the Bahamas for a break before The Beatles' Christmas Show.

Paul visited Ringo in hospital, attracting even more press and fans.


December 10

Ringo was finally released from University College Hospital.


December 11

The results of the annual New Musical Express readers' poll were published. The Beatles topped both the "World Vocal Group" and "British Vocal Group" categories.


December 15

The album Beatles '65 was released in the US as Capitol ST 2228. Side A: 'No Reply', 'I'm A Loser', 'Baby's In Black', 'Rock And Roll Music', 'I'll Follow The Sun', 'Mr. Moonlight';

Side B: 'Honey Don't', 'I'll Be Back', 'She's A Woman', 'I Feel Fine', 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby'.


December 18

The flexi-disc, Another Beatles' Christmas Record, was sent out free to members of The Beatles Fan Club.


December 19

George and Patti flew back to London from Nassau.


December 20

Brian Epstein bought number 24 Chapel Street, Belgravia, London. Paul and Jane visited Liverpool singer Rory Storm.


December 21

The first day of rehearsals for Another Beatles' Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Odeon.


December 22

The complete cast of Another Beatles' Christmas Show assembled on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon for a rehearsal.

During a break in rehearsals, Jimmy Savile (who was appearing in the show) recorded a brief interview with the group for BBC's Top Of The Pops '64 Christmas show.


December 23

Rehearsals for the Christmas Show.


December 24

The Beatles opened their twice-nightly Another Beatles' Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Odeon, London.

ANOTHER BEATLES' CHRISTMAS SHOW

The show was compered by Jimmy Savile, who brought fans to The Beatles' dressing room before the shows. The Mike Cotton Sound playing Georgie Fame's 'Yeh, Yen!' opened. They were joined by Michael Haslem, a Brian Epstein protege - one of those who didn't make it - who came on stage to sing 'Scarlet Ribbons'. The Yardbirds were on next followed by a pantomime sketch involving The Beatles dressed as Antarctic explorers looking for the Abominable Snowman, compered by Liverpudlian Ray Fell. So excruciating was this section of the show, both for the group and their fans, that The Beatles resolved never to take part in a similar enterprise again. The first half ended with Freddie and The Dreamers, beginning with 'Rip It Up', bachelor Boy' and including 'Cut Across Shorty'.

The second half opened with Elkie Brooks followed by Sounds Incorporated, then finally Jimmy Savile introduced The Beatles dressed in blue Mohair suits and singing 'She's A Woman' with Paul taking vocals. John sang 'I'm A Loser', George did 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby' then John and Paul duetted on 'Baby's In Black'. Ringo sang 'Honey Don't' followed by John on 'A Hard Day's Night' and their current hit, 'I Feel Fine'. 'Long Tall Sally' was the finale. The drawings on the front and back covers of the programme were by John.


The Beatles performing 'A Hard Day's Night', recorded in July, was broadcast on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops '64.


December 25

John and Cynthia spent Christmas Day at home with their son Julian; Paul was with his girlfriend Jane Asher at her family home; and Ringo joined George for Christmas lunch at the latter's home.


December 26

Hammersmith Odeon, London: Another Beatles' Christmas Show.


December 28

Hammersmith Odeon, London: Another Beatles' Christmas Show.


December 29

Hammersmith Odeon, London: Another Beatles' Christmas Show. (One performance instead of the usual two.)


December 30

Hammersmith Odeon, London: Another Beatles' Christmas Show.


December 31

Hammersmith Odeon, London: Another Beatles' Christmas Show.

Afterwards Paul, Jane, George and Patti attended EMI producer Norman Newell's New Year's Eve party at his London flat. They also made a fleeting visit to another party, held by EMI boss Sir Joseph Lockwood.


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