My Musical Journey – The British Invasion Begins

 My Musical Journey – The British Invasion Begins

I turned 14 in early 1963. I spent most of the summer of 1963 at the beach, generally Crescent Beach. That was the town beach where the kids my age went. There was sort of a regular crowd of kids there, in fact we kind of took over the beach. Eddie and I would hitch to or have one of our mothers drive us to the beach any non-rainy day we were free. We almost always hitched home. We were too young to have a regular summer job at this point so we were free most days. I cut a few neighbors lawns for extra cash. Eddie caddied at one of the country clubs in town. I tried that too but I was so thin that I was either selected late in the day or not at all so I stopped. I did not have or want a paper-route but I did sub for a couple of friends when they went out of town on vacation with their families. At the beach there were always transistor radios playing. The one song I particularly remember from that summer is Stevie Wonder's “Fingertips”. Don't know why that particular song stands out. It was not a favorite, but even today when I hear it I am taken back to that summer on Crescent Beach.

That fall a few us started meeting a Eddie's house playing 45's and singing along and even pretending to play instruments. Initially it was Eddie and me and two of our friends both named Bobby. A couple of others showed up a few times as well. Bobby G. did actually play drums and it wasn't long before we started talking about starting a band. The other Bobby dropped out at that point and a couple of other guys who played guitar would eventually join in. It was clear that Eddie was going to be the lead singer. I did some singing too but Eddie was the better singer. I was at the end of my piano lesson days. They all wanted me to buy a keyboard to play in the band. It sounded like fun but I knew that my parents were never going to allow me to spend any of my savings (earmarked for college) on a keyboard for a rock-n-roll band. The band needed a bass guitar player and in hindsight maybe that's what I should have done but the keyboard problem pretty much ended any thoughts of being in the band for me. Eddie eventually bought a bass guitar and started learning how to play it. They became a band and played at parties and at many of the school dances. One of the songs they did was the Outsiders song “Time Won't Let Me”, Eddie really sang that song well. That's the closest I ever got to being a rock star....

In the fall of 63 we were all shocked by President Kennedy's (JFK) assassination on 11/22. His presidency had inspired such hope and had so much vitality. Losing JFK was a jolt to the American psyche. It's hard to quantify the loss we felt from this. However there was something just around the corner for us teenagers, four guys who called themselves The Beatles.

Beatlemania was already happening over in England that fall and a little before Christmas one, or maybe it was more than one, local station got a hold of a pre-release of the new Beatles song and they started playing it. It was immediately popular but we couldn't buy it. The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, the Beatles released “I Want to Hold Your Hand” with “I Saw Her Standing There” on the “B” side. It was their first Capitol single I liked it but I wasn't crazy about it. Eddie loved it. The flip side was also getting some play and I liked that song better, and still do today.

The British Invasion had begun. The song that was on the top of the charts in the U.S. when “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released here was Bobby Vinton's song “There I Said it Again”. Before that was “Dominique” by the Singing Nun, and before that was “I'm Leaving It All Up to You” by Dale and Grace. Before that? “Deep Purple” by Nino and April. Man, we were all primed for something better. Then the Beatles arrived, hallelujah! “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit #1 on the first of February and the Beatles landed in the U.S. Less than a week later, on the 7^th. Their song lasted 7 weeks at #1 followed by their Capitol release of “She Love You”. It lasted 2 weeks at #1 only to be replaced by yet another Beatles song, “Can't Buy Me Love” that lasted another 5 weeks at #1. “She Loves You” was originally released in the U.S. in September of '63 but it was on a small label, Swan Records. It didn't receive any traction. It caught on with the Capitol release that followed “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

The Beatles held the #1 spot on the Billboard weekly pop charts for about 14 weeks until some guy named Louis Armstrong knocked them off with “Hello Dolly”. The Beatles would go on to have 6 different #1 songs in 1964. The Supremes would have 3 #1 hits themselves which in pretty much any other year would make them the group of the year. There were 23 different songs that managed to get to #1 for a week or more and the Beatles had 6. They held the top position for a total of 20 of the 52 weeks in the year. Not only that Pete and Gordon's “World Without Love”, a Paul McCartney song he gave to Peter, the brother of his girlfriend Jane, reached #1 that year as well.

The Beatles were followed by The Dave Clark 5 (“Glad All Over”), The Searchers (“Needles and Pins”), Gerry and the Pacemakers (“Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying”), the Rolling Stones (“Not Fade Away”) backed by a Lennon-McCartney song “I Wanna Be Your Man” although the first Rolling Stones song I remember hearing was “Tell Me” which I didn't think too much of. Then there was The Animals (“House of the Rising Sun”), Peter and Gordon (“World Without Love”), Chad & Jeremy (“Yesterday's Gone”), Dusty Springfield (“Wishin' and Hopin”), Manfred Mann (“Do Wah Diddy Diddy”), The Kinks (“You really Got Me”), and The Zombies (“She's Not There”). Herman's Hermits (“I'm Into Something Good”) and the Who ("I Can't Explain") also hit the U.S. at the end of that year.

I expect that most of us know the first US Beatles album as “Meet The Beatles” that was released on January 20, 1964, the one with the 4 faces against a dark background. That was released by Capitol Records. However there was also “Introducing The Beatles” on the Vee-Jay label, a small record company. It was released 10 days prior on January 10th. At the time I was only aware of the Capitol release. Both my sister and Eddie bought the album when it came out. I resisted. After listening to it with Eddie I was pleasantly surprised that The Beatles put all decent to good songs on the album. That was way different from the pop albums I had experienced. Soon other groups began to follow The Beatles example. Thanks to The Beatles that became more the standard. It was at this point that I cut way back on buying 45's and started mostly buying albums.

There was some good stuff coming out from this side of the pond as well. The Beach Boys of course. I loved their hit “I Get Around”. The Drifters classic “Under The Boardwalk” came out. Other songs that especially appealed to me included: “My Guy” by Mary Wells, “The Way You Do The Things You Do” (The Temptations), “Little GTO” (Ronny and The Daytonas), “California Sun” (The Rivieras) - I 1st heard this song in my friend Wayne's car on the way to play a 3 on 3 basketball game. Wayne lived around the corner from me and had graduated from high school a year or 2 before. Bobby our the other player was the current star of my high school (Walt Whitman) team. We were heading to play the 2 stars of a neighboring high school team (Half Hollow Hills) which happened to be the top team in the county that year. I was asked to play because one of the guys from Half Hollow Hills had a younger brother who would be playing. I used to sometimes shoot baskets with Wayne and Bobby. I had a hoop behind our house and they would come over. They thought I could outplay the guy's brother who was my age. I think there was a bet on the game although I was not included on that. We won. Bob and Wayne more than held there own with those Half Hollow Hills guys. I thought they were actually better. Don't know how much better I was than the younger brother but I out scored him and I held him to just one basket.

There was another song from that year that even now is one of my all time favorite songs. That was the Getz/Gilberto's “The Girl From Impanema” sung by Astrud Gilberto. Even with the Beatles and all the other British Invasion music, that was and remains my favorite song of 1964.