Beatles Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

#1 hits in 1964: yeah, yeah, yeah; baby, baby!

Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich

To no one’s surprise, the #1 hits in 1964 featured the most famous pop band in the world, even today. Indeed, I wrote about the Liverpudlian dominance of the US charts on February 9, so I won’t link to either the Beatles’ hits or the Peter and Gordon song attributed to Lennon-McCartney.

Because I have the book Across the Charts: the 1960s, I can quickly see if any of these songs appeared on other charts besides the pop charts. Interestingly, The Beatles never did until Something landed at #17 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

I Want To Hold Your Hand – The Beatles (Capitol), seven weeks at #1, gold record

Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles (Capitol), five weeks at #1, gold record

There! I Said It Again – Bobby Vinton (Epic), four weeks at #1, five weeks at #1 AC. This was the first #1 of 1964.

Baby Love – the Supremes (Motown), four weeks at #1, three weeks at #1 RB, gold record. It is one of three Supremes songs, all written by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison (Monument), three weeks at #1, gold record. Orbison went to England in 1963 and toured with The Beatles. This is the last song on the soundtrack for some Julia Roberts/Richard Gere flick.

The House of the Rising Sun – the Animals (MGM), three weeks at #1

Chapel of Love – the Dixie Cups (Red Bird), three weeks at #1. Composed by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector

I Feel Fine – The Beatles (Capitol), three weeks at #1, gold record

She Loves You – The Beatles (Swan), two weeks at #1. As noted, its original failure in 1963 helped propel it when Beatlemania struck in 1964.

My favorite compilation album

I Get Around – the Beach Boys (Capitol), two weeks at #1; a gold record. The first song of theirs I owned is from a bizarre album called Big Hits From England & U.S.A., which I picked up from the Capitol Record Club. It was also when I first owned Can’t Buy Me Love; I had not yet purchased the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack (United Artists) because it was too similar to the Capitol album Something New. It’s also how I got Peter and Gordon’s World Without Love.

Come See About Me – the Supremes (Motown), two weeks at #1, two weeks at #2 RB.

Where Did Our Love Go – the Supremes (Motown), two weeks at #1, ditto on the RB charts. Their first #1.

Do Wah Diddy Diddy – Manfred Mann (Ascot), two weeks at #1. Written by the legendary Barry and Greenwich

My Guy – Mary Wells (Motown), two weeks at #1, seven weeks at #1 RB. Smokey Robinson wrote this and the Temptations’ 1965 #1, My Girl.

A Hard Day’s Night – The Beatles (Capitol), two weeks at #1, gold record. I never saw this movie until after Let It Be came out, and I saw all four films, including Help and Yellow Submarine, in one sitting.

Rag Doll – the 4 Seasons (Phillips), two weeks at #1, gold record.

A single week at #1

Hello, Dolly – Louis Armstrong (Kapp), nine weeks at #1 AC. The artist that broke The Beatles’ stranglehold on #1 in the charts. Written by Jerry Herman.

Mr. Lonely – Bobby Vinton (Epic). Also #3 AC. He had a #1 in January and this in December; I do not recall either.

Everybody Loves Somebody – Dean Martin (Reprise), eight weeks at #1 AC, gold record. Every time I hear this song, I feel a little inebriated.

A World Without Love – Peter and Gordon (Capitol)

Ringo – Lorne Greene (RCA Victor), six weeks at #1 AC. A spoken word piece by the star of the NBC western series Bonanza that apparently had nothing to do with Richard Starkey.

Love Me Do – The Beatles (Tollie)

Leader Of The Pack – the Shangra-las (Red Bird), #8 RB. It was written by Barry, Greenwich, and Shadow Morton.

The Beatles in ’64

4 Apr was record-breaking

In honor of their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show 60 years ago, here are some links to The Beatles in ’64. Particularly in the first half of the year, they dominated the charts like no artist had before. The dates below reflect the top ten of the Billboard charts. All of the songs were on Capitol Records unless otherwise indicated.

25 Jan: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #3, up from #45 the previous week

1 Feb: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1: it would top the Billboard (BB) charts for 7 weeks, Cash Box (CB: 1950-1996) for 8 weeks, and Music Vendor (MV: 1954-1964) for 9 weeks. The book The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson reads: “It is the most significant single in the rock era.” The group wouldn’t perform in America until they appeared at the top of the US charts.

8 Feb: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1. She Loves You, on the Swan label, #7, up from #21.

15 Feb: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1. She Loves You, #3.

22 Feb: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1. She Loves You, #2.

29 Feb: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1. She Loves You, #2. Please Please Me, #6, up from #29, on the Vee-Jay label.

The week I turned 11

7 Mar: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1. She Loves You, #2. Please Please Me #4.

14 Mar: I Want To Hold Your Hand, #1. She Loves You #2. Please Please Me #3, where it peaked on the CB and MV charts as well.

21 Mar: She Loves You, #1. I Want To Hold Your Hand, #2. Please Please Me #3. Twist And Shout, #7, up from #55, on the Tollie label affiliated with Vee-Jay. This week was the first time an artist had consective chart toppers since Elvis in 1956. The song was #1 on CB for two weeks and MV for 1.

28 Mar: She Loves You, #1. I Want To Hold Your Hand, #2. Twist and Shout, #3. Please Please Me, #4.

The top five

4 Apr: Can’t Buy Me Love, #1, from #27, at the time, the biggest leap to the top of the charts in Billboard history. Besides being #1 for five weeks on BB, it was #1 on CB for five weeks and #1 on MV for four weeks. Twist and Shout, #2, where it peaked on BB, but it got to #1 on both CB and MV. She Loves You, #3. I Want To Hold Your Hand, #4. Please Please Me #5.

11 Apr: Can’t Buy Me Love, #1. Twist and Shout, #2. She Loves You, #4. I Want To Hold Your Hand, #7. Please Please Me #9. The Beatles had 14 songs on the BB Top 100. Do You Want To Know A Secret, #14. I Saw Her Standing There, #38. You Can’t Do That, #48. All My Loving, #50. From Me To You, #52. Thank You Girl, #61. There’s A Place, #74. Roll Over Beethoven, #78. Love Me Do, #81.

18 Apr: Can’t Buy Me Love, #1. Twist and Shout, #2, Do You Want To Know A Secret, #5 on Vee-Jay. She Loves You, #8.

25 Apr: Can’t Buy Me Love, #1. Twist and Shout, #2. Do You Want To Know A Secret, #3.

2 May: Can’t Buy Me Love, #1, Do You Want To Know A Secret, #3, Twist and Shout, #7

9 May: Do You Want To Know A Secret, #2, also went #3 on BB and MV for three and two weeks, respectively. Can’t Buy Me Love, #5. The Beatles were finally supplanted from the #1 slot by Hello, Dolly by Louis Armstrong.

16 May: Love Me Do, #3 from #12 on Tollie. Do You Want To Know A Secret, #5

Jane Asher’s brother

23 May: Love Me Do, #2. Also, A World Without Love by Peter and Gordon, #10, up from #30, a song attributed to Lennon/McCartney.

30 May: Love Me Do, #1, also #1 on CB and MW, A World Without Love, #7.

6 June: Love Me Do, #2, A World Without Love, #6.

13 June: A World Without Love, #2 Love Me Do, #4.

20 June: A World Without Love, #2 Love Me Do, #7.

27 June: A World Without Love, #1, also #1 on CB, and #2 for two weeks on RW. Bad To Me by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas, #9 from #16, also #10 on CB. Brian Epstein managed Kramer, and the song was attributed to Lennon/McCartney.

4 July 4: A World Without Love, #6. Bad To Me, #9.

11 July: A World Without Love, #8.

18 July: nothing in the Top 10

25 July: A Hard Day’s Night, #2, up from #21

1 Aug: A Hard Day’s Night, #1. It was also #1 for three weeks on both CB and RW.

8, 15, 22, 29 of Aug; 5, 12 of Sept, A Hard Day’s Night, #1, #3, #3, #4, #8, #8.

Inside the violent threat against the Beatles’ only Colorado concert: Beatlemania took over Red Rocks on Aug. 26, 1964, during the band’s first North American tour

12 Dec: I Feel Fine, #5, up from #22.

19 Dec: I Feel Fine, #2

26 Dec: I Feel Fine #1; also #1 for four weeks CB, #1 for three weeks RW. In Jan 1965 (2, 9, 16, 23), it went #1, #1, #2. #4 before it fell out of the Top Ten.

Sunday Stealing: Funny The World

missed weddings

Another Sunday Stealing. Before I get into that, I should commend Bev Sykes of Funny The World for putting this up since 2008. I started doing it in 2009, off and on for a couple of years. Then, after ABC Wednesday ended and I needed something collegial with other bloggers, I found my way back to Stealing twice in 2021 (one was about COVID-19) and regularly since May of 2022. So thanks, Bev.

1. Your favorite part of the day

It’s long been around 5:30 a.m. when I wake up, go into my office, and check to see if the world has ended. If not, I do my Wordle (383 in a row), and Quordle. I post my blog link on Facebook; I used to post to Twitter, but I’ve been disinclined lately. I check my email, addressing the stuff I need to respond to immediately and deleting stuff I don’t have to open. Then, I’ll start writing a blog post if I have time, though I will likely finish it later.

2. Something you know a lot about.

Beatles albums, specifically, the difference between the US and UK releases. There were more US albums before Sgt. Pepper because the US albums had to have the singles included, and the UK releases eschewed using the 45s. Also, the US albums were shorter (11 or 12 tracks vs. usually 14). I wrote about a couple of albums here.

I’m also a calendar nerd.

3. An important person in your life.

I’ll pick Bruce, who used to be in the choir and IMO still should be. He is the source of Math Is Everywhere. He took my wife to her various doctors in the autumn of 2022.

My preferred pasta dish

4. Your favorite recipe

It’s for lasagna from an old Betty Crocker cookbook. Incidentally, I never cook lasagna noodles but add more tomato products than the recipe calls for, which generally does the trick.

5. An event that turned out differently than planned

There are a lot of weddings that fall into that category. My then-girlfriend and I were invited to a wedding in Albany on March 30, 1986. It was Easter Sunday. We called a cab 90 minutes before we needed it. It never came. So we walked. It was 87F (30.55 C), and we were all sweaty as we arrived in time to see the very end. A similar thing occurred on July 27, 1991, in New Jersey, involving my sisters, my mother, my infant niece, my then-bride, and me, missing my cousin’s wedding ceremony. All I will say is it wasn’t MY fault.

6. How you procrastinate

I’m playing Pinochle, spades, or Backgammon on my phone. But I don’t see it as procrastination but as a break between tasks.

7. The best type of surprise

Receiving music

8. Music that helps you relax

Huh. Does music make me relax? I dunno. It engages me, but relaxation would not be a term I’m inclined to use. Related: Neil Diamond turns 83 on January 24. Thank The Lord For The Night Time, which I just listened to, is my absolutely favorite Neil song.

9. A thing your life has in excess

Paper. I paid medical bills for which I need to get reimbursement. Various notes about genealogy. Unread magazines.

Nonagenarian

10. A book you want to read.

Are you kidding? My shelf is loaded with them. I’ll pick at random Renato! by Eugene Mirabelli, which I started reading and enjoyed reading, but then life got in the way. I like Gene quite a bit.

11. A person you’re always happy to see.

I’ve kept up with some folks I went to kindergarten with: Carol, Karen, Bill…

12. What time do you go to sleep?

Oh, it varies widely, 10 p.m., 1 a.m. It depends on how much I feel I still need to do. And utter fatigue comes into play occasionally.

13. A word to describe the past year.

Variegated

14. Your favorite household chore

Vacuuming, with a caveat. Using the vacuum is easy; moving the furniture to do the cleaning, not so much. Also, the sound of a vacuum tends to put me to sleep. I LOVE listening to others vacuum.

NFL football postponed?!

15. One thing you’d like to see

My genealogical chart with all of my great-great grandparents identified. I know 12 of 16.

More mundanely, I wanted to watch today’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Buffalo Bills game. But “due to public safety concerns in light of the ongoing weather emergency in western New York, [it] has been rescheduled to Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET and will be televised by CBS. The decision to move the game to Monday was made in consultation with New York Governor Kathy Hochul in the best interest of public safety and with the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers as the region prepares for the storm.”

It is the correct choice. Still, I have an MLK event to attend, so I hope to watch the recording before someone tells me the score.

My top 5 rock albums

1966 to 1989

There was a question on Quora asking for people’s top 5 rock albums. What an inane question! How can anyone pick just five? So I decided to do it anyway.

First, some guidelines. I am not going to get into the definition of what is “rock.” I hear this every year when an ABBA, Nina Simone, or Joan Baez enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Nor will I address the “best” albums because “best” has become an increasingly elusive term for me.

I could have picked Blue by either Miles Davis or Joni Mitchell, Who’s Next, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Abraxas by Santana, k.d. lang’s Ingenue, or approximately a zillion more, including at least three by Stevie Wonder.

I’m not selecting a greatest hits album; Sly and the Family Stone would otherwise be on the podium. There are no soundtracks, Broadway cast albums or compilations, so no The Harder They Come, Hamilton, or West Side Story. And if I do this in five years, three of these might be different.

The Eclectics

I decided on three of these because they are so eclectic.

Spike – Elvis Costello, which I mentioned back in 2009 in my 25 most influential albums. The All Music review calls it “maddeningly diffuse.” Its diffuseness may be why I like it because I don’t find it maddening at all.

Veronica, Chewing Gum, Last Boat Leaving

That’s A Plenty – the Pointer Sisters. I first wrote about this album in 2006. Then in 2014; unfortunately, only the links to Little Pony, Fairytale, and Black Coffee still work.

Salt Peanuts; Love In Them There Hills

Revolver – The Beatles. I picked this one over other Beatles albums because I hate Run For Your Life (Rubber Soul). Abbey Road has Octopus’s Garden, which is too much in the Yellow Submarine vein. I may as well pick the album with Yellow Sub. It’s not my favorite song, but it fascinated me because the single, in the last verse, has “As we live a life of ease (a life of ease),” but the echo doesn’t happen on the album version I had.

The 2012 post has lots of bad links.

Taxman, For No One, Got To Get You Into My Life, Tomorrow Never Knows

Two more

Still Crazy After All These Years – Paul Simon. As I noted here in 2016. “Inextricably tied to the Okie in my mind.”

I Do It For Your Love, Have A Good Time, Title song.

Peter Gabriel (melt)- Peter Gabriel. I mentioned Gabriel in 2011 and 2020. In this post, also from 2020, I listed my favorite Gabriel songs, and the links still work! The ones from Melt have a 3 after the title because they are on the third eponymous PG album.

The Beatles LOVE by Cirque Du Soleil

leaving Las Vegas

W, Sept 27: at the recommendation of someone we went shopping with on Monday, we went to breakfast at the Polaris Street Cafe, a place so unassuming from the outside we weren’t sure it was open. The food was delicious, and the breakfast burrito was so large that I had half of it for dinner.

After lunch, MAK and I played billiards, just as we did back in college, which is to say, badly. We did make some decent shots.

Mirage

We headed to The Mirage to see The Beatles LOVE by Cirque Du Soleil. It was a magnificent show. It had everything from an Eleanor Rigby-laden war scene to a tribute to Beatlemania to astonishingly daredevil skateboarding to ballet in the air. A review on Vegas.com called it “a psychedelic journey through the trends and politics of the ’60s and most importantly, The Beatles.”

The music blends several tracks, as the LOVE album does, and is very effective. (By the way, if you are a Beatles fan, you should get that album.) The only song I recall that was not from the album was Twist and Shout.

One problem with the audience is that, while taking photos was allowed, using a flash was not, and for good reason. Ushers went down to the front rows of our section twice to chastise idiots.

There was a five-minute delay about 2/3s of the way through, but it didn’t ruin the show’s flow. My difficulty was that there was often SO much going on, it was a challenge to decide where to look.

A recommendation: buy your tickets early. They use “dynamic pricing,” meaning that the closer to showtime, the more likely they will be more expensive. Yet the nosebleed seats I bought were upgraded to a better location.

Going home?

Th, Sept 28: We checked out of the resort and took a cab to the airport, driving past the Statue of Liberty, which mistakenly appeared on US postage for a time.

We waited at gate 40, but the plane leaving adjacent gate 41 for Atlanta departed late. Still, I was surprised when no one was at the gate 30 minutes before our scheduled takeoff.

Suddenly, we heard a muddled announcement. All I could make out was final, Detroit (our first destination), and 34. Curse me for a novice! I should have known they had moved the flight. I took off for Gate 34 while MAK checked the departure board. He had gotten no info from Delta on their app about the change.

We carried our luggage to the 46th row, with me trying desperately not to hit someone while traversing down the narrow aisle. This was the one time MAK got to sit together on the trip.

Home!

The sandwichwich fixings I packed became dinner. Because of trouble with the plane, our flight to ALB was over an hour late and at a different gate. I checked a bag to Albany.

As I took my middle seat, there was a guy who looked “off.” He offered to help a young woman with her bag, but, as everyone within hearing distance could tell, he was coming onto her, big time. He gave his name, asked for hers, and wanted to know where she was sitting. Fortunately, two flight attendants escorted him off the plane; as far as I could see, he did not resist.

We finally got to Albany, and we went to the baggage area. My suitcase was already on the belt and about to go back around when I put down my other bag, dropped some newspapers, and ran to get my bag, my cap flying off. It was funny to watch, I gather.

MAK’s ex picked us up and dropped me at home. I did my Wordle, then crashed.

Observations

Las Vegas was an interesting, and somewhat exhausting, experience. LV is not what I’d call a walkable city. We wanted to go to a location that wasn’t more than two miles away, but it was impossible to get to without crossing a busy highway. We took more taxis in five days than I’ve taken in the past 25 years.

I’d say Las Vegas is Disneyland, except I’ve never been to the Mouse properties. If your wallet is deep enough, there are a near-infinite number of activities.

Electronic signs for performers we’re supposed to know by first name. DONNY! It was Donny Osmond, of course. WAYNE! There’s a wax museum in LV, and I’m afraid the photo they used of Wayne Newton could have been lifted from there.

I’ve known MAK for over a half-century, but we never traveled nearly so far together. We got along well. I even prodded him to restart his blog, which has been dormant since 2019. He wrote our trip here in 800 words, which took me four posts and over 3000 words to convey; he’s much more economical.