"IT'LL NEVER FLY"

THE BEATLES NEVER APPEARED ON AMERICAN BANDSTAND . .

In my last post I posed the question:

"Why had he (Dick Clark) missed the boat with the Beatles?"

 I followed up that question and closed the post with:

"Well, it wasn't that he hadn't had the chance"

ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN

By early 1963 'Beatlemania' was rapidly gaining momentum in the U.K. 

"Love Me Do" reached #17 on the British charts in the fall of '62, and was followed by, "Please, Please Me," which climbed to #1 on the UK charts in February, 1963.



GEORGE MARTIN (far right) WITH THE BEATLES


In January, 1963 - George Martin, who'd signed The Beatles to EMI in 1962, forwarded a copy of "Please, Please Me" to EMI's U.S. subsidiary; Capitol Records, and suggested they might distribute The Beatles' records in America. 

Capitol execs passed on Martin's offer saying,
"We don't think The Beatles will do anything in this market."  Consequently, the door was opened for other labels to obtain the rights to distribute The Beatles' music.

The first U.S. label to bite was Chicago's Vee-Jay Records which released "Please, Please Me" in February of '63 with the band's name misspelled on the label. 

The song is played locally (Chicago's WLS radio station) and reaches #35 on the WLS music survey, but does nothing nationally.

In May of '63 Vee-Jay released "From Me To You," and by August it had peaked at a dismal #116 on the Billboard charts.


Here's where Dick Clark enters the picture

Swan Records was a small, independent label out of Philadelphia which had been formed in 1957. 
Their biggest star was Freddy 'Boom Boom' Cannon.

Dick Clark had originally held a 50 percent stake in Swan
with co-owners Bernie Binnick and Tony Mammarella each
owning 25 percent. 
After the Payola, 'pay for play' scandal of 1959, Clark; although not found guilty of any wrong doing, decided to avoid any conflict of interest issues and divested himself of his interest in Swan - selling his portion to Binnick and Mammarella.



SWAN RECORDS' BERNIE BINNICK WITH RINGO STARR & GEORGE HARRISON

While vacationing in England during the summer of 1963, Binnick witnessed the phenomena of 'Beatlemania,' and seized the opportunity to secure the American rights to The Beatles' record, "She Loves You" for Swan. 

Once back in the states, Binnick contacts his ol' buddy Dick Clark (hoping for some American Bandstand action) and asks for his opinion of the song. 

Clark was less than impressed and stated that he thought it sounded like, “Buddy Holly & the Crickets and Chuck Berry and a lot of other early American songs sort of mixed together.” 

Binnick suggested that The Beatles' novel look might be a selling point and showed Clark a photograph of the group.

Clark took one look at the photo and replied,

"You're absolutely insane . . it'll never fly."

Despite Dick Clark's lack of interest, Swan released "She Loves You" in September of '63, but the record went nowhere.



In the weeks following its release, Clark played the record on American Bandstand and had it reviewed on a 'rate-a-record' segment of the show.



DICK CLARK WITH TEENAGERS AT THE BANDSTAND RECORD REVIEW TABLE



Rate-a-record was comprised of a group of selected teenagers listening to new records and then rating them on a numeric scale.  Most people remember the classic comment, "Its got a good beat and you can dance to it," which was often used during this segment.

"She Loves You" was rated a 71 out of a possible 98 points which
was considered a mediocre score.

When asked about this years later Clark added, "Then I pulled a picture of the group out and the audience just giggled.  I figured these guys were going nowhere.” 

It was around the same time Dick Clark played "She Loves You" on American Bandstand that Ed Sullivan (as I mentioned in an earlier post) was held up at Heathrow Airport (10/31/63) due to the screaming crowd of Beatles' fans awaiting their arrival from a concert tour of Sweden which set the wheels in motion toward their appearance on Sullivan's show the following February.

And, it was only a few days after Sullivan's experience that Jack Paar watches The Beatles perform at The Royal Variety Show in London and then manages to purchase from the BBC film of the band performing "She Loves You," which he would later air on his show, The Jack Paar Show, January 3, 1964 - which, by the way; caused the demand for the record to soar, and forced Swan Records to immediately re-release "She Loves You" and work overtime to meet the sudden overwhelming demand. 

THE BEATLES WITH TONY MAMMARELLA & BERNIE BINNICK (SWAN RECORDS)

"She Loves You" would eventually reach #1 in the U.S., and sell over 1 million copies - vindicating Bernie Binnick beyond his wildest dreams.

S O ,

why had Dick Clark missed the boat with The Beatles?  Well, I have a theory about that:

1.  What had Binnick, Sullivan and Paar seen that Dick Clark had not?  Answer: They'd witnessed, first hand, the hysteria generated by The Beatles while visiting England.

2.  Neither Binnick, Sullivan nor Paar were impressed by The Beatles' songs or musical abilities, but they were fascinated by the chaotic pandemonium that surrounded these four young lads.  All three viewed The Beatles as nothing more than a peculiar looking novelty act that, for some reason, the very sight of caused thousands of young girls to scream like raving lunatics.

3.  Dick Clark, on the other hand; with his years of experience in the rock & roll music business, based his judgement of The Beatles ("It'll never fly") on his keen eye and ear for what young people liked.  And it was probably only as a favor to his friend, Bernie Binnick, that he even played "She Loves You" on his show and  allowed it to be judged by the very teenagers it was being marketed to, which only served to bolster his initial assessment of the song and the band itself.  The kids didn't think much of the song, and they thought the band was funny looking!

So why did the same kids that absolutely rejected

The Beatles and their music for all but the last couple of weeks of 1963, suddenly fall head over heels into unbridled adulation and hysteria for them by February, 1964?

Many believe it was in reaction to the shock and disillusionment brought about by the assassination of President Kennedy, and a subconscious grasping by the youth of America for something new, different and distracting. 

If that's true; I would have to say that Dick Clark can't really be blamed for "missing the boat" with The Beatles. 

When it comes to the story of The Beatles' success in America there were obviously elements of dumb luck and great good fortune blended with profound misfortune (Kennedy's assassination) that Clark could have never foreseen when he rendered his judgement of The Beatles in the summer of '63. 



PERHAPS THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS BEST SUMMED UP BY THE TITLE OF CHUCK BERRY'S 1964,
TOP 20 HIT,

"YOU NEVER CAN TELL"



TO LISTEN TO "YOU NEVER CAN TELL" click this link:
http://youtu.be/RoDPPgWbfXY