The group formed in 1959 and went through many name changes, including the Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moondogs, and the Silver Beatles, before settling on the Beatles. All four Beatles came from working-class families, and money and fame were their first priorities. It wasn't long before it became a reality. On October 13, 1963, the Beatles played at the London Palladium, gaining national exposure in England. Manufacturers began producing Beatles merchandise, the Beatles fan club reached 800,000 members, and by the end of 1963, the Beatles had sold 11 million records and $18 million worth of Beatles goods.
From January 1965 through January 1966, the Beatles had six Number 1 U.S. singles in a row. It can be said that the six songs demonstrated the unstable mood of that year. Songs like “I Feel Fine” and “Eight Days a Week” were the bright and shiny tunes that reflected the optimism and hopefulness America felt while recovering from President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Additionally, blacks gained the right to vote in the south, and President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced programs such as Medicare and Medicaid as a way to help end poverty.
However, feelings changed as President Johnson drafted thirty-five thousand men a month to fight in Vietnam, and riots broke out in Watts, a Los Angeles, CA neighborhood. Songs like “Ticket To Ride,” “Help,” and “Yesterday” reflected the sadness, anger, frustration, and hopelessness many felt as times shifted from optimistic to unstable.
The Beatles were in a place that they referred to as the “toppermost of the poppermost.”
In addition to releasing more albums, they released movies and continued to tour. As they toured, they were met with fans that attempted to climb the sides of buildings in order to see the “Fab Four.” Police set up barricades at the hotels where the Beatles stayed, and fan mail flooded those hotels. The Beatles post-concert transportation meant a delivery truck, ambulance, or armored car for their protection.
The Beatles had paved the way for other British groups to infiltrate the American music market. In 1965, there were twenty-seven U.S. No. 1 hits that year; thirteen were British and fourteen were American.
Arthur Howes, a British promoter who planned the Beatle's tours of England in their earlier years, admitted that “the biggest thing the Beatles did was to open the American market to all British artists. Nobody had ever been able to get in before the Beatles They alone did it.”
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Besides the Beatles, the other British bands and artists on the 1965 chart included Petula Clark, a female singer who earned a No. 1 spot on the American pop charts with her song “Downtown.” Freddie & The Dreamers, a group that didn't have quite the success that the Beatles did in America, had a No. 1 hit in 1965 called “I'm Telling You Now.” Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders landed at the top of the charts with a song called “The Game of Love,” which also happened to be the Mindbenders' first release in the United States. The group Herman's Hermits started as young musicians in Manchester, England who eventually had two songs at at the number one spot in 1965: “Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter” and “I'm Henry VIII, I Am.” Additionally, between 1964 and 1970, they had 20 singles in the Top 40, and 16 in the Top 20.
In the late 1960s, The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band.
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Their style was more bluesy at first, and eventually came to embody the “hard rock” sound. The public came to know them for their raunchy image, quite opposite of the Beatles. Their clothes didn't match, their hair was long, and were generally unkempt. Their manager, Andrew Logg Oldham, said “I wanted to establish that the Stones were threatening, uncouth, and animalistic.”
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They first became popular in England, but that popularity wasn't quite matched in the United States right away. They didn't capture America's full interest until their second U.S. tour at the end of 1964, which included a visit to
The Ed Sullivan Show.
After the visit, Ed Sullivan proclaimed that the Stones would never be back again. He was shocked at their image, and thought it would bring down his own television success. The show even received hundreds of letters from concerned parents, however, they received
thousands
of letters from teenagers expressing how much they loved the performance. The Rolling Stones returned to
The Ed Sullivan Show
on May 2, 1965.
In 1966, The Rolling Stones released an album of all-original material called “Aftermath.” They had started by playing many rhythm and blues covers, but moved away from a blues sound and maintained their success. Vocalist Mick Jagger called “Aftermath” a “landmark record.” “It's the first time we wrote the whole record and finally laid to rest the ghost of having to do these very nice and interesting, no doubt, but still cover versions of old R & B songs.”
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The Rolling Stones performed “Around And Around” and “Time Is On My Side” during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. These songs present another opportunity for students to decide what the messages of the songs are. Next, they can decide the reactions of the audience at the time, how the musical qualities contribute to the songs' messages, and what changed and/or stayed the same when compared to earlier Rock 'n' Roll.