The Beatles Worried They Were ‘Finished’ Just Before Making It Big in America
In 1964, The Beatles traveled to America for the first time, making Beatlemania a nationwide phenomenon. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had been successful in England, but they quickly became the most famous people in the world. Immediately before this unprecedented success, though, the band worried that their popularity was fizzling out. Critics thought they were a passing fad, which worried the band.
The Beatles were a success in England before America
In Oct. 1963, The Beatles went from a success story in England to a widespread phenomenon. They had reached the top of the charts, and everywhere they went, screaming packs of fans followed. Soon, they were the subject of nearly every news story in the country.
“From that day on, everything changed,” the band’s press officer, Tony Barrow, said, per the book The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “My job was never the same again. From spending six months ringing up newspapers and getting no, I now had every national reporter and feature writer chasing me.”
They became so popular that Barrow didn’t need to serve as a publicist in the traditional sense.
“Even before that, I’d never been in any sense a publicist, the way most groups have publicists, thinking up publicity stunts,” he said. “I didn’t know about that, as I’d never been one. Brian [Epstein] anyway would have been against any stunts. We never used any and we never had to.”
The Beatles worried that their success was fading just before making it in America
Just as The Beatles were planning their first trip to America to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, another band knocked them off the top of the charts in England. With the song “Glad All Over,” Dave Clark Five became a sensation in England. The Daily Express ran the headline “Tottenham Sound Has Crushed The Beatles.” Other papers ran stories saying The Beatles were “finished.” Soon, the band grew worried.
“We couldn’t help it,” Lennon said. “Everyone was telling us Dave Clark is coming, you’ve had it now. It worried us, but just for a minute, the way we’d worried in Liverpool that Gerry would beat us in the Mersey Beat poll.”
They found unprecedented success in the country
Though they were worried about their standing in England, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit number one in America.
“What happened in the States was just like Britain,” Starr said, “only ten times bigger, so I suppose it wasn’t like Britain at all. That first Washington crowd was 20,000. We’d only been used to 2,000 at home.”
Starr admitted that they were nervous to perform in the country.
“We did all feel a bit sick that first time,” he said. “We always did, though we never showed it, before anything big. We’d felt a bit sick before the Palladium show. Going to the States was a big step. People said just because we were popular in Britain, why should we be there?”
Any concerns about their standing quickly evaporated once The Beatles crossed the Atlantic. When they landed in New York, a crowd of thousands waited at the airport to greet them.
