George Harrison Didn’t Understand Why The Beatles Played the Royal Variety Performance in 1963
George Harrison didn’t understand why The Beatles played at the Royal Variety Performance in 1963. The group performed for Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret, alongside some of the best acts of the time. George wondered who nominated the band to perform at such a prestigious show.
It was an honor but also a bit of a hindrance too. He wondered if The Beatles’ performance on the variety show was fair for fans who couldn’t afford to buy tickets.
George Harrison didn’t understand why The Beatles played the Royal Variety Performance
By mid-1963, The Beatles were becoming one of the hottest rock ‘n’ roll groups. Both “From Me To You” and “She Loves You” had reached No. 1. In October, they starred on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. More than 15 million viewers tuned in to watch.
It was becoming blatantly obvious that The Beatles were huge. Enormous crowds of screaming girls started following their every move. Beatlemania had begun.
Then, on Nov. 4, 1963, The Beatles played for royalty at the Royal Command Variety Performance (Royal Variety Performance), England’s most prestigious charity event. They shared the bill with renowned stars Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier.
George didn’t understand why The Beatles were chosen to perform on the televised show. According to Joshua M. Greene’s Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, George added that he didn’t like that some fans couldn’t afford to see the group’s performance.
He told the press afterward, “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but why are the Beatles on the same stage as a mass of show business greats? . . . We’re just four normal folk who have had a couple of hit records.
“On an occasion like this, we would have liked some of our fans in the audience, to make us feel more at home. After all, it was those people who made it possible for us in the first place.”
John Lennon said he was nervous when The Beatles performed at the Royal Variety Performance
When the curtains opened to The Beatles at the Royal Variety Performance, they began playing ” From Me To You.” Then, they played “She Loves You,” after which Paul McCartney made a nervous joke about Sophie Tucker being the band’s “favorite American group” and jumped into “‘Til There Was You.”
Next, John introduced “Twist And Shout” with another nervous joke. He said, “For our last number I’d like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry. We’d like to sing a song called ‘Twist And Shout.'”
The Beatles were nervous during their performance. So, having their fans in the audience would’ve made the band feel more at home.
Later, John Lennon said he felt so nervous playing the Royal Variety Performance. It was nerve-wracking for the group to perform for royalty. It also didn’t help that the press kept asking them if they’d clean up, speak clearer English, and change their act for the Queen Mother before their performance.
The following year, the charity event quietly asked The Beatles to perform again, but they declined and continued to.
“We managed to refuse all sorts of things that people don’t know about,” John said in Anthology (per Beatles Bible). “We did the Royal Variety Show, and we were asked discreetly to do it every year after that, but we always said, ‘Stuff it.’
“So every year there was a story in the newspapers: ‘Why no Beatles for the Queen?’ which was pretty funny because they didn’t know we’d refused. That show’s a bad gig, anyway. Everybody’s very nervous and uptight and nobody performs well.
“The time we did do it, I cracked a joke on stage. I was fantastically nervous, but I wanted to say something to rebel a bit, and that was the best I could do.”
The Beatles didn’t do so badly. According to the Liverpool Echo, the Queen Mother said they were “so fresh and vital. I simply adore them.” Their fellow performers adored them as well.
Marlene Dietrich called The Beatles ‘sexy’
According to Greene, Marlene Dietrich told The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, “They are so sexy. They have the girls so frantic for them, they must have quite a time,” after the show. Epstein kept silent, but
his assistant Alistair Taylor later said she wasn’t wrong.
He said, “After every concert, the best-looking female fans would be given instructions as to how to get back to the hotel. It was one of the perks of the job, and the boys liked their perks. . . . They had this amazing power to point and say, ‘You, you, you, and you,’ and lovely young women would arrive at the hotel simply begging for sex.”
So, The Beatles’ nervousness didn’t ruin their show at the Royal Variety Performance.
