More signs of how out of touch Capitol Records in the US was with the Beatles' wishes.*
"Yesterday" was on the UK "Help!" LP in the Summer of '65, but was not on the US version, so Capitol released it as a 45 in September, '65 and it went to #1 for four weeks here.
The Beatles were embarrassed to have it as a 45 because it was only Paul and his guitar and strings and no other Beatles appearing. Just shows how out of touch Capitol still was in late 1965 with how the Beatles wanted their music to be released in the US.
See the below letter from Dave Dexter to then Capitol Records
president, Alan Livingston. Dexter was the man at Capitol responsible
for passing on using Capitol's rights to release the first four UK Beatles
45s in the US. He's the man responsible for making sure those 14 track
UK LPs only ended up with 11 in the US. He's the man who refused to use
the Beatles UK LP photos on US LP covers. He's the man who carved out
mishmash LPs in the US, using left over UK LP cuts on followup LPs here
as well as grabbing "Yesterday" to be a US 45 while it was only an LP
cut in England three months prior and never intended to be a 45 by the
Beatles (NOTE: It WAS released as a 45 in the UK in 1976 and reached #1
there, too). He's the man responsible for my fave Beatles LP being carved into "Beatles VI" from six month old UK LP tracks and the still
upcoming UK "Help!" album. Between December, 1964 and December, 1965, Capitol turned three
UK LPs into four US LPs, by adding an LP of year old tracks for one "hits"
compilation, "The Early Beatles.".
Anyway, "Yesterday"
was released as a US 45 on September 13, 1965, and was #1 within three
weeks. This apparently prompted the Capitol president to ask for an
entire album of McCartney solo songs. Dexter gave the reply below.
View below to see how Dexter created even more mystery with "Yesterday".
*The story behind Yesterday can be read here:
EDITOR'S NOTE: Here in Chicago, WLS first listed "Yesterday" as a Paul McCartney single PRIOR to it actually being released on a 45. (It showed up as their 20th Biggest Hit for the week of September 3rd, 1965 ... but you couldn't actually even BUY the single yet ... and even when you could, it wasn't released as by Paul McCartney but rather (and rightfully so) as The Beatles. One could argue that WLS was trying to cash in on McCartney's solo performance of the tune on The Ed Sullivan Show ... except THAT wouldn't happen until September 12th!!! Regardless, thanks to airplay from the British "Help!" album released in the UK, the tune had already gained enormous popularity with both the kids and the critics alike. (kk)
Back to you, Clark! (kk)
IF you were LISTENING to American AM top 40 radio in October, 1965, it got filled up pretty good with surprises.
"Ticket
to Ride" had been the normal great success story reaching #1 and
dropping from the Billboard Hot 100 by July 4th that summer. As anxious
as Capitol was to make more money off the Beatles, they DID get that
"Beatles VI" hodgepodge LP out quickly and the week AFTER July 4th, it
zoomed to #1 on the LP chart. Note that new #1 "Beatles VI" was first
charting only nine weeks after "The Early Beatles" (#53) had first charted
featuring 1964 hits like "She Loves You."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Actually, "The Early Beatles" did NOT include "She Loves You" ... that song had already been released on Capitol's "The Beatles Second Album LP," issued right after "Meet The Beatles" in a effort to cash in on more Beatles British hits. By this time, the song had already fallen off the charts, having made it all the way to #1 on Swan Records in March of '64, a full year earlier. Swan was a Philadelphia-based label that Dick Clark had his hands in at one point and time. (Our FH Buddy Freddy Cannon had most of his hits released on the Swan label.)
"The Early Beatles" was essentially Capitol's way of "catching up" ... all of these tracks had already been released on Vee Jay's "Introducing The Beatles" when Beatlemania first hit in February of 1964. But even there Capitol cut a corner ... "Misery" was left off their LP ... and never appeared on a commercially released album on the Capitol record label. (kk)
By the time "Beatles VI" had reached #1 (above), the new movie and 45 "Help!" was out and headed for #1.
Things went well with the new "Help!" LP also as both were topping the singles and LP charts in September.
"Beatles VI" was #1 until the new LP came out and the difference was again only nine weeks between first charting of each LP!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Capitol's "Help" Soundtrack LP was also a truncated version of its British counterpart. On the UK version, all of the soundtrack songs appeared on Side One, while Side Two featured brand new music NOT featured in the film.
Here in The States, we got all kinds of instrumental filler instead ... what they call "incidental music" from the film soundtrack. I remember making the decision NOT to buy this album since it included so much music of no interest to me.
It was kind of like when United Artists released the "A Hard Day's Night" soundtrack album, filled with George Martin instrumental arrangements of some of these new tunes. I opted instead to buy Capitol's "Something New," since all I was going to get either way was new the songs featured in the film. Besides, I already had the singles "A Hard Day's Night" / "I Should Have Known Better" and "Can't Buy Me Love" anyway ... so I didn't really care that these tracks didn't appear on the new Capitol release.
At least with "Something New" I got some brand new Beatles music to go along with the new songs from the movie ... including one of my all-time faves, "Things We Said Today," which just happened to be the B-Side of the British "A Hard Day's Night" single. (Of course we ALSO got The Beatles singing "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in GERMAN on this album, too ... so now I had "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand" on an LP ... and "Sie Liebt Dich" on a single! Thank God that ended The Beatles' German Period!!! lol) kk
As "Help" the 45 was
about to stay four weeks at #1, Dexter had the time to make his new decision to release
"Yesterday" as a single after radio had been playing it to widespread
favor due to playing the import LP of "Help" that HAD the song issued the
song on UK releases, but not the US one.
Below you can see that "Help!" takes a sudden tumble when "Yesterday" debuts on the singles chart at #45 in late September.
Making even more
chaotic moves right then, Dexter released six 45s of OLD Beatles LP cuts
as 45s on the Capitol Starline label in late October when "Yesterday"
was #1 for its third of four weeks! Radio jumped on the old Ringo track "Boys"
and Billboard gave it a top 20 prediction!
I have an aircheck from that period off WABC New York who was playing ALL three "current" Beatles 45s in the same hour!
Below you can see WABC has all three charting. "Yesterday" at #1, "Help!" at #12 and "Boys" as a Pick hit.
In
Chicago, "Boys" was #18 by the end of October, but Capitol had soon decided
to pull the 45 from the market because it was "confusing" buyers. The
song would still rate on WLS a few more weeks!
The song would just miss
making the Hot 100 due to this reason, reaching #102 before being yanked
from store shelves. It COULD have given Ringo his chance to have TWO
Ringo vocal NATIONAL hits in the same week as a Beatle!
WELL, it actually happened in the OTHER music trade magazine of the day when he ranked #37 and 73!!!
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Beatles were none to happy about the release of "Boys," a two year old track, on Capitol's Green Starline Label. They spoke out immediately, stating that it didn't properly represent the band at their current level of material ... which was true. (I still maintain that had Vee Jay or Tollie released "Boys" as a single when they were flooding the market with everything else related to their British "Please Please Me" LP, it would have been a HUGE hit. Ringo had an exceptionally large nose, I mean FOLLOWING here in The States ... and releasing "Boys" in March or April of 1964 would have been a sure-fire hit. (I mean MGM was releasing "My Bonnie," for God's Sake, with The Beatles' name shown on the picture sleeve three times bigger than that of vocalist Tony Sheridan, who they backed up on the single first recorded in Germany way back in 1961!) kk
Next
came the two-sided hit "We Can Work it Out" and "Day Tripper," released as a 45 ONLY, which
went right to #1 the same week the NEW Beatles LP ("Rubber Soul") would reach #1, yet
NOT have the single on it at all!
NOT releasing "Michelle" as a single was another HUGE bonehead move on Capitol's part ... it was about as close as you could come to a sure thing hit, especially in light of the success of "Yesterday" from just a few months before. (In fact, after reading Clark's new revelation regarding Capitol inquiring about an all-McCartney album, you would think that label head Alan Livingston would have INSISTED upon it! (Interestingly enough, a story has recently surfaced that when The Beatles first signed their record contract with Parlophone Records in the UK, McCartney had written into his paperwork a clause that stated that he was also interested in a solo contract, should the label not be interested in the whole group ... which means that even at the early age of 20, McCartney was already looking out for #1 ... perhaps realizing even way back then that the best thing the young band had going for it to have any chance at fame and fortune ... was him!)
The story at the time regarding "Michelle" not being released as a single was that it was deliberately held back as a means of forcing people to purchase the whole album in order to gain access to the song. (It WAS released as a single in many other countries around the world.) kk
That fall and winter
of 1965 was like a treasure trove of Beatles greatness over and over,
yet MUCH more chaotic than the UK, thanks to Dave Dexter, Jr. Can you even imagine what
OTHER kind of chaos there may have been if there would have been an all Macca LP?!?!
THOSE WERE THE DAYS!! ALL of this in about six months time! Imagine that happening today?!?!? No wonder the 60's were SO great!
Clark Besch
EDITOR'S NOTE: Actually today, EVERY track on EVERY Beatles album would have made the charts, even if only for a week or two ... because they all were getting airplay and phone requests every single day. Based on today's criteria, The Beatles likely would have charted 150 times during their 1964 - 1970 American reign. (And probably have had at least half a dozen more #1 singles as well!)
It was a different time ... a very exciting time ... with new trends in music appearing almost weekly. The artists inspired each other to reach for new heights and explore new elements in creating the next big pop sound. For much of the way, The Beatles led the charge.
Consider this ...
During the second year of Beatlemania, The Fabs were still able to chart an incredible FIFTEEN TIMES on the pop singles chart in 1965!!! Their albums "Beatles '65," "The Early Beatles," "Beatles VI," "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" also dominated the US LP Charts this year. So much for the sophomore jinx!!! (kk)
