BEATLES '65 ... courtesy of Clark Besch

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:

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/yesterday-beatles-song-story/

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)

A Little SOMETHING From Chuck Buell

Chuck Buell once again shines his Musical Spotlight on “This Day in Music History!”

 

 

It was on this date, October 18, 1969, from the Big City to the Smallest Farmland, the Beatles Forgotten Hit, “Something” was “herd” across the country while peaking at Number Three!

 

And with that, here's my Special "Chuck Buell Forgotten Hits Half-Minute Music Melody!" 

 

CB ( which stands for “Cow Boy!” )

More Beatles Milestones tomorrow in Forgotten Hits!  (kk)

Coast To Coast Charts, 1972 - This Week We're Stopping in Tenessee - October 14th

 

 

Now this is a different approach to listing your station's most popular tracks ...

WKDA only lists their Top Ten "Favorite Songs" (ALL of which are somewhat unique to the charts we've been sharing lately ... have we even seen "Nights In White Satin" on another chart yet?  And here it's already #1!!! Which, of course, it would be ... everywhere but Billboard where it peaked at #2.)

On last week's Hawaiian chart, "You Wear It Well" by Rod Stewart was just starting to make its climb up the list.  Here, it's already sitting at #6.  "City Of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie sits right above it at #5. while Seals and Crofts have the #4 hit with "Summer Breeze."  Cool to see Leon Russell's "Tight Rope" perched at #7,  too.

Beyond The Top Ten, they simply list other songs played on WKDA ... and you'll find a few surprises here:

"Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie, "Colorado" by Danny Holien (a song that Clark Besch raved about a few weeks ago), "Geronimo's Cadillac" by Michael Murphey, " "Rock And Roll Soul" by Grand Funk Railroad, "Let's See Action" / "When I Was A Boy" by Pete Townshend (!),  "Deteriorata" by National Lampoon, "And You And I" playing as an LP cut by Yes ... looking at the wide range of albums they're featuring ... looks like 40 in all ... and being an FM station, I'm guessing that this is more the genre of music they leaned toward back in 1972.

How about "Hard Life, Hard Times" by John Denver, "Redwood Tree" by Van Morrison, "Paradise" by Jackie DeShannon, "I Love You More" by Donny Hathaway, "Coming Down All Alone" by Joe South, "Yes, I'll Say It" by Swallow (???) and two of my personal favorites from this era, "No" by Bulldog and "American City Suite" by Cashman and West.

Of the new songs on the list, only Al Green's "You Ought To Be With Me" ever really made it ... but they've also listed then unknown band Steely Dan's first LP, "Can't Buy A Thrill" as one of their up-and-comers.  Seeing LPs on the list by George Carlin, Cheech and Chong, National Lampoon and some imports (by the likes of The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix no less!!!), I think they catered to the underground listener who just couldn't get into country music like the rest of his neighbors at the time.

SWEET 16 - October

We've got Winners and Losers on this month's SWEET 16 ... 

Starting with a song by that very name by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds ...

  

Insights Into ... Billy Joe Royal

The Forgotten Hits Billy Joe Royal lovefest continues today with this excellent piece provided by Jeff March and Marti Smiley Childs ...

It comes from their book "Where Have All The Pop Stars Gone, Volume 3," available for purchase via the link provided below.  (kk)  

Insights into … Billy Joe Royal

[9 Billboard Hot 100 singles, 1965–78; plus 14 country music charted singles]

Billy Joe Royal in an outtake from the 1965 photo session 

for the cover of his Down in the Boondocks album 

(photo courtesy of Savannah Royal)

Picture the 1955-era town square in the original Back to the Future movie, with a butcher shop, a bakery, a malt shop, a shoe store, a dress shop, a hardware store, and other mom-and-pop shops surrounding the central green. That was Billy Joe Royal’s memory of Marietta, Georgia, where in the ’50s he spent much of his childhood and adolescence. “We had two movie theaters on the square, and when the movie let out, we all hung out at the drugstore,” Billy Joe recalled. Marietta Square also had a bandstand and a gazebo. He and his family had moved from his birthplace, Valdosta, Georgia, to Marietta in 1952 when he was 10 years old.

Billy Joe Royal – that was his true birth name – was the oldest among his three other siblings – his brother, Jack, two years younger, and two sisters, Marilyn and Christine. Their parents, Clarence and Mary, worked hard to scrape together a living for the family. They picked cotton, then moved to a mill village and worked at the cotton mill, and Billy Joe’s dad supplemented that with work as a construction laborer whenever he could. The Royal family lived the life of poverty that Billy Joe described with such feeling in his 1965 breakout hit, “Down in the Boondocks.”

Billy Joe, who as an adolescent enjoyed country, pop, and gospel music, had planned to become a lap steel guitar player. But after gaining experience singing with local bands, he passed a singing audition at age 14 to appear on the Georgia Jubilee, a barn-dance program that was broadcast on Atlanta-area radio. Also chosen that day was country music singer Freddy Weller, and fellow performers that Billy Joe met there included Jerry Reed, Ray Stevens, Tommy Roe and – most importantly for him – Joe South (birth name: Joseph Souter). Royal and South connected with Atlanta recording studio owner and music publisher Bill Lowery, for whom Billy Joe began recording demos in 1961. Lowery built his northeastern Atlanta studio in the abandoned Brookhaven School building that he had purchased. The property included an old, empty septic tank – which, as it turned out, had remarkable acoustic properties. With audio fed into the drained, dry tank, it served as a fine echo chamber.

Various labels released Billy Joe Royal singles but success eluded him until 1965, when Lowery persuaded Columbia Records to release Billy Joe’s recording of Joe South’s composition “Down in the Boondocks.” That sent him into the top 10, and he followed it with his interpretation of two other Joe South songs: “I Knew You When” and “I’ve Got To Be Somebody.”

Billy Joe’s releases during the following couple of years sputtered, but lightning struck again at the end of the decade. After Joe South signed with Capitol Records as a recording artist in late 1967, Columbia paired Billy Joe with arranger Emory Gordy Jr. and producer Buddy Buie, architect of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (ARS) and a longtime associate of Bill Lowery’s. ARS drummer Robert Nix and Billy Gilmore had written a song inspired by a place in New Jersey. Billy Joe recorded the song, about a girl who by daytime had been “a teaser” and at nighttime “a pleaser” – before marrying and moving away from Cherry Hill, New Jersey – a song in step with that “free love” era. In the autumn of 1969, Billy Joe’s recording of “Cherry Hill Park” cracked the top 40 and ultimately landed at No. 15, remaining on the chart for 15 weeks.

Billy Joe’s pop music career entered another slump in the 1970s, and for a dozen years he worked primarily as a lounge entertainer in Nevada casino cabarets. The shift of his friend Kenny Rogers from pop to country inspired Billy Joe to reach back to his own country roots. By 1985, Billy Joe re-emerged as a persistent hit-making country music artist on the strength of a top-10 single, “Burned Like a Rocket.” He continued making country music chart appearances into the early 1990s. By then, he had been sought as a performer on oldies shows. In the autumn of 2015 he was on tour. Four days before one of his scheduled performances, fans were stunned to learn that he had died unexpectedly in his sleep on October 6, 2015. He was 73 years old.

Billy Joe Royal left a rich musical legacy for pop and country music fans, recognized by his 1988 induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Billy Joe Royal recorded from 1985 to 1992 

for the Atlantic America country music label, 

which issued this publicity photo of him

 

Billy Joe’s first steel guitar, which he had seen in a store window

“I didn’t want to ask my folks for it because I knew it cost too much, but that was what I really, really wanted. We were all as poor as we could be. I was 12 years old, and when I came downstairs at Christmas, my parents said, ‘There’s something hidden behind the tree.’ They knew how much I wanted a lap steel guitar, and they had bought one for me with a little amplifier. It only cost $36, but it was a fortune for my parents. I’ll never forget that feeling. I went crazy.”

The septic tank echo chamber at Bill Lowery’s recording studio

“The septic tank echo chamber worked fine, except for when it rained. Also, a railroad line ran right by the studio, and every time a train would come through we would have to stop recording.”

Billy Joe’s admiration of Joe South

“Many people don’t realize that besides being, to me, the greatest writer that ever lived, Joe South was one of the greatest guitar players. Joe South was truly a genius. That’s him playing guitar on Aretha Franklin’s ‘Chain Of Fools’ record. He played with Simon and Garfunkel, and he played with Bob Dylan too.”

 

The narrative and quotations in this article are excerpted from the book Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 3, by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March. This material is copyrighted © 2016 by EditPros LLC and may not be reproduced or redistributed without written permission.  Book available for purchase here:  https://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG_Vol_3.html

Billy Joe Royal also recorded the Joe South songs "Hush" (#52, 1967, and a hit all over again ... albeit in a completely different arrangement ... the following year for heavy metal group Deep Purple) and "Yo Yo" (#117, 1966), which would go on to become a HUGE pop hit (#3) for The Osmonds in 1971.  South also penned five other chart hits for Billy Joe, giving him nine charters in all.  Royal also charted with hits written by Chip Taylor and Billy Vera, Paul McCartney, Wayne Carson Thompson and Mac Davis ... as well as his buddy Freddy Weller.

He is one of those artists that I never got the chance to see.  (I don't think he played Chicago much.)  We talked thru Forgotten Hits a couple of times and he seemed to be a genuinely nice man ... VERY appreciative of his fans and the success the bestowed upon him.  It was a sad day when Billy Joe Royal died in 2015.  (kk)

Billy Joe Royal became a successful country artist nearly overnight once he took the plunge in 1985.  (Honestly, it seemed like such a natural step, given Billy Joe's roots.  And country music fans are a very loyal audience.)

Fifteen country hits followed, including six Top Ten's.  Two of those climbed as high as #2:  "Tell It Like It Is" (1989) and "Till I Can't Take It Anymore" (1990)

Here's my favorite Billy Joe Royal country tune ...

"I'll Pin A Note On Your Pillow," #5, 1988

 

The narrative and quotations in this article are excerpted from the book Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 3, by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March. This material is copyrighted © 2016 by EditPros LLC and may not be reproduced or redistributed without written permission.  

https://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG_Vol_3.html