60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
9/13/65 – The very day after The Beatles performed it on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Capitol Records releases “Yesterday” as a single. (Some consideration was given to the idea of releasing it as a Paul McCartney solo single, which is how WLS showed it on its first week on their Silver Dollar Survey, but this was rejected by Brian Epstein and the boys. Their feeling was that EVERYTHING should be released as a group effort.)
The Beatles also rejected issuing it as a single in Great Britain, as they felt it was too far out of the range of what their fans were expecting of them. There is no way of telling how many more million copies of this song might have been sold if they had.
There was no doubt that this record was going straight to #1 here in The States, where it settled in for four weeks in October on The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. It also very quickly became the most recorded song in history ... and at this point, even the biggest doubters and Beatle-bashers had to admit that there just may be something to those four mop tops from Liverpool.
Take a look at this WLS Silver Dollar Survey dated September 3rd, 1965. (New surveys were released every Friday ... which September 3rd was.)
This means that WLS was already charting "Yesterday) ten days before it was officially released as a single!!!
And they also claim to have already been playing it for five weeks!
It wasn't at all uncommon for Ron Riley to play tracks that hadn't been released in America yet off the British pressings of The Beatles' albums ... so I suppose they probably HAD been playing it for a little while before it was released here in The States ...
But the British album was released on August 5th ... so there's still a little bit of truth-stretching going on here!!!
In MORE Beatles news, also on 9/13, Zak Starkey is born to proud parents Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen
He will grow up to play drums for The Who, one of The Beatles' contemporaries at the time ... until he was fired, rehired and then fired again in 2025.
Also on 9/13, Willie Mays hit his 500th career home run as The San Francisco Giants won their eleventh straight game, beating The Houston Astros by a score of 5-1.
At the time, he was only the fifth player in Major League History to reach this milestone, following in the footsteps of legendary greats like Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams and Mel Ott. (For comparison's sake, Mickey Mantle wouldn't hit HIS 500th home run until two years later.)
Mays hit #499 the night before in the second game of a double headers against the Chicago Cubs ... and would hit #501 a game later, also against The Astros, The Giants sweeping the series.
At the end of the 1965 season, Willie Mays would be voted the National League's MVP for the second time in his career. He would finish the '65 season with 52 homers ... and just four years later ... on September 22nd, 1969, he would hit #600 against the San Diego Padres.
Willie slugs #500:
*****
It's Barry McGuire's "Eve Of Destruction" that takes over the top spot this week. "Like A Rolling Stone" holds at #2 as "Help!" falls to #3. #4 and #5 are also holdovers from last week, belonging to "You Were On My Mind" and "I Got You Babe."
New to The Top Ten this week are "The In-Crowd" by The Ramsey Lewis Trio, "It Ain't Me Babe" by The Turtles and "Catch Us If You Can" by The Dave Clark Five. The McCoys' "Hang On Sloopy" and The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" flip-flop places from last week's chart the The McCoys on their way up and The Righteous Brothers on their way down.
Last week's Pick Hit "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head is causing the most excitement within The Top 40 this week ... it leaps ahead 35 places to #30.
Also doing well are "Liar, Liar" by The Castaways (#49 to #35), "Do You Believe In Magic" by The Lovin' Spoonful (#52 to #37), "Some Enchanted Evening" by Jay and the Americans (#55 to #38) and "Mohair Sam" by Charlie Rich (#56 to #39).
The highest debut on the chart this week belongs to Herman's Hermits ... their latest, "Just A Little Bit Better," premiers at #71.
