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Beatlemania is the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles from 1963 to the present. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom in late 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You".
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Take a look back at how the Fab Four conquered American pop culture.
By late 1963, The Beatles—guitarists John Lennon and George Harrison; bassist Paul McCartney; and drummer Ringo Starr—were already a household name in the United Kingdom and much of Europe. More than 15 million viewers had tuned in to their performance on “Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium,” and the band was regularly playing sold out shows to legions of swooning teenage fans.
But while they had staked their claim on the top of the singles charts in England, The Beatles still struggled for recognition across the pond. Their first two U.S. singles—the jaunty “Please Please Me” and the catchy “From Me to You”—had flopped, and Capitol Records, the American arm of their label, EMI, appeared uninterested in promoting a foreign band.
The lads from Liverpool would finally catch a break in October 1963. While passing through London’s Heathrow airport, American television host Ed Sullivan noticed hundreds of excited teens waiting to see The Beatles return from a tour of Sweden. Sullivan had never heard of the shaggy-haired quartet, but after learning about their fanatical following, he felt they had the potential to be as big as Elvis Presley. A few weeks later, Sullivan booked the group to appear on his popular television program.
Armed with a gig on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” The Beatles finally gained traction in the United States. Capitol Records agreed to back their upcoming record, and CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite reported on the Beatlemania phenomenon in England.
In early December, a 15-year-old Maryland girl named Marsha Albert saw the group on the news and wrote her local radio station asking, “Why can’t we have music like that here in America?” When a DJ tracked down a copy of their still-unreleased single “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the song became a massive hit. Capitol Records had to scramble to get the single onto record store shelves, and it went on to sell 1 million copies in a matter of days.
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Beatlemania was the name given to describe the ecstatic, female-led fan culture surrounding the Beatles between 1963 and 1966. The term first circulated throughout British media in late 1963 and was used in order to capture the teenage excitement that followed the Liverpool band as they toured the UK.
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Beatlemania was the name given to the popular frenzy surrounding the Beatles after the band’s first appearances on British television in 1963. When the Beatles appeared on American television in 1964, Beatlemania also erupted in the United States.
Then, defying all the previously known laws of celebrity physics, they became evergreens in popular culture. Though they disbanded in 1970, their popularity remains undimmed, and their influence continues to be profoundly felt. Fifty years on, their music and spirit appear to be timeless.
Jun 10, 2023 · The View from Inside Beatlemania. In 1964, on the band’s first world tour, Paul McCartney took pictures that have only recently been discovered. What do they show us? By Jill Lepore. June 10,...
Aug 14, 2015 · Remembering Beatlemania, 50 Years On - The New York Times. 135. Carl T. Gossett Jr./ The New York Times. By Tiina Loite. Aug. 14, 2015.
