# Who DIDN'T like the Beatles in 1964 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120 "2014-02-12T04:16:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/81 "2014-02-13T19:23:07Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > the list was of popular songs or albums in each year, written by others, of which i picked some. i added none. it wasn’t done as a large research project, it was some data to make a point in an earlier thread. i don’t think any of the data is in error. > > it doesn’t matter if the list i got data from did not include all the works from each group. > > if the Fab Four released it then it is their taste and talent they were showing. > > it shows the Fab Four were releasing Top 40 pop fluff while other groups released hard rock/blues or had developed and produced sophisticated album music. I don’t know how old you are, but I’m ancient enough to have been a teen at that point, moving to adulthood. The innovative music of Hendrix and some others was largely seen as an outlier at the time, and most non-musician people didn’t take it seriously. I don’t think there were many people who had an inkling of what was to come in the rock genre. Standard R&R and pop music was what sold and what people liked, along with some country crossovers. The early Beatles music had a lot of R&R standards and they wrote much of the early stuff with that firmly in mind (_Love, Love Me Do_,\* I Saw Her Standing There\*, etc.). On the heels of their enormous popularity suddenly appeared people like Hendrix and Arthur Brown, who were doing things nobody had ever seen or heard before, and there were a number of pretenders who tried to emulate them. Those groups had their day in the late 60s, But pop music was absolutely going to rule for about the next ten years after the Beatles’ arrival. The 70s were a mire of musical pop pap that included disco, The Osmonds, and many others capitalizing on the Beatles’ successful sound, even though the Beatles had by then moved on. I think it’s too easy to look back and dismiss their music from today’s perspective. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/82 "2014-02-13T19:24:23Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > Pedler makes the interesting argument that, on the whole, The Beatles’ earlier works are actually more adventurous from the standpoint of their music structure than the later-period ones. As somewhat who has been playing and singing Beatles songs since I got my first guitar in 1965, I can attest to this. I would agree strongly. There were faster changes in electronics and recording technology in the second half of the Beatles’ tenure as a band, so the later recordings may sound more revolutionary. But such tools weren’t available in the early years, and the recordings were still strikingly original. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/83 "2014-02-13T19:37:47Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > about my list which i made a brief statement about in #41. > > i went to a source of information created by others, it was a listing of popular music in each year. i did not use my memory to generate the list i posted. i did not add any entries. to my recollection (of culture of about half a century ago) the list seemed correct and i did not double check any facts. i did not use any record or radio industry data. i did the list in maybe 15 minutes about 2.5 years ago to make a point in another thread. i did not intend on writing a book or research paper; many of which have and could be written about each group, music of that era and so on. > > i did not have a complete catalog of any of the groups. the meaning of cherry picking is that you have a full selection and pick select ones. i did not. > > even if the list was a partial catalog of each band, i think it still makes a point. the Fab Four was a pop boy band, they continued with that for some time. other bands also made simple lyric, simple music, short songs that really rocked at the same time. some other bands had an early album of rock that wasn’t real good but in a year caught on fire with quality music that became their style. some other bands made albums that were played as whole sides on progressive rock stations on the FM band. No, it doesn’t make a point, simply because the list is woefully inadequate in giving a picture of The Beatles’ breadth. Even in '63, they had “Twist and Shout”, which rocks as much as any Stones or Kinks song of the early '60s. You really should know more about the music of the period if you’re going to make grand pronouncements (also funny that you keep saying they were a Top 40 group, as if the Stones weren’t). In fact, I could easily cherry-pick a list to destroy your argument: The Beatles: “She Said She Said” “Tomorrow Never Knows” “I Am The Walrus” “Revolution” “Yer Blues” “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” The Rolling Stones: “I Wanna Be Your Man” (Beatles cover, so it must be fluff, right?) “Under The Boardwalk” “As Tears Go By” “I Am Waiting” The Kinks: “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” “Waterloo Sunset” Man, the Stones and the Kinks sure were pussies who couldn’t rock, weren’t they? Beatles blew 'em out of the water. Anyway, I like all the songs listed, but that’s because “it rocks” is weak-ass criteria for liking music. And if you really knew anything about The Beatles, I don’t see how you could claim their material was all “fluff”, unless you were striving to be patently absurd. Think about this: by your standards, Korn, Limp Bizkit and Nickelback are better artists than Stevie Wonder, Prince and the Talking Heads. Makes no sense, really. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/84 "2014-02-13T21:51:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > What amazes me, among the many things of the Beatles, is how they can make musical and rhythmic complexity sound so effortless and natural. Who else can pull off the crazy 11/8+4/4+7/8 “Sun Sun Sun Here It Comes” part in “Here Comes the Sun,” for example, without it sounded like prog rock masturbation? Or even the 7/4 (or alternating 4/4-3/4) of the aforementioned “All You Need is Love?” To me, it is music that gets richer and more rewarding the closer you listen to it. It all sounds pretty simple and Top 40 pop on the surface, but delving into the details, there is a lot of careful craftsmanship, experimentation, and subversion. If anybody wants to get into a musicologist’s take on it, Alan W. Pollack’s [Notes on…](http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/awp/awp.html) series is fascinating, in which he deconstructs every single Beatles song. I don’t think there’s any need to intellectualize the Beatles–I think they’re clearly bloody brilliant–but for those who want the left side of their brain tickled a bit, it’s a good and informative read. Great cite. I will spend hours on that. If you’re interested in similar erudite Beatles analysis, check out Howard Goodalls’ “20th Century Greats” series on the Beatles (on youtube). (There’s someone else in this thread that it would do a lot of good as well. :D) And I’ll add one more agreement to the chorus. The Beatles employed extremely complex, sophisticated, clever techniques, but it’s funny how that’s lost on us mere mortals, because of how organic, how natural it sounds. Check out Goodall’s analysis of “Penny Lane,” as he breathlessly explains the genius at play in this song. My mom (to use a musically unsophisticated example) could listen to it, and she’d love it as “one more great Beatles pop song,” and that’s all. I’m a musician, for Pete’s sake, and I’ve heard that song, I don’t know, hundreds of times, and the details he points out were lost on me. Similarly complex techniques could be used by prog rockers, and my mom would know there was a lot going on in that song, as she held her nose. The “sophistication” is bombastic and for its own sake, not in service to the song. The Beatles created songs that may have seemed simple, but weren’t, and that’s part of their genius. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/85 "2014-02-13T22:05:54Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Similarly complex techniques could be used by prog rockers, and my mom would know there was a lot going on in that song, as she held her nose. The “sophistication” is bombastic and for its own sake, not in service to the song. The Beatles created songs that may have seemed simple, but weren’t, and that’s part of their genius. Thank you! You’ve used some key words and phrases that are exactly the ones I’ve been using for years to describe what I don’t like and like about rock generally. To each his or her own tastes, but I’ve never understood listeners whose panties get all wet when they hear a guitarist (or any instrumentalist, for that matter) playing a million notes or a thousand different arbitrary chord changes…when there’s no SONG there to put them in…no real emotional content. That’s athletics, not music. “Bombastic and for its own sake” describes it perfectly. I can admire excellent musicianship, too…but for me it indeed has to be “in the service of the song,” or it does nothing for me. It’s one of the reasons Ringo was a great drummer, and anyone who says otherwise knows absolutely nothing about music. There were many guitarists who were more technically skilled than George, but few who had the ability to come up with such a perfect part for the song every time. I think one of the things that set The Beatles apart was that they did use novel melodies/harmonies/chord progressions, and yet they made it all hang together seamlessly. What they did rarely seemed arbitrary or “for its own sake.” Combined with lyrical content, it made for a very powerful package. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/86 "2014-02-13T22:47:55Z")
Speaking of commercial pap, there once was a drink called Great Shakes, and their manufacturers had a great marketing idea. They got groups like [The Who](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3qbUQ9oPYw) [Blues Magoos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWoz4kSpDmk) [Spencer Davis](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCsbVujyC64) [The Yardbirds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GBw8ATyMaY) And [Dusty Springfield](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krrtCKopsxs) To sing their ads. Too bad the product itself was awful. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/87 "2014-02-13T23:12:09Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > I can admire excellent musicianship, too…but for me it indeed has to be “in the service of the song,” or it does nothing for me. It’s one of the reasons Ringo was a great drummer, and anyone who says otherwise knows absolutely nothing about music. > > There were many guitarists who were more technically skilled than George, but few who had the ability to come up with such a perfect part for the song every time. Yes, I agree. I am bored by endless jamming, or shredders (which quickly just starts to sound like white noise to me), or any genre that gravitates toward being a showcase for musicianship. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate good musicians. But foremost are _tasteful_ musicians, those who understand what the song requires and give it that much and nothing more. Great musicians playing _meh_ songs do nothing for me, no matter how spectacular their playing is. A virtuoso guitarist in the Beatles would have harmed their dynamic, I believe. Instead, they had the perfect lead guitarist for their music, a composer of memorable solos and a contributor of perfect licks–_perfect_ because they were just one more building block in the construction of a great song, not because it required stupendous technique. Again, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t great guitar work in the Beatles. But anything tricky or technically tough was played because that’s what the song needed, not just because. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/88 "2014-02-13T23:33:01Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Yes, I agree. I am bored by endless jamming, or shredders (which quickly just starts to sound like white noise to me), or any genre that gravitates toward being a showcase for musicianship. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate good musicians. But foremost are _tasteful_ musicians, those who understand what the song requires and give it that much and nothing more. Great musicians playing _meh_ songs do nothing for me, no matter how spectacular their playing is. > > A virtuoso guitarist in the Beatles would have harmed their dynamic, I believe. Instead, they had the perfect lead guitarist for their music, a composer of memorable solos and a contributor of perfect licks–_perfect_ because they were just one more building block in the construction of a great song, not because it required stupendous technique. Again, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t great guitar work in the Beatles. But anything tricky or technically tough was played because that’s what the song needed, not just because. Agreed. I always use as an example George’s bit at the end of “Got To Get You Into My Life” - what is that, one chord? Eight notes or so? And yet it sounds cool as hell and enhances the song (a similar example I use is Peter Buck’s “solo” on R.E.M.'s “The Flowers of Guatemala”). Someone like Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie Malmsteen would never come up with that in a million years - not because it’s at all difficult to play, but because they’re only interested in virtuosity. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/89 "2014-02-14T09:11:14Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The 70s were a mire of musical pop pap that included disco, If you’re being so sweepingly dismissive of disco music then you’re being as musically ignorant as the Beatles haters. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/90 "2014-02-14T14:25:04Z")
I didn’t say I didn’t like it, but it was pop music, not rock. You seem to enjoy calling people ignorant if they don’t agree with you. Since you have no idea what level of knowledge any of us have, you may want to dial it back. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/91 "2014-02-14T14:32:26Z")
I’d say “pap” is pretty dismissive. You didn’t just call it pop. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/92 "2014-02-14T14:32:29Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > If you’re being so sweepingly dismissive of disco music then you’re being as musically ignorant as the Beatles haters. I would say generally that most music listeners are “sweepingly dismissive” of genres of music they don’t care for. I suspect there are genres of this nature you don’t like for which you are similarly dismissive. But I’ll bite: when histories of the most important and enduring popular music are written 100 years from now, and “500 Best Singles (or Albums) of All Time” lists are compiled…which singles/albums from the disco era will be included? For that matter, which are included when such lists are compiled today? Two things to remember: 1. The histories and lists I speak of take in the whole of popular music, so disco is competing for inclusion against all other genres, not just within its own category. 2. As with all such histories and lists, they should be populated based on lasting musical merit, not simply records that attained great commercial success. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/93 "2014-02-14T17:16:40Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I didn’t say I didn’t like it, but it was pop music, not rock. You seem to enjoy calling people ignorant if they don’t agree with you. Since you have no idea what level of knowledge any of us have, you may want to dial it back. You said/implied that disco was “pap” that “capitaliz[ed] on the Beatles’ successful sound”. I’m dialling nothing back. If you and anyone else think that Chic, Earth Wind and Fire, Giorgio Moroder, KC and The Sunshine Band etc etc can be described that way then, yes, you are as musically ignorant as johnpost. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/94 "2014-02-14T17:37:35Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > some songs from 64 > > Not Fade Away - Rolling Stones > I Just Want to Make Love to You - Rolling Stones > > You Really Got Me - Kinks > > Smokestack Lightning - Yardbirds > Good Morning, School Girl - Yardbirds > I’m a Man - Yardbirds > > She Loves You - Beatles > Please Mister Postman - Beatles > A Hard Day’s Night - Beatles > rock on Fab Four > > they sucked from the start So you’d rather listen to suburban white kids covering blues classics than a superb pop group that writes its own material. “Rock” on indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/95 "2014-02-14T17:42:11Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > You said/implied that disco was “pap” that “capitaliz[ed] on the Beatles’ successful sound”. I’m dialling nothing back. If you and anyone else think that Chic, Earth Wind and Fire, Giorgio Moroder, KC and The Sunshine Band etc etc can be described that way then, yes, you are as musically ignorant as johnpost. Well then, carry on being a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/96 "2014-02-14T17:42:20Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > My dad claims he didn’t like them at first, in his words, “because I thought only screaming girls liked them. And then I found out that the intellectual girls liked them too” 🙂 That pretty much mirrors my experience. I was in Jr. High and all the girls were crazy about the Fab Four. So “we guys” tended to like the bluesier, rougher edge groups like The Stones, Yardbirds, Animals, etc. But deep-down, we really knew the Beatles were great… just slow to admit it. By the time Rubber Soul came out, I already knew that, like Sinatra was to my parents’ generation, the Beatles would become the “music of my life.” btw, the introduction of the Beatles to America may have been the most precisely timed, impactfull roll-out in cultural history. And something that could never be duplicated. The Beatles had been a hit in the UK and Europe for over a year, but with no play in America. So we knew of this legendary group, but not heard them. Then Kennedy was assassinated on Friday 11/22/1963. The country went into a week of mourning, followed by Thanksgiving weekend. Then on Monday 12/1/1963, the country woke up to hear “I Want To Hold Your Hand” playing on every radio station, simultaneously. By the time I got on the bus for school, everyone was talking about them. Kapow. By the end of the day, everyone knew the names John-Paul-George-Ringo - Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starr. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/97 "2014-02-14T17:47:50Z")
Ooh, personal insult - great rejoinder, Chefguy! ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/98 "2014-02-14T19:39:49Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#): > > btw, the introduction of the Beatles to America may have been the most precisely timed, impactfull roll-out in cultural history. And something that could never be duplicated. The Beatles had been a hit in the UK and Europe for over a year, but with no play in America. So we knew of this legendary group, but not heard them. Then Kennedy was assassinated on Friday 11/22/1963. The country went into a week of mourning, followed by Thanksgiving weekend. Then on Monday 12/1/1963, the country woke up to hear “I Want To Hold Your Hand” playing on every radio station, simultaneously. By the time I got on the bus for school, everyone was talking about them. Kapow. By the end of the day, everyone knew the names John-Paul-George-Ringo - Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starr. Correct in spirit, but your timing is just a little off. After receiving an impassioned letter from one of his listeners, Washington D.C. disk jockey Carroll James was the first to play “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on a U.S. radio station. That happened on December 17. 1963. (He played an import copy of the single sent to him from England by a friend.) The reaction from listeners to his station, and at other stations who got wind of it and followed his lead, was so strong that it forced Capitol Records to move up the release date of the U.S. single, originally scheduled for mid-January 1964, to December 26, 1963. So it wouldn’t have been until the last couple of weeks of December 1963 at the earliest that Beatlemania in the U.S. really got underway. My memory isn’t quite sharp enough to pinpoint it, but if I had to guess I would say the buzz didn’t really start in my area until early January 1964. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/99 "2014-02-14T20:00:24Z")
My dad, to an extent. He did like their early stuff, but feels they became unlistenable from Rubber Soul on to the end of their career. I don’t know how common such a sentiment is. I think from Rubber Soul on is where they do all their interesting music. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120/100 "2014-02-14T20:18:28Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > … > > So it wouldn’t have been until the last couple of weeks of December 1963 at the earliest that Beatlemania in the U.S. really got underway. My memory isn’t quite sharp enough to pinpoint it, but if I had to guess I would say the buzz didn’t really start in my area until early January 1964. Thx for the correction. It may have been the first school day after Xmas/New Years break, which would be around January 6th 1964. My memory is clear enough, that I remember the first play was after a vacation, if not after Thanksgiving, as I thought. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-didnt-like-the-beatles-in-1964/681120.md?page=6)