In one magical decade, The Beatles made records built to last an eternity. The same might be said for the bands chart records. Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the Fab Fours remarkable Billboard coup, when their songs occupied the top five slots of the singles chart, a feat never repeated. The Billboard Hot 100 ranking on April 4, 1964: 1. Cant Buy Me Love 2. Twist and Shout 3. She Loves You 4. I Want to Hold Your Hand 5. Please Please Me It was the first and only time anyone ever monopolized the entire top five, says Keith Caulfield, Billboards associate director of charts/retail. It was a unique moment in time, something that likely will never happen again. We were at the height of the Beatles invasion, and millions of fans were discovering them and their work. Two factors played into the bands chart hits-krieg, says Beatles scholar Martin Lewis. First was the unquenchable thirst for Beatles records after three consecutive appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February, he says. Those performances, three months after JFKs assassination, were an aural balm to Americas soul. Aiding The Beatles chart lock was a shambolic distribution pattern, with songs simultaneously released by various labels. Capitol Records had rejected The Beatles (repeatedly) during 1963 while they conquered Europe, says Lewis, who spearheaded the campaign for Beatles manager Brian Epsteins induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next week. Those rejections meant that three other U.S. labels (Vee-Jay, Tollie and Swan) also had Beatles discs available to release. Only two of those top five Beatles singles were on Capitol, which paid the price for its earlier myopia. Imported Beatles hits released in the span of a few weeks by four U.S. companies dominated the charts and airwaves for a full year, Lewis says. Their songs were competing against each other in the marketplace, Caulfield says. You dont have that now. You have one or two songs as the focus.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:00:57 +0000
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