1963 ~ Part 2

August brought the end of The Beatles final Cavern Club show. It took place on August 3^rd – John having a sleeve of his jacket ripped off before he even got into the building. Lennon: “We couldn’t say it but we didn’t really like going back to Liverpool. Being local heroes made us nervous. We felt embarrassed in our suits. We were worried that our friends might think we sold out. Which we had in a way.”

‘She Loves You’ confirmed The Beatles phenomenon. McCartney: “I got the idea for doing one of those answer-type songs where someone says, “She loves you” and the other person goes, “Yeah, yeah, yeah”.  With the advance orders of over 750,000, ‘She Loves You’ became the biggest selling single in Britain until Paul McCartney and Wings ‘Mull of Kintyre’ in 1978 topped it.

The Beatles was the headline act on the most watched TV entertainment show, ‘Sunday Night At London Palladium’ in October of 1963. They opened the show with a brief appearance and after their 4 set songs; they joined the other guests on the shows famous roundabout for the closing credits.



The Beatles on Sunday Night At London Palladium in 1963

The Tour of Sweden was their first foreign tour since Hamburg, but produced the same amount of hysteria and mayhem they received back in the UK, maybe even more. When they got to Stockholm Airport, they were greeted by mobs of screaming girls and police trying to hold back the chaos. The Beatles played five concerts and recorded live on a TV show, during all of these times, they were escorted by police and even had guards that stood outside their hotel rooms. A week later when they returned to Heathrow Airport, another sea of screaming girls greated them. Passing through the airport at the time was a top-rated presenter of an American show, Ed Sullivan, who wondered what all the fuss was about.

The first time British Establishment takes notice of The Beatles came with a summon to appear at the annual Royal Command Performance on November 4th, 1963 in front of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. They were not at the very top of performances but they were most talked about. Paul introduced with 'Till There Was You' and when John played 'Twist and Shout', he famously says for the people in the cheep seats to 'clap your hands' and the rest to 'rattle your jewelry'.