Nothing more than a musical and cultural revolution, according to Tom Breihan, author of the engaging, illuminating and exhilarating “The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.” The Beatles, Breihan notes, paved the way for the British Invasion, went on to have a record 20 No.1 singles and transformed popular music. What are we going to give them that they don’t already have?” “Since America has always had everything, why should we be over there making money?” McCartney asked Spector.
On that long-ago Pan Am flight to the Big Apple, McCartney sat next to Phil Spector, the architect of the Wall of Sound and future producer of “Let It Be.” Instead, Chicago label Vee-Jay put out “Please Please Me” and “From Me to You,” while Swan Records, a Philadelphia-based imprint co-founded by Dick Clark of TV’s “American Bandstand,” released “She Loves You.” Not one of the songs charted. Capitol, the band’s American label, thought so little of the Beatles that it had refused to release any of their previous singles. Less than a week earlier, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the exuberant sing-along that he had co-written with John Lennon, hit No. He and his Beatles bandmates were booked to play the popular “Ed Sullivan Show” and two sets at famed Carnegie Hall.
Things definitely appeared to be on the upswing.
In February 1964, Paul McCartney boarded a plane for his first transatlantic trip to New York. The Beatles in their New York hotel after their arrival to start their first U.S.
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