Directed by Richard Lester , A Hard Day’s Night involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a musical comedy.
They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964, to continue the format established by A Hard Day’s Night which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs.
Who biographer John Atkins wrote that the group’s early test sessions for Pye Records in 1964 show that “they seemed to have understood just how important was … Moon’s contribution.” Contemporary critics questioned his ability to keep time, with biographer Tony Fletcher suggesting that the timing on Tommy was “all…
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As preparations were made for a tour of the US, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30 amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers, specially designed for them by Vox , as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, these…
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Moon played a four- and later a five-piece drum kit during his early career. During much of 1964 and 1965 his setups consisted of Ludwig drums and Zildjian cymbals . He began to endorse Premier Drums in late 1965 and remained a loyal customer of the company. His first Premier…
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The foundations for what would become the Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed had performed with a few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (Reed described his tenure there as being “a poor man’s Carole King “). Reed…
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In 1964, they beat the Beatles as the number one United Kingdom band in two surveys.
Issued on 26 December, with the band’s previously scheduled debut there just weeks away, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sold a million copies, becoming a number-one hit in the US by mid-January.
American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station WWDC , in Washington, DC, obtained a copy of the British single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air.
Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format, compiling distinct US albums from the band’s recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles.