We recently passed the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy last November 22. While there is no connection between the JFK assassination and The Beatles, there is one remote coincidence with someone in the Beatles’ history. Trini Lopez, a person in Beatles history, had a strange relationship with Jack Ruby.

Trini Lopez is not well known in Beatles history, but his intriguing connection to The Fab Four is most unique.

Trinidad “Trini” Lopez III was born in Dallas to Mexican immigrant parents. Despite his sophomore class in high school voting him “The most likely to succeed”, he was forced to drop out of school during his senior year to go to work to help his family economically. However, the “Most likely to succeed” moniker certainly came true during his career.

His 1963 song “If I Had a Hammer” reached number one in 36 different countries and peaked at number three in the U.S. He charted 13 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Lemon Tree”, which reached number 20. Two other songs, “Kansas City” and “I’m Comin’ Home, Cindy”, also scored in the Top 40.

“If I Had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger, the American folk singer and social activist who was a 1936 graduate of Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Connecticut. Peter, Paul and Mary would also score a number ten hit with “If I Had a Hammer” in 1962, a year before Lopez’ different and distinctive version of the song.

In 1959 producer Snuff Garrett tried to hire Lopez to front a post-Buddy Holly version of The Crickets, but Lopez was determined to make it on his own. After singing with a label, his 1963 live album Trini Lopez at P.J.’s bolted him onto the radar screen with commercial success and critical acclaim, with the album’s most popular song being “If I Had a Hammer.” The singer also had a minor role in the 1967 cult classic movie The Dirty Dozen, which is famous for its all-star cast.

Lopez’ connection to The Beatles is amazing. From January 16, 1964 to February 4, 1964, Lopez played on a bill with The Beatles at The Olympia Theatre in Paris, along with French singer Sylvie Vartan. The three acts played two shows each night during the week and three shows on weekends. Lopez received top billing for this engagement and The Beatles actually opened for him. After this stand at the Olympia Theatre ended on February 4th with The Beatles opening for Lopez, the four boys made their live U.S. television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show only four days later on February 8. Needless to say, the world of the four lads from Liverpool changed drastically in those four days.

In an interview with Gary James on ClassicBands.com, Lopez elaborated on The Beatles opening for him for almost a month in Paris:

“What happened was, we got booked into the Olympic Theatre, right before they came to America. We were there for a whole month in Paris. Two shows a night, three on Saturday. I used to steal the show from them every night! The French newspapers would say “Bravo Trini Lopez! Who are The Beatles?” Can you believe that? They didn’t have much of an act. They used to just stand there and shake their heads with the hair. The girls loved that hair. We were there in January ’64 for a whole month. In fact, when we finished doing the shows, the last night we were there, reporters came to my dressing room. My dressing room was next to theirs and they said “Mr. Lopez, The Beatles are leaving tomorrow for New York. Do you think they’ll be a hit?” I said “I don’t think so.” I whispered ’cause I didn’t want them to hear me. They said “Why not?” I said “Because in America there’s a group I like much better than these guys called The Beach Boys.” And I really liked ’em much better. Little did I know…(laughs) Unbelievable. But, it was a great experience being with them.”

In this same interview, the famed Mexican-American performer acknowledges that he got his start working for a few years performing at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club in his native Dallas. The Carousel Club was a night club owned and operated by Ruby, and had obvious connections to crime syndicates. Lopez stresses in the interview that contrary to popular belief, Ruby did not help him secure his first record deal and did not advance his career at all. By the time Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, Trini Lopez was already an established international star with “If I Had a Hammer” a number one hit throughout the globe in 36 countries, in addition to the many other nations where it placed high on the charts.

Ironically, one odd coincidence between the Kennedy assassination and pop music is not well known. There have been conspiracy theorists who spin that so many important people coincidentally happened to be in Dallas on the day of the assassination such as former Vice President Richard Nixon flying out of Love Field that morning; also, theories abound that the primary architects of Operation Mongoose, the CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, were in the city as well. Many other important names can be found in these unsubstantiated stories and conspiracy theories.

However, what are the odds that the artists with the number song on the Billboard Hot 100 on that very day were in Dallas on November 22, 1963? The number one song on that fateful day was “I’m Leaving It All Up to You” by Dale and Grace. This duo with the top song in the land was in Dallas on that day as part of the “1963 Caravan of Stars” tour, organized by Dick Clark. They were scheduled to appear on the night of November 22 at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, which was only three blocks from Dealey Plaza. Needless to say, the concert was canceled. Dale and Grace, and the other performers, were staying at a hotel right near Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. Lists of the noteworthy people who were alleged to have been in Dallas on that day do not include Dale and Grace, who were in the midst of a two week run at the top of the charts.

There was a period of 79 days between the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and the wildly famous appearance of the four Liverpudlians on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 8, 1964 in which young people could sense the stagnancy in the morale of the country. Many children were forced to watch the unfolding drama in Dallas and the president’s funeral when they would have rather been outside playing with friends. This 79 day interim after the tragic assassination ended “Kennedy 1960’s” ushered in among the younger generation and even some adults a feeling of youth, fun, and positive energy that was conspicuously absent in the soul of the country during the dark 79 day period. The Beatles were obviously ready to move on after opening for Trini Lopez in Paris during that time period. The United States was ripe for their energetic live national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show to say the least.

Clarence Henry, better known as Clarence “Frogman” Henry, was born in Louisiana in 1937. An accomplished singer and pianist, his signature song is “Ain’t Got No Home” from 1956, and his other hit was “(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do” in 1961. “Ain’t Got a Home” hit number three on the R&B Chart.

What many people do not know is that Clarence Henry opened for the Beatles at 18 concerts in 1964. He was the opening act for the Fab Four for 21 days in the UK, and afterwards crossed the Atlantic with them to open for dates in both the U.S. and Canada. The opening line-up in the UK concerts were Clarence Henry, Jackie DeShannon, and the Bill Black Combo. These artists were all aboard the plane with The Beatles as they made their second trip to the U.S. in 1964.

Upon the news of Burt Bacharach’s passing today, the New York Times posted a comprehensive obituary on their website, which was the basis for their front page article. While this obituary article detailed the amazing life and career of the incredibility talented songwriter, it made no mention of the fact that The Beatles recorded “Baby It’s You”, the 1961 hit for The Shirelles, which was written by Bacharach, Barney Williams, and Mack David. Mack David was the brother of Bacharach’s longtime writing partner and lyricist Hal David.

Reaching number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, “Baby It’s You” caught the attention of The Beatles, who included it in their stage act from 1961 – 1963. John Lennon did the lead vocals. Their recorded version was included on their first LP Please Please Me.

In today’s Sunday edition of the New York Times there are ironically two Beatles-related people cited, one was an obituary article done by the Times and the other was a paid obituary notice by the family.

“Toshi Ichiyanagi, an Avant-Garde Composer and Pianist, is Dead at 89” tells about the composer’s brilliant career and that he eloped with Yoko Ono in 1956.

Seven years ago I wrote a blog post about Yoko’s Japanese background, which mentioned Toshi Ichiyanagi. The post was titled “The Public Knows that Yoko Ono is Japanese, but Is Largely Unaware of Her Family Background”

There was also the paid obituary notice of Lee Minoff, a graduate of Brooklyn College who had a fascinating career, he wrote the screenplay to Yellow Submarine.

The whole world knows that two weeks ago Julian Lennon broke a lifelong pledge and publicly sang his father’s international hit “Imagine”. His reason for going back on his longstanding statement was to aid the people in crisis in Ukraine. Every penny of royalties from the making of the song will go to Ukrainian relief. Believe it or not, the massive hit “Imagine” never reached number one in either the UK or the U.S., It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was popular in the UK at the time although it was not officially released as a single until 1975. It was not until 1975 that John Lennon had his first number one hit with “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, which was his only number one hit during his lifetime as “Starting Over” topped the charts immediately following his December 1980 death.

An informative article at the time was “Julian Lennon reveals he was ‘dreading’ having to sing ‘Imagine'” in the 17 May 2022 edition of The Independent.

Everyone remembers Julian Lennon’s stunning 1984 debut album Valotte, which yielded three hit singles in the U.S. “Valotte” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100; “Much Too Late for Goodbyes” peaked at No. 5; “Say You’re Wrong” stalled at No. 21.

However, Julian’s half-brother, Sean Lennon, was responsible for a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1988 the teenage Sean Lennon was hanging out with Billy Joel and expressing to Joel his dismay over the state of the world. Sean then said to Joel, who was born in 1949, that he wished he had been born in the 1950’s because nothing happened then. Needless to say, Joel shot back at Lennon with all of the significant things that happened in the 1950’s.

After Lennon left, Joel started writing down a list of every significant thing t hat happened in the 1950’s. By the end of the day he was composing his future number one song “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, which is famous for rattling off important parts of history and culture from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in September 1989, it was Joel’s third and final number one hit. His two were “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (1980) and “Tell Her About It” (1983).

The Rolling Stone article “Billy Joel Hits Number One with We Didn’t Start the Fire” explains how Sean Lennon inspired the number one song.

These are the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire“, which or course recounts a lot of history from the 1950’s.

Before we get into the subject at hand here, please be aware that in today’s New York Times there is a brilliant opinion piece on the Op-Ed page titled “We Can’t Work It Out; Why I Finally Broke Up with The Beatles” by Josh Max. Most interesting!

On another subject, Dickie Goodman was famous in the 1970’s for putting out novelty records in which he did mock interviews about current events or pop culture. The responses were in the form of snippets of pop songs of the day. In 1974 when the U.S. was engulfed in the famous energy crisis, Goodman put out “Energy Crisis ’74”. The song features songs from three ex-Beatles: “Helen Wheels” by Paul McCartney and Wings; “Mind Games” by John Lennon; “You’re Sixteen” by Ringo Starr.

As interviewer, Goodman is pretending to interview President Richard M. Nixon and asks, “Who do you believe the gas shortage will affect the most?”. Then, the answer is the snippet of “Helen Wheels”.

The very next question is, “Mr. President, the crisis must be solved, what do you intend to do?” Then, Lennon sings, “Keep on playing those mind games.”

Then, in a phone conversation with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. He asks, “King Faisel, what are your thoughts when you look at oil those oil wells?”. Then, the snippet of Ringo singing “You’re mine, all mine” is inserted.

It is impressive that this silly song actually landed in the Billboard Hot 100 at number 33.

Actually Paul McCartney appears in another Dickie Goodman novelty hit, “Watergrate” in 1973. “Watergrate” of course was a spoof on the Watergate scandal surrounding the Nixon presidency at the time, and used Wings’ hit “My Love”.

Dickie Goodman scored a major hit in 1975 with his novelty song “Mr. Jaws”, which reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100. “Mr. Jaws” was in reaction to the movie Jaws, which was the box office smash for the summer of 1975 and is considered the first ever summer blockbuster, laying the ground for the movie industry ever since to release major movies in the summer.

Dickie Goodman died in 1989 at age 55 after a lifetime of making novelty records.

The Christmas season has officially begun! Last night (November 29) I was driving in my car and heard “Wonderful Christmastime” for the first time of the season.

As is the case each year during the holiday season, Paul’s Christmas song “Wonderful Christmastime” is in heavy rotation on the airwaves. This McCartney solo song was recorded in 1979 during the recording of McCartney II, with Paul laying down all the tracks himself at the home studio on his farm. Though not a Wings single, all of the members of the final configuration of Wings appeared in the video which was filmed at The Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

To say that it is a McCartney “solo” song is an understatement. He both wrote and produced the song in addition to providing vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitars, bass, and drums.

“Wonderful Christmastime” reached # 6 on the UK Singles Chart, but did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. Since its debut during the 1979 holiday season, it was estimated by Forbes magazine that the song has earned Paul $20 million dollars. Each holiday season the song rakes him in excess of $500,000.

Beatles fans will remember that McCartney performed “Wonderful Christmastime” on Saturday Night Live on December 15, 2012.

In addition, Beatles fans will remember that there was never an official Christmas song released by the Fab Four. However, members of the official Beatles Fan Club received a record of Christmas song in 1967 that was not released commercially. “Christmas Time Is Here Again” lived on in bootleg records and became more accessible with the advent of YouTube.com.

Ironically, Paul can be heard on Side B of the monstrously successful 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid. This song knocked out Wings’ “Mull of Kintyre” from having the distinction of being the biggest selling single in the history of the UK. It was on top of the UK Singles Charts in Christmas 1977. For whatever reason, “Mull of Kintyre” was a flop in the U.S., only reaching # 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and cracking the Top 40 for only that one week. “Mull of Kintyre” was a massive international hit that topped the charts in countless countries. Paul has never performed the song in a concert in the U.S. due to its bad performance there; however, there have been instances over the years in which he does a concert one night in the U.S. without performing “Mull of Kintyre” and then two nights later adds it to the playlist for a concert in Canada. “Mull of Kintyre” still remains the biggest selling non-charity single in UK history. In 1984 people were urged to buy multiple copies of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to support African famine relief, so “Mull of Kintyre” retains its unique place in history.

Check out the songs below…….

Jay Black, the famous lead singer of Jay and the Americans, died on October 22, 2021 in the New York City borough of Queens at the age of 82. Jay and the Americans began having hits one year before the arrival of The Beatles with “Only in America” reaching number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Few people know Jay Black’s entry on the radar screen of Beatles’ history. Two days after the Fab Four made their monumental debut on U.S. television with their famous performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on February 9, 1964, the band had their first U.S. concert in Washington, D.C. on February 11, 1964 at the Washington Coliseum. Two other bands opened for the Beatles, Jay and the Americans and the Righteous Brothers. Of course, when Jay and the Americans came on stage as the first act, the audience was screaming “We Want The Beatles!” as Jay and the Americans performed. Thinking quickly, he said to the audience,”Hey, man, I’m glad you all came to see us tonight”. The audience uniformly cracked up and that won them over. They listened to the full set of Jay Black and the Americans, and afterwards gave them a big round of applause.

In his controversial 1988 biography The Lives of John Lennon, author Albert Goldman wrote of the first U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum:

“The Coliseum concert established the pattern, though not the standard, for all feature Beatles’ performances in America. Basically the event was a giant pep rally with salvational overtones. The emphasis was on the vast and frenzied audience rather than on the performers, who were dwarfed by the distance, drowned out by the noise, and overborne by the aggressiveness of a generation that would soon burst the old boundaries of public decorum and turn rock concerts into festivals of participatory culture. In this mad milieu the Beatles were reduced to marionettes, jouncing about on the distant stage. The Beatles’ songs, hanged out in the rough-and-ready style of such occasions, revealed their essential appeal as chants and shouts, the sort of thing to sing at a football game, a political convention, or a carnival ball. Ultimately the Beatles became America’s foremost cheerleaders.”

A compelling article on this famous concert appeared in the Washington Post on February 10, 2014 on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The article is titled “The Beatles’ first U.S. concert: An oral history of the day the Fab Four conquered D.C.” and was written by veteran journalist J. Freedom du Lac.

Jay & The Americans had ten entries into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 from 1962 to 1970. Their first entry, “She Cried” which reached number 5 in March 1962, actually featured their first lead singer named Jay, John “Jay” Traynor”. A couple of months later Jay Traynor left the group and was replaced by David Blatt, who adopted the stage name “Jay Black” so the band could continue with the name Jay & The Americans. The band’s first single with Jay Black was “Only in America”, which reached number 25 in September 1963. That was followed with their smash hit “Come a Little Bit Closer”, which reached number three in September 1963 and had looked like it would reach number one; it was followed by “Let’s Lock the Door (And Throw Away the Key”) which stalled at number 11 in February 1965.

In July 1965, “Cara, Mia”, which some consider to be the band’s signature song, reached number four. “Cara, Mia” was followed by “Some Enchanted Evening”, a song from the musical South Pacific which had been a big number one song for Perry Como in 1949, which reached number 13. “Sunday and Me” and “Crying” charted in the Top 40, and the next song would not chart for almost three years. “This Magic Moment” reached number six and was one of the major hits of 1969. The last entry for Jay & The Americans” was in January 1970 when “Walkin’ in the Rain”, a song penned by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, spent seven weeks in the Top 40 and reached number 19.

Jay Black will forever be remembered for winning over the crowd at The Beatles’ first concert in the U.S.

This is the setlist from the concert:

1. “Roll Over Beethoven”

2. “From Me to You”

3. “I Saw Her Standing There”

4. “This Boy”

5. “All MY Loving”

6. “I Want to Be Your Man”

7. “Please Please Me”

8. “Till There Was You”

9. “She Love You”

10. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

11. “Twist and Shout”

12. “Long Tall Sally”

Jackie Lomax is definitely a footnote in Beatles history. George Harrison championed the guitarist/singer/songwriter who was around Liverpool in the early days with The Beatles. Lomax was touted as the person who was going to be the superstar of Apple Records, but his work with the Apple label proved to be a flop. His obituary in the September 19, 2013 edition of the New York Times carried the headline “Jackie Lomax Dies at 69; British Rock Singer recorded with Members of The Beatles”.

His band The Lomax Alliance had been signed to CBS Records before Brian Epstein’s death. After Epstein’s death and the formation of Apple Records, Apple took over responsibility for Lomax’s recording career. His first single was supposed to be a smash hit as it was penned by Harrison and featured three of the four Beatles as well as Eric Clapton and Nicky Hopkins. However, “Sour Milk Sea” did terribly on the charts. The rest of the Is This What You Want album was recorded in Los Angeles with Hal Blaine and other distinguished members of The Wrecking Crew. The album and another single released by Apple went unnoticed. With the 1970 breakup of The Beatles, Apple Records was in a tizzy and the some of the artists on the label were in limbo.

In his 2001 biography George Harrison, Alan Clayson wrote of Jackie Lomax:

“None of the records that he cut with George made Jackie rich. Still, they plodded on, with George sparing no expense. An artist of Jackie Lomax’s calibre deserved nothing less than publicity photos by Justin de Villanueve, a full orchestra if needed one and even the oscillations of one of these new-fangled Moog synthesizers. McCartney, Starr and Clapton were among the famous musicians namechecked on the sleeve of Lomax’s only Apple LP, dog-eared copies of which spoke to casual browsers of deletion racks through its title, Is This What You Want? Few did, however, despite Jackie’s most professional vocal projection and George’s competent – although occasionally cluttered – production.”

The headline for his obituary article in the Los Angeles Times was “Jackie Lomax dies at 69; Signed by Beatles Label but Never Hit It Big”. The headline pretty much summed up his career and the article did a good job of telling the story of the man who was touted as someone who would be the big star of the Apple label.

Some artists who were on the Apple label are well known due to their hits, such as Badfinger, Mary Hopkin, Hot Chocolate, and Billy Preston. However, Jackie Lomax was not among them.