The often criticized “George Harrison and Friends” world tour began on November 2, 1974 in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a warm-up act, the tour featured a sixteen piece Indian orchestra lead by Ravi Shankar.
To cover the many criticisms of this tour obviously cannot be done in a sing;e post on this blog. Instead, here is a transcript of a portion of the press conference that George held in Los Angeles on October 24, 1974 to discuss the upcoming tour with reporters from all over the world.
REPORTER: Why did you decide to return to America?
GEORGE: I’ve been back here many times. This is the first time I’ve been back to work, though. It’s also the first time I’ve had an H-1 visa since ’71.
REPORTER: What was the reason for you not having the H-1?
GEORGE: I had the same problem as John Lennon. I was busted for marijuana way back in ’67.
REPORTER: Would you ever consider touring Mexico?
GEORGE: I wouldn’t mind. I mean, I would go anywhere. This is really a test. I either finish this tour ecstatically happy and want to go on tour everywhere, or I’ll end up just going back to my cave for another five years.
REPORTER: Could you tell us your feelings and expectations for the upcoming tour?
GEORGE: I think if I had more time I’d be panic-stricken, but I don’t really have the time to get worried about it.
REPORTER: Are you getting divorced from Pattie?
GEORGE: No, I mean, that’s as silly as marriage.
REPORTER: Can you foresee a time when you’ll give up your musical objectives?
GEORGE: I can see a time when I’d give up this sort of madness, but music – I mean everything is based upon music. I’ll never stop my music.
REPORTER: What direction is your music going in now?
GEORGE: Haven’t got a clue. I mean it’s getting a bit funkier, especially with Willy Weeks and all them.
REPORTER: What’s your attitude about drugs now?
GEORGE: Drugs? What drugs? Aspirins or what are you talking about? I mean, I think it’s awful when it ruins people. What do you define as a drug? Like whisky? I don’t want to advocate anything because it’s so difficult to get into America these days.
While it is well known that Paul McCartney and John Lennon helped out other artists on songs during the Beatles years, the one and only time that they ever helped out on song together was in 1967 on The Rolling Stones hit “We Love You”. The song is for the most part unknown in the U.S., but it reached # 8 on the British pop charts. In the U.S., it only reached # 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 and therefore was off the radar screen because it fell short of the coveted Top 40.
“We Love You” is definitely “interesting”. Its Moroccan influence is obvious. One critic at the time described it as a “psychedelic collage of jail sounds.”
The song was written in response to the drug arrests of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones on 12 February 1967 at Richards’ country home in Sussex. The band made an accompanying video that was a re-enactment of the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde for indecency. Needless, to say the BBC immediately banned the video, or “promotional film” as was the term back then.
“We Love You” was a brazen and public “thank you” to The Beatles, The Who and the editorial page of the London Times for taking the bold initiative to voice public support for the three members of The Rolling Stones after their drug arrests. Since the song was written in part for The Beatles, Paul McCartney and John Lennon were asked to help out with backing vocals, marking the first and only time that these two Beatles would help out on a song together.
Interestingly, Stones lead guitarist Brian Jones played the Mellotron on the track.
Check out the song that never made the Top 40 in the U.S., and the promotional film the Stones made for it:
Believe it or not, Wings had two lead guitarists with similar names: Henry McCullough and Jimmy McCulloch.
Henry McCullough, a native of County Derry in Northern Ireland, died 14 June 2016 at the age of 72. He had been the only Irishman to play at Woodstock, having backed Joe Cocker there. The first Wings single, “Give Ireland back to the Irish” was banned by the BBC for its political content but hit # 1 on the charts in the Republic of Ireland. As a result, McCullough’s brother was jumped by a gang of thugs one night when leaving a bar in Derry. Some people think that McCullough’s solo on the international hit “My Love” is among the best guitar solos in rock history. Joining Wings at the beginning, McCullough left within two years because of artistic differences. His only album with the group was Red Rose Speedway, and he departed after the recording of the single Live and Let Die for the James Bond film of the same name.
After the successful Wings album Band on the Run, Jimmy McCulloch joined as lead guitarist and stayed with Wings from 1974-1977. A Glasgow native, he was the “boy wonder” guitarist of the band Thunderclap Newman which had the hit “Something in the Air”, which was produced by McCulloch’s friend Pete Townsend. McCulloch was with Wings for the albums Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound. On Venus and Mars, he both co-wrote the song “Medicine Jar” with Colin Allen and provided lead vocals on the track. On Wings at the Speed of Sound, which included the number one hits “Let ‘Em In” and “Silly Love Songs”, McCulloch co-wrote “Wino Junko” with Colin Allen in addition to handling lead vocal chores.
In 1976, prior to a rehearsal for the Wings Over America tour, McCulloch broke his wrist backstage in the dressing room while wrestling with David Cassidy. His broken wrist held up the start of the tour for a couple of weeks. Two years after leaving Wings in 1977, McCulloch was found dead in his London flat at age 25. An autopsy later revealed that he died from morphine and alcohol poisoning. This is the New York Times obituary of McCulloch.
In today’s New York Times I read the obituary of veteran actor John Hurt, who passed away on January 25 at the age of 77. The BAFTA-winner actor received Oscar nominations for Midnight Express and The Elephant Man. The Guardian also had a glowing obituary.
What all of the obituaries on this revered actor did not mention is that John Hurt was the star of the video for the 1982 Paul McCartney hit “Take It Away”. In the video Hurt plays a impresario eager to sign Linda McCartney to a contract.
This video received regular play in the rotation of MTV when the music network was less than a year old. Off the Tug of War album, “Take It Away” reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, staying in the Top 40 for eleven weeks from July to September 1982.
It was the second single released off of the Tug of War album, the first of which, the duet “Ebony and Ivory” of Paul and Stevie Wonder, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks.
Ironically, “Take It Away” was the fourth instance since 1973 in which a McCartney or Wings single reached the top ten but stalled at number ten. The others that hit # 10 were Wings’ “Hi, Hi, Hi” in 1973, Wings’ “Helen Wheels” in 1974, and finally the Wings’ live version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” in 1977.
The song, and the album, were produced by George Martin, who both played piano on the track and appeared in the video as a member of the band. Ringo Starr handled the drumming chores and appeared in the video. Linda McCartney provided backing vocals and tambourines.
When the video was released, MTV was less than a year old and still played videos 24/7. Having an established actor like John Hurt starring in a video was unheard of at the time.
Actually, “Take It Away” played a role in the break-up of Wings. The last configuration of Wings was recording “Take It Away” for a Wings album on December 8, 1980 when early the next morning, on a day intended to finish the song, Paul received word of John Lennon’s murder. The plan had been for Wings to release the album and tour, but when Paul balked at touring as a reaction to John’s death, guitarist Denny Laine felt that he could not wait around in limbo and left the band. A year later the song was recorded with new musicians as a McCartney single.
The Beatles accomplished a wild feat on the American charts that likely will not be broken. The band had three consecutive number one hits in 1964. Previously, Elvis Presley had two consecutive number one hits in 1956 when “Don’t Be Cruel / Hound Dog” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eleven weeks followed by “Love Me Tender” for five weeks. As is well known in the music industry, the release of “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog” as a double-sided single was commercial suicide because both songs would have sold the same amount of records individually and would have reaped double the profits for both Elvis and RCA Records.
On February 1, 1964, exactly one week before their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show , The Beatles topped the charts with their first U.S. release, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, which comfortably held the top position on the charts for seven weeks. Their first number one hit in the U.S. was followed by “She Loves You”, which held its ground for five weeks in the top slot. Then, “Can’t Buy Me Love” was their third consecutive number one and ruled the charts for five weeks.
“She Loves You” had already been a major number one hit in the UK, spending six weeks at the top of the charts, and 18 weeks in the top three. This Lennon/McCartney composition ranked as the biggest selling single in the history of the UK for over 14 years until the Wings single “Mull of Kintyre”, co-written by Paul McCartney and Wings guitarist Denny Laine, was the number one song at Christmas 1977 and would go onto to be the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK. While Band Aid’s 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” overtook “Mull of Kintyre” as the best-selling single in UK history, the 1977 Wings song remains the top selling non-charity single in UK history. A previous post on this blog, “ ‘Mull of Kintyre’ is the Top Song in the History of the UK, but Remains Unknown in the U.S.” elaborates on “The Mull of Kintyre”.
The authorship of “She Loves You” is noteworthy in that it was credited to “Lennon/McCartney”. The previous Beatles songs had all been credited to “McCartney/Lennon”, and after “She Loves You” the “Lennon/McCartney” moniker would be used for all of their songs for the next seven years.
While the songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney wrote three consecutive number one hits, each of the three songs were recorded by the same artist, The Beatles. Believe it or not, other songwriters have written consecutive number one hits that have been performed by different artists.
“Lady Marmalade” by Labelle is part of Billboard chart history as it was one of two consecutive number one hits by the same writers that were performed by different artists. The song was written by Kenny Nolan, with a little help from occasional songwriting partner Bob Crewe, the famous writer of countless hits for The Four Seasons and other artists. It hit number one on March 29, 1975. The previous number one hit was “My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli, also written by Kenny Nolan with Bob Crewe.
This feat by Kenny Nolan and Bob Crewe represented the second time in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 that consecutive number one songs by different artists had the same writers. The first time this happened was in June 1965 when “Back in My Arms Again” by The Supremes hit number one, and then was followed into the top slot by “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” by The Four Tops. Both songs were written by the famed Motown songwriting team of Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland, Jr.
Songwriter Kenny Nolan also recorded his own song “I Like Dreaming”, which hit # 3 on the charts in early 1977.
In 1978, Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees would achieve an amazing feat by co-writing four consecutive number one hits by non-consecutive artists, three of which appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album. Barry Gibb, along with his brothers Robin and Maurice, wrote “Stayin’ Alive”, the Bee Gees classic that topped the charts for four weeks beginning on February 4, 1978. “Stayin’ Alive” was followed at the top of the charts by “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” by Andy Gibb, the younger brother of the three Bee Gees who at the time had a successful solo career of his own, and stayed on top for three weeks. “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” was co-written by Barry Gibb and Andy Gibb, and featured The Eagles’ Joe Walsh on lead guitar. Then, “Night Fever”, the anthem by The Bee Gees written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, controlled the top slot for a whopping eight weeks from March 18 until May 12. Finally, the three Bee Gees penned “If I Can’t Have You”, which was number one for the single week beginning on May 13, and proved to be the only number one of Yvonne Elliman’s career.
For the record, 1978 proved to be an incredible run for Barry Gibb as he wrote or co-wrote three other songs that hit number one that year. First, before the incredible 15 week run of Gibb-penned songs topping the charts, the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love” hit number one on December 24, 1977 and stayed on top for three weeks. It was written by all three Bee Gees, Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. This domination of the charts was interrupted for three weeks in January when “Baby Come Back” by Player was in the top slot, sandwiched in between “How Deep is Your Love” and the 15 week run of the four number one hits by The Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, and Yvonne Elliman.
An incredible feat occurred when the four Gibb brothers – Barry, Robin, Maurice, Andy – collaborated to write “Shadow Dancing”, the famous Andy Gibb hit that dominated the airwaves in the summer of 1978, spending seven weeks at number one in June and July 1978. Finally, in August 1978, the song “Grease”, from the hit movie of the same name that summer and penned by Barry Gibb, was Frankie Valli’s last number one hit as it rose to the top of the charts on August 26 and stayed there for two weeks. In total, Barry Gibb either wrote or co-wrote seven songs that hit number one in 1978, which collectively spent 28 weeks in the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100.
The only other instance in which someone penned two consecutive number one hits by different artists occurred in the fall of 1989 when songwriter extraordinaire Diane Warren accomplished this feat. On November 11, 1989, her song “When I See You Smile” was taken to the top of the charts by Bad English for two consecutive weeks; this song was followed in the top slot for two weeks by “Blame It on the Rain“, the brilliant Diane Warren song performed by Milli Vanilli, which of course would be caught up in a famous controversy in 1990.
Of course, the involvement of The Bee Gees in Saturday Night Fever and Grease came as a result of their long term relationship with their manager Robert Stigwood, who produced both films. Stigwood was on track to become the manager of The Beatles right after the death of Brian Epstein, but the four boys decisively put an end to that possibility. A previous article on this blog, “The Beatles Intensely Disliked Entertainment Mogul Robert Stigwood”, explains that interesting situation.
In addition to the chart domination by Barry Gibb as a songwriter and The Bee Gees, the record label, RSO Records, set an amazing record that has not been broken and likely never will. When “How Deep Is Your Love” topped the charts on December 24, 1977, it was knocked out of the top spot three weeks later by Player’s “Baby Come Back”. Ironically, “Baby Come Back” was released on the RSO Records as well. RSO Records dominated the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 for 21 consecutive weeks with six different songs, beginning on December 24, 1977 and lasting until May 20, 1978. RSO Records, an off-shoot of Robert Stigwood’s talent management agency, Robert Stigwood Organisation (RSO), held the number one position for those 21 weeks with “Deep Is Your Love” (3 weeks), “Baby Come Back” (3 weeks), “Stayin’ Alive” (4 weeks), “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water) (2 weeks), “Night Fever” (8 weeks), “If I Can’t Have You” (1 week).
The Beatles set a multitude of milestones with their successes on the Billboard Hot 100. It is safe to say that it is extremely unlikely that The Beatles’ feat of having three consecutive number one hits will be broken anytime soon.
Currently we are in the middle of the 35th anniversary of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” topping the Billboard Hot 100 for an astounding ten weeks from late November 1981 to early February 1982. The British-born Australian singer started her recording career ten years earlier with her debut album If Not For You, the title track of which was her first hit, reaching the top ten in many countries and number 25 in the U.S. “If Not For You” also was the number one song for three weeks on the Easy Listening charts in the U.S. To reach number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Easy Listening charts definitely put the new singer on the radar screen in the U.S.
What Olivia Newton-John and George Harrison have in common is that they both covered the Bob Dylan song “If Not for You” for their albums, which was Newton-John’s debut album and Harrison’s first post-Beatle solo album. Harrison’s version appeared on his seminal triple album All Things Must Pass, released in 1970, the same year that The Beatles officially broke up. Olivia Newton-John definitely based her version of “If Not For You” on Harrison’s rendition of the Dylan classic cut.
“If Not For You” was included on the 1970 Dylan album New Morning. The song was originally recorded by Dylan in a session in which he was accompanied by George Harrison on guitar on May 1, 1970 at the Columbia Studios in Manhattan. The version of the song that would go on to appear on the album was recorded in August 1970 in Nashville, with Charlie Daniels playing bass on the track. The original May 1970 Dylan/Harrison version of “If Not For You” would float around in the world of bootlegs and finally appear in 1991 on Dylan’s The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased).
In 1971, George Harrison was able to gradually persuade Bob Dylan to end his five year “exile” and perform at the ex-Beatle’s Concert for Bangladesh, the famous two concert fundraiser at Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971. The duo performed “If Not For You” together at the rehearsal and final sound check, but Dylan did not want to do the song at the actual concert.
Twenty-one years later, at the 1992 star-studded concert at Madison Square Garden celebrating Bob Dylan’s thirty years in the recording industry on 16 October 1992, Harrison did both the Dylan tunes “If Not For You” and “Absolutely Sweet Marie”; many were shocked when the CD of the event included Harrison doing “Absolutely Sweet Marie” but did not include the more famous “If Not For You”.
All Things Must Pass yielded the first number one hit by a solo Beatle with “My Sweet Lord”. “If Not For You” was not released as a single, but received much praise in reviews of the album. The track had a colorful line-up to say the least. George Harrison handled vocals, acoustic guitars, dobros, and harmonica; Gary Wright played piano; Billy Preston handled the chores on organ; Klaus Voormann played bass; Alan White played drums; Ringo Starr played tambourine.
The first song on All Things Must Pass is “I’d Have You Anytime”, a song that Harrison co-wrote with Bob Dylan in 1968. “If Not For You” represents the only song on the triple album that was not written by George Harrison.
Olivia Newton-John did not like “If Not For You” at all and initially refused to record it, but both her manager and her fiancé were able to change her mind through great efforts. Newton-John said in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, “I wasn’t keen on that song at all, but I’m so glad John chose it because it’s not one that I would have picked. I didn’t think I sang it well, so when it was a hit you know I had to really say it was my management, and Bruce Welch and John Farrar who produced it, that were really the ones that thought that was a good record for me cause in those days I loved singing those big dramatic ballads, you know, talk about being sentimental.”
Between 1971 and 1985, Olivia Newton John had 28 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. It all started in 1971 with “If Not For You”, her debut single which reached number 25 and stayed in the Top 40 for ten weeks. Many people think that her highly successful “Have You Never Been Mellow” in 1975 was her first number one hit in the U.S. Actually, six months prior in August 1974 she had her first chart-topper with “I Honestly Love You”. Her other number ones have been “You’re the One That I Want” with John Travolta (1978), “Magic” (1980), and “Physical” (1981). Her top ten hits have been “Let Me Be There” (1973), “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” (1974), “Please Mr. Please” (1975), “Hopelessly Devoted to You” (1978) , “Summer Nights” (1978) with John Travolta, “A Little More Love” (1979), “Xanadu” (1980) with Electric Light Orchestra, “Make a Move on Me” (1982), “Heart Attack” (1982), and “Twist of Fate” (1983).
The song “Physical” was the biggest hit of Olivia Newton-John’s career as well as the biggest hit of the 1980s decade, staying in the top slot for an amazing ten weeks, beginning on November 21, 1981. It is surprising that the song would only reach # 7 on the British pop charts. Ironically, it was both preceded and followed in the top position by number one hits by Hall & Oates; “Physical” was preceded at number one by Hall & Oates’ “Private Eyes”, while it was followed at number one by the Hall & Oates’ classic “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”. It was Newton-John’s fifth and final number one in the U.S.
The distinctive lead guitar on “Physical” was that of Steve Lukather, the lead guitarist of Toto who did extensive studio work with other artists. Lukather went out on the road in 2013 as a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. What is most ironic is that right after “Physical” left the number one position in early February and started to fade, another hit song featuring Lukather on lead guitar, “Turn Your Love Around” by George Benson, cracked the Top 40 and started to dominate the airwaves, reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the soul singles chart. “Turn Your Love Around” was co-written by Steve Lukather, Bill Champlin of Chicago, and producer Jay Graydon. 1982 continued to be a stellar year for Mr. Lukather with his band Toto releasing Toto IV, which would sweep the Grammy Awards. 1982 would continue to be fruitful for Toto as members of the band – Lukather, Jeff Porcaro Steve Porcaro and Dave Paich – would do extensive session work on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, which would sweep the next Grammy Awards the following year. In addition, Steve Porcaro also wrote the hit “Human Nature” on the classic Michael Jackson album.
In addition,the first single released off of Thriller was “The Girl Is Mine”, the duet with Paul McCartney which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and featured four members of Toto – Dave Paich (piano), Steve Lukather (lead guitar), Jeff Porcaro (drums) and Steve Porcaro (synthesizers).
Of course, the word “physical” is an adjective of “physics”. While “Physical” dominated the U.S. charts and airwaves for so long, few people knew of Olivia Newton-John’s connection to the world of physics. Her mother was German-born Irene Born, who married Welshman Brinley Newton-John in England. Irene Born was the daughter of the famous Max Born. Max Born, who was Olivia Newton-John’s maternal grandfather, was a famous physicist and mathematician who was also the father of quantum mechanics. Max Born won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 for his “fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially in the statistical interpretation of the wave of function”. Not only did Max Born win the Nobel Prize in Physics himself, but he also has the distinction by far of teaching the most people who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. The amazing career of Max Born cannot be summarized in a single blog post. Born was a best friend of Albert Einstein, and their correspondence over 40 years was archived in the 1971 book Born-Einstein Letters, 1916-1955: Friendship, Politics and Physics in Uncertain Times.
Max Born was one of six Jewish professors at the University of Gottingen who were suspended in 1933 when the Nazis took power. He immediately fled to England with his wife and three children, one of whom was Olivia Newton-John’s mother Irene. He was a professor at universities in the UK for the rest of his career. He died at age 87 in 1970, a year before his granddaughter debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 with “If Not for You”. How ironic that ten years later the biggest hit of her career and the biggest hit of the entire 1980s decade would be entitled “Physical” in light of the fact that many people consider her grandfather to be the greatest physicist of all time.
In addition, in the UK it is well known that Olivia’s father, Brinley “Bryn” Newton-John, a native of Cardiff, Wales, who died in 1992, was the main MI5 officer on the Enigma Project in Bletchley Park which famously took Rudolf Hess into custody when the Deputy Fuhrer made a solo flight into Scotland in 1941 in a famous attempt to negotiate peace during World War II.
While George Harrison jammed with Bob Dylan on “If Not For You” both before and after he himself recorded the classic Dylan tune on All Things Must Pass, Olivia Newton-John in effect covered Harrison’s version rather than that of the legendary Bob Dylan.
We all know far too well the tragic events of the night of December 8, 1980 when John Lennon was shot and killed outside of the Dakota apartment building where he had made his home for over six years. There was a previous post on this blog about the Dakota entitled “The Famed Dakota: The Lennon Residence (1973 – 1980)” “.
We must remember that John Lennon’s murder occurred before the advent of widespread 24 hour cable news. In 1980 the public was 16 years away from the internet becoming mainstream and 25 years before social media. Cable News Network was only a few months old and carried on a minimal amount of cable systems. The news of the murder was first announced to the public at 11:50 pm EST during a broadcast of Monday Night Football, the famous weekly football show on the ABC Network. People on the East Coast of the U.S. had already had their 11:00 pm news and if they were not watching Monday Night Football, they would find out in the morning from newspaper, radio or television report.
At the hospital, Yoko Ono asked that the news not be released until she was able to get home and inform her son Sean, as she thought he was likely up watching tv with his nanny and did not want him to find out the devastating news from a television report.
The way the announcement of Lennon’s death got out was just by coincidence. Alan J. Weiss, the producer of WABC-TV News, the local ABC affiliate station in New York City, had a motorcycled accident and was in the emergency room waiting to be treated by a doctor. Weiss saw Lennon get wheeled in surrounded by eight or nine NYPD officers.
Weiss called the WABC news room and told the assignment editor on duty, and the news immediately went out to ABC News president Roone Arledge, who coincidentally had the duo role of being the executive producer of Monday Night Football.
That night Monday Night Football featured the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. When Howard Cosell was informed of the news and told to announce it, he balked at first, stating that he did not think that Monday Night Football should not break such devastating news to the American public. Finally, after discussing it with sidekick Frank Gifford, Cosell made the first public announcement of Lennon’s murder. This is the video from that famed 1980 broadcast:
Ironically, six years before in 1974, John Lennon joined Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football as a guest commentator. Having never seen an American football game, Lennon gave his analysis. He stated of the madness of the football crowds that “it makes rock concerts look like tea parties.” This is the video of Lennon’s 1974 appearance on Monday Night Football:
As can be imagined, the New York City Police Department kept a massive group of officers guarding Mark David Chapman because they were aware that John Lennon was so loved by so many that the NYPD did not want an incident similar to Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.
Today is the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 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 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.
“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, 1963 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.
As is well-known, the four Beatles came from humble origins, which is reflected in the professions of their fathers.
James McCartney (1902 – 1976) – James McCartney was known as “Jim”. His eldest son, James Paul McCartney, was known as “Paul” to avoid confusion with his father. While Jim McCartney had an avocation as a musician in a ragtime jazz band at various points in his life, he spent almost all of his working life in the cotton trade, mostly as a salesman. A previous post on this blog details the ironic twist that he met his wife, Mary Mohin, while taking refuge during a Nazi air raid of Liverpool.
Harold “Harry” Harrison (1909 – 1978) – Harry Harrison began his working life as a ship’s steward on the White Star Line, and after marrying his wife shifted to become a bus driver for the rest of his career. He drove both school buses and city buses. Paul McCartney attended the same primary school as George Harrison and in an interview related a humorous tale about the day that Harry Harrison came to the school to have a word with George’s teacher, which is available on YouTube.
Richard Starkey (1913 – 1981) – Richard Starkey worked for many years as a confectioner in a big bakery. In his later years he worked as a window washer in Bolton. Divorced from Ringo’s mother when the future Beatle was only three, he saw his son on infrequent occasions after that.
Alfred Lennon (1912 – 1976) – “Freddie” Lennon was a merchant marine and afterwards worked as a kitchen porter and dishwasher at major hotels, mostly in London. Contrary to the widespread urban legend, Freddie Lennon did not abandon John when he was young and then show up with his hand out when John was famous. Freddie was forced out of his son’s life and made many failed attempts to be a good father. The best source is Daddy Come Home: True Story of John Lennon and His Father, a 1990 book by Pauline Lennon, who is Freddie’s much younger second wife. The book was predominantly based on Freddie’s unpublished autobiography that he wanted given to John after his death so that his son would know the true story of his father’s life and the numerous attempts to be a good father. Interestingly, a February 26, 2014 article in NZ Catholic, a weekly Catholic newspaper in New Zealand, entitled “John Lennon and His Family Connections”, tells of John’s complex relationship with his father as a model of reconciliation in family relations; the article uses Pauline Lennon’s book as a main source and seems to present an adequate synopsis of her book and John’s extremely complicated relationship with his father.
The role of The Beatles in the formation of The Monkees is a subject that will have to be covered over a couple of blog posts. This one will be very simple and to the point in terms of history. Beatles fans largely do not know the Monkee connection to the Fab Four’s famous U.S. live debut on national television on February 9, 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider created the show The Monkees about a Beatles-like band and their follies. Not surprisingly, Rafelson came up with this idea right after seeing the movie A Hard Day’s Night. The pair chose four people, actor/singers Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz as well as musicians Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith, to comprise this fictitious band which was widely referred as “The Pre-Fab Four”. The show The Monkees debuted in the fall of 1966 and lasted for two seasons. The show premiered to rave reviews and a widespread audience.
The band’s debut album, The Monkees, sent shockwaves through the music world as it stayed at # 1 for 13 weeks and stayed on the album charts for a total of 78 weeks. Their debut single, “Last Train to Clarksville” written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, was a hit on the radio prior to the show’s debut and climbed to number one for a single week on November 5, 1966. Two months later, The Monkees struck gold with the Neil Diamond-penned classic “I’m a Believer”, which topped the charts for a whopping seven weeks. A year later, The Monkees held the top slot on the charts for all four weeks of December 1967 with “Daydream Believer”, penned by former Kingston Trio member John Stewart. The band had many other Top 40 hits, including “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”, a Neil Diamond song which hit number two; “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, a Gerry Goffin/Carol King song which reached number three; “Valleri”, a Boyce/Hart-penned song that hit number three.
It should be noted that while Carole King and Neil Diamond were established and successful songwriters in the industry, each artist did not achieve success as a performer until after The Monkees had hits with their songs. Likewise, Boyce and Hart had their only hit as performers, “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite” after The Monkees scored hits with the songs Boyce and Hart penned for them.
What many Beatles fans do not know is the irony that future Monkees lead singer Davy Jones, at the age of 18 years old, performed a solo on the same famous episode of The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 in which The Beatles made their monstrously successful U.S. live television debut. Jones was appearing on Broadway in Oliver! in the role as the Artful Dodger, for which he received a Tony nomination. This is the video of Davy Jones’ aforementioned performance on that famous show, which was not remembered because of the performance that night of four of his fellow Brits.
In later years, Jones said of sharing the bill with the Beatles on that famous night on The Ed Sullivan Show, “I watched The Beatles from the side of the stage, I saw the girls go crazy, and I said to myself, this is it, I want a piece of that.”
Following Jones’ 2012 death, in 2016 the three remaining members of The Monkees have put out an album for their 50th anniversary and are touring. The three surviving Monkees appeared on CBS Sunday Morning on May 29, 2016 about their 50th anniversary and album. The album is entitled Good Times!
While it is unique that Davy Jones was part of Beatles history that fateful night two years before the debut of The Monkees, the other three members of The Monkees have some unique factoids in their history:
Peter Tork – The father of the Monkee that made all the girls swoon was prominent in his own right. The future Monkee grew up in Mansfield, Connecticut, right next to the town of Storrs where the University of Connecticut is located. Tork’s father was a longtime and highly distinguished professor of economics at the University of Connecticut. In fact, during the years that The Monkees were on television and afterwards, some UCONN students took courses with his father just for the novelty of taking a course with Peter Tork’s father; some of these students found he was such a great professor that they developed an interest in economics and switched their majors to economics. This is the obituary of Tork’s accomplished father.
Mike Nesmith – Aside from writing the 1967 hit “Different Drum” for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, there is something interesting in the family background of Mike Nesmith. In the late 1940’s, Bette Nesmith was a divorced working mother supporting her son by working as a secretary. In the dark ages of manual typewriters, Mrs. Nesmith was constantly frustrated by having to start over a document if a mistake were made. She developed her own self-styled white “correcting fluid” to make her work easier. Over time she fine-tuned and improved this typewriter correction fluid, finally getting it patented and then selling commercially as Liquid Paper. The former secretary’s Liquid Paper empire skyrocketed and at the time she sold it to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million, the company was employing almost three hundred people and producing over 25 million bottles of their famous correction fluid each year. At the time of her 1980 death, Mike Nesmith’s mother’s estate was worth an estimated $100 million; the ex-Monkee inherited $50 million, while the rest was earmarked for charity. Mrs. Nesmith’s amazing story conveys how a hard-working single mother on the economic fringes can create not only a financially successful company, but one that creates jobs for hundreds of other hard-working people.
Micky Dolenz – Both of Micky Dolenz’ parents were noted actors, George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson. Micky himself was a child actor. Dolenz, a friend of John Lennon who participated in many early morning jam sessions with the ex-Beatle, in 2005 worked for six months as a DJ at WCBS-FM in New York, the station that is noted for playing more songs of both The Beatles and ex-Beatles’ solo work than any other station in the U.S. A famous Hollywood anecdote concerns the casting of the show Happy Days, which aired on ABC from 1974-1984. In 1973, a then unknown Henry Winkler was called to read for the role of the famous Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli. Winkler walked into the office and saw the iconic Micky Dolenz waiting to read for the Fonzie role, too. Winkler thought he did not stand a chance against Dolenz and contemplated walking out, but held his ground, auditioned and won the role. Micky Dolenz has said over the years, “Only Henry Winkler could have played Fonzie”.
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