by Joe Bensam
Back in Liverpool, Beatles fans were not impressed by the change of lineup, and at their next Cavern gig they were heckled by Pete’s supporters, with one of them giving George a black eye.
As if John didn’t have enough going on in his life already, he discovered that Cynthia had some news for him, too. She was pregnant. She was worried that he might go mad when he heard news, but he accepted it gracefully. ‘There’s only one thing for it, Cyn’ he said. ‘We’ll have to get married.’ On a rainy day with just a few friends attending, John and Cynthia married at Mount Pleasant register office. There was no honeymoon, or even a proper wedding night - the Beatles were playing that evening in Chester.
Soon the band was back in London to record their first single with George Martin on the Parlophone label. After a battle of wills in the recording studio, it was agreed that ‘Love Me Do’ was good enough to release as a single. It was released a few weeks later, and began a slow but steady climb up the charts, never becoming a huge hit, but certainly getting The Beatles some national attention. After another trip to Hamburg, the band was soon back in the studio to record their second single. George Martin suggested a new, faster treatment of a Lennon-McCartney, and so Please Please Me became their second single. George Martin was so impressed at the recording that he announced that this would be the band’s first number one.
The Beatles perform on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’
The biggest factor that helped make this claim become true was an appearance on a TV show called Thank Your Lucky Stars. Broadcast on a snowy night when millions of teenagers were watching TV, the sheer engery of Please Please Me burst into living rooms around the UK, and the single started flying off the shelves around the country. By 22 February 1963, the single had hit the number one spot. The news was greeted with delight everywhere except in the Cavern, where their female fans cried as they realized they lost their home-grown heroes to national success.
The single was soon followed up by a single of the same name, recorded in a single, mammoth recording session. By the end of it, John’s voice had all but given out, and the final song recorded, Twist and Shout shows clear signs of his voice breaking up. By now, John and Paul’s songwriting was flourishing, the two still working together to exchange ideas and share the credit for everything they wrote. The partnership produced their next single, From Me To You, which quickly flew up the charts and took residency in the number one spot. Lenon-McCartney songs were also covered by other artists, and the British public were surprised to find that this latest hit group could not only sing hit songs, but write them, too.
On 8 April, Cynthia gave birth to a boy, who was named Julian in honor of John’s mother. John was on the road at the time, and didn’t get to see the boy until several days later, sneaking in disguise past fans camped out at the hospital gates. John loved the new addition to his family, but still found it hard to juggle the demands of his flourishing musical career with his new-found role as a father. Cynthia hoped that the new arrival would bring them closer together, unaware that John had been carrying on multiple long-term affairs for many years, both in Hamburg and in Liverpool, whilst also taking advantage of the many casual encounters that came his way.
Despite being not just married, but now also a father, the growing legions of fans around the country mostly believed John to be still single and available, thanks to Brian’s insistence that The Beatles were marketed as eligible bachelors. Just a few weeks later, Brian invited John to go on holiday with him to Spain, a ten-day nature that has launched speculation about the nature of their relationship from that day to this. On his return to the UK, one of their associates made a remark about trip, which resulted in John beating to him to a pulp. Brian’s PR machine went into overdrive to play the incident down, knowing that it could have ruined The Beatles’ career.
Playing at The Royal Variety Show in 1963
Throughout 1963, The Beatles progressed at an astonishing pace from becoming just another new band to a level of fame that was hard to comprehend. Their third single, She Loves You, catapulted to number one in August, as Beatlemania took hold across Britain. Returning from a tour of Sweden, the band was amazed to find a huge contingent of fans waiting to greet them at the airport. When they played the major TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium, a huge police contingent was required to keep the teeming crowd of teenage fans under control. As their popularity soared, they were invited to play The Royal Variety Show in front of the Queen Mother, prompting John’s famous remark during the show: “those of you in the cheap seats, clap your hands...and the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.”
The next single, I Wanna Hold Your Hand had advance orders of one million copies, ensuring that it went straight to number one on release. Their second album, With The Beatles followed suit, with the result that The Beatles held both the number one and the number two spots in the album charts. Even The Times music critic called John and Paul ‘the outstanding English composers of 1963,’ giving them some unexpected establishment credibility.
John with Cynthia and Julian
John soon hit the headlines independently when the press found out about Cynthia and Julian. But Brian’s fears of catastrophe proved groundless, and the teenage fans accepted John’s married status with no more than disappointment. But this meant there was no reason to keep his family hidden away in Liverpool, so Cynthia and Julian joined John in a flat in South Kensington. Here they were perfectly positioned to enjoy life in the Swinging Sixties, partying and clubbing through the night. As the machine that was The Beatles rolled on, money began to flow faster, and John realized that he had achieved the wealth he had always dreamed of.
As their fame grew and multiplied, the initial novelty of the experience began to wear off. It was one thing to step onto stage and hear a huge audience scream in delight...but it was another thing to have that that scream continue as such volume throughout the performance that the music could barely be heard. The initial pleasure of being stars quickly waned when fans began camping out everywhere where the boys might be found, from John and Cynthia’s flat, to Mimi’s house in Liverpool. More particularly, John resented being obliged to meet an endless stream of uninvited guests after every show, including local dignitaries and long processions of people in wheelchairs.
Chapter 6 - Conquering America
Having conquered the UK, The Beatles began to turn their attention to the biggest prize of all - America. British acts had a poor record of success in the US, mostly failing to make more than minor dents in the charts. Yet it was clear that if The Beatles could take their success across the Atlantic, there would be huge rewards. Initially, though, the band did not get off to a great start. Their first three singles were declined by the major labels, and ended up being distributed by minor labels who lacked the resources to promote them well.
Finally, however, Capitol Records reluctantly agreed to release I Want To Hold Your Hand, as reports of Beatlemania in Britain reached back to America. Encouraged by this, Capitol ramped up their production of the record and started a heavy promotional campaign. The effect was instantaneous. I Want To Hold Your Hand shot to number one, and the previous failures - Please Please Me and She Loves You - also experienced a revival and hit the top ten. Even My Bonnie was resurrected and made a surprising appearance in the charts.
John, Paul, George and Ringo arrive in America
The Beatles left England on 7 February 1964, with John saying to the press, ‘I just hope we go all right.’ That was to prove to be an understatement by a mile. When their plane pulled up the terminal at JFK Airport, the most extraordinary scene awaited them. Tens of thousands of screaming fans besieged the airport, with all of The Beatles lost for words as they stepped out of the plane and into chaos. The scenes continued as the bemused boys charmed their way through a busy press conference, and then were hounded through the streets of New York by yet more screaming fans.
Yet, amazing as these scenes were, there was more to com
e. On 9 February, they made an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show - the show that had launched Elvis’s career just a few years before. An audience of over 73 million tuned in to watch the boys from Liverpool belt out the moptop anthems, starting with All My Loving, ‘Til There Was You and She Loves You. As the show progressed, America watched enthralled. It was later noted that there was not a single crime throughout the New York area while The Beatles were performing.
The tour continued with appearances in New York, Washington and Miami, with the boys constantly amazed at the adulation and attention that followed them everywhere. They found themselves trapped in their hotel, longing to go out onto Miami’s beaches, but able to do no more that watch their fans scrawl messages in the sand.
Back in the UK, the boys were due to not only start recording a new album, but also to make their first film. With a title based on an accidental comment by Ringo, A Hard Day’s Night stretched their talents in a new direction. The budget was tiny, but the project was saved by the imagination of director Dick Lester. The story was simply a tale of the life of The Beatles, but it succeeded in capturing their unique humor, and had the benefit of featuring a new crop of Lennon-McCartney songs - from I Should Have Known Better to If I Fell. Another song, Can’t Buy Me Love, also became their next international number one.
Playing the Ed Sullivan show to an audience of over 73 million
When a journalist saw some of John’s caricatures and poems during an interview, he encouraged John to complete a book. In His Own Write was finally published to acclaim from the literary world that took John by surprise.
But none of these distractions could stop The Beatles touring machine, and soon the boys were out on the road again, this time for a massive world tour. With a substitute drummer initially sitting in for the sick Ringo, they set off for Europe. Ringo rejoined the band in Australia, where the huge crowds showed that their popularity reached to the far side of the planet. In America, they played shows to huge crowds across the country. Along the way, they got to meet their latest musical hero, Bob Dylan, who introduced them to the joys of marijuana. After that, drugs became a regular part of their lives, smuggled with them on tour, and part of their regular recreational habits.
When they got home, the sheer crush of fans thronging around John’s flat forced him to find more private accommodation for his family. They bought a mansion in the commuter town of Weybridge, where they found some peace, and the chance to live a millionaire lifestyle. Cynthia hoped that this would be a time when they could rebuild their relationship, still only vaguely suspecting that John might have had affairs with other women - and so totally blind to the realities of his sexual appetite. Although they shared some good times together, John was often absent on business and social duties.
Filming ‘Help!’
These included their next film, Help, which had a more generous budget than the first, and was shot in glorious color. However, the screenplay was not inspired, and the result was a success, but not in the same way as A Hard Day’s Night. Paul and John were now writing regularly at John’s house, but the title track from Help was largely a John composition, drawing on his own feelings of helplessness in a crazy, chaotic world.
Another tour took them across America again, this time playing in huge venues such as Shea Stadium. This was the precursor of the giant rock tours that are so commonplace today, yet amplification systems in the 60s were not really up to the job, and the sound of the band was drowned by the tens of thousands of screaming teenagers. However, the trip was notable for one meeting - The Beatles finally got to meet their erstwhile hero, Elvis Presley. The meeting was a slightly awkward one at first, but warmed up when John and Paul started playing the Elvis hits they had relied on in their earlier days. The rest of the trip was less inspiring, and John became increasingly depressed, writing a long and passionate letter to Cynthia, saying how much he regretted all the time spent away from her and Julian.
On their return home, the boys made a trip to Buckingham Palace to receive MBEs from the Queen, inevitably causing huge crowds, even by the Queen’s standards. Then it was back into the studio to record another batch of Lennon-McCartney classics. By this time, the two composers were mostly writing separately. George Martin noticed that for John, composing was something that took all his energy and ideas...
The Beatles show off their new MBEs
“John tended to develop his melodies as the thing went along. Generally, he built up a song on a structure of chords, which he would ramble and find on his guitar until he had an interesting sequence. After that, the words were more important than anything else. They used to come out sometimes as a monotone, just one note punctuated by the rhythm of the words. He never set out to write a melody and put lyrics to it. He always thought of the structure, the harmonic content and the lyrics first, and the melody would come out of that. However good the song was, John never seemed that confident about it. In all the time we worked together, I never heard him hype his own work in any way.’
If he was unsure about his compositions, he was even more unsure about his voice:
‘After a time, I realized he was actually embarrassed by his own voice. Whenever we did a vocal, he always insisted on wearing [headphones] and told me to put lots of echo through them, so that he couldn’t hear what he really sounded like.’
These insecurities were foundless, however, as John and Paul produced another round of classics for Rubber Soul, their next best-selling album. Now a new maturity was creeping into their songwriting, producing some timeless classics that had more depth and insight than the pure pop songs of earlier years. Their drug-taking habits flourished during the recording sessions, with the boys sneaking off to the toilets to smoke pot without George Martin’s knowledge. But Ringo later acknowledged that this did not help the creative habit - everything they produced while under the influence later proved to be unusable.
Yet there was worse to come. At a dinner with George (Harrison) and some friends, John, Cynthia, George and his wife were unwittingly given coffee spiked with LSD. They soon found themselves hallucinating, experiencing weird visions and sensations. John found the experience exciting and enjoyed the creative visions it opened up. Before long, all of the band were experimenting further with LSD, but no so keenly or openly as John.
The effects of these experiences can be heard on the next album, Revolver, which takes their music one step further ahead of their contemporaries for daring and imagination. John’s inspired contributions ranged from the energy of Dr Robert to the acid-inspired dreaminess of Tomorrow Never Knows.
By June 1966, they were back on the road again, while the new single Paperback Writer/Rain rode high in the charts. The trip proved to be an eventful one, including a nostalgic gig at Hamburg, where they met up with Astrid and many other old friends. In Tokyo, they had to be protected from martial arts experts who threatened to kill them for playing on sacred ground. And in the Philippines, they had to leave the country in a hurry after unintentionally offending the country’s despotic dictator. From there, they progressed to America, little aware that a ticking time bomb was about to explode all around them.
Burning Beatles records in southern USA
A few months earlier, a trusted journalist had interviewed John at home. In discussing The Beatles rise to fame, John had made an incidental remark:
‘Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I know I’m right, and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first - rock & roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.’
In the context of the discussion, the remarks were harmless and certainly not intended to cause any offence. The article was published in the UK, without anybody seriously objecting to its content. It wasn’t until four months later, just before The Beatles arrived in the USA, that the bomb finally exploded. An American magazine, Dateline
, reprinted the article, headlining the comment: ‘I don’t know which will go first - Christianity or rock & roll.’
The effect was immediate...especially in the heart of the Bible Belt in the American South. Within hours, Beatles records were banned from radio stations in many states, and DJs encouraged people to destroy their Beatles records. Communities even providing special community dump sites where erstwhile fans could burn their records in public. Brian made a press statement to make an apology on John’s behalf, but by the time the boys arrived in Chicago it was evident that John would have to make a personal appearance. He spoke to the press at length, and helped to reduce the damage.
Nevertheless, the rest of their trip - especially in the Southern states - was marred by security worries. The world didn’t know it at the time, but their final gig of the tour, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, was to be their last ever. They had had enough of the dramas, the travelling, the screaming and the threats...the Beatles would never play in front of an audience again.
