How Canada Embraced the Beatles First (Yes, Before America)
We’ve been told the story for more than fifty years: Beatlemania hit after The Beatles arrived in America and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. It was the rock’n’roll equivalent of the Big Bang.
But is this the truth? Actually, no.
In a case of almost criminal historical oversight (revisionism?), Beatlemania hit Canada long before that Pan Am flight landed in New York. Months before Beatles songs started going up the US charts, the band had hits in Canada.
“Love Me Do” was released in Canada on February 18, 1963, by Capitol Records but, truth be told, it was a stiff, selling less than 200 copies. “Please Please Me” and “From Me to You” came next, each selling about 300 copies. But when “She Loves You” hit the stores in September, everything went crazy and all the other records started selling. Canada embraced the Beatles months before America.
And there’s more. The term “Beatlemania” appears to be the invention of A Canadian journalist. Sandy Gardiner was an entertainment writer for the Ottawa Journal. While visiting England, he learned of the hysteria Beatles were causing. When he wrote about it for the Journal, he called the phenomenon “Beatlemania.”
The quote read like this: “A new disease is sweeping through Britain…and doctors are powerless to stop it…it’s Beatlemania! This Liverpool group plays to packed houses wherever they go.”
By: Alan Cross
Source: A Jouranal of Musical Things
