Britons struggled as January introduced them to 1963. The biting cold and snow only reinforced a national funk incubated by French rejection of the UK’s application to the European Common Market, by the recurring strikes of power workers, and by the sudden decline of Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell's health. Families gathered around television sets waiting for news on Gaitskell’s condition, even as some had their electricity interrupted, leaving dark screens and colder rooms. With the recent Cuban missile crisis still in the nation’s minds and the international Cold War in its most frigid phase, viewers pined for some warmth.
When Parlophone released a second single by a new group on Friday 11 January, Keith Fordyce in the New Musical Express music paper wrote that it could possibly be the “record of the year”. He noted that the disc was “full of beat, vigour, and vitality — and what’s more, it’s different. I can’t think of any other group currently recording in this style.”
Readers of the Record Retailer on Thursday 17 January would have observed that this new disc had nudged into the trade paper’s Top 50 Chart. That night, unions providing Britain’s gas and electrical service conducted a work slowdown, darkening much of the east and southeast of England, including London. Even Buckingham Palace felt the effects of workers who refused to work overtime without a new contract.
On Saturday 19 January, newspapers carried word that the previous evening Gaitskell had succumbed to what doctors would later describe as an autoimmune disease. Harold Wilson would succeed him as the leader of the Labour Party. These same papers would also list the guests on that night’s edition of the television show 'Thank Your Lucky Stars', recorded in Manchester on 13 January and tape delayed. The trad-jazz clarinetist Mr. Acker Bilk and his band would headline the show, hosted by Brian Matthew with appearances by Petula Clark, Mark Wynter, Frankie Vaughan and others.
That evening at 5:50 PM, 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' (on ITV) introduced The Beatles to their first national television audience. With the power back, families watching the flickering black-and-white image would have seen four grinning, dark-suited musicians with schoolboy hairstyles playing their instruments and singing (albeit miming) “Please Please Me.” Unlike Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Billy Fury and the Tornados, Marty Wilde and the Wildcats, and innumerable other British acts where a band backed a singer, The Beatles presented a refreshing and altogether new image British youngsters (and soon the World) would identify with.
The four lads from Liverpool were at the bottom of a seven-act bill on the show. They performed just one song, 'Please Please Me' at the close of the programme's first half prior to the commercial break.
The rest is quite literally history. And it's probably fair to say things were never quite the same again !
On February 22nd 1963 the single was No.1 on the New Musical Express (the most recognised chart at the time) and the Melody Maker chart. However, it only reached No.2 on the Record Retailer chart.
In 1969 the BBC and Record Retailer joined forces to commission the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to compile the Official UK chart on their behalf. And that is why subsequently the first Beatles No.1 is officially 'From Me To You', when everyone who was there knows it was 'Please Please Me'.
As this is only a 2 minute Pop song and I have not been able to find any footage of that first TV appearance, I have the following options for you:
1. The screaming version (remember when you couldn't hear the music ?) click > Live
2. The 45rpm record player version (probably how it sounded to us in 1963) > play
3. Finally the best sound version (a still image of the LP cover) but in stereo ! > below
The album, released on March 22nd, 1963 included a track called 'Baby, It's You' composed by Burt Bacharach - so there's a nod to Burt who died last week.
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