Dec 14

The Fab Four

Highly Appreciated

THE FAB FOUR

 
The Beatles, nicknamed The Fab Four, were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool in 1960.  With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era.  Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950’s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several genres, ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelic and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways.  In the early 1960’s, their enormous popularity first emerged as “Beatlemania”; but as the group’s music grew in sophistication, led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era’s sociocultural revolutions.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
See Also:    The Beatles 
 
 
“Sad Sad Love” by the Poppees is one of those achingly emotional songs at which John Lennon excelled; two versions of this song are included, and the spare demo version that closes Side 1 of Pop Goes the Anthology might be even better than the studio version.  “Since I Fell for You” sounds like a lost Beatles track and is one of the “obscure R&B tunes the Fabs would surely have envied” (as Greg Shaw put it).  But the Poppees really hit the mark with their hot fast songs; “She’s So Bad” (recorded live at CBGB) and “She’s Got It” (the “B” side of their second single) recall the fury of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” (their biggest cover song; the original was by the Isley Brothers).  They also turn in a wonderful live version on Side 2 of the instrumental hit from ages ago, “Apache”.
 
(December 2010)
 
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As for the Beatles, I took care of them by ordering the acclaimed Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab box set The Beatles / The Collection in 1982, with half-speed mastered copies of all of the British Beatles albums that were taken from the original master tapes.  Copies of the album covers were also made directly from the original album art and were printed in a booklet; the album covers instead were photos of the master tape boxes plus the song rosters and check-out listings that were pasted inside the boxes – pretty exciting!  They even left a couple of slots blank for future albums of songs that weren’t included in The Collection, though as far as I know, none were ever released.  It was a while before I realized that one of the songs that wasn’t on any of the albums was none other than “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, the Fab Four’s first big American hit.
 
(April 2012)
 
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Name shortening has been common among rock bands:  The Young Rascals became the Rascals, the Troglodytes lost a little something in the translation when they changed their name to the Troggs, Small Faces morphed into Faces, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark was abbreviated to OMD, and (believe it or not) the 1990’s Irish band the Cranberries started out with the name The Cranberry Saw Us.  Sometimes the official name never changes, but fans and DJ’s naturally begin to shorten the name, so the Rolling Stones are just as often the Stones, the Doobie Brothers are sometimes rendered the Doobies (as on two of their Greatest Hits albums, Best of the Doobies and Best of the Doobies Volume II), and bands like, say, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show are called just Dr. Hook.  Occasionally it can even go the other way:  A DJ on one of our local radio stations where I was growing up in Winston-Salem, Dick Bennick at WTOB-AM Radio was forever calling the Fab Four “the beetley, bootley Beatles”.  
 
(June 2012)
 
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One widely held theory is that the timing was just right as well; America was still in mourning from the assassination of President John Kennedy 50 years ago this November, and four extraordinarily talented long-haired Englishmen were just starting to get their records released over here.  The Fab Four’s American success is most often tied these days to their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, but the story is much more complicated than that actually.  One fascinating view of the whole story is the history of the British Invasion as told from a musician/fan’s perspective – Cyril Jordan, a founding member of the Flamin’ Groovies (whose roots go all the way back to 1965) – which is the cover story of the current issue of Ugly Things magazine that also includes my own article on Milan the Leather Boy.  Here are some fun facts that Jordan didn’t talk about. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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The Beatles are well known for honing their craft in the clubs of Hamburg, Germany in the very early 1960’s, as well as in their hometown of Liverpool.  Still, there was some question back then as to whether they could be successful selling records in a non–English-speaking country, so the Fab Four were cajoled by their manager Brian Epstein and their producer George Martin into recording German-language versions of two of their biggest hits, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” in January 1964.  “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” was later released on the band’s American album, Something New about six months later. 

 

(April 2013)

 

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Though only one of the big acts came from there, other 1960’s bands were based in Liverpool.  Gerry and the Pacemakers is likely the best known; like the Fab Four, this band was managed by Brian Epstein, and their records were produced by George Martin.  Their American hits include “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” and “Ferry Cross the Mersey”, a reference to the Mersey River that runs by the city – in case you are wondering why there has always been so much “Mersey” talk surrounding the Beatles. 

 

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After auditioning the Klubs at a nightclub called the Pink Flamingo, Vic Smith signed them to a management deal with Don Arden’s company Aquarius.  As a result, in early 1968, the Klubs again sort of followed in the Beatles’ footsteps and arrived at Decca Records – actually, Decca had famously decided against signing the Fab Four – where four tracks were laid down according to company records.  Two were covers of the Beatles’ “Drive My Car” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” – the latter song (apparently recorded at a later time) is the only cover song on the Midnight Love Cycle CD – plus their own songs “Midnight Love Cycle” and “Ever Needed Someone”.  “Midnight Love Cycle” also became the title of their retrospective albums. 

 


(July 2013)

 

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     So you want to be a rock ’n’ roll star

     Then listen now to what I say

     Just get an electric guitar

     And take some time and learn how to play

     And when your hair’s combed right and your pants fit tight

     It’s gonna be all right 

 

So said the Byrds – specifically songwriters Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman – back in 1967, and the formula still works pretty well to this day.  

 

The lyrics are more than a little cynical – check the next to last line – and the fact is, no one has really discovered the secret formula.  “So You Want to be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star” was written in the wake of the creation of The Monkees television show and the Monkees band, who became known by many as the Pre-Fab Four (the Beatles of course being the original Fab Four). 

 

(April 2014)

 

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Ringo Starr is without a doubt the most under-appreciated member of the Beatles, so it is not surprising that, when us four Winfree kids divvied up the Fab Four among ourselves, I wound up with Ringo as my favorite Beatle.  
Ringo Starr (real name:  Richard Starkey, Jr.) was the final addition to the classic line-up when he was brought in as the band’s drummer, replacing Pete Best.  He is the oldest of the Beatles (all of 23 when they hit the big time), having been born three months before John Lennon. 
 
As skiffle became displaced by American rock and roll, and billed as Ritchie Starkey, he joined a band called Texans in November 1959 that was led by Al Caldwell.  They were a well known skiffle band that was trying to reinvent themselves as a rock band.  The band went through several names – the Raging Texans, then Jet Storm and the Raging Texans – before settling on Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  Starkey developed the Ringo Starr persona at that time, due to his propensity for wearing numerous rings.  They became one of the top bands in Liverpool in 1960 and eventually made their way to Hamburg, where they crossed paths with the Beatles; initially, however, they were billed above the Fab Four and were also paid more.  
 
(September 2014)
 
Last edited: April 3, 2021