Meet The Beatles!, the band’s first LP on Capitol Records, was released in America on 20 January 1964.
It came out while The Beatles were in Paris, just three days after they were told ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ had reached number one in America.
Capitol had been slow to pick up on The Beatles’ potential, and the smaller Vee-Jay label had issued the Introducing The Beatles album 10 days before Meet The Beatles!. Capitol was a sister company to Parlophone, and both were subsidiaries of EMI.
Meet The Beatles! was a huge success, capitalising on the public’s growing demand for the group’s music. The Beatles themselves arrived in America on 7 February 1964, two days before their famous first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The album entered the Billboard Top LPs chart at number 92 on 1 February 1964. Two weeks later it topped the chart, where it remained for eleven consecutive weeks until it was replaced by The Beatles’ Second Album.
Also on this day...
- 2014: UK release: The US Albums
- 2013: McCartney demo of A World Without Love is unveiled
- 1990: Paul McCartney live: Wembley Arena, London
- 1988: The Beatles are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame
- 1982: Paul McCartney appears on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs
- 1970: John Lennon and Yoko Ono have their hair cropped in Denmark
- 1969: The Beatles meet at Apple’s basement studio
- 1967: Recording: A Day In The Life
- 1965: Ringo Starr proposes to Maureen Cox
- 1964: The Beatles live: Olympia Theatre, Paris
- 1963: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Lathom Hall, Liverpool
- 1961: Stuart Sutcliffe leaves Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
I do not see anything on this site about an album released by vee-jay records called Songs,pictures and stories of the fabulous BEATLES. There is a sticker that says “Souvenir of their appearance at the Boston Gardens, Boston Sept 12 1964. Is this not considered an Album of theirs?
Or?How much would it sell
“Huge success” – try frantically trying to meet demand – pasting ‘Meet the Beatles’ covers over other LP covers, pressing LPs without the required publishing rights (ASCAP, BMI). They even failed to note who produced the record!
I bought a Mono pressing of Meet the Beatles in a thrift store a few years back and when I was on my way home on a hot summer day I had noticed the front of the cover slide off exposing The Waring Blend by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. The Meet the Beatles slick is firmly flat with no rips as like brand new. How many where done like this and how rare is it?
where do u the find how the general public felt about introducing the beatles?
How much did the “Meet the Beatles” album cost when it was released in American in 1964?
50 cents