Although they had performed shows in New York, Washington DC and Miami in February 1964, this was The Beatles’ first proper tour of America.
On tour that year, it was crazy. Not within the band. In the band we were normal, and the rest of the world was crazy.Everywhere we went, the police were putting on their display. Everybody got into the mania. You could make a film, just showing how idiotic everybody else was whenever The Beatles came to town.
In America, the police would be directing the traffic. They’d drive ahead of the motorcade; they’d come to a crossroads, put both hands up and blow their whistles. Then another bike would pass and go to the next link, but they’d all try to be flash, going in and out and racing up the road. They loved the feeling of: ‘It’s the President coming!’ But they were all crashing, falling off. It was happening everywhere – even in Sweden! Wherever we went it was that kind of thing.
The tour began with a show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. The Beatles performed 12 songs: ‘Twist And Shout’, ‘You Can’t Do That’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘If I Fell’, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘Boys’, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.
All 17,130 tickets sold out, and the venue was almost full by 7pm, an hour prior to The Beatles’ set. Gate receipts amounted to $91,670. Of this the group took away $47,600 gross.
The other acts on the bill, and throughout the tour, were, in order of appearance, The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon. Showtime was 8pm, and The Beatles took to the stage at 9.20pm wearing dark blue suits.
Their Cow Palace performance lasted just 29 minutes, and was stopped twice due to the numbers of jelly beans being thrown at The Beatles. Afterwards they were transported by ambulance (their limousine was besieged by Beatles’ fans) to the airport and on to their next concert in Las Vegas.
Nineteen girls required first aid during the concert, one boy dislocated his shoulder, 50 fans were hurt and two were arrested. A further fifty were prevented from invading the stage.
At the end of the show The Beatles dropped their instruments, ran for their car and disappeared for their hotel. Their limousine was surrounded by fans, so they were taken back to their hotel in an ambulance. They returned to their hotel, but left soon after to fly to Las Vegas for the next day’s show.
We just can’t get out on our own – but we had seventeen years of being able to walk to the shops. Occasionally, one of us slips out on his own and we take a chance there, because people think we travel in fours all the time. When they see us on our own, they often don’t recognise us.People think fame and money bring freedom, but they don’t. We’re more conscious now of the limitations it places on us rather than the freedom. We still eat the same kind of food as we did before, and have the same friends. You don’t change things like that overnight. We can’t even spend the allowance we get, because there’s nothing to spend it on. What can you spend on in a room?
When you’re on tour, you exist in this kind of vacuum all the time. It’s work, sleep, eat and work again. We work mad hours, really, but none of us would have it any other way. When I look back, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in the business – it seems years to me, now.
The Beatles returned to San Francisco’s Cow Palace on one other occasion, 31 August 1965.
Also on this day...
- 2010: Paul McCartney live: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh
- 2009: Paul McCartney live: Cowboys Stadium, Dallas
- 2003: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Alico Arena, Fort Myers
- 2001: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Frontier City, Oklahoma City
- 1995: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
- 1989: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: CNE Grandstand, Toronto
- 1972: Wings live: Martinihal, Groningen
- 1969: Recording, mixing: The End, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, Something, Here Comes The Sun
- 1967: Jason Starkey is born
- 1966: The Beatles live: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis
- 1965: The Beatles live: Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston
- 1963: The Beatles live: Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Aintree Institute, Liverpool
- 1960: The Beatles live: Indra Club, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
This entry says that the band performed their twelve song set, then says they only played ten songs. Was it the former, or the latter? If the latter, can you list which songs they didn’t play on this night? Thank you! Great website, as always.
I’m not sure. I’ve taken out the mention of 10 songs because I couldn’t remember where it came from. Thanks for pointing out the anomaly.
Joe, do you know at which concerts they played I Saw Her Standing There and didn’t play She Loves You?
Sorry, no.
Regarding “Occasionally they changed the opening song to I Saw Her Standing There and closed with Twist And Shout, and on some nights didn’t perform She Loves You.” – I have read that before in some book but have never found anything to support it. All tapes of complete shows I know of have the identical 12 songs except Vancouver where I want to hold your hand is left out, apparently intentionally.
And most brief clips on film that have original sound feature either She loves you and/or Twist and shout. So maybe it is but a rumour.
Thanks Jonas. I think the info came from Lewisohn’s Chronicle. I should probably go through these tour dates and amend the setlist info.
Yes, the set lists are interesting and an important part of their career so I would really like to see them as correct as possible. I have made comments to this, as it is the first US 64 show, as well as the first 65 (Shea) and the first US 66 show (Chicago), plus a few others. I have now gone through every little snippet of film of live performances from the 64 US tour, just over 2 hours in all. Most with correct sound, some synced with sound that corresponds with the song performed in the film. I think you can cut that last sentence from the set list bit without anybody ever contradiciting you. But, as a nice surprise, you can add another song as a slight deviation to the list. I recently found out that they actually did Till there was you at least once. And it was at the first show, most likely in the place thereafter taken by Things we said today. It´s all on film with correct sound.
Thank you. That’s very helpful. I’ll go through the other tour dates and make amendments.
Going by the recordings, Twist & Shout was the same (i.e. abridged) arrangement from 1965.
Hi, here another video from this concert.
Wonderful intro by Paul to Can´t buy me love: “make as much noise as you like and really let go, cause it´s not our place anyway”!
That’s interesting. Do you think he mistook the venue name to be “Cow Place”?
I was at this concert with my sister (something like $8 a ticket). Quite an experience. We were near the tunnel through which the Beatles entered the arena well within jelly bean range. The Republican convention has ended not too long before and the special booths built for the TV networks were still in place overhead. The warm-up acts lasted so long (at least a couple hours) and the crowd was so amped to see the Beatles that some were booed with impatience. Among my memories are standing on the arms of my chair (like everyone else) throughout the Beatles performance, and the screaming was so loud that is was a single sound…no separate and distinct screams, just one sound like a siren. My sister never took her fingers out of her ears.
I saw the above video somewhere else and a viewer pointed out that “Til There Was You” is dubbed in though they did not play that song at the Cow Palace.
I was there in 1964 in the 2nd row center. I was 11 and brought my Kodac Instamatic camera!
How do I post photos?
My mom was there and she said when they first got on stage the whole place lit up from the flashes of cameras for what seemed like a solid minute at least.
I was at the evening performance at the Cow Palace in ’64. There was an afternoon show also. As I remember, they played 11 songs, not 10 or 12. I don’t remember them playing “Til there was you.”
I think the tickets were $6.00. My friend lived in Sacramento, and somehow got the tickets. Her dad
went with us (to protect us from the crowd.) The flashbulbs did go off as they approached the stage.
They wore the tan colored, collarless suits. I don’t remember any opening acts. I was 11 years old, and
it has been one of my fondest childhood memories. I still have the picture program that was available at
the concert. For many years, I had the ticket stub, but it has since gone away. We had one pair of opera
glasses between us, and took turns looking through them. My sister went to the afternoon show, having
won the tickets at a drawing at a Beach Boys concert. I remember a lot of detail from this show.
The picture at the top of this post is not what they wore at the ’64 evening show at the Cow Palace.
They wore tan, collarless suits. I have seen pictures of them in those suits in other pictures from that
show.