When The Beatles picked their favourite recording artists

By the summer of 1964, Beatlemania was hitting its peak in North America. Just six months after first appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles had already released A Hard Day’s Night – both the film and the studio album. The band’s initial tour of North America lasted just two weeks in February, after which time they returned to Europe for more tours, more filming, more recording sessions, and more hysteria. In the short amount of time they were away, The Beatles managed to score six number-one singles on the American pop chart.

It’s not hard to imagine how exhausted the band must have been pulling into Vancouver on August 22nd. The tour was only four days old at that point, but the band had no time to rest. The band had played three different cities in three consecutive days, only finding slight calm on plane rides and in hotel rooms. Once they stepped off the plane, The Beatles were expected to immediately meet the press for questions. Their responses, while witty, were also terse and limited.

One of the questions thrown at the band during their Vancouver press conference was who their favourite recording artists were. John Lennon decided to go with Little Richard, while Ringo Starr highlighted Motown stars like Mary Wells and Marvin Gaye. Paul McCartney stuck with the Motown theme by highlighting The Miracles, while George Harrison gave a shout-out to American singer Jackie DeShannon, who was one of the tour’s opening acts. Starr also mentioned fellow opening act The Exciters.

In order to mess with the reporters, Harrison also threw out Derek Taylor as one of his favourite recording artists. Taylor was the band’s press officer for the tour, a post that he would abandon after a falling out with manager Brian Epstein during the final tour dates. The scene outside the airport was hectic and would only get wilder once the band made it to Empire Stadium.

There, more than 150 fans were treated for injuries after rushing to get to the front of the stage barricade. It would be just one of many instances where the mania surrounding the band threatened to derail the concerts. The very next night, the band flew back to America and landed in Los Angeles for their performance at the Hollywood Bowl, a concert later preserved on The Beatles’ first official live album, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.

The 1964 summer tour was Beatlemania at its most extreme: from meeting Bob Dylan in New York to refusing to play for segregated audiences in Florida, The Beatles were creating major news headlines on a daily basis. Still, Lennon recalled the tour fondly when it came to an end. “It’s been fantastic,” Lennon told Larry Kane, a journalist who travelled with the group. “We will probably never do another tour like it. It could never be the same as this one and it’s probably something we will remember the rest of our days. It’s just been marvellous.”

Check out ‘Twist and Shout’ from the band’s appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 down below.