STeVE was the first American to hear the Fabs

I never told you this, Johnny?

Well, it was probably before most of America. I was in grade school, and one of the big kids' dads worked at Hanna-Barbara, so the kid had money. This was around the middle of 1963 I guess. Anyway, this big kid brought a little portable record player to school each day (it ran on batteries) and a bunch of 45's in his lunch box. We always tried to eat as close to this guy as possible because we loved music. He had things like "I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March, etc. It was pretty unique hearing pop music in school in those days, lemme tell ya.

At any rate, one day he played us "From Me To You" but it was by Del Shannon, maybe on Vee Jay? At any rate, it was catchy. He then amazed us by pulling out a record from a FOREIGN COUNTRY! It had no big hole in the middle, just a little hole and when he played it, he said something like "now here is the original record", and it was "From Me To You" by the Beatles. I liked it ok, but the fact that it was rock and roll from England really blew my mind. The only British song I knew at that time was "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry" by the Carvelles (or however it's spelled).

So, that was the first time. I promptly forgot all about the Beatles until January '64, when my Mom took me shopping for back to school clothes at Zody's Department Store on Topanga and Roscoe in Canoga Park. When we walked in they had a giant display from Capitol Records filled with hundreds of picture sleeved "I Want To Hold Your Hand" 45's. I remember staring at the picture and my mom surprised me by saying that she had heard of these guys from TV. So, we bought the record, and I remember my mom paying $1.01 for it, and I counted her 101 pennies from my piggy bank when we got home.

I was underwhelmed by "I Want To Hold Your Hand" when I first played it, but LOVED "I Saw Her Standing There".

The next time we went into Zody's, the display had gotten bigger and now included "Meet The Beatles" and Vee Jay's "Introducing The Beatles" LP's. But it wasn't until I heard "From Me To You" on KFWB that I put two and two together and remembered Tony's British Beatles record from school. I felt good that I had been "hipped" to the Beatles, pre-Beatlemania.

Enough rambling...

I remember a school buddy having "From Me To You" pre JFK killing. He also had a version by Del Shannon or something. His father was in the biz I think.

Heh, I can top you! It was around MAY of 1963. My dad's friend was (as I understand it now) an indie music promo agent of some kind and one of his clients was Vee Jay Records. My dad brought home a 45 of "FROM ME TO YOU" for me to listen to. My dad was always bringing home weird (free) records but I took notice because this one had the same rainbow label as my favorite Four Seasons song "WALK LIKE A MAN". I took it to my friends in elementary school and much to my surprise, a kid there had a 45 of Del Shannon covering the song. Well, I liked the Del Shannon version much better. I promptly forgot about the entire thing until the Beatles' stampede started in Jan. of 1964. Even my dad had forgotten that he'd heard the Beatles way back before almost ANYONE here in this country. He didn't like them. (No surprise there).

At any rate, can't go back much earlier than May of 1963 in this country! Do I win? (Maybe not, since I didn't like the record then).