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The Day The Fab Four Were The Top 5

04/04/2011
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(Gibson) On this day in 1964, The Beatles held the top five places on the Billboard U.S. singles chart: #1 "Can't Buy Me Love," #2 "Love Me Do," #3 "Roll Over Beethoven," #4 "I Want to Hold You Hand" and #5 "Please Please Me." The group also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to 14 singles on the Hot 100. Gibson takes a look back:

In the first half of 1963, Beatlemania had already taken root in the U.K., and it was spreading like wildfire. The Beatles trekked across the U.K. three separate times in the first part of the year as part of package tours with "bigger" acts, including Americans who had struck paydirt in England, stars like Roy Orbison, Tommy Roe and Chris Montez. In reality, The Beatles, who did not receive top billing on these tours, were stealing the headliners' thunder at every show as their popularity, and the frenzy surrounding them, skyrocketed at an unprecedented pace.

Such was the frenzy around the band that drastic measures had to be employed by law enforcement, including the use of high-pressured water hoses, to control the massive crowds just clamoring to get a glimpse of the mop tops. It got so bad that the British Parliament took the matter up, discussing the plight � and the risks being taken � by the thousands of officers who in some cases were finding themselves in the middle of very dangerous situations as they tried to control the nearly uncontrollable. more on this story

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