Love them, they did.
When? the Beatles Launching their American invasion in 1964 – with their historic first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” – the mop-eyed Britons were mobbed by a screaming public upon arriving in New York.
“It was like getting hit by a hurricane,” says John Lennon In “The Beatles ’64,” a documentary produced by Martin Scorsese that will premiere Nov. 29 on Disney+.
But while the Fab Four were seeking refuge from the madness at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, Ronettes Came to their rescue.
“We were already his friends from England. george [Harrison] I was dating my sister Estelle, so it was very easy,” says Head. ronnie specter – The leading lady of the “Be My Baby” girl group in the documentary.
“John called me over to my house and said, ‘Ronnie, we’re prisoners. We can’t get out. The whole place around the whole Plaza building is surrounded by girls.’ ,
But Spector, along with the other two Ronettes, came to the hotel and planned to escape from the Beatles’ town to their home. Apollo,
“So I got a limousine, we went down the back stairs and went to Harlem,” the singer recalls, who died in 2022“I said, ‘I’m taking you to Harlem. No one will notice you there.’ And they didn’t. They thought they were a bunch of Spanish dorks, so they didn’t pay any attention to them.
“We went to Sherman’s Bar-B-Q [at] 151st and Amsterdam,” he continued. “They went in and they felt great because no one recognized them. You know, black people eating their ribs, and Spanish people.”
It also gave The Beatles the opportunity to visit the Mecca of African-American music that had influenced them in their early years – from little richardWhose signature is “Woo!” The Miracles and the Isley Brothers were parodied by Paul McCartney in “I Saw Her Standing There”.
Indeed, The Beatles had covered the Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”, written by Motown master Smokey Robinson, which is featured in the documentary – and the Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” even before they came out. Was covered. America.
“We were happy, we were very happy. It was great for us that they produced our songs,” says Ronald Easley. “Paul McCartney often said, ‘If it weren’t for the Isley Brothers, we’d still be in Liverpool.’ ,
But the Beatles, putting their British spin on American R&B and rock ‘n’ roll, would conquer America on a 14-day tour that took them from New York to Washington, D.C. to Miami.
“Coming to America, it was, ‘Give me your crowd,'” says McCartney. “For us it was the land of freedom. It was funny because once we got here we found out that wasn’t the whole story.”
Still, Sir Paul believes America was ready to be freed from its grief after the president’s assassination John F Kennedy In November 1963 – just three months before the Beatles’ arrival on February 7, 1964.
“When we arrived, America was in mourning,” he reflects. “This happened shortly after the Kennedy assassination. Maybe America needed something like the Beatles to snap them out of their mourning and just say, ‘Life goes on.’ ,
However, Lennon does not see the Beatles as leaders of any kind of revolution since they landed on American shores 60 years ago.
“The thing I didn’t like was this insistence that we would lead something,” he says. “So my picture now is that there was a ship going out to discover new worlds, you know ? And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest… and we just say, ‘Land ho!’ ,
