One of my favorite Beatles interviews was performed by Harold B. Kelley, a Paris-based reporter for the U.S. Armed Forces Network, on Jan. 24, 1964.
The AFN, then as now, broadcasts to American service people worldwide.
The Beatles were in the midst of a three-week run of performances at the Paris Olympia, watching "I Want to Hold Your Hand" climb the U.S. charts and anticipating their upcoming trip to the States to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" would hit the number 1 spot on the Billboard chart on Feb. 1, and the band would appear on the Sullivan show for the first time on Feb. 9.
Because of the timing, the Beatles are still relatively unfamiliar to American audiences, and the interview conveys their humor, personalities and history up until this point. A few weeks later, they'd be a household name in America, but not quite yet.
Kelley, who served as AFN's Paris station manager for 21 years, died in 2010 at age 90.
This 2004 article captures some of Kelley's recollections about the interview:
And here's a transcript of highlights from the interview. You can listen to a recording here.
The AFN, then as now, broadcasts to American service people worldwide.
The Beatles were in the midst of a three-week run of performances at the Paris Olympia, watching "I Want to Hold Your Hand" climb the U.S. charts and anticipating their upcoming trip to the States to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" would hit the number 1 spot on the Billboard chart on Feb. 1, and the band would appear on the Sullivan show for the first time on Feb. 9.
Because of the timing, the Beatles are still relatively unfamiliar to American audiences, and the interview conveys their humor, personalities and history up until this point. A few weeks later, they'd be a household name in America, but not quite yet.
Kelley, who served as AFN's Paris station manager for 21 years, died in 2010 at age 90.
This 2004 article captures some of Kelley's recollections about the interview:
"I had been following their progress by reading the Herald-Tribune, Paris edition," says Kelley, his eyes sparkling behind large owl-glass lenses as he retells the tale of his (literally) 15 minutes of fame. "They hadn't been to America yet. They had just come back from a Scandinavian tour.
"I scooped Ed Sullivan," Kelley says. "I had called their agent to ask for an interview. He told me, 'Look, you can come over, but I think they're going to pull your leg. You won't get much from them.' Well, they ended up surprising both the agent and me by being quite sincere."
... "Frankfurt, Germany, was the headquarters for our network," Kelley explains. "Following the interview, I sent the tape by mail to our headquarters. It was received by a guy in charge of special events, Eddie Pennypecker was his name I think. He had never heard of the Beatles . So, he took the tape and just put it up on a shelf."
Eight days went by and Hal Kelley's Beatles tape had not yet aired. "I called a friend of mine who was an AFN program director, and said, 'You know, these guys are going to be on the Ed Sullivan Show in a few days. Don't you want to use it?'" AFN aired the Beatles interview the next night.
And here's a transcript of highlights from the interview. You can listen to a recording here.
Harold Kelley: This afternoon … we’re
visiting with four young men and if I just mentioned their first names such as
Paul and George and Ringo and John I doubt if you’d know of whom we’re
speaking. But if I said we’re here this afternoon with the Beatles and we were
in England I think we’d get a great big rousing “hurrah!” Wouldn’t we boys?
Kelley: Now, within the past year you
have mushroomed tremendously … what was the click? What [triggered] this great
rage for the Beatles?
Paul: I think it was the Palladium
show, you know the television show in England and then following hot in the
footsteps we had the Royal Variety Command Performance for the Queen Mother,
you know and it sort of all came up from there really. The national newspapers
got a hold of it … a lot of columnists and things got onto it and started
calling it Beatlemania.
Kelley: Ok, let’s ask a question here
with George Harrison. George, what is the status of rock’n’roll here in England
today? Is that what you call your music?
George: Not really. We don’t really
like to call it anything but the critics, the people who write about it, they
have to call it something. They didn’t want to say it was rock’n’roll because
rock’s supposed to have gone out five years ago and so they decided it wasn’t
really rhythm and blues so they decided to call it the “Liverpool Sound,” which
is stupid, really, because as far as we were concerned it was the same as the
rock from five years ago.
Kelley: Well, can you describe the
Liverpool Sound?
George: Oh, it’s more like the old
rock. Everything’s a bit louder. More bass and bass drum and everybody sort of
sings loud and shouts loud and that’s it!
Kelley: Well, let’s ask Ringo here –
now you’re the drummer, we caught your act at the Olympia the other evening,
how long have you been beating those skins?
Ringo: Oh, about five years now. I’ve
been with the boys about eighteen months now but with other groups before that.
But that’s five years.
Kelley: Since you boys have gained your
current popularity have there been many other organizations trying to imitate
you or perhaps take the thunder away from you? Let’s ask John Lennon this.
John: Well, I suppose a couple of
people have jumped on the railway carriage (laughter),
I mean the bandwagon, but it doesn’t really matter, you know, because it’s
flattery and it sort of promotes the whole idea of us if we’re away and have
left a few other little Beatles going to remind people of us.
Kelley: Well Paul, let’s go back to you
for moment. When anyone ever sees your pictures the first thing that strikes
them is naturally your hair-do.
(one of the Beatles, not clear who, says
“hair don’t!”)
Kelley: (laughing) Or hair don’t. Some people have written as though you
were having the sheepdog or perhaps an early Caesar. What do you call it and
how come you cut it that way?
Paul: Well, to us it’s just a natural
thing. We came out of the swimming baths one day and you know how your hair
kind of flops about when you come out of the swimming baths? Well it stayed
that way, you see, and nobody bothered to comb it. And it sort of stayed in the
style. So we never called it anything until the papers got hold of it and they
called it the “Beatles Style” so I suppose we can go along with them now.
Kelley: And you boys really haven’t had
much of a chance to see Paris, have you?
Paul: No. Not really.
George: Not really, no.
Kelley: What do you think of it so far?
George: It’s nice. Quite nice, you
know.
Kelley: How about the French girls
compared to the British girls? John?
John: Well, I’m married so I didn’t
notice them.
Kelley: Oh, well back to Paul then.
Paul: Oh, I think they’re great.
Kelley: You’re single then?
Paul: Yeah. I think French girls are
fabulous.
George: We’ve seen more French boys
than French girls and we can’t really tell.
Kelley: Well, perhaps when you get to
the “Ed Sullivan Show” there will be more girls for you.
George: Oh, I hope so.
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