Dick Biondi, First American DJ Credited with Playing the Beatles, Dies

Chicago disk jockey Dick Biondi became the first person to play the Beatles on American radio when he aired the “Please Please Me” single, released by Chicago's Vee-Jay Records, on WLS in February 1963.

The song climbed to number 35 on the station’s playlist, but failed to chart nationally, selling only around 5,000 copies. 

Vee-Jay tried again in May with “From Me To You.” This release fared slightly better thanks to Biondi, who’d been fired from WLS, and was now on the air at KRLA in Los Angeles. 

Biondi added the tune to the station’s playlist and it sold nearly 13,000 copies – enough to place it on Billboard’s “bubbling under” chart. 

A month later, a cover version by American singer Del Shannon, famous for his hit “Runaway,” peaked at number 77. Shannon had heard the Beatles perform “From Me to You” while touring England and figured it would be a big hit. But he, like Vee-Jay, was premature in his thinking.

Via NBC 5 Chicago:

Dick Biondi, the longtime Chicago radio host who rose in prominence to become one of America's most recognizable disc jockeys, died earlier this week, according to a longtime family friend.

Biondi, who became widely known as the "Wild I-tralian," moved to Chicago in 1960 and began working at WLS radio where he introduced listeners to rock and roll in 40 states through the radio station's powerful 50,000-watt signal, according to the Radio Hall of Fame.

While he made stops in Buffalo, New York, Los Angeles and South Carolina, the radio legend spent the majority of his 67-year career in Chicago. Biondi was the first U.S. disc jockey to play the Beatles, which he did on WLS in February of 1963. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998.