Free How the Beatles Went Viral in '64 by Steve Greenberg Page B

WLS in March, although it did not chart nationally.
    By late May, when Vee-Jay released the Beatles’ next single, “From Me To You,” Biondi had been fired by WLS. A month later, Biondi was back on the air, this time at KRLA in Los Angeles. Although no longer working in Vee-Jay’s hometown, he continued to be supportive of the label’s Beatles releases, and by the end of June convinced KRLA to add “From Me To You” to its playlist, even though it was clear by then that the record hadn’t gotten any national traction in the month since its release. “From Me To You” charted for six weeks on KRLA’s survey in July and August, peaking at #33, which was enough to get it into the Billboard Bubbling Under Singles chart, where it reached #116. Still, it had sold fewer than 15,000 singles by the end of 1963.
    Faring slightly better with “From Me To You” was American rocker Del Shannon, who had toured with the Beatles in England that spring and returned home determined to have a US hit with the song. Shannon’s version, which spent four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in June and July, peaking at #77, marked the first appearance of a Lennon-McCartney song on the Hot 100. Had Shannon not beaten them to the airwaves and the chart, perhaps the Beatles’ record could have spread nationally off of Biondi’s championing of their version. As it stood, Shannon’s release may have eliminated that chance. A letter from the program director of KXOK St. Louis, to George Harrison’s U.S.-based sister Louise—who had been trying to drum up support for the band’s version of “From Me To You”—cited the station’s earlier support for the Del Shannon cover as reason for not playing the Beatles’ version.
    Meanwhile, Vee-Jay’s financial problems were catching up with them and they dismissed Abner from his post upon discovering his malfeasance. This aroused the suspicion of Paul Marshall, who quit as Vee-Jay’s attorney, opting to cast his lot with EMI. In August Marshall, acting on behalf of EMI’s US licensing agent, Transgobal, accused Vee-Jay of non-payment of royalties, ordered Vee-Jay to cease and desist in distributing the Beatles’ music, and revoked the indie’s options for future singles. Losing the rights to the Beatles over non-payment of royalties was a particularly silly mistake on Vee-Jay’s part, as royalties owed on Beatles sales at that point totaled less than $1,000. But Vee-Jay were not particularly bothered about losing the unsuccessful Beatles; at that moment they were far more concerned with Marshall’s efforts to get the Four Seasons out of their Vee-Jay contract, also for failure to pay royalties, which he successfully did.
    At the same time, “She Loves You” was beginning its record-breaking ascent of the UK chart and, having canceled the Vee-Jay deal, Paul Marshall approached Dave Dexter at Capitol with the hot new single. Incredibly, in spite of the British buzz that was growing to deafening levels, Dexter turned the band down yet again, reasoning that the Vee-Jay flops proved he was right to have passed on them in the first place. “Dead in the water,” was how he described the Beatles’ US prospects. Transglobal thus licensed “She Loves You” to a much tinier indie, Swan Records of Philadelphia, who released it stateside on September 16th.
    Swan had even less success with the Beatles than Vee-Jay: The song failed to chart at any radio station and was, in fact, roundly rejected by audiences when it was played at all, despite having garnered a favorable review in Cashbox, which predicted that the song “could do big things in this country.” DJ Murray the K at WINS New York played “She Loves You” on September 28th in a 5-way “battle of the hits,” where it came in third. He continued to play it every night for a week solid, but got no reaction. Swan convinced American Bandstand, which still broadcast from Swan’s hometown of Philadelphia, to play the song in its “Rate