Why the Beatles Had to Rush-Release 'A Hard Day's Night'
The history of music can be divided into two parts: before the Beatles and after. Such was the potency of their influence, not only as songwriters and music makers, but as a business entity and industry role model.
Arguably the clearest example of how the Beatles changed the world within a matter of months is the period leading up to the release of their fourth U.S. album, 1964's A Hard Day's Night.
In February of that year, the Beatles made their first pilgrimage to America, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show which was televised to some 73 million viewers. (Among the list of musicians who would later cite this moment as the one in which they knew they wanted to be performing artists themselves: Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Gene Simmons, Joe Perry, Nancy Wilson and Bruce Springsteen.) Thanks in no small part to that television show, American audiences became nearly insatiable for all things Beatles.
There was also the fact that the New York City radio station WMCA was granted the exclusive rights to play the A Hard Day’s Night film soundtrack album in full 10 days before it was scheduled to be released, which only fueled the fire and emphasized the unprecedented times. "There is little question that stations in a hotly competitive market who fail to get on important new records run serious risk of losing listeners to the competition," Billboard reported in July of 1964.
Source: Allison Rapp/retro1025.com
