THE BEATLES: THE PAST RE-MASTERED

by Jaimie Vernon; with research notes by Nicholas Jennings, Piers Hemmingson, Ron Hall, and Gary Pig Gold

As the post-coital afterglow of the new Beatles remasters launch fades, it seems appropriate to put the band's Canadian connections into context.

Canada's love affair with The Beatles can be directly traced back to early 1963 through the unwavering efforts of soon-to-be A & R Director of Capitol Canada, Paul White, and two radio stations that were 3000 miles apart -- CFUN and CHUM.

White, a transplanted Brit, had been put in charge of licensing material from Capitol's global repertoire in an effort for the Canadian satellite office to maximize its returns and become a little more independent of the LA and New York offices. He assembled collections of 78 RPM records by British, American and Canadian artists into proper LPs for the Canadian market. With sales doing quite well he began looking for more material and genres to exploit -- including new British pop sensations Frank Ifield, Cliff Richards and Helen Shapiro. But the crooner era was coming to an end and pop bands were on the rise. The US office was pushing a new surf act called The Beach Boys which White dutifully released to great success. But what he had his eye on was a bubbling scene in his native Britain that featured an act called The Beatles. White's bosses allowed him to pursue the act and other bands who would eventually be labeled The British Invasion.

Meanwhile, Toronto's 1050 CHUM AM was already a dominating radio force in Canada. As history would show, they were the self-proclaimed "Home Of The Beatles" and were on the front line when in early September, 1963 they began playing The Beatles' new single "She Loves You". The catchy hook-filled "yeah yeah yeah"'s  finally stimulated a radio audience that had been, for nearly a year, lukewarm to the Beatles' other singles in Canada: "Love Me Do" (February), "Please Please Me" (March) and "From Me To You" (April).

The tide was turning for The Beatles in Canada and when "Roll Over Beethoven" began getting airplay on December 9, 1963, it made the Beatles new LP, 'Beatlemania: With The Beatles', the Christmas must-have at retail - exceeding 50,000 units in sales.

Having missed the initial release of 'Please Please Me' in Canada, on January 13, 1964 Capitol launched a reconfigured version of the LP as the Canadian-only Twist And Shout' LP utilizing a photo from a UK EP by the same name and featuring the earlier, rogue "She Loves You" single. The next North American single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There", also went to radio the same day.

Both "Roll Over Beethoven" and "She Loves You" shot up the charts to the peak positions of #1 and #2 respectively on January 20, 1964. It was going to be a break-out year for The Beatles in Canada.
Paul White was writing a promotional page that went out to radio and industry people alike called 'The Sizzle Sheet' that reported all the most important happenings for Capitol's acts and who was instrumental in promoting the label's releases. When Vancouver's CFUN pushed a Beatle track up the charts, the Sizzle Sheet taunted CHUM into one-upmanship and vice versa.

The rival radio stations began gearing up for yet another assault with the news that The Beatles were coming to North America. True to form, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" became unexpected Double-A sided hits with each tune going to #1 on February 10 following The Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

CHUM was all over Beatlemania with contests, on-air testamonials from fans, the inclusion of Beatle updates from the Canadian Beatles' Fanclub and DJs attempting to top the very popular and powerful Murray The K stateside. CHUM even promoted their four top personalities -- Brian Skinner, Jungle Jay Nelson, Dave Johnson and Bob McAdorey -- as THE CHUM CHEATLES.

But there was a void in the CHUM playlist once the four recent singles peaked on the charts. And with the Beatles' second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show February 22, CHUM began introducing listeners to the three forgotten singles from early 1963 by putting "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You" back into rotation. Sure enough, almost a year after their release, all three singles cracked the Top10 by March of 1964.

At Capitol Canada, demand was so high for Beatle records that the label had to request the use of pressing plants beyond the country's leading manufacturing plant at RCA Records in Smith Falls, Ontario. The company was also releasing singles not available in the US starting with "Roll OVer Beethoven" and in March 1964 with "All My Loving". The import-only US release of the Capitol Canada pressing made the Billboard chart. This didn't sit well with head office in the US. And when Capitol Canada released a modified version of the American "Beatles Second Album" as "Long Tall Sally" featuring different tracks, Capitol's head office issued a cease and desist order to Paul White's team at Capitol Canada which led to a unified release schedule for North America.

Still, the new policy could not erase the historically significant fact that Canada had been ground zero for the Beatles' success in North America. Capitol spearheaded the movement, and radio fostered the fanbase.

The Beatles would ultimately go on to chart 52 songs on the CHUM Chart - second only to Elvis Presley (who charted 89). But The Beatles would top the CHUM charts with the most #1 songs by any act - ever - at 37. This is the true Canadian legacy of The Beatles.

 [Nicholas Jennings was the author and Piers Hemmingson was the researcher on the book 'Fifty Years Of Music: The Story Of Emi Music Canada'; Ron Hall is the author of 'The Chum Chart Book'; Gary Pig Gold supplied scans]