In early December 1963, a local Disc jockey named Carroll James from WWDC, got a mailed in request from 15-year-old Marsha Albert of Silver Springs that he play records by the still unknown (in the US) Beatles. In turn, James purchased and played a copy of the newly released
'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' and let Albert announce it on the air. The song got a quick and positive response from listeners who flooded the station with requests for more of the Beatles sound. On December 26th 1963, 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was released by Capitol Records in the States and reached #1 on the American Cashbox charts on January 17th, and was #1 on the American Billboard charts by February where it stayed for eleven weeks. Three months later, in the week of April; 4th 1964, the Beatles owned all five of the Top Five positions on the Billboard charts, something that was never done before or has ever been repeated since.
The Beatles appeared on the very popular, The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th.
The show had received 50,000 ticket applications for 728 seats in the theater (Where the David Letterman Show is now filmed) and attracted a record audience of 73 million viewers.
Two days later, the group arrived by train from New York to DC on February 11th 1964 for what would be their first public concert in the United States. They held a press conference from the stage of Washington Coliseum before the doors were opened for their show that evening. The Beatles had spent the afternoon giving interviews for television and radio in D.C., and posing for photographers and this was their final press piece before preparing for the show that night. The next day, the Beatles would return to New York City by train for two performances at Carnegie Hall.
Q: "When did the group first get togther?"
GEORGE: "Well you see, Paul, John and George met at school about five years ago, and we met Ringo when we left school. And we've been the Beatles for three years."
(Paul begins singing, and the other Beatles join in)
BEATLES: (singing) "We've been together now forty yeeeears!"
Q: "Where did you get the name the Beatles?"
JOHN: "I thought of it."
RINGO: "That's John."
Q: "Why?"
JOHN: "Why not!"
(laughter)
Q: "Do the four of you ever fight among yourselves?"
JOHN: "Only in the morning, ha."
RINGO: "No, we're very good friends."
Q: "Did you always have your hair this way?"
JOHN: (laughing) "Only in the morning!"
(laughter)
Q: "Did Ringo get his name from 'The Ringo Kid'?"
RINGO: "No. From all this on me fingers. Can you see 'em?"
Q: "Do you know who 'The Ringo Kid' is?"
RINGO: "He was a cowboy, wasn't he?"
Q: "Thank you."
RINGO: "Thank you."
(laughter)
Q: "How long do you think Beatlemania will last?"
JOHN: "As long as you all keep comin'."
(laughter)
Q: "Do any of you have any formal musical training?"
JOHN: (comically) "You're joking!!"
PAUL: (giggles)
RINGO: "No, we just picked it up."
JOHN: (laughs)
Q: "What do you think of President Johnson?"
RINGO AND JOHN: "Never met him."
JOHN: (comically, to Ringo) "Oh, we're thinking alike!"
PAUL: "We haven't met him."
RINGO: "We don't know. We've never met the man... (pause) Does he buy our records?"
(laughter)
Q: "What do you think of America, Amercican girls, and American audiences?"
RINGO: "Marvelous."
(laughter)
Q: "Can you compare them with Europeans?"
RINGO: "They're all the same, you know."
Q: "Have you visited the United States with any sense of revenge?"
JOHN: "He's been reading that paper, hasn't he!"
RINGO: "No! No, we just... (pause) come for the money."
(laughter)
RINGO: "It's a lie. No. We're..."
PAUL: (comically) "Excuse me?"
(Beatles laugh)
Q: "Are English disc jockeys as important as American disc jockeys?"
JOHN: "They're all as important as each other, if they've got any listeners."
Q: "What was the big break that led to your success?"
JOHN: "Making a record."
PAUL: "Making our first hit record. The BIG success was doing the Royal Variety show in front of the Queen Mother, and then right after that nearly at the same time, doing the London Palladium."
Q: "This phenomenal popularity you have acheived, do you feel you owe it all to press agents?"
JOHN: "We didn't get the press agents until we made it. We couldn't afford 'em before that."
(laughter)
Q: "What do you think about the criticism that you are a bad influence?"
PAUL: "I dunno, you know. I don't FEEL like a bad influence. (to John) Do you?"
JOHN: "Nah, I think you're a GOOD influence, Paul."
PAUL: "Thank you, John."
Q: "Is there any chance of the Beatles becoming knighted?"
(Beatles laugh)
PAUL: "No. (pause) No, YOU may be, though."
(laughter)
JOHN: "Can you imagine, Sir Ringo."
(laughter)
Q: "Who writes most of the songs?"
PAUL: "John and I write most of the records that we recorded. And Brian Sommerville (Beatles' Press Agent) does all the lyrics."
(laughter)
PAUL: "He's a BEAUTIFUL lyricist. Listen to him, now. Go on, Brian."
(no sound from Brian Sommerville)
PAUL: "He's fantastic. No, it just comes and goes, you know."
Q: "Who are the Beatles' favorite performers?"
JOHN: "The Miracles."
GEORGE: "Marvin Gaye."
JOHN AND PAUL: "Tommy Roe."
Q: "How long will you be in America?"
JOHN: "Till we go."
(laughter)
PAUL: "It's just a week. About a week."
Q: "What do you like or dislike about America?"
JOHN: "We like it all."
RINGO: "Yeah. We haven't any dislikes yet."
GEORGE: "Dislike the snow."
(laughter)
PAUL: "I don't. I love the snow."
GEORGE: "I do."
Q: "Have you ever really been afraid of the large crowds?"
BEATLES: "No."
PAUL: "We enjoy it, you know. There's enough police, anyway."
Q: "What has been your most exciting moment in the last year?"
PAUL: "There's been a lot of them. You know, meeting the Queen Mother at the Royal Command Performance, being number one in America, coming to America, traveling..."
RINGO: "...in America?"
(laughter)
PAUL: "We've enjoyed America. Been a lot of them, though."
Q: "Are the Beatles still number one in Europe?"
JOHN: "Well, Europe's got a lot of lists."
GEORGE: "A lot of countries."
PAUL: "A lot of hit parades."
Q: "In England."
PAUL: "Not in England."
JOHN: "No, the record's gone down to 7 or something."
PAUL: "But it's been out about 12 weeks... longer than 12 weeks in England."
JOHN: "It's been out about 3 months."
GEORGE: "'She Loves You' is still in the Top 20 and it's been out 25 weeks."
Carroll James managed to get the Beatles into a remote radio broadcast trailer for the following private interview
Q: "Welcome everyone. John Lennon."
JOHN: "Thank you, Carroll."
Q: "And Ringo Starr. Did your drums get off the train safely?"
RINGO: "I hope so. We got a man looking after them."
Q: "Good, good. And over here is Paul McCartney."
PAUL: "How do you do."
Q: "Good to see you, Paul. And over here is George Harrison, who I met the other night in New York."
GEORGE: "Yeah. How do you do."
Q: "I had a 30 second interview with him before a man with the network said, 'Here, put that thing away!'"
GEORGE: "Oh yeah."
Q: "Remember? And Dizzy Gillespie got my Beatle wig, and I still don't have one for tonight. Let me sit down here next to you, John. I have these phenomenal questions. We'll never get to them all. But these are just some of the questions that some of my listeners wanted to know about your careers and your selves."
JOHN: "Mm-hmm."
Q: "What was the first million seller in England that you had, and when was it?"
JOHN: "It was 'She Loves You,' I think. (to the others) Was it?"
PAUL: "Yes."
Q: "And the second was..."
JOHN: "I Want To Hold Your Nose."
Q: (laughs)
JOHN: "Hand."
Q: "And the other side has now become popular here."
JOHN: "Yeah, it's amazing, that. Yeah."
Q: "No it's not, it's a great arrangement."
JOHN: (jokingly) "Okay-yeah-it-is-thanks."
Q: (laughs) "The girls want to know what is your favorite food, and they want to know whether you like fish and chips."
JOHN: "Yeah, I like fish and chips quite a lot."
Q: "What is your favorite food?"
JOHN: "STEAK and chips, I think."
Q: "Paul, they of course want to know about the closest shave you've ever had in a crowd. The toughest spot you were ever in."
PAUL: "Uhh, I dunno."
GEORGE: "Ireland
PAUL: "Yeah. We were playing in Ireland , and there's a place called (adopts heavy Irish accent) Belfast ... no it was in Belfast
(laughter)
PAUL: "Police on mounted dogs... whatever you call 'em."
(laughter)
PAUL: "And just as we were sort of driving away, and there were all motorcycles and things, the crush barriers gave in. And the crowds all sort of..." (imitates comic sounds of motors, felines, and objects crushing to the ground)
(laughter)
Q: "Do you attribute this to the fact that there are so many redheads in Ireland?"
PAUL: "Well I dunno. I didn't see any, actually. There may have been some underneath that crowd."
Q: (laughs) "How many rings do you own, Ringo? How many have your fans sent you?"
RINGO: "They've sent quite a lot. If I counted them all, I got about two-thousand- seven-hundred-and-sixty-one... and a bit."
PAUL: (laughs)
Q: "I see. The girls want to know, to where they should send the rings to you. What would the address be?"
RINGO: "13 Monmouth Street , London . Make sure they're gold!! I only wear gold!!"
(laughter)
Q: "You could possibly make more from your rings than from your records in that case."
RINGO: "Yeah, they send a lot of silver ones."
(laughter)
Q: "Do you play cricket at all, George?"
GEORGE: "No."
Q: "What is your favorite sport? Singing and fighting for your life, but other than that..."
GEORGE: "I don't like many sports. I don't mind watching motor racing. That's about it. I wouldn't mind to have a go."
PAUL: "We all enjoy sleeping, you know. That's one of our favorite sports."
Q: "Well, it's been a long time since that's happened, isn't it?"
PAUL: "No, no. It happens. We try to get to the... you know, every night, actually. We try hard."
Q: "What are some of the American artists that you feel maybe had an influence on your career?"
PAUL: "Definitely Sophie Tucker. Very big influence. VERY big."
Q: (laughs) "Well you know, Tessie O'Shay who appeared on the Sullivan show with you, of course she is British..."
PAUL: "Tessie O'Shay is our favorite American group."
(laughter)
JOHN: (jokingly) "Well, we can't use THAT gag tonight, anyway."
Q: "What about drummers, Ringo?"
RINGO: "I don't know. There's so many."
JOHN: "What about Big Deaf Arthur?"
RINGO: "Oh yeah, Big Deaf Arthur. He's good."
JOHN: (to Carroll) "You know Big Deaf Arthur?"
Q: "No I don't."
JOHN: "He's with Small Blond Johnnie. Yeah."
Q: (laughs) "Really? Is that a..."
JOHN: "Oh yeah. It's really swinging."
Q: "Oh. They want to know if you still like Jellybabies."
RINGO: "No."
Q: "Not at all?"
RINGO: "We used to like them, and then we got about 18 ton sent to us. So, you know, our teeth are dropping out with them."
Q: (laughs)
RINGO: "We give 'em up."
Q: "This is National Dental Health Week here in America so I guess we forget the Jellybabies for the time being."
RINGO: "Yeah."
Q: "They hurt when they hit, don't they George?"
GEORGE: "They do, yeah. They make you stick to the floor, as well."
Q: "What is your dream in life? This is ridiculous because you have achieved more than a dream already. But John, what would be your dream from now on?"
JOHN: "Umm... (comic voice) I don't really know, Carroll. I couldn't honestly say."
PAUL: (giggles)
Q: "Do you drink a lot of tea, incidentally?"
JOHN: "Yeah, but I don't like these teabags so much, 'cuz they sort of stick in the teeth."
Q: "You don't use them at all in England, do you?"
JOHN: "Uhh, some people use them. But they're usually foreigners, you know."
Q: "Americans."
JOHN: "Well, people like that."
Q: "We'll leave England out of this, and America out of this but..."
JOHN: (jokingly) "What's left?"
Q: (laughs) "What is your favorite foreign country of all the countries you have appeared in?"
PAUL AND RINGO: "England
(laughter)
PAUL: "I dunno. I'd rather have England
JOHN: "Ireland Ireland
RINGO: "I like playing in America
JOHN: "No, but besides America and England Sweden
PAUL, GEORGE AND RINGO: (agreeing) "Sweden
JOHN: "And France
Q: "Anybody know any foreign languages?"
JOHN: "Oh, we all speak fluent Shoe."
RINGO: "Well, Paul speaks ANY language. He just gets 'em off like wildfire."
PAUL: (gibberish)
Q: "Johnnie Johnson told me I wouldn't be able to understand the Liverpool accent. Was that a Liverpool accent?"
PAUL: (jokingly) "No, that was a London
Q: "What do you feel about some of the songs that have been written about you? Donna Lynn has a recording called, uhh... You may not even have heard all of these."
PAUL: "Yes."
JOHN AND RINGO "Oh yeah."
GEORGE: "We have."
PAUL: "I've heard 'em. (sings) 'My boyfriend's got a Beatle haircut.'"
Q: "How do you feel about this? You've got a Beatle haircut yourself."
PAUL: "Actually, I haven't heard the record. I've heard about it, though. But it's good publicity, isn't it."
RINGO: "Is it selling?"
Q: "I believe so. Bill Turner tells me it's selling."
RINGO: "Well, I say the best of luck to her."
JOHN: "Yeah, best of luck."
PAUL: "Best of luck, Donna!"
Q: "You, George, are the only Beatle who had been in America before this trip. Is that correct?"
GEORGE: "Yeah. That's correct."
Q: "Went to visit your sister a few months ago."
GEORGE: "Yeah. September."
Q: "At that time, did anybody out there know of the Beatles?"
GEORGE: "Nobody had here, either. In New York
PAUL: (giggles)
GEORGE: "No, that was October."
Q: "That was October. And then we started hearing things in this country, I guess, first around November. And in December WWDC flew your record 'I Want To Hold Your...'"
GEORGE: "You did?"
Q: "Yes."
GEORGE: "Thanks, that was great."
PAUL AND RINGO: "Thanks."
JOHN: "Thank you very much."
Q: "Well, you're very welcome. I'd like you to meet the young lady, right after we're finished talking here, Marsha Albert is... Come on in here very quickly, Marsha."
RINGO: "Alright, Marsha."
PAUL: "Hello, Marsha."
JOHN: "Good ol' Marsha!"
GEORGE: "Marsha Mellow."
RINGO "Thank you, Marsha."
(each of the Beatles is introduced to Marsha Albert)
Q: (to John) "They call you the chief Beatle..."
JOHN: (jokingly) "Look, I don't call YOU names."
Q: (laughs)
JOHN: "Why do you have to call me names?"
Q: Who is responsible for the haircut?"
JOHN: "Well, I think it's... (pause) bigger than both of us, Carroll. That's all I can say."
Q: (laughs)
RINGO: "Nobody, really."
Q: "When you went to high school... grammar school... what did you have in mind as a career?"
PAUL: "I dunno. At that time I thought of being a teacher, actually. But luckily I got into this business, because I would have been a VERY bad teacher."
Q: "George?"
GEORGE: "I was going to be a baggy sweeger."
(laughter)
Q: "I beg your pardon?"
GEORGE: "A baggy sweeger."
Q: "And what is that?"
GEORGE: "Well, you see, in every city there are twenty-five baggy sweegers."
PAUL: (cracks up)
GEORGE: "And their job is to go out to the airport each morning..."
(laughter)
PAUL: (laughing) "Baggy sweeger!"
GEORGE: "...and baggy sweeging all along the line, man."
After the formal press conference, the Beatles conducted another televised interview on stage.
Q: "Here I am surrounded by Beatles and I don't feel a thing. Fellas, how does it feel to be in the United States?"
RINGO: "It's great! Wonderful!"
PAUL AND GEORGE: "Very nice!"
Q: "What have you seen that you like best about our country?"
JOHN: "You!!"
(laughter)
Q: "Thank you very much. I'll take that under advisement. Now, do you have any plans or any arrangements to meet the Johnson girls?"
JOHN: "No. We heard they didn't like concerts."
GEORGE: "I didn't know they were on the show!"
(laughter)
Q: "They may come.... Are they coming to your show tonight?"
RINGO: "We don't know."
GEORGE: "I don't know."
PAUL: "We're not sure. But if they do, you know, we'd love it."
RINGO: "We'd like to meet them."
Q: "You and the snow came to Washington at the same time today. Which do you think will have the greater impact?"
JOHN: "The snow will probably last longer."
RINGO: "Yeah. We're going tomorrow."
Q: "Have you ever heard of Walter Cronkite?"
PAUL: "Nope."
GEORGE: "Yeah. News."
JOHN: "Good old Walter! NBC News, isn't he? Yeah, we know him. See? You don't catch me!"
Q: (correcting) "CBS News."
RINGO: "CBS News."
(laughter)
PAUL: (jokingly) "CUT!"
GEORGE: "I know, but I didn't want to say it. 'Cuz I thought it was CBS."
JOHN: "Yeah?"
GEORGE: (to John) "We're doing ABC..."
JOHN: "Yeah?"
GEORGE: "The other fella is on CBS, and the other one is NBC."
Q: "This is NBC, believe it or not."
JOHN: "And you're Walter!!"
Q: "No, I'm Ed."
JOHN: (jokingly) "What's going on around here!!"
Q: "I don't know! So, we're all together here."
GEORGE: "This is NBC."
(A different reporter begins asking questions)
Q: "What do you think of your reception in America, so far?"
JOHN: "It's been great."
Q: "What struck you the most, so far?"
PAUL: "YOU!! (laughing) We won't do that one again."
RINGO: "When we first came in, you know--- The airport. We never expected nothing like that. It was great."
Q: "You mean the crowds?"
PAUL AND JOHN: "Yeah."
JOHN: "It knocked us out!"
Q: "In spite of the snow, you still got a good crowd?"
JOHN: "Great crowd, yeah. I don't know-- Half of them thought we were coming by air, and we came by train."
Q: "Tell me this. Why do you think you're so popular all of a sudden?"
JOHN: "I don't know. It must be the weather."
PAUL: (giggles) "We've no idea at all why. Really."
Q: "Do you think it's your singing?"
JOHN: (Operatic singing voice) "Eeeeeee Dhhooooo!"
PAUL: "I doubt it. It could be alot of things, and we don't know which it could be."
Q: "Where did you get the idea for the haircuts?"
PAUL: "We didn't. It just the way we..."
RINGO: "Where did you get the idea for yours??"
PAUL: (laughs) "No, it's just something that we liked. We enjoyed wearing our hair this way, so it's developed this way."
Q: "You save on haircutting, at least?"
PAUL: "Yeah, uhhh-- We're saving."
JOHN: "I think it costs more to keep it short than to keep it long, don't you?"
Q: "I don't know. I imagine."
PAUL: "Yeah. We're saving our money."
Q: "Well, where do you go from here?"
RINGO: "Back to, ummm..."
PAUL AND JOHN: "New York
RINGO: "...New York
GEORGE: "ThenMiami
RINGO: "On Monday."
Q: "Are you still number one in Europe?"
JOHN: "Well,Europe is alot of countries."
Q: "Where are you number one then?"
GEORGE: "We're now number one inAmerica and England
JOHN: "Hong Kong andSweden
GEORGE: "Australia , Sweden , Denmark , Finland , France
Q: "And you haven't any idea why?"
RINGO: "We lay down and do it."
JOHN: "We're coming out inHong Kong and suddenly you're number one there years after so many records. Even here, you know, we've got records we've forgotten."
PAUL: "Funny records, yeah."
Q: "You call your records 'funny records'?"
GEORGE: "Yeah!"
JOHN: "They're funny once we've forgotten them."
GEORGE: "You know-- It's unusual because they've been out inEngland
Q: "But, what I'm saying is-- Do you think of your records as funny records?"
BEATLES: "NO!"
GEORGE: "We think it's funny-- peculiar-- that they should be hits after such a long time."
Q: "Do you feel they're musical?"
JOHN: "Obviously they're musical because it's music, isn't it! Instruments play music. It's a record."
PAUL: "It's musical, you know."
JOHN: "It is musical."
PAUL: "It's music, isn't it! (sings) 'Bumm Bumm Bumm.'"
JOHN: "That's music, too."
PAUL: "He's good-- He knows music!"
Q: "Alright, but what do you call it?"
PAUL: "We try not to define our music because we get so many wrong classifications off it. It's no use. We just call it-- MUSIC??? (laughs) ...even if you don't."
Q: "With a question mark."
PAUL: "Pardon?"
Q: "With a question mark?"
PAUL: "No."
JOHN: "We leave that to the critics."
PAUL: "With an exclamation mark!"
Q: "OK. Have a good time in America."
PAUL: "Thank you very much."
JOHN AND GEORGE: "Thank you."
JOHN: "Keep buying 'em."
RINGO: "Look after yourself."
RINGO: "It's great! Wonderful!"
PAUL AND GEORGE: "Very nice!"
Q: "What have you seen that you like best about our country?"
JOHN: "You!!"
(laughter)
Q: "Thank you very much. I'll take that under advisement. Now, do you have any plans or any arrangements to meet the Johnson girls?"
JOHN: "No. We heard they didn't like concerts."
GEORGE: "I didn't know they were on the show!"
(laughter)
Q: "They may come.... Are they coming to your show tonight?"
RINGO: "We don't know."
GEORGE: "I don't know."
PAUL: "We're not sure. But if they do, you know, we'd love it."
RINGO: "We'd like to meet them."
Q: "You and the snow came to Washington at the same time today. Which do you think will have the greater impact?"
JOHN: "The snow will probably last longer."
RINGO: "Yeah. We're going tomorrow."
Q: "Have you ever heard of Walter Cronkite?"
PAUL: "Nope."
GEORGE: "Yeah. News."
JOHN: "Good old Walter! NBC News, isn't he? Yeah, we know him. See? You don't catch me!"
Q: (correcting) "CBS News."
RINGO: "CBS News."
(laughter)
PAUL: (jokingly) "CUT!"
GEORGE: "I know, but I didn't want to say it. 'Cuz I thought it was CBS."
JOHN: "Yeah?"
GEORGE: (to John) "We're doing ABC..."
JOHN: "Yeah?"
GEORGE: "The other fella is on CBS, and the other one is NBC."
Q: "This is NBC, believe it or not."
JOHN: "And you're Walter!!"
Q: "No, I'm Ed."
JOHN: (jokingly) "What's going on around here!!"
Q: "I don't know! So, we're all together here."
GEORGE: "This is NBC."
(A different reporter begins asking questions)
Q: "What do you think of your reception in America, so far?"
JOHN: "It's been great."
Q: "What struck you the most, so far?"
PAUL: "YOU!! (laughing) We won't do that one again."
RINGO: "When we first came in, you know--- The airport. We never expected nothing like that. It was great."
Q: "You mean the crowds?"
PAUL AND JOHN: "Yeah."
JOHN: "It knocked us out!"
Q: "In spite of the snow, you still got a good crowd?"
JOHN: "Great crowd, yeah. I don't know-- Half of them thought we were coming by air, and we came by train."
Q: "Tell me this. Why do you think you're so popular all of a sudden?"
JOHN: "I don't know. It must be the weather."
PAUL: (giggles) "We've no idea at all why. Really."
Q: "Do you think it's your singing?"
JOHN: (Operatic singing voice) "Eeeeeee Dhhooooo!"
PAUL: "I doubt it. It could be alot of things, and we don't know which it could be."
Q: "Where did you get the idea for the haircuts?"
PAUL: "We didn't. It just the way we..."
RINGO: "Where did you get the idea for yours??"
PAUL: (laughs) "No, it's just something that we liked. We enjoyed wearing our hair this way, so it's developed this way."
Q: "You save on haircutting, at least?"
PAUL: "Yeah, uhhh-- We're saving."
JOHN: "I think it costs more to keep it short than to keep it long, don't you?"
Q: "I don't know. I imagine."
PAUL: "Yeah. We're saving our money."
Q: "Well, where do you go from here?"
RINGO: "Back to, ummm..."
PAUL AND JOHN: "
RINGO: "...
GEORGE: "Then
RINGO: "On Monday."
Q: "Are you still number one in Europe?"
JOHN: "Well,
Q: "Where are you number one then?"
GEORGE: "We're now number one in
JOHN: "Hong Kong and
GEORGE: "
Q: "And you haven't any idea why?"
RINGO: "We lay down and do it."
JOHN: "We're coming out in
PAUL: "Funny records, yeah."
Q: "You call your records 'funny records'?"
GEORGE: "Yeah!"
JOHN: "They're funny once we've forgotten them."
GEORGE: "You know-- It's unusual because they've been out in
Q: "But, what I'm saying is-- Do you think of your records as funny records?"
BEATLES: "NO!"
GEORGE: "We think it's funny-- peculiar-- that they should be hits after such a long time."
Q: "Do you feel they're musical?"
JOHN: "Obviously they're musical because it's music, isn't it! Instruments play music. It's a record."
PAUL: "It's musical, you know."
JOHN: "It is musical."
PAUL: "It's music, isn't it! (sings) 'Bumm Bumm Bumm.'"
JOHN: "That's music, too."
PAUL: "He's good-- He knows music!"
Q: "Alright, but what do you call it?"
PAUL: "We try not to define our music because we get so many wrong classifications off it. It's no use. We just call it-- MUSIC??? (laughs) ...even if you don't."
Q: "With a question mark."
PAUL: "Pardon?"
Q: "With a question mark?"
PAUL: "No."
JOHN: "We leave that to the critics."
PAUL: "With an exclamation mark!"
Q: "OK. Have a good time in America."
PAUL: "Thank you very much."
JOHN AND GEORGE: "Thank you."
JOHN: "Keep buying 'em."
RINGO: "Look after yourself."
After the concert, The Beatles returned to the Shoreham Hotel to unwind, have some cold cuts and change clothes before heading to the British Embassy. as guests of Ambassador and Lady David Ormsby-Gore for a charity ball for the National Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Before the incident happened, the John Lennon gave a brief interview in the Shoreham
Q: "Which one are you?"
JOHN: "Eric."
Q: (gesturing to the TV camera) "Eric, here is the American public..."
JOHN: "I'm John."
Q: "You're John?"
JOHN: "Yeah, it was a joke."
Q: "Well John, here is the American public. Forty million American viewers..."
JOHN: "It just looks like one man to me. Oh. It's the camera man."
Q: "What is your impression of the American public? You've been here for a while, now."
JOHN: "They are the wildest."
Q: "Why?"
JOHN: "I don't know. Tonight was, you know, marvelous. Ridiculous. Almost eight-thousand people all shouting at once, and we were trying to shout louder than them with microphones, and we still couldn't beat 'em."
Q: "Was America something like what you thought it would be like?"
JOHN: "No, nothing like it. We thought it would be much quieter. We thought we'd, you know, have to grow on everybody, and everybody seems to sort of know us all, you know, as if we've been here for years. It's great."
Q: "What is your impression of the new American singing group, 'The Cockroaches'? Have you heard them yet?"
JOHN: "I haven't heard them. But it's already been done about eighty times in England
The group didn’t arrive at the Embassy until 12:45 a.m., and as they arrived, the British press secretary announced solemnly, "Attention: Beatles are now approaching the area."
While giving out the raffle prizes -- autographed copies of "Meet The Beatles" -- Starr told the winners, "If you don't like it, you can exchange it for a Frank Sinatra." In the midst of all this, a woman in a long dress produced a pair of nail scissors and snipped some hair off Starr's head, with the Ottawa Sun reporting that "she went off, squealing in a half-demented way, 'I've got his hair. ... I've got his hair.'"
Ringo said alter " We attended a miserable event in the British Embassy in Washington. In the early Sixties, there was still a huge disparity between people from the north of England and 'people from embassies'. They were all, "Oh, very nice," a bit like Brian Epstein, and we were, "All right, lads, not so bad." But we went, God knows why. Maybe because we'd suddenly become ambassadors and they wanted to see us, and I think Brian liked the idea it was sort of big time. We were standing around saying, 'Hi, that's very nice,' and having a drink, and one of them someone came up behind me and snipped a piece of my hair off. You know, it got me angry. Why was he carrying a pair of scissors? I just swung round with a "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Oh, it's OK, old chap... “
George Martin and his wife accompanied the Beatles to the Embassy and recalled the incident in his autobiography All You Need Is Ears (1979) “.....full quota of chinless wonders behaved abominably. They would approach the boys with an off-hand "Oh, which one are you?", and one actually got a pair of scissors and snipped off a piece of Ringo's hair while he was talking to someone else. It almost created a diplomatic incident.”
Michael Braun's account in his book Love Me Do (1964) wrote “After appearing on several television stations, posing for photos, and signing autographs, John walks into the rotunda for a drink. As he orders it an Embassy official is 'wondering' whether he can 'prevail upon our guests to participate in our rather small but not insignificant raffle'.
At that moment a young Embassy official approaches him and says 'Come along now! Come and do your stuff!' John glares at him. 'I'm not going back through that crowd,' he says. 'I want to finish my drink.'
'Oh, yes, you are,' the official says imperiously. 'Come on, come on.' John turns his back on the official, but is now approached by a young lady in a ballroom gown. 'Come along, now,' she says. Livid, John turns to Ringo and says, 'I'm getting out of here.' With a deadpan smile Ringo puts an arm on John's shoulder and answers calmly, 'Oh, come on, let's get it over with.'
In the ballroom (presumably) the Beatles draw the winning raffle tickets.
Michael Braun continues: As the Beatles leave the ballroom a British debutante walks up to Ringo, removes a pair of nail scissors from her purse, and snips off a lock of his hair.
Just before they leave the Embassy, Lady Ormsby Gore tells them, 'Thank you so much for coming. I'm sorry about all that down there. It can't have been much fun for you.' Going out of the door, Ringo turns to the unsettled Ambassador and asks, 'And what do you do?'
When reports of what had happened were printed in the British press the Embassy issued a denial. When the Beatles insisted it was true, an M.P. posted a question to the Prime Minister regarding 'the disgraceful behaviour at the Embassy'.
Capitol Records Fred Martin witnessed the hair-cutting incident. He recalled that “the British ambassador had begged to have them (the Beatles) come over to the embassy for a party. And they really did not want to go, and Brian Epstein finally convinced them that [it was] something they really had to do. And so we went over there and we had a caravan of limousines.
Within five minutes or so some woman came running up with a pair of scissors and tried to cut a lock of hair off of him and, y'know, another half an inch one way or the other and she could have put an eye out. And that was it, "We're going." We trooped out of there back to the hotel in Washington where we were staying, the Shoreham, and had our traveling family, and had a nice big party.”
Ten days after the incident at the Embassy, the Beatles were interviewed by the BBC-TV in London.
Q: "Now Ringo, I hear you were manhandled at the Embassy Ball. Is this right?"
RINGO: "Not really. Someone just cut a bit of my hair, you see."
Q: "Let's have a look. You seem to have got plenty left."
RINGO: (turns head) "Can you see the difference? It's longer, this side."
Q: "What happened exactly?"
RINGO: "I don't know. I was just talking, having an interview (exaggerated voice) Just like I am NOW!"
(John and Paul begin lifting locks of his hair, pretending to cut it.)
RINGO: "I was talking away and I looked 'round, and there was about 400 people just smiling. So, you know - what can you say!"
JOHN: "What can you say!"
RINGO: "Tomorrow never knows."
