{"id":1224,"date":"2020-02-09T19:00:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2020-02-09T19:21:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T00:21:41","slug":"the-beatles-took-the-u-s-by-storm-and-then-almost-got-taken-by-a-storm-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/the-beatles-took-the-u-s-by-storm-and-then-almost-got-taken-by-a-storm-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles took the U.S. by storm, and then almost got taken by a storm themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (pictured here during a solo show at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in 2015) – first appeared in the United States on Feb. 9, 1964, on the “Ed Sullivan Show.”
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In February 1964, a snowstorm had blasted the northeast. The region was paralyzed and air travel had virtually shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandy Yaguda was at his home in Brooklyn, waiting out the storm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaguda \u2014 stage name Sandy Deanne \u2014 was one of the original members of the group Jay and the Americans, which by winter of 1964 had recorded a couple of hit songs, most notably \u201cShe Cried,\u201d which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the phone rang Feb. 10 at Yaguda\u2019s house. It was the band\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe called and said, \u2018Listen, you guys have to find a way to get to Washington, D.C. You\u2019re playing with the Beatles and the Righteous Brothers tomorrow night,\u2019\u201d said Yaguda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beatles had taken America by a storm even bigger than the one that had rocked the northeast that week. They had made their U.S. debut on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, in New York City, and their first live concert in the U.S. was scheduled just two days later, on Feb. 11, at the Washington Coliseum in the nation\u2019s capital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the heavy snow blanketing the region, all flights had been canceled and the Beatles had taken a train to D.C. for the gig. Originally scheduled to appear with the Beatles at the Coliseum were the Chiffons, an all-girl group from the Bronx who had the hits \u201cHe\u2019s So Fine\u201d and \u201cWill You Still Love Me Tomorrow\u201d in 1963; and Tommy Roe, who had a No. 1 hit with \u201cSheila\u201d in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because of the storm, neither The Chiffons nor Roe could make it to D.C. Instead, the call went out to the Righteous Brothers and Jay and the Americans to fill the bill.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had seen the newsreels of the Beatles, with girls screaming and fainting in Germany. The hype was on but they hadn\u2019t really been here yet. They were just starting,\u201d said Yaguda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay and the Americans made it safely to D.C. the day of the show and upon arrival were immediately greeted by the marquee on the outside of the Coliseum that read, \u201cThe Beatles . . . and others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That didn\u2019t sit too well with Jay Black, the lead singer for Jay and the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFuck this! Turn the car around! We\u2019re leaving!\u201d Yaguda recalled Black saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd me being the voice of reason \u2014 the Ringo of the group \u2014 I said we can\u2019t do that, we signed a contract, we\u2019ll get sued for twice the money. We have to play the show,\u201d said Yaguda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black calmed down and the group unloaded the car and went inside the Coliseum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pre-show press conference with the Beatles was about to start and the members of Jay and the Americans wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So they sat in the grandstand of the Coliseum, close enough to hear what was going on between the reporters and the Beatles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the reporters said, \u2018How did you find America?\u2019 And Ringo said, \u2018We made a left at Greenland.\u2019 We all looked at each other, and we said you know what, these aren\u2019t silly little kids. These kids are sharper than they\u2019re getting credit for,\u201d said Yaguda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show itself was a madhouse. During the performance of the Righteous Brothers, the crowd of mostly young girls chanted \u201cWe want the Beatles!\u201d so loudly that it nearly drowned out the performance of the opening act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, that wasn\u2019t acceptable to Black. When the crowd continued chanting \u201cWe want the Beatles!\u201d during the Jay and the Americans set, Black reacted, but not in anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His instincts turned out to be right this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJay, being who is he, went out and said, \u2018Hey, man, I\u2019m glad you all came out to see us tonight,\u2019\u201d said Yaguda. \u201cAnd they all cracked up. That won them over, so they shut up and listened to us and when we were done, gave us a big round of applause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jay and the Americans finished its set, the band members returned to their dressing rooms in the basement of the Coliseum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout three minutes later, a noise went up the likes of which I\u2019ve never heard in my life, not when the Yankees won the World Series, not when Elvis performed. Because it was an enclosed building, the sound couldn\u2019t escape; it just kept reverberating,\u201d said Yaguda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beatles had taken the stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t die down. It was continuous. We all had to cover our ears with our hands and we just looked at each other in amazement,\u201d said Yaguda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it finally stopped, we said to each other, \u2018Something just happened.\u2019 We saw Elvis and we played with Roy Orbison; we played with a lot of people. And we\u2019ve seen great ovations and we\u2019ve gotten great ovations. This was something entirely different. This was mass hysteria. And we knew without even seeing it. We heard it and we knew it,\u201d said Yaguda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be the only time Jay and the Americans would share the bill with the Beatles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jay and the Americans, seen here in a 2017 show in New Brunswick, New Jersey, were a last-minute fill-in to open for the Beatles in their first U.S. concert on Feb. 11, 1964, in Washington, D.C.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February 1964, a snowstorm had blasted the northeast. The region was paralyzed and air travel had virtually shut down. Sandy Yaguda was at his home in Brooklyn, waiting out the storm.  Yaguda \u2014 stage name Sandy Deanne \u2014 was one of the original members of the group Jay and the Americans, which by winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":1230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36,310],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-beatles","tag-jay-and-the-americans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}