In 1964, it was still considered relatively unheard of for a British band to become popular in America let alone play a concert there. But by the time The Beatles' first American concert in February 1964 rolled around, they were already sitting at the top of the American Billboard Chart. While The Beatles inspire a level of fandom virtually unparalleled, there are still some lesser-known facts about the band. This includes the fact that Sir Paul McCartney ate celery in the background of a famous song or even the fact that John Lennon hated one of his best works. But the true details of The Beatles' first concert Stateside are also something even the most diehard Fab Four fan may not know...
Everyone Wanted To See Them And This Led To A Major Staging Issue
According to an article by The Washington Post, the first concert that The Beatles played in The United States didn't exactly go as swimmingly as they would have hoped. Still, many concert-goers claim that it was one of the most exciting moments of their lives. After all, this, for many Americans, was the very first time they got to hear their new favorite band in person.
At the time, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was the most popular song in America and this opened the door for The Beatles to fly to America for a two-night 'welcome' tour that started with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and was followed by their first U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum.
"We’d seen a lot of British stars come back from America with their tails between their legs. We made a promise to ourselves to not go until we had a No. 1," Sir Paul McCartney said to The Washington Post in 2014. "We were so excited to be madly popular in America, which was to us the Holy Grail because every shred of music we ever loved came from there."
The Washington Coliseum was a unique venue for The Beatles not only because of it being their first American venue but also because it was their first time playing on a stage in the center of a venue. The stage itself was in the middle of the coliseum which meant that the band had to rotate around the stage and really only face each segment of the audience a quarter of the time, according to concert attendees interviewed by The Washington Post.
"That was the first time we’d ever played in the round. We said: 'Do we have to do it?' 'Yeah. We’ve sold tickets everywhere. You’ll have to turn around.' How the hell are we doing to do that? 'Well, just do a few numbers east then shuffle around north. Then do a few numbers north and shuffle around west,'" Paul explained of his conversation with the managers and concert promoters. "We said: 'What’s Ringo doing to do?' He had to shuffle the [drum] kit around himself. The idea that we had our backs and sides to three-fourths of the audience at any point of the show was awkward. We were used to getting them and holding them — paying attention to them and having them pay attention to us. There were a few things we did once with the Beatles, and playing in the round in Washington was one of them. I don’t think I’ve done the in-the-round thing ever since."
The reason the concert organizers made The Beatles play in the center of the arena was that they wanted to fit as many people in there as possible. Instead of fitting 6,000 of 6,500 in the venue, they managed to fit 8,000. And most of the crowd were young women, and this led to the second big issue with the concert...
All Of The Girls Were Screaming And Nobody Could Hear Anything
When you go to a concert, you kind of expect to hear the music, right? Well, many of the concert-goers claim that they barely heard The Beatles sing any of their songs since many of the attendees (most of whom were young females) were screaming at the top of their lungs. Beatles-mania was a real thing and they were all about seeing the Fab Four for the first time in the flesh.
"This is kind of gross, but somebody said — and maybe it was my father — that after the concert was over and everybody had left, you know what the smell was in the Coliseum? It was pee from all these girls who got over-excited," John B. Lynn, the son of the owner of the Coliseum explained to The Washington Post.
On top of this, the acoustics in the arena were very poor at the time. This meant that you had to listen really carefully to actually hear the performers. This was all but impossible with all of the fans screaming over The Beatles' songs. Perhaps this contributed to the fact that the band only played for about 35 minutes in total. On top of this, Paul claims that he doesn't remember them playing all that well.
Even still, fans were thrilled they got to see The Beatles in person for the very first time in America. Luckily for them, they had many opportunities to see them again at better venues that could accommodate all the screaming, the music, and not force the band to play with their backs to the audience for most of the show.