Christian Science Monitor hab done a Quiz for Beatle Peedles

[Joe Guy]

I'm miffed at three of them and painfully scored a piano keys worth...

Take the Quiz

[Gob]

48%, I was never a fan.

[Crackpot]

I beat that I got 40%

[MajGenl.Meade]

I hab scored 58% - not very good

[Reality Bytes]

88% only 3 wrong and one of those was me clicking too fast lol My father was a huge fan so I grew up surrounded by Beatles music and am myself a big fan, I inherited all my dads albums, singles, cd's books etc. so if I hadn't scored that high I'd have been really peed off lol

[Big RR]

88% as well; I was a pretty big Beatles fan when they were recording. and there are some pretty badly worded questions.

[Sue U]

48%, I was never a fan.

You and me both, mate.

[Lord Jim]

48%, I was never a fan.

You and me both, mate.

Of course you weren't fans...

Most people actually liked to listen to their music; I'm sure that put you right off...

[Big RR]

Now, now, I recall Sue once admitting to a liking of disco music (something I detested), a style of music that was highly popular and played.

[Long Run]

I've noticed for some time that while there is a lot of music from the 60s and 70s that is still played regularly, the Beatles music is way under-represented relative to their popularity at the time. Much music of that era has aged better, at least judging by popular tastes.

[Sean]

60%... Give me the Stones any day!

[Sue U]

48%, I was never a fan.

You and me both, mate.

Of course you weren't fans...

Most people actually liked to listen to their music; I'm sure that put you right off...

Now, now, I recall Sue once admitting to a liking of disco music (something I detested), a style of music that was highly popular and played.

Well, disco was what was playing in the dance clubs as I was coming of age, and it was perfectly fine for a dance party, although I wouldn't put it on just for listening and I never bought a disco record; and even when it came to club music at that time, I favored the Gamble & Huff/Philly International sound, which I guess was more "R&B soul" than disco. But as I was growing up in the 60s, I hardly heard of the Beatles at all; my pop musical world was almost exclusively Motown (Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson, Four Tops, Temptations, Isley Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5) and to a lesser extent the Phil Specter groups (which were going out of fashion, but still on most jukeboxes). For me, the "British Invasion" was something that was talked about occasionally on TV, but it wasn't on any radio station I was listening to. I think my introduction to rock was later, and largely through the Rolling Stones. I caught some of the Beatles' late stuff, but pretty much missed all their early pop hits entirely. (Of course, I've heard them in the years since, but for the most part, "meh." Who needs Paul McCartney and John Lennon when you've got Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder?)

[Big RR]

Interesting Sue; in the mid to latter part of the 60s most popular music radio played British invasion, and it dominated the charts; while a lot of what you refer to dominated the R&B and soul charts, and made a pretty good inroad into the Top 40, but you must have tuned in to stations playing exclusively R&B/Soul to miss much of the British Invasion music. I guess there were a number of FM stations available then that did that in some areas, but much of what I heard was straight Top 40 Pop. Of course, in the late 60s, the FM alternative rock stations came into being and dominated my listening, and I think the mid to late 70s was when I pretty much gave up on pop radio altogether. But by then stations came about to cater to the wants of particular subsets; if it wasn't for my kids I'd know very little of rap and hip hop (and I prefer that to some of the corporate sponsored pop I hear).

LR--

I've noticed for some time that while there is a lot of music from the 60s and 70s that is still played regularly, the Beatles music is way under-represented relative to their popularity at the time.

Actually, my observation is that 60s music is not played all that frequently; you can find stations that pay 50s music and do early 60s music, or 70s stations that cater to the dance beat of the 70s. But much of the 60s music, from the poetry od Dylan and other folk groups to the late 60s rock takes a back seat to the other genres; the Beatles are right in the middle of this. I've never particularly understood why, but I do think the general leaning of popular tastes is toward dance music (and most 60s music was not this); alternative music leans toward the big rock bands through the 70s. Not a lot of 60s left over, except for the occasional Beach Boys/Jan and Dean hit as summer approaches. Even the Sirius/XM satellite 60s channel has a number of weekly shows that include 50s and 70s music--something you don't see on the 50s or 70s channels.

On the other hand, the Beatles themselves have remained widely popular, even when the music they've produced hasn't been all that good. People line up to see Ringo Starr and buy the records do remakes of old songs, bought a lot of things from Paul McCartney that never lived up (IMHO as well as that of others) to what he did earlier; the same is true for John Lennon (although he died pretty early) and George Harrison (although he tried to chart his own path initially he eventually fell back on using his notoriety as a Beatle to sell records). And many of their songs are iconic and instantly recognizable, even if their own versions aren't played that often on the radio (I heard and instrumental version of Long and Winding Road on an elevator once, e.g.). And even though they recorded less than a decade, I would bet they are at least one of the most, if not the most recognized musical acts since the 50s.

[Sue U]

In the '60s, we had several AM radio stations that we would rotate through, and the DJs were frequently an important factor in where we'd stop to listen: I remember Georgie Woods was on WDAS, Hy Lit was on WIBG and Jerry Blavat was on WFIL (drawing a blank on the popular DJ at WHAT). I hadn't given it much thought til now, but while WIBG and WFIL were typical top 40 stations that included a fair amount of "bubblegum" in the mix, WDAS and WHAT catered more to the "urban" (i.e., black) audience (although Georgie Woods is credited with being among the first, if not the first, to play the Beatles on US radio). I couldn't find any mid-60s playlists for WDAS or WHAT, but here's WFIL (56 AM), for August 28, 1967 (just the first thing that popped up):



Oh, I see the Beatles did have a single in the "Famous 50 plus 6," right behind the Monkees.

And over on competitor WIBG (99 AM) in December '67, the Beatles did have a Number One in the Top 99:




And here's the Top 100 of 1967 from your own WABC in NYC:

http://www.musicradio77.com/ingtop100.html

The Beatles had two on the list; the Monkees had four, the Supremes had three, Aretha Franklin had three and the Temptations had two.

So looking back, I guess the Beatles did show up on hit radio, but were just a part of a very broad mix. But when I think of the music of that time, the Beatles were just not an act I recall hearing much if it all; apart from the radio, when we were at "record parties" or at the community center or at the diner, the music being played was by far much more likely to be Motown R&B than UK pop.

[Big RR]

Thanks for the research, sue; as I recall, the big drawback of stations like WABC was that they really were Top 10 stations that would play the Top 10 (or most of it) every hour, leaving little room for other songs. Certainly, the Motown acts made an appearance (and a healthy one at that), but some songs hung in the Top 10 for weeks and you heard them over and over again.

And interesting you selected 1967; a couple of things happened then--the Beatles changed their focus mid year (after the Sergeant peppers release) away from pop and more toward albums (opening the door for pop groups like the monkees)--they also stopped touring a few years before. Further, that center period of the Beatles releases provided some of their weakest singles, leading them ultimately to pretend Paul died to get back in the headlines (or so the story goes). The 68-70 years produced some of their most iconic pieces, some of which were never even released as singles; some of their biggest hits (Hey Jude, Revolution, Let it Be, Long and Winding Road) and most critically acclaimed songs (A Day in the Life, Eleanor Rigby> Lucy in the Skies, Strawberry Fields, Because, Across the Universe, to name a few) were still to come.

I would imagine 1965 and 66 would be quite different.

[Sue U]

I chose 1967 because it seemed to be a year pretty centrally located in "the mid to latter part of the 1960s" and also because it was a year in which I personally recall being very engaged with popular music (that summer I got a transistor radio mounted on my bicycle's handlebars).

Here's the WIBG Top 99 of the previous year, 1966:



Beatles with four, at 10, 31, 35 and 82. Supremes also had four, at 1, 4, 80 and 98.

Going back to 1965 we're getting into territory where I was a little too young to be very highly attuned to what was on the radio; however, it was evidently a big year for the Beatles on the WIBG Top 99, with five songs (numbers 8, 12, 15, 19 and 25). But the Supremes also had five (numbers 5, 13, 46, 93 and 94):



Like I said, I was vaguely aware of the Beatles in the 60s, but among my peers (and the older kids/adults as well) we were much more into Motown and similar R&B performers.

[Lord Jim]

right behind the Monkees.

Hey, don't be hatin' on The Monkees...

The first album I ever owned was a Monkees album...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Amateur! There was a time when I owned all the Monkees albums plus a second-hand copy of Sergeant Pepper and two Marble Arch albums - Well Respected Kinks and a Donovan LP. I traded the Monkees albums for an acoustic guitar with one broken machine head. By that time Mr Davies and Mr Leitch had departed and been replaced by King Crimson and Leonard Cohen (1968 and onward) and I needed the guitar so I could learn to play Cohen while trying to stay awake on the night shift at Esso Europe, guarding the telex machines (see "Kids react to telex machines") and sending Platts Oilgrams around the world.

Point is, judging by new album sales, the Monkees topped the Beatles in my hovel by about 6 to zero

And one must acknowledge the song-writing genius of Mike Nesmith (world's first real music video), a great stage performer and the only one (aside from Cohen and Janis Ian) that I've ever bothered to go see live (not counting rock festivals). See, the true measure of any artist's value is this - do I like 'em?

[Lord Jim]

so I could learn to play Cohen while trying to stay awake

Mutually exclusive objectives, one would think...

[MajGenl.Meade]