The Beatles vintage Bobble Head Cake Toppers

By the mid 1960s, The Beatles were so famous that everyone was trying to cash in on their popularity.  In order to manufacture products using The Beatles name or likeness, a company would require permission from the band.  However, there were many companies who would manufacture products, which were clearly made to capitalize on The Beatles’ brand without going through legal channels.  These Beatles bobble head figure cake toppers from the mid 1960s are a wonderful example of such a product.

You’ll notice that the package states “The Swingers Music Set,” but doesn’t mention The Beatles by name anywhere on the package.  There are no images of John, Paul, George or Ringo anywhere on the package either.  Although the suits look like The Beatles’ suits and they’ve even giving us a left-handed musician who is obviously supposed to be Paul, the heads probably don’t look enough like the actual Beatles for the manufacturer to get into trouble.  Still, these little toys were sold in huge quantities in their time.  They still turn up relatively often in collectable stores, antique shops and online sales.

The Beatles 1964 Mastro Jr Guitar

After their February 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles were superstars and it didn't take long at all for companies to start capitalizing on their success.  In fact, that same year, stores were already selling Beatles guitars including The Beatles Jr Guitar by Mastro which was basically just a toy (pictured below).  It measured only about 15" in length and had just four strings, so it was definitely made with kids in mind.  However, it was an officially licensed product featuring the image and signature of John, Paul, George and Ringo right on the front and their faces again on the head stock.  The Beatles name also appears on the guitar in two different places.

A similar looking, 30" guitar called the Beatle-ist was also released the same year by Mastro.  The Beatle-ist was still a toy, but closer to a real guitar because it was closer to full size and included the correct six strings rather than the four strings on the Jr.  The Beatle-ist also included an instruction book.  Although I'm not sure of the retail price of The Beatles Mastro Jr Guitar, I have seen advertisements for the Beatle-ist priced at $6.66!

Products like these generated a lot of money because fans in the 1960s just couldn't get enough of The Fab Four!

(The Beatles Mastro Jr Guitar)

On this day in Beatles History...October 18, 1960

The story of drummer Pete Best being asked to leave The Beatles and being replaced by Ringo Starr is probably known even by many casual Beatles fans.  Basically, Mr. Best played with the band from August of 1960 until sometime in the late Summer / early Fall of 1962.  This including their time in Hamburg, Germany.  However, what many people don't know is that John, Paul, George and RINGO (not Pete Best) recorded together backing Lou Walters of The Hurricanes on October 18, 1960 when Pete was still officially the drummer for The Beatles!  The songs were most likely Summertime, Fever and September Song, but there is some confusion about exactly which songs were recorded.  I believe there's a photograph of a vinyl pressing of Summertime, but recollections by those involved differ.  What is certain, however, it that the studio session had been arranged with Ringo on drums because at the time Ringo was the drummer with Lou in The Hurricanes.  That means that the first time The Beatles ever recorded with Ringo was all the way back on this date in October of 1960!

On this day in Beatles History...October 7, 1964

52 years ago today, The Beatles appeared on the television show Shindig!  They opened the show that night with "Kansas City / Hey Hey Hey" before six other acts performed.  The Beatles came on again at the end of the show to close the program with the songs "I'm a Loser" and "Boys."

On this day in Beatles History...May 30, 1966

50 years ago today The Beatles release the Paperback Writer single backed with the song Rain in the USA.  Although the song was released with the standard writing credit of Lennon / McCartney, it is generally believed that the song was written primarily by Paul.  In the studio, the song was recorded in just two takes.  A new method of recording the bass guitar was used on this song because John wanted the bass to sound louder and more powerful like the bass on Wilson Pickett records.  The single went to #1 in several countries around the world including the USA and UK.

The Beatles Hohner Harmonica

Much of The Beatles merchandise didn't make a whole lot of sense, but one item that DID make sense was The Beatles Hohner Harmonica released in 1964.  The harmonica itself was just a standard, German-made Hohner, so there wasn't technically a Beatles harmonica available for sale.  However, the package for this piece is wonderful with a great picture of the Fab 4 on the front and instructions to teach you how to play it on the back along with a picture of John wailing away on his Honer harmonica.  The backing cardboard even opens up and tells you how to play The Beatles songs Little Child and Please, Please Me.  It also came with a box to store your harmonica complete with pictures of The Beatles.  Unfortunately, by the time The Beatles became popular in the USA, they weren't really playing harmonica much anymore.  Still, for just $2.98, you can't go wrong...especially since a Beatles harmonica that's still sealed in the original package sells for around $500 these days!

The Silvers: From Beatles Tribute to Recent Album Release!

A Beatles tribute from 1969 called Silver Laughter toured the United States for about a decade and released a couple of albums of Beatles influenced original music in 1976 and 1978 that did pretty well regionally.  Fast forward to 2014, the band was inducted into the Iowa Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  Seeing the crowd’s reaction to Silver Laughter’s performance at the induction ceremony sparked a renewed interest in the band for bass guitarist and singer Mick Orton.  Since the other members of the band didn’t share his enthusiasm about putting the band back together, Mick recruited a new team and started work on a new record.

They called the band The Silvers and this new band just released an album of brand new songs called After The Laughter.  Don’t let the downer of a title fool you though.  The songs on this album aren’t as depressing as the name would suggest.  They are mostly infectious Beatles influenced songs with memorable melodies, but I can also hear some influence by The Rolling Stones (It’s Alright), Michael Jackson (Down And Out), and America (When The Time Comes).  Stand out tracks include No More (This Time I Mean It), the Monkees influenced Sunday Girl, the ballad Nothing Really Matters and probably the best song on the album, Hey, Marie.

The Silvers on Facebook! 

CLICK HERE to buy the album!

On this day in Beatles History...March 22, 1965

51 years ago today on March 22, 1965, a brand new Beatles record was released in America!  Unfortunately, that record was filled with previously released songs.

The Beatles were flying back to England after seven days spent filming the movie Help! in Austria as their fans in the United States were enjoying Capitol Records' release of The Early Beatles.  At least it was being enjoyed by new Beatles fans or fans who had worn out their copy of Introducing The Beatles which had been released on the Vee-Jay record label the previous year and contained an almost identical collection of songs.  Capitol Records had originally passed on their option to release The Beatles records in The United States, so Vee-Jay records scooped up the opportunity.  In 1965, Vee-Jay's contract ended and Capitol very quickly snapped it up and started releasing albums to make up for lost time.  The fact that this collection was essentially a re-release of old material gave it the distinction of being the only original release by Capitol Records that didn't chart in the top two.  In fact, it's highest chart position was #43.  As testament to The Beatles staying power, the album did still eventually sell over one million copies and get certified as platinum!

The Beatles 1968 Corgi Yellow Submarine Toy

By 1968, merchandise for The Beatles has already been around for several years.  It was no surprise that when The Yellow Submarine movie came out that there was a yellow toy submarine available for sale.  What probably was a surprise was that the yellow toy submarine released by Corgi in 1968 was of such high quality!  This toy was made of a very solid metal with a good amount of weight to it.  The periscope spun around and there were two little hatches that could be opened up to see the The Beatles inside.

Although Corgi didn't start making toys that tied in with movies and TV shows until 1965, had been making high quality, metal, toy cars in the UK since 1956, so they already had a lot of experience making a solid toy by the time The Yellow Submarine was released in 1968.  Additionally, from 1965 to 1968 they crafted so many toys to tie in with movies and TV such as James Bond, The Saint and the TV shows The Avenger and Batman, surely by then it would have been a simple task to create a toy submarine based on a very stylized cartoon.

On this day in Beatles History...March 4, 1966

50 years ago today on March 4, 1966, The Beatles released the Yesterday EP in the UK.  The EP contained the four songs Yesterday, Act Naturally, You Like Me To Much, and It's Only Love.  All four of these songs were previously released on the UK version of Help!  However, none of them were on the US version of Help!

Each of The Beatles sang lead vocals on one song.  Paul sang his phenomenally successful song Yesterday.   Ringo provided the lead vocals on their version of the Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison song Act Naturally.  George sang his song You Like Me Too Much.  John sang a song he co-wrote with Paul called It's Only Love which had originally been titled That's A Nice Hat.

On March 26, 1966, The Yesterday EP hit #1 and spent 6 weeks at the top of the UK charts.  It was around this time that John Lennon made his famous comment that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

On this day in Beatles History...February 17, 1967

49 years ago today on February 17, 1967, The Beatles recorded the majority of the song Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.  Throughout February and March, additional overdubs were also recorded, including numerous recordings of various pianos and organs played by The Beatles' producer, George Martin.  However, it was on February 17 that the bulk of the song was put down on tape.  The recording took place at EMI Studio Two.

The song's strange lyrics are very unusual, even for The Beatles later works!  The song was written based on a circus poster from 1843 that John Lennon purchased from an antique shop a few weeks earlier in Kent when the band was making a film for Strawberry Fields Forever.  Although it was generally assumed that the song was written primarily or entirely by John, Paul McCartney stated in a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone magazine that the pair co-wrote the song while looking at the poster in John's home.  The song title and many of the lyrics were taken directly from the poster.  One lyric that was changes was the name of the horse.  In the song, the horse is called Henry, but on the poster the horse is named Zanthus.  This change led to the song being banned from radio play by the BBC because the words Henry and Horse were both slang for heroin.

The Beatles never performed the song live as a group and it wasn't until Paul McCartney played it at a show in Brazil on May 4, 2013 that any member of the band performed the song live.  After this performance in Brazil, Paul continued to perform the song at concerts through 2015 and even live on The Colbert Report on June 12, 2013, a few weeks after the first live performance!

On this day in Beatles History...February 13, 1967

49 years ago today on February 13, 1967, The Beatles release the Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields single in the USA and became The Beatles 13th #1 single in the USA.  Although both songs are credited to the Lennon / McCartney, Strawberry Fields was written by John Lennon and Penny Lane was written by Paul McCartney.  Both songs were inspired by actual places from their past.  John played in the garden of Strawberry Field.  Penny Lane was written about the Penny Lane bus terminus where Paul and John had to switch buses whenever they went to each other's houses.  It was where the two would meet and hang our or take a bus into the city.

Strawberry Fields was the first song recorded for the Sgt. Pepper album and both songs were recorded during sessions for that album, but when the record company needed a new single, producer George Martin suggested these two.  He mentioned that he believed they were the two best Beatles songs so far.  Because they were released as a single, they were not included on the Sgt. Pepper album.

On this day in Beatles History...February 9, 1964

On February 9, 1964, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and Beatlemania went into full swing in the USA.  Legend has it that Mr. Sullivan had originally offered The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein a very substantial amount of money for a Beatles appearance on his show, but Epstein knew what an opportunity this was and countered with an offer to have The Beatles appear three times at a lower price if they could both open and close each show.  This would give the boys much more exposure.  The plan certainly worked.  Allegedly, their February 9th appearance drew a record breaking 73 million viewers!

On this day in Beatles History...January 30, 1969

It was a glorious day.  It was a sad day.  For 42 minutes on January 30, 1969 The Beatles performed live together in public for the last time ever.  This was the famous performance that took place on the roof of the Apple building.  It was around lunchtime on a Thursday and it was bitterly cold.  Ringo was wearing his wife Maurine's red coat and John was wearing Yoko's fur coat.  It had been almost two and a half years since the boys had last performed together, but they were still wonderful!  While the band played, the microphones were connected to reel-to-reel tape machines in the basement so that the entire performance could be recorded (with the exception of an impromptu performance of God Save The Queen which was not captured in its entirety because the tapes in the basement were being swapped out during that song).

As wonderful as it is to watch the Fab Four making music together again after so long, it is also sad to think that it would never happen again.  The addition of Billy Preston on keyboards is strange to some, but I think it was a marvelous addition to the sound.  I love watching footage of the band performing on this cold London afternoon and I am very glad that the performance took place at all!

On this day in Beatles History...January 16, 1957

The Cavern Club originally opened its doors at 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England on January 16, 1957.  Although it first opened as a jazz club, it is most famous for being the live music venue associated with the early years of The Beatles.  In fact, John, Paul and George played there as The Quarrymen before becomming The Beatles.  Although it's difficult to know exactly how many performances The Beatles had at The Cavern Club, most estimates are that the boys performed there just under 300 times!  In March of 1973, the original Cavern Club closed down.  Since then the club has been re-opened and is still a venue for live music.

On this day in Beatles History...January 13, 1969

The Beatles released the soundtrack for Yellow Submarine in the USA on January 13, 1969.  Considered by many fans to be little more than a contractual obligation, the album didn't have very much in the way of new Beatles songs to offer.  Side one included only 4 new songs.  Of those four, Only A Northern Song was a song recorded for and rejected from Sgt. Pepper.  All of side two is filled with George Martin's score for the film.  Not to say that music isn't excellent, it's just not new Beatles songs.  This soundtrack wasn't released until after The White Album, but it was ready to be released much earlier.  The record label just didn't want this album to compete with that one.  Despite all of that, I really like the songs Hey Bulldog and It's All Too Much.

The Beatles 1965 Lunch Box

I've mentioned before that The Beatles were probably the first musical group to have such a wide variety of merchandise with their name and likeness attached.  One of the most popular items was the 1965 Beatles lunchbox and thermos brought to you by Aladdin Industries Incorporated.  The lunch box features The Beatles performing on one side and their faces with signatures on the other.  The top also featured their signatures under the handle.  The bottom had different images of their faces and sides had images of their instruments.  The thermos features artwork of their faces and signatures on one side with the band playing on the other, but surprisingly, different artwork was used on the thermos than on the lunch box itself.

Although the very first licensed lunch box was manufactured with an image of Micky Mouse in 1935, it wasn't until 1950 that Aladdin Industries began making the metal lunch boxes that many of you probably remember from your childhood - that is, if you were in school before 1990.  Aladdin's first lunch box featured Hopalong Cassidy and sold an amazing 600,000 lunch boxes in the first year of production!  Needless to say, Aladdin began acquiring the licence for more characters and continued to sell similar lunch boxes for several decades.  Today, these vintage lunch boxes are highly collectible.  I believe the 1964 Superman lunch box is typically considered to be the most valuable.  I have seen one sell for $17,000 with the thermos.  Although The Beatles lunch box isn't in the number 1 position, they are usually seen in the Top 10 most valuable lunch boxes.  Even a rusty, beat up Beatles lunch box missing the thermos often sells for more than $100.  The lunch box and thermos pictured below was in excellent condition and sold at auction in 2015 for over $2,000!

On this day in Beatles History...December 26, 1967

If you happened to be sitting around watching TV on the day after Christmas in London 48 years ago today (December 26, 1967), you could have watched the very first broadcast of The Magical Mystery Tour film on the BBC!  The reaction at the time from critics and fans wasn't all that favorable.  To be honest, the reaction was absolutely terrible.  In fact, the reaction was so bad that no one bothered to keep a proper negative of the film so copies of prints were used when the film was distributed later theatrically and on video.

Although the initial reaction was harsh, part of the problem was probably that the vividly colorful film was original broadcast only in Black and White!  It was re-broadcast a few days later in color, but at the time not everyone had color televisions, so many people saw the film for the first time in Black and White.  That probably wasn't the only issue with the film, but it didn't help.  

There was also no script.  The band had a rough idea of what they wanted to accomplish, but the film was mostly improvised.  Almost everything I've read about the film suggest that the entire project was mainly Paul's idea, though he has stated that he's not sure he wants to take the blame for coming up with it.  He also has stated that he thinks the film is better now looking back than it was at the time.  It may not have been the best day to release a film that, at the time, was very strange.  Although some fans think this wasn't The Beatles' finest hour, the album did give us some neat songs and the film gave us our only opportunity to see the band performing some of that music.  What do you think of The Magical Mystery Tour?  I'd love to read your comments below!

Have a Merry Beatles Christmas!

To all of my fellow fans of The Beatles, have a very merry Christmas!

...and just a bit of Beatles trivia, it was on Christmas day of 1959 that Ringo received his very first drum set.  He certainly didn't waste any time considering that in less than 4 years he was in a band at the top of the charts!

On this day in Beatles History...December 19, 1964

It was 51 years ago today on December 19, 1964 that Beatles For Sale reached #1 on the UK charts.  What album did they knock out of the top position?  Their own album A Hard Day's Night!  The band had been working harder than ever in 1964 and Beatlemania was in full swing.  In fact, the recording sessions for Beatles For Sale began in August of 1964 only about a month after A Hard Day's Night was released.  However, most of the recording was done in September.  The record company wanted to release a new record in time for Christmas, so the band was in a rush to write and record this album.  The previous album, A Hard Day's Night, featured all original music, but with pressure to complete the album quickly, the band went back to recording cover songs for Beatles For Sale.  Although there were 6 cover songs on the album along with the 8 songs written by the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team, the album was considered by many to be a turning point for the band in terms of songwriting.  More serious themes were creeping into the lyrics with songs like No Reply, I'm A Loser and Baby's In Black.  Even the wonderful cover photo presents a more serious look at the band.  Photographer Robert Freeman took the picture during a photo shoot in Hyde Park.  This is one of my favorite album covers of all time.  Beatles For Sale remained in the charts for 46 weeks in 1964 and 1965.  Then it returned to the charts for another 2 weeks over 2 decades later when it was released on CD in 1987.