Britain and America in the early 1960s

Now let us look at Britain in this period, and what led to the British Invasion of America in 1964. Remember: early on I stressed that this course is almost entirely rock history from an American angle. This section is an exception—we take a British view. In many ways, rock history from Britain looks quite different. British students have the most to say here. So do not assume that talking about the same musicians means the situations match. Sometimes the similarities make us miss important, clear differences.

Here is Britain at the end of the 1950s and start of the 1960s. If you check British charts before 1963, American pop clearly dominates. Compare U.S. hit singles of 1961–62 with British charts of the same time: mostly the same records. Most are by American artists, not British ones. Even British artists often imitate their American peers. I think many British musicians felt their music was not as good as American music, but at least it was home-made local product. As for American attitudes—we will come to that—they of course assumed British music was inferior. The Beatles and the Stones would completely change that. For now I want to stress a fact: even the British may have felt their music was lesser. During World War II many Americans came to Britain and brought their popular music; the British largely became fans of American pop. So the best pop, to them, was American pop.

Among those who imitated American artists, a large share mainly imitated Elvis Presley. Britain’s most important imitator was probably Cliff Richard. From 1958 to 1963 he had 27 singles on the British charts. Cliff Richard rarely made noise on American charts, but in Britain he was like Elvis—hit after hit. He was a very, very successful star. Britain also had teen idols. In the last chapter we mentioned Bob Marcucci in Philadelphia packaging young teen idols. In Britain the specialist was Larry Parnes. He managed a stable of teen idols including Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, and Billy Fury. You can tell from the stage names: bold, exciting performers. They too scored hit after hit. To Americans these records basically did not exist—they never saw them. That was part of the British scene. From a British angle you have to include it. That was the situation facing the Beatles, the Stones, and others before British pop made its worldwide name.

Of records that crossed the Atlantic and became hits in the early 1960s, only two really scored huge success. One was “Telstar,” an instrumental by the Tornadoes that topped charts in Britain and America in 1962. The Tornadoes were actually Billy Fury’s backing band. Cliff Richard also had a backing band, the Shadows, who had a run of British hits. So the Tornadoes’ “Telstar” became an international—or American—hit. Interestingly it was written and produced by legendary British producer Joe Meek; in many ways he was like Britain’s Phil Spector. I think Spector’s U.S. achievements may outrank Meek’s in Britain, but Meek was still an important early independent producer.

British record labels and radio also worked quite differently, so the British scene looked different from America’s in many respects. For the U.S. we talked about regional radio and how music was played—lots of stations of many kinds. That created room for specialization: R&B, country and western, mainstream pop, and so on. We also had many labels; independents mattered a great deal. Last time we saw how important independents were in pushing rock to a mass audience. Britain was different. The British had the BBC; in many ways they created that situation themselves—broadcast licenses required stations to stay aligned with the government. So outside the BBC there was little to hear. You chose among three BBC channels, that was it. There was also Radio Luxembourg, broadcasting from the Continent, and illegal stations on ships offshore sending signals home. The problem was that broadcasts like Radio Luxembourg had to pay labels when they programmed records. As for labels, true British independents were few. The path was hard, the market small, and majors held tight control. Without many stations to take music to the public, and with limited record shops—in a smaller population many dealers had little interest in digging through independents; they already got plenty from the majors—independents struggled to stay afloat. That also meant most so-called rock the British heard had passed layers of screening by the BBC and the majors. What they could access was very limited. I think British musical variety may have lagged America’s then, yet Britain had a different kind of variety, because they also had many British artists of their own.

A famous early movement in British pop—important for our 1960s discussion—was skiffle (sometimes glossed as “noise jazz” or “improvised rock”). Lonnie Donegan led it; he had been in a jazz big band. We will also mention trad jazz. Donegan adapted American folk, added big-band elements, and a heavier beat via drums—though sometimes he kept tradition and used a washboard for percussion. His version of the traditional “Rock Island Line” reached No. 8 in Britain and even No. 8 in the U.S. in 1956. Hits of this kind in Britain were often called the skiffle craze. Kids across Britain bought cheap acoustic guitars, learned first-position chords—G, C, D, Am, Em—and learned skiffle tunes that were essentially adaptations of American traditional folk. This was before the U.S. folk revival of about 1958–59; the British were already playing skiffle in 1956–57. Music built from easy chords and simple melodies deeply shaped the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Jimmy Page. In fact there is a TV clip of teenage Jimmy Page as a skiffle player on a variety show. So skiffle mattered a great deal. Look at what the Beatles did in 1963–65 and you can still find skiffle traces.

Other things were popular in Britain then. People were keen on so-called trad jazz. In Britain trad jazz was less like big band or bebop and closer to a Dixieland feel—very old New Orleans jazz. Important British trad artists included Ken Colyer, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, and Acker Bilk. Two British hits topped the U.S. charts: “Telstar,” already mentioned, and “Stranger on the Shore” by the Acker Bilk orchestra, No. 1 in 1962. So when we talk about the Beatles’ breakthrough and their run of No. 1s, know they were not the first British act to do it—though of course they had more No. 1s and longer success. That roughly sketches the trad jazz circle.

There was also a movement with few chart records, but we can name the participants: blues revivalists. People like Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner, and John Mayall took part. When we talk about the roots of the Rolling Stones and related bands—Yardbirds, Animals, and so on—this movement matters. They were deeply into American blues and worked hard to imitate it.

So looking back at this period, remember skiffle, trad jazz, and blues revivalists. These musicians may have been dazzled by Americans who arrived during the war, and became fascinated with so-called vernacular music in American culture. Sometimes that fascination came from educated, well-read middle-class people, yet the music they loved was most tied to the poorest and most oppressed strands of American culture. That is a curious pattern. We do not have time for the sociology, but it is worth noting—because for many British musicians we are about to cover, that is the root of what “traditional music” meant. I have given you a sketch of Britain before 1963; next, the rise of the Beatles.