10 February 1964: Beatles' Records

     During their triumphant first visit to America in February 1964, The Beatles, as George had on his US trip a few months earlier, acquired several new records. In photographs taken in their suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 10 February, we can see a cardboard box from Epic Records and at least one bag from Columbia Records containing a trove of new musical treasures. Pausing only to pose with the newly awarded Gold disc for 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', John tore into the Epic box and John, Paul and George can be seen perusing the selection.

    Unfortunately, although there must have been over a dozen records, we can really only clearly see three. In the photo of George, we see the back cover of Ben E King's Don't Play That Song! LP released in 1962 on Atco Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic). In the colour photo of John and Paul, we can see part of the front cover in Paul's lap. Most notably, this sophomore album contained King's classic 'Stand By Me'. Funnily, the much less popular title track 'Don't Play That Song (You Lied)' shares almost all of the same arrangement elements as 'Stand By Me' and sounds very similar.

    The other most prominent record in the colour photo is The Freewheeling' Bob Dylan. Dylan's sophomore album was released 27 May 1963 on Columbia Records. The story goes that The Beatles borrowed this album from French radio station Europe 1 after an interview for Salut les Copains (the radio program, not the magazine) in their Paris studio on 20 January 1964. They liked it so much that they bought it a few weeks later in New York. It would also be in New York, when The Beatles returned in August, that they would meet Dylan in person...and we all know what happened at that meeting!

    Lastly, we can just about make out Chuck Jackson's I Don't Want To Cry! at the bottom of Paul's pile. This record was released in 1961 on Wand Records, a division of Sceptre Records. John and Paul both rated Chuck Jackson among their top four favourite singers when asked by New Musical Express in February 1963.