America met Beatlemania after the UK met Beatlemania. It was on November 2, 1963, three months before the Beatles arrived in the US. The London’s Daily Mirror used the term “Beatlemania” in a news story about the group’s concert the previous night in Cheltenham.
Getting closer to…
America meets Beatlemania
November 25, 1963: the release of Beatlemania!With The Beatles album in Canada.
Side one
“It Won’t Be Long”
“All I’ve Got to Do”
“All My Loving”
“Don’t Bother Me” (George Harrison)
“Little Child”
“Till There Was You” (Meredith Willson
“Please Mister Postman” (Georgia Dobbins, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, Robert Bateman)
Side two
“Roll Over Beethoven” (Chuck Berry)
“Hold Me Tight”
“You Really Got a Hold on Me” (Smokey Robinson)
“I Wanna Be Your Man”
“Devil in Her Heart” (Richard P. Drapkin)
“Not a Second Time”
“Money (That’s What I Want)” (Janie Bradford, Berry Gordy)
America meets Beatlemania
December 1, 1963
The New York Times Sunday Magazine, ran a story on “Beatlemania” in the U.K. (NYT Beatlemania)
November 23, 1964: Capital Records released The Beatles double LP. Capital billed it as “a narrative and musical biography of Beatlemania on two long-play records.” The albums featured interviews, press conferences, and songs by the The Beatles. It was The Beatles’ fourth release by Capitol Records.
America meets Beatlemania
Post-mania
Eric Clapton, Bonny & Delany Bramlett, and George Harrison
December 2, 1969: on December 1, George Harrison had watched husband and wife act Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett perform at the Albert Hall in London. On December 2 he joined them on stage in Bristol, for his first stage appearance since The Beatles’ final concert on 29 August 1966.
Freed from the attentions of Beatlemania, he was able to be a largely anonymous band member, although he did sing songs including Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby on at least one occasion. Harrison stayed on the tour for six dates until it ended. They played two shows each night, in Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool and Croydon.
L-R: PFC Victor R. Sheets; SP4 Jim L. Barstad; and SP4 Clint R. Bath of D Co., 12th Inf Regt., 3rd Bde, 4th Inf Div, enjoy their Thanksgiving Day dinner at LZ St. George. 27 November 69.
Good Morning Vietnam Happy Thanksgiving
Long road into American consciousness
An American military presence in Vietnam began in 1950 under President Truman.
Four days after the assassination of President Kennedy, on Tuesday 26 November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s new administration reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the Republic of Vietnam.
The American public’s conception of the war did not began until August 1964 when naval attacks by the North Vietnamese was reported and on August 7 the U.S. congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to take whatever actions he saw necessary to defend southeast Asia.
Good Morning Vietnam Happy Thanksgiving
Fog of War
In 2003, Sony Pictures Classics released Errol Morris‘s documentary “Fog of War.” In it, Robert McNamara, President Johnson’s Secretary of Defense. admitted that there was no actual second attack.
Good Morning Vietnam Happy Thanksgiving
Increased troops/casualties
In any case, as you can see, following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the American presence in Vietnam, and the resulting casualties, increased dramatically.
Thanksgiving in the Vietnam War 1965…from President Johnson to the armed services: Today Americans of all faiths gather in their homes and places of worship and give thanks for the blessings of our great land. [Thanksgiving and Vietnam, 1965]
Thanksgiving in the Vietnam War 1966… Most American servicemen in Vietnam will haveThanksgiving dinners tomorrow starting off with shrimp cocktail and going on through turkey and giblet gravy…. [Thanksgiving and Vietnam, 1966]
Thanksgiving in the Vietnam War 1968…Some 500,000 pounds of turkey are on the way to mess halls and tents throughout South Vietnam… [Thanksgiving and Vietnam, 1968]
Thanksgiving in the Vietnam War 1969… More than a hundred G.I.’s serving in a field evacuation hospital here boycotted Thanksgiving dinner today… [Thanksgiving and Vietnam, 1969] [see also]
Good Morning Vietnam Happy Thanksgiving
Alice’s Restaurant
The day after Thanksgiving 1965, Friday 26 November, Great Barrington police arrested Arlo Guthrie for littering in the nearby town of Stockbridge, MA. The resulting adventure would be immortalized in his song “Alice’s Restaurant,” one of the most influential protest songs of that era.
Good Morning Vietnam Happy Thanksgiving
John Lennon
By the mid-60s’ Beatlemania was gone, but individual Beatles still had an impact.
On November 26, 1969, the day before the American Thanksgiving celebration, John Lennon returned his MBE to the Queen as an act of protest against the Vietnam war.
Your Majesty,
I am returning my Member of the British Empire as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts.
If a music fan hears the band name Youngbloods, the person they’ll often think of next is Jesse Colin Young, that band’s lead singer.
And the song that most people think of Jesse singing “Get Together.”
Youngblood Jesse Colin Young
A bit of his beginning
From Jesse’s Facebook page: Jesse was born and raised in Queens, New York in 1941, and his earliest family memories are filled with the joy of music and celebration. His mother was a violinist who had a beautiful singing voice of perfect pitch, and his father was a Harvard- educated accountant with a passion for classical music. Along with his older sister, the family spent evenings gathered around the piano singing Harvard fight songs and other lively tunes.
At 15, the talented student won a scholarship to Phillips Andover, the all boys prep school in Massachusetts. The rigorous curriculum and strict discipline the school required ultimately resulted in Jesse being kicked out of the exclusive academy – an event which forever changed the course of his life. The blues were calling his name and the next few years were spent exploring the music of T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters for inspiration and consolation.Jesse Colin Young recorded his first album in 4 hours, accompanying himself on guitar. That release was called THE SOUL OF A CITY BOY.
Youngblood Jesse Colin Young
Youngblood
A second album, YOUNG BLOOD, featured supporting musicians, including John Sebastian.
Youngblood Jesse Colin Young
Fame came knocking
“Get Together” or “Let’s Get Together” already had a long history before Youngbloods put it on their first album in 1967 and before the song’s refrain refrain of “Come on people now, smile on your brother” was used as the television theme for the National Council of Christians and Jews.
It was re-released in 1969, and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1994, the song appeared in the movie Forest Gump and introduced the classic song to a new generation of listeners.
Young’s song “Darkness Darkness”was in Jack the Bear (1993), chosen as the theme song for the James Cameron movie Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and was in the trailer of TV series Bloodline (2015).
A cover of the song by Robert Plant won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal in 2002.
Youngblood Jesse Colin Young
My first encounter with the Youngbloods and Young was in the spring of 1969 with the release of their third album, Elephant Album.
I was in my college bookstore and flipping through albums. Two guys next to me came upon Elephant Mountain. One commented, “This is one of the only good albums to come out.”
Of course, I bought it shortly afterwards.
Still Youngblood
As with many musician lifers, Jesse Colin Young never left music or recording music.
“The family moved back to the continental U.S. in 2006, but a diagnosis of Lyme’s Disease left Jesse unable to tour for] several years…. Housebound, he launched his own video series on YouTube, “Couch Series with Labrador,” and focused on his recovery. After years of struggle, he began performing again in 2015, with his first show benefitting Saratoga WarHorse to help veterans. A video, “Out Of the Darkness,” featuring Charles Yang and Peter Dugan, was created and is still available on streaming platforms.
His songwriting remained sharp while his health continued to improve, and 2019’s Dreamers — an album that found Jesse writing about topical issues like immigration and the #MeToo movement, backed by a hotshot band that included his son, Tristan, as well as multiple musicians from Tristan’s alma mater, Berklee College of Music — served as another milestone in a career already stocked with highlights. Meanwhile, Jesse also developed an ongoing podcast series, “Tripping on My Roots,” featuring interviews, storytelling, rare collaborations with some of his musical peers, and salutes to his guests’ musical mentors.
When COVID-19 ground the world to a halt in 2020, he launched a new series called “One Song at a Time” — a series of videos that found Jesse performing songs from across his entire career, while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar — and also assembled a new version of “Get Together” featuring Steve Miller on vocals and Stratocaster guitar, Charles Yang on violin, and the sounds of Jesse’s hotshot Berklee band. The re-recorded “Get Together” served not as only as a celebration of the song’s 50th anniversary, but also as a fundraiser to benefit WhyHunger during a uniquely challenging time. Meanwhile, “One Song at a Time” became a success on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, leading Jessie to go back into the studio and record his newest album, Highway Troubadour. An acoustic record rooted Jesse’s singing and deft fingerpicking, Highway Troubadour features newly-recorded solo performances of songs from the songwriter’s entire catalog, including a revised take on the Youngbloods’ “Sugar Babe” and an intimate version of Dreamers’ “Cast a Stone.”
And also from his site: Always holding environmentalism as “a must,” from the time of The Youngbloods to his current endeavors as a performer and teacher, Jesse has even used solar-powered energy for his concerts!
Jesse died at his home in Aiken, South Carolina on March 16, 2025.
Here is a link to Young’s discography from AllMusic.com.
And here is a link to Young’s credits from AllMusic.com
Youngblood Jesse Colin Young
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
