Promotion
Please Please Them
Radio Appearances
Their first mass-media pitches were on radio, where they initially wooed disk jockeys to play their recordings.
The following are only a very few of the many radio appearances the Beatles made to promote their recordings. Most were on the state-owned BBC.
 
1962
8 March. Teenager's Turn - Here We Go (BBC Light)
12 October. The Friday Spectacular (Radio Luxembourg)
 
1963
22 January. Saturday Club (BBC Light) "Keep Your Hands off My Baby"
25 January. The Friday Spectacular (Radio Luxembourg) EMI's radio program promoting their own pop music. This night, "Please Please Me" gets exposure.
4 June. Pop Go the Beatles (BBC Light). As their British popularity climbs, they begin a 15-week series
10 November. The Royal Variety Performance (broadcast date on BBC Light). Three million tune in on the "wireless" to hear the Beatles play and be cheeky.
26 December. They become so popular that the BBC begins airing a radio series for them: From Us to You (BBC Light). Each program began with a specially recorded theme song, "From Us to You" based on their hit single, "From Me to You." As part of the extensive touring and media promotion, the Beatles excelled at "the interview," coming across as warm and humorous, even when they were exhausted.
Television Appearances
As their popularity grew, so did the variety of media through which they could sell more recordings. The most significant change came when they no longer had to pursue media coverage. Instead, their popularity made them news-worthy, so that the media began to seek them out.
As the Beatles sought out radio and television appearances to sell their records, the media sought out the Beatles, knowing that their inclusion on a broadcast ensured an audience. The following are a few of the many television appearances the Beatles made promoting their recordings.
 
1962
17 October. People and Places (Granada)
 
1963
19 January. Thank Your Lucky Stars (ABC) Arranged by publisher, Dick James to promote "Please Please Me" (See Martin 1994: 130).
4 October. Ready, Steady, Go (Associated Rediffusion)
13 October. Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV). The Beatles top the bill "From Me to You," "I'll Get You," "She Loves You," and "Twist and Shout."
10 November. The Royal Variety Performance broadcast (ATV) culminating with "Twist and Shout"
 
1964
9 February: 50,000 applications swamped The Ed Sullivan Show for the 700-seat theater. The Nielsen ratings for the performance estimate that 23,240,000 homes tuned in, or approximately 73 million people. The Beatles appeared twice and headlined the program. The perform "All My Loving," "Till There Was You," and "She Loves You" at the opening of the show, and close with "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
16 February. Ed Sullivan Show broadcast from the Deauville Hotel in Miami.
25 March. Top of the Pops (BBC). Performance of "Can't Buy Me Love"
 
Concert Tours
The Beatles tours blanketed the UK. Their early tours had them at the bottom of the bill at the beginning of the trip, and at the top by the end. Within a year, standard venues were becoming too small for them, even as contemporary amplification technology attempted to keep up with the venues.
 
1962
The Beatles played many different kinds of venues at first, from dance halls to church halls. Each place they played helped to build their fan base. The ticket to the left is for a performance in Tranmere, Birkenhead, not far from Liverpool where the managers invited them back after only a month.
 
1963
January: Scottish Tour
February-March: Helen Shapiro tour
March: Tommy Roe-Chris Montez tour
April: Mersey Beat Showcase
May-June: Roy Orbison tour
16 November: Winter Gardens Theater, Bournemouth, Hampshire. American television crews from NBC, ABC, and CBS film this show to report on the hysteria.
 
1964
16 January-4 February: Olympia Theatre, Paris
7-22 February: New York; Washington, DC; Miami Beach
4 June-6 June: Denmark and the Netherlands
9 June: Hong Kong
12-30 June: Australia & New Zealand
28-29 July: Stockholm, Sweden
19 August-18 September: US-Canada 2
The Beatles also toured throughout the year in England and Scotland.
 
1965
Europe
USA-Canada (Shea Stadium)
England
 
Films
The tried and true promotion pattern for pop stars was to move from music to movies: Elvis had done it and, in England, Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard had done it. So, in 1963, it was no surprise that Brian Epstein and EMI sought out a production crew to make a quick pound on the probably fleeting success of the Beatles. The film appeared with perfect timing the following summer.
 
1964
6 July. A Hard Day's Night (premiere) with title song, "A Hard Day's Night" penned quickly by Lennon and refined in the studio.
 
1965
6 August. Help! (premiere) with another title song penned by Lennon.
 
Beatlemania Schedule Marketing
  8-feb-12