Fact #191721
When:
Short story:
In the Annual Readers Poll in UK pop weekly the NME (New Musical Express), The Beatles win in the World Vocal Group and British Vocal Group categories. The Rolling Stones are 6th Best British Vocal Group. Meanwhile an imported copy of I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles is creating a stir in America after plays on WWDC Radio in Washington DC, USA.
Full article:
Elizabeth James Duke (wife of WWDC Radio deejay Carroll James) : An American television newscast showed a phenomenon called The Beatles going on in England. The head of the company that owned the radio station, WWDC, had hired a new secretary. Turned out she had once worked for Brian Epstein, The Beatles' manager.
We had a friend who was a pilot on BOAC, and we thought we'd get a copy of it flown over from one of the secretary's friends in Britain. They would give it to the pilot, and the pilot would bring it to America and we would play it.
Carroll played it – on the hour, every hour, for days. Capitol Records, who had the rights in America, went ballistic. They thought of suing us, but they moved forward their release date for the single.
Walter Hofer (NEMS US lawyer) : Out of the blue I got this call from Capitol Records. They wanted to know, was it right that I acted in New York for a British company called NEMS Enterprises? I told them, yes, I did. They said they were trying to find out who controlled the publishing on a song called I Want To Hold Your Hand.
Capitol wanted to get clearance on the publishing side, to be able to ship a few hundred copies into the Washington area. I had to tell them that the publishing rights had been sold to another company, MCA. Sold for almost nothing, it so happened, just to give the song any foothold that was possible over here.
(Source : not known)
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We had a friend who was a pilot on BOAC, and we thought we'd get a copy of it flown over from one of the secretary's friends in Britain. They would give it to the pilot, and the pilot would bring it to America and we would play it.
Carroll played it – on the hour, every hour, for days. Capitol Records, who had the rights in America, went ballistic. They thought of suing us, but they moved forward their release date for the single.
Walter Hofer (NEMS US lawyer) : Out of the blue I got this call from Capitol Records. They wanted to know, was it right that I acted in New York for a British company called NEMS Enterprises? I told them, yes, I did. They said they were trying to find out who controlled the publishing on a song called I Want To Hold Your Hand.
Capitol wanted to get clearance on the publishing side, to be able to ship a few hundred copies into the Washington area. I had to tell them that the publishing rights had been sold to another company, MCA. Sold for almost nothing, it so happened, just to give the song any foothold that was possible over here.
(Source : not known)