I was not a Beatles novelty record collector in the very beginning of the British Invasion. The collecting of those records came much later after the Beatles had the immense cultural impact that not many had envisioned or predicted.
Ironically, the impetus or drive to begin collecting the records did not come from a fellow collector in the US or the UK. When I ran my former Facebook Beatles in Print page, I came in contact by email with a collector in Russia who specialized in acquiring by trade all of the possible Beatle novelty recordings that he could possibly find. The first time I came across his website I was totally flabbergasted and amazed at the sheer volume of the number of Beatles novelty records in existence. Rather than seek out the very expensive individual 45’s, I figured a more reasonable financial decision was to exchange rare recordings that I had for the corresponding rare recordings I wanted from the Russian collector.
Novelty Records
He had amassed a total of virtually 20+ or more CDs of Beatle novelty records and I was able to secure most of them for my own personal collection via the trade route. The Russian collector is no longer reachable at his former email address. Not aware if he was shut down by his government or he simply decided to stop collecting. I was able to capture at his site the listing of cds that he had of Beatles novelty records at one time and it is truly amazing. Providing the listing for you for informational and for educational purposes to show you the nearly full gamut of material that is/was out there. Many of the novelty records can be generously described as being bad (bad lyrics, bad tune, or bad singing).
However many are clever, funny and you may find yourself singing along to. The novelty records represent a wide disparity in some of the subjects covered from the initial hysteria of Beatlemania with discussion of their long hair, the effect the band was having on the female population, John’s comments about religion and his escapades with Yoko, to the Paul McCartney is Dead rumor. I was shocked to also see so many foreign language Beatles novelty records. It must have been a form of Western cultural arrogance on my part thinking that English speaking audiences are the only group the Beatles would appeal to. I want to make a clear definitional distinction in what constitutes a true Beatles novelty record. First of all, a novelty record is hardly ever a Beatles cover record. A more accurate descriptor of a novelty record is when an artist records their own unique song. It is a distinct song written by the artist to reflect a viewpoint about the Beatles or something the Beatles have said or done.
Legal Clearance?
However, it must be noted that there are some novelty records that in listening to them you might question if the artist had the legal clearance by the Beatles and their business operation to clear the record for release. The one that I question the most are the songs where the novelty records cite samples of actual Beatle recordings. Some of the Beatles novelty records you will see on the lists below will astound you. For example, there is a record by Bonnie Jo Mason, who just happens to be Cher who records a song written by none other than Phil Spector about Ringo called Ringo, I Love You. There is a record by Sissy Spacek called John, You‘ve Gone Too Far This Time about the nude album cover.
Beatles Forever
There is a song by ELO called Beatles Forever which discusses the bands infatuation with the Beatles. There is a song by Terry Knight of Grand Funk Railroad fame dealing with the Paul McCartney death hoax (rumor). Remember Jose Feliciano, well he wrote a novelty record using a pseudonym named Werbley Finster about Paul McCartney being dead and the song was called So Long Paul. Here’s one that I really found the underlying story to be fascinating. Carol Connors (born Annette Kleinbard on November 13, 1941) wrote a song called I want to Marry a Beatle for a film called Girls on the Beach. The writer of this song also happened to be the lead female singer of The Teddy Bears who sang lead vocals on To Know Him Is to Love Him, written by Phil Spector.
The Girls On The Beach – I Want to Marry A Beatle – YouTube
The Teddy Bears – To Know Him Is To Love Him – 1958 – YouTube
Carol Connors was later to write the hit tune Gonna Fly Now for one of the Rocky films!
Many of these stories that I am sharing with you were shared by fabulous writer Terry Crain in his wonderful Copyrighting the Beatles, 3-Volume book series. Wait until you see the big surprise being currently worked on and being planned by Mr. Crain! One thing I can tell you about it is- YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!!!
Going to finish this post by sharing the details of the contents of the cds put together by the Russian collector that I traded with. Wish I could re-establish contact with him but he just seemed to one day disappear and I embarassingly no longer even remember his name. Well, he produced a great list of Beatles novelty records that he had acquired for his personal collection. I hope he is well and happy, wherever he is!!!
What do you think about Novelty Records? Are you interested in them?
Let me know in the comments.
Buzz
The List of Beatles Novelty Records
Here is his list!
Not all of what you see below would be considered in the category of what we would term Beatles novelty records, but a significant amount of them certainly fall under that category:
The gentleman from Russia’s BEATLES NOVELTY Want List- I was able to find a couple of these for him
I do not know if our Russian collector friend has a valid email anymore or if the respective governments are prohibiting email contact between the 2 countries but this was the email address I used to use to make the trades with in Russia (zuir@mail.ru) and this email was published on the site containing the lists provided above.
Here are a few examples of a few Beatle novelty records that I purchased on either Ebay or Amazon in recent years:
This release of Beatles novelty records was issued by Ace Records:
This is the track listing of the Ace recording:
This particular release had some controversy surrounding it as a previous cover of the release had a characterization of the individual who assassinated John pictured on the cover. When irate fans complained, the release was properly issued with a different cover.
This is the track listing on the back cover:
A SMALL SAMPLE OF THE BEATLES NOVELTY RECORDS THAT ARE OUT THERE….SOMEWHERE!!!
Donna Lynn – I Had A Dream I Was A Beatle (STEREO) – YouTube
Four Preps – A Letter To The Beatles (1964) – YouTube
Pop Hates the Beatles – Allan Sherman – YouTube
Las Chics – Yo quiero un Beatle (México, Girl Group) – YouTube
The Bon Bons – What’s Wrong With Ringo – vinyl 45 – YouTube
Steven Hartley – The Beatles Forever – YouTube
The Young World Singers – Ringo for President 1964 45rpm – YouTube
The BEATLES – Dora Bryan – All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle..1963 – YouTube
Penny Valentine – I Want To Kiss Ringo Goodbye – YouTube
Pat Wyntyer – Ringo, I Want to Know Your Secret
Veronica Lee with The Moniques – Ringo Did It – YouTube
Three Blonde Mice – Ringo Bells – YouTube
Cher: Ringo, I Love You (YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!) – YouTube
Christine Hunter – Santa Bring Me Ringo – YouTube
Whippets – Go Go Go With Ringo – 1964 Josie 921.wmv – YouTube
Brad Berwick – I’m Better Than The Beatles – YouTube
Donna Lynn : My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut – YouTube
Vernons Girls – We Love The Beatles (Beatlemania)
The Carefrees – We love You Beatles (1964) – YouTube
THE MINUTE MEN – PLEASE KEEP THE BEATLES IN ENGLAND – YouTube
Beatle-ettes – Only Seventeen – YouTube
Treat Him Tender, Maureen – Angie And The Chicklettes (Lyrics)
Dick Pillar – Beatle Song – YouTube
The Starlettes – Ringo – vinyl 45
My Ringo – Rainbows ’64 Dot 16612
Rex Miller – Ringo’s Doctor – YouTube
Beetle-Bomb – The Exterminators – YouTube
The Bootles – I’ll Let Hold My Hand (1964)
Carlo Fair – Beetle Bounce – YouTube
Jack Nitzsche – Beatle-Mania – YouTube
Beatle Crazy [1983 ] – Bill Clifton – YouTube
Ray Ruff & The Checkmates – Beatle Maniacs – YouTube
Beatle Fan by Zeke Mullins – YouTube
THE OTHER RINGO (Beatles Novelty) by DON BOWMAN from 1966 – YouTube
Gene Moss – I Want To Bite Your Hand (The Beatles Parody)
Casey Kasem – Letter From Elaina (1964) – YouTube
The Bulldogs John Paul George And Ringo. – YouTube
Bret & Terry – Beatle Fever – YouTube
Twiliters – My Beatle Haircut – Roulette 4546 – 1964 – YouTube
Murry Kellum I dreamed I was a Beatle Memphis
the fondettes – the beatles are in town – YouTube
Rainbo John You Went Too Far This Time – YouTube
Electric Light Orchestra – Beatles Forever [Audio Restoration] – YouTube
Gigi Parker and the Lonelies – Beatles Please Come Back – vinyl 45 – YouTube
Annette Funicello – Tall Paul – YouTube
Paula Lamont – A Beatle Meets A Lady Bug – YouTube
Teen 45 – Bobby Wilding – I Wan’t To Be A Beatle – YouTube
The Jones Boys – Beatlemania – 1964 Instrumental – YouTube
Little Cheryl – Yeh Yeh We Love Them All – Nick And Joe Callin – YouTube
The Outsiders – The Guy With The Long Liverpool Hair – YouTube
The Phaetons : THE BEATLE WALK – YouTube
The Beatle Flying Saucer – Ed Solomon (1964) – YouTube
The Bedbugs – Yeah, Yeah – YouTube
Larry Halloway – Beatle Teen Beat – Parkway 45 – YouTube
B Brook and the Sultans – 30 lb Beetle – YouTube
Beatle Wig Party Exterminators – YouTube
The Girls On The Beach – I Want to Marry A Beatle
Beatle Wig Party Exterminators – YouTube
Terry Knight – Saint Paul (Higher Quality) – YouTube
So Long Paul Werbley Finster – YouTube
Beatle Rap / The Qworymen – YouTube
Tom Paxton ‘Crazy John’ – YouTube
the fondettes – the beatles are in town – YouTube
The Mystery Tour-The Ballad of Paul (New Stereo Mix) – YouTube
As impressive and as lengthy the list from our friend from Russia is above, there are more Beatles novelty records out there than what are shown in those lists, many more!!! That can either be welcome news or disheartening news, depending on your point of view…
In either case, we hope you you enjoyed this post about this form of specialty Beatles collecting!!!
Buzz
Our book of the week at The Beatles Bookstore
It’s All Too Much
It’s All Too Much is the unique memoir by music industry veteran David Stark, who grew up in north London during the 1960s as a dedicated Beatles fan and was lucky enough to meet his musical heroes on various memorable occasions. From gate-crashing the Yellow Submarine film premiere in 1968 (aged just fifteen) and ending up sitting directly behind the group, to meeting all of them individually in some extraordinary circumstances, David has some highly entertaining stories about his many Beatles encounters which have never been told before.
