1964 - Beatlemania grips America

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The Pop Year:

• First Edition of Top Of The Pops, includes Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and Dave Clark Five.
• Beatlemania grips America as Fab Four tour the USA.
• Beatles have twelve singles in USA top 100, including the five.
• Chuck Berry tours UK.
• The Rolling Stones tour US - cause hysteria on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• Sam Cook shot and killed in Los Angeles motel.
• Beach Boy Brian Wilson suffers a nervous breakdown.
• R&B harmonica player cyril Davies dies.
• Pye signs The Kinks.
• The Bluebeat label forms to distribute Jamaican Ska in the UK.
• Debut single by The High Numbers - soon to be The Who.
• Pirate radio's Caroline and Atlanta begin broadcasting from the North Sea. A survey shows Radio Caroline having more listeners than the BBC.
• Brian Wilson stops touring with The Beach Boys to concentrate on writing and production.

Singles:

• The Animals - House of the rising Sun; I'm Crying
• P.J Proby - Hold me
• Dusty Springfield - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself; I only Wanna Be With You
• Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1; Do Wah Diddy Diddy
• The Nashville teens - Tobacco road
• The Kinks - You really Got me; All Day and All of the Night
• Cilla Black - Anyone Who Had a Heart; You're My World
• Billy J Kramer - Little Children
• Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over; Bits and Pieces
• The Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away; It's All Over Now; Little Red Rooster
• The Hollies - Just One Look; Here I Goo Again
• Jim Reeves - I Love You Because
• The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love; I feel Fine
• Peter and Gordon - World Without Love
• The Bachelors - Diane; I Believe
• The Searchers - Don't Throw Your Love Away; When You Walk in The Room; Needles and Pins
• Millie - My Boy Lollipop
• Dionne Warwick - Walk on By; You'll Never Get To Heaven
• The Four Pennies - Juliet
• Chuck Berry - No Particular Place To Go
• Gerry and the Pacemakers - Don't let the Sun Catch You Crying; I'm The One
• Mary Wells - My Guy
• Roy Orbison - It's Over; Oh Pretty Woman
• The Swinging Blue Jeans - Hippy Hippy Shake; You're No Good
• Lulu and the Luvvers - Shout
• Little Richard - Bama Lama Bama Loo
• The Barron Knights - Call Up the Groups
• The Honeycombs - Have I the Right
• Marriane Faithfull - As Tears Go By
• Dave Berry - The Crying Game
• The Zombies - She's Not There
• Hermans Hermits - I'm Into Something Good
• The Beach Boys - I Get Around
• The Supremes - Where Did Our 'love Go; Baby Love
• Sandie Shaw - Always Something There To Remind Me
• Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers - One Way Love
• The Shangri La's - Remember (Walking In The Sand)
• TheRonettes - Do I Love You; Baby I Love You
• The Rockin' Berries - He's In Town
• Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders - Um Um Um Um Um Um
• The Pretty Things - Don't Bring Me Down
• Martha and the Vandellas - Dancing in the Street
• Petula Clark - Downtown
• Gene Pitney - I'm Gonna Be Strong
• Georgie fame - Yeh Yeh
• Val Doonican - Walk Tall

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Albums:

• The Beatles - A Hard Day's night; Beatles For Sale
• The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones
• Cliff Richard and the Shadows - Wonderful Life
• Roy Orbison - In Dreams; Oh Pretty Woman
• Joan Baez - Joan Baez in Concert Volume 2
• The Bachelors - Sixteen great Songs
• The Animals - Animal tracks
• Louis Armstrong - Hello Dolly
• Booker T and the M.G's - Green Onions
• Los Bravos - Black is Black
• Georgie fame - Fame at Last
• The Four Pennies - Two Sides Of the Four Pennies
• The Hollies - Stay With The Hollies; In The Hollies Style
• Dave Clark Five - A Session With
• The Kinks - The Kinks
• Manfred Mann - The Five Faces of Manfred Mann
• Peter and Gordon - Peter and Gordon
• Gene Pitney - Blue Gene
• Jim Reeves - He'll Have To go
• The Supremes - Meet The Supremes
• The Swingle Singers - Jazz Sebastian Bach
• Dionne Warwick - Presenting Dionne Warwick
• Bob Dylan - The Times They Are a Changing; Freewheeling; Another Side of
• Elvis Presley - Fun In Acapulco; Kissin' Cousins
• The Searchers - It's the Searchers

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In the news:

• Makarios breaks treaties in Cyprus. Hostilities between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Troops from Britain and Un sent to quell unrest
• Military coup in South Vietnam - Major Khan siezes power
• 'Fanny Hill' ruled obscene
• Cassius Clay world heaviweight champion after defeating Sonny Liston
• Malcolm X leaves black Muslims
• Battles between mods and rockers in Clacton, Brighton and other seaside towns
• Labour wins general election - Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister
• 'Homo Habilis' discovered by Louis Leaky
• Ian Smith becomes Prime Minister of Rhodesia
• Ronnie Biggs found guilty in 'great train robbery' trial
• P.L.O founded in Jerusalem
• Black riots all over USA. Martin Luthor king jailed for civil rights action in Florida
• Three civil rights workers go missing - later found dead in Mississippi, in white backlash
• US army suffer heavy losses in South Vietnam as conflict escalates
• South Africa banned from Olympics
• Brezhnev ousts Khrushchev to become Russian Premier
• President Johnson re - elected
• Martin Luthor king gets Nobel peace prize
• Death penalty abolished in the UK

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T.V:

• The Great War
• The Man From Uncle
• Top of the Pops
• BBC2 launches
• Crossroads
• Match of the Day
• Beyond the fringe
• Cinema
• The Fugitive
• The Likely Lads
• Play School
• Stingray

Top Ten

1. Steptoe and Son
2. Sunday Palladium
3. Coronation Street
4. Dick Powell Theatre
5. Take Your Pick
6. Royal Variety Show
7. No Hiding Place
8. Armchair Theatre
9. It's Tarbuck
10. Crane

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Films:

• A Hard Day's Night
• Goldfinger
• Zulu
• My Fair Lady
• A Fistful Of Dollars
• Night of the Iguana

Books:

• Julian - Gore Vidal
• Meet My Maker The Mad Molecule - J.P Donleavy
• You Only Live Twice - Ian Fleming
• Nova Express - William Burroughs
• The Psychedelic Experience - Timothy Leary
• Why We Can't Wait - Martin Luthor King

The Terminal Beach - J.G Ballard