Early Non-Beatles Beatles

A few weeks ago I wrote about non-Beatles Beatles songs, those lovely creations of Fab worshippers/bandwagon jumpers of all stripes. I thought I'd go a bit more in-depth and examine three early faux-Beatles records in some length.

The Chartbusters were, according to Billboard, a Washington D.C.-area combo. Their sole top 40 hit, indeed busting the charts beginning in July 1964, was this aggressive slice of Mersey Lite (or, rather, Mersey Heavy) entitled "She's the One."

Sure, there are some great Fabish moments (the "whoos" are especially funny) here, but also nice, slightly plangent harmonies and a rock-solid guitar attack that owes as much to early rock and roll and even the harsher tones of The Kingsmen or Dick Dale. I believe, but can't confirm, this was the first American hit record to openly steal stylistically from the Fabs.

Apparently this group, whose lead guitarist went on to play with Roy Clark (!) for a long period, was an inspiration for the fictional garage band in the film "That Thing You Do!" starring Tom Hanks.

For those of you familiar with Hit records (a label that released 39-cent 45s of current hits done by studio musicians), "She's the One" reminds me of their productions of early Beatles material. And that is high praise in my book.

Another one tomorrow! Dig.