The Beatles in Canada - The Origins of Beatlemania! The Beatles in Canada - The Origins of Beatlemania!

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The Beatles in Canada
The Origins of Beatlemania


A new book that finally tells the real story of The Beatles' rise to fame in Canada in 1963... months ahead of their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance... is complete and ready to go to press!

Canada’s part in the Beatles' rise to fame in North America has never been properly documented – or understood. This book changes that!

This book is the most authoritative account of just how The Beatles topped Canada’s charts in 1963, told for the very first time by the people who were there and by the people who made it happen.


1963… The Beatles Invaded Canada!

Canadian teens fell in love with The Beatles months before teens in the U.S. did. Here are the events, people and stories that led to Beatlemania in Canada during 1963 and 1964. This great and much awaited new book celebrates the release of the Beatles first records in North America and their very first number one charted record in Canada, She Loves You. The book is the definitive, exhaustive and authoritative reference work that thoroughly delves into the roots of Beatlemania in Canada and continues its way to chronicle the actual events at the dawn and rise of the Beatles fame in Canada. The author has spent many years researching his subject, and has conducted extensive first-hand interviews with the most important people who made it happen in the Canadian music industry from the late 1950s onwards.

The book opens with a narrative on the birth of Rock And Roll in Canada and pays homage to the pioneers. Following that are in depth profiles of the music industry and radio station insiders who made the Beatles a success in Canada many months before the Beatles broke in the USA. Canada's unique Beatles story has never been told like this before. There are exclusive interviews with record company executives, radio station Disc Jockeys, and even the earliest fans who started the first Beatles fan clubs in Canada. Also covered are the detailed stories of the teens who played and listened to the Beatles records before anyone else. Last but not least are the important yet little known facts and stories behind the making and selling of the records. No stone has been left unturned, and the book serves as the reference point for the very start of Beatlemania in North America, not just Canada.

This richly-illustrated book contains 444 pages. It documents the creation, marketing and distribution of the Beatles music in Canada, and lists the earliest radio station chart successes in the most remote outposts of Canada. There are chapters on trans-Atlantic press coverage, the fan clubs, original Beatles advertising, record reviews and profiles of the key people and places that were involved in this uniquely Canadian story.

The book includes Forewords by noted Beatles expert and British author Mark Lewisohn, and extensive contributions by Capitol of Canada's Paul White - the A&R man who put his career on the line in early 1963 to issue the Beatles music in North America before anyone else.

Thoroughly illustrated with original photos and artifacts, the author has had unique access to the archives of the key players in the history of the Beatles in Canada, and also to private collections of Canadian Beatles artifacts going back more than 50 years. But the best of the book lies in the stories of the young fans who in some wonderful cases brought Beatles records to Canada from England in the summer of 1963 and turned on their friends to these new sounds. This unique book and its approach will set a new benchmark for other Beatles history books. A must read for all of the Beatles history buffs out there.

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Author's Background

The author has followed The Beatles since he first saw them in England in early 1963. He holds an MBA from the University of Toronto. From the early 1970s was a pioneer in the field of computing applications. He has published earlier highly respected/pioneering reference books about the Beatles recordings in Canada. His books have sold to Beatles fans around the world, and they have been acquired for music history library collections in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. A Prime Minister, and yes even a world famous Beatle, have acquired his Beatles Canadian reference books. He has been a regular contributor to the British Beatles Fan Club Magazine and has provided articles over the years to Goldmine Magazine and Record Collector Magazine. He has provided detailed archival research on special project assignments for EMI Music Canada and Universal Music Canada. Over the years, Piers has met and interviewed many of the important Pop musicians and artists from the 1960s including members of some of his “fave rave” groups The Kinks, The Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Four Seasons, Manfred Mann and others.



©2015 Piers Hemmingsen