By Brad Gallagher:
Over the coarse of time there have been many famous battles. Such as, The Battle of The Bulge, The Battle of Bunker Hill, and The Battle at Little Big Horn to name just a few. In sports there was the famous “Thrilla in Manilla” between boxers Muhammad Ali and Jo Frazier, the 1980 “Miracle On Ice” hockey game between the US and the USSR, and of course the 1973 “Battle Of The Sexes” tennis match between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
The world of Rock has also had it’s share of famous battles. Like the battle between Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” and AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell”, or the fun loving battle between Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd that was etched into rock history in their songs “Southern Man” and “Sweet Home Alabama” (more about that in a future post). But there was one rock and roll battle that is not quite as well known, and yet it involved two of the most famous groups in rock and roll history.
As The Story Goes:
Back in 1953 Vivian Carter and her husband James C. Bracken started one of the very first African American owned record companies and with the help of some connections they had in the music industry they quickly became a very prominent label on the R&B music scene. But they did not want to limit themselves to signing only R&B artists, so in 1962 they entered into a deal with The Four Seasons after hearing their new song, “Sherry”. The Four Seasons was the first non-R&B group to sign with Vee-Jay records, and was also the first non-black group to be recorded under their label. However, in January of 1964 they decided to leave Vee-Jay due to Vee-Jay records’ reported financial troubles.
In 1963, after very much success in the UK, the Beatles decided to record in the US. They had been releasing their music under the EMI label in the UK, but EMI’s subsidiary in the US, “Capitol Records”, did not want to pick them up due to the fact that fans in the US didn’t even know who they were at that point in time. So, The Beatles looked elsewhere and were able to work a deal with Vee-Jay records. Unfortunately for Vee-Jay, The Beatles did not have great success under their label. In fact, The Beatles song “From Me To You” was their highest ranking song under the Vee-Jay label, only reaching number 116 on the Billboard charts. So, by the end of 1963 the Beatles decided to move on to the Swan label.
There was, however, one shining light for Vee-Jay records as a result of loosing both The Four Seasons’ and The Beatles’ recording contracts, and that was the fact that they retained the rights to their music. The two bands took Vee-Jay records to court, of course, over these rights and when the dust settled Vee-Jay lost. However, they were able to retained the rights to The Four Seasons songs that they had the masters of, and they were permitted to use 16 Beatles songs in any way they wanted to until October 15, 1964.
It was during those few months in 1964 that a battle ensued between these two iconic classic rock and roll bands, and not a single member of either band fought in any part of the battle. You see, Vee-Jay records, in an effort to milk as much profit out of their song rights as possible before loosing them, they released a double album set featuring songs that they had previously recorded by each of these two groups . This album was titled “The Beatles vs The Four Seasons”. The album featured 12 songs by each of the bands and was set up to be a contest between the two groups with the listener being the judge. On the front cover, the album was billed as “The International Battle Of The Century”, (The Four Seasons being from New Jersey, and The Beatles from Great Brittan). The back cover was set up as a score card, complete with the rules, and all of the songs listed in order as to which Beatles song would competing against which Four Seasons song in each of the 12 rounds. Boxes were added to the score card to give points for each round, and boxes at the bottom for point totals. The listener was supposed to listen to each of the songs in the round and score them against each other. After the 12 rounds were complete the winner would be determined by the total points given to each group.
It was a brilliant marketing idea, but unfortunately for the fans of both groups they released fewer than 20,000 copies of the album. They feared that the since the double album would cost so much more than most people were accustomed to paying for a single album, it wouldn’t sell very well. But now, nearly 60 years later, these albums are much sought after, with original copies being offered anywhere from $250.00 to over $4000.00 depending on condition. I even saw a less than perfect copy being offered at over $10,000.00 OBO. Go figure.
On a side note, though, if anyone is still looking for a Christmas gift Idea for me, I do not as yet have a copy of this one. Original only please….. HaHa! Come back and see me real soon right here on As The Story Goes.
Did you know that you can have my blogs delivered straight to your inbox? Just visit my home page and sign up. https://as-the-story-goes.com/home/
AS THE STORY GOES 