We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper (US)

Beatles bombshell! DJs jump the gun!

IT’S been a very exciting week here. Chiefly because of the two new BEATLES songs. Capitol Records had come to an arrangement with the radio stations that the disc would not be played on the air until November 29.

The disc jockeys were in a state of desperate impatience because many of them had secured advance copies which they were itching to play. Everyone’s finger was on the trigger. Explained one jockey: “We had to have a copy in readiness just in case any other station jumped the gun.”

AND SOMEONE DID! Late on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 23, Radio Station WFUN, in Miami, could stand the strain no longer. On to the turntable went “We Can Work It Out”. Immediately, the news was flashed across the Union. It was if the Bomb had been dropped.

Here in Los Angeles, 3,000 miles from Miami, we felt the tremors about 5 p.m. Radio Station KRLA were the first Californian station to air the new BEATLE sensation. One of their two leading rivals, KFWB, followed within minutes. But poor KHJ, who had not been able to get a hold of a copy of the disc, were left with egg on their face.

BARGAIN

Capitol released all the radio stations across the country from their bargain and within 24 hours every one of the 1000 rock ’n’ roll stations in America was, as they say here, “playing the hell” out of both sides of the record.

On balance, it appears that “Day Tripper” is being played more than “We Can Work It Out”. I like both songs enormously. What else is there to say? They still make the best pop records in the world.

Incidentally, it looks as if the BEATLES have now decided to incorporate the organ permanently into their act. And maybe a tambourine too?

From Disc Weekly – December 4, 1965