We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

            Vee Jay albums had the great pleasure of releasing the very first Beatles album in the United States on January 27, 1964. The name is, Introducing… The Beatles. Vee Jay records did not always publish British boy bands. They were a successful black company that made its fame and fortune off of R&B, blues, and soul records. Then in 1962, they had a chance to release a number one British single by Frank Ifield in the United States called “I Remember You”. In addition to them releasing that single, they accepted a five year contract with a British band, not known by anyone, known as The Beatles.

            In the beginning, The Beatles did not have that much attention in the US at all. Their first single that was released did not even make the top 100 billboards for pop. Vee Jay records also spelled their band name wrong as ‘The Beattles.’ After, they finally released another single with their band name spelled correctly. The single, ‘From Me to You/Thank You Girl’, made it to #116 on the billboard for pop music.

            Vee Jay records finally decided to release a Beatles album in July of 1964. That album will later bring much attention to their record company. Once the decision was made to release the album, a lot of drama erupted in the company. Many people quit who held the higher positions in the company. Also, Capital Records, who were the record company for the Frank Ifield, were creating problems for the release in the United States. They felt that because The Beatles piggy backed with Frank Ifield, that Vee Jay did not have the right to release the album. Vee Jay records felt that was not the case so they proceeded with the album.

            Capitol Records still had some control of The Beatles. They offered a $50,000 contract that Vee Jay could not pass up.

            The album was rush released on January 6, 1964. The single, “Please Please Me” was also re-released and became more popular than it had on its original release date. Vee Jay records beat Capitol records by a few days with their release of “Meet the Beatles.”

            This action was not unnoticed by The Capitol. They quickly filed many law suits against Vee Jay. After many suits and countersuits being files, the courts ruled against Vee Jay records because of their use of the songs “Love Me Do” and P.S I Love You.” Vee Jay quickly replaced those songs with “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why.” The new version of the album was released on January 27, 1964.

            The Beatles have since been a phenomenon in pop music. There is rarely one person that does not know who that group is.

The World Champion of Football

There is always something significant that happens each and every day. Some have been tragic, while others have been purely blissful. This blog that I am going to be writing for a couple months now is not going to be your normal blog that talks about historical events that everyone knows about. I am going to try and find different events that have happened that many people may not know themselves. Some may be shocking while other may be trivial.

The event that I will be talking about this week is an event that many men, and some women, are very thankful for. On January 15, 1967, the first ever Super Bowl was held. It was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum. It was the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs.

After the creation of the American Football League (AFL), there was a lot of competition between their fans and the fans of the National Football League (NFL). There was a lot of talk with each other which started the rumor of them coming together for one game to play. The winner of the game would be known as “the world champion of football.”

The game started with the Chiefs in the lead 0 – 10. During the second half, the Packers came back with an incredible three touch downs and made the score 35 – 10. The Packers were led by MVP quarterback Bart Starr. The team also benefited from players like Max McGee and Willie Wood, both being wide receivers. Because they won, each team member received $15,000. That is the largest single-game share in the history of sports.

The name came from postseason college football games, which were called “bowls.” The AFL founder, Lamar Hunt, is the one that suggested the new “world champion of football” game be called the Super Bowl. It was officially placed as that title in 1969, as well as the roman numerals next to it to identify the game.

During 1970, the AFL and the NFL became one league but with two different conferences. The two different conferences are known as the American Football Conference and the National football conference, each one having thirteen teams. Ever since the two conferences have been created, the Super Bowl has been a face-off between the two best teams in them. Every team wants the coveted Vince Lombardi trophy, which was named after the Green Bay Packers coach that led his team to victory in the first, and second, Super Bowl.

The creation of “Super Bowl Sunday” has basically become an unofficial holiday for the everyday American. It has started a trend of huge parties. The TV station that airs the game earns a huge profit from willing companies who would like to have their commercials aired during the breaks. On average, a thirty second advertisement during the Super Bowl costs the company anywhere from 3.5 million dollars and up.