"We Love You Beatles" | Novelty Songs

In 1964, everyone was crazy about the Beatles. Big and small record companies wanted to be part of the excitement. Oriole Records, a small British company in London, was one of them. From 1957 to 1964, Oriole found its own spot in a music world largely dominated by four major companies: EMI, Decca, Pye, and Philips. Oriole was known for its modern studio, its distribution of records to stores across the country, and its early hits, such as Chas McDevitt's 1957 song "Freight Train." The label also brought some of the first Motown songs to the UK, with artists like Mary Wells, The Contours, and Marvin Gaye.

Ironically, when the "Beat Boom" started, Oriole was one of the companies that said no to the Beatles. Their manager, Brian Epstein, had given them a tape of the band's tryout at Decca, but Oriole didn't want them.

Not wanting to miss out, Oriole quickly released two Beatles-themed singles in 1964: "Santa Bring Me Ringo" by Tich & the Quakers and a fan song called "We Love You Beatles."

"We Love You Beatles" was based on the song "We Love You Conrad" from the musical and movie Bye Bye Birdie. Oriole’s producer, Reg Warburton, got permission from the original writers to make this new version, so it could be officially registered on March 6, 1964.

To record the song, Warburton created a studio group called The Carefrees. The group had three female singers: Lyn Cornell (married to Andy White, the drummer on The Beatles' original "Love Me Do"), Barbara Kay, and Betty Prescott.

Three male singers—Johnny Evans, John Stevens, and Don Riddell—joined them. They played instruments and sang answers, like the "Yeah, yeah, yeahs" and "Whooos." The song was clearly a reply to The Beatles' hit "She Loves You" and even used some of its music and singing style. The main line, "We love you Beatles, oh yes we do!" is repeated over and over, and each verse explains why fans love Ringo, John, Paul, and George. Another group, The Trixies, also made a version of the song with the same arrangement but added an acoustic guitar.

Even though the song was catchy, it didn’t do well in the UK. On February 22, 1964, the song was reviewed on the popular UK television series “Juke Box Jury.” The panel that night was Cilla Black, Sam Costa, James Garner, and Susan Hampshire. The celebrity judges voted it a "MISS!"

The single was released in the UK but didn’t get much attention from British fans. Meanwhile, in America, Beatlemania was huge, and fans wanted anything connected to The Beatles.

The song was released in the U.S. by London International and started playing on American radio on March 21, 1964. People reacted quickly:

- March 21, 1964: The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #73.

- March 27: It climbed to #57.

- April 3: It jumped to #42.

- April 10–11: It reached its highest spot, #39 on Billboard and #36 on Cash Box.

- April 17: The song dropped to #43 as it started to leave the charts.

The song was also released in the Netherlands on April 20, 1964. Some U.S. copies even came with a special picture sleeve. By reaching #39 on the Billboard charts, "We Love You Beatles" became the most successful Beatles novelty record ever and the only one of its kind to make the U.S. Top 40.

Surprised and thrilled by the song's top-40 success in the States, Reg Warburton quickly brought Lyn, Barbara, Betty, and the rest of the singers back to the studio. They hurried to record a full album called "We Love You All," made especially for the American audience. It was released on the London label, on LL 3379.

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