The one thing I just can't stand about The Beatles story. Why the screaming? For a band that produced perhaps the greatest popular music ever, their fans seemed hell bent on deafening out any sound of it.

So a few questions

Can anyone point to a specific date when the screaming started?
Did non-stop screaming start with The Beatles? If so, why?
Did The Beatles kill this fad by merely growing moustaches?
It's just annoying. Did anyone at the time ever suggest to these girls just to shut the hell up?

Quoted from Out Of Me Head

The one thing I just can't stand about The Beatles story. Why the screaming? For a band that produced perhaps the greatest popular music ever, their fans seemed hell bent on deafening out any sound of it.

So a few questions

Can anyone point to a specific date when the screaming started?
Did non-stop screaming start with The Beatles? If so, why?
Did The Beatles kill this fad by merely growing moustaches?
It's just annoying. Did anyone at the time ever suggest to these girls just to shut the hell up?

Great questions.  

1. I don't think any screaming was going on in Hamburg, but it seems like there might have been some as early as the Cavern days? They probably perpetuated it with their on stage antics at the time.

2. I think it started with Frank Sinatra and then Elvis. And there were probably a few in between. But I think the Beatles fans were the most insane. Although my mom tells me a story about my aunt wanting to climb up the fire escape to Frank Sinatra's hotel because she was so crazy about him. So who knows!

3. I love the mustache theory. That's hysterical. I think they had already stopped touring by then, but yeah, the mustaches were probably icky to all the screaming pre-teens. Either that, or their fans finally grew up!

4. I've always wondered why one of them didn't just hell: SHUT THE HELL UP!! But I think they were just too polite to do that! That, and they were pretty awed by it. At first.

Still, it's great that their fans went so crazy. It's a phenomenon really. I don't think we'll see anything like it ever again. Makes them more legendary.  

I think you are looking for something like this (on YouTube - only about 30 seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPlWBKKm21Q

Quoted from Out Of Me Head

Did anyone at the time ever suggest to these girls just to shut the hell up?

John, I think, did just that on stage a few times when he was sufficiently fed up. No one heard him, of course.

Quoted from Geoff

John, I think, did just that on stage a few times when he was sufficiently fed up. No one heard him, of course.

I think it was their Miami performance or something when Paul was talking and they started screaming John says: shut up while he's talkin'! Or something like that. But it was always sort of tongue in cheek. Pretty good restraint on John's part overall. The mentally challenged (newspeak?) imitations were pretty harsh though. But I think those went over most of his fans heads at the time.  

Ah, there it is on YouTube. Didn't realize that's what you posted douglaslee! I love it!

The hysteria i think looks a little silly today . It did however cover up a lot of the limitations of their sound system .

I think Paul actually encouraged the screaming with his stage comments. He pretends to be trying to quiet them down, but very reliably it only serves to egg them on, and I'm pretty sure he knew how to play that instrument too!

A co-worker of mine says he remembers his sister doing the same thing over Elvis.  I guess some artists just kind of have that effect over their fans.  The only other artist I can remember people really flipping out over is Michael Jackson (let's not go there)!

As a performer, I would be flattered to an extent, but of course it would be very frustrating while you are trying to play and no one is listening.  Then again...without those screaming fans...you wouldn't be where you are!  

I would have shot them all dead

Make sure to wear a bullet proof vest around PaulieBear  

i dont know if this is true, as my dad told me this, but he says that sometimes, on stage, they would just stop singing and mouth the words because they knew no one could hear it anyway. does anyone have any fact to back this up, or is my dad delusional? (which is probably true either way.....)

I read somewhere that they would play the wrong chords because they knew no one was really listening. OR not even play the note at all.

Quoted from HeatherBoo

Make sure to wear a bullet proof vest around PaulieBear  

why bother, no one would hear me creep up on them! they would be screaming TO LOUD

well, can you really blame them? i would have done a lot worse..............