EVOLUTION OF ROCK 'N ROLL: THE BEATLES "MEET" THE DAVE CLARK FIVE

Recently I was chastised by a Facebook friend of mine for never posting tunes by The Dave Clark Five (You know who you are, Pamela!) As a part of that chastisement she compared the “DC5” to The Beatles; specifically she stated, “(but) if memory serves they were the only "british invasion" (sic) group to give the Beatles a run for their money in terms of hits." 

Let’s do a little comparison:
 

BEATLES: During the week of 4 April 1964, The Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five positions. Neither feat has been matched by any other artist to date. The top five songs were "Can't Buy Me Love" (Capitol Records), "Twist and Shout" (Tollie Records), "She Loves You" (Swan Records), "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (Capitol), and "Please Please Me." (Vee-Jay). In addition, seven other singles occupied lower places on the chart; for instance...

DC5: "Bits and Pieces" peaked at #4 and "I Knew It All The Time" peaked at #53  in April of 1964

April 1964 Stats: BEATLES,12 ~ DAVE CLARK FIVE, 2

FURTHERMORE:

By the time it was all over (the breakup of the Dave Clark Five in 1970), they had sold 50 million records. THAT’S A LOT OF RECORDS!!!

But, did they really give The Beatles” a “run for their money in the terms of hits”

NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!

In 1964, the Beatles had the never-matched total of 15 American million - selling records (9 singles and 6 LP's), representing US sales of over 25 million in 1964 alone.

(DC5 had seven hits for the whole year of 1964—And that’s not bad!)

"Can’t Buy Me Love" sold 940,225 copies in the US the day it was released (March 16, 1964), shattering all previous sales records. The single went on to sell over 3 million by the end of the year

By August 1966, the Beatles had sold 150 million records worldwide;  according to the Guinness Book of Records, the Beatles had topped worldwide sales of 300 million units by 1969 AND by October 1972, the Beatles’ worldwide sales total stood at 545 million units.

This is just a bit of the reason why THE BEATLES (originally a skiffle band out of Liverpoole) was just a tad more popular than THE DAVE CLARK FIVE (another skiffle band out of England)

Of course after their induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and the selling of one of their top tunes to the Glad Wrap people, I'm sure that the survivors of the band are GLAD ALL OVER, hey the tune knocked THE BEATLES off the top of the chart (ONCE!!!) AND THAT WAS A BIG DEAL!!!

More information on the Dave Clark Five








The Beatles, YOU KNOW!