A Beatle Visited Small Town America
George Harrison spent two weeks in Benton, IL
As most fans know, the Beatles first performed live in America on the Ed Sullivan show in New York on Feb. 9, 1964. But that wasn’t the first time a Beatle had played music in the States.
In September 1963, the Beatles had just completed a tour in the UK and Scotland and their two albums “Please Please Me” and “With the Beatles,” and were ready to take a vacation. McCartney and Starr visited Greece. Lennon and his wife went to Paris. Harrison, who was 20 at the time, visited his sister Louise in her small mining community of Benton in Southern Illinois.
At the time, no one in the States knew who the Beatles were yet; they hadn’t quite made it across the pond. For a while, Louise had been trying to promote her brother’s band by persuading local radio stations to play Beatles 45s that her mother would send her from Liverpool.
During his two-week vacation in the small town of 7,000 people, Harrison experienced many aspects of American life: watching a Shriners parade in Harrisburg, buying meat at the local Kroger grocery store, camping in the Shawnee National Forest and watching “Wonderful to Be Young” at the drive-in movies in Marion.
Of Course, Music Was Involved
At some point, Harrison played music in Louise’s living room with local musician Gabe McCarty, but the tunes didn’t stop there. McCarty, along with fellow local musician Vern Mandrell, took Harrison one day to Fenton Music Store in nearby Mt. Vernon where the Beatle purchased a black 425 Rickenbacker guitar, one in which he used in later music videos and performances.
The music store is now an auto mechanics shop and the guitar currently sits in a glass case at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
On one of the last nights of his stay, Harrison performed live in front of an American audience. McCarty and Mandrell, who at the time were part of a local band called the Four Vests, played a show one night at the VFW Hall in nearby Eldorado. The two men thought it would be great to hear the young Brit play for the crowd of a few hundred people.
During the performance, Harrison played current hits like “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” by Hank Williams, “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, and “Matchbox,” by Carl Perkins. Americans that night were listening to a Beatle perform live before the craze would begin.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt about the impact the Beatles had on American music and pop culture. Harrison’s first time in America is not only about the beginning of the Beatles in the states, but rather another interesting tale about one of the greatest bands who has ever lived.
