(Credits: Far Out / NASA / Uwe Conrad)
Mon 9 February 2026 13:53, UK
While The Beatles were the first British band to take America by storm, the Liverpudlians were not the first group from the United Kingdom to achieve a number one hit in the United States.
Instead, that honour went to another collective who kickstarted the British invasion in earnest. And they did so a whole 14 months before ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ topped the Billboard 100 and introduced the Fab Four to America.
While mainstream American and British culture might now seem largely inseparable, remarkably, it wasn’t until 1962, when a British artist first went to number one. In a solo capacity, the feat was cracked by the unlikely Mr Acker Bilk when he went to the top of the charts with his track, ‘Stranger On The Shore’.
However, Bilk’s feat had all the makings of a novelty oddity without much of a lasting cultural impact. It was some months later, when a British band finally topped the charts, that a real story seemed to be developing. Up until this point, America had monopolised the market on rock ‘n’ roll. It was as classically stateside as McDonald’s. But suddenly, a radical offshoot made it clear that pioneers of different forms were popping up from overseas.
The Tornados were the first group to break history with their Joe Meek-produced single ‘Telstar’, a track which climbed to number one in December 1962. Unlike with The Beatles, the chart success in America for The Tornados didn’t lead to a career of longevity. The hits dried up almost instantly, and sadly for them, ‘Telstar’ marked their sole number one triumph.
The band were created by Joe Meek as a vehicle to test out his sonic creations. He was firmly the brains behind the operation and wanted to rival Phil Spector with a sound that heralded music’s bright new future. With its space-age sound, ‘Telstar’ certainly achieved that and perhaps without it breaking through, America might not have been quite so ready to accept The Beatles as worthy heroes.
But in later years, a more tragic synergy would emerge between Meek and Spector. Musically, nobody can question Meek’s credentials. However, the late producer’s works will always be rightly overshadowed by the brutal murder of his landlady, Violet Shenton, and his subsequent suicide.
It’s a moment that tears ‘Telstar’, but the importance of the song itself escapes the troubling asterisk. Before the track was released, the idea of using sci-fi as a source of influence for pop music seemed absurd, yet Meek’s innovative instincts changed the face of the contemporary musical landscape forever.
Meek believed music needed a specific identity, which led him to make a series of commercially regrettable decisions. When his friend, Brian Epstein, came to him after discovering The Beatles, Meek recommended that he not sign the group. The complicated figure also didn’t understand David Bowie, who he turned down, too.
“He most certainly had some kind of schizophrenic condition,” keyboardist Dave Adams, who played on ‘Telstar’, said in Songs in the Key of Z. “You’d be talking to him one moment, then turn away and come back, and he was a completely different person. I always referred to his alter ego as ‘Robert Meek.’ ‘Robert’ was this bad person, and ‘Joe’ was this nice person.”
Equally, there’s a duplicity to the tale of ‘Telstar’. It is somehow historic and forgotten. It is pioneering and yet unpolished. But perhaps what it represents most of all within the muddy mire of its legacy is just how keen people were for something new and fresh. Rock ‘n’ roll was ready for a new chapter, and Meek and his gang were the first from this side of the pond to hint that it might be on the horizon with a dazzling new sound.
Throughout his short career, Meek was prolific and at the helm of 245 singles. Although not everything he touched turned to gold, 45 songs reached the top 50 of the chart in the United Kingdom, with four reaching the top spot. However, in the United States, ‘Telstar’ remains Meek’s only track to reach this height.
However, it has placed him in the history books for eternity as the man behind the first British band to score a number-one hit in America.