{"id":634275,"date":"2026-06-12T04:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/634275\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:47:09","slug":"the-beatles-proved-frank-sinatra-spectacularly-wrong-in-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/634275\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles proved Frank Sinatra spectacularly wrong in 1964"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Apple Corps \/ Alamy<\/p>\n

Fri 12 June 2026 3:00, UK <\/p>\n

As someone who could reasonably lay claim to being one of the first true pop stars, you\u2019d think that Frank Sinatra<\/a> would have a pretty good eye for picking out what had the potential to join him in the elite ranks of stardom.<\/p>\n

A large number of his contemporaries in the 1940s and early \u201850s were of a similar ilk, with the likes of fellow Rat Pack members Sammy Davis Jr and and Dean Martin<\/a> operating in a similar field. However, as soon as the advent of rock and roll became the dominant force in the charts, there was far more that needed to be observed in terms of trends, and the style that had helped Sinatra and company reach the heights that they did may have found itself going out of fashion.<\/p>\n

Despite being known for his big band style with crooning vocals, he wasn\u2019t completely oblivious to the rise in popularity of other acts in these rapidly appearing scenes, even if they were happening in a different manner than how he\u2019d managed to establish himself.<\/p>\n

However, given how much of a commotion he had generated previously, he probably ought to have been able to recognise that what the new blood in the \u201860s had was no different to his own success, which is why his inaccurate estimation of how The Beatles would fare on their first trip to the States was so shocking.<\/p>\n

When The Beatles first arrived in America in 1964, they\u2019d come from the UK, where they had almost established themselves as the hottest ticket in popular culture in an alarmingly short space of time. The frenzied crowds they were instantly met with in America, who had evidently heard of their success through the grapevine, ought to have indicated that they were about to make the same impression overseas, but Sinatra didn\u2019t seem convinced by their ability to conquer a much larger country that was so far from home.<\/p>\n

It could have landed completely differently, of course, but Sinatra\u2019s assessment of the band he thought was destined to fail<\/a> ended up being extremely misguided, so much so that it caught the attention of The Beatles themselves, who found it amusing that someone as popular as Sinatra would have such prominent doubts about their credentials.<\/p>\n

In 1964, while the band were still in the midst of their travels across the US, where they\u2019d been going down a storm, George Harrison penned an essay for British news outlet, the Daily Express, where he discussed their experiences on the road, and rather cheekily, he ended it with a footnote from Sinatra, who was willing to accept how wrong he\u2019d been in his estimation of the band. <\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought The Beatles would die in New York,\u201d the note read. \u201cI was very surprised by the reception they got. I guess I was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

We all make mistakes, but for someone of Sinatra\u2019s status, it\u2019s surprising he didn\u2019t have higher hopes for a band who were evidently destined for world domination from the moment they stepped off the plane and set foot on American soil.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Apple Corps \/ Alamy Fri 12 June 2026 3:00, UK As someone who could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[19405,188192,58176,96,16087,128,1581,10447,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-634275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-188192","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-frank-sinatra","tag-music","tag-pop","tag-the-beatles","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}