September 28: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

New York disc jockey Murray the K (Kaufman) obtained a copy of the Beatles’ “She Loves You” on this date in 1963, fully two months before Beatlemania hit the United States, and played it on his show for two straight weeks, alerting the country to things to come. Your Jewdayo editor remembers hearing it at age 12 and sitting bolt upright in the backseat of his family car. Life was never the same. The song was markedly original in several ways: its use of a third-party narrator to tell the story; its sudden start, without an intro; its tight, marvelous harmonies; and its high-spirited cries of “yeah, yeah, yeah!” which embodied all the energy of adolescent love. Murray the K (1922-1982) and Cousin Brucie (Morrow) were the first great rock and roll disc jockeys after Alan Freed fell from the saddle, and Murray was fond of calling himself “the fifth Beatle.” He was also a huge Bob Dylan enthusiast. Murray the K also shared a writing credit with his mother and Bobby Darin for Darin’s break-out song, “Splish-Splash.” Another Beatle-related Jewdayo event on this date in 1946: the birth of Helen Shapiro, a British singing star with whom the Beatles toured Great Britain for the first time, in 1963, as her opening act. To see the Beatles singing their hit-to-be in 1963, look below.

“It was Paul’s idea: instead of singing ‘I love you’ again, we’d have a third party. That kind of little detail is still in his work. He will write a story about someone. I’m more inclined to write about myself.” —John Lennon