Manson's First Exposure to the Beatles

[Norbert K]

There were radios in McNeil [Island Corrections Center], and Charlie loved listening to music. The vast majority of pop hits were hummable fluff that celebrated G-rated teen love and heartache. Folk artists with music that addressed social issues received more limited airplay. They and their causes didn't matter to Charlie. But near the end of January 1964 Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again" was blasted from the top of the charts by the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand." A few weeks later, the British band kicked off its first short American tour with a TV appearance on the hugely popular Ed Sullivan Show. Most of America tuned in. "Beatlemania" swept the nation; there had never been anything like it, even in the heydays of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. The Beatles' burgeoning fame was such that it penetrated all the way into Charlie Manson's cell at McNeil Island. Their songs were constantly on the radio. Charlie was intrigued by the music but even more impressed by the adulation the Beatles received. Charlie always yearned for attention; now he decided that fame was what he really wanted. If these four Beatles could have it, why couldn't he? After all, he sang and played guitar, too. Countless other young Americans felt the same way, but few could have been as single-minded about it. Charlie started telling anyone willing to listen that he was going to be bigger than the Beatles, which meant bigger than any other music superstars ever. He didn't care how implausible that sounded.

-- from Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, by Jeff Guinn