The Gavin Report 1958-2000

Piers Hemmingsen estimates in The Beatles In Canada -
The Origins Of Beatlemania! that Capitol of Canada
exported approximately 350,000 copies of the "All My
Loving"/"This Boy" single to American distributors.
Capitol of Canada reported to EMI in the UK that the
single had sold 208,251 copies in Canada (whose
population at the time was less than 20 million.) By
comparison, "Can't Buy Me Love" had sold only 91,369.

My guess as to why the song did not chart higher on the
Hot 100 is that many US radio stations and retailers
likely did not include the single in the data they
reported to the trades, because not only was Capitol US
not promoting the song at all, they were none too pleased
with Capitol of Canada's practice of releasing its own
Beatles records. By mid-spring of 1964, Capitol US
demanded that Capitol of Canada replace its versions of
the Beatles albums with the American versions and only
release Beatles records identical to the US releases.
(The Canadian Beatles records were subsequently deleted,
although a few years later Capitol of Canada quietly
added them back to their catalogue.)

Capitol of Canada released the "All My Loving"/"This Boy"
single on March 9, 1964, after The Beatles had performed
both songs on The Ed Sullivan Show. It is the same
reason that Vee-Jay had issued "Twist And Shout" as a
single on its Tollie label on March 2. Capitol of Canada
would follow Vee-Jay's example and issue a "Twist And
Shout"/"There's A Place" single on March 16. It would
sell 97,405 copies.

Any plans for an e-book version?

I imagine the potential for future Gavin books of its other
charts will depend on the success of this book. If the AC
book ever gets updated, I hope it will also include chart
data from the AC charts published by Gavin as well as R&R
and Record World.

How did you access the Gavin charts at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame? Do they have a library available to any
researcher?

Edited by Scanner

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. I never realized the RRHOF
had a research facility available to the public. It does
not seem as accessible or comprehensive as other libraries
(Lincoln Center, Library of Congress) where I have done
chart research, but could be something worth exploring
someday.

What about Vol 2 of the Top Pop Singles book (1990-2021) isn't that supposed to come soon?