Editing British Invasion (section)

== Background ==
The rebellious tone and image of American [[rock and roll]] and [[blues]] musicians became popular with British youth in the late 1950s. While early commercial attempts to replicate American rock and roll mostly failed, the [[trad jazz]]–inspired [[skiffle]] craze,<ref>M. Brocken, ''The British Folk Revival, 1944–2002'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), pp. 69–80.</ref> with its [[do it yourself|do-it-yourself]] attitude, produced two top-ten hits in the US by [[Lonnie Donegan]].<ref name=allmusicchart>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lonnie-donegan-p8434/charts-awards/billboard-singles |title=Lonnie Donegan > Charts and Awards > Billboard singles |access-date=February 14, 2011 |website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lonnie-donegan-p8434/biography|title=Lonnie Donegan - Music Biography, Streaming Radio and Discography - AllMusic|first=Bruce|last=Eder |work=AllMusic}}</ref> Young British groups started to combine various British and American styles in different parts of the United Kingdom, such as the movement in [[Liverpool]] known as [[Beat music|Merseybeat]] or the "beat boom".<ref name=Britannica/><ref>Morrison, Craig. ''American Popular Music''. British Invasion (New York: Facts on File, 2006), pp. 32–34.</ref><ref>J. Gould, ''Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America'' (New York, Harmony Books, 2007), pp. 344–45.</ref><ref name=BeatlesArrive>{{cite web|url = http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/05/beatles.40/ |title = When the Beatles hit America |work =CNN|date= February 10, 2004|first = Todd|last = Leopold}}</ref>

While American acts were popular in the United Kingdom, few British acts had achieved any success in the United States prior to 1964. [[Cliff Richard]], who was the best-selling British act in the United Kingdom at the time, had only one [[Top 40]] hit in the US, with "[[Living Doll (song)|Living Doll]]" in 1959. Along with Donegan, exceptions to this trend were the US number-one hits "[[Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart]]" by [[Vera Lynn]] in 1952 (Lynn also had a lower-charting, but more enduring, hit in "[[We'll Meet Again]]"), "[[He's Got the Whole World in His Hands]]" by [[Laurie London]] in 1958, and the instrumentals "[[Stranger on the Shore]]" by [[Acker Bilk]] and "[[Telstar (song)|Telstar]]" by [[the Tornados]], both in 1962.<ref>{{cite book |first=Joel |last=Whitburn |year=1990 |title=The Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Sixties (26 May 1962, 7 July 1962, 22 December 1962 - 5 January 1963) |publisher=Record Research, Inc. |location=Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin |isbn=0-89820-074-1}}</ref>  Also on the Hot 100, "[[Manhattan Spiritual]]" by [[Reg Owen|Reg Owen and His Orchestra]]" reached number ten in February 1959, [[Hayley Mills]]' "[[Let's Get Together (Hayley Mills song)|Let's Get Together]]" from ''[[The Parent Trap (1961 film)|The Parent Trap]]'' peaked number eight in October 1961,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46242948 |title=Hayley Mills busily happy |newspaper=[[The Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=30 |issue=8 |date=25 July 1962 |access-date=15 September 2017 |page=3 (Teenagers Weekly) |via=National Library of Australia|last1=Ott|first1=Beverly}}</ref> and in 1962, "[[Midnight in Moscow]]" by [[Kenny Ball]] reached number two in March, [[the Springfields]]' version of "[[Silver Threads and Golden Needles]]" peaked at number twenty in September, and [[Frank Ifield]]'s "[[I Remember You (1941 song)|I Remember You]]" reached number five in October.<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs">{{cite book |first=Joseph |last=Murrells |year=1978 |title=The Book of Golden Discs |edition=2nd |publisher=Barrie and Jenkins Ltd |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/147 147, 166, 167] |isbn=0-214-20512-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/147 }}</ref>

Some observers have noted that American teenagers were growing tired of singles-oriented pop acts like [[Fabian Forte|Fabian]] and the "Bobby"s: [[Bobby Darin]], [[Bobby Vinton]], [[Bobby Rydell]], [[Bobby Vee]] etc.<ref name=Cogan>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4WFjKG6vmUC&q=%22james%20bond%22%20%22british%20invasion%22%20%22all%20things%20british%22&pg=PA80 |title=Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture |first=Brian |last=Cogan |editor=Abbe A. Debolt |editor2=James S. Baugess |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780313329449 |pages=80–81 |date=December 12, 2011 |access-date=July 23, 2012}}</ref> The [[Mod (subculture)|Mods]] and [[Rocker (subculture)|Rockers]], two youth "gangs" in mid-1960s Britain, also had an impact in British Invasion music. Bands with a Mod aesthetic became the most popular, but bands able to balance both (e.g., the Beatles) were also successful.<ref>{{cite book |first=James |last=Perone |year=2009 |title=Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion |publisher=Praeger |location=Westport, Connecticut}}</ref>