“The Beatles are not merely awful, they are god awful. They are so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art that they qualify as crowned-heads of anti-music.”
—William F. Buckley, Jr. , Boston Globe, Sept. 13, 1964
“Visually they are a nightmare…musically they are a near disaster…their lyrics are a catastrophe.”
—Newsweek, Feb 24, 1964
“The Beatles vocal quality can be described as hoarsely incoherent.”
—Theodore Strongin , New York Times, Feb. 19, 1964
“The Beatles must be a huge joke, a whacky gag, a giant put on.”
—Donald Freeman, Chicago Tribune, Feb. 19, 1964
“Just thinking about the Beatles seems to induce mental disturbance.”
—George Dixon, Washington Post, Feb 13, 1964
“Not even their mothers would claim that they sing well.”
—Los Angeles Times, 1964