Lots of Beatles on the blog of late, but that’s okay, you can never have enough Beatles, can you? Of course not!

The Tokyo Beatles were a cover band with a couple of twists (and shouts) that set them apart from other Beatles tribute acts. First off, they were, obviously, Japanese, and sang horribly mangled Japanglish versions of Lennon and McCartney’s compositions. There were also only three of them and their arrangements were kinda, almost jazzy, considering what they were setting out to do. I have a copy of their only album, Meet the Tokyo Beatles, which came out on RCA in 1964. I got it as a gift from Pizzicato Five’s Yasuharu Konishi back in 1994 when I was in Japan.

There is hardly any information on these guys anywhere, either in English or in Japanese. I found an old LIFE magazine article (from an amazing (for its vintage) “Youth in Japan” theme issue) that mentions them and has a pic, but the only real information it imparts is that the Tokyo Beatles were making only $85 dollars a month, in marked contrast to the incomes of the real Beatles and that they had more hair than talent! Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you, The Tokyo Beatles!!