Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success, particularly by teenage girls. The word is a portmanteau of "Beatles" and "mania". Andi Lothian, a former Scottish music promoter, claims that he coined the term while speaking to a reporter at the Caird Hall Beatles concert that took place as part of the Beatles Mini-Tour of Scotland, on 7th October 1963, and an early printed use of the word is in The Daily Mirror 2 November 1963 in a news story about the previous day's Beatles concert in Cheltenham. Many fans across the world were known to have Beatlemania, which became common in the United States after The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. 'Beatlemania' was characterised by intense levels of hysteria demonstrated by fans both at the actual concerts played by the band and during the band's arrivals and travels to and from locations.

Similar coinage

The term later became the name of various tribute groups dedicated to singing the songs of The Beatles, many with impersonators of the group. [77103] [77104]

The term has had a number of derivatives, usually short-lived, to describe a similar phenomenon toward other bands - such as "Rollermania"[77105] in the early 1970s for at the Scottish band Bay City Rollers, "Menudomania" in the 1980s [77106] to describe frenzy across Latin America for another boy band, Menudo, and "Spicemania" in the 1990s for the Spice Girls.Also, Howard Finkel used the name to create the WWE pay-per-view, WrestleMania.

See also

• Beatlemania in the United Kingdom
• The Beatles in the United States

References

1. Mainds, Kathryn. Beatlemania was born in Dundee, The Sunday Post, January 26 2003. Accessed May 25 2007
2. Radio interview, Radio Tay AM. Accessed May 26 2007
3. online text searchable archive of The Daily Mirror
4. Spice Mania
5. Spice Mania in the 90's