First James Bond Movie and Beatles Single Released

Fab Four Your Eyes Only

It’s twofer Wednesday today at History as we celebrate dual remarkable cultural events which occurred on the same day in 1962. Not only was the first ever James Bond film, Dr. No, released at the pictures, but a little known musical combo called The Beatles put out their inaugural single, Love Me Do, as well. Both entertainment juggernauts continue to dominate and tantalise the worlds of film and music 50-plus years later.Though both of these projects started rather inauspiciously. Dr No, after being turned down by a bevy of directors, was made very much on the cheap and with an actor, Sean Connery, who got the part after David Niven, Richard Johnson and Patrick McGoohan turned it down. And on release, the critics weren’t too sure about it either, with one calling the spy ”a great big hairy marshmallow”. With Love Me Do, The Beatles recorded the track three times with three different drummers as George Martin was never satisfied with the band’s performance (and wasn’t really sure about their songwriting abilities). When it came out, it peaked at a lowly number 17 in the UK charts. But soon both Beatle and Bond-mania were conquering the planet.