Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ok. So let's hear it. Where were you when you heard "Needles and Pins" for the first time?

I will always remember being on the top floor of my cousin's home in Port Arthur, Ontario in 1964 watching the Pye 45 going round and round. Somehow it seemed so important to see the record spin, watching the Pye label and the song-writers names go bye until you got dizzy with excitement. The beginning tom-tom followed by the most beautiful signature treble guitar introduction.

A rock classic. To this day I still find it difficult to concentrate on other things when this song is playing. So where were you, what were you doing and what are your memories of this classic song.

_I DIDN'T CARE MUCH FOR ROCK BEFORE I WAS 12 IN

1967 . I WAS OUT IN THE BARN ON MY FARM IN

SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN THAT SAME YEAR . WLS RADIO

CHICAGO , PLAYED IT AS AN OLDIE . I HEARD IT ON A

5 TUBE BARN RADIO AND I WAS IMPRESSED !

_I DIDN'T GET MY HANDS ON THE ALBUM UNTIL 4 YEARS

LATER IN 1971. 50 CENTS IN A CUTOUT BIN AT

MUSICLAND IN DUBUQUE IA. WHEN I HEARD THE

HARMONIES IN "SATURDAY NIGHT OUT" I BECAME AN

OBSESSED SEARCHERS FAN . I BOUGHT THE OTHER 4

KAPP ALBUMS AT 50 CENTS A PIECE .

I was driving in a car in Yonkers, N.Y, switching back and forth on the AM radio between WABC, and WMCA, our 2 biggest New York Rock stations. It was Spring, or the beginning of Summer, '64; and I was trying to catch the latest Beatles' single (whatever it was), when I heard those drums, and then the guitars. For some reason, I've always thought that the Searchers were the second British band I ever heard (probably wrong), but they were the second one I paid attention to. Went out, bought the Kapp "Meet the Searchers" LP in mono (it was a dollar cheaper-$2.97), and as soon as I heard "Since You Broke My Heart", I was hooked. I still list "Needles and Pins" as one of three or four songs that can always cheer me up, w/ "I Wonder Why"-Dion and the Belmonts, "Just Like Romeo and Juliet"- the Reflections, and "Johnny B. Goode"-Chuck Berry. But it was THE song that turned me on to the possibilities of Merseybeat.