Even the Beatles cashed in on Happy Days, much to the chagrin of John and Ringo

'Rock 'n' Roll Music' was released at the height of Fonzie mania.

Capitol Records

In 1976, Happy Days become the number-one show on television. As it wrapped up its third season — the first to film with a traditional sitcom setup — the series was peaking. Arnold (Pat Morita) married his pen pal from Japan in the season finale, with Fonzie as his best man. 

Thanks in no small part to Garry Marshall's retro sitcom, the Fifties were back in a big way. Bill Haley & His Comets saw their rock 'n' roll classic "Rock Around the Clock" return to the pop charts, as it was used as the theme to both Happy Days and American Grafitti — which, of course, starred Richie Cunningham himself, Ron Howard.

The nostalgic greaser act Sha Na Na had hits like "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" on the charts — which lead to the group getting its own variety show in 1977.

John Lennon was feeling the Fifties nostalgia, too. A fan of Sha Na Na, the former Beatle invited the group to open for him and Yoko Ono at a tribute concert in Madison Square Garden in 1972. A few years later, Lennon covered songs from the late '50s and early '60s on his album, Rock 'n' Roll. The cover art depicted a vintage photograph of Lennon in all his youth and leather, standing in a Hamburg doorway. He looked a lot like Fonzie.

No wonder, then, that Capitol Records decided to ride the wave of classic rock 'n' roll revivalism in 1976. The label gathered 28 Beatles tracks for the double-LP compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music. Though the hits collection spanned the Fab Four's entire career, the emphasis was largely on the classic rock sound. They eschewed the psychedelic era for the harder, faster stuff.

And then came the album art.

The record sleeve sported a pop-art painting by Ignacio Gomez. John, Paul, George and Ringo all sported suits like they had in 1963. They stood holding their instruments under the band name and album title. The text was written in pink and blue neon script — strikingly similar to the Happy Days logo glowing above the jukebox in the sitcom's opening credits.

Capitol Records

The similarities did not end there. Inside the gatefold sleeve, a hamburger, jukebox, '57 Chevy, and cold glass of Coca-Cola popped off the cardboard along with a picture of Marilyn Monroe. That's a lot of Fifties iconography.

Of course, one thing jumps immediately to mind — the Beatles were a phenomenon of the 1960s. This was not lost on the band members themselves.

"All that Coca-Cola and cars with big fins was the Fifties!" Ringo Starr complained in a Rolling Stone interview. "It made us look cheap and we never were cheap."

Lennon, who was most inclined to dig the direction, considering his own Rock 'n' Roll album featured pink-and-blue neon lettering, carped to the label. He angrily wrote to the record company that the compilation looked "like a Monkees reject." He suggested using photos of the band from their Hamburg days — and even offered to design the artwork himself. Capitol denied his requests.

Nevertheless, the Beatles' repacked Rock 'n' Roll Music rocketed to No. 2 on the Billboard album charts. The only thing that beat it? Paul McCartney's Wings at the Speed of Sound.

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19 Comments

Dario 43 months ago
My mother bought this double album in May of 1976, the time frame that the album came out for general release(I was a month away from finishing 1st grade at Kester Avenue Elementary School in Van Nuys, California). It's too bad that John and Ringo had to b**** about it when the album out(this story is the first time that I'm hearing about this). They should have just enjoyed the fact that the immediate post-Beatles era fans were enjoying the album instead of being adamant about. Sad, really. 😕
tvme 50 months ago
Yes Capitol did release Rock ad Roll as separate albums & Did go in bargain bins. However the only thing about this was George Martin had remixed the songs for this album, which were different in sound than the original Lp’s.
Martin 51 months ago
Capitol later released ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC as two separate albums, with different cover art. Both became a staple of record store bargain bins.
savoycheer 51 months ago
I have the Japanese version of the Beatles " Rock ' n ' Roll Music " album. The music is great but reading the enclosed book is impossible since I don't read Japanese. I played it once and have never played it since. It still looks brand new.
Diz 51 months ago
Capitol was also fresh off the success of the 2-record set Beach Boys compilation "Endless Summer". They were doing what record labels do - milking their catalog for what it's worth.
musicman37 Diz 34 months ago
Capitol also issued another Beach Boys comp, "Spirit of America" which was almost as successful as "Endless Summer". They were obviously cashing in on America's nostalgia craze.
NVDan 51 months ago
A couple of things - John Lennon released "Rock 'n Roll" as part of a settlement. There was a threat of lawsuit over Come Together being too similar to a Chuck Berry song. Since George Harrison had recently been successfully sued over My Sweet Lord being too similar to He's So Fine it was decided to release an album of covers of songs owned by the same publishing company that owned the rights to the Chuck Berry song so they could get royalties on the new release. In exchange the publishing company agreed not to sue John.
The other thing is that Happy Days wasn't the inspiration for releasing the Rock n Roll Music compilation. There had recently been a successful compilation of Beatles songs called Love Songs and they were wanting to release another compilation. The graphic artist who designed the cover art may have been influenced by rock 'n roll origination in the 50s, but I seriously doubt Happy Days was much of an inspiration.
Martin NVDan 51 months ago
Love Songs actually came out a year after Rock and Roll Music. Three years earlier, Capitol had a success with two "Greatest Hits" double albums of the Beatles, "1962-1966" and "1967-1970".
musicman37 Martin 34 months ago
And the only reason those two hits collections came out was to combat the onslaught of bootleggers' hits collections (and at Allen Klein's behest, so he could still make some money off of the band before his managerial contract expired).
musicman37 Martin 34 months ago
Yes, Capitol Records really milked that cow. After 1977's "Live At the Hollywood Bowl" came Love Songs (the same year), 1980's "Rarities", 1981's separate disc reissue of "Rock And Roll Music", 1982's "Reel Music" (considered the nadir of Beatles compilations), and later that year "20 Greatest Hits" with the infamous "Hey Jude" edit.
Brian 51 months ago
Am I the only person who despised Dappy Haze?
denny Brian 51 months ago
The 1st couple of season are good, but when they started filming in front an audience the show went down hill fast for me. Although the ratings did go up.
Martin denny 51 months ago
Chachi ruined it. First, he was annoying. Second, he was walking around 1950s Milwaukee with a 1970s hairstyle.
pciarrochi 51 months ago
I believe it was the first time "I'm Down" showed up on an LP.
pciarrochi 50 months ago
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musicman37 pciarrochi 34 months ago
You are right. It had been the B-side of "Help!", but had somehow escaped being put on an album by Capitol back in their "let's hold some tracks back so every now and then we can issue another album", money-grubbing days.
cperrynaples 51 months ago
Yes, but let's not forget one thing that album did: It gave the boys one more hit with a reissue of "Got To Get You Into My Life"!
denny cperrynaples 51 months ago
Paul McCartney wrote the song about his love for pot.
Martin cperrynaples 51 months ago
On a morbid note, the b side of that single was "Helter Skelter" from the "White Album" which coincided with the TV movie of the same name, about the Manson murders.
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