A circle, not a one-way street
The British Invasion of the mid-1960s is often told as a story of British bands conquering America. By 1967 the picture was more of a circle. British groups were successful in the United States because they had absorbed American blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and they in turn influenced American musicians who were then heard back in Britain. This article follows that traffic in 1967.
The British Invasion, three years on
The Beatles’ American breakthrough came in early 1964, with their appearance on Ed Sullivan’s television show in February, and many British groups followed in that wave. By 1967 the novelty had passed, but British acts were established fixtures on American charts and stages. The Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Animals and others had audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, and newer groups such as Cream, formed in 1966, built their reputation on touring in the States.
Stage appearances remained a major route. The Who, for instance, made a notable American appearance at the Monterey festival in June 1967, where their destructive finale was set beside the more peaceful tone of other acts. Cream, with Eric Clapton, played in New York and San Francisco in early 1967 and found American audiences receptive to long improvised playing. Its album Disraeli Gears appeared late in the year.
British fans of American music
The traffic had always depended on British musicians’ love of American roots music. Young British players in the early 1960s sought out blues, soul and rhythm and blues records, which were often hard to find, and many learned their craft by copying them. Groups such as the Rolling Stones and the Animals built early repertoires on American blues and R&B songs. Clapton and others moved through John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, a school of British blues.
Soul music had a devoted following in Britain. In the spring of 1967, a touring package from Stax Records, a Memphis label, visited Europe, with performers including Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Booker T. and the M.G.’s. The shows were received with great enthusiasm, and they have since been remembered as a high point of Southern soul in Europe. Redding then played to a new, young white audience at Monterey in June 1967. Aretha Franklin’s records, released by Atlantic, also sold well to British soul fans.
American musicians were often struck that their British admirers valued them more highly than their own countrymen did. Many older blues artists found new audiences through the enthusiasm of British rock musicians, and sometimes toured Europe to full halls.
Hendrix goes to London
No career shows the circle better than that of Jimi Hendrix. An American guitarist who had played in backing bands for soul and R&B acts, he struggled to find notice in the United States. In September 1966, Chas Chandler, the former bassist of the Animals, brought him to London. There, Hendrix was teamed with two English musicians, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The band’s early singles and its debut album Are You Experienced made Hendrix a star in Britain in the first half of 1967. He then returned to the United States for the Monterey Pop Festival in June, where his performance introduced him to a large American audience as a British-made sensation. The American release of his debut album, with a different track listing, followed in the summer. In the same summer he briefly joined a US tour by the Monkees as an opening act, a pairing that did not suit either audience and was cut short.
The point is that an American musician needed London to be recognised at home. It is a case of the circle at its tightest, and it is covered in more biographical detail in the article on his life.
American influence on British pop, and the reverse
Influence moved in more ways than the headline cases. The Beatles’ work on Sgt. Pepper was partly inspired by the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds of 1966, and in turn the Beatles influenced American studio work. The Monkees were an American television group whose concept was reportedly modelled on the Beatles’ films. American folk and country shaped many British songwriters, and British art-school attitudes shaped American psychedelic acts.
The two scenes also met in person. London’s underground clubs and San Francisco’s ballrooms shared bands, posters and ideas, a topic developed in the pieces on the Summer of Love in each place. Pirate radio and Radio 1 in Britain helped American records reach British listeners, while American stations tried to follow British trends.
Why 1967 is the pivot
The year is a convenient marker because the exchange had become so tangled that nationality became less important than scene. A fan in 1967 might buy a record by a British group playing an American blues song, produced in London and then reinterpreted by an American band in San Francisco. The pattern did not end with the decade, but 1967 is among the clearest moments to see it in action.