| Brow Beat When John Lennon Was Simon Cowell By Forrest Wickman
Posted Tuesday, Jun 04, 2013, at 08:23 PM ET  Brow Beat is following the Beatles in "real time," 50 years later, from their first chart-topper to their final rooftop concert. 50 years ago this month, John Lennon was a panelist on the BBC show Juke Box Jury, where he rated every song a "miss."
In 1960s Britain, they didn't have American Idol or The Voice or The X Factor. But they did have Juke Box Jury. Not to be confused with the American version of the series, Jukebox Jury, Juke Box Jury featured a rotating panel of four showbiz personalities who would listen to a selection of the latest singles and rate them on a simple, binary scale: Each record was either a "hit" or a "miss."
The show itself was undeniably a hit, attracting about 12 million viewers a week. For their part, The Beatles had scored only a couple No. 1s by June 1963, and so it was a major boon when John Lennon was asked to appear.
In fact, the extra publicity was so important to manager Brian Epstein that he chartered a helicopter to take Lennon from the taping to their next performance, just so he could uphold both engagements. After Lennon finished with the taping at 9:15 p.m., he was whisked off to the heliport, and at 9:50 he landed in the local soccer field. With The Beatles due on stage at 10:30, he was just in time. (The unusual move also brought some extra publicity to the band ... To continue reading, click here.
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