The British Invasion was an influx of rock and roll performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States, Australia and elsewhere in 1964 ending the years immediately afterward.

Following the successful export of Elvis Presley and other rock 'n' roll acts in the late 1950s, kids formed bands all over Britain to emulate their American heroes. While some, like Cliff Richard and The Shadows, saw great success in the UK, very few British acts had hits on the USA record charts (exceptions included The Tornados, with "Telstar" and Mr. Acker Bilk with "Stranger on the Shore", both instrumentals that reached #1 on the charts) until Capitol Records released The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" late in 1963 with a huge public relations campaign.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" zoomed to the top of the USA charts just as The Beatles came to America for the first time; their historic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show the night of February 9, 1964, watched by what was then the largest television audience in history, is seen by most as marking the start of the British Invasion.

The Beatles quickly came to dominate the charts, and on April 4 of that year they occupied the top five spots on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 music survey, a feat unmatched before or since. Their success opened the floodgates for other British acts to market their music in the United States, including the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Animals, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and many others.

A period known as the Second British Invasion began in 1983 and peaked in 1986. Largely spawned by MTV, which brought to the attention of American audiences various British acts, such as The Fixx, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and others, British acts came to dominate American charts to an even greater degree than in the first British invasion. See New Wave and New Romantic.

In May of 2002, there were no British artists on the US singles charts, the first time this had occurred since 1963.

First British Invasion artists

• The Action
• The Animals
• The Beatles
• Belfast Gypsies
• The Birds
• Chad & Jeremy
• Cilla Black
• Black Sabbath
• Cliff Bennett
• Cream
• The Creation
• Dave Berry
• The Dave Clark Five
• Deep Purple
• Donovan
• The Downliners Sect
• Dusty Springfield
• The Eric Burdon Band
• The Faces
• Freddie & the Dreamers
• Georgie Fame
• Gerry & the Pacemakers
• Graham Bond
• Herman's Hermits
• The Hollies
• The Honeycombs
• The Kinks
• Led Zeppelin
• Long John Baldry
• Lulu
• Manfred Mann
• Marianne Faithfull
• The Mindbenders
• The Moody Blues
• The Move
• The Nashville Teens
• Peter & Gordon
• Petula Clark
• The Pretty Things
• The Rolling Stones
• Sandie Shaw
• The Searchers
• The Shadows
• The Small Faces
• The Spencer Davis Group
• The Swinging Blue Jeans
• Them
• Tom Jones
• The Tremeloes
• The Troggs
• The Walker Brothers
• The Who
• The Yardbirds
• The Zombies

See also

• UK topics