MAYBE TOMORROW (the single's response in the U.S.A.):

While some may choose to believe that the failure of The Iveys' first release to become a smash hit in the U.S. is because of a lack of support from Apple/Capitol, this is simply not the case. As Ken Mansfield recalled in his latest book, it was more due to a lack of sales, and this may be because the music trends had changed so much in the previous 3 years. Some believe that the record was behind the times, and would have been more popular had it been released in say, 1966 or 1967, rather than 1969.

*Ken Mansfield: "...It was Capitol's money and my career -- a golden opportunity lay before me. I jumped into the project feet first and with an open checkbook. I put our entire promotional team and budgets on this one record. I put the regional guys on a non-stop road blitz to all the major stations in order to back up the local promotion team's efforts as well as a personal national push on my part. My relationships with the top radio stations were effective because not only was I the Beatles guy in the United States, but I was the one and only who had come from London a few months earlier with 'Hey Jude' in my hand, making the rounds to some of the major stations for a first listen and asking their opinion about whether we should release it as The Beatles' first Apple single. The initial feedback on Maybe Tomorrow from the Top 40 stations was very encouraging, and the fact that it was an Apple band didn't hurt. As far as I was concerned, my first feelings were validated at the very point in the hit record food chain that was necessary for success, and so I shoved a giant pile of chips into the pot. I ordered 400,000 initial pressings on their first outing, an unheard of move in the industry at the time. Upon doing so, I made sure that all the inside scoopers at the trade rags knew of the move so that it would create a buzz about how excited Capitol/Apple was with this new group. Because of the hype and honest response from music directors at Top 40 radios, airplay was almost automatic, as well as plentiful. Because of all the tremendous airplay, we placed every commercial piece we pressed into the various chains, music stores, and "moms and pops" around the nation. I was thrilled at my incredible expertise and visionary prowess. We ultimately got back close to 300,000 of those 400,000 records in returns! We had the airplay. We had the inventory. We had the distribution. We had the prestige. We had the company enthusiasm. We had a Beatles connection. We had a great group. We had a great record. We were missing just one thing -- the ability to go out and pick up people at their homes, drive them to the record store, and convince them to put their money on the counter and ask for Maybe Tomorrow by the new group from England called The Iveys! Amazingly, we couldn't seem to get this band off the ground."

*excerpts from Chapter (Track) 19 of Ken Mansfield's book, "The White Book" (2007)

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