Meet the Small Group of Beatles Fans Who Helped Define Fangirl Culture in the 60s

If you were alive during the mid to late 60s, you were definitely no stranger to Beatlemania. In February 1964, the popular British boy band made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which introduced them to a massive international audience and a whole new array of obsessed fans.

Out of all The Beatles’ listeners, though, few were as dedicated as a small group of fans called the “Apple Scruffs.” 

The “Apple Scruffs” would wait outside Beatle-frequented spots, including the Apple Corps Building and Abbey Road Studios, hoping to see one of the Fab Four.

As The Beatles’ press officer, Derek Taylor once explained, these “Sherlock Scruffs” seemed to have a strange way of knowing where The Beatles were at all times.

“What fascinated me most was how they got their information,” he shared, as reported by Rolling Stone. “Often they knew more about where the boys were than we did…”

Apparently, as Taylor also mentioned, a map of the Apple building used in a feature story actually included a special spot for the group of fans. This was “on the steps of the offices at 3 Savile Row.”

One Beatle Was Particularly Fond of the Scruffs

Oftentimes, the scruffs would wait outside The Beatles’ most visited spots to protect them from paparazzi or overbearing fans. Linda Easton, who first became a scruff at just 14 years old, was lucky enough to meet all of The Beatles at one time or another.

“The staff in Apple would tell us where the band were and we would go to see them,” she explained. “On a good day, we would meet one of The Beatles. I met Paul first then George and later John and Ringo. John spoke the least but looking back he had lots going on at the time.”

As Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys once shared, one Beatle, George Harrison, was particularly fond of the scruffs. From time to time, he would stop to talk to them and even take some of them out for tea.

“There was always a little knot of them. They weren’t fashion model types, they were just little girls – just kids,” Keys told Graeme Thomson. “[Harrison] always took time to have a word with them, and I seem to remember him going out with tea for them sometimes when it was cold I was impressed with how caring he was about these girls. I’ve been around a lot of other folks who have quite a different way of dealing with people, let’s put it that way.”

In 1970, Harrison even released a special song for these fans called “Apple Scruffs”, which appears on his album All Things Must Pass.

“It was George who would talk to us the most,” Easton once said of the quiet Beatle. “And we could not believe it when he wrote a song about us…”

Photo by: Arthur Buckley/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

The post Meet the Small Group of Beatles Fans Who Helped Define Fangirl Culture in the 60s appeared first on American Songwriter.