AFTER THE FAB FOUR’S phenomenal U.S. success, British acts couldn’t cross the North Atlantic fast enough. Before long, on U.S. charts, Peter and Gordon (a duo who recorded several songs by Paul McCartney) were singing about “A World Without Love,” Petula Clark wanted to go “Downtown,” and the Rolling Stones riffed about “Satisfaction.” The wave grew to include the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks, the Who, the Animals, Freddie and the Dreamers, and Herman’s Hermits, whose novelty hit “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am” still cycles, unbidden and unremovable, through the craniums of music fans of a certain age. No dummies, most of the bands carefully followed the template of the Beatles’ American success, a sort of stations of the cross that included (1) be photographed, waving, on the gangway…
