Dick Clark initially dismissed them as [b][i]"a glorified bar band Right.
There's a story about Dick Clark and the Beatles that's probably more than apocryphal:
When Congress agreed to hold hearings on "payola" in `1960, ABC-TV required Clark to divest all of his extensive interests in record companies, publishing houses, song rights, etc., if he wanted to remain on the air with "American Bandstand." Later, Brian Epstein was desperately shopping for an American label for the Beatles, who were unknown in the US. He'd had poor sales with Decca and VeeJay. But he learned that two guys who were associated with Swan records, a Philadelphia label, were in England.
Thinking that Swan was still part-owned by Clark, Epstein contacted the two guys and made them an offer they couldn't refuse: he'd give them "She Loves You" for Swan, hoping that it would get guaranteed play on Bandstand. If "She Loves You" sold more than 50k copies in the US, Swan would have the rights to press and distribute all Beatles records in the US.
The two guys brought "She Loves You" to Clark, who by that time had to keep them and Swan at arms-length. He played the record once on the air and concluded that it, and the Beatles, were going nowhere fast in America. "She Loves You" failed to sell 50k records, and the deal never came off. Then, after Sullivan saw them in the UK in November and booked them for his show in January, Capitol got interested and the rest, as they say, is history...
