When Keisha Lance Bottoms' Dad Inspired the Beatles

The Beatles return to London Airport on Feb. 21, 1964 (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

When the Beatles disembarked at London Airport (now Heathrow) on Feb. 21, 1964, following their epochal first-ever trip to the U.S., they were photographed cradling some of the albums they’d bought between appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and chaotic East Coast concerts. The Fabs were massive fans of American rockabilly, R&B and soul, but you couldn’t make out which records they’d brought back to the U.K., save one: In Paul McCartney’s hand rests a brand new copy of Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um by Chicago soul singer Major Lance.

If that name rings a bell, you’re either a ’60s soul aficionado or you’ve been paying attention to the historic midterm elections results: Major Lance is the father of Georgia governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms, who will become our country’s first Black female governor.

In her memoir, The Rough Side of the Mountain, Bottoms writes that she didn’t believe the story of the Fab Four being fans of her dad until she saw photographic evidence. “I absolutely thought that was a lie until my nephew sent me a picture of Paul McCartney holding one of Daddy’s albums under his arm upon the Beatles’ return to the U.K. after their first tour of America,” she recounts. “All of it was an outsized dream that Daddy made come true. It was also a stunning accomplishment for a man who was born on a sharecropper’s farm in Mississippi and had grown up in the projects of Chicago.”

Lance, a protege of Curtis Mayfield’s, signed to OKeh Records in 1962. His two biggest hits were written by Mayfield: 1963’s “The Monkey Time” and ‘64’s “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um,” the latter of which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. When his star dimmed in the States, Lance relocated to England in the early ‘70s, where his music was still beloved by that country’s soul music stans. One such fan, Elton John, once backed up Lance during his stint in Bluesology.

“I saw my daddy get up onstage and perform in front of hundreds, even thousands, of fans,” writes Bottoms. “To do that, you have to be fearless and free. That was exactly how I felt. There was this fearlessness in me that led me to believe I could be and do anything.”