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A statement found on NPR -

"Across the pond" the Beatles had already cracked the top 10...

  1. What's the meaning of "across the pond"? Does it mean "on the opposite side of the Atlantic" or "in every part of the Atlantic"? Or it just can be interpreted as either meaning, depending on the context?

  2. I know a phrase called "crack it", meaning "succeed to do something". Does the word "crack" in the quote has the same meaning as the phrase?

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    Across the pond is a common phrase and meaning easily found on the web. Crack, meaning deduced from 13 or 14.
    – None
    Feb 10, 2014 at 6:42
  • Does crack mean "succeed to do something"? Sort of. I'd say that it means to succeed in getting past some threshold or barrier. For example, if a Lithuanian skier won a medal at the Olympics, I wouldn't say that Lithuania cracked the medal stand – not unless it had been a few decades since a Lithuanian athlete had won gold, silver, or bronze at the Olympic games, or, perhaps, Lithuania usually won several medals, but had been shut out until near the end of the Olympics. If either of those were the case, though, then Lithuania finally cracked the medal stand might be appropriate.
    – J.R. ♦
    Feb 10, 2014 at 10:27

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Across the pond is used as an idiom.

Across the pond (idiom) - on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from Britain/the US

From the same article, the paragraph here clarifies it further that in that time, the Beatles had already gained great popularity on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Back in the '60s, particularly the early '60s, we were by no means living in a global community," he says. "Britain was this far-off, exotic place across the pond.

However, I'm not sure why did they put the idiom in inverted comma and did not put comma after the word 'pond'. "Across the pond, the Beatles had already cracked..."

Cracked, as you said, means achieve/succeed there. You crack something when you achieve/succeed in anything that is desired by you or you aimed at. Here, they cracked top 10 means they achieved/succeeded getting into the top 10 list.

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  • Actually, cracked means something a little more specific than "acheived success." It means that one of their songs had risen on the charts to Number 10 (or above). Had their song only made it up to No. 11, they would have achieved success, but they would not have cracked the Top 10.
    – J.R. ♦
    Feb 10, 2014 at 10:05
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    I find it strange to juxtapose far-off, exotic place with across the pond, which suggests a metaphor for closeness or kinship between the UK and the US.
    – choster
    Feb 10, 2014 at 16:35

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