Sixty years ago tonight, Feb. 9, 1964, one of those iconic moments in music history took place. A musical phenomenon from the UK made its first appearance on an American variety show where anybody who was anybody performed.
Of course, I’m talking about the Beatles’ first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” In the early weeks of 1964, the Western world was in the throes of Beatlemania, but at the same time, the U.S. was still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The Fab Four’s arrival in New York united the country in a cultural touchstone that no artist has been able to duplicate since (sorry, Swifites). It’s hard for anybody who wasn’t swept up in Beatlemania to understand how powerful it was.
Ed Sullivan’s show was the Sunday night program that everybody wanted to appear on. In November 1963, the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, sealed the deal with a handshake. The Beatles would make three appearances with Sullivan, two live and one taped.
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The official Ed Sullivan website tells more:
Prior to their debut on the Sullivan show, The Beatles’ record “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was leaked in advance of its planned US release to radio stations across the country. When attorneys for Capitol Records were unable to stop American DJs from spinning the tune, the record label relented and, on December 26, 1963, dropped the album ahead of schedule. The record sold 250,000 copies in the first three days. By January 10, 1964 it had sold over one million units and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the number one song on the Billboard charts by month’s end. In the weeks leading up to The Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Beatlemania went viral. Radio stations played the band’s music nearly non-stop; teenaged fans sported “Beatle” wigs, and bumper stickers across the country warned, “The Beatles Are Coming.”
The Beatles touched down at New York’s Kennedy Airport on February 7th, 1964. They were met by a throng of reporters and a hoard of three thousand screaming fans. Upon disembarking the plane, The Beatles were whisked to a press conference hosted by Capitol Records in which they playfully answered questions from the media.
When asked “How do you find America?” Ringo Starr jokingly replied, “Turn left at Greenland.”
While The Beatles spent the next two days cooped up at The Plaza Hotel, fans did all they could to get closer to the band. Groups of teenagers set up camp outside The Plaza, some even posing as hotel guests in an attempt to see their favorite group. As the show approached, over 50,000 requests for seats came into CBS. However, The Ed Sullivan Show, which originated from CBS’s TV Studio 50, could only accommodate an audience of 700.
The Fab Four arrived in New York just 77 days after the Kennedy assassination. Because they were such a phenomenon, their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” drew massive numbers. Some 45% of American households tuned in, with an estimated 23,240,000 homes watching the show.
As the 8 p.m. broadcast began, Sullivan read a telegram from Elvis Presley and Col. Tom Parker to the Beatles and cut to the first commercial break. After the ads, Sullivan made the magic announcement:
Now yesterday and today our theater’s been jammed with newspapermen and hundreds of photographers from all over the nation, and these veterans agreed with me that this city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves The Beatles. Now tonight, you’re gonna twice be entertained by them. Right now, and again in the second half of our show. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles! Let’s bring them on.
I’ve heard my mom, who was 13 at the time, talk about seeing the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for years, so I asked her about her memories.
“It was on Sunday night and my daddy would rush us home from church so that we could watch it,” she said, remarking that normally they would go out to eat after church. For my grandparents, who were decidedly not fans of modern music, to break that tradition so their oldest daughter could watch the Beatles was a big deal.
My mom said that she had heard their music on the radio, and “it was just nice to see what they looked like.” When I asked her what she thought about seeing them live, she said that “they looked kind of strange with all that long hair, but I loved their music.”
You have to pity the other acts on that episode — “impressionist Frank Gorshin, acrobats Wells & the Four Fays, the comedy team of McCall & Brill, and Broadway star Georgia Brown joined by the cast of ‘Oliver!’” — because nobody remembers their appearances that night.
The Beatles performed again on Feb. 16, this time live on location in Miami; then the taped performance ran on Feb. 23. The Fab Four made one more appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Sept. 12, 1965.
Aside from the historic nature of this first American television appearance, the Beatles paved the way for other rock acts to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” It’s hard to imagine another phenomenon like Beatlemania, so it’s worth remembering such a momentous occasion.
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