The Beatles arrived in the United States in Feb. 1964. The band was greeted at the newly named Kennedy Airport just six months after that president’s assassination by a country ready to emerge from its grief. The Beatles’ playful energy and optimistic music fit the bill.
Larry King, in a conversation with the Archive of American Television recalled having Paul McCartney visit his home and telling the former Beatle how Fiedler had permanently changed King’s mind about his band.
Although Fiedler was steeped in the classical music scene, the conductor astonished King when during The Beatles’ heyday, he paid the Fab Four the highest compliment.
“I told [McCartney] a story, that the famous conductor of the Pops, Arthur Fiedler…this was when I appreciated The Beatles for the first time. I used to make fun of The Beatles in the ’60s, you know [King sang mockingly], ‘I wanna hold your hand…’
“So I had Arthur Fiedler on once and as an aside I said to him jokingly, ‘What do you think of this current craze, The Beatles?'”
Fiedler’s response caught King off guard.
“He said, ‘The Beatles are our Beethoven.’ I said, ‘What??’ He said, ‘The music that they write will be here when we’re both gone. They broke rules. I compare them to Bach.’
“McCartney’s face just lit up when I was telling him this,” King recalled. “Fiedler called that musical brilliance, and I, from then on, appreciated them.”
Although Fiedler was steeped in the classical music scene, the conductor astonished King when during The Beatles’ heyday, he paid the Fab Four the highest compliment.
“I told [McCartney] a story, that the famous conductor of the Pops, Arthur Fiedler…this was when I appreciated The Beatles for the first time. I used to make fun of The Beatles in the ’60s, you know [King sang mockingly], ‘I wanna hold your hand…’
“So I had Arthur Fiedler on once and as an aside I said to him jokingly, ‘What do you think of this current craze, The Beatles?'”
Fiedler’s response caught King off guard.
“He said, ‘The Beatles are our Beethoven.’ I said, ‘What??’ He said, ‘The music that they write will be here when we’re both gone. They broke rules. I compare them to Bach.’
“McCartney’s face just lit up when I was telling him this,” King recalled. “Fiedler called that musical brilliance, and I, from then on, appreciated them.”
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