73 million households tuned in when The Beatles debuted on the Ed
Sullivan show. Amongst them were a generation of future musicians.
On
February 9, 1964, The Beatles stepped onto the stage at CBS Studio 50
in New York City to open an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show.
To
an accompaniment of ear-splitting screams, the band made their US TV
debut watched by a record-breaking 73 million households – an estimated
40% of the US population. The band opened and closed the hour-long show
with five songs: All My Loving, Till There Was You and She Loves You
during their first set, and I Saw Her Standing There and I Want to Hold
Your Hand during the second.
A generation of wannabe rock stars was instantly born.
Tom Petty: "Most magic is a trick, an illusion. But this was real. Man oh man, was it real. I think the whole world was watching that night. It certainly felt that way - you just knew it, sitting in your living room, that everything around you was changing. It was like going from black-and-white to colour. Really."
Sullivan began the show by telling the audience that Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, had sent the Beatles a telegram wishing them success in America (though it was reported later that Parker sent the telegram without Presley's knowledge).Sullivan then introduced the Beatles, who opened by performing "All My Loving"; "Till There Was You," which featured the names of the group members superimposed on closeup shots, including the famous "SORRY GIRLS, HE'S MARRIED" caption on John Lennon; and "She Loves You." The act that followed the Beatles in the broadcast, magician Fred Kaps, was pre-recorded in order to allow time for an elaborate set change. The group returned later in the program to perform "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
The
appearance on February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop
culture, and furthermore the beginning of the British Invasion in music.
The broadcast drew more than 73 million viewers, a record for U.S.
television at the time (broken three years later by the series finale of
The Fugitive).The broadcast drew a rating of 45.3 and a 60 share, and
was Sullivan's first time in seven years that he topped the nightly
ratings.
The Beatles had mixed reactions to the production value
of their performance, with Paul McCartney later remarking that Lennon's
microphone volume was too low.
Dee Snider: "I was eight years old
when this [I Want To Hold Your Hand] was released, and after hearing it
on the radio, and then seeing that legendary Ed Sullivan show
performance, that was it, I wanted to be a Beatle. I quickly realised
that I couldn’t actually be a Beatle, but I could be a rock star, and
that plan never changed."
Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon): "I was a little too young to get what Elvis was all about. He appealed to my babysitters, and not to me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate just why he’s regarded as iconic, but it never got me going. But one Sunday night at home, watching the family’s black and white TV set, when The Ed Sullivan Show was on, and I saw The Beatles. That changed my attitude. I knew then what I wanted to do with my life. Seeing them made something click in my soul.”
Steve
Morse (Deep Purple): “The Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan happened
to coincide with my getting a little battery-operated tape recorder for
Christmas. I was 10 years old and I was experimenting with the recorder,
and so when the Beatles came on the show, I thought, ‘Here’s some
music. I’ll record it.’ I listened back to it and realised how much I
liked it.
“My friend got the album, which was pretty amazing when
you consider that you had to scrape up a few bucks to buy it. Albums
were expensive back then, especially for little kids. So my friend was
like the kingpin of the neighbourhood because he had Meet the Beatles.
“We would go over his house after school and listen to the record. It was great – the music just floored us.
Gene
Simmons (Kiss): "There is no way I’d be doing what I do now if it
wasn’t for the Beatles. I was watching The Ed Sullivan Show and I saw
them. Those skinny little boys, kind of androgynous, with long hair like
girls. It blew me away that these four boys [from] the middle of
nowhere could make that music."
Joe Perry (Aerosmith): “Seeing
them on TV was akin to a national holiday. Talk about an event. I never
saw guys looking so cool. I had already heard some of their songs on the
radio, but I wasn’t prepared by how powerful and totally mesmerising
they were to watch. It changed me completely.
Steve Lukather: "When the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, life went from black and white to colour like in 'The Wizard of Oz' - and the irony I'm in the band Toto is not lost on me."
Nancy Wilson (Heart): "The Beatles are the reason I ever picked up a guitar. I was nine years old when I saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show [on February 9, 1964] and it was like being struck by a lightning bolt. Instead of wanting to marry a Beatle, I wanted to be a Beatle."
Earl Slick: “I was too
young to get bit by the Elvis bug, but when The Beatles came on TV it
really hit a nerve. Screaming girls, cool clothes, weird haircuts, the
whole thing. Within a few months I got my first guitar."
Walter
Trout: "I was 13 and I saw The Beatles on television. I saw them on the
Ed Sullivan show. I went into school the next day and nothing was the
same. The world changed. I decided that I had to get an electric guitar
and try to start playing music with other people."
Rick Nielsen:
"They completely changed music, especially in America. They changed me,
too. Until that point I was a drummer. But I became a massive fan; I
had the single of Please Please Me a year before anyone else in the
States had even heard of the Beatles."
Mike Portnoy: "Most people
talk about drumming and how they saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and
that changed their life and they knew what they wanted to be. I saw the
Beatles and I was like ‘ok, that guy John is standing, that guy Paul is
standing, that guy George is standing… Aha! That guy Ringo is sitting!
That’s what I wanna do! I wanna sit for a living!"
Richie
Sambora: "One of my earliest memories was sitting cross-legged on the
floor in the living room of the house I grew up in and looking up at the
black-and-white TV set and watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan
Show. I was 5 years old and I remember thinking, ‘Wow! That’s what I
want to do.’"
Chrissie Hynde (The Petenders): "I remember exactly where I was sitting. It was amazing. It was like the axis shifted."
Bruce
Springsteen: "This was different, shifted the lay of the land. Four
guys, playing and singing, writing their own material. Rock'n’roll came
to my house where there seemed to be no way out, and opened up a whole
world of possibilities."
Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater
Revival): "They were a quartet and we said, wow, we can do that. If
these guys from England can come out and play rock‘n’roll, we can do
it."
Greg Kihn: "If you were a shy 14-year-old kid who already
had a guitar, it was a life-altering event. In a single weekend
everything had changed. I'd come home from school the previous Friday
looking like Dion. I went back to class on Monday morning with my hair
dry and brushed forward. That's how quickly it happened."
Elliott
Easton (The Cars): I was 10 years old when The Beatles played the Ed
Sullivan Show and I was already playing a little guitar. To have that
guy there, standing to the side, looking down at his guitar while he
played his licks like that, to my impressionable mind it set in stone
the definition of a lead guitar. I knew, right then, that that was what I
wanted to do with my life."
Scott Gorham: "The Beatles were the
first experience that made me want to get into music. I was maybe twelve
years old when Ed Sullivan introduced them during that fabled show, and
I couldn’t get my face close enough to the TV. Those guys changed
everything."
Kentucky Headhunters: "When The Beatles came over
and played Ed Sullivan’s TV show in 1964, that set it in stone… you only
work two hours a day and the girls scream and chase you… come on!"
Marky
Ramone: "I was only twelve years old when I first saw them on the Ed
Sullivan Show. I was playing with my toys, and when I came into the
living room they were there on the TV. They were very animated,
particularly Ringo, and he was the guy that inspired me to play the
drums. He wasn’t technically great, but he was extremely tight, and he
got me on the path to becoming a drummer. They were the first band to
write their own music, really. I was very impressed by The Beatles."
Stanley
Clarke: "I remember The Beatles came on The Ed Sullivan Show and I
didn’t like anything my sister liked so I pretended not to like it, even
though instinctively I did!"
Steven Van Zandt: “The day before that, there were literally no bands in America. Day after, everybody had a band.”
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