Looking Back on the Beatles’ Star-Making Ed Sullivan Performance on the 60th Anniversary

60 years ago today… Ed Sullivan helped the band play!

The Beatles first landed in New York in February 1964, and Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the group’s legendary appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr found success in their native England – but after 73 million viewers tuned in to their Sullivan set, Beatlemania was in full swing in the United States.

Two days after arriving in New York, the Beatles played five songs on Sullivan’s CBS Sunday night variety show, which at the time was one of the most-watched shows in the country.

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The Beatles talk to Ed Sullivan.

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“They just received a televsion, they did, from Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker wishing them tremendous success in our country,” Sullivan told the crowd. “Tonight the whole country is waiting to hear the English Beatles.”

All eyes were on the four lads from Liverpool as they sang ‘All My Loving’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ to a roaring applause. Although now musical legends, their faces were new to the millions watching at home, with each Beatle’s name flashing below his face on the screen, with Lennon’s cheeky declaration: “Sorry, girls, he’s married.”

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“When we first came here, we never saw anything like this. TV studios in England were kind of all on one floor… But here it’s like an apartment building!” McCartney addressed David Letterman in 2009 in an interview taped in the same venue as Sullivan’s show. “The memory of staying here is great. It was kind of scary the first time.”

The guys were right to be a little apprehensive: the performance set TV records, with 45.3% of households with a TV watching the show — and 60% of TVs tuned to Sullivan.

Fans watch The Beatles perform on Ed Sullivan.

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The Beatles first came onto Sullivan’s radar in 1963, when his talent booker Jack Babb attended a concert in England at the behest of Peter Prichard, a London agent who happened to be friends with the group’s manager Brian Epstein. Sullivan’s interest in the group grew even more months later, when he witnessed 1,500 screaming fans welcoming the Beatles back to England while they happened to be visiting a London airport.

Once they were booked, word spread that England’s hottest act was coming to America, and more than 50,000 people applied for tickets to the 700-capacity venue.

The performance was, of course, a hit, and soon the British rock ‘n’ roll invasion began. The Beatles made their second appearance on Sullivan’s show on February 16, and their third and final appearance on February 23.

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Source: HIS Education