Sixty years ago today, on February 9, 1964, The Beatles made their American television debut in front of a record audience of 73 million people with the first of three pre-recorded appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Devoid of context it’s just a historical fact, an anniversary of something that happened a long time ago. But through a cultural lens, it’s arguably one of the most significant events of the 20th century, alongside landmarks like Dylan going electric, Elvis’ comeback special, Woodstock, the launch of MTV, and Live Aid.
The popularity of The Beatles rises and falls as predictably as the tides. Every decade or so a new generation discovers them all over again, through a re-release of the band’s music, or a documentary, or a performance that brings them back in the public eye. While they weren’t the first teen idols to capture the imagination of a generation, and they certainly wouldn’t be the last, the undisputed power of the ensuing Beatlemania, supercharged by their Ed Sullivan debut, remains undeniable and unmatched.
The long and winding road to New York
From the start, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues and early rock and roll artists like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, who were even more popular in England than they were in America. By 1963, The Beatles had become immensely popular in the U.K. and the rest of Europe, but making it big in America was their dream. At that point, no British acts had really managed to break through across the pond, but of course, there’d never been a band quite like The Beatles.
The idea of The Beatles going on The Ed Sullivan Show was first brought up to the show’s producers by European talent coordinator Peter Prichard, a friend of the band’s manager, Brian Epstein. The show’s producers were initially uninterested in featuring a shaggy-headed, upstart group of young rockers from Liverpool they’d never heard of (and therefore assumed no one else had either). But in October 1963, someone from the show was passing through Heathrow Airport and was impressed by a crowd of frantic fans awaiting the band’s return from a European tour. That someone was Ed Sullivan.
The Beatles were booked to appear on his New York-based show the following February. In the months between the booking and the live show, U.S. radio stations were starting to circulate the band’s music, and they were winning over millions of Americans with their catchy hooks and pop-rock sound at a rapid pace. By January of 1964 their first single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” had already climbed to the top of the U.S. charts. When they arrived at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 7, they were greeted by thousands of screaming fans.
The invasion begins
To put the appearance in historical context, the U.S. was still reeling from the assassination of President Kennedy just a few months before the broadcast. Americans were suffering a national trauma and needed something healing to bring them together. It was an unfortunate circumstance of timing, but it worked in the band’s favor.
Before the show, which taped at Studio 50 in Manhattan, CBS received more than 50,000 ticket requests. The theater had just 728 seats. The band performed “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” marking the moment the British officially invaded. Soon, bands like the Zombies, the Animals, the Kinks, the Who, and the Rolling Stones would storm through the gates The Beatles had smashed open, and those gates would never be closed again.
John, Paul, George, and Ringo had gotten their wish and were embraced by the country whose music had so strongly influenced theirs. Within two months the top five songs on the Billboard 100 chart were all Beatles songs. Within the first three months of 1964, 60 percent of all the records sold in America were Beatles records. As British record producer Peter Asher, who knew the lads before they became famous, once put it, “It’s one of the all-time great con acts. We copied your music, did it differently, and sold it back.”
Still a defining moment
Music scholars single out The Beatles’ Ed Sullivan Show appearance as not only the beginning of the British Invasion, but as the spark for an emerging counterculture that would run parallel, and often in opposition to the mainstream. Although the band members were in their early 20s at the time, their fan base was young, vocal, and female. That made it easy to dismiss The Beatles as teen idols in the mold of Elvis Presley or Ricky Nelson, but there was something much deeper going on. The generation gap was widening. It was the moment that the Greatest Generation first truly felt the Baby Boomers sneaking up on them, threatening to take over. That rebellious spirit would fuel the culture of the 1960s and evolve into a rejection of the status quo that spawned anti-war movements and the fight for civil rights.
The broadcast is also significant because of all the future artists it inspired. Musicians from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including Gene Simmons, Nancy Wilson, Tom Petty, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Billy Joel have all said that watching The Beatles’ debut on The Ed Sullivan Show inspired them to dedicate their lives to music. Their appearance has been referenced, parodied, and recreated by musical acts from OutKast to Boygenius. Times, tastes, and styles may change, but it always comes back to The Beatles.
And so, on this 60th anniversary, we’re reminded that music and television, and those who appreciate them, can literally change the world. Perhaps the massive popularity of The Beatles wouldn’t have been contained across the Atlantic for long, but the legacy of that original Ed Sullivan performance and the impact it had remains worth celebrating.