“Why--hello, dear. Now tell me quickly, which one are you?”
-- Sheila Graham to George Harrison
“We came out of nowhere with funny hair, looking like marionettes or something. That was very influential. I think that was really one of the big things that broke us--the hairdo more than the music, originally. A lot of people’s fathers had wanted to turn us off. They told their kids, “Don’t be fooled, they’re wearing wigs.” —Paul McCartney
The buildup was boss. Fab. Gear. The Beatles had been wowing England since January of 1963 when “Please, Please Me” had topped their charts. Without an internet or an American label push, their reach across the Atlantic had dragged. When George Harrison visited his sister in the summer of ’63, news of it barely rippled. One local newspaper said “the next Elvis Presley” was visiting,” When his sister Louise introduced her brother that was yet to be called “the quiet Beatle, her friends just didn’t get it.
The going rate for a phenom on the Sullivan show was $50,000 for three performances, set in 1956 by Elvis Presley. In Nov 1963, Ed was visiting London when he offered Beatles manager Brian Epstein $10,000 for one performance. Brian was aware of the Elvis number, but more than the money, he was interested in the exposure. He countered with an offer that his Beatles would play three shows for the same amount if they could open and close each show. Ed thought he had gotten the best of them.
All the goodwill hit the fan the night of Jan 3 when NBC’s Tonight Show host Jack Paar aired some BBC footage of the Beatles wowing swinging London. Ed wanted to be the first and he was pissed. Brian wanted Ed to be the first and he was pissed, charging his lawyers to rattle legal swords at the BBC. The network felt his pain, but could not take back time. Ed railed and threatened but cooler heads prevailed. The show was on.
The Beatles, their entourage and a crew of British journalists on Pan Am Flight 101 from Heathrow, landed at JFK Friday, Feb 5. The band emerged, waved to thousands of screaming fans, and were hustled straight to their first American press conference, a cheeky affair of thick Liverpudlian quips, cigarettes, and a refusal to sing a song. “We need money first,” said John.
Then it was off in the limo, radio blasting.
“We were so overawed by American radio, Epstein had to stop us: we phoned every radio in town, saying, ‘Will you play the Ronettes doing this?’ We wanted to hear the music. We didn’t ask for our own records, we asked for other people’s. In the old days we listened to Elvis, of course, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Little RIchard and Eddie Cochran, to name but a few, but now we liked Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, Shirelles, all those people.”
--John Lennon
If there was any worry, it was over George Harrison’s health. He had been out of the groove since a series of Paris shows. Alll he wanted to do was check into the interconnecting ten rooms in the suites that had been rented on the twelfth floor of the Plaza Hotel and get to bed.
On Saturday John, Paul, and Ringo strolled forth into the drizzle of Central Park for photos. Then they visited the CBS Studios on 53rd Street where they were required to join AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) before performing on live television. George stayed down, the doctors having put his sister Louise in charge of his care.
Exactly what was troubling him has been reported as tonsillitis, strep, and flu. His temperature was 104° on Saturday afternoon and Harrison missing the big show was a real possibility. Road manager Neil Aspinall stood in for camera run throughs on Sunday.
Said early biographer Hunter Davies in The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (McGraw, Hill, 1968): “George was by this time ill in bed and it appeared he would miss the Ed Sullivan Show. Neil stood in for the rehearsal but George managed the show, filled with dope.”
His wit was the first thing to heal. The famed well wishing telegram arrived backstage, signed “Elvis and the Colonel,” and George answered “Elvis who?”
That Sunday afternoon, before the first live broadcast, they taped their segments for the third Sullivan appearance that would run on Feb 23 after their return to England.
Sandwiched in between, the second show would come Feb 16 in sunny Miami. There they rehearsed in swimsuits, were photographed in a pool for the cover of LIFE, and visited Cassius Clay at the gym where he was training for his upcoming title fight with Sonny Liston.
Competition for Sunday night viewing on Feb 9 included Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color with an episode of a Robin Hood series. Gryndl a sitcom with Imogene Coca, and “Arrest and Trial,” a 90-minute drama on ABC rounded out the three-network lineup. A whopping 60% of American televisions tuned to Ed and CBS. The Rev. Billy Graham said he broke his rule of no TV on the sabbath to see what the fuss was about.
Brian Epstein paced, nervous and precise. At one point as the countdown had begun he collared Sullivan and said “I would like to know the exact wording of your introduction.” Ed barked back: “I would like you to GET LOST.”
Then it was showtime, 8 P.M. EST. The same viewing community wouldn’t get together in these numbers until a man walked on the moon. The hype had hit blg, now it was time to see if the Brits with a big song could back it up. Seventy-three million people, all there for put up or shut up time.
Sullivan greeted his live audience of 728.. That many out of 50,000 had gotten in. Walter Cronkite and Richard Nixon had both pulled strings for their daughters’ tickets. Leonard Bernstein got turned down.
Our master of ceremonies raised his hands, the hard nosed newspaper columnist who had fought his way to the top in his own dull but special way (“Quiet down kids, these are ambassadors of goodwill”). He cited the Elvis telegram and threw the show to commercials from Aero Shave and Griffin Shoe Polish. Clean shaved and shoes shined, America was back.
“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.”
--Ed Sullivan
First song: “All My Loving (Video from Ed Sullivan Show unavailable.)
Author: McCartney 100% “It was the first song I ever wrote where I had the words before the music. I wrote the words on a bus on tour, then we got the tune when I arrived there.”
Lennon: “‘All My Loving is Paul I regret to say...because it’s a damn good piece of work. But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”
First recorded: July 30, 1963, Abbey Road, 13 takes
Second song: “Till There Was You” (Video from Ed Sullivan Show unavailable)
Author: Meredith Willson, for the 1957 Broadway musical The Music Man, originally sung by Robert Preston and Barbara Cook.
Note: During the Sullivan show, this was the song where their first names were superimposed because many were still trying to figure out who was who, “Paul,” “Ringo,” “George,” “John-Sorry girls he’s married.”
First recorded: July 18 and 30, 1963, Abbey Road, 8 takes
Third song: “She Loves You”
Author: Lennon 50%, McCartney 50% (Lennon: “It was written together. It was Paul’s idea. Instead of singing ‘I Love You’ again, we’d have a third party.”
Written in a Newcastle hotel room after a performance June 26, 1963.
Released in UK Aug 23, 1963, entering the charts at #2. Stayed at #1 for 6 total nonconsecutive weeks and sold 1.3 million copies, the biggest hit in the UK in 1963.
Capitol and Vee Jay refused to release in the US after poor performances by the previous two singles. Epstein persuaded Swan records to release it and it spent 14 weeks on the US charts. The week it hit #1 in March, the Beatles had 5 songs in the Billboard Top 40. It was the group’s first million seller.
First recorded July 1, 1963, Abbey Road, takes unknown.
Following those first three songs, magician Fred Kaps got the honor of flipping through some card tricks. He was followed by members of the Broadway cast of Oliver! singing “I’ll Do Anything.” Future Monkee Davy Jones performed with the ensemble that night and he was a little Dickens. Next Georgia Gibbs of the same ensemble performed “As Long As He Needs Me.”
Impressionist Frank Gorshin, two years out from donning the green question mark tights for the Riddler role on TV’s Batman, was next introduced. His bit was, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Hollywood personalities decided they wanted to get into politics?” The fantasy ran on with imagined campaign speeches by Broderick Crawford, Marlon Brando, and Kirk Douglas.
A medley from Ireland’s Tessie O’Shea, 51, followed (“the peroxide pumpkin...turns into a boisterous Cinderella” the New York Times had said in a recent show review), then the rushed comedy of McCall and Brill.
Another commercial, and the Beatles were at long last returned.
Fourth song: “I Saw Her Standing There”
Author: McCartney 80% Lennon 20%
The authors say the song was written in Paul’s living room while playing hooky.
Lennon: “That’s Paul doing his usual good job of what George Martin used to call ‘a potboiler.’ I helped with a couple of the lyrics.”
Working title: “Seventeen”
B-side in the US of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
Recorded: Feb 11, 1963, Abbey Road, 17 takes.
Fifth song: “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Author: Lennon 50%, McCartney 50% (Lennon: “We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball...we were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time...Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say ‘That’s IT!’ I said,
“Do that again!” In those days we really used to absolutely write like that, both playing into each other’s noses,”
Recorded Oct 17, 1963, Abbey Road, 17 takes.
Notes: Released in UK Nov 29, 1963, debuted at #1 and stayed for 7 weeks. By Jan 17, 1964, sold 1.5 million.
Released in US Jan 13, 1964 after being leaked unofficially since before Christmas. First US #1, held that position for 7 weeks and spent another 14 in the Top 40. Capitol Records finally got on board, the huge some of $50,000 was spent to promote just this single, and receptionists were instructed to answer the phones, “Capitol Records, the Beatles are coming.”
The Beatles were almost the last act. Perhaps adrenalin had kicked in for the performers, the show was a little short, so stand by acrobats Wells and the Four Fave got to tumble for their lives in front of an audience they could never have imagined. Hey!!
Following the show, disc jockey Murray the K., who had been “adopting” the band on his daily show on WINS radios, took the three healthy Beatles to chow at the Playboy Club. George went back to bed. From dinner, the entourage boogalooed to the Peppermint Lounge at 128 West 45th Street in Manhattan, where they danced until 4 A.M.
For such a world and culture changing event, much of the media chose to play things reserved and underwhelmed, responding more to a shipment of 35,000 Beatle wigs arriving in New York than what Ed Sullivan had wrought the night before. The New York Herald said the Beatles were “”75% publicity, 20% haircut, and 5% lilting lament.” “Asexual and homely,” snipped the Washington Post in a terse dismissal.
The best reviews came from law enforcement. It was reported that the crime rate in America was lower during the show than at any time in the past half-century. New York police precincts noted a drop in juvenile crime. All five boroughs reported zero hubcap theft during the entire Sullivan airing. (Snopes reported in our era that this was an urban legend.)
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan was the giddiest high point of the 60s, a turbulent and joyful conclusion to the first wild weekend of the British Invasion. Much of the audience thought that this was the apogee of the ultimate for the Fab Four, still clueless of what had just launched. Others were gobsmacked on the Epiphany level, drawn to rock, roll, and originality in ways that had never occurred to them. Within a decade, analysts would be asking their clients their favorite Beatle as a first insight into their souls.
Recalling the event on her 59th wedding anniversary with her husband Charlie Brill in 2014, Mitzi McCall remembered, “For us it went lousy. It was terrible. We were doing a sketch. We couldn’t hear each other because of the screaming” After a pause she reflected and referred to the evening as a sort of “honor.”
“We were there when the world changed.”