Railroaders' Nostalgia > OT: It was 60 years ago tonight ♪

(the world only changed forever)

Those of us “long enough in the tooth” will probably remember this seismic event: It was the CBS-TV Ed Sulivan Show on February 9, a Sunday evening in 1964. The music world, yea, the entire world was jolted off its foundation and was irreversibly changed. This explosive event heralded the original British music invasion of North America, led by four mop-haired young lads from Liverpool, England. I was eight years old at the time. But even if the average kid in grade school didn’t see the actual broadcast, he/she heard about right away.

The Beatles had arrived! And absolutely nothing would ever be the same. That said, all I can remember about that broadcast was captured in this thread: ( Workin' on the RR the day... (trainorders.com) ). By the time John Lennon was senselessly murdered in 1980 I had become a Beatles fan. My latent fanship was enhanced & cemented in the early 1980s when my camera took me into the music world as a gig photographer. The Topeka & Kansas City semi-local bands I was working with had musicians who were mostly in my age bracket. And almost to a person they would cite the Beatles as their main musical influence. At the time it was an exciting and very energetic influence on me. I was quickly adapting to live band photography. It came natural, and in a way there were a few parallels to railfan photography. I was told by one promising band that should they ever get signed to a recording contract they would “take me with them”. But the music business was/is very competitive! They came close, but never did get signed. If one or two breaks had gone differently I might have a career full of photo credits from all sorts of musical venues...

It’s pretty safe to say that none of the above paragraph would have come to pass without 5 Beatles tunes* broadcast live on February 9, 1964 on the Ed Sulivan Show...

1. Still photo of the Beatles on The Ed Sulivan Show. L to R: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon & Ringo Starr on the drums. (Bettman Archives)

2. John Lennon & Ringo Starr watch as Paul McCartney shows Ed Sulivan a lick on his bass guitar. George Harrison is absent.

*All these years I thought the Beatles played only 2 songs from their early catalog: All My Loving & I Want to Hold Your Hand. Only just recently I learned there were 5 total songs played. Having been into live band photography, and especially after having been a college bar live DJ I fully understand the strategy in playing songs in a certain order. It’s a valuable tool that lets you manipulate your crowd’s enthusiasm and momentum. And the Beatles’ 2-9-64 set list was pure genius! It has been said the Beatles’ covering Meredith Willson’s soft ballad was an effort to at least mollify some of the more nervous parents in the live crowd and at home. More set list genius at work...

1. All My Loving, Till There Was You. (Meredith Willson cover) & She Loves You (future #1 hit).
(Commercial break?)
2. I Saw Her Standing There & I Want to Hold Your Hand (#1 at the time on the Billboard Top-40 chart).

DJ Sir L (my 80s college bar DJ moniker)

PS: In the fall of 1964 I was the very last “hold-out” kid in my 4th grade class to grow my hair into Beatles-influenced bangs. My dad hated to give in on that one... ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/24 04:16 by santafe199.

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"ONE TWO THREE.."  Yes, a great look back 60 years ago today.  Sixtieth anniversaries don't happen too often, so it is good to remember. While preparing my radio shows this month, I have learned even more about the Beatles.  You will find a lot of interesting stuff at edsullivan.com; in the February issue of Vanity Fair, which has good story written by Beatles photographer Harry Benson; and a great story about Brian Epstein in the Washington Post on February 4 by Glenn Frankel.

 Two thrills of my young life was to see the Beatles perform live first in Portland, Oregon and then in Seattle Washington.   

Thanks for the memories.

Very well written narrative Lance.

Gary

Nice write up. My mother was 20 and living the life of a young single girl She has told me that she purposely took a day off work that following Monday because she went to a HUGE Beatles party that night. 🥃🥴😆 Ah to be young in the Post War Boom America.

Posted from iPhone

My wife and I saw the Ringo Starr All Starr Band at Hartman Arena in Wichita on June 26th, 2016. It was a great performance. Ringo played quite a bit and showed how excellent a musician he is. I have two Ludwig kits. My first from 1966 and a second from 2010. The 2010 is a near duplicate of Ringo's silver sparkle kit. Thank you for the trip down memory lane Lance.

Kennard Britton

really big Shoe

Looks like Brian Epstein behind Ed.  

Mom called us into the TV room and said, "The Beatles are gonna be on shortly!"  My favorite of the set list was "She Loves You".

mapboy

Agreed. Brian Epstein behind Sullivan.

Too bad he died, the band MIGHT have had a different future with his input. Who knows, maybe in a different time line…

Regards

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Drknow Wrote:
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> Agreed. Brian Epstein behind Sullivan.
>
> Too bad he died, the band MIGHT have had a
> different future with his input. Who knows, maybe
> in a different time line…
>
> Regards
>
> Posted from iPhone

As in no Yoko Ono mucking up the chemistry? Oh, what could have been…

Thanks Lance/ good write up and memory of the Big Event at the Sullivan show, 60 years ago. 

One of my retired Amtk buddies. a Condr on the Sunset Ltd SAS-HOS had a very lucky thing happen 
to him that night. He and his Dad were in NYC that day (2/9/1964) for some kind of routine business trip
for the Dad. Somehow they got tickets to the Show, and both of them were there in the Studio audience
for the entire show. He was about 15 years old. 

There were a couple of other Acts as well as the Main Event. Maybe Topo Gigio or some other typical
Sullivan performer. The buddy reports the Beatles music could barely be heard, above the din of the screaming
girls on all sides of them, in the throes of Beatlemania. Still- what a great thing to have actually "been there."
He can easily be seen, along with his Dad, sitting there in the Studio audience in the old Recording of the Event.