40 years ago Today

Someone recently said on a blog somewhere that the Beatles were over-rated. That person is someone who was probably born after 1970.

I remember going to a Bar Mitzvah and afterwards we went back to the house of the people. Their daughter had just gotten a copy of I Want to Hold Your Hand. All anyone wanted to do was play it again and again. None of us got tired of hearing it. That is not exactly right since we did listen to the B side also since that was also a great song.
It was so new, so cool, so different.

Everyone knew their names. Everyone had a favorite Beatle.

I Want To Hold Your Hand was either the second or third 45 I ever bought. Actually I probably bought it and She Loves at the Same time so they are tied.
Don't ask me what the first single I bought was, that is a whole other story.

I went looking for those singles a little while ago and found them in a red and white 45 box with a picture of the Beatles on the front. I have two of these boxes holding the first 100 45's I ever bought.

But I digress.

There was a man who was king of TV. His name was Ed Sullivan. His Sunday night variety show ran for ages and was THE place to be seen. It was immortalized in the show and movie Bye Bye Birdie where just the mention of his name was enough to send a grown man into a fantasy,

There was no one bigger on television.

On Sundays in my house there were two shows that we always watched week after week. One was the Wonderful World of Disney, the other was Ed Sullivan.

On February 9, 1964 the Beatles came to Ed Sullivan.

I was watching. Even my mother was watching. I am told that over 70 million people were watching. It was the greatest rock and roll event to ever be on TV.
I don't have the bandwidth for video but this is what is sounded like.


Intro - All my Loving

My mom was making some kind of semi snarky comments but she changed her tune and said something nice when they did the next song which she remembered from the Music Man.

Till There Was You


That course was just the warm up for what we were waiting for which came next.


She Loves You


In case you have never seen it. The woooo part was where they shook their hair and brought screams from the crowd.
Ed's reference to "you promised" was a deal he tried to make with the studio audience to keep the screaming to a minimum.


The second half was one of the best B and A side singles ever sold


I Saw Her Standing There


I Want To Hold Your Hand


It was amazing night to remember and I still do.

More details about the Beatles' appearances can be found here


Due to bandwidth and other considerations these mp3's will not be online long, so get them while you can.