50th Anniversary of Beatles on Ed Sullivan

This Sunday, February 9th, at 8pm, will be the 50th anniversary of the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember it like it was yesterday! I was a senior in high school and was in my room upstairs doing homework, when my father called up and said "They are going to on in a minute." My 2 sisters and I rushed downstairs to watch. It was so exciting. We had heard and read all about them and were listening to their songs, and heard about their long hair. And there they were in person and the audience going nuts.

They took rock and roll by storm. There was nothing like it before. They were the opening salvo of the British Invasion. So many other groups and individuals came after them-The Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman's Hermits,  Dave Clark Five, the Yardbirds, the Kinks, MaryAnn Faithful, Donovan and so many more. And many of these groups were influenced by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley. A great research project or thesis, would be why did this all happen in the early 60's, in Liverpool and the London area? Why there and why not other places in England? Or why not in Paris or Berlin? I asked Peter Noonan from Herman's Hermits this after a concert in Connecticut several years ago. He said one of the reasons was Liverpool was a sailing town and many of the sailors would buy American rock and roll records and bring them back to Liverpool and play them. And that inspired many of the local groups.

I think the Beatles were dropped from a spaceship. They wrote over 200 songs, most of them by Lennon and McCartney.  How did they do that? And they supposedly wrote some of their melodies in ways that had never been done before. Their music evolved over the years and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band may be one of the classic albums of all time. I think music fans will be listening to Beatle music 100 years from now. And thanks to YouTube we can always watch them and there  are several tribute bands that tour the country. Last year we saw 1964 The Tribute. They looked like the Beatles, sounded like the Beatles,  and played the same instruments the same way as the Beatles. It was really amazing. It was almost like the Beatles were there in front of you.

And of course, I can't help but think about Pete Best. He was the drummer with the Beatles for two years, from 1960-1962 but  when they did their first studio recording, the Beatles and some of their managers were supposedly not happy with his drumming in the studio, so they let him go and replaced him with Ringo. Yikes. Look at all he missed out on.

So this Sunday night at 8pm, crank up YouTube, watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan once again. I will be and I will hoisting a glass of Irish Cream on the rocks, and toasting the Fab 4 and those days gone by.