The Beatles At The Ed Sullivan Show:How The Fab Four Changed Us 50 Years Later

The Beatles at the Ed Sullivan show(photo:Harry Benson)

Last January 26th saw the announcement of a tv special The Night That Changed America:A Grammy Salute To The Beatles made by Julia Roberts at the 56th Grammys as it highlights how the band changed and shaped American music.

Fifty years later,the Beatles were still at the top of their game,with Paul McCartney winning five grammys at the recent event and not bad for a 71 year old whose timeless appeal and charisma appealed to all generations of fans.

One couldn't imagine the moment Ed Sullivan called out the fab four on that night of February 9th 1964 and how much impact it would make half a century later.When the Beatles emerged with a song called "I Saw Her Standing There" the screaming audiences showing their adoration to the band defined a new generation--rock music has changed forever.

Well at least the screaming decibels at the studio is somehow controlled compared to their gig in Washington DC several days later.The Beatles,as we all know it,remains the world's bestseller when it comes to rock and popular music and their songs became staples of everyone who wanted to have a good vibe even in times of trouble.The band amazingly continues to mesmerize young generations of fans even those who weren't even born yet when Beatlemania is at its peak.The Beatles also inspired younger kids to pick up the guitar and form their very own bands.

Ed Sullivan grips Paul's trademark Hofner bass,1964

Everyone knows by far that such event will NEVER happen again,with a record number of 73 million tv viewers kept juvenile crimes off the streets of America.By the time the Beatles rode that train en route to their concert in Washington DC,the band could hardly hear themselves as their equipment were drowned by screams,mostly by pubescent girls,who couldn't get enough seeing their beloved rock band onstage.




A DVD of the Washington concert in its entirety should've been released last 2007 but was held back due to copyright claims made by both EMI and Apple Corps.Nobody knew then when will those footages will finally see the light of the day.The Miami gig,on the other hand,saw Ed Sullivan calling the lads again onstage after a three song set and gladly told them the admiration made by Richard Rodgers who openly admitted becoming a fan of both Lennon and McCartney and was in awe of their one of a kind songwriting.Rodgers,who was responsible for about 900 songs from 43 Broadway Musicals became famous for his compositions in partnerships with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein for such timeless classics such as The King And I and The Sound Of Music.

How much impact did the Beatles had on us? The band ruled the charts for a decade during their recording hey day and even after the band had broken up.Twenty five years after their dissolution the band continued to rule the charts in the 1990s with all the Anthology albums reaching the number one spot in the Billboard albums chart with younger competitions ranging from Pearl Jam to Mariah Carey,the band had proven that the material they had written were way beyond the sixties.Not to mention all their albums performed and sold well in the charts in both the US,the UK and the world  over and continues to appeal to music lovers decades after they were first issued.

Talk about how bands dressed themselves and later grew their hair, couldn't be thankful enough for the Beatles for starting such trend.A standard that most rock bands had settled as the decades went along--the hippiedom of the sixties,progressive rock/heavy metal of the seventies,hair metal of the eighties,alternative/grunge of the nineties and so on...Marilyn Manson once said that nineties rock music were ideas pasted on ideas pointing on how it all started in the sixties with the Beatles and other rock groups that soon followed.

Perhaps the most beautiful tribute came from Linda McCartney who being Paul's wife and being the other half that formed  the core of Wings said in the late seventies during the advent of punk rock, "I think the main reason the sixties kept on coming back is that there's nothing better in the interim".Probably pointing out to how bands kept on reinventing themselves but still sounding and giving reference to the rock music that started around the  sixties when the genre first evolved and a variety of styles flourished along with it.

 The Beatles remains a good role model for budding rock groups fifty years later,and their songs continue to inspire people that theres always a bright day ahead.John and George may have been gone while Paul and Ringo were both in the dawn of their lives yet the songs they have written continues to be with us,keeping and binding us together.

Fifty years have passed and the songs just keeps revising itself,giving a new life within.With all those footages,that night at the Ed Sullivan Show we can always look back,seeing a cheery and young Paul McCartney singing us the line "All my lovin' I will send to you..."



(c) Keith Vernon Adagio