Thursday, February 09, 2006

An auspicious debut

The Beatles made their live American TV debut on this day in 1964, on the venerable Ed Sullivan show, performing to a record-busting audience of more than 70 million viewers. (Lots too up here in Canada, I'm sure. But I was too young, so I did not see the show during that night.)

The Fabs played five songs: All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and I Want To Hold Your Hand. And so the invasion was in high gear.

There would follow three more Sullivan appearances for the group (on the two following Sundays, February 16 and 23, 1964, as well as September 12, 1965). You can see the complete shows, including original commercials, in a great 2-DVD set put out by SOFA Entertainment. It's available at Amazon.ca.

These are also essential viewing: The First US Visit, a documentary by Albert and David Maysles; and of course Beatles Anthology, which follows their whole career together.