SeilerBird
Well-known member
As most Beatle fans know that is the most important date in the entire history of music (my personal opinion ymmv). It was the day everything changed. 73.8 million (a record) people tuned in that night to watch the first appearance of the Beatles on American soil. Not one hubcap was stolen in America that night. I have the box set of their Ed Sullivan show appearances and I was re-watching that show last night. Now usually when I watch guitarists I only watch their hands. Last night I decided to concentrate on their reaction to being on American television for the first time. I made many observations doing that. The first was George's hair. It is obvious they all went to a hairdresser and got gussied up (probably Brian's insistence). George looks like someone trimmed his bangs with a laser beam. Absolutely straight as can be. Then today I was watching Despicable me and I noticed Agnes has exactly the same hairstyle.
I also got a kick out of watching George dance around while playing the solo to I Saw Her Standing There. It is cute to watch but he does make a few mistakes.
All four Beatles were reacting to being in America on television, a goal they had for many years, never really thinking they would be bigger than Elvis. They all smiled big smiles when the camera was on them. Especially Ringo.
The most interesting thing to me was that John was actually on his best behavior. I think he was actually scared to death. He did not one time pull a face, stick out his tongue or do a cripple walk. He always mugs for the camera but he was a good as can be. He did give a small laugh when Paul did the 'favorite American group Sophie Tucker' line.
When they did I Saw Her Standing There they came out of the solo and did not play the middle eight, went straight to the last verse. I think they did that on purpose to cut about a minute of time, but I have never heard anything about it.
It is also strange because this is one of the only Beatles concerts from the 60s where you can actually hear them. It had probably been two years since they could hear themselves on stage. This is really strange when compared to the Paul McCartney concert I was at last summer at Dodger Stadium. It seemed like every person in the audience of 50,000 knew every word to every song and so it was a singalong all night. On the Sullivan show there was almost no one in the audience who knew the words so no one else was singing.
I also got a kick out of watching George dance around while playing the solo to I Saw Her Standing There. It is cute to watch but he does make a few mistakes.
All four Beatles were reacting to being in America on television, a goal they had for many years, never really thinking they would be bigger than Elvis. They all smiled big smiles when the camera was on them. Especially Ringo.
The most interesting thing to me was that John was actually on his best behavior. I think he was actually scared to death. He did not one time pull a face, stick out his tongue or do a cripple walk. He always mugs for the camera but he was a good as can be. He did give a small laugh when Paul did the 'favorite American group Sophie Tucker' line.
When they did I Saw Her Standing There they came out of the solo and did not play the middle eight, went straight to the last verse. I think they did that on purpose to cut about a minute of time, but I have never heard anything about it.
It is also strange because this is one of the only Beatles concerts from the 60s where you can actually hear them. It had probably been two years since they could hear themselves on stage. This is really strange when compared to the Paul McCartney concert I was at last summer at Dodger Stadium. It seemed like every person in the audience of 50,000 knew every word to every song and so it was a singalong all night. On the Sullivan show there was almost no one in the audience who knew the words so no one else was singing.
