Half a century ago...

Four Brits invaded the USA and took it by storm. The music industry, and to some extent our culture, would never the same again.

I'll admit it. I'm old enough to remember that Ed Sullivan show where the Fab 4 made their first USA appearance. I must also admit, I was as puzzled by the whole thing as the adults around me. I saw nothing special about them. Which I suppose shows you what I know about music and popular culture.

Dang. I'm friggin' OLD.

I didn't get to watch the Ed Sullivan show. My dad liked a western that was on another network at the same time. But I soon heard of the Beatles. I was 15 at the time and it was impossible to be a teenager in America (or just about any place else) in 1964 and not hear of the Beatles. A few years ago, I found a DVD recording the 4 Ed Sullivan shows they had performed on, I snapped it up. Great stuff!

I did not know the exact date of that show, but I, too, remember watching it but I had a different reaction! I, along with my 2 younger sisters, sat there and drooled. I had such a crush on Paul and his cute haircut! I also was in love with Elvis. My parents couldn't understand the Beatles, but even my Mom loved Elvis. As I have matured, I wonder why I had such a crush on Paul, but I still love the Beatles music and think Paul is a very talented man. No one, in my opinion. will ever be as great as Elvis. Was it really 50 years ago?

I was ten, well, nine really (my tenth birthday was some months away) when they debuted on the Ed Sullivan show and, I must admit, I was underwhelmed. Which is not to say I didn't like their music, but not being a fourteen-year-old girl, I didn't really see what all the fuss was about. I thought their haircuts were funny-looking too. I rather liked John Lennon's "jokey" attitude though. My parents were less than thrilled, so that made it a little more attractive for me.

I stll like the Beatles and always will, not always agreeing with the direction of their music and I will always regret missing what turned out to be their last public appearance at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in the summer of 1966. I almost got to go, but it didn't work out.

I agree with Barb, though: No one was greater than Elvis. He was, and remains, the King of Rock and Roll. And, I know I'm being heretical here to some degree, but I always thought the Stones were a more kick-ass band...

To misquote one song---"It was 50 years ago today..."
Oh yeah, me and my compatriots knew they were very special. I was a musician then (still am) and what they were doing was so very different. Rock music of the time consisted of either twelve bar blues or do-wop ballads. All of a sudden here were these tunes with different chord progressions and clever melodic lines, all sung using Everly Brothers type harmony . We'd never heard anything like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or "All My Loving" and we were desperately trying to figure them out so we could cover them. I remember once that a bunch of us got together to do nothing but cover Beatles tunes. In my circles Elvis was not covered much; Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddly--those were the artists that those of us in local rock combos played, and the Beatles changed all of that.

Elvis was okay, but I loved the Beatles. I still love their music. When I was a young teenager, I kept a picture of them in a frame on my dresser and kissed it goodnight every night. All my friends had crushes on Paul, but I always liked George best. He was quiet like me, and I thought he needed somebody to like him too. Of course, he did, but not like Paul and Ringo.

Yes, I watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show 50 years ago. Yes, as the song goes. "Those were the days my friends, I thought they would never end". Hail to the Beatles, may those 'Fabulous Four', be remembered forever.

I've just read a couple of books on The Beatles: Tune In, the first mammoth volume of a planned trilogy which covers them up '62, just before they really hit it big and Shout! which covered their career as a band and their solo careers and lives up until about 2002. Both were very illuminating and give you a feel for how much they have impacted our lives since appearing on the scene. The stories about their Hamburg days are in particular interesting to read about.

A friend of mine has an early American version of one of the Beatles albums. The sleeve notes 'explain' the Beatles to the American audience, by saying that they come from a town called Liverpool, which is a port and therefore this group were able to obtain American pop records, and copy their style of music (or words to that effect)! Little did they know that soon the American pop artists would be copying the Beatles!