"Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!"

At 8:00 pm on February 9, 1964, four lads from Liverpool wearing "tight, dandified Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair" (from a scathing review in Newsweek) made their first live US performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York City. They were, of course, the Beatles. A then record setting 73 million people tuned in that evening to watch this unprecedented event, making it one of the seminal moments in television history. And the world has not been the same since!

On that first appearance, the Beatles performed five songs in two sets: set one: "All My Loving", "Till There Was You", and "She Loves You"; set two: "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand". They performed among a shrieking audience of fans and so began Beatlemania in the United States. Well, technically Beatlemania started in early December 1963 when a Washington DC area disc jockey, Carroll James, started playing a bootleg copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - far in advance of the mid-January 1964 scheduled release date - and America's youth fell in love with the Fab Four. Upon landing at John F. Kennedy Airport on February 7, 1964, the Beatles were greeted by an estimated 3,000 screaming fans. So started the "British Invasion". After the boys' February 9 appearance, the Beatles went on to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show on the next two consecutive Sundays; although, technically their February 23 appearance was recorded before the February 9 appearance. The Beatles would appear one more time on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1965.

Tonight at 8:00 pm, CBS will be airing The Night That Changed America, which is "a celebration of the Beatles' 50th anniversary appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show [and] includes performances from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Other performers: Katy Perry, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Maroon 5, Imagine Dragons, John Mayer, and Keith Urban." Who the heck are the Imagine Dragons? Anyway, this event promises to be an amazing night. Of course, as it goes right up against the Olympics in primetime, I'll be DVR-ing the celebration to enjoy at a later time. Sorry, lads!

In honor of the 50th anniversary:  "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!"

Here is a portion of the Beatles second appearance a week later (February 16) on The Ed Sullivan Show, from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, which includes one of my favorites, "This Boy":

And finally, the Beatles third appearance on February 23, 1964 with yet another favorite of mine "Twist and Shout" (yeah, okay, I have lots of favorites):