Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan


Believe it or not, I've never seen the complete clip of the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

I was moved to watch this after seeing Paul Shaffer's imitation of Sullivan during last night's Late Show with David Letterman (with special guest Paul McCartney).

A few things struck me while watching the clip:
1) You might think the band was called Paul McCartney and his Beatles the way the Sullivan crew shot them.
2) Did I hear Ed correctly? The Beatles dedicated their first set to Johnny Carson?
3) Check out the two over-excited Laverne and Shirley types (above; at around 4:17 in the clip). Their enthusiasm almost violates CBS' standards of decency.

Part 2 can be viewed here.