Paul spoke about the moment that turned them into the biggest stars on the planetDan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter
20:15, 07 Jun 2025
Sir Paul McCartney visits Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm at Brooklyn Museum on April 29, 2024 in Brooklyn, New York(Image: Getty Images for MPL)
The Beatles’ debut performance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 was a cultural watershed moment. More than 73m watched as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison performed on the variety show and cemented themselves as a force on both sides of the Atlantic.
Having taken the UK and Europe by storm in 1963, Paul believed it was of vital importance The Beatles got their first trip to America absolutely right. He told manager Brian Epstein that they should not travel until they had a number one hit in the US charts.
“‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ became that hit. It was released on November 29, 1963 in the UK and then on Boxing Day of that year in the USA, hitting number one in the American charts by February 1, 1964 – less than a week before The Beatles arrived in New York.
After they appeared on Ed Sullivan, everyone in America knew who they were. It began a period of chart dominance for the band in the States, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was replaced at number one by ‘She Loves You’, which spent 15 weeks in the charts and was joined by four other Beatles tracks in the top five.
It was a transformative time for the band, cementing them as the biggest stars in the world. However, Paul said that he and the band were not phased by the importance of their appearance on Ed Sullivan.
In a video posted this week on TikTok by Gagosian, the gallery currently exhibiting Paul’s photography in Beverly Hills, the Walton-born 82-year-old said the band took it in their stride, until one comment from a staff member just before they went on stage.
Paul said: “By the time we got to America – I mean that was the coolest thing, was coming to America – but then when we went on this show, we didn’t realise the significance, it’s just another TV show, we thought. I wasn’t feeling too bad.
“One of the guys, they were going to pull the curtains back, he said ‘are you nervous?’. You know, a teamster. I said ‘no, not really’. He said: ‘You should be, 73m people watching.’
“And then pulled the curtains back and I’m left ‘ahh’. Let’s go. But when I see the footage, we don’t look nervous.”
The Beatles’ all-conquering arrival in America in 1964 inspired some of the biggest stars on the planet.
Bob Dylan said in 2014: “We were driving through Colorado, we had the radio on, and eight of the top ten songs were Beatles songs. ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, all those early ones. They were doing things nobody was doing.
“Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. But I just kept it to myself that I really dug them.
“Everybody else thought they were for the teeny-boppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious to me that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go.”
Similarly, Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone magazine in 2020: “‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ came on the radio in 1964. That was going to change my life because I was going to successfully pick the guitar up and learn how to play.”
“I saw Elvis on TV. When Elvis first hit I was nine or something, I was a little young and I tried to play the guitar but it didn’t work out. I put it away, but the keeper was 1964 and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ on South Street, with my mother driving.
“I immediately demanded she let me out, I ran to the bowling alley, ran down a long neon-lit aisle, down the bowling alley, into the bowling alley, ran to the phone booth, got in the phone booth, immediately called my girl and said ‘have you heard this band called The Beatles?’. After that, it was nothing but rock and roll and guitars.”
Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys had a similar reaction to the song on first listen. He said: “I flipped. It was like a shock went through my system.” He added: “I immediately knew that everything had changed.”