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Sat 23 August 2025 21:45, UK
1964. Families in America gather around the TV for The Ed Sullivan Show, unaware they’re about to witness history, and that music will soon change forever.
Rewind a few days earlier and you have four lads from Liverpool hitting tarmac in the States for the first time. A blend of excitement and anxiety lingers in the air, as the band have no idea what kind of reception they’re going to get in the US, and how much of a success or failure this trip could be. If only they knew what was about to happen to them.
The Beatles already had a pretty big following when they went over to the States, given their track ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ was charting well. This was reflected in the massive reception that awaited them at the airport. All you needed to do was pair the good music with the band’s charm and pretty boy looks and you had a group who were ready to take the country by storm. When people tuned in to watch them on Ed Sulivan, some did because they were fans, some did because they were curious, and others did because they didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Regardless, everyone in America fell into one of those brackets, and subsequently, near enough everyone in America was watching.
The band was revolutionary for two reasons. The first was what they did for British bands in the States, as prior to them heading out to America and performing, there wasn’t much of a future for bands from overseas. When The Beatles broke through, they weren’t a one-off, they opened the floodgates and allowed other British bands to come pouring through like the sea they had to cross to get there.
“There was no real future for a British band before The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964,” said Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, “That was the turning point, after which there was an avalanche. It totally transformed the possibilities, and as usual The Beatles were the frontrunners. In music, there is The Beatles and then there is everybody else.”
On top of that, the Beatles also inspired budding musicians across America to stop worrying about being a solo artist and to instead gather any of their friends who were interested and start jamming. Suburban streets were plagued with the sounds of out of tune guitars and off-tempo drums as teenagers everywhere started learning how to string together melody.
“It transformed America,” said Steve Van Zandt, “On February 8, there were no bands in America; on February 9 we had Ed Sullivan and on February 10, everybody had a band in their garage. It was literally overnight.”
While the majority of people were excited by the buzz that surrounded the Beatles, there is no escaping that in the midst of the hype, the song ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was overplayed slightly. This was a brand new era in music, and as radio stations and critics struggled with how to define it, in lieu of words, all they could do was keep playing the music. People liked it, but they were also ready for the song to fall out of circulation.
Keith Richards was one of those people who were happy to see the back end of the song, and it was Bob Dylan who ushered it in. The British invasion swept America for the best part of 18 months, and then the folk rock movement kicked into gear and the Americans were back on top again. The Byrds and Bob Dylan were both big parts of this, and Keith Richards recalled that it was the song ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ that really captured people’s imagination.
“Obviously, I mean, it goes without saying. Dylan came along and released everyone from that whole three-minute thing,” recalled the Rolling Stones guitarist, “Not to mention making it unnecessary to use sentiments based around ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, you know.”
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