Beatlemania

It's not often you can look at a date on the calendar and say that it changed cultural history. One such date is February 9, 1964, fifty years ago today, when The Beatles made their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.

They were an instant sensation. The telecast drew 73 million viewers, or a 40 share, the largest viewing audience up to that time. It presaged "The British Invasion," where groups ranging from Herman's Hermits to The Rolling Stones dominated American pop radio. It also changed fashion and hairstyles--crew cuts were now out, and the "mop top" was in. For kids who couldn't grow their hair fast, enough, Beatle wigs were available, along with almost everything else that could be merchandised.

Looking back, this seems like a much more innocent time, and in many ways it was. But it was also taking place in a nation still reeling from the assassination of John F. Kennedy and embroiled in civil rights issues. The Beatles, a ray of sunshine from cloudy England, seemed like just the thing to cheer everyone up.

What makes that day more important, though, is that The Beatles, despite many critics, didn't go away. They became the most important rock band in history, and in fact, really transcend the notion of rock music. They weren't a rock band--they were just The Beatles. They took a hybrid of English skiffle music and American rhythm and blues and created something completely new--a professor of mine once termed it as akin to inventing a new color. Despite the proliferation of rock and roll at the time, no one was making music like that.

Not everyone agreed, especially the older set. Newsweek wrote: "Visually they are a nightmare, tight, dandified Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically they are a near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of "yeah, yeah, yeah") are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments." But the kids, who were enthralled, ended up being right. Sure, the songs were lyrically simple-minded, but the music was not a disaster--it was completely fresh and, for those ready to accept change, the future.

The Beatles also had a plus in that they were great personalities. I was listening to Beatle historian and DJ Chris Carter mentioning that they really introduced the concept of a rock band--not a singer with a backup group, like Elvis or Buddy Holly or Little Richard or Carl Perkins. The Beatles were democratic--and everyone knew all four of them--John, Paul, George, and Ringo (their names were put on subtitles as they performed on Sullivan). They also were ready-made types--the wit, the romantic, the mystic, the clown. They would use these personalities to dominate Western culture for the next six years, and basically would chart the history of the '60s, from the innocent days of the Fab Four to psychedelia.

Many though they would be a brief sensation, but we're talking about them fifty years later. That they would evolve from "Love Me Do" to the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in just three years seems miraculous, and I expect future generations will be talking about them fifty years from now. 

I'm too young to remember that night fifty years ago, but I'll bet two of my aunts do--they were about fifteen in 1964, the perfect age. I have dim memories of one my aunts playing her 45 of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." I wouldn't get into The Beatles until I was about 8, when my father brought home a few of their albums. That began a love affair that's still going strong.