On this 50th anniversary of their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, I came across this well-known Beatle event that occurred 45 years ago last week:
If you never saw it or haven't seen it in quite some time (like me), it's well worth a view - especially since it was their finale.
One little-discussed reason why the Beatles hit so big had to do with their timing. Their first US single - "I Want To Hold Your Hand" - was released here the month after JFK was assassinated. I'm sure they didn't plan on it, but the sudden Beatlemania helped to lessen the extreme national feeling of doom and uncertainty - at least for young people - at a time when we really needed it.
Another factor that helped them take off was the fact that they were the first self-contained rock band ever - the first band to play their own instruments and write their own songs. Just think..............prior to the Beatles, nobody did that. It's hard to believe for anyone who was born after the 60s, since everyone has done that for 5 decades, but it was rather astonishing back then.
I never got to see the Beatles perform, but I did get to photograph each Beatle performing individually and also photographed (and met) peripheral Beatles people like Yoko Ono, Billy Preston, and Mal Evans. Billy played keyboards in the above video and Mal was the guy with glasses who was talking to the police on the roof just before the show ended.
These days, I don't gripe that much about getting older because I got to live through and thoroughly enjoy the most incredible period of music ever.
And somewhere, I still have my picture sleeves from the first couple of Beatles singles.
