Rant #3,287: i Want To Hold Your Hand

I simply cannot believe that today, 60 years ago, the Beatles fully invaded America with their new sound and their new look, and appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the very first time.

I was six years old going on seven, and my family was in our last months living in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.

We had a Dumont black and white TV in the living room of our apartment, and as was customary at that time, my family crowded around that TV on Sunday night at 8 p.m. to watch the Sullivan show, but on this night. Things were different--and the seismic changes that took place on thst evening continue to reverberate to this day.

The hype was set earlier in the week when these four moptops from England jetted into New York, and finally, it was time for their time to do their thing.

And POW!--when Sullivan mush-mouthed whatever he said to intriloduce them related to Elvis Presley, and through all the girls yelling and screaming and crying and hooting and hollering--John, Paul, George and Ringo hit the bull's eye, and nothing was ever the same anymore.

They came on with "All My Loving," moved on with "Till There Was You," left the stage and later, came back with "I Saw Her Sranding There," and concluded with "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

Beatlemania had begun, and it hasn't really stopped.

Everything that could possibly interest anyone--from bobble heads to Beatle wigs to hairspray, in addition to every kind of recording imaginable--was released in the wake of the Beatles' appearance, and while most of these releases alluded to just how much of a fad this could be, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr proved just the opposite.

The music endured, and as Baby Boomers like me were growing up, the Beatles' music grew up with us.

Remember, there was just a scant four years between "I Want To Hold Your Hand" abd "Hey Jude."

While the band would appear on the Sullivan show a few more times in 1964, that first appearance--seen by upwards of 73 million viewers--was the one that most of us remember.

I know I watched the show, and I know I really liked what I heard ... and it opened the door fir me to the British Invasion acts thst followed, like the Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, the Animals and the Rolling Stones.

We, as a nation, needed the Beatles. They came at the right time and the right place, just three months after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Sure, there were a number of other acts on thst February 9 show--including the cast of the Broadway hit "Oliver " featuring a young Davy Jones just two years before he became a major pop star himself as a member of the Monkees--but the full focus was on.those lads from Liverpool.

It is 60 years since that appearance, but the Bestles remain perhaps the most iconic pop/rock group in history.

They even had an AI driven hit "Now and Then" last year, a song which is as far from "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as "Sympathy For the Devil" is from "The Lord's Prayer."

I was just six years old, but thus little kid--who just three month's earlier had sat transfixed to the same Dumont TV when TV news was itself transfixed with the Kennedy assassination and its aftermath--knew thst this show was something way different--and bigger--than the usual Sullivan show.

And now, this 66 yesr old still cannot fully take in just how important thst night was, not just to me but to our country and to our society and to our civilization.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.