On February 9, 1964, Western music and culture changed forever. No one knew it yet, but the appearance of a hot British pop quartet on the Ed Sullivan Show was the beginning of an awakening we still celebrate on
THE DAY THE BEATLES CHANGED THE WORLD!
Turns out the 4 kids our fathers swore were a flash in the pan had staying power.
What they also had was incredible talent as songwriters, singers and musicians, and an exciting original sound. Every record was more accomplished and appealing than the last, and once they started writing and singing about the power of love and the love of peace, The Beatles unleashed the cultural dynamo that we still call simply The Sixties.
Remember the 1960s? Civil Rights, the Summer of Love, Feminism, the Moon landing, The Antiwar Movement? Without the Beatles, half of this stuff doesn’t happen, Rock & Roll keeps getting watered down, and conformity smothers restless spirits.
The power of great music fueled the 1960s, and no one’s music was more important than The Beatles.
On that night in 1964, in the first of 3 consecutive Sunday night appearances on Sullivan’s nationally popular variety show, those 4 skinny Popabilly players gave no hint of the giants they would become, they were just 4 working class kids out of Liverpool having way too much fun playing in a Rock & Roll band.
But giants is what they were, and they changed the world that day.
•Suggested Activities: Letting it be.