February 7, 1964-2014. 50th Anniversary of Beatles Arriving In US

[N2NH]

Fifty years ago on Feb. 7th, the Beatles landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Things have never been the same.


On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York's Kennedy Airport--and "Beatlemania" arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with "I Want to Hold Your Hand." At Kennedy, the "Fab Four"--dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts--were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular television variety show. Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month. The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England.

The Beatles' first American tour left a major imprint in the nation's cultural memory. With American youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the Beatles, with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift. Their singles and albums sold millions of records, and at one point in April 1964 all five best-selling U.S. singles were Beatles songs. By the time the Beatles first feature-film, A Hard Day's Night, was released in August, Beatlemania was epidemic the world over. Later that month, the four boys from Liverpool returned to the United States for their second tour and played to sold-out arenas across the country.

I remember a reporter asked them how did they find New York. Ringo answered, we made a left at Greenland.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, YEAH!

Source: History Channel Site: Feb 7, 1964: Beatles arrive in New York (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/beatles-arrive-in-new-york)

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/docroot/dulcinea/fd_images/news/on-this-day/Feb/On-this-Day--The--British-Invasion--Begins/news/0/image.jpg

[N2NH]

NY Daily News gallery LINK HERE. (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/beatles-50th-anniversary-america-gallery-1.1590565)


British Pathe Coverage (http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-beatles-arrive-in-new-york)

BBC On This Day, 7th Feb., 1964 LINK (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/newsid_4185000/4185201.stm)

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/eM34IbQ3MS8/hqdefault.jpg

[kb2vxa]

What I remember when they landed was Murray "The K" Kaufman 1010 WINS immediately became the 5th Beatle and the flagship station of the American Broadcasting Company changed its callsign to WABeatleC. Then I watched them on the B&W TV in the living room take Ed Sullivan's really big shoe by storm and wouldn't give it back. The teary eyed wild screaming girls in the audience took over the Beatles and I couldn't hear a thing. Some douche bag in Master Control turned up the audience mikes louder than the stage mics and I could have killed him. I would have turned the damn thing off but mum was having hysterics with every WOOOO and dad was sticking his fingers in his ears, so I just went back in my room and turned the radio on only to hear WABeatleC repeated endlessly over she loves you yeah yeah yeah WOOOO. I would have thrown it out the window but it was the only radio I had so I just turned it off and finished my homework without background music that night.

[K7SGJ]

The Beatles? Bah..................they'll never catch on.

[n2ize]

It was great. There was a cultural shift away from the strict conservative ways of the 50's. This led to the 60's with a growing interest in eastern religions, meditation, peace, free sex,understanding, free love, and drugs that can bring the mind away from the induced mores of the 1940's and 1950's. During the 60's I was an advocate for the use of drugs, in particular hallucinogenic drugs in order to bring people into the new state of mood and consciousness that awaited us. Today we see the result of that new state of awareness. Politics have shifted to a new liberal agenda and, we have our first black president who as brought us change and peace.:clap:

[WØTKX]

I remember the screaming covering up the Fab Four.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Sperbn_QE8/TWKWOVHEucI/AAAAAAAACFk/NZ7N3vFoUYs/s400/beatlefans.jpg

[kb2vxa]

I see, here's another one those "particular hallucinogenic drugs" had put in a permanent state of delusion and fantasy. (;->) I remember Kieth, rather like Sid Barrett was an acid freak who permanently flipped out not having seen the warning signs the results of being on a prolonged and constant trip. One day I met him on the street, we stopped, I said hello. He stood there in a daze staring at the sky, about 5 minutes later he said "the sky IS blue". OK, gotta go, 'bye. I don't know how long he stood there as I went on my way. Well, some of us came down, for others it was strawberry fields forever.

"It was great. There was a cultural shift away from the strict conservative ways of the 50's."
What was great was "the dark side" I never saw until many years later when Black music performers first made inroads to television. There is no such thing as color radio and everybody looks the same to a blind man. I never even GUESSED nor even cared most of them were Black, I never did and never will think in terms of color. One thing I found hilarious was the "race war" between Little Richard and Pat Boone Mr. Whitey White white on white white suit white shoes covering Little Richard. Then came the best music of the era, "Motown" used generically to describe soul music when the Philly Sound gave it stiff competition and every major radio market had its own home town flavor. Then came the Beatles and the British Invasion, they won the war, America was conquered, and along came Monty Python, Doctor Who, Britcoms, BBCA and TV actually worth watching.

Dave, couldn't you find a pretty one?

[K7SGJ]

Absolutely +1 for Motown.

[n2ize]

I see, here's another one those "particular hallucinogenic drugs" had put in a permanent state of delusion and fantasy. (;->) I remember Kieth, rather like Sid Barrett was an acid freak who permanently flipped out not having seen the warning signs the results of being on a prolonged and constant trip. One day I met him on the street, we stopped, I said hello. He stood there in a daze staring at the sky, about 5 minutes later he said "the sky IS blue". OK, gotta go, 'bye. I don't know how long he stood there as I went on my way. Well, some of us came down, for others it was strawberry fields forever.


Did you ever go back and check ? He may still be standing there gazing at the sky. Or he may think he is. :)

BTW... I was just kidding. I didn;t advocate for the use of drugs back then, hallucinogenic or otherwise. In fact I was too young to advocate anything back in those days. :)

[N8GAV]

A few days after the Ed Sullivan's "Really Big Shoe", my mom came home from work with the "Meet The Beatles" album and 5 5 inch big badge with John,Paul,George, and Ringo's pictures on it saying "I'm A Beatles Fan" for each of the 5 of us kids. The album was recorded in Mono and every kid on our block was at my house after school where we played the hell out of it. Still have the album, wish I had one of them big badges. they would worth something today.

[N2NH]

I can remember the day after the Ed Sullivan appearance. All the adults were talking about the bad wigs they wore. That had me laughing. Then there was the non-stop coverage on WABC 770 in NYC. Guys were actually on the street talking to gushing teenage girls as if this was news. In a way it was but it was empowering to the mid and late Baby Boomers to have a voice no matter what was being said. Unlike the early Boomers, they had a totally different idea which way they were going. For some reason, we didn't get WINS (1010) and Murray the K, but we did get WMCA 570 - The Good Guys, who were doing a pretty decent job of keeping up with WABC on the air. In the evening Cousin Brucie would be on and do the top ten once a week where The Beatles were dominating the charts. We had a 45 player someone gave us and I got "She Loves You" while my sister got "I Want to Hold Your Hand." We played them to death. After the preceding few months, and the pall of the Kennedy assasination, it was as if someone threw open a window and the world went from Black and White to Color. Life was interesting again and we could still have some fun.

[n2ize]

I can remember the day after the Ed Sullivan appearance. All the adults were talking about the bad wigs they wore.

I remember a lot of "grownups" saying things like, "they look disgusting with that long hair", and the famous one from that era and the years to come, "you can;t tell the boys friom the girls they way they wear their hair these days". Today some of those "kids" from back then are now criticizing their own kids for today's fads. I guess every older generation traditionally criticizes the fads of younger generations. Been that way for centuries. Now tell those kids to GET OFF MY LAWN !!

[suddenseer]

Get off my YAWN!!!

11622

[kb2vxa]

IZE:
"BTW... I was just kidding. I didn;t advocate for the use of drugs back then, hallucinogenic or otherwise."

I know, but it seems to me you never know when I'm poking you with a sharp stick. Is it the pain killers Rush?

Oh, do you recognize a double entendre when you see one Bruce or are you blinded by the light, set up by a deuce, another runner in the night? (Until I read the lyrics I thought it was set up like a douche.)

On edit back to the subject I nearly forgot about:
Starting with an aside, the WMCA Good Guys played basketball against us at Franklin School, beat the heck out of a bunch of 7th graders. I yelled at them WHY DON'T YOU PICK ON SOMEBODY YOUR OWN SIZE, the teachers didn't appreciate it very much and threw me out.

We got WMCA and WINS in Rahway, everybody got the WABC 50KW non directional with a half wave tower. MCA and INS are directional so some didn't get either, then after dark Philly suffered from phase distortion and INS didn't come in at all so when we were down there watching submarine races in the Schuylkill River we listened to one of the locals.

Yeah, but the "mop tops" started a fad, kids who weren't allowed long hair wore Beatle wigs when their parents weren't looking and at home kept them where mom wouldn't find them.

Put it this way, MCA did a Good Guy job of keeping up with the competition, INS went one better with Murry The K as the fifth Beatle, I hated Cousin Gruesome's eeeEEEeee eeeEEEeee nonsense and so did the cops minding the cruisers when he said "Honk if you're listening to Cousin Brucie." Yeah, the man on the scene but not on the screen was a royal pain in the ass with his non news when the station could be broadcasting what we wanted to hear, MUSIC. I bought a few Beatles 45s downtown at Vogel's and played them until the grooves wore all the way to the other side. No problem replacing them, for a whole quarter. I wish I still had the first ones that were imported on the VJ label, today they're worth a small fortune.

NH:
"After the preceding few months, and the pall of the Kennedy assassination, it was as if someone threw open a window and the world went from Black and White to Color."
I had to wait a few years, after watching "presented in living color on NBC" in black and white we finally got a Zenuts 25" color set with a square screen that only blew a tube once in a while, grandma had an RCA 25" round screen with the classic CTC chassis that spent more time in the shop than in her living room. BTW, I inherited it but since I had it in my basement shop I didn't mind pulling the chassis and putting it on the bench, I liked to fix things and by the time I got a job in that very shop I knew RCA like a brother.

IZE:
..."you can;t tell the boys friom the girls they way they wear their hair these days".
David Bowie mentioned that.
You've got your mother in a whirl
She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl
I'll never forget a few years later when we had a garage band of sorts and I recorded The Lemon Tree Jams in the bass player's mother's clothing boutique, The Lemon Tree closed on Sundays. Don Coriatore (sp?) the drummer had baby fine blonde hair down to his waist, waving it all around and flailing the sticks like Moon The Loon I wondered why he never got one stuck in it. I too had long baby fine blonde hair but not quite that long. I was much cuter with a wave over my eye that made me look like Veronica Lake and the chicks loved to play with it.

"I guess every older generation traditionally criticizes the fads of younger generations."
There are no fads around to criticize, darn it. Those Wham-O hula hoops were around for a surprisingly long time, especially the one somebody threw over the air raid siren in front of my house. It was still there when we moved out in 1971. BTW that infernal thing stopped screaming in our ears much earlier when I figured out what the lever with a ring on the end on the side of the disconnect switch did. A clothes hanger taped to the end of a bamboo pole fixed the problem much to the relief of the neighborhood. All the while I was thinking the best time to have an air raid was Saturday at 12:00 noon.

That's YOUR problem, kids here are very well behaved and don't hang around on my lawn with a park to play in right up the street. <razz>