Be mindful that this first report on 11-18-63 was shown just 4 days before JFK was assassinated. The world changed that day. It was a dark, cold and depressing winter. 79 days after Dallas, Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles; it gave America a reason to smile again. Soon after the picture of the world changed from a grainy black & white to an explosion of color. The "60's" had begun.
By the time the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show the 60's was just under 11 months shy of being half way over . But we get what you mean .... the Beatles affected the 60's in a lot of ways . Cheers !!!
I often think of John Lennon’s assassination 17 years later, as being the end of an era. Rock n roll’s youth and innocence seemed to change after we lost John.
Yep, and also: this one - or something very similar to it - as broadcast four days later, on the morning of November 22. It was meant to have re-aired early in the evening, but by that time all the tv schedules had been thrown out of course....
The squares were always having a dig at the lads but the rest, as they say, is history, and the Beatles went to the toppermost of the poppermost - and they are still up there.
In America the Beatles were unlike anyone had seen before and by the time they landed in the New York for the first time,the older, conservative members of the media gave them the 3rd degree with their questions. Why is your hair long? How much money do you make? What makes you think your music isn't just a fad? 🙄
The people who saw them at The Cavern while they were just learning together how to be a tight band are so special to have those amazing memories. Long live the Fab 4!
One of my favorite stories: Earlier in 1963 this British tourist visiting the States popped into a record store and asked for something by the Beatles. The clerk not only had nothing by them but told the tourist he'd never even heard of them And the joke was on that record store clerk since that British tourist was GEORGE HARRISON!!
I read that George told the other three nobody in America knew who they were. And IF they ever got there it wouldn’t turn out to be much. But don’t ever bet on the future.
The same thing happened to me in the mid seventies except it was ABBA. I heard them in Britain came home to Canada and asked at a local record store if they had Dancing Queen. Never heard of them. Six months later they were everywhere.
His sister Louise lived in Illinois, so he went to visit her during one of the few extended breaks the Beatles got, this was 1963, when JFK was still alive, and the crazy part was that he went to a club with live music and talked the band into letting him play with them for a couple of numbers, so the first actual Beatles performance in the USA was George in some obscure little ginjoint in Illinois....
I wonder if this commentator ate his words 6 weeks latet when the Beatles exploded in America and then the following month when they actually arrived in NYC for the Ed Sullivan Show, and the phenomenon that followed.
I was 11 when the Beatles made their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. My recollection is that my parents' generation (the so-called "Greatest Generation"} widely ridiculed the look and sound of the Beatles. The sound was "noise" and "music for children." The view that rock music was noise for children is one of the things that the Beatles changed within a couple of years -- it is because of the Beatles that rock music is now considered an art form, and not "noise for children."
Edwin Newman did clever commentaries, often with salvos of opinion. That was his method. History proved him totally wrong on this group. CBS did a similar profile of The Beatles in a report scheduled for the Nov. 22 Evening News. Needless to say it didn’t run that night, but finally did in January ‘64. That story had no condescending tone at all.
@@moorlock2003 In a Beatles documentary circa 1974, a flashback to the Beatles at Shea Stadium in NYC 1965 was shown, in which a reporter talks with girls before the show. He asks this girl about 14 if there is any group she likes better than the Beatles. She says no. That should have ended it, but he badgers her with, "There must be _some_ group you like better than the Beatles." This child, feeling cornered, coughs up Herman's Hermits just to get him off her back. That's an egregious example of what you said -- toxically resentful commentators trying to kill off this phenomenon.
That archived filmed moment was in the Elvis 2022 biopic as well. I couldn't stop rewinding that part, along with The Beatles stepping out of the plane with the radio man saying that Beatlemania has began, and another fan holding up a sign saying; *We love you! Never leave us!* .
In the biz this is called a "kicker story" a fluff piece, a bit of comic relief from the hard news that had preceded it.. In the end the Beatles had the last laugh
The Twist and the Hula Hoop were fads that preceded the Beatles. Most thought they wouldn't last, but under those mop tops were some great songwriters and singers.
"One reason for the Beatles' popularity may be that it is nearly impossible to hear them." -Edwin Newman That's a hysterically sarcastic way of saying it!
The British mainstream press was also treating the Beatles as a joke around this time, with cartoonists mocking their hairstyles. Like this American TV audio clip, most adults regarded the Beatles' popularity as just the latest silly teenage fad. Even in the movie "Goldfinger" (1964) James Bond makes a sneering reference to the Beatles.
It’s so weird looking back that the Beatles were so different from what anyone had heard before. I think it’s because of how loud the vocals are on the tracks and just how chaotic the instrumentation is. It’s the sound of self expression and freedom and people didn’t know what to do with that
John and Paul used a lot of "exotic" chords in their songwriting, while at the same time, many other popular groups were using major/minor chords. This gave The Beatles a unique and recognizable sound, and is one reason for their fame.
@@tome7016Hes- The Beatles used 3 or 4 “exotic chords”, but actually it was the amazing (at the time) chord changes paired with creative Melody’s, picking up where Buddy Holly was heading shortly before his death. Buddy was a Huge influence on Lennon/McCartney’s songwriting.😊
I saw the Beatles first appearance on American television. A film of them on the Jack Paar show. I was confused and not real impressed having been awakened by the sound. Months later when I saw them on Ed Sullivan. I fell in love.
I saw that Jack Paar show too. I also remember the segment on NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report around the same time. But it wasn't until the first Ed Sullivan appearance that the sledgehammer hit me. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Woooooo! LOL
@@donnyyork2149definitely because they show The Beatles with Ed Sullivan in this picture, that would have been months later. I wish they had actual video of this broadcast.
This is NOT the first mention of the Beatles on US TV. "In September of 1963, a time when the Beatles were virtually unknown in the states. It was on Dick Clark's popular dance show American Bandstand that we do, indeed, see the Beatles for the very first time. It was on the popular “Rate a Record" segment of the show, where Clark would play five different records to a panel of teen judges, for the purpose of rating them. Five records were played, as usual, that day, to the teen panel of judges. The Beatles' latest record “She Loves You" was played. It rated a "73" out of a possible 100. Of the five records played that day, “She Loves You" came in third place. As Dick Clark held up a photograph of the Beatles, the teenagers giggled and snickered. The trademark "mop top" haircuts were so odd, so unusual, for that time, the sight of these four long-haired weirdos brought forth a mixture of surprised and derisive laughter."
Superbe recollection. Around that time Beatle records were being released on small labels like Vee-Jay. Yet Capitol wouldn't release their records when the were offered by their opposite numbers in EMI. They passed on She Loves You but couldn't turn down I Want To Hold Your Hand.
I remember when the Beatles came on the scene I was only about 7 and my brother and I didn't like them, we thought they looked kind of sissy and although longer hair cuts were starting to get popular we thought theirs were weird. We did not like ' I Want To Hold Your Hand ' at all. But when we started hearing some of their other tunes along with getting caught up in the excitement of it all, we started to really like them. That's what it really was, the EXCITEMENT of it all, THE BEATLES, Beatlemania, everybody excited over them, everyone's parents confused by them. It was an EXCITING time. The were indeed a FAD, but they turned out to be so special it kept right on a- going.
@@michaelszczys8316 That's exactly it. You heard Please Please Me. And you thought it was OK. Then you heard She Loves You and you thought it was fantastic. Then you heard I Want To Hold You Hand and you thought it wasn't as good as She Loves You. Then you heard it again and you thought, hang on, maybe it's as good as She Loves You. Then you heard Please Please Me again and you thought, hang on, maybe it's better that the other two. Then you heard A Hard Day's Night.....
@@chrisst8922 it was more like, we heard " I Want To Hold Your Hand " and thought it was kind of stupid sounding, then heard " I Saw Her Standing There " and " Please Please Me " and some others and thought they sounded much better. Plus the overall excitement.
If you played a half dozen recordings for me and didn't tell me which was Beatle fans screaming, I bet I could pick it out. There is a very high pitched energy to the reaction of the fans. No other performer, including Elvis, has had this distinct sharply hysterical sound of madness and joy.
I heard it as "The quality of Mersey is somewhat strange," but you are right-a brilliant throwaway line, followed by "Show us no Mersey". I wonder how many times Edwin Newman had to eat his words after this.
My mother was in labor with me at the hospital when this aired. I was born around 1:00 am on November 19. We still were in the maternity ward when JFK was shot.
4 days after this broadcast President Kennedy was assassinated and America changed…. 3 month later the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show and American culture changed ….
Unrelated events. Too much significance given to JFK murder. America's changes were inevitable. Ginsberg predicted it in the 50s. The Martians were bound to rub out JFK anyway. Too much time spent obsessing over the moon.
Brian Epstein got so much advance press for the Beatles, that they were known by the time the got here. I even remember the tag line The Beatles are coming, the Beatles are coming!”. I begged my mother to let me stay up and watch them on Ed Sullivan and she did! I was 5.
The Beatles made such an impact on America. In 1964 I was a kid of 7 years old and with my friends, we formed The 4 Swordsmen using broomsticks as guitars and boxes as drums. We sang Beatles songs. I was in other groups over the decades but never achieved the success of the Swordsmen. LOL!😁
Chet Huntley introduced the piece. I'd recognize his voice anywhere. Smoked cigs on air practically till he died. Edwin Newman took it from there. I much more enjoyed his later commentary on the misuse of the English language. Something I'm trying to avoid now. He's rumored to have had a sign at his office door "Abandon all 'hopefully' ye who enter here." Still, his report on the Beatles is pretty evenhanded for the time. What was anyone to make of them then anyway. The footage and sound were singular. Then Chet and David Brinkley say goodnight.
I can't remember exactly when I first heard of the Beatles, but it was sometime in '63 and I was 9 yrs old. I was already a big fan when they played on Ed Sullivan and I made sure to watch it. My favorite band.
1963 in the music world was definitely a tale of two countries, England & America. The Beatles started off as a successful pop band and by the end of the year where the biggest thing in British show business. America, where it was all at though was entirely oblivious to what was going off across the Atlantic. Girl groups, the Surf Craze, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound orchestral pop epics and novelty songs dominated the US charts.
Loved the into of "Our expert in such matters is NBC news reporter Edwin Newman..." (btw, was 44yrs-old at the time, hardly qualified as a teen beat commentator), who went on to give a somewhat befuddled and rather condescending critique of the Beatles phenomenon. You would have thought American reporters would have learned their lesson in the 50's with Elvis and the explosion of RnR, which they thought was a passing fad and flash in the pan. The music just went on to be our most dominant form of popular culture, with no signs of slowing. NOTE: To give Ed some kudos. He had a long and distinguished career in TV journalism.
By November 63 they'd had 3 no. 1 singles in the UK, she loves you was then the biggest selling UK record of all time, plus 2 no.1 albums and various eps. About 5m sales minimum in just the UK alone, population then just 50m. Plus sales across Europe. By the time they'd arrived in the USA the mass hysteria was dying off in the UK. By then they'd had a couple more no. 1 singles and another no. 1 album
I turned seven the day after this report aired. I remember the assassination and I remember watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. My initial reaction was, ugh, that HAIR! We weren't used to seeing anything like that. Now you look at photos and video clips of them and it's like, so what?
I remember everyone on TV shows and things wearing all kind of horrendous wigs that were supposed to be like the Beatles. After seeing all of them everywhere when you saw the real Beatles and their hair it looked pretty good.
Elvis was the first world wide phenomenon in rock and roll in 1956 and just eight years later in 1964 The Beatles were the second world wide phenomenon.
I was 13 when i first heard them.I knew they were going to be the most successful band in history by their music and the reaction.Even my Black friends like them.And this was 1964.
one side effect of the Beatles on young people, or at least on me, was the creation of a deep distrust of the media.... they were so wrong about the Beatles, so maybe they're wrong about everything
Newman blew it. Could have realized how good the songs are. Instead, made stupid jokes about Mersey and mercy and a backhanded insult about being spared a visit to America. Low brow journalism. Dismissive. Probably could have gotten the first exclusive American interview, but belittled them. Foolish and shortsighted by Edwin. The .e.ory of the Beatles has outlived the memory of Edwin Newman. Little did he know.
I doubt people from his generation really gave a toss either way.. They weren't really concerned with whether the Beatles became famous or not like more current generations
I first heard of the Beatles in early 1963, around March, when "Love Me Do" was played on KXOA in Sacramento. The DJ goes, "now here is a new song by...uh, ...the BEATLES ???" he said incredulously. Guess he hadn't heard of them til that point either. I liked it, thought it was novel and catchy. Didn't hear anything more about them until Fall of that year, after President Kennedy was assassinated. That one hearing may have been an advance copy demo sent to radio stations, because Love Me Do was not officially released in the US until April of '64, tho it had been out in the UK for 2 years. Or some friend or relative of the DJ may have brought it back from overseas. Who knows ?
I think I may remember this report! I was just about to turn 12. watching on the bedroom TV. It had channels 5 (WNEM-TV, NBC) and 12 (WJRT, ABC)-there were a couple of UHF channels, but I had no converter to see them. So it likely was this report. Whatever I saw, my reaction was something like "Oh crap, are they really coming here?" I remember it well. But half a year later, I was as big a fan as anyone. It was probably inevitable. All in all, the British Invasion was one of the happiest revolutions ever. That's remarkable to me because, I must admit, most of the music I like is really not all that happy, with certain notable exceptions. But the zeitgeist at the time was different. In my life in early 1964, we were dealing with not one, but two traumatic deaths. There was JFK, but there was a classmate's sudden death just weeks after JFK. No doubt about it, there were some major developments that helped crucially to tip the balance in a more positive direction. It would be great to see the actual video of that newscast. I hope it isn't just lost forever.
Media then didn't know whether to approve or disapprove of the "New Sound." Ever since, rock music has been marginalized as subversive by the mass visual media. The networks will praise pop, but studiously ignore anything that may be deemed offensive. 3:39 "Show us no Mersey?" 🙄
I watched this. It was on the nightly news, Huntley Brinkley Report on NBC, which was my preference over CBS and Walter Cronkite. I was 9 years old. I remember than none of my family was with me. I see that the video has been lost. It included some concert footage, and I believe some other woman was there, probably another performer billed with them at that show, it was all confusing to me, I remember that.
It wouldn’t be long until Allan Sherman would make the same joke as Edwin Newman in his satirical song “Pop Hates the Beatles”: “When the Beatles come on the stage They scream and shriek and cheer them. Now I know why they’re such a rage- It’s impossible to hear them!”
This is just a bunch random early Beatles still pics, with the audio of the TV news broadcast playing in the background. What's needed here, is to see the actual broadcast, with both the moving video and audio together.
These are the same angry-old-white-guys who hated ELVIS for his style & dance & music ... the "grandfather generation" who told everyone "we fought in two wars" and didn't know that they were in the middle of another one - the "generation-culture-clash" ... the first war they were going to lose - and BADLY !
So this is the audio-only of the American TV news segment, and the creator of this video has added the slideshow pictures. I’m surmising this because of the picture of the Beatles with Ed Sullivan shown, and the Beatles weren’t on the Ed Sullivan show until January 1964. I would’ve liked this audio-only fact to be included in the description.
In the early 60's the British music scene was divided between the Mods and the Rockers. The Mods rode scooters and the Rockers like the Beatles wore leather and rode Triumph motorcycles. In an early Beatle interview they asked Ringo "Are you a Mod or a Rocker?". Ringo replied "I'm a mocker". The Beatles Forever, screw Yoko.
Does anyone know what happened to the great radio program "The Beatle Years"? I listened to it every weekend beginning in 2001. If you heard it--you know what I mean. Amazing show.
Came back? John was cremated in New York. Yoko has never disclosed what she did with the ashes. It’s been said that his ashes were scattered in Central Park, although this is widely believed to be fiction.
@@hendryde-lux4287 You go to hell for mortal sins.... John sadly was living in mortal sin when he was shot in the back & died fairly instantly. That was what sent him to hell ( presumed due to his state in life & how quickly he died without probably asking for forgiveness ). What happened to his body after was just another indignity to God & the body of John.
His supreme confidence that the presumed listener must surely agree the music is terrible would prove ill-founded. The “quality of Mersy is somewhat strained” pun, and “one reason for their popularity may be that it’s impossible to hear them” makes his position pretty clear. Even after their global fame, an assumption remained for a long time that no discerning adult would like, or even be able to stand, their music. Sean Connery even makes a joke in an early Bond film about how bad the Beatles music is.
Five grand a week. Paying Brian thirty percent, Paying over eighty percent in taxes to the British government. Splitting it four ways. Doesn't go very far
Fancy having an old fuddy duddy report on the latest pop sounds ?. and it proved a bad decision as history has proved, thank god Ed didn't feel the same about them.
Wow.. "The merseyside section of Liverpool, one of the toughest parts of the toughest cities on the world" Bare in mind they were all middle class and that Liverpopl is IN MERSEYSIDE. TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE PSYOP.
Liverpool was in Lancashire when this was filmed though. Merseyside as a county didn't exist until 74. So I guess he must just have meant the part of the city close to the Mersey.
The little insults from the broadcasters is funny. You ask people today who Edwin Newman was and they'll most likely shrug. Ask them who John, Paul, George and Ringo are and they'll know immediately.
Be mindful that this first report on 11-18-63 was shown just 4 days before JFK was assassinated. The world changed that day. It was a dark, cold and depressing winter. 79 days after Dallas, Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles; it gave America a reason to smile again. Soon after the picture of the world changed from a grainy black & white to an explosion of color. The "60's" had begun.
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
The Lord works in mysterious ways
By the time the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show the 60's was just under 11 months shy of being half way over . But we get what you mean .... the Beatles affected the 60's in a lot of ways . Cheers !!!
I often think of John Lennon’s assassination 17 years later, as being the end of an era. Rock n roll’s youth and innocence seemed to change after we lost John.
@@oscardeleonjr.7297 the Lord??? Try TAVISTOCK! It was all Planned!
No one knew at the time that they would become the greatest band in musical history.
Still don’t think people can’t predict the future!
Yep, and also: this one - or something very similar to it - as broadcast four days later, on the morning of November 22. It was meant to have re-aired early in the evening, but by that time all the tv schedules had been thrown out of course....
You mean people in the U.S. The fans in Europe already knew. Try to think more internationally.
Erm....every one in Liverpool knew. I was a 5yo in Liverpool in '63 and I knew.
Exactly.... nobody knew what was ahead
The squares were always having a dig at the lads but the rest, as they say, is history, and the Beatles went to the toppermost of the poppermost - and they are still up there.
In America the Beatles were unlike anyone had seen before and by the time they landed in the New York for the first time,the older, conservative members of the media gave them the 3rd degree with their questions.
Why is your hair long?
How much money do you make?
What makes you think your music isn't just a fad? 🙄
The people who saw them at The Cavern while they were just learning together how to be a tight band are so special to have those amazing memories. Long live the Fab 4!
I was there in 1962, saw them on three occasions but at that time The Big Three were my favourite band.
The Beatles *FOREVER!* BTS Never!
They had no idea how The Beatles were about to conquer America!
You spelled "world" wrong. : D
@@moistmike4150 , The USA and the World, happy? LOL
@@moistmike4150🤓
Well played @@moistmike4150 👍👍
One of my favorite stories: Earlier in 1963 this British tourist visiting the States popped into a record store and asked for something by the Beatles. The clerk not only had nothing by them but told the tourist he'd never even heard of them And the joke was on that record store clerk since that British tourist was GEORGE HARRISON!!
I read that George told the other three nobody in America knew who they were. And IF they ever got there it wouldn’t turn out to be much.
But don’t ever bet on the future.
The same thing happened to me in the mid seventies except it was ABBA. I heard them in Britain came home to Canada and asked at a local record store if they had Dancing Queen. Never heard of them. Six months later they were everywhere.
@@LMM7880 That's odd. There were lots of ABBA hits on Canadian radio before "Dancing Queen".
@@joelake7986 I guess the record store clerk and I hadn't heard those songs.
His sister Louise lived in Illinois, so he went to visit her during one of the few extended breaks the Beatles got, this was 1963, when JFK was still alive, and the crazy part was that he went to a club with live music and talked the band into letting him play with them for a couple of numbers, so the first actual Beatles performance in the USA was George in some obscure little ginjoint in Illinois....
Greatest musical act of all time, enough said.
I wonder if this commentator ate his words 6 weeks latet when the Beatles exploded in America and then the following month when they actually arrived in NYC for the Ed Sullivan Show, and the phenomenon that followed.
Oh lord make my words today sweet for tomorrow I shall have to eat them.
You have to realize that most of the members of the US media at that time were of an older generation and didn't understand or care for rock n roll
I was 11 when the Beatles made their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. My recollection is that my parents' generation (the so-called "Greatest Generation"} widely ridiculed the look and sound of the Beatles. The sound was "noise" and "music for children." The view that rock music was noise for children is one of the things that the Beatles changed within a couple of years -- it is because of the Beatles that rock music is now considered an art form, and not "noise for children."
First heard them at 7 yrs...it was "Nowhere Man" and the voices were spellbinding....still spellbound at 63.
Spellbound indeed
Ahh, but will you still need them, will you still feed them, when you're 64?
Am 63 myself and it was before Nowhere Man" for me but not by much.
There were several condescending insults by "objective" professional newsmen of the establishment. No wonder the youth of the 60's rebelled.
and look where we are today
Edwin Newman did clever commentaries, often with salvos of opinion. That was his method.
History proved him totally wrong on this group.
CBS did a similar profile of The Beatles in a report scheduled for the Nov. 22 Evening News. Needless to say it didn’t run that night, but finally did in January ‘64.
That story had no condescending tone at all.
There were sourpuss reporters galore but The Beatles’ sense of humor took care of them.
@@moorlock2003 In a Beatles documentary circa 1974, a flashback to the Beatles at Shea Stadium in NYC 1965 was shown, in which a reporter talks with girls before the show. He asks this girl about 14 if there is any group she likes better than the Beatles. She says no. That should have ended it, but he badgers her with, "There must be _some_ group you like better than the Beatles." This child, feeling cornered, coughs up Herman's Hermits just to get him off her back.
That's an egregious example of what you said -- toxically resentful commentators trying to kill off this phenomenon.
Been a fan since May 63, when I was in Madrid Spain. First heard over a loud speaker in a department store and I saw the light an heard magic 💝
you like that Billy Shears?
Those kids were smart and recognized quality instantly. Jesus, the Beatles were unbelievably good, a gift from the universe.
I remember seeing a fan holding a sign that said, "Elvis is dead. Long life The Beatles".
I bet his manager kept that from Elvis, he was already feeling insecure about them.
You were close
That archived filmed moment was in the Elvis 2022 biopic as well. I couldn't stop rewinding that part, along with The Beatles stepping out of the plane with the radio man saying that Beatlemania has began, and another fan holding up a sign saying; *We love you! Never leave us!* .
In the biz this is called a "kicker story" a fluff piece, a bit of comic relief from the hard news that had preceded it.. In the end the Beatles had the last laugh
The Twist and the Hula Hoop were fads that preceded the Beatles. Most thought they wouldn't last, but under those mop tops were some great songwriters and singers.
The Beatles themselves were among the people who thought they may not last. They were very self aware of fads and the business they were in.
"One reason for the Beatles' popularity may be that it is nearly impossible to hear them."
-Edwin Newman
That's a hysterically sarcastic way of saying it!
And the ultimate “didn’t age well” comment.
The British mainstream press was also treating the Beatles as a joke around this time, with cartoonists mocking their hairstyles. Like this American TV audio clip, most adults regarded the Beatles' popularity as just the latest silly teenage fad. Even in the movie "Goldfinger" (1964) James Bond makes a sneering reference to the Beatles.
That is quite the backhanded compliment.
It’s so weird looking back that the Beatles were so different from what anyone had heard before. I think it’s because of how loud the vocals are on the tracks and just how chaotic the instrumentation is. It’s the sound of self expression and freedom and people didn’t know what to do with that
Good analysis.
John and Paul used a lot of "exotic" chords in their songwriting, while at the same time, many other popular groups were using major/minor chords. This gave The Beatles a unique and recognizable sound, and is one reason for their fame.
@@tome7016Hes- The Beatles used 3 or 4 “exotic chords”, but actually it was the amazing (at the time) chord changes paired with creative Melody’s, picking up where Buddy Holly was heading shortly before his death. Buddy was a Huge influence on Lennon/McCartney’s songwriting.😊
_"Chaotic instrumentation"_
Hmmm...not sure about that part 🤔
More than three or four, mate. Learn to play their work pre-Pepper's and you'll know. Chords create the melodies.@@djangorama864
I saw the Beatles first appearance on American television. A film of them on the Jack Paar show.
I was confused and not real impressed having been awakened by the sound.
Months later when I saw them on Ed Sullivan. I fell in love.
I saw that Jack Paar show too. I also remember the segment on NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report around the same time. But it wasn't until the first Ed Sullivan appearance that the sledgehammer hit me. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Woooooo! LOL
@@sprague49, I think this very report was telecast with moving video instead stills like the uploader here used for this.
@@donnyyork2149definitely because they show The Beatles with Ed Sullivan in this picture, that would have been months later. I wish they had actual video of this broadcast.
This is NOT the first mention of the Beatles on US TV.
"In September of 1963, a time when the Beatles were virtually unknown in the states. It was on Dick Clark's popular dance show American Bandstand that we do, indeed, see the Beatles for the very first time.
It was on the popular “Rate a Record" segment of the show, where Clark would play five different records to a panel of teen judges, for the purpose of rating them. Five records were played, as usual, that day, to the teen panel of judges. The Beatles' latest record “She Loves You" was played.
It rated a "73" out of a possible 100. Of the five records played that day, “She Loves You" came in third place. As Dick Clark held up a photograph of the Beatles, the teenagers giggled and snickered. The trademark "mop top" haircuts were so odd, so unusual, for that time, the sight of these four long-haired weirdos brought forth a mixture of surprised and derisive laughter."
Superbe recollection. Around that time Beatle records were being released on small labels like Vee-Jay. Yet Capitol wouldn't release their records when the were offered by their opposite numbers in EMI. They passed on She Loves You but couldn't turn down I Want To Hold Your Hand.
I remember when the Beatles came on the scene I was only about 7 and my brother and I didn't like them, we thought they looked kind of sissy and although longer hair cuts were starting to get popular we thought theirs were weird.
We did not like ' I Want To Hold Your Hand ' at all.
But when we started hearing some of their other tunes along with getting caught up in the excitement of it all, we started to really like them.
That's what it really was, the EXCITEMENT of it all, THE BEATLES, Beatlemania, everybody excited over them, everyone's parents confused by them.
It was an EXCITING time.
The were indeed a FAD, but they turned out to be so special it kept right on a- going.
@@michaelszczys8316 That's exactly it. You heard Please Please Me. And you thought it was OK. Then you heard She Loves You and you thought it was fantastic. Then you heard I Want To Hold You Hand and you thought it wasn't as good as She Loves You. Then you heard it again and you thought, hang on, maybe it's as good as She Loves You. Then you heard Please Please Me again and you thought, hang on, maybe it's better that the other two. Then you heard A Hard Day's Night.....
@@chrisst8922 it was more like, we heard " I Want To Hold Your Hand " and thought it was kind of stupid sounding, then heard " I Saw Her Standing There " and " Please Please Me " and some others and thought they sounded much better.
Plus the overall excitement.
Reporters have been getting things wrong for a long time. Thank God Ed Sullivan had a brain in his head.
A brain for business.
@@MrDaiseymay He knew talent when he saw it and he supported it, he wasn't just about business.
@@MrDaiseymay Quality is almost always good for business.
If you played a half dozen recordings for me and didn't tell me which was Beatle fans screaming, I bet I could pick it out. There is a very high pitched energy to the reaction of the fans. No other performer, including Elvis, has had this distinct sharply hysterical sound of madness and joy.
'The quality of Mersey is somewhat strained' is an awesome line, and delivered so casually.
I heard it as "The quality of Mersey is somewhat strange," but you are right-a brilliant throwaway line, followed by "Show us no Mersey". I wonder how many times Edwin Newman had to eat his words after this.
My mother was in labor with me at the hospital when this aired. I was born around 1:00 am on November 19. We still were in the maternity ward when JFK was shot.
That was the famous (if you were old enough) Huntley/Brinkley Report.
4 days after this broadcast President Kennedy was assassinated and America changed…. 3 month later the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show and American culture changed ….
Unrelated events. Too much significance given to JFK murder. America's changes were inevitable. Ginsberg predicted it in the 50s. The Martians were bound to rub out JFK anyway. Too much time spent obsessing over the moon.
The Beatles would release their second Parlophone LP "With The Beatles" on 11-22-1963.
How Little they knew, of the storm to come.
Brian Epstein got so much advance press for the Beatles, that they were known by the time the got here. I even remember the tag line The Beatles are coming, the Beatles are coming!”. I begged my mother to let me stay up and watch them on Ed Sullivan and she did! I was 5.
I remember seeing a story abt them on the news in 1963 and immediately fell in love with them- I was age 13.
The Beatles made such an impact on America. In 1964 I was a kid of 7 years old and with my friends, we formed The 4 Swordsmen using broomsticks as guitars and boxes as drums. We sang Beatles songs. I was in other groups over the decades but never achieved the success of the Swordsmen. LOL!😁
Chet Huntley introduced the piece. I'd recognize his voice anywhere. Smoked cigs on air practically till he died. Edwin Newman took it from there. I much more enjoyed his later commentary on the misuse of the English language. Something I'm trying to avoid now. He's rumored to have had a sign at his office door "Abandon all 'hopefully' ye who enter here." Still, his report on the Beatles is pretty evenhanded for the time. What was anyone to make of them then anyway. The footage and sound were singular. Then Chet and David Brinkley say goodnight.
I can't remember exactly when I first heard of the Beatles, but it was sometime in '63 and I was 9 yrs old. I was already a big fan when they played on Ed Sullivan and I made sure to watch it. My favorite band.
1963 in the music world was definitely a tale of two countries, England & America.
The Beatles started off as a successful pop band and by the end of the year where the biggest thing in British show business. America, where it was all at though was entirely oblivious to what was going off across the Atlantic. Girl groups, the Surf Craze, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound orchestral pop epics and novelty songs dominated the US charts.
I think those four lads from Liverpool just might amount to something.
“one reason for the Beatles popularity may be that it is nearly impossible to hear them.” 😂😂 I can’t believe he said that
Hmmmmm … if we had actually been able to hear them … we never would have heard of them!
That Edwin, what a card!😂
Patronising,condescending, take your pick.They were soon fawning all over them.I like the Quality of Mercy gag though.Very good.
I never heard this before. Quite insightful and funny!
American journalists always joked sarcastically about any youth phenomena or any UFO sighting.
Loved the into of "Our expert in such matters is NBC news reporter Edwin Newman..." (btw, was 44yrs-old at the time, hardly qualified as a teen beat commentator), who went on to give a somewhat befuddled and rather condescending critique of the Beatles phenomenon. You would have thought American reporters would have learned their lesson in the 50's with Elvis and the explosion of RnR, which they thought was a passing fad and flash in the pan. The music just went on to be our most dominant form of popular culture, with no signs of slowing. NOTE: To give Ed some kudos. He had a long and distinguished career in TV journalism.
He wasn't at all "befuddled", he was indifferent.
@@sg-yq8pm I mean, he "was" from a very different generation, so I cut him some slack. 😉
By November 63 they'd had 3 no. 1 singles in the UK, she loves you was then the biggest selling UK record of all time, plus 2 no.1 albums and various eps.
About 5m sales minimum in just the UK alone, population then just 50m.
Plus sales across Europe.
By the time they'd arrived in the USA the mass hysteria was dying off in the UK.
By then they'd had a couple more no. 1 singles and another no. 1 album
First time I heard anything on TV about the Beatles was on the Jack Paar Show. Before the Ed Sullivan Show.
Edwin Newman. Dead and forgotten forever. John, Paul, George and Ringo will be remembered as long as time exists.
“The quality of Mersey is not strained.” Somebody been reading their Shakespeare.
I turned seven the day after this report aired. I remember the assassination and I remember watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. My initial reaction was, ugh, that HAIR! We weren't used to seeing anything like that. Now you look at photos and video clips of them and it's like, so what?
I remember everyone on TV shows and things wearing all kind of horrendous wigs that were supposed to be like the Beatles.
After seeing all of them everywhere when you saw the real Beatles and their hair it looked pretty good.
Before TV had moving pictures.
Flintstones TV
Elvis was the first world wide phenomenon in rock and roll in 1956 and just eight years later in 1964 The Beatles were the second world wide phenomenon.
We're talking about a phenom after all, Edwin. In time even you will be taken with their music.
I was 13 when i first heard them.I knew they were going to be the most successful band in history by their music and the reaction.Even my Black friends like them.And this was 1964.
"The quality of Mersey is somewhat strained." Well done!
Overdone, even.
"Show us no Mersey?"
I saw Jack Paar talk about them..about long hair and girls screaming, long before I heard their music
one side effect of the Beatles on young people, or at least on me, was the creation of a deep distrust of the media.... they were so wrong about the Beatles, so maybe they're wrong about everything
He made it very clear he wasn't a fan of them.
Newman blew it. Could have realized how good the songs are. Instead, made stupid jokes about Mersey and mercy and a backhanded insult about being spared a visit to America. Low brow journalism. Dismissive. Probably could have gotten the first exclusive American interview, but belittled them. Foolish and shortsighted by Edwin. The .e.ory of the Beatles has outlived the memory of Edwin Newman. Little did he know.
Oh lord let my words be sweet today for tomorrow I shall have to eat them.
Thanks heavens this reporters' viewpoint was ignored. At least Ed Sullivan figured out there must be something generating the Beatles' popularity.
Some great pictures, sure made this commentator eat crow
I doubt people from his generation really gave a toss either way.. They weren't really concerned with whether the Beatles became famous or not like more current generations
It was mostly accurate…except for the opinion part.
I first heard of the Beatles in early 1963, around March, when "Love Me Do" was played on KXOA in Sacramento. The DJ goes, "now here is a new song by...uh, ...the BEATLES ???" he said incredulously. Guess he hadn't heard of them til that point either. I liked it, thought it was novel and catchy. Didn't hear anything more about them until Fall of that year, after President Kennedy was assassinated. That one hearing may have been an advance copy demo sent to radio stations, because Love Me Do was not officially released in the US until April of '64, tho it had been out in the UK for 2 years. Or some friend or relative of the DJ may have brought it back from overseas. Who knows ?
I think I may remember this report! I was just about to turn 12. watching on the bedroom TV. It had channels 5 (WNEM-TV, NBC) and 12 (WJRT, ABC)-there were a couple of UHF channels, but I had no converter to see them. So it likely was this report. Whatever I saw, my reaction was something like "Oh crap, are they really coming here?" I remember it well. But half a year later, I was as big a fan as anyone. It was probably inevitable. All in all, the British Invasion was one of the happiest revolutions ever. That's remarkable to me because, I must admit, most of the music I like is really not all that happy, with certain notable exceptions. But the zeitgeist at the time was different. In my life in early 1964, we were dealing with not one, but two traumatic deaths. There was JFK, but there was a classmate's sudden death just weeks after JFK. No doubt about it, there were some major developments that helped crucially to tip the balance in a more positive direction.
It would be great to see the actual video of that newscast. I hope it isn't just lost forever.
Media then didn't know whether to approve or disapprove of the "New Sound." Ever since, rock music has been marginalized as subversive by the mass visual media. The networks will praise pop, but studiously ignore anything that may be deemed offensive. 3:39 "Show us no Mersey?" 🙄
President Kennedy was America's Young Hero until we lost him unexpectedly. Then we looked to four young men from Liverpool to dry out tears.
The final joke : No one remembers "Edward Neuman" but everyone can name the Beatles.
A punch line to rulers of the US Chart in 3 months.
Edwing Newman sounds like the quintessential "Stick in the Mud" reporter America was inflicted with since the advent of television.
I watched this. It was on the nightly news, Huntley Brinkley Report on NBC, which was my preference over CBS and Walter Cronkite. I was 9 years old. I remember than none of my family was with me. I see that the video has been lost. It included some concert footage, and I believe some other woman was there, probably another performer billed with them at that show, it was all confusing to me, I remember that.
It wouldn’t be long until Allan Sherman would make the same joke as Edwin Newman in his satirical song “Pop Hates the Beatles”:
“When the Beatles come on the stage
They scream and shriek and cheer them.
Now I know why they’re such a rage-
It’s impossible to hear them!”
Funny how the people have to inform the ‘’journalists’’ and not vice versa.
This is just a bunch random early Beatles still pics, with the audio of the TV news broadcast playing in the background. What's needed here, is to see the actual broadcast, with both the moving video and audio together.
This is Irving R. Levine, NBC News , Washington. I just had to say that.
Adorei o reporter rabugento! Fantástico! Meu avô total! kkkk
Si, questo abrigado! Tantamuchay miamoray!
These are the same angry-old-white-guys who hated ELVIS for his style & dance & music ... the "grandfather generation" who told everyone "we fought in two wars" and didn't know that they were in the middle of another one - the "generation-culture-clash" ... the first war they were going to lose - and BADLY !
So this is the audio-only of the American TV news segment, and the creator of this video has added the slideshow pictures. I’m surmising this because of the picture of the Beatles with Ed Sullivan shown, and the Beatles weren’t on the Ed Sullivan show until January 1964. I would’ve liked this audio-only fact to be included in the description.
In the early 60's the British music scene was divided between the Mods and the Rockers. The Mods rode scooters and the Rockers like the Beatles wore leather and rode Triumph motorcycles. In an early Beatle interview they asked Ringo "Are you a Mod or a Rocker?". Ringo replied "I'm a mocker". The Beatles Forever, screw Yoko.
When NBC was a REAL news organization. Huntley-Brinkley Report!!
People at the time said the 4 Beatles were clean.
So was Paul's grandfather.
Edwin Newman; What the f##k did he know?
The Jack Paar program preceded this "official " announcement I believe. He had a clip of them and it was just " the darndest thing!".
$5000 per week in 63' would be worth about $47,000 per week in 2023 considering inflation.
Amazing piece of history, who knew?
First time I heard this
Saved the world
So Newman is long gone and people are still buying Beatles albums. What do you make of that?
I saw this when it happened. I recall that it was shortly before the JFK assassination. I was 10.
Does anyone know what happened to the great radio program "The Beatle Years"? I listened to it every weekend beginning in 2001. If you heard it--you know what I mean. Amazing show.
The Beatles arrived in an aeroplane and a few years later one came back in a coffin. Dear John we love you.
Came back? John was cremated in New York. Yoko has never disclosed what she did with the ashes. It’s been said that his ashes were scattered in Central Park, although this is widely believed to be fiction.
Yes a non Christian pagan way of desecration a baptized person.
@@Thomas-lg6jx I know Thomas, if only he had been buried then he wouldn't have ended up in hell
@@hendryde-lux4287 You go to hell for mortal sins....
John sadly was living in mortal sin when he was shot in the back & died fairly instantly.
That was what sent him to hell ( presumed due to his state in life & how quickly he died without probably asking for forgiveness ).
What happened to his body after was just another indignity to God & the body of John.
Hell probably a real groovy place then
His supreme confidence that the presumed listener must surely agree the music is terrible would prove ill-founded. The “quality of Mersy is somewhat strained” pun, and “one reason for their popularity may be that it’s impossible to hear them” makes his position pretty clear. Even after their global fame, an assumption remained for a long time that no discerning adult would like, or even be able to stand, their music. Sean Connery even makes a joke in an early Bond film about how bad the Beatles music is.
It might be the first mention stateside but the visual isn't so much considering Ed Sullivan is seen with them long after the initial mention.
Five grand a week then? I'd do that today. Ha ha ha.
Five grand a week. Paying Brian thirty percent, Paying over eighty percent in taxes to the British government. Splitting it four ways. Doesn't go very far
5 grand back then would buy you two houses.
@@markforster2794 actually an average house in 1963/1964 cost about 18,900-20,000
@@johnszczybor4509actually it was about £2,530 in the early 60s, which is roughly £60k today.
@@watmun still doesn't go far, no matter what the conversion rate was at the time
two bad mercy puns.
Back when NBC and the other 2 networks did their job & reported UNBIASED NEWS!
Obviously some of the photos are from later including the one with Ed Sullivan
Fancy having an old fuddy duddy report on the latest pop sounds ?. and it proved a bad decision as history has proved, thank god Ed didn't feel the same about them.
3:30 That's exactly how they sounded at The Capitol in Cardiff! :-) x
Edwin Newman is dead the Beatles will last forever,!
Wow.. "The merseyside section of Liverpool, one of the toughest parts of the toughest cities on the world"
Bare in mind they were all middle class and that Liverpopl is IN MERSEYSIDE.
TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE PSYOP.
Liverpool was in Lancashire when this was filmed though. Merseyside as a county didn't exist until 74. So I guess he must just have meant the part of the city close to the Mersey.
Oh Edwin Newman you were so wrong.
Jokes on you Edwin.
RINGO FOR PRESIDENT. !!!
The little insults from the broadcasters is funny. You ask people today who Edwin Newman was and they'll most likely shrug. Ask them who John, Paul, George and Ringo are and they'll know immediately.
Don't worry there are kids now who haven't heard of the Beatles or even Paul McCartney
This started as good, unbiased reporting and ended in ignorant snide remarks.
www.youtube.com/@ExtremeBeatlesArchive/videos
Edwin Newman was always kinda snarky, but basically the old folks just didn’t get it.
Just what the doctor ordered for a severly wounded nation in the weeks ahead.