Fifty years to the minute after The Ed Sullivan Show introduced The Beatles to America on live TV, CBS presents another musical Beatles special…
And yes, the surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, will perform on the special, separately and together. They cover nine songs in all. And if you don’t want to know the rundown, of their songs or of passionate covers performed by special guests, skip down to the bottom of this column. But don’t miss the bottom, because today’s entry ends with a copy of the original CBS press release detailing the Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964.
Tonight’s 8 p.m. ET CBS special, The Beatles: The Night That Changed America – A Grammy Salute, includes, of course, a glimpse of the 1964 Ed Sullivan Show appearance that proved a cultural pivot point for an entire generation. The rest of the show, however, brings the story up-to-date.
David Letterman, in a piece taped earlier this week, hosts Ringo and Paul, and interviews them (without an audience), at his Late Show digs at The Ed Sullivan Theater – the very location of The Beatles’ first live American TV appearance 50 years ago.
And during the concert portion, taped right after the Grammys when lots of musical luminaries were gathered in the same place anyway, Paul and Ringo indeed hold court. Each former Beatle sings three songs from their group’s old catalogue separately. Then they come together – so to speak – for one last trio of Beatle numbers.
The rundown:
Paul performs “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Get Back” and “Birthday.”
Ringo performs two covers – “Matchbox” and “Boys” – and the group’s own “Yellow Submarine.”
Then Paul and Ringo finish with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “Hey Jude.”
Others get in on the fun as well. According to CBS, here’s the lineup of artists and songs covered tonight as part of this Grammy salute to the Beatles, produced by my favorite TV music producer, Ken Ehrlich:
Alicia Keys & John Legend "Let It Be"
Dave Grohl & Jeff Lynne "Hey Bulldog"
Ed Sheeran "In My Life"
Eurthymics "The Fool On The Hill"
Gary Clark Jr., Dave Grohl & Joe Walsh "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
Imagine Dragons "Revolution"
Jeff Lynne & Joe Walsh "Something"
John Mayer & Keith Urban "Don't Let Me Down"
Katy Perry "Yesterday"
Maroon 5 "All My Loving/Ticket To Ride"
Pharrell Williams & Brad Paisley "Here Comes The Sun"
Stevie Wonder "We Can Work It Out"
And finally, there’s this other treat from the CBS publicity department: the very release, dated Feb. 5, 1964, promoting the upcoming appearance by this hot new musical group from England. It’s so much fun to read, and look at, I’m showing the whole thing. Is it obvious by now that, 50 years later, I’m still crazy about The Beatles?
Yeah, yeah, yeah…