The Beatles had wowed US television audiences during their first three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, recorded in February 1964 during their first American visit. On this day they made a fourth and final appearance.
They were driven to CBS-TV’s Studio 50 in the morning of 14 August 1965, in a convoy of limousines. Rehearsals took place from 11am-2pm, as The Beatles were unhappy with the initial sound balance and continued work until they were satisfied. A dress rehearsal took place from 2.30pm in front of a studio audience of 700, and the show itself was recorded from 8.30pm.
The Beatles performed six songs: ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘I’m Down’, ‘Act Naturally’, ‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Help!’.
There was a short break after Act Naturally, after which The Beatles returned to perform the remaining three songs with a different stage set. Ticket To Ride included a lengthy introduction during which the cameras panned to each of the group. Paul McCartney sang Yesterday with a pre-recorded string trio backing, after which John Lennon remarked “Thank you Paul, that was just like him”. Lennon, meanwhile, forgot some of the lyrics to Help!.
The audience was out there, and we were kind of very new to America – loving it, but a little bit scared, and I had to do Yesterday, my song, on my own, and I’d never done this, I’d always had the band with me, but suddenly they said, ‘You’re doing Yesterday,’ so I said, ‘OK’. So I was standing there – ‘come on, get it together, it’s OK’ – and the floor manager, the guy on the curtain, came up to me and said, ‘You nervous?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘You should be, there’s 73 million people watching.’
The Late Show with David Letterman, July 2009
The edition of the The Ed Sullivan Show was screened on 12 September 1965 at 8pm EST. Other acts making an appearance were Cilla Black, Soupy Sales, Allen and Rossi, and Fantasio the Magician. The broadcast received a 60% share of the night time audience.
Despite being their final live appearance, in future years The Beatles gave a number of promotional clips to be debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Also on this day...
- 2024: John Lennon’s Mind Games (Meditation Mixes) to be released
- 2024: John and Yoko documentary Daytime Revolution announced
- 2019: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia
- 2014: Paul McCartney live: Candlestick Park, San Francisco
- 2013: Paul McCartney live: Mosaic Stadium, Regina
- 2010: Paul McCartney live: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
- 2001: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Fort Lauderdale
- 1973: Recording: Mind Games by John Lennon
- 1972: Wings live: Vejlby-Risskov Hallen, Aarhus
- 1969: Radio: Everett Is Here
- 1969: Mixing, editing: Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, You Never Give Me Your Money
- 1968: Recording, mixing: Yer Blues, What’s The New Mary Jane
- 1966: The Beatles live: Cleveland Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio
- 1966: KLUE radio, Texas, is struck by lightning
- 1964: Recording, mixing: I’m A Loser, Mr Moonlight, Baby’s In Black, Leave My Kitten Alone
- 1963: The Beatles live: Odeon Cinema, Llandudno
- 1963: Television: Scene At 6.30
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
When at the end of this show (available on dvd) Ed Sullivan says “and join us next week for our first ever color broadcast” I can’t help but think how great it would have been to have had this show’s performance filmed in color too for the ages. CBS and the Ed Sullivan Show production staff by this time should have known the cultural and historical importance of The Beatles and made sure this show was shot in color – It’s tough to forgive them for that.
Brian… The intention was indeed for that episode to be color. That summer was spent converting Ed’s studio into color, with the goal being that the Beatles would be the stars of Ed’s first color episode. But…such a conversion is quite involved and something happened on the technical end and delayed things considerably (to the point that Ed had to do the next few shows in Hollywood from Television City….CBS did not have any other color studio in New York at the time so Ed couldn’t just do shows at another theater in New York.) So Ed had no choice but to tape the show in black and white. It wasn’t because he didn’t recognize ” the cultural and historical importance of The Beatles.” You can bet he wasn’t happy.
I just watched this on DVD and was impressed by how they soldiered on through the mistake on Help. The whole performance was so much more varied than their first 3 appearances and shows how far they had progressed since the year before.
There were many mistakes on that telecast. John Sang the chorus differently than Paul & George on I feel Fine. Similar thing happened on help. Also Paul reversed his first couple of lines on I’m Down.
I’m surprised more hasn’t been made of John completely butchering the 2nd verse, but yes give credit to Paul and George for keeping it going.
John always messed up the Help lyrics. Evidenced by the Blackpool show. It was their newest song and these were their first shows playing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ecLGDPbMs
When was this filmed? Apparently John didn’t forget the lyrics
Is it true that Paul McCartney did some rope trick there on any of the four Ed Sullivan shows?
Sunday, not Saturday. Right?
I have a ticket stub, letter and envelope from CBS for this show, any idea what it’s worth?
I attended the Ed Sullivan taping in 1965 when Paul sang Yesterday. I was pretty young but I vividly remember there was some snafu (in the taping?) and they had to play a song over again. Of course Ed made some funny apology that we had to hear it again. The audience went nuts!
Does anyone else have info on that day’s taping? My memory is so vague…
Interesting that Sir Paul is confused about the Yesterday performance date. He mentions being new to America and the stage manager saying there’s are 73 million people watching, but that would have been the first Sullivan show in Feb. of 1964 and Yesterday had not been done till the following year.
The show was taped on Saturday and shown Sunday night…The Beatles were performing at Shea Stadium while the episode aired!
You are right! I remember that now. Even as a kid I knew I won the lottery!
My memory is different. I attended the 1965 Shea Stadium concert, and also watched the 1965 Ed Sullivan Beatles show. So they could not have happened at the same time, unless they reran the Beatles on Ed Sullivan a week or 2 later.
Are we sure the strings for Yesterday were pre-recorded? There are rehearsal photos showing violinists playing along with Paul on acoustic guitar.
Does anyone remember the name of the lady, with the bee-hive hair cut that was crying during The Beatles’ performance of ‘Ticket to Ride”?
I wonder if she is still alive today, as in 2014, I had written a book, about, “My Obsession with The Beatles”, which was inaugurated during 2015, Brihan Maharashtra Mandal Annual Convention in Los Angeles, California, by the famous writer, Dr. Achyut Godbole., and would like to present to her a copy of this book, if she is interested!