The Ed Sullivan Show: Encyclopedia II - The Ed Sullivan Show - Famous performances

The Ed Sullivan Show - Famous performances

The Ed Sullivan Show is especially known for airing breakthrough performances by Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

On September 9, 1956, Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show even though Sullivan had previously vowed never to allow the performer on his show. At the time Presley was filming Love Me Tender so Sullivan's producer Marlo Lewis flew to Los Angeles, California to supervise the Hollywood side of the show taping. Sullivan, however, was not able to host his show in New York City because he was recovering from a near fatal automobile accident. Oscar-winner Charles Laughton guest-hosted in Sullivan's place introducing Presley with "And now away to Hollywood to meet Elvis Presley" to which Presley eventually responded "This is probably the greatest honor that I've ever had in my life."

The show was viewed by a record 60 million people which at the time was 82.6% of the television audience and the largest single audience in television history. Sullivan was able to host other appearances by Presley starting on October 28 later the same year. But for this appearance Presley dyed his naturally sandy blond hair to his soon to be trademark "bad boy" jet black. Presley's third and final appearance on the show occurred on January 6, 1957 but by that time controversy over Presley's provocative hip and pelvis movements prompted Sullivan to order the show's cameras to only shoot the rock star from the waist up. In spite of that Sullivan thanked Presley after his last number saying, "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you.... You're thoroughly all right."

Many television historians consider Elvis Presley's appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show as helping to bridge a large generation gap between Great Depression and World War II era parents and their Baby Boomer children. Later performers would use this bridge to introduce themselves to millions of American households. Among them were The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Who, and The Beatles.

The July 1, 1962 show was taped at the famed Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris, France and featured Connie Francis and French rocker Johnny Hallyday.

The Beatles appeared live on the show three times during February 1964 and again on September 12, 1965 and earned Sullivan a 60% share of the night time audience for one of the appearances. Their first appearance on February 9, in particular, is considered a milestone in American pop culture and the start of the British invasion in music itself.

On September 17, 1967 The Doors appeared on the show, the show's network censors demanded the group to change its lyrics for their hit song Light My Fire, altering the line "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl we couldn't get much better" because of what they said was a reference to drugs. However, Jim Morrison sang the original line instead, and on live television with no delay CBS was powerless to stop it. Ed Sullivan was so furious that he refused to shake their hands and they were never invited back.

In contrast, the Rolling Stones were instructed to change the title of their "Let's Spend the Night Together" single for the band's January 15, 1967 appearance. The band complied, with singer Mick Jagger ostentatiously rolling his eyes heavenward whenever he reached the song's one-night-only, family-friendly refrain, "Let's spend some time together."

Although the appearances by The Beatles and Elvis are considered the most famous rock and roll performances on Ed Sullivan, several months before Elvis debuted Sullivan invited Bill Haley and His Comets to perform their then-current hit "Rock Around the Clock" in early August 1955. This was later recognized by CBS and others (including music historian Jim Dawson in his book on "Rock Around the Clock") as the first performance of a rock and roll song on a national television program.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Famous performances", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki