February 9th, 1964 The Beatles make their first live US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan show. There were 50,000 request for tickets for the 728 seat studio. President Richard Nixon’s daughters Julie and Tricia attended the performance. The show pulled in more than 73 million a viewers, a record at the time. The band played five songs that night, “All My Loving”, “Till There Was You”, “She Loves You”, “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
The impact of the broadcast is immeasurable. The list of artists who watched the show and to this day say it was a contributing factor to them pursuing music as their career is seemingly endless. Just some of those artists who have pointed out this show as influencing them include Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Gene Simmons, Joe Perry, Nancy Wilson, Kenny Loggins, and Richie Sambora.
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