norman lebrecht

February 07, 2026

The Beatles 

62 years ago this week, on February 7, 1964, The Beatles  set foot in the United States for their first American tour. The effect was seismic. The four lads from Liverpool, although they didn’t yet know it, would change the entire direction of popular music on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond. 

It is difficult to overstate their influence but, at the time of their joyful arrival in New York, all we knew was that their songs were catch and easy to dance to.  The rest is history.

Here’s the first song they sang to Americans live on TV on the Ed Sullivan Show. If you too belong to the generation where the most important choice we had to make was whether we preferred The Beatles to The Rolling Stones, you will enjoy this.

And I Want to Hold Your Hand

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