Last night, as he stood onstage in Los Angeles to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, Paul McCartney confessed to wondering “if it was seemly to tribute yourself?”
By then, none of the thousands gathered in a large ballroom of the L.A. Convention Center was about to object, not with a rare onstage reunion between McCartney and his fellow Beatle Ringo Starr only minutes away. Leading up to that moment Stevie Wonder, Dave Grohl, Pharrell, Alicia Keys, Gary Clark Jr. and Joe Walsh had performed inspired takes on Beatles classics as part of The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles, set to air on CBS on February 9th.
The 1964 Sullivan appearance and its lasting cultural impact provided the show’s anniversary, but the night celebrated of the full decade that McCartney, Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison spent as the Beatles, a collaboration that still resonates like no other in pop music.