It began with the playing on radio of a recording by a little known (in the United States) band that called themselves The Beatles, in December 1963. Two months later 73 million viewers, estimated to be 45% of those watching television at the time, watched The Beatles perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show. By the summer of 1964 British bands were flooding the record market in the United States, appearing on American stages and television shows to the elation of teenagers across the country. What was first called Beatlemania became the British Invasion, and it went far beyond just music.
Movies such as Alfie, What’s New, Pussycat? and the James Bond series presented British themes and caught the imagination of the American audience. British television series such as The Avengers and Secret Agent (called Danger Man in the UK) gained an audience. The miniskirt, introduced in London by Mary Quant, became popular in the United States, shocking some and delighting others. The British Invasion was driven by American teens and young adults, the baby boomers who had money to spend. Their parents often resisted the influence of British and later imitative American artists, but to little or no avail.
Here are ten elements of the British Invasion of the 1960s which had a lasting impact on American society and culture.
The Ed Sullivan Show
In the 1960s The Ed Sullivan Show was a Sunday night ritual in most American homes, and had been since it first aired in 1948. The show was broadcast live from CBS Television’s Studio 50, and a successful appearance on the program, earning praise from host Ed Sullivan, was a guarantee of stardom. The Beatles were not the first rock and roll music act to catapult to stardom on the show, Elvis Presley had done so in 1956, and many other acts had appeared in between. But The Beatles were the first of the British bands to appear on the show, and their appearance in February 1964 was the opening shot of the ensuing British Invasion.
It was Ed Sullivan who was the instigator for the band to appear on his show. Sullivan had personally witnessed the reception given The Beatles at London’s Heathrow airport by their fans, and he approached their manager with an offer for an appearance, a single performance, for an impressive fee. Beatles manager Brian Epstein was more interested in maximum exposure of the band on American television, and offered three appearances on the show, with two performances per show, opening and closing, for a much smaller fee. Epstein was more interested in publicity to sell records than money from a single appearance.
Following the final appearance of The Beatles on the show, its 1965 season premiere, the band continued to provide filmed promotional clips of songs to be broadcast. By then Sullivan’s program was a coveted launching pad for British acts coming to America. The Dave Clark Five – the first British Invasion band to launch a full American tour – made a total of 18 appearances on the program, the most of any of the British groups. The Dave Clark Five had 17 records reach the American Top 40 during the 1960s between 1964 and 1967, five more than they achieved in their native Great Britain, helped by the publicity of their Sullivan appearances.
The Rolling Stones made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in October, 1964. Following their appearance the show’s producers received a barrage of telegrams complaining about the band’s performance, dress, and haircuts. This was in sharp contrast to the screams from the audience which followed the band’s performance, which endured to the point that Sullivan had to repeatedly urge the audience to be quiet so that he could introduce the next act. The Rolling Stones returned to the Sullivan show another five times, with similar results after each.
Ed Sullivan booked other British Invasion acts, including The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Dusty Springfield, The Searchers, and many more. He also booked numerous contemporary American bands and featured many Motown acts, all in an attempt to attract a younger audience. By the end of the sixties his audience was considerably older than that desired by major advertisers and after the 1971 season The Ed Sullivan Show was summarily canceled, after more than a thousand episodes. The British Invasion was launched on his program and all the major musical acts coming from Britain which appeared on his show credited it with helping them achieve success in the United States.