Figure 1 – The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Poor Ed never saw it coming.
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of commencement of hostilities against the United States music scene by British musicians.
The most well known of all the English infantry battalions to attack the US were known as “The Beatles,” presumably named after their penchant for blitzkrieg fighting tactics. The Beatles made their debut on the American battlefield in 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show with their hit “I Want to Hold Your Hand Grenade” (Ed Sullivan, of course, was shot.) They went on to become responsible for “Get Back– He’s got a gun!,” “Helter Skelter, Run For Shelter,” the nuclear-missile carrying “Yellow Submarine,” and - ofcourse - “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”
In the course of researching this article, we had the opportunity to sit down with the famous Mick Jagger of the British Invasion’s “Rolling Stones” squadron: