“My friend got the album, which was pretty amazing when you consider that you had to scrape up a few bucks to buy it. I’ll record it.’ I listened back to it and realised how much I liked it.

I was 10 years old and I was experimenting with the recorder, and so when the Beatles came on the show, I thought, ‘Here’s some music. Steve Morse (Deep Purple): “The Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan happened to coincide with my getting a little battery-operated tape recorder for Christmas. Seeing them made something click in my soul.” I knew then what I wanted to do with my life. But one Sunday night at home, watching the family’s black and white TV set, when The Ed Sullivan Show was on, and I saw The Beatles. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate just why he’s regarded as iconic, but it never got me going. He appealed to my babysitters, and not to me. Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon): 'I was a little too young to get what Elvis was all about. I quickly realised that I couldn’t actually be a Beatle, but I could be a rock star, and that plan never changed.' Really.'ĭee Snider: 'I was eight years old when this was released, and after hearing it on the radio, and then seeing that legendary Ed Sullivan show performance, that was it, I wanted to be a Beatle. It was like going from black-and-white to colour. It certainly felt that way - you just knew it, sitting in your living room, that everything around you was changing. I think the whole world was watching that night. Tom Petty: 'Most magic is a trick, an illusion.

Black beatles in the city