Beatles ’64

Matt Roush says...

Beatlemania was at its height in 1964 when The Beatles paid their memorable first visit to America, captured in an evocative documentary produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi, taking advantage of newly discovered footage to give eternal fans a new angle on the Liverpool moptops in their youthful glory. “We were kind of normal and the rest of the world was crazy,” reflects the late George Harrison in archival material. The special features remixed footage from the band’s first American concert at the Washington, D.C. Coliseum and excerpts of their legendary debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, which attracted a TV audience of 73 million. The screaming is indelible, a cathartic response from a nation still reeling from JFK’s assassination. “Maybe America needed something like The Beatles to be lifted out of sorrow,” suggests Paul McCartney in a new interview.

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