This is the first song America heard on February 9, 1964, on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I love this song for one big reason. John Lennon plays a hell of a rhythm in the background. He makes it sound so deceptively easy but it’s not. I need to start focusing on some of their earlier music instead of just their late sixties tracks. I have some readers that just like their early stuff and others who like just the mid or later. I love both because it’s the same band… early, middle, or late… both have great melodies but just different tones of instruments.
What is great about the early part is their harmonies. When I played in a band we didn’t do many Beatles songs although they were being requested. If we did we did a later song like Get Back without those harmonies. It takes a band with 2 or better yet 3 singers who can do those harmonies. Not easy to do when you are teen playing instruments at the same time. We stuck with Rolling Stones and CCR songs without the complicated harmonies. Now we couldn’t do I Am The Walrus either because of the craziness of the instruments.
This song was on the first Beatles album I listened to…the American version of With The Beatles named Meet The Beatles with their faces in shadow. We had a clubhouse and my older cousin bought the album and I was hooked…for life. It’s hard not to get hooked by the songs.
On February 9th, 1964, an estimated 73 million viewers watched this much-hyped young Liverpool band perform five songs ‘live’ from CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York City. Capital Records kept rejecting Beatles songs until I Want To Hold Your Hand. A few radio stations started to play the song and soon Capitol realized that they could not reject them anymore. They didn’t like British records and only would release novelty British songs in America. When they started to get behind Meet The Beatles the dam burst.
They chose All My Loving to start the set and made an immediate good first impression and kept that huge television audience tuned in for the whole show. What separated the Beatles from other bands? The thousands of hours they already had under their belt from rocking in Hamburg, The Cavern, and all around Europe. At one point they very well could have had more hours on stage than any other rock band. Another thing was the quantity and more important the quality of the songwriting of the band that would continue to their end.
It’s a Lennon-McCartney song but mostly McCartney. The song peaked at #1 in Canada and New Zealand. It surprisingly only peaked at #45 on the Billboard 100 in 1964.
Paul McCartney: “I don’t know that I was thinking specifically of Jane Asher when I wrote this, though we were courting. It’s probably more of a reflection on what our lives were like then – leaving behind family and friends to go on tour and experience all these new adventures.”
All My Loving
Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you
Tomorrow I’ll miss you
Remember I’ll always be true
And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my lovin’ to you
I’ll pretend that I’m kissing
The lips I am missing
And hope that my dreams will come true
And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my lovin’ to you
All my lovin’, I will send to you
All my lovin’, darlin’, I’ll be true
Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you
Tomorrow I’ll miss you
Remember I’ll always be true
And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my loving to you
All my lovin’, I will send to you
All my lovin’, darlin’, I’ll be true
All my lovin’, all my lovin’
Ooh ooh, all my lovin’, I will send to you
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That’s how I hear this song with all that screaming girls from the Sullivan show. lol..Man what a rocket ship ride they went on after this performance….
Yea a two of them are still on… if they only knew what was coming during that performance.
What a wonderful piece of Beatles history!
I think that Sullivan broadcast was the one where they ran subtitles to introduce the band. After Lennon’s name it said “Sorry girls, he’s married.” They were seen in the US before that with some grainy footage on the Jack Paar Show, but that didn’t prepare us for the real thing when they came to NY for Ed Sullivan.
I would have loved to have been alive when they came over. I’ve had even country musicians tell me the world was changed the next day everywhere in America.
One of my favorite cuts from them.
Thanks Keith…
It’s funny you mentioned Lennon’s rhythm part because the first thing I thought of was Harrison’s country flavored guitar solo on this one. I love both parts!
I do like George’s tone around this time…very tasteful. The melody to this is timeless also.
When I think of this song…I think of a digital watch my mom got me when I was around 14 or 15 at Service Merchandise. It played a midi file based on this song.
That’s wild!
as Beatles singles go, not one of my favorites, but still a good song and compared to much of what was big in that year, miles ahead of the crowd. Just perused their discography and I would say it’s my favorite single by them until ‘And I love Her’. Like Deke says, you almost expect to hear all that crowd screaming when you hear the song now.
The only Beatle single I did not…and still don’t like is Can’t Buy Me Love…don’t know why but I could never take it.
This one though I do like…funny they kicked off the Sullivan show with this one and not I Want To Hold Your Hand. John does such a great job in this one on guitar. Listen to his guitar when you can…it’s a constant strumming.
Love it. Loved it when i was 6 and The Beatles were so big they were doing movies already…
I would have loved to grow up at that time.
I was a teen and playing guitar when the boys were on Ed’s show. The next day, we all grew out our hair and formed bands; there wasn’t a guitar or amp to be had in Fort Worth. Lennon’s rhythm guitar is something all players should take notice of. Harrison’s country lick was straight from Chet Atkins, who he idolized. Great post of music that was actually music.
Phil, I told someone else…I bought a 69 Kustom Amp from a country musician who had been playing since the early sixties. He said even Nashville changed forever after The Beatles appeared…he said it was a different world after them. I asked him to compare it to something else…he said Michael Jackson in the 80s times a thousand or more….that is saying something.
I love George’s tone he got out of that Gretsch.
The best thing about Kustom amps is you could take lay the speaker cabinet on it side and take a nap on it.
Oh yea I love the padding…and they are tough as well…my buddy and I caught a time period where they were pretty cheap and bought around 6 vintage Kustoms. Now they have gone up again.
The biggest complaint I’ve heard is they don’t distort when you turn it up…and it’s true…I have to use a distortion box…it’s hard to get natural distortion out of them.
Wow!
My older sister went to see A Hard Day’s Night in the movies, but it took me a few more years to appreciate them.
I’m sure I would have been like that also. It always takes me a while to jump on board with someone.
My first thought watching the video was “My God, somebody get Paul a towel! Somebody turn down the thermostat!”
A great song for sure, but (like many) it took me awhile to really appreciate them as a group.
I was thinking the same…someone wipe Paul’s face. He is drowning.
LOL…those lights are hot!
God almighty… And, he was so happy to be there.
Oh yea…who wouldn’t want to be in that spot? Little did he know that in 2023 it is STILL going on for him…he could cure cancer and when he dies…”Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney etc….”
He will always be a Beatle. And, Ringo seems to be doing OK, yes?
Oh yea…hell Ringo looks younger than Paul and he is older
Heh. Guess he followed thru with his No No Song. 😁
Yea only carrots and veggies for Ringo…I think all of them were vegans at the end….John I’m not sure about…he is the one that would cheat I believe.
Simple, incessant, harmonic and different- other groups had parts needed to be great, they had it all and, as you say, had honed it over a few years. The group, the sound, leaped out of the TV and grabbed you, tiny tinny speaker and all.
I don’t think I ever saw that first video, or I just never noticed Geo stepping up to the mike and sharing vocals with Paul. One of the things I love the most about The Beatles is that you always know it is them while at the same time they never repeated themselves. That is not an easy feat. I have no preference of earlier or later tunes but I do remember how transformative their music was when it came to the USA. I’ve been a fan since the beginning, an elementary school student, sitting on the floor in our family living room, studying the Please Please Me album jacket while listening to the music.
p.s. the album jacket I find out there is not the one our album had. It was of them in suits and one of them looked like he was missing a finger lol
How I wish I could have witnessed it real time! I know I’m wishing my self older but I would take it with those experiences.
Oh I would also. Hey! One of the episodes of ST last night they went backward in time. If we could only get to the Starship Enterprise!
Yes!!! How I would love to go…just to witness things…thats all I would ask.
Until you decided to ask John that burning question you always wanted to know the answer to… just kidding. I know you would honor that don’t tamper with time law. I can’t say that I wouldn’t break it though lol
No…I would break it…I know I would mess with something… on Dec 8 1980…kidnap John Lennon lol.
<3
Totally agree, “All My Loving” is one of their great early tunes. I think you also hit the nail on the head with something else: While musically, the early Beatles songs weren’t terribly complicated, their harmony singing was pretty sophisticated. I’ve seen a good number of Beatles tribute bands. Many did a nice job capturing the music of the early tunes, but only very few nailed the harmony vocals.
In this one…John’s guitar is just outstanding! What he is playing should not work but it does perfectly.
Yea they spent many drunken Hamburg/Cavern years perfecting those harmonies.
What a fun video. I like this song and I am glad you posted it. I liked that it was colorized.
The best P.A our band had was 4 Kustom towers with a 1,000 watt head and a Echoplex delay box tied in. You could turn it up to 10 and it was still clear. Those Vox AC 30 couldn’t put out enough sound, it was better when the Super Beatles amps arrived.
I did like those Beatle Amps that you could flip the amp over from the stand…Now I say that Phil but I don’t think WE could have used it…but it sure as hell looked cool! Were they the Super Beatle Amps?
Their amps in the first part of their touring days were the AC 30s. Two 12 inch speakers and a 30 watt tube amp. They were good in the studio or a small venue. Their amp in the end was the Super Beatle, a cabnit with 4 twelves and a horn and a brain with 100 watts. I had both amps and although they looked good, the amps were constantly in the shop with electronic problems. Our keyboard player used a Vox Viscont amp and it was great with his Farfisa organ. I eventually settled on 2 Fender showman cabnits with a Showman brain with 100 watts and tubes. Now I have small amps. A Fender Acoustisonic and a Fender Tweed with 1 – 12 inch speaker. Small but still heavy. Ahhh, the good ole days of equipment.
From what I’ve used…. I still like the vintage amps the best but I do like modern PA’s…they have improved greatly. Our guitar player has a Line6 amp that you need a masters degree to operate fully. He operates it with an IPad… I plug into my Kustom and start playing.
Keep it simple.
1964 seems early for this – it’s pretty sophisticated.
I agree…and an unusual guitar pattern by John.
I watched the movie Yesterday and now I’m on a Beatles kick. Great song.
That is a fun movie…the part that shocked me was the Lennon part… he actually looked liked Lennon…it was a scary likeness.
I thought the Lennon scene was a really cool thing to do.
The Ed Sullivan Show certainly could make or break you back in the day and in this instance, I think the Beatles did just fine after this appearance. I do (barely) remember seeing this, as well as the popularity explosion that came thereafter.
I’m more a fan of the Strawberry Fields time, although the early songs are fun to sing along. Then again, I sing along to EVERYTHING! 🎤
LOL… I’m a huge fan of that era as well. I thought I would start adding some earlier ones because I’ve concentrated on the later era.
Always great info and insight, thanks!
Thank You!