While the Ed Sullivan appearance certainly jolted the States to it's core I prefer the performance a/t Royal Variety Command Performance in November of 1963. No screaming fans...which was fine they were teen idols, after all. But one could actually hear them. The level of musicianship/vocal ability/timing/joy/cheekyness, etc. was astonishing to say the least.

As an accomplished session musician/songwriter myself I'm truly humbled by their level of expertise as young men in their teens and 20s. In my own experience I was in my mid-30s before I had a clue of what I was doing. Still don't really, but I can fake it. :-)

The aforementioned video is probably watched by me 15-20 times per year since I became aware of it. It makes me ache and tear up in a good way everytime I watch it. And I'll see some little facet I've missed in watching it many times before. As much as we were saturated by Beatlemania here in the States we didn't get 1/10th of what they were 'really' about. Thank goodness we've got that performance for posterity.

Like Paul once said, "All in all I think we were a pretty good little band." Well spoken.