The 1966 song Paul McCartney called his first important tune: “I started to feel it”
When The Beatles first rose to prominence in 1964, they did so by writing fun and energetic songs that got people dancing.
There were signs that the band were going to make it big, but the real turning point for the band was when they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. After reeling off hits like ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, the band instantly went from a domestic success in the UK to worldwide superstars. Their rise to fame felt pretty instantaneous after that, as people everywhere were desperate to listen to whatever The Beatles would put out.
“It transformed America,” said E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt, “On February 8th, there were no bands in America; on February 9th, we had Ed Sullivan, and on February 10th, everybody had a band in their garage. It was literally overnight.”
Some of the reasons that The Beatles were so well liked were firstly, with their long hair, suits and witty remarks, people were drawn to everything about the band, and secondly, the music was great to listen to, with heartfelt lyrics and a catchy melody. However, it was the timing of their success which really helped move things along, as they essentially taught the world how to have fun again.
Ozzy Osbourne put it best when he spoke about the fact that when The Beatles were originally rising to the top, the world was still recovering from the aftermath of World War II, while a lot of people were working dead-end jobs, the economy was on the decline, and there was just a general sense of dread. Once The Beatles started releasing music, you suddenly had a world that was given permission to lighten up again. They were dancing to the great music and simply getting excited about the fact that things didn’t look quite as bleak anymore.
“When I heard The Beatles. I knew what I wanted to do,” said Osbourne in an interview with Blabbermouth, “My son says to me, ‘Dad, I like The Beatles, but why do you go so crazy?’ The only way I can describe it is like this, ‘Imagine you go to bed today and the world is black and white, and then you wake up, and everything’s in colour. That’s what it was like!’ That’s the profound effect it had on me.”
Of course, that might have helped the band when it came to allowing them to rise to fame, but it didn’t ensure their longevity. The band became famous, but the reason they’re still considered one of the greatest bands of all time is because of how much their sound evolved, and they were able to tap into different themes and emotions with every album.
Paul McCartney recalled when he realised that his band’s music was going to expand beyond the realms of just good pop music. He knew the moment they wrote ‘Eleanor Rigby’ that they weren’t just a decent band, they were a band that people were going to consider important for a long time. Beyond being a hit song, it was layered with emotion and interesting styles of music. There weren’t many people who heard that song and weren’t somewhat moved by it.
“It’s difficult to discuss this without sounding immodest, but I think I started to feel it around the time of ‘Eleanor Rigby’,” he said, “Prior to that, I thought the music was very good, and I realised we were in a different league when we wrote ‘From Me To You’, because it had a middle eight in it and went somewhere we hadn’t been before… For me, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was the start of that.”
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