The Fab Four hit America: The US gears up for the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania

It may be over 40 years since they ceased to exist as a functioning band, but the enduring power of the Beatles will be underlined again over the coming weeks – as the US gears up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s first footsteps on American soil.

Next month’s most significant date will be 9 February, which marks an exact half century since John, Paul, George and Ringo appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Hello America: The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964 - and the world shakes

This was the seismic event that beamed the group into the homes of an astonishing 73 million prime-time viewers, and grabbed the attention of a nation that had been introduced to ‘rock n roll’ by the hip-shaking antics of Elvis Presley on the same Sunday-night programme eight years earlier.

The performance will be marked with a concert in Los Angeles on 27 January, with appearances from acts including the Eurythmics and Alicia Keys, and broadcast as ‘The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute To The Beatles’ on the evening of the anniversary on CBS – the network that was home to The Ed Sullivan Show for 23 years.

However, fans seeking a closer glimpse of Beatles heritage can still visit the place that framed that iconic footage. The band was filmed at what was then CBS-TV Studio 50 – a grand New York venue that was renamed The Ed Sullivan Theater in 1968.

Still in operation at 1697 Broadway, this 1200-seat dame is now most famously the setting for one of Sullivan’s television successors, the Late Show with David Letterman.

This is the future calling: The band performed on three consecutive editions of Sullivan's (centre) show

The Beatles actually played three consecutive editions of The Ed Sullivan Show – a clever piece of marketing arranged by manager Brian Epstein, who waived the prospect of a big fee for a single appearance in favour of the increased exposure of a trio of shows.

Not to be outdone by the Big Apple, Washington DC will also mark its own key Fab Four moment in February. The American capital was the setting for the first ‘proper’ Beatles concert in the USA when the band reeled off a 40-minute set at the Washington Coliseum on 11 February 1964.

Pitched at 1146 Third Street, just north of Union Station, the building will stage a tribute concert precisely 50 years on, with performances by Beatles impersonators and an exhibition of images from the original show, shot by photographer Mike Mitchell, who was an 18-year-old freelancer at the time (details at beatlesyesterdayandtoday.com).

This will be a return to the spotlight for the Washington Coliseum, which has endured a mixed history since those heady days of the mid-Sixties.

Concerts were banned at the venue following a riot in 1967, and it fell into disuse after bigger, more modern spaces were opened in and around the city in the Seventies. Over the last 40 years, it has found new purpose as a makeshift jail and a rubbish collection depot – and now serves as a car park. But for one night, it will revisit the time when it was filled with screaming fans.

A hard day's night: Ringo bangs the drums at Red Rocks Amphitheatre - one of America's great concert venues



Beatles aficionados seeking to celebrate their breakthrough year on the far side of the Atlantic can find a further site of remembrance a little further west in mountainous Denver.

The capital of Colorado witnessed another early Fab Four extravaganza on 26 August 1964, when the band played to some 7000 people at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.