The Fab Four Conquer America With Gusto In ‘Beatles ’64’ Doc

For millions of American teenagers, the Beatles‘ Feb. 9, 1964, debut American television performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was the equivalent of an atomic bomb. Indeed, nothing would ever be the same after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr set foot on U.S. soil for the first time, igniting a stateside variant of the Beatlemania that had already swept Europe and England and would soon turn the whole world upside down.

In celebration of its 60th anniversary, this singular moment in popular culture is chronicled in detail in the new documentary Beatles ’64, which premieres Friday (Nov. 29) on Disney+. Directed by David Tedeschi, produced by Martin Scorsese, it’s centered around intimate on- and offstage footage shot contemporaneously in black and white by filmmakers Albert and David Maysles. That material, which was first released in 1964 as What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. and re-edited for 1991’s The First U.S. Visit, has been painstakingly restored by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post — the same team that revived the Beatles’ troubled 1969 Let It Be recording sessions for the 2021 documentary Get Back.

Beyond clips of the band’s debut U.S. concert in Washington, D.C., two days after Ed Sullivan (the audio of which has been given the same much-needed de-mix treatment utilized in Get Back and on the final Beatles song, “Now and Then”), Beatles ’64 boasts new interviews with octogenarians McCartney and Starr, archival conversations with Harrison and Lennon and reminiscences from stateside early Beatles adopters, who outline the joy of discovering music that felt like it was, finally, made just for them.

Contemporary interviews with the Miracles’ Smokey Robinson and the Isley Brothers’ Ronald Isley, both also now in their 80s, illuminate the impact of the early Beatles recording their songs “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Twist and Shout” and name-checking them as major influences, especially against the backdrop of an America that was still deep in the throes of segregation and less than two months out from the shocking assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Throughout, we see the Beatles doing their best to amuse themselves while trapped in their Plaza Hotel suites due to the utter pandemonium at street level, briefly escaping to dance and party with admirers at the Peppermint Club, gamely tolerating the insufferable jive talk of ever-present New York radio DJ Murray the K, proudly listening to their own music pouring out of the speakers of their transistor radios and, in a true fish-out-of-water moment, attending a stuffy reception at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., until even they’ve had enough of the dog and pony show.

The morning after the film’s New York premiere, which drew McCartney, Sean Lennon and other luminaries, Tedeschi and producer Margaret Bodde hopped on Zoom with SPIN to discuss the Beatles’ enduring appeal and the trip that changed planet Earth forever.

I would imagine at some point during the process of making this movie, it struck you how truly revolutionary this first U.S. trip was for the Beatles?

David Tedeschi: Yes. I’d also say part of what struck us from the beginning was how different the world was. I mean, you look at that footage, and it could be the 1950s and 1940s. Of course, it’s 1964, and just a couple of years later, you’d be in the full-blown 1960s. I think the Beatles were a part of that. At one point right before the Ed Sullivan appearance, we have a giant wave coming and crashing. In a way, that’s what it was — a wave crashing.

John alludes to that in the Tom Snyder interview clip. It’s nice to hear him talking so articulately about the Beatles, because it’s generally believed that his feelings about the group were not very positive after the breakup.

Margaret Bodde:  Similarly, we listened to a lot of interviews with George post-breakup. He and John were bitter. They hadn’t quite reconciled everything that happened, and that level of fame and constant attention of being under the spotlight was traumatic. So, it was really fun and illuminating to see and hear them talk about the experience in such an insightful way and honest way — and with some appreciation of what it was like from inside the band. They had each other to go through that with together.

It’s even more of a blessing to have contemporary recollections from Paul and Ringo, and how easily it seems like they can put themselves right back in those moments.

Tedeschi: Some of it is their recollections, but some of it is their perspective based on who they are now, in 2024. Paul, in particular, was surprising to me. Clearly, he’d been thinking a lot about 1964 because he put together this exhibit of the photos he took from that year. We filmed him at the Brooklyn Museum. He had different insights that I had never heard before. I loved his attitude when we were talking about the scene at the British Embassy. This was one of the things in making the film that surprised me the most. I didn’t remember the degree to which there had been an establishment in the press and other places that disliked the Beatles and worked to prevent their success. Here they are, at the cusp of the greatest success, and at the British Embassy in Washington, they have a party in honor of them, and the staff treats them like garbage. They mistreat them because they’re low class. Paul says, ‘we were used to posh people looking down at us, but we couldn’t give a flying fuck, because we were going around the world rocking and they were stuck in that embassy.’ I don’t know if Paul would have said that 20 years ago. Maybe he would have, but to me, it was thrilling to hear.

From a technical standpoint, what are some of the elements of the film that Peter Jackson’s team at Wingnut and Park Road, and the MAL de-mixing technology, really enlivened?

Bodde: Albert and David’s original footage is beautifully shot, but there’s some work print from the Maysles. It’s not all just this uniform original camera negative. There’s bits and pieces that are more degraded than other sections. The work that they did to restore the picture makes you feel like the layers, and the decades of age, have been stripped off. You’re left with this beautiful, pristine image, and I think it gives the audience a sense of being there, without the distance of time. You can really feel the intimacy in those Plaza Hotel rooms and in the back seat of the car and in the train. It just looks beautiful. It gives you more of a direct connection with the material and that time. 

The Wingnut/MAL technology is revolutionary and miraculous. It allows us to take mono tracks and de-mix them, so that a genius like Giles Martin can come in and make sure that the levels of the vocals, the instruments and the audience are mixed to a point where you’re there, and you hear the energy of the crowd and the screams, but you can also hear the music for the first time. I’ve never experienced a Beatles live performance filmed like that, where you actually have the sense of their musicianship and the joy that they were having playing live at that time.

Tedeschi: In a way, for us it’s a gift, because we don’t know what the heck they’re doing. By the time we started, Park Road had done the restoration on the picture. What they do with the blacks and how they’re able to control the grain is a mystery to me, but it is really beautiful. The same with the de-mixing. I know how talented he is, so I didn’t feel anything but relief and joy when I heard the tracks for the first time. Like Margaret said, I’ve seen the Washington Coliseum concert many times, but you’ve never seen the Washington Coliseum concert like this — especially the way it sounds. It’s raucous. It’s a document of the Beatles as a live band in 1964, and they were a great live band.

It’s revelatory to hear Smokey Robinson and Ronald Isley talking about the impact of the early Beatles covering their songs, but by the same token admitting they themselves longed to be the ones playing on shows like Ed Sullivan. It gives much more of a complete picture of race relations and the culture of America at that point in time.

Boddie: I don’t think you could have made the film without them, because they were such inspirations to the Beatles. Ron quotes Paul McCartney saying, ‘we never would have left Liverpool if not for the Isley Brothers.’ Smokey talks about how there wasn’t ever a public expression of fandom by a band of that magnitude, or that they grew up listening to Motown and black music. At that time, that was a bold thing to do, and younger people might not be aware of how different it was. Smokey talks about getting shot at for trying to use the toilet. I mean, that’s a very dark and different time. They were really integral to the story.

Tedeschi: Smokey himself is so open-hearted about the Beatles recording ‘You Really Got a Hold on Me.’ Then, you see him recording ‘Yesterday’ and you get a real feel for how music in a way is about the interplay between artists. I love many of the things he said, but one of them stands out: that his dream as an artist was to have an artist like the Beatles record a song that he wrote. He was talking in the context of segregation, but he said the Beatles’ music — or any great music — gave the fans a common love, and that literally broke barriers. I thought that said it all.

You see the Beatles’ camaraderie come through so clearly in this film — their innate connection, their sense of humor and how poised they were at their ages considering what they were going through. What surprised you about the four of them as human beings?

Tedeschi: The biggest surprise to me in terms of the Beatles themselves is how they were like a wind-up toy. They always had energy. After their first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, they’re out front, a CBS news crew descends on them and asks them what’s their favorite song. George Harrison says ‘White Christmas,’ and the guy says, ‘well, that’s not a rock’n’roll song,’ and they all start singing it. Mick Jagger of course famously referred to them as a four-headed beast. It’s amazing how in sync they were. George says at one point that when someone got tired, someone else would step up, but aside from George getting a sore throat, I never saw any of them tired. They all seemed on for the whole trip.

Bodde: And like you said, they were so poised. They were so adult. George was 20 years old! It was a different era. You grew up fast and you grew up earlier. I’m struck by how mature and how responsible they were. They’re doing show after show and getting things done on a level that you really can’t even imagine. I’m astounded by the depth of their characters and, I won’t say ambition, but their drive. Rare guys, for sure.

That anecdote is so funny, because it comes up in the Embassy when one of the British reporters mentions overhearing the ‘White Christmas’ exchange and intimates that British journalists are more educated than the American ones.

Tedeschi: It’s hilarious.

Bodde: And of course they are, just because of the accents (laughs).

It illustrates how everyone was trying to find a way in with them, or something that would endear them and further the conversation. You see that with Murray the K — they sort of tolerated his presence. They could appreciate what he was doing for them, but maybe it wasn’t the ideal fit in terms of their own personalities. 

Bodde: He wasn’t cool enough to really hang with them, basically (laughs).

Tedeschi: Maybe for some of them and not for others. I love what George said, which is that he never understood how Murray ingratiated his way into the room and just stayed the whole time. You see these four young men in Miami by the pool, and then there’s Murray sitting in his bathing suit (laughs).

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