Beatles 50 is getting a big push this week. Sources tell that CBS’s special scheduled for February 9th–and being taped this Monday at the Los Angeles Convention Center– could end up being three hours long.
Right now the show–which will 50 years to the day that the Beatles debuted on American TV on CBS’s “Ed Sullivan Show”–is set from 8 to 10 pm. The Eurythmics are re-uniting for the event, and contemporary artists are lined up to perform Beatles songs.
But Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as some other unannounced guests, will be on the bill. And frankly, if Paul and Ringo wanted to do an hours’ worth of Beatles songs, everyone would be very very happy indeed.
McCartney and Starr are also performing on the Grammys on Sunday night, January 26th as well. And on Saturday afternoon they will be there with Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison at the Grammys’ Special Merit ceremony to receive their Lifetime Achievement Awards.
And there’s more: both Paul and Ringo are expected on David Letterman as part of “Beatles Week” February 3rd to 7th.
And even more: The 92nd St Y in New York is hosting a special evening on February 6th, moderated by Beatles expert Martin Lewis, featuring Peter Asher, Donovan, Billy J. Kramer, Freda Kelly (the Beatles’ secretary). That is one event not to be missed! www.92y.org/beatles.
Plus of course yesterday Capitol released a box set of the Beatles’ US album releases. I’ve seen some criticism of the set on amazon because they didn’t use the original crappy mixes from the original releases in the early 60s. Ridiculous. The whole point of George Martin’s 1987 remixes was to fix all that stuff. He did it. We’re grateful for it.
