Heathrow. Several hundred screaming teens welcome home The Beatles after their first tour of Sweden. The manic scenes, on 31 October 1963, are witnessed by an in-transit US TV presenter, Ed Sullivan.
Ed Sullivan: There was the biggest crowd I had ever seen. I asked someone what was going on and he said 'The Beatles'. 'Who the hell are The Beatles?' I asked. But I went back to my hotel, got the name of their manager and arranged for them to do three shows. When we got home I found out that apparently my wife Sylvia and I were the only people in the country who'd even heard of The Beatles. I was very worried.
Beatles producer George Martin: It was very difficult in 1963 to think The Beatles were going to last for ever and that I would be talking about them over 40 years on.
They had four singles out that year: 'Please Please Me', 'From Me to You', 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. As we recorded them I would send each one to my friends at Capitol Records in America and say: 'This group is fantastic; you've got to sell them in the States.' And each time, the head of Capitol would turn it down: 'Sorry, we know our market better than you do and we don't think they're any good.'
Capitol are still reluctant to promote the group, but when a Washington DJ begins to play an imported copy of 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', the response is overwhelming. Illegal airplay of the record continues and Capitol finally decide to bring forward the single's US release date, backing it with a $50,000 promotional campaign, 10 times more than the company has previously spent on any artist. On 10 January, 1964, their initial shipment of one million copies of 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' sells out, causing frantic repressing.
Paul McCartney: 'From Me to You' was released - a flop in America. 'She Loves You' - a big hit in England, big Number One in England - a flop in the USA. 'Please Please Me' was released over there - flop. Nothing until 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'.
John Lennon (speaking in 1970): I remember when we got the chord that made that song. We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar, playing on the piano at the same time, and we had, 'Oh, you-u-u/ Got that something'. And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, 'That's it! Do that again!' In those days we really used to absolutely write like that - both playing into each other's noses.
Paul McCartney: I think the [Capitol] money was mainly spent in LA getting people like Janet Leigh to wear Beatles wigs and be photographed in them, which started it all. Once a film star did that, it could get syndicated all across America: 'Look at this funny picture; Janet Leigh in this wacko wig - the moptop wig.' And so the whole 'moptop' thing started there. And it did get us noticed.
18 January, 1964: Paris, France. The Beatles are two days into a residency of two, sometimes three, shows a day at the Olympia Theatre that will last until 4 February. At their suite at the George V hotel, their manager Brian Epstein receives a telegram announcing that huge sales will shoot 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' to number one in America in the coming chart. Two days later the news is official and reporters from the American press speed to Paris to interview a band that few of them have heard of.
Paul McCartney: One night we arrived back at the hotel from the Olympia when a telegram came through to Brian from Capitol Records of America. He came running into the room saying, 'Hey, look. You are number one in America!' Well, I can't describe our response. That was it, we didn't come down for a week.
Ringo Starr: We couldn't believe it. We all just started acting like people from Texas, hollering and shouting 'Ya-hoo!'.
John Lennon: It just seemed ridiculous - I mean, the idea of having a hit record over there. It was just something you could never do. That's what I thought, anyhow. But then I realised that kids everywhere go for the same stuff; and seeing as we'd done it in England, there's no reason why we couldn't do it in America too.
Brian Epstein: We knew that America would make us or break us as world stars. In fact, she made us.
7 February: The Beatles get a huge send-off from British fans at Heathrow as Pan Am Flight 101 heads for the recently renamed John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. At 1.20 pm, Pan Am 101 touches down to an even huger reception at JFK from over 3,000 American fans.
New York DJ Murray the K: My station manager told me that The Beatles were coming. I said, 'Fine. Get an exterminator.'
Ringo Starr: It was so exciting. On the plane, flying in to the airport, I felt as if there was a big octopus with tentacles that were grabbing the plane and dragging us down into New York.
Documentary maker Albert Maysles: Nobody knew whether it would be 50 people or 5,000. I think it was five or 10 thousand that showed up at the airport. After the Kennedy assassination, the country needed some kind of a morale pick-up and these guys turned out to do it.
A press conference is staged at the airport.
Murray the K: All of a sudden George Harrison turned to me and said, 'I love your hat.' It seems they had heard about me because all the acts that played the Brooklyn Fox Theater would tell them about my shows when they went to England, and play my albums for them. They all stopped with the news conference and started rapping with me to the dismay of the rest of the press corps.
The Beatles take their first ride in a Cadillac as they are driven to New York's Plaza Hotel, where they will stay in the twelfth floor Presidential suites as they prepare for The Ed Sullivan Show - having first gained difficult entry through the huge horde of fans surrounding the hotel and held back by 100 New York City cops.
Paul McCartney: I remember the great moment of getting into the limo and putting on the radio and hearing a running commentary on us. 'They have just left the airport and are coming towards New York City.' It was like a dream. The greatest fantasy ever.
Ringo Starr: We had this huge suite of rooms at the Plaza, with a TV in each room, and we had radios with earpieces. This was all so fascinating to me. This was too far out, coming from England where we'd only had a TV in our house for a couple of years.
8 February: George is confined to bed with a throat infection but John, Paul and Ringo hold another press conference, at the Plaza, before a photo-call with the press in Central Park. The Beatles' road manager Neil Aspinall stands in for George at rehearsals for The Ed Sullivan Show at Studio 50. After the rehearsals, The Beatles are gatecrashed at their Plaza suites by Murray the K.
Ringo Starr: The main thing I was aware of when we did the first Ed Sullivan Show was that we rehearsed all afternoon. TV had such bad sound equipment that we would tape our rehearsals and then go up and mess with the dials in the control room. We got it all set with the engineer there and then we went off for a break. The story has it that while we were out, the cleaner came in to clean the room and the console, thought, 'What are all these chalk marks?' and wiped them all off. So our plans just went out the window. We had a real hasty time trying to get the sound right.
Paul McCartney: Murray the K was the man most onto the Beatle case; he had seen it coming and grabbed hold of it. We were very impressed and we used to ring his radio show when he was on the air. He could talk about people like Smokey Robinson, whom he'd met. Smokey Robinson was like God in our eyes.
9 February: The Beatles spend the afternoon taping what will be their third Ed Sullivan Show appearance (broadcast on 23 February). Then at 8pm, to an audience of 728 hysterical teenagers in Studio 50, Ed Sullivan introduces live The Beatles' first American TV performance. They play 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', 'All My Loving', 'Till There was You', 'She Loves You' and 'I Saw Her Standing There'. A world record audience of 73 million people - 30 per cent of the population of America - tune in to watch.
George Harrison (speaking in 1995): We were aware that Ed Sullivan was the big one because we got a telegram from Elvis and the Colonel.
Paul McCartney: We came out of nowhere with funny hair, looking like marionettes or something. That was very influential. I think that was really one of the big things that broke us - the hairdo more than the music, originally. A lot of people's fathers had wanted to turn us off. They told their kids, 'Don't be fooled, they're wearing wigs.' A lot of fathers did turn it off, but a lot of mothers and children made them keep it on. All these kids are now grown up and telling us they remember it. It's like, 'Where were you when Kennedy was shot?' I get people saying, 'Oh, man, I remember that Sunday night; we didn't know what had hit us.'
After the show, The Beatles party at New York's hottest nightclub, the Peppermint Lounge, while Brian Epstein remains at the Plaza.
Albert Maysles: They had a wonderful sense of humour and of course - the young women of that time could tell you better than me - they were very attractive young guys.
Epstein was a little bit elusive. I think some of his behaviour can be explained by the fact that he was really not that experienced at what he was doing.
11 February: As heavy snow prevents flying, The Beatles take the train from New York to Washington DC for their first US concert, at The Coliseum. 3,000 fans held back behind 20ft gates meet them at Union Station. During the train journey, The Beatles are continually interviewed and photographed by the American press.
Ringo Starr: Being cheeky chappies saved our arses on many occasions, especially then, on the train to Washington, because the guys from the press had come to bury us. These reporters, being New Yorkers, would yell at us, but we just yelled back.
Murray the K: They blew everybody's mind away in the sense that they did not in any way, shape or form react like superstars had always reacted before. They put the press on. They really won everybody over with that.
On arrival, The Beatles go to the Shoreham Hotel, where the entire seventh floor has been booked for them - with the exception of one room occupied by a family who refuse to change rooms. While The Beatles are at the Coliseum, the hotel's assistant manager 'persuades' the family to move by cutting off light, heat and water to the room, claiming there has been a power failure on the floor.
At the Coliseum, The Beatles perform for half an hour to 8,092 frantic fans; playing 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'From Me to You', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'This Boy', 'All My Loving', 'I Wanna be Your Man', 'Please Please Me', 'Till There was You', 'She Loves You', 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', 'Twist and Shout' and 'Long Tall Sally'.
Albert Maysles: A good deal of the performances, you just couldn't hear because the screaming was so loud.
Following their concert, The Beatles attend a reception in their honour at the British Embassy.
Ringo Starr: In the early Sixties there was still a huge disparity between people from the north of England and people from embassies.
We were standing around saying, 'Hi, that's very nice,' and having a drink, when someone came up behind me and snipped off a piece of my hair, which got me very angry. Why was he carrying a pair of scissors? That was a stupid incident, wanting to cut a Beatle's hair.
Paul McCartney: There were a lot of Hooray Henrys there and we had never really met that kind before.There were a few little elbows in gobs.
12 February: The Beatles return to New York to become the first rock and roll band to perform at Carnegie Hall, playing two 34-minute sets to audiences of 2,900 per show, 'controlled' by 362 police. Among the VIPs who sit there is Lauren Bacall. Sharing the bill with The Beatles were the somewhat-overlooked group The Briarwoods. There are protests in the streets outside from classical music lovers.
13 February: National Airlines Flight 11, complete with pilot wearing a Beatles wig, flies The Beatles from New York to Miami for their second live Ed Sullivan Show. 7,000 fans greet them at Miami International and proceed to riot. The group transfers to the Deauville Hotel, to a suite containing three bedrooms.
Murray the K: Cynthia Lennon was traveling with them. She was married to John at that time. Paul was sharing a room with Ringo.
George said, 'Hey, why don't you room with me?' So I did. I roomed with George while we were in Miami, and I did my radio shows right from their rooms.
Paul McCartney: Miami was like paradise. We had never been anywhere where there were palm trees. We were real tourists; we had our Pentax cameras and took a lot of pictures.
16 February: The Beatles perform live on the Ed Sullivan Show to a hotel-studio audience of 3,200, playing 'She Loves You', 'This Boy', 'All My Loving', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'From Me to You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. The group then have some time to relax.
Murray The K: I took them to see The Coasters. They'd rather see The Coasters than, say, Sammy Davis Jr. They really wanted to see some of the rock acts.
Ringo Starr: This was the most brilliant place I'd ever been to. People were lending us yachts, anything we wanted. A family lent us their boat and let me drive. It was a 60-foot speedboat, which I proceeded to bring into port head-on, not really knowing much about driving speedboats. They have those pretty rails on the front and I bent the bugger all over the place. They didn't seem to mind.
George Harrison: Obviously we were having an effect, because all of these people were clamouring to meet us - like Muhammad Ali, for instance.
Ringo Starr: I sparred with Cassius Clay, as he was called then - I taught him everything he knew.
22 February: The Beatles fly home to London. A crowd of 3,600 teenagers meet the flight at Heathrow as BBC television interrupts its Saturday afternoon sport schedules to mark the event.
Paul McCartney: All the excitement on that trip didn't confuse us, because the great thing about our career was that it had stepping stones. If we were going to get confused, it would have been when we became successful in the Cavern. And when we were doing gigs like the Peterborough Empire, we took that in our stride. Then we were on television shows and some important radio networks and coped with all that too. So America was really just a logical progression.
George Harrison: We enjoyed it in the early days. When we went out on the first trip, it was the novelty of 'conquering' America. We went back later that year and toured, and then the next year we did another tour. And by that time it was just too much. We couldn't move.
John Lennon: I know on the plane over I was thinking, 'Oh, we won't make it,' but that's that side of me. We knew we would wipe them out if we could just get a grip.
Albert Maysles: The Beatles at that time represented innocence and a kind of youth culture that was pure, virginal.
Ringo Starr: With my family, it didn't matter that we were now big in America. We were big in Liverpool and that was OK by them.