Few television programs are as closely associated with 1950s and 1960s music history as The Ed Sullivan Show. The popular television variety series ran on CBS for more than two decades, and the most famous performance on the program will always be remembered as The Beatles’ breakthrough set in 1965. You know, the one where you can barely hear the Fab Four play because of how loudly everyone in the audience was screaming.
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However, a ton of other bands and musicians performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, and I think some of them deserve a bit more love for their performances.
The Doors
This was the first performance that came to mind before I started researching artists to add to this list. Even if you weren’t alive to see this performance air, you probably remember at least one part. The Doors were asked to change the lyric “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” from their hit song “Light My Fair”, as the drug reference likely wouldn’t have gone over well with viewers. Well, they were right. The Doors sang the line anyway, a lot of pearl-clutching happened, and Ed Sullivan told them that they would “never do this show again.” Morrison reportedly retorted, “Hey man, we just did the ‘Sullivan Show’.”
Roberta Peters
Throughout the two decades that The Ed Sullivan Show was on air, singer Roberta Peters was invited to sing (or duet with other singers) a whopping 65 different times. I can definitely see why. She had an incredible voice and was the opera singer of her generation. Finding her “best” performance on this particular program would be impossible. Just about every single performance she gave on The Ed Sullivan Show was jaw-dropping.
Elvis Presley
We couldn’t leave Elvis Presley off this list of amazing Ed Sullivan Show performances. Funnily enough, Ed Sullivan initially banned Presley from performing on his show when he began to blow up in 1956. That was namely due to Presley’s gyrating hips being a bit too risque for Sullivan’s audience. Presley eventually became far too famous to ignore, however. He was invited to perform three times as a musical guest in 1957. It’s believed that close to 83% of American television viewers watched that very set.
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
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