Review: New Doc, ‘Beatles 64,’ An Intimate Look Behind The Scenes Of The Beatles First Trip To The US

Having been up in Banff for Thanksgiving with family (yes, I know going to Canada for American Thanksgiving is out of the ordinary but it’s gorgeous up there), I have fallen way behind in my rock n roll viewing. While I was away they released a new documentary produced by Martin Scorsese, Beatles 64. The doc revisits footage from Albert and David Mayles who were granted all kinds of access to the Beatles in ’64 from the time of their first landing in New York, to the Ed Sullivan show, to a show in Washington D.C., to Miami and back to Carnegie Hall. I wish I could properly express how enthralled I was with this documentary. It’s really pretty amazing. The Beatles have had quite a year in 2024, first re-releasing the original Let It Be movie (refurbished) and now Beatles 64. It’s hard to understate how different the band is in Beatles 64 than in Let It Be. There’s something from the Beatles for every era you want.

Scorsese has long been associated with rock n roll documentaries. Not to mention the fact that he usually has some great rock n roll in his feature films. He shot the Band’s final show The Last Waltz, which was also on Thanksgiving in San Francisco. That concert movie is one of my favorites. Afterwards, he ended up living with the Band’s lead guitarist/songwriter, the late Robbie Robertson for a decade, doing blow and stewardesses. But then he also shot the Stones concert film, Shine A Light, where he pushed his way into the beginning of the film, cheesing it up, asking where the set list was? Luckily since he’s only producing this film vs directing so we’re only subjected to seeing him on screen briefly, with Ringo no less, looking at some of Ringo’s old clothes from the 60s. While Scorsese can be hit and miss on things, he knocks this one out of the park mostly by staying out of the way.

The film starts, as I think it should, with a JFK highlight reel. JFK was assassinated in November of 1963. The Beatles arrived in February of 1964, less than 100 days after. There has long been a theory posited that America was a nation in mourning and the Beatles popularity, in part, was because (as one fan in the movie says) they “turned the lights back on.” America was looking for something to be happy about and here came the Beatles who wanted to “hold your hand.” Mind you, I don’t think that’s the only reason the Beatles were popular – they took everything that came before them, amalgamated it, turned it on it’s head, and made it something spectacular.

That landing at JFK Airport – formerly Idlewild – is iconic. Ringo doing an Elvis dancing impersonation…so much good humor. One thing that I’m having trouble reconciling is the doc says they were popular in England but not that well known in the U.S. If that’s the case, why did all these screaming teenagers show up at the airport? Wasn’t “Love Me Do,” “Please Please Me,” and “She Loves You” all hits, at least in New York? I thoroughly enjoyed watching all those Boomers lose their mind over this band. Screaming girls swooning over the band – when people talk about Beatlemania, this is what they mean.

As I mentioned, the primary reason for the Beatles visit was to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ed broke everybody in those days it seems, he certainly helped Elvis’ career. I wasn’t crazy about seeing those “Elvis Is Dead” signs… it’s not a competition. There are a lot of behind the scenes shots of the Beatles in their hotel room… it really was like a prison. There are young gals roaming the halls… very funny stuff. There’s a tie in with Paul McCartney’s photo exhibit currently at the Brooklyn Museum. He took pics on the tour and has recently compiled them for this exhibit. Both he and Ringo are in the documentary. They use vintage footage of John and George.

There’s a great scene where Ronnie Specter, who had met the Beatles in the UK, and the Ronnettes come and sneak the Beatles out of their hotel and take them up to Harlem for ribs. There is such a joyfulness with these, the young Beatles, that is almost completely missing by the time of recording  Let It Be, when they were tired, hardened veterans of the music business. Although I will admit as the two week tour grinds on you see them wind down, slowly starting to look exhausted. They were so connected with their audience. Paul makes the point that all the early songs were them talking to the audience and I totally see that now.

They interview Smokey Robinson and show an excerpt of him singing “Yesterday,” which I didn’t know he’d done. What a voice that guy has. He wanted to repay them for doing his song, “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me,” which I’ve coincidentally written about. And no, my favorite version of the song isn’t the Beatles or Smokey, which may be as close to blasphemy as I’ll ever get. The Beatles were apparently huge, huge fan of Smokey’s band, the Miracles. Smokey makes a point of saying that there was no band of their stature who had ever come out and said, “We love black music.” Good on them.

There are lots of crazy fan scenes. Of course New York DJ Murray the K shows up. What a barnacle that guy was. I remember reading he was wandering around claiming to be “the fifth Beatle.” To me he comes across as the “first asshole.” It was enough that they were sort of prisoners in their hotel room, did they have to be stuck with Murray the K as a cell mate?

One of the best parts of this doc is the film of some of the live performances, especially the shots from Washington D.C. It’s easy to the think of the Beatles as sort of “soft” (or as the Rock Chick put it last night, “pussies”). But you see them on that stage, in the round, in D.C. and they are ferocious rockers when playing live. When one of them was singing lead vocals, the other two would drop back even with Ringo’s very high drum riser and they’d rock. That Washington show had one microphone and they’d huddle around it to do harmonies. It’s primal, kick ass rock n roll at it’s best. Watch this thing just to see the D.C. concert footage.

Eventually the show wraps up with them at Carnegie Hall… apparently the folks down at Carnegie thought the Beatles were a string quartet… they weren’t happy about the rock n roll. Apparently they got over it by the 80s/90s since Stevie Ray Vaughan did a live show there. Then they fly back home. It’s funny how the British press were so competitive with the American press…”John did you find the American reporters to be rather dull?”

Come for the behind the scenes portrait of a young and energetic Beatles, stay for the fabulous live shots from the concerts. Much like the Live At The Hollywood Bowl album, these live snippets put meat on the bones of the legend and show us what a kick ass rock band the Beatles actually were. There really is a Beatle artifact for whatever era of the Beatles  you like the best. I’m all in on this documentary, it’s a must see for Beatles fans and rock n roll fans alike.

Cheers!