Paul McCartney recently chatted with ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ and discussed the photographs he took on The Beatles’ 1964 tour of America, which are now on display at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The singer also opened up about their secret to making it in America. The Beatle recalled the moment they received the news of their first number one in the States; he said:
“It was in Paris that we got the telegram, ‘Congratulations, boys number one in the US charts!'”
Before crossing over the pond, McCartney had said that the band would have to have a number one in the States, or he wouldn’t go. The rocker recalled:
“I know, and you know that was pretty spunky to kind of think that, but I’d seen quite a few of our major stars go to the States, and we’re going, ‘Well, he’s going to leave us now, he’ll be made famous over there,’ but then they’d come back, and they weren’t famous. So I said, ‘Well, if we go over there, you know this, I really don’t want to come back with our tails between our legs.'”
Once The Beatles arrived in the US, they played the Ed Sullivan Show, and 73 million people tuned in. The interviewer referenced a picture Paul took of the audience looking at him and how comfortable he looked. McCartney revealed the ‘secret’ behind his confidence by explaining:
“Yeah, I mean, you know you got to think about it. We’re kids from Liverpool, and we’re trying to get famous, and it’s not easy. We were like stars in America, and people loved us, so we loved it, and having that number one was really the secret. Because if the journalists, you know, New York journalists, ‘Hey Bill, hey Bill, what are you doing? Why are you here?’ We’d say we’re number one in your country, bingo.”
You can watch Paul McCartney’s interview with ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ and listen to The Beatles’ first number-one hit in the US ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ below.
