The Beatles on Ed Sullivan 50 years on

Why were the Beatles so great? They were in the right time at the right place. But they worked very hard. By the time the Beatles had reached the US in 1964, they had played more than 1200 gigs. They could play three hours straight and pack a punch like a Muhammad Ali upper cut. They were masters of melody and wrote song hooks that grabbed you for 40 years.

The Beatles great subject was childhood gone by, and what to make of the austere, rationed, ordered and secure English world they had grown up in. They were chroniclers of their time but also of childhood time, which like a Charlie Chaplin movie, reconnects us with innocence.

As the decade developed, they continued to pull off striking variations in song, timing and lyric writing. This put Lennon and McCartney up there with Rogers and Hammerstein and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, as one of the great songwriting duos of the 20^th century. Many followers believed the group was personally guiding them through the turbulent 60s. Many believed The Beatles were the 60s.

Artistically, 1965-67 were The Beatles best years. They produced three masterpiece albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their most outstanding single, the double A-side Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, is an aural testament to pop writing genius.

They recorded 211 songs on their official first-release albums, EPs and singles. Of these tracks, 186 were originals and 25 were covers, recorded between September 1962 and April 1970. The last time they worked as a quartet was in August 1969, as they recorded the Abbey Road album medley. It was over in seven years, from the naive simplicity of Love Me Do to the exquisite Something.

Few of the Beatles inner circle are left. Lennon, Harrison and Epstein are dead. Starr's first wife, Maureen, and McCartney's first spouse, Linda, are gone. Only McCartney, Starr and George Martin are still around. McCartney turned 70 last year.

The American writer Kurt Vonnegut once said "an artist's mission is to make people appreciate being alive. If asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off, I reply, 'The Beatles did'."