Moral of the story: if somebody calls you weird today they might call you genius in the future. Be yourself at all costs

I thought it interesting that not one of those kids said anything specifically about the music. It was mostly about their appearances.

The Beatles were so way ahead of everyone that it must have been very difficult for their fans to understand those changes way back in 1967.

The moment the Beatles left behind the image-worshiping teens and became rock legends.

Two of the greatest pop masterpieces ever created and they’re criticising their moustaches.

They just had the greatness of Strawberry Fields Forever thrust upon them for the first time and all they can talk about is mustaches.

The band definitely grew up but the fans had a bit to catch up.

"They have a right to look any way they want." Someone had a brain. XD

And, within six or eight months, all the boys were trying to grow mustaches

The best answer came from the first teenager he asked after playing Strawberry Fields (2:28). "That was great"....with a look like he was blown away.

A perfect example of how younger listeners were unprepared for and blindsided by genius.

The guy who said it was great has great taste.

When a teenager called them weird, it was a clear sign the Beatles were waaaaayyy ahead of their time!

Kids in 1967 saying the Beatles were old news.. whilst sitting there with ear lengh hair, pin-down collars, waistcoats and bob cuts like it was still 1963

These kids didn't know what was about to hit them. Man, to be alive back then.

I'm 41. The first time I heard Strawberry Fields Forever was when I was 6 years old and it was on a jukebox at a pizza shop. I remember hearing the fade out/in at the end being very scared. It was spooky. And yet, I couldn't wait to hear it again. Then of course as I got older and really began to appreciate the Beatles and love all their music, well, it's now one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century. That's what great art is. It's beyond music. It scares you or makes you a little uneasy when you first see or hear it, but by 20 years later you're addicted to it.

the Beatles at that time just pre St Pepper were evolving into artists rather than an entertainment combo. The kids interviewed were confused by this.

It’s 2019 and the Beatles are still great and still relevant today

These kids who are 16-19, they would have been born in the late 1940's. Many of these people are in their 70's and 80's today. Boy does time fly!

This is a GREAT example of how pop culture moves the public and creates the trends. Fascinating. Innovators and trend setters who aren't afraid to try something new will always be looked sideways at to begin with, as you can hear with the kids' initial reactions. But genius is rewarded with imitation.

Trend setters are almost always laughed at in the beginning. Within 6 months from this telecast the entire youth movement started to dress like the Beatles including the length of their hair and even facial hair. The fact that most of these kids mocked the greatest 45 record that's ever been recorded shows how far ahead of the game the Beatles really were. Miles ahead of everyone else.

this is literally proof that audiences never cared about music. its only about appearance

Joey D., 41, as of April 12th, 2019, I still think the Beatles will outlast everyone!

1967. The year everything changed. The. Beatles ruled...and they still do!

This is amazing footage. I always wonder what folk thought when they first heard Tomorrow Never Knows and this feels kind of close.

This is an amazing pairing of clips. Despite what some other commentators have written I'm going to cut this audience a lot of slack: The survey shows the fan loyalty to the Beatlemania era band without true awareness that it had come to an end months before. Then the 2nd one is the immediate reaction of the same type if not the same teenagers, after viewing a very artsy avant-garde video a good dozen years before avant-garde videos come into vogue; starring their heroes not looking or sounding anything like the Fab Four. And they were supposed to give deep insightful observations in front of millions of people, seconds after having their concept of the Beatles completely upended?

Some songs are too spectacular to wrap your head around at the first listen.

4:04 That kid had the best answer

How were the Beatles so ahead of their time? How did they know what they were doing would work so incredibly well? Just about every single song still holds up today. These guys were so smart and so innovative, people actually believe they were created by the government. Imagine being so incredibly gifted and talented, people believe your fake. My true heroes forever and always.

Seems like the fans who probably were around during Beatlemania haven't grown up yet, the Beatles were miles ahead of them

I watched this on our family's black and white TV when I was 10 years old. I loved The Beatles new look. The version they showed of "Strawberry Fields Forever" was not the same one that ended up on the "Magical Mystery Tour" album. It was a bit slower and more lush sounding. To me it was like music from heaven.

The Beatles were and are a Phenomenon.

Now they're in their late 60s/early 70s and paying $300 a ticket to see Sir Paul McCartney, and complaing about how bad new music is compared to the music of their youth, like the Beatles. But at least Sir Paul doesn't currently have a mustache.

The Beatles grew up and a lot of young people didn’t.

They just couldn't comment on the music because they didn't understand what they were listening to. It was wildly different. This is what "mind-blowing" means when we talk about The Beatles impact on the 60s.

By this time the Beatles wasn't making simple pop songs for teens just to just dance to anymore but were progressing toward a more mature and sophisticated sound which is why some of these teens didn't appreciate Strawberry Fields or Penny Lane at this time. And yet three months later... they were buying Sgt. Pepper by the truckloads.

This is a great document

OMG !!!! This is GOLD ..... first hand reaction of what was happening during those days ... omg ... I'm sure everyeone was in shock back then .... just look the reaction of those kids .... PRICELESS !!!!

The Teens of Yesteryear are the Seniors of Today!!😁😁😁 I was 15 years old. The Beatles did take everyone by surprise with the look and sound, but this was waiting in the wings. Change affects us all, it's what you do with it. I wasn't a fan of I Wanna Hold Your Hand song either, it took a few times to listen and like it. They matured and got better in the studio, with a lot of Help From Their Friends!

It's easy now to understand just how amazing the Beatles were during the 60s. You have to remember that less than a year before this the Beatles were hated because of John's remarks about Christianity and their records were burned and banned from most radio stations. So for these kids to see them looking so different and the music so much deeper. They had no idea how to take it all in.

Probably the same type of kids that would like American Idol in recent years.

"I don't like those mustaches . . . The look old, like grampas". LOL. John was 27 then, Paul was 25. To a teen ten years younger, they looked like grampas!

I’d be the first kid with a huge smile saying ‘I thought its great!’

These kids are so square,

I can't believe how no one was crying after listening to Penny Lane and its perfect chord progression and arrangements 😤

These kids came to dance. Music is just a background noise that provides a beat in order for them to show off the latest dance moves. Asking that bunch to rate a song on overall composition is like asking the blind, 'who do you like best, Van Gough or Monet' ?

Interesting how not one of them mentioned the music. Also someone said they looked like grandparents, what the hell kinda grandparents are 24-27 yrs old? Something really wrong with that audience.

I love the reactions to pure creativity, real time. I hate that I wasn’t alive during to witness it all happen.

I absolutely love that kid’s reaction at 2:26

Thank you. 💯💯💯💯💯 The reactions of these mid to late 1960s is what I needed to see.

little did they know all of them them would soon adopt the fashion of the beatles

Over 50 years later we are still talking about the Beatles.

A living example of people stunned by music from the future "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it"

i love this video so much. as a teenager today, i think this shows that kids really never do change. they all remind me so much of my own classmates :)

Hard to imagine that at one time people actually mentioned The Monkeys in the same sentence as The Beatles, and that they did it with a straight face.

I was 13 when I saw these 2 videos in 1967. I hated them because I was still vibing to the earlier Beatles "simple" boy/girl songs. Being in Junior HS 7th grade I was living the whole simple boy/girl thing. I also had just got Rubber Soul and Revolver (American) for Xmas and I didn't really like those albums either. They "broke the mold" for me and were too advanced. But In retrospect....age (and state of mind) matters. I now consider Rubber Soul/Revolver to be their best 2 albums and the apex of their career. So yea, I totally get where these kids were coming from...Beatles were changing faster than their fans.

Thanks for posting-I'm a first generation Beatles fan.

"We'll be right back to American Bandstand after this word from Clearasil".

In reality, there was zero competition between the Monkees and the Beatles. In fact, the Beatles threw a huge party for the Monkees when the latter toured in England. Each bands ran in similar social circles in the LA rock scene. Micky often partied with John and Ringo in the 70's! I'm a huge Beatles fan and Monkees fan and love them for different reasons. I recogniZe the Beatles' innovation and the Monkees infectious music. Let's be real too: the Monkees were not the only pop group of the era to have session musicians. The Beach Boys had then, as did the Mama's and the Papa's. Just watch the Wrecking Crew documentary for more info on that. The Monkees started out as a group on tv, but became a musical group in real life as well. Plus, Mike and Peter were also seasoned musicians, while Micky and Davy were seasoned singers and performers. They weren't talentless. I just felt like I need to set the record straight as there are many inaccurate comments here.

If John hadn't been murdered, I always wonder if they would have reunited at Live Aid in 1985?

The Monkees and the Beatles are still loved by millions today.

It never occurred to any of us at the time that the "Monkees" were not actually a rock group, they were actors on a TV Show, much like the Partridge Family were several years later. The one-word comments like "weird" and "different" were so indicative of the time period. No intelligent commentary.

Oh my gosh and we have that SFF video here on you tube in perfect quality to see. So exciting!

I think both songs are brilliant. Some of the kids would agree 52 years later. Dick Clark was never a fan of the Beatles. That is one of.the reasons why I did care for him that much.

All the kids in this video will now be in their 70's.

These kids were around 15-17 at the time of the filming of this episode in 1966. Which meant they were around 13-15 when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. They didn't realize what they were witnessing. To focus on their mustaches and not the music..... this is the moment people in their 20s-30s at the time started appreciating the Beatles.

The Beatles were changing the world, again.

Within 3 months every one of these kids would be rushing out to pick up Sergeant pepper

It looks a lot cooler if you are not enthusiastic about anything: "Meh, they're ok, but I'm not easily impressed cuz I been around, you know what I'm sayin?" Right. Two great songs and no one has the guts to say it? Yep, that was us. Ask me now: "Ok, Mr. Clark, we've just watched history being made. Hell yeh, I'm impressed."

Gary Lewis and the Playboy's crowd....squaresville

I'll go on record here by stating that the teenaged generation of the 60s (I'm Gen X myself) had tin ears. They had the finest rock music of all time at their fingertips---even the pop music was often brilliant---and they took most of it for granted. And much of it blew right over their heads. Don't forget, these were the same people who bought millions of Bobby Goldsboro records and Gary Puckett & the Union Gap platters, while the Velvet Underground and Nick Drake went wanting.

Peggy did you ever consider writing a book about your experiences back then? I think you and dancer don have a lot of insight on how it felt to be a part of that time. And as you can tell from the reactions to any of these posts there is a huge amount of interest.

How come teenagers in the 60s already look like they're in their early 30s/late 20s

I remember that day. It was rather shocking what we saw. Things were a changin.

Now strawberry fields and penny lane are known as some of the famous and most influential songs of all time

"Paul from Liverpool, Come at me bro"

This is a good memory of the competition between the Beatles and the Monkees during that time period.

"Outlasting" in terms of a band's longevity is highly overrated. When I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's, I wanted the Beatles to get back together. In hindsight, I am glad that they didn't. They had an amazing run with loads of high quality and groundbreaking music between 1963 and 1969. The Beatles did their thing, and broke up when it was clear that their gig's time was at an end........and a glorious end it was, with the legendary Abbey Road album being their final piece of work together. So yes, bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones have "outlasted" the Beatles, but singing "Jumping Jack Flash" on stage at the age of about 76 isn't exactly a testament to longevity being a prime factor in determining how good a band is.

Most of these kids are so square, they've got corners.

It crossed my mind some of these kids are dead now while others are geriatrics.

I'm wondering if they saw the promo clips in colour in the studio

I love how everyone's reaction was how the Beatles looked!!! Nevermind they just heard 2 of the greatest songs ever...oh well, thank goodness for LSD.🎶🌠🌜🌟💜☮🌈

These teens look older than me

Actually things started to change in 1965, when they tried to play "Yesterday" at a concert somewhere in Europe, and the girls in the audience tried to keep up the shrieking, but even they figured out that it wasn't that kind of a song. During the 1966 tours, they never played any of the tracks from the current Revolver album.

How did they manage to get a 1962 audience to comment on 1967 music!

These kids were not even 18 years old yet, some were 15 or 16 years old and it was the late 60s, music and fashion changed a lot since the Beatles were at their peak in the early sixties. That one girl said they look like grandparents and another girl said they Beatles were ugly! What?! Well the Beatles were older by ten or twelve years, they changed their look, looking more groovy than cute and innocent looking and more hairy! These teens were children when the Beatles first became worldwide popular but since it’s the late 60s in this video, these teens have different taste in music, fashion and hairdos. They didn’t see or embrace the Beatles the same way when the teenagers first heard about the Beatles in the early to mid 60s. Music changes rapidly. Even though I was a toddler to 5 years old then... oh my god! Lol... I grew up hearing my Aunt play a lot of Beatles music and I’m still a big fan of their early music, I even saw the LOVE show in Vegas a couple of times, a good friend of ours worked at the Mirage as one of the main security guards, he got us free tickets to see the show, it was amazing! Young teenagers still think anyone over 23 years old, is a grandpa or a grandma! 🤨😬

Up until this point, these kids were used to seeing The Beatles perform in cutsie suits, mop top hair. As far as the music, when your used to hearing them sing "Yesterday", "Eight Days a Week" and "Twist and Shout", "Strawberry Fields" can be a shock to the system the first time you heard it.

"Well kids, they are now altering everything as you know it. Hang on cause it's gonna be one hell of a groovy ride".

Believe it or not, I remember watching this America Bandstand show on Sat.... & I couldn't get enough of The Beatles in the day, still play their music because it's just great music. I remember thinking how shallow they came across and they were the same age as I was!

We just needed a little time to “once again” catch up. Within a couple of months every popular band out there looked like that and we were all on board. LOL!

I’ve always wondered how teenagers reacted to the Beatles’ sudden change in appearance; from a 60s boy band to psychedelia, it must’ve been quite the plot twist.

Pop music was and is usually more about image than it is about music.

The first video was 'Strawberry Fields Forever' kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ftqFe5yrxLXJqWw.html The second video was this 'Penny Lane' kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iZOidZOhra-dlok.html This was double A side single released 13 February 1967, their first single since 'Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby' the previous August - from the Revolver Album. They had played their last concert the same month at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, so the new releases would have come as something of a re-emergence, as well as a sartorial and tonsorial surprise.

This is interesting because it was at this precise moment in time that the Fab Four was on the threshold of inciting a huge social revolution, although these kids were unaware of it. Although many like Dick Clark thought that Beatles were drying up and on the verge of breaking up, the were at the time busy at work on the Sgt Pepper LP. The legendary album would change the attitudes of many, and these kids themselves (well the guys) would soon start growing mustaches and even beards, despite many of them being turned off by the Beatles wearing them. The Beatles were on the verge of ushering in the hippie era.

People keep pointing out that they mostly/only talked about the beatle's appearance but I'm pretty sure that was the whole point of the segment.

Where'd you find these clips? I found the music video for Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane on Usenet, but I couldn't find the full reactions.

They should post the episode where Dick Clark is talking to the audience about Lady Madonna. It's about who sings it-Ringo or "Paul". This was right at the time that Paul supposedly died or was replaced. It's been written that the first song that Bill Shepherd (kthe replacement) sang on as Paul was Lady Madonna.

remember watching this episode of ABS when it came out.

2:07 - "Strawberry Fields Forever" - This severely truncated, alternative version is George A. Romero's approved Director's Cut.

All these teens are likely grandparents now and their children and grandchildren are watching their reactions now