Ed Sullivan

Greatly Appreciated

ED SULLIVAN
 
 
Ed Sullivan  (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television personality, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate.  He is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, later popularly—and, eventually, officially—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show.  Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in US broadcast history.  “It was, by almost any measure, the last great TV show,” said television critic David Hinckley.  “It’s one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories.”  Sullivan was a broadcasting pioneer at many levels during television’s infancy.  In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guide’s “50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time”.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
According to the promotional material by Bomp! Records for the band’s EP, Amanda JonesAmanda Jones was born in March 1995 as a collaboration of Amanda (Mandy) Brix and Jeff Drake, previously in the punk rock band the Joneses.  The combination of her first name and his former band name clearly brought about the band name Amanda Jones, but they were almost certainly mindful of the Rolling Stones connection also:  Their sound has the same kind of playful spirit as early mid-period Stones albums like Between the Buttons (released in January 1967); besides Miss Amanda Jones and Ruby Tuesday, the album also includes the song “Let’s Spend the Night Together” that got the band into so much trouble with The Ed Sullivan Show – Mick Jagger sung the title lyric as “let’s spend some time together” as Ed Sullivan insisted, though he and bassist Bill Wyman were rolling their eyes at the time.  A few months back, I discussed the controversial lyrics in their first big hit (I Can’t Get No) Satisfactionthe Rolling Stones were able to sing that number on The Ed Sullivan Show with no censorship. 
 
(December 2015)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021