Ernie Isley was 12 years old when he witnessed the dawn of the British Invasion. It was February 9, 1964, and the Beatles were making the first of weekly three scheduled appearances on the Sunday-night Ed Sullivan Show.
The music world would change dramatically thanks to the Fab Four’s performance. And as Isley would later learn, his family's group, the Isley Brothers, played a pivotal role in that creative and cultural explosion.
Isley wouldn't join the band for another two years, first as a drummer before transitioning to bass and eventually electric guitar. Coincidentally, at the time, the band's guitar slot was filled by none other than James Marshall Hendrix. Jimmy — soon to become Jimi — had been part of the Isley Brothers' live group since '61 and was shacked up in a spare room in his family home.
“Hendrix was in our home the night the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan in ’64,” the youngest Isley remembers in the latest issue of Guitar World. "I was on the left side of the couch, Marvin [Isley] was on the right, and Jimi was in the middle.”
The band’s five-song set — which concluded with their breakthrough U.S. hit, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" — made waves across the U.S. In the Isley household, the effect was transformative — and alarming to the group of young R&B musicians.
“There was a thunderclap in our house,” Isley says. “A few days went by, and there was a band meeting in our house, and my eldest brother, O’Kelly, took the floor and said, ‘Everything’s changed. This English group, the Beatles, isn’t all hype. In terms of rock and roll music, I don’t think we’ll be all right.’”
Ironically, the Beatles had themselves been inspired by the Isley Brothers, in particular their 1962 hit "Twist and Shout." Originally written and released by Phil Medley and Bert Berns in 1961, the song became the Isley's first Top 20 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
One year later, the Beatles recorded their own twin-guitar version of the song, using the Isley's version as a guide. Their searing performance of the tune — sung by a weary John Lennon at the end of the day's long session — was the last track on the group's 1963 U.K. debut album, Please Please Me. They would finally perform it for U.S. audiences during their third appearance on Sullivan's show, on February 23, 1964.
Just shy of six decades later, Ernie Isley and Paul McCartney would cross paths — in a vineyard of all places.
“A few years ago, we were in New York at the estate of a family that owns a red wine, and the Isley Brothers were part of the entertainment,” he recalls. “We played, came offstage, posed for selfies and all that. As I got to my table, my wife said, ‘Paul McCartney’s over there.'”
Isley made his way to McCartney’s table, where he was welcomed warmly.
“He stood up and, at his full height, gave me a hug, that just about shut my wind off,” Isley says.
“We were yelling in each other’s ear, and I yelled something like, ‘Paul, George, Ringo, and John — you guys were just wonderful!’ He said, ‘Ernie, if it were not for the Isley Brothers, the Beatles would still be in Liverpool.’ ”
Before they knew it, they were onstage together, performing a very special rendition of "Twist and Shout."
“That was an amazing experience," Isley said. "I was up there onstage knowing that Jimi once played the song with the Isley Brothers. No one played guitar like Jimi.”
McCartney has cited numerous influences on the Beatles' early music over the years, most of which were American acts. As he related to British TV host Michael Parkinson, one of the most influential artists was perhaps the American guitarist Eddie Cochran, whose song "Twenty Flight Rock" served as McCartney's impromptu audition before a suitably impressed John Lennon.
To read Isley's career-spanning interview in full, which details how he learned from Jimi Hendrix through to custom guitars coming to him in dreams and beyond, pick up the latest GW issue from Magazines Direct.
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