Back in the day, The Ed Sullivan Show was one of the best ways for musical artists to make
it into the public eye. Memorably, artists such as the Beatles and Elvis Presley made
iconic debuts on the program, and there are numerous other artists that can also be said
to have made their breakout performances on the show. However, for every artist that
was willing to play by host Ed Sullivan’s decidedly conservative rules, there were
others who caught Ed’s ire for refusing to bow. From Jim Morrison of the Doors to Bo Diddley,
join Facts Verse as we take a look at celebrities who got banned from The Ed Sullivan Show.
When The Ed Sullivan Show was on the air, it proved to be the ultimate vehicle for musical
acts to get seen by the public. Many musical acts, including the Beatles and Elvis Presley,
first broke out into the public eye thanks to performances on the program. However, host Ed
Sullivan was known to be fairly strict about the kind of behavior that he allowed to be shown on
his show. While most musical acts were willing to abide by Ed’s strict rules in order to be seen
by so many television viewers, there were others who didn’t take so kindly to the host’s demands.
Ed Sullivan was always somewhat stoic compared to his contemporaries and didn't always have
the easiest time taking a joke. The talk show host was also incredibly conservative,
even for his time, and it was clear to most guests on the program beforehand that there
were going to be things about their image that they were going to have to change
if they wanted the chance to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Despite this,
fans adored the host, and most guests were willing to play ball for the attention.
Besides the Beatles and Elvis Presley, other guests who came to prominence thanks
to appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show include Fred Astaire and the Jackson 5.
However, for every one of these acts, there were other acts that weren’t willing to bend their
integrity in order to fit in with Ed Sullivan's vision. Even though most of these acts went on
to achieve great fame regardless, most of them ended up being banned from Ed's show for good.
One musical act that infamously caught the ire of host Ed
Sullivan during their initial performance on The Ed Sullivan Show is the Rolling Stones. When
the Rolling Stones first showed up to perform on the show, Ed Sullivan was immediately taken
aback by the boys' scraggly appearances. He was famously said to have asked all the
band members in earnest to wash their hair and change their clothes, regardless of the fact
that their unkempt demeanor is part of what has always made them stand out to their fans.
Besides Ed Sullivan not taking kindly to the appearance of the Rolling Stones, he
also requested them to change one of the lyrics to their songs, which was a common practice on The Ed
Sullivan Show. Mick Jagger ended up obeying Ed’s command when it came to changing the song lyric,
which saw him singing “let’s spend some time together” instead of “let’s spend
the night together”. Although Mick made sure to roll his eyes prominently enough
for the audience to notice, Ed Sullivan felt that the boys had at least made an effort.
Although he didn’t have much respect for the musical act, he deigned to let
them come back onto the program after their initial appearance a subsequent five times.
The Rolling Stones may have allowed their distaste for Ed Sullivan’s conservatism to be seen,
but they ended up playing by the rules and doing the host right. Many other rebellious acts,
including the Doors and Bob Dylan, showed a bit more integrity when asked by the
producers of The Ed Sullivan Show to compromise their image. The Doors were invited onto The
Ed Sullivan Show to perform their song “Light My Fire”, which memorably contains the lyrics “girl,
we couldn’t get much higher”. The producers knew that this lyric was an allusion to drug use,
and they asked singer Jim Morrison to change the lyrics to “girl,
we couldn’t get much better”. Jim made like he was going to follow the instructions,
but decided to sing the original lyric anyways once the show was being filmed!
Because it was live, there was nothing that Ed Sullivan could do besides banning the musical act.
When the Doors were told that they weren’t going to be allowed back onto The Ed Sullivan Show,
they didn’t care. According to them, they had already got all the exposure they needed from
the host via the one performance, and this proved to be right. If you’re enjoying this video so far,
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The Doors had subsequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show lined up to come after their first,
but those ended up being canceled after they disobeyed Ed's orders. The episode featuring
the Doors had also cut to commercial early after their musical performance,
notably eschewing the tradition of Ed shaking the musical guests' hands. Another musical
guest that caught the wrath of Ed Sullivan while appearing on his show was rock legend, Bo Diddley.
When Bo Diddley was scheduled to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show,
he had prepared to perform his namesake song, which was the aptly titled hit “Bo Diddley”.
Immediately before it was time for Bo to give his performance on the program, Ed asked him to
perform a different song instead. Apparently, Ed had asked Bo to perform “Sixteen Tons”,
which is a song that was made famous by Tennessee Ford. Like the Doors did later, Bo Diddley seemed
to agree to Ed’s terms only to revert to his original plan once the cameras were rolling.
Bo played his namesake song despite the host’s wishes, and the legend was never allowed back.
After Bo’s musical performance, Ed Sullivan made a distasteful remark about the rock
legend that unwarrantedly called attention to his race. Bo Diddley didn’t much care
for the remark, and it’s possible that he would’ve refused the opportunity to
come back onto the program even if he was allowed! Like the Doors experienced later,
Bo’s career didn’t suffer much from his feud with Ed Sullivan, with the legendary guitarist
and singer still being considered one of the preeminent rock and roll musicians of his time.
Buddy Holly is another musician that caught the wrath of Ed Sullivan. Buddy had already appeared
on The Ed Sullivan Show with his band, the Crickets, before his infamous second appearance.
Apparently, Buddy and his band hadn’t taken kindly to Ed’s request that they change one
of their scheduled songs. When Ed grew aware of the band’s bad attitude, he decided that he was
going to sabotage their musical performance! Ed did this by cutting their set down from
one song to two, mispronouncing Buddy Holly’s name, and turning his guitar microphone off.
Despite Ed's attempt to sabotage Buddy Holly's second appearance on his show, the appearance
ended up being a success in the audience's eyes.
Ed reluctantly agreed to let Buddy Holly come back onto the show,
but Buddy Holly told the producers that he was not interested. According to Buddy Holly,
there wasn't enough money in the entire world to entice him back onto The Ed Sullivan Show!
After Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan is another musician that caught the wrath of Ed Sullivan
and subsequently never came back onto his show. Like many other musical acts that appeared on The
Ed Sullivan Show before and after him, Bob Dylan was asked to change one of the songs that he was
set to perform. He had initially been planning on performing the song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid
Blues", but had been asked by an executive at CBS to change the song choice after one of the
episode's rehearsals. Instead of having to make a choice between compromising his integrity and
disobeying the show’s rules, Bob Dylan made the respectable decision to simply bow out of
the performance, requiring Ed to struggle to fill Bob’s slot at that last minute.
Bob Dylan was subsequently never invited back onto The Ed Sullivan Show,
though it’s doubtful if he would’ve ever wanted to return! Not every guest that caught Ed’s ire
was a musical act. The Ed Sullivan Show also featured plenty of comedians and
one comedian that ended up rubbing Ed the wrong way just as much as any musician was Jackie Mason.
Jackie had been a guest on the program many, many times before the time that led to him
being banned. Jackie was performing one night in 1964 when it was made apparent
to him by Ed himself that his performance was about to be cut short in order to make
room for a broadcast from then-president of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson.
When Ed gave a hand signal to Jackie telling him that his time was almost up, Jackie gave
a hand signal back that Ed apparently thought was an inappropriate gesture!
This led to Ed temporarily banning the beloved comedian from his staple show, though he was
eventually welcomed back onto the program after apologizing. According to Jackie Mason, the
incident had been a misunderstanding and his hand signal had not been meant to cause offense.
While Ed Sullivan could be pretty picky about what types of behaviors were allowed to be seen
on The Ed Sullivan Show, most musical acts chose to abide by his rules in order to be seen by the
show’s immense television audience. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that the Doors were
banned from performing on The Ed Sullivan Show because Jim Morrison refused to change a song
lyric at the host’s request, and did you know that similar things happened to
rock legends Bo Diddley and Buddy Holly? As always, like this video
to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like
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way!