It’s 1964. The Beatles are at the peak of their stardom. They arrive on the Ed Sullivan show to give a fantastic performance of “All My Loving”—their U.S. television debut. And the crowd goes absolutely wild. Well, BTS gave a Beatles tribute with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show and fans, once again, went wild. The show worked hard to transform the Ed Sullivan Theater into a replica of its 1964 appearance. For BTS’ The Late Show debut, the seven band members of the Korean pop boy band donned the same outfit that the Beatles rocked in the 60s.
Colbert went all out too, acting as Ed Sullivan and introducing the boys with a quote almost identical to Sullivan’s introduction. “You may have heard there’s a new musical craze sweeping the globe, these fellas are really something,” Colbert began. “They’re called BTS and people are so excited you can only call it BTS Mania.”
“These boys are from across the pond, the big one, the one with Hawaii in the middle,” he continued. “They really are a fine group of youngsters, in fact, you can call them the fab seven. It’s got a nice ring to it.”
Colbert then had all seven boys—Jungkook, Jimin, V, Suga, Jin, RM and J-Hope—introduce themselves one by one. He told the audience they all go by the same nickname—”the cute one.” LOL.
Take a look at the striking resemblance.
The idea for this segment came largely because BTS has frequently been compared to The Beatles. This year, BTS had three No. 1 albums in just 11 months—something that hasn’t been accomplished since 1995 when The Beatles released their anthologies 1, 2, and 3. It helped, too, that the boys were performing in the same theater where the OG Fab Four (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and Geoge Harison) first appeared on television.
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And now—the performance you’ve been waiting for! Check out BTS on The Late Show.