I recently found the Mama and Papas protest video from the Ed Sullivan show.
Michelle eats a banana and later offers it to Mama Cass. It’s obvious John and Michelle are talking during the lip syncing.
Did all the music acts lip sync on the Ed Sullivan show?
Inculding, The Beatles 
Watch Denny carelessly handle his mic.
Lip-sync
No. The Doors famously were banned from ever appearing on the show again after Morrison refused to change some lyrics for the show. They said they’d censor themselves, but they didn’t.
Sullivan generally didn’t allow lip synching. The few cases where it happened were due to technical issues. I recall one band had an orchestra backing it and wanted to use a tape but Sullivan did not want to allow it and they had to plead with him to add it.
I think the The Beatles performed Live.
It sure looks authentic.
The harmonies on This Boy are very tight.
So then why were The Mamas & The Papas seemingly lip synching under protest? If they don’t want it and the show didn’t want it, why did they have to lip sync?
I have wondered why the group didn’t include someone on stage for the flute solo.
The record of California Dreamin was a lucky Frankenstein of production elements that could never be reproduced live even if they flew half the Wrecking Crew from LA to Sullivan’s studio in NYC. It even has traces of Barry McGuire’s vocals from a recording of his own version using the M&Ps as backing singers. If that’s the song Ed wanted, he was going to have to settle for lip syncing (which the Mamas and the Papas were notoriously incompetent at.)
California Dreaming is called folk, but it’s not a simple song with a guy on guitar and harmony vocals.
According to the documentary Deconstructing The Beatles, they performed live on February 9, 1964 and on a feed from Miami on February 16. Earlier on Feb. 9, they recorded songs for the Feb. 23 show. No lip-syncing.
Thank you
I’m glad the Beatles performed live. Their Ed Sullivan performances are so special.
Denny Doherty talked about how difficult it was for them to get the notes and timbre John Phillips insisted on and that they could not consistently reproduce the sound outside of the studio. This is true of many acts. And I guess they could have hidden the drum kit behind the curtain, but…
Yes, it was the line “Girl we couldn’t get much higher” in Light My Fire. When they rehearsed, Morrison sang the line as “Girl we couldn’t get much better” as the sponsors demanded, but when he sang it on the live broadcast he sang “higher” as originally written. Sullivan was furious and cancelled all future planned appearances of The Doors. When the producer told Morrison that they’d never appear on the Ed Sullivan Show again, Morrison famously replied “Hey man, we just did the Sullivan Show.”
A similar thing happened when the Rolling Stones sang Let’s Spend the Night Together on the show, and they were ordered to change the lyrics to “Let’s spend some time together”. In that case, Mick Jagger did sing the bowdlerized lyrics, but expressed his feelings about it in his facial expression.
The Beatles definitely played and sang live on (at least most of) their Ed Sullivan Show appearances, if not all of them.
I think it was the first show, when they played “I Saw Her Standing There”, John’s mic stand was way too low for him (presumably it had not been adjusted from the preceding act). He took his hands off his guitar briefly in mid-song to raise it. And Paul’s vocal mic was way too low in the mix. Obviously, he couldn’t do anything about this. But it was corrected, part of the way through the song.
Here’s a sample of the Beatles lip-syncing. They were better at it than a lot of their contemporaries.
Here are the Beatles performing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on the Sullivan show. The audio is clearly not that of the record. In particular, John’s microphone seems to be turned way down, so Paul’s vocal predominates, rather than the mix that we’re used to. It’s especially noticeable the second time through the bridge (“And when I touch you…”), starting at about 1:35. You can clearly hear Paul’s harmony vocal, but can barely hear John singing the melody.
The biggest lip-syncers are gone: American Bandstand (USA) and Top of the Pops (UK)
The best truly live left are Austin City Limits and SNL (though some have been caught dropping their mic and magically still singing)
The best of the live old timers are the Midnight Special (USA) and The Old Grey Whistle Test (UK) and of course, Sullivan.
Gotta Squeeze in Later …with Jools Holland though I believe only UK.
IMO and not meant to be all inclusive.
Cass joked about their lip-syncing in one of the songs where just before they start singing, she says something like ‘Roll the tape.’
Add another lip syncer to the list: Soul Train.
I always thought it was funny when Dick Clark (AB) or Don Cornelius (ST) would interview their featured acts immediately after the performance, and while the performer was still holding their own microphones, would move their mics back and forth during the interview.
At one time Top Of The Pops required bands to record a new version of the song and then mime to that for their performance. Some bands didn’t appreciate that and shenanigans ensued during the show, most notably when The Who went off-script in 1973 at the end of 5:15. Pete’s tantrum earned them a ban from performing on the BBC that lasted several years.
