“I yelled, ‘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’”: Ernie Isley on the time he met Paul McCartney – and they jammed Twist and Shout

Left-Ernie Isley, of The Isley Brothers, performs on stage in concert at Smart Financial Centre on September 15, 2024 in Sugar Land, Texas; Right-Paul McCartney plays his Höfner 500/1 violin bass as he performs on the main Pyramid Stage during the 2004 Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset on June 26, 2004 near Glastonbury, England.

Before the British Invasion, which brought The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and a whole host of British acts to the States, Ernie Isley was a pre-teen whose family happened to be hosting a young Jimi Hendrix at the early stages of his career.

And it was next to Hendrix that Isley witnessed the cultural watershed moment that truly kicked Beatlemania into a frenzy: The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.