The Beatles swept the United States as they swept Europe, playing to crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, inspiring near mass hysteria during their live shows, and selling the most records of any foreign act. Having conquered popular culture, it was time to move to high culture and Broadway.

On this day, June 16, in 1977 Beatlemania, a musical revue featuring the Fab Four’s most popular songs, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Yesterday” and “A Little Help from my Friends,” opened on Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre. It ran for 1,006 performances.

The two-hour performance was edited down to 95 minutes for the Beatlemania film that did a lot worse than the Broadway musical. Jules Fisher, the famed Broadway lighting designed who conceived the play also worked the lighting effects of the movie, which critics noted overwhelmed the actual performers at the center of the plot.