What was the best concert you've ever seen? It is a question that I've asked friends for years as I'm curious about their tastes in music and things they've seen with their own eyes. My friend Kate has the ultimate answer that no one will ever be able to beat.

For myself, the best performance I've ever seen in person was the night Prince played for 3.5 hours in a small club during SXSW. It was surreal. Exhausting. And sad since he's past on and my son won't have the same chance to see what I saw.

First a little back story. I met my friend Kate through her son. A brilliant political campaign manager who was working on a campaign for another friend of mine (I'm still looking forward to voting for Wil for President someday). Over the years I got to hang out with Kate and get to know her as an incredibly curious and kind person. She's been over for dinner. We've been on walks and emails. We've been supportive of each others projects.

One time at dinner I brought up the "what was the best concert you've ever seen" question. She politely said that I wouldn't want her to play this game. I insisted and she mentioned the time she got to meet the Beatles. Now Kate comes from a prominent American family, I knew she had a million amazing experiences in her life, but this one takes the cake and is the ultimate answer to the "best concert question". (Not to mention Woodstock and a ton of other significant rock n roll moments, but to me, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan is the top.)

You see, she was at the Ed Sullivan show, side stage (if my recollection is right), when The Beatles launched Beatlemania on the US. There might not be a more groundbreaking musical / news event that answers that question. Clearly I'm fascinated by it, and with a little bit of Googling, I found not only a quote by Kate about that magnificent day, but several photos as well. (Kate is the young girl in the plaid red dress)

So, officially, my Kevin Bacon number to Ringo is one.

CODA: I found this great article and some quotes from Kate:

https://apnews.com/article/6ebebf1a3acb4851b214f7af74479d10

CBS anchor Walter Cronkite scored tickets to the “Sullivan Show” for his teenage daughters Nancy and Kathy.

“The Beatles were already huge, and huge to me — monumental!” Kathy Cronkite says. “The idea of seeing them in person was like going to another planet. And when we got there we were screaming our heads off, so we couldn’t hear the music.

“Then, afterward, we got to meet them,” she adds. “They were very nice. They put their arms around us for a picture, which was really fabulous. Ringo and I happened to be standing next to each other, and he was MY Beatle. So that was especially exciting.”

For Cronkite, a former actress who appeared in the classic film “Network” but is now a mental-health advocate, many of the details have vanished with the passage of time.

“In the scope of the rest of my life, it has faded in significance somewhat,” she says, but takes pains to emphasize, “I don’t mean it wasn’t important. At the time it was absolutely huge. And back then, when I was 13, I’m sure I thought it was the main thing that would EVER matter.”